2011 - Web of the Week Countdown

Here they are in no Particluar order:

1. Climate Science


2. Web Rangers


3. Online Web Building Tools


4. DemoSlam

Which were your favorites?  what site do you find yourself going back to again and again? What kinds of sites would you like to learn about and know about.  Leave your comments and let us know.

2011 – Tech Tip Countdown

Here's my list of 2011 Top Tech Tips in no particluar order

1. Get ready for Summer: http://www.uensd.org/strategies/?p=1188


2. Use your camera/phone as a scanner: http://www.uensd.org/strategies/?p=886


3. Create a portfolio: http://www.uensd.org/strategies/?p=1177

What were your favorit tech tips you have used this year?  What would you like more of on the blog.  Leave your comments to let us know.

Wednesday Web of the Week: Norad Santa

Web Address: http://www.noradsanta.org/en/

If you are interested in a fun and clever way to keep in the holiday spirit.  Try tracking Santa on Google Maps.

You can also SendACallfromSanta here: http://www.sendacallfromsanta.com/

Next Week a CountDown of top sites for 2011.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Go for a Drive

There are lots of amazing tools out there to help you drive on the road, but what if you can't afford to take that big trip this year?  Well, here is what some students did.


So, to do this yourself,  you can enter in your destinations in GoogleMaps then click on the 3d button.  It's a new button and easily overlooked.



And for even more online driving fun try: http://earth-api-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/demos/drive-simulator/index.html

Wednesday Web of the Week: Read, Write, Think!

One of UEN's partners is Thinkfinity.org Thinkfinity is provided by the Verizon foundation. Thinkfinity provides a single point to search 8 different partner sites for activities, lesson plans, and interactive websites.  One of the great ones for this month is Beyond the Story: A Dickens of a Party.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/beyond-story-dickens-party-238.html

Tech Tip Tuesday: Teach with iPods

TeacherChannel is a great resource for improving your classroom practices. You can visit the site at http://www.teachingchannel.org


You can also watch it on KUEN Channel 9 Thursdays at 8 pm and Saturdays at 9 am.

Wednesday Web of the Week: 100 Best sites

This week Tech and Learning has done a better job than anything I could do.  Check out their list here:

http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3467

Tech Tip Tuesday: Kindle a Fire

It is very hard to believe that it hasn't even been 2 years since the first mainstream Tablet hit the market. There had been forays and there have been other handheld devices and of course Handheld PDA's have been around a long time, but these tablets are new.

The newest is the Amazon Kindle Fire. Many people saw Amazon gearing up for this for quite a while. With their first forays into reading apps, then the launch of the Amazon Cloud Music Player and the Amazon App store for Android Apps they had positioned themselves perfectly to launch an Android based tablet.

They did just that and right in time for the Holiday season. The Kindle fire is an Android based device with Amazon's rich media resources behind it. In addition to being able to easily buy books and music you can also rent movies and with an Amazon Prime account you get streaming videos. @ 79.99 a year this equals $6.67 per month and is lower than both Netflix and Hulu.

The device is good but doesn't have quite the feel and heft of some of the other tablets out there. It is light but feels fragile in contrast to the new Kindle Touch or the Kindle with a keyboard which are both light but feel sturdy. Also the interface isn't quite as responsive as other Android devices and absolutely pales compared to iOS devices.

Still for $199.99 this has the potential of being a wonderful 1 to 1 device in the classroom settings. It's compatible with many of the eBook lending services, you can have multiple devices attached to a single Amazon Account. It falls short in the creative area since there is no camera, and I would like to see a GPS for use in classroom geo-spatial activities. So grab a screen, read a book, and Kindle some learning.