While we don’t know why the Word clipart was not coming up, the more important issue is that you and your students have access to a MUCH BETTER clipart collection [...]]]> I was walking by a classroom today when the teacher grabbed me to help figure out why the kids couldn’t access the clipart in Microsoft Word.

While we don’t know why the Word clipart was not coming up, the more important issue is that you and your students have access to a MUCH BETTER clipart collection at http://schools.clipart.com!

Our district subscribes to this service, and when you are at school, there is no need to sign in.  If you need to use it at home, just get the username and password by going to First Class > District Conferences > K-6 Technology > Websites for Chatham Teachers.  That document has our subscriptions and username/passwords.

I’ve even got a video about how to use it!  From within the district, you can see something on the NJN server here.  You can also see a video on my YouTube channel (see below).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Students are able to add nearly any content to a [...]]]> You’ve heard of blogs, but what about glogs?  Teachers looking for that next Web 2.0 project idea may want to try Glogster EDU.  Glogster gives students a web-based way to add text, pictures, audio, and video to an interactive web page.  Think PowerPoint meets Google Sites.

Students are able to add nearly any content to a “poster” that allows a viewer to read text, enlarge photos, and play media files.  The glog is simply an interesting way to display content, but having students use this tool gives them valuable skills in the use of technology.

NOTE: This is the EDU version of Glogster.  This EDUcational site protects students in many ways from inappropriate content, and allows a lot of teacher management of student accounts (students do NOT need email addresses to use this application).  There is a NON-educational Glogster site, but it is a completely separate entity.  Glogster will not even allow you to use the same account for both sites.

Here are a couple of interesting examples:

Elementary Science (click and HOLD the mouse button down to enlarge photos)

Middle School science

Social Studies (Election of 1912)

Click here to view the embedded video.

What is this good for?  If you are simply a science aficionado, it’s fun, but in the classroom, the podcasts [...]]]> What can you learn about science in 60-seconds?  How about the fact that chickens see more colors than we do?  Scientific American posts daily facts about science that are available as 60-second audio files–yes, a podcast!

What is this good for?  If you are simply a science aficionado, it’s fun, but in the classroom, the podcasts are great openers for class, or you can use them as a model for students to create their own podcasts about scientific topics.

Student podcasts can be limited to 60 seconds as well, be recorded with Audacity (on our computers), saved to a Student Share folder, and uploaded to your teacher website.

Do you want to try this with your class?  Drop me a note, and I’ll help you get started!

The Magic Pen Tool in SMART Notebook allows you to do three things (see that there are three stars around the pen?).

1. Write with disappearing ink.  Sometimes you just need to make a quick note that does not [...]]]> What one tool makes writing disappear, spotlights items onscreen, and magnifies the minute?  The Magic Pen of course!

The Magic Pen Tool in SMART Notebook allows you to do three things (see that there are three stars around the pen?).

1. Write with disappearing ink.  Sometimes you just need to make a quick note that does not need to hang around.  Tap the Magic Pen button once and use your finger to write or draw.  The digital ink will fade away as you continue talking.

2.  Spotlight that content!  Do you need to draw your students’ attention to a particular area of the screen?  Tap the Magic Pen button once then draw a circle around the area you’d like to spotlight.  Cool, eh?

3.  Magnify the miniscule: A tiny icon, a web address, a particular cell; any of these can be magnified by tapping the Magic Pen button once and then using your finger to draw a rectangle around the item to enlarge.

Want to see this all in action?  Have a look at the short video below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a common experience with Audacity, Photo Story, Windows Movie Maker and many media-creation tools such as Photoshop, Premiere, [...]]]> Your students just recorded a poem with Audacity, and they swear that they saved the MP3 file in the right location, but they don’t understand why the program is asking them to save it again.  What’s happening?

This is a common experience with Audacity, Photo Story, Windows Movie Maker and many media-creation tools such as Photoshop, Premiere, Flash, etc.  What happens is that Audacity (we’ll use that as an example representing all of these types of programs) wants you to save a “project” file where you can keep editing your work in ADDITION TO the final audio (or movie) file that gets posted on your website or played using Windows Media Player.

If students are simply creating a one-off recording of what they did in science this week, then they should just create the MP3 file and not bother saving the project file.  As long as the MP3 file is created first, it’s okay to close Audacity without saving the project file.

Photo Story and Movie Maker are a little different.  With those programs you SHOULD save the project file.  This allows you to return to the editing of the photo story or movie and make minor changes or simply create a final version that can be played on a different device.  For example, let’s say a group of students makes a video of their Reader’s Theater performance.  They add opening titles, closing credits, and some music.  They save it to show the classs on the SMART Board.  You like it so much that you want to put it on your website.  The problem is that it’s such a huge video file; what can you do?

Because your students saved the PROJECT, you can open the video project in editing mode, and go to the final step to export the video as a smaller file size.  This is a really convenient way to modify files for use on the web.

Buildings that look like letters: Type your message, and geoGreeting (http://www.geogreeting.com/#t) finds buildings that look like the letters you type!

It’s Christmastime, so you may want to hear some carols as sung by emoticons: http://emoticarolers.com/

Jamstudio [...]]]> I’m at the NJECC (www.njecc.org) December meeting now, and we’ve seen some neat websites and gadgets! Here are some worth seeing:

Buildings that look like letters: Type your message, and geoGreeting (http://www.geogreeting.com/#t) finds buildings that look like the letters you type!

It’s Christmastime, so you may want to hear some carols as sung by emoticons: http://emoticarolers.com/

Jamstudio (www.jamstudio.com) is great for budding musicians! Mix it all online!

HandBrake (http://handbrake.fr) is for taking a DVD and turning it into a Qicktime movie–online!