Where Education and Technology Intersect
This could really be useful for classes as they surf the internet... it might be easier than trying to get a whole class into second life... and a bit easier to remember... interesting.
Weblin is a service that allows people to have avatars that appear on the Web pages they visit and communicate with any other Weblin users who are visiting the same pages.
(Credit: Weblin)
So with the recent announcement by the increasingly awesome Google Reader team of a note taking ability for Shared Google Reader items, I have figured out a way to automatically add my comments to posts I read and post it on my wordpress blog. For those like me that struggle with finding time to blog, this is AWESOME! I can now do all my blogging instantly from where I do most of my research! You can even post a shared item directly to my shared feed without subscribing to it! Does it get any better?
WARNING: This means that I will be posting a LOT more articles, that will predominantly be just pointing you to good resources I have found on the internet! (Hey, that’s what I do now!)
For those that might want to also do so, I am using a really nice plugin called FeedWordPress. I can then just put my RSS feed for my shared page in there and off we go.
Tags: No TagsThis is a really great article that deserves a read from us. We are all so busy in our lives... and the information overload for educators is even more... balancing university procedures, leadership responsibilities, teaching duties, and our own research can get a bit overwhelming... what do you do?Philipp Lenssen via Google Blogoscoped I sent a couple of people the following question: “What are your top tips for dealing with information overflow?” Here are some of their answers (with formatting partly adjusted, omissions within quotes indicated with dots). Please add your own tips and approaches in the comments. Tags: No Tags
Shared by Jeff VanDrimmelen This is a new haptic game that was just released today that allows users to assemble cells to stop an epidemic... sounds good for young kids learning about cells (feel them) as well as high school kids learning about epidemics.
It’s Falcon Friday! Today we’ll be launching Cell Blast! Also, if you purchase Cell Blast today you’ll receive a 20% discount on the game! Cell Blast will sell for $19.95 but if you purchase it today using our Falcon Friday link, you can get it for $15.96.
Cell Blast is an action/strategy hybrid, where you'll assemble microscopic structures to cure a worldwide epidemic. The setting may be microscopic, but the stakes are enormous in this one-of-a-kind gaming experience. Use your sense of touch to assemble tiny defensive structures around cells in a human body, in the hopes of preventing a worldwide epidemic. In this unique combination of action and strategy, you will protect fragile brain cells from attack over dozens of waves, using microscopic components such as electrified walls, medical lasers, and repair pylons. Once you’ve constructed your defense system the invasion will begin, and you must repel the pathogens to save humanity, one cell at a time.
Simply follow this link: https://home.novint.com/store/game.php
CellBlast is at the bottom of the store with Red wording reflecting the discount. Remember, you must log in to your NVeNT account to purchase a game! Happy Falcon Friday!
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Shared by Jeff VanDrimmelen How would you like one of your high school students to work up a project like this in his free time... GIVE THEM SOMETHING THEY CAN SINK THEIR TEETH INTO...
Talk about your hacking ingenuity. We recently linked to a do-it-yourself Multi-Touch Table concept, but this do-it-yourselfer is a 17 year old and he’s been working up his approach using the Mac OS. Check out Bridger’s Multi-Touch for some amazing posts about what he’s doing replete with pictures. I bet this kid ends up with a job at Apple.
via Ars Technica
Shared by Jeff VanDrimmelen This really is a big find for educators. When you come across a page in some language, just put it in here, and you can translate it... and with support for so many languages... it just doesn't get much better! :)Google Translate's coverage has been expanded dramatically. It now supports the translation between any of the following languages: English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish (the new languages are shown in bold). From 26 language pairs, Google Translate now supports 506 language pairs and becomes the most comprehensive online translation tool available for free. Obviously, the translation is far from being perfect or even coherent, but it's a great way to understand the central ideas from a text. Now that Google Translate supports so many languages, it's not hard to imagine that you'll be able to read almost any web page in your language and maybe any application will be able to use Google Translate's APIs to speak your language. "Most state-of-the-art, commercial machine-translation systems in use today have been developed using a rule-based approach, and require a lot of work to define vocabularies and grammars. Our system takes a different approach: we feed the computer billions of words of text, both monolingual text in the target language, and aligned text consisting of examples of human translations between the languages. We then apply statistical learning techniques to build a translation model. (...) Automatic translation is very difficult, as the meaning of words depends on the context in which they're used. While we are working on the problem, it may be some time before anyone can offer a quick and seamless translation experience," explains Google Translate's FAQ.
{ via Page2RSS }
The summer 2008 EDUCAUSE Quarterly spotlights the complete findings of the 2008 EDUCAUSE Current IT Issues Survey as well as feature articles on open source software in education, a first assessment of a learning studio, and student use of clickers in library presentations.
Check it out!!
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I am a techie for most of the day, and I can tell you first hand the REAL pain that I have seen when people lose their data. There have long been some PC backup options out there, but today online backup startup Mozy released an automated backup solution for the Mac! Mac users rejoice!
Of course, any good service costs money, but this one is pretty good with an UNLIMITED plan for only $4.95/mo. I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t pay that to retrieve their pictures/video’s/documents/etc!
I highly recommend that you find a backup solution of some type of you don’t have one yet. They also offer the same for PC’s of course!
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I received this e-mail today on a listserv I am part of. Google is accepting applications for their next Google Teacher Academy that starts June 25th of this year in Mountain View California… talk about awesome professional development! You should apply!
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Hello and Happy National Teacher Day,
In 1953, Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded the 81st Congress to recognize teachers with a celebratory day all their own. Since then, the date of National Teacher Day has bounced around a bit until 1985, when the National Education Association declared the first week of May National Teacher Appreciation Week and the first Tuesday of that month National Teacher Day. If you’d like to know the whole story, check it out here: http://www.nea.org/teacherday
On that note, we’d like to invite you to come celebrate and learn with us at the next Google Teacher Academy, scheduled to take place at the Googleplex in Mountain View on June 25th, 2008. The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each GTA is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about interesting and new instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, GTA participants become Google Certified Teachers, who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region. This time around, we’ve listened to your feedback and opened up the application to all teachers everywhere. As long as you are willing and able to get yourself to the Googleplex, we’d love to have you. For more information about the GTA, please check out our full information and requirements page: http://www.google.com/educators
The team of people thinking more about teachers everyday is growing here at Google. As such, we’re introducing a new section of the Google for Educators site - dedicated to using our popular Geo Products. Here you will find information about using Google Earth, Maps, Sky, and SketchUp in your K-12 classroom. Along with some of the great classroom activities we’ve collected over the years, we’ve also included starter kits which feature “cool and easy things you can do” with each product in your classroom. Check it out here: http://www.google.com/educators
Lastly, but never leastly, a few months back, we asked you to share stories about using Google Docs with your students. You told us about the power of introducing collaborative writing to your kids, you mentioned using our presentation software in class, keeping students engaged with the “chat” feature, and you told us how much you like to be able to drive success throughout the writing process, instead of just grading the final product. http://www.google.com/educators
While we were reviewing your stories, we realized that Docs may be a bit intimidating to the uninitiated so we developed a “getting started” guide - with step-by-step instructions for creating accounts, sharing and collaborating, editing and organizing your work. Now there’s no reason to be scared, so give Google Docs a try: http://docs.google.com/View
We hope today is a true celebration of your vocation - and we’re wishing that all of those who are thankful for your hard work take this time to express it. I know I speak for everyone at Google when I say that none of us would be where we are without the amazing men and women who dedicated their lives to teaching us much of what we know today. On behalf of Google, I’d like to say thank you - to each and every teacher - for all that you do every day.
Cheers,
Cristin Frodella
Google K-12 Education Outreach
Google for Educators
http://www.google.com/educators
