Discussing Technology for Teachers and the Classroom
Xtimeline is an online tool for creating interactive timelines.
Sign up is free and quick.
After creating my account, I was able to quickly begin creating my first timeline. I chose a title and URL for the online timeline. Adding events with associated graphics was as easy as clicking on the add events button and browsing for a photo. Completed timelines can be embedded on a web page or shared with others.
Here is an article about using MS and Wordpress. It has a good step-by-step guide. See it here.
Forvo is a great resource for teaching foreign languages. Their website contains audio files of words and phrases spoken in 221 languages. The number of words varies with each language. Currently, Forvo has 22 Mongolian words, 23,000 German words, and 17,000 Spanish words. Each language has a RSS feed of pending new words. So you can subscribe to a Language Feed to keep up with new additions.
I have temporarily turned off my Twitter Widgets. My blog page was taking an extremely long time to load. After turning off the Twitter widgets, the load problems have stopped. I am guessing this might still be related to the Denial of Service attacks on Twitter this past week. So, for now, all but one of my Twitter plugins and widgets are de-activated.
I use Windows XP in most of my lessons. However, my students do occasionally use Linux (usually Ubuntu or Fedora) as part of their lessons. In the past, I have had a couple of dedicated Ubuntu computers for the students to use when they needed to work with Linux. I did not like having those computers sitting idle most of the time. I had tried using dual boot options when installing Ubuntu, but I did not like the complexity of the steps. Mostly due to my own fault, my dual-boot installations always had something that did not go just right. I don’t have to worry about this with Wubi.
Got a photo with the dreaded "red eye” effect? Here’s a web tool for quickly and easily correcting that problem.
These past weeks, I have talked to several people inquiring about using Moodle. This summer, I attended a conference where the facilitator of a workshop attempted to sell people on the benefits of Moodle (although he never really explained what Moodle was & implied that it was an app you run from your local hard drive like MS Office). Anyway, some school systems around here are actually getting on board with Moodle. It looks like word is finally getting out about this free LMS (Learning Management System). If you are not familiar with Moodle, check out this earlier T4T post.
Ever drop you cell phone in a puddle, washed it with your favorite jeans, got stuck in a sudden downpour? Try this trick to dry them out.
I decided to create a list of Tech Tools / Resources that I have used this past year or I am planning on using this coming year. Here is what I could come up with off the top of my head in no particular order.
On August 6, Radio Shack will be changing its in store name to “The Shack”. The corporate name will remain “Radio Shack”. The rebranding is intended to breath life back into the retail chain.
I keep hoping that the tablet market will continue to develop and improve. So far, I have not been impress with the units that have been offered. Years ago, when I was working with my Z-pda (Zoomer), I had hoped to see the PDAs get a little larger and more useful. For a while, HP had some WinCE units, but the WinCE market never took off as an O/S platform. With the rumors about Apple’s probable entry into the tablet market, I started thinking of exactly what I would love to see in a tablet.
So far this year, the RIAA has won two copyright infringement cases against just two individuals totaling over $2 1/2 million. According to representatives from the RIAA, they have stopped filing lawsuits against individuals. Supposedly, they are now going to be working directly with ISP’s to try to stop illegal music sharing. As far as movies go, the MPAA is currently still pursuing lawsuits to stop the illegal sharing of movies online.
After Apple refused the iphone app for Google Voice, the FCC has stepped up demanding some answers about why the app was rejected. The FCC sent letters to Google, AT&T, and Apple giving them until August 21 to respond. This might clear up some of the reasons for Apple’s inconsistent rejection of apps.
There have been rumors and speculation about some sort of tablet device coming from Apple for almost a year. The speculation has been picking up the past month.According to Barron’s, an anonymous analyst has seen the actual table and the final product is just awaiting Steve Jobs’ final approval for release.
I just saw a story from Albuquerque about a man who invented a fuel delivery system for using Mountain Dew as the primary source for fueling an engine. Check out the video from news station KRQU in Albuquerque.
Hopefully not. At least not until June 2010. Skype has a legal disagreement with peer-to-peer company, Joltid, about licensing issues. Ebay is apparently developing their own technology in place of the software licensed from Joltid. So, maybe this will be moot by the time the lawsuit makes it to court.
This week, the IEEE P1901 Working Group announced this week the first draft laying out medium access control and the physical layer control using Powerlines to deliver broadband internet service. The P1901 Working Group’s next meetings are in October. Hopefully, more progress announced from the next meetings.
For all of my System Administrator friends. I hope you have / had a happy SysAdmin Day today.
According to this website, this is the 10th Anniversary of System Administrator Appreciation Day. Be sure to thank your local SysAdmins for all that they do behind the scenes.
Are you interested in free textbooks? Flexbooks may just help stir the waters of the expensive course material domain. Flexbooks are basically open source textbooks. Flexbooks are part of an initiative by the CK-12 Foundation to help lower the cost of textbook materials. The CK-12 Foundation has partnered with several experts from education and the tech industry to create a website and system that should be around for a while.
I just read an article from Ars Technica stating that 12% of all email users have tried to buy something from spam.
A survey was conducted by the Massaging Anti-Abuse Working Group of 800 individuals who have email that is not controlled by an I.T. Department.
Apparently 48% of those surveyed have never clicked on a link in spam or replied to spam. 12% of those surveyed actually were interested in purchasing the items mentioned in the spam. 6% responded to see what would happen. 13% did not know why they responded to the spam.
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bk’s TimeToast Timelines