digitalgoonies.com

http://www.cue2010.org/

Susan and I had a great time at the California Computer-Using Educator’s conference for the past few days. This was our first time to attend/present at this conference- and our first time in Palm Springs ever! We were amazed at how beautiful everything was.

While we didn’t get a chance to get out and do much during our stay, we got to meet so many great educators with a love for technology and students! We did take a quick trip to the windmill farm pictured above. Ironically, this was the first Google Earth placemark we ever created for our Google Earth books- so it was great to see this in person.

For our new friends, we hope you find this blog useful and that you will check back often! Don’t forget, you can subscribe to our newsletter (using the Newsletter link above). You can also download the resources from our presentations (using the Presentations link above). As always, we value your feedback, so if you have any comments, feel free to leave them here!

Thanks again to our west coast friends for a great experience!

www.loonapix.com

Loonapix is a free photo editing online service that is a lot of fun to use to enhance your photographs. It’s easy to use, and has lots of options. Continue reading

OK, so it’s a ridiculous statement. But I guarantee that students think like this! Even my 10 year-old daughter gets caught up in this when her friends pass on email chain letters promising great fortunes. (By the way, I monitor her email using epals.com… that’s right, no privacy in my household!)

Students have a tough time discerning the validity of a website. Even for many adults this can be a real challenge!

I have created this lesson (Expand Your Horizons) to demonstrate for students that you can’t always believe everything you read. In short, students will form groups with each group investigating one of the following fake/hoax websites:

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (save the endangered tree octopus)
Dog Island (send your dog away to eternal bliss to roam free and natural on this paradise island)
Power from the Phone Company (free electrical power from the phone company)
Lacuna Inc. (erase problem or painful memories)
Dream Tech International (human cloning- choose your DNA)
DHMO.org (research page for Dihydrogen Monoxide, better known as water)

The groups will research each of the sites using the sheet as a guide. They will then present their findings to the class, followed by a Q & A. What a bluff! Students fall for this all the time. It’s up to you when to let the cat out of the bag and discuss how to evaluate their findings. You might want to refer to Teaching Zack to Think, an article by Alan November. It’s an outdated article (1998) but has some great methods for evaluating websites for validity!

A few more fake/hoax sites to come soon!

www.slide.com

We recently added Slide.com to our list of Web 2.0 resources that we demonstrate when we go to conferences (like TCEA!) Slide.com lets you create a video that looks fancy and complicated, but is soooooo easy to use.

Click on the orange button- Make a Slideshow

Continue reading

http://www.tcea.org

For those of you who joined us in Austin, TX for TCEA…

Thanks for a great conference! As featured presenters, Susan and I presented a total of nine combined sessions within two days. The Web 2.0, Google Earth, and Print, Cut, Fold sessions went very well. For those of you that attended, we thank you and hope that you left with some great ideas to start using in your own pursuits! Three things to remember:

1. If you missed our presentations or want to see our handouts, click on the Presentations link at the top of this page!

2. Please sign up for our e-mail newsletter by clicking the Newsletter link at the top of the page. We’ll keep you informed of the latest and greatest findings on the web.

3. Many TCEA participants asked us if we deliver staff development at other districts. Yes! Yes! And a thousand times Yes! We love doing this and wish we could do this more. We are, however, limited by our own personal schedules and full-time jobs in our own district. For more information email jim@digitalgoonies.com or susan@digitalgoonies.com.

Oh, I thought of one more thing- if you haven’t joined us on Plurk, check it out (see Jim’s Plurk page here)! If you aren’t aware, Plurk is a great way to build your own PLN (Personal Learning Network). We have come to rely on it for some great ideas and feedback!

http://photopeach.com

This great site allows you to display your images in two different modes. The “Story” mode as shown below allows you to add captions, music, and quiz questions to your images.

The “Spiral” mode displays images only in a great interface. This is an example of the spiral mode:

This makes a great alternative to the traditional slideshow. Some features to consider: Continue reading

https://www.dialmycalls.com

You know those annoying recorded messages you get as soon as you sit down to dinner? You answer to find yourself talking to a recording from a politician urging you to vote his way in the upcoming election. Or worse, it’s a debt collector giving instructions on how to save your credit rating. Now, you too, can be one of those voices!

That’s right- and yes, for free* (limited, see below)- imagine delivering a recorded message to your students, parents, or colleagues without having to call each one of them! It’s great, you gotta try it!

So it’s simple. You record your message via phone (or upload), enter contact information, decide which contacts will get the message and when. Then sit back and relax.

Features to know: Continue reading

http://www.says-it.com/concertticket

Like many other image generators, this handy site will let you create your own concert ticket image. Choose from one of three styles to create something like this:

Yeah, so that’s cool. But how would you ever use this? How about a “ticket” to Open House, a class party, special events, etc. I even used it for my daughter’s birthday party invitations when she wanted a movie theme! Just a couple things you should keep in mind Continue reading

www.tinyurl.com

Have you ever tried to get a group of students (or teachers, or maybe just your mother-in-law) to correctly enter a rather long URL without missing a single character? Or have you ever wanted to share a cool link on a social network like Twitter or Plurk but your link takes up your character quota? That’s where shortening really helps! No, not the Crisco kind…

Probably most of you reading this have already heard of TinyURL, but we are surprised as we give presentations at the number of educators who have never heard of or used a URL shortening service. TinyURL isn’t the only one (for a more comprehensive list, look at this article) but it’s one that is simple and not blocked by most web filters.

It’s simple- just paste in the real URL, then click the MakeTinyURL button. The newly generated URL will never expire! Here, try it below…

So just think…

• Shorter URLs for students to enter
• Hide the text of URLs when desired (until the user is re-directed)
• Can add a TinyURL button to your browser for quick creation of Tiny URLs

http://www.cueprompter.com

Turn your browser into a teleprompter, just like the ones used in television studios everywhere! Why? How about when you are recording a script or narration for that next slideshow? Or maybe you are recording instructions for your students to post on your website. Whatever the case, this is a pretty cool little utility- not to mention what it does for student reading fluency!

This is so simple to use! Just type or paste text into the box, choose among the few options and let it go! Here are some options Continue reading