Friday, August 25, 2006

Facebook

Okay, many of you have heard my MySpace horror story (fake page for me made by some students in another state...long story...)

However, as a adjunct professor this term, I had the ability to create a Facebook account. It is much easier to use, the interface is a million times better, and it there are many customizable options for allowing and dis-allowing access to parts of your own account. For instance, you can allow people who want to be your friends access to only your "demographic" data, while limiting access to your friends list, photos, and wall postings. It is easy to keep a small group of friends "in the know" without letting the whole universe know everything about you.

Since there is now a Facebook for high school students, I suggest working in some education on how to keep yourself "safe" at that level, too, using Facebook as the demo site. (We currently have MySpace education built into the middle school curriculum.)

Kathy Schrock's Facebook profile

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Test of Google's Picasa Web 2

The Early Years
Aug 22, 2006 - 14 Photos


The posting directly from within Picasa2 to Blogger did not seem to work. Instead, I have uploaded some photos to PicasaWeb and have used their function to embed the pictures in a blog for this next test.

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Friday, August 11, 2006

Teacher-suggested free software programs

In response to my last post, a few teachers have sent me suggestions for additional free software packages they use in the classroom.

LEGO Digital Designer 1.6
http://ldd.lego.com/
...a free virtual building system available for both the Windows and Mac OSX platform

Google SketchUp
http://sketchup.google.com/
...a powerful 3-D modeling program avaiable for Windows 2000 and better and Mac OS10.3.9 and better; can be used in conjunction with Google Earth or on its own

TuxPaint
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/
...an easy-to-use drawing program available for Windows and Mac OSX

Kathy Schrock

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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Two free (useful) software programs

I came across these two software programs that may come in handy in your classroom.

The first, Storyboard Pro, is offered by Atomic Learning. It provides guidance and an easy interface for students developing video or hypermedia storyboards. It is available for Mac OS9, Mac OSX, and Windows here: http://www.atomiclearning.com/storyboardpro

The second software title comes from IKEA, the mega-homestore. They provide planners for different types of rooms (only for Windows computers however) that allow some powerful 2-D and 3-D viewing. These software planners could come in handy for student set design, math or technology ed planning projects, or for other creative uses you may come up with. They may be found here:
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/rooms_ideas/splashplanners.html

Kathy Schrock


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Thursday, August 03, 2006

Critical evaluation of a blog and a podcast

Teachers have been asking me to help them find critical evaluation sheets for students that deal with a blog and a podcast. I could not find any online, so I have created the two forms.

You can find them on this page, along with other critical evaluation instruments and links to works by others: http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/eval.html

If you know of any others on the Web, please let me know!

Kathy Schrock

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