Web of the Week Wednesday: FictionDB

Web Address: http://www.fictiondb.com/

There are other sites out there that let you manage and organize your books, but this adds a few great twists. First, it has one of the best series organizations I have seen. It is easy to find all the books in a series and sort them chronologically.  When searching Amazon republications often cause confusion and make it difficult to find the first in a series.  FictionDB lets you sort, organize and manage your books Try it out!

Tech Tip Tuesday: Look Ma! No Hardware.

When the first iPad was released one of the deepest frustrations with it was the fact that it wouldn't mirror the screen. Teachers wanted to be able to show their students what was going on. Trainers and instructional coaches wanted to be able to show teachers what was on their screen. No such luck With the release of the iPad2 and the increased power it became possible, but if you used the cable then you took this wonderful magical mobile device and effectively anchored it.

Then the Apple TV allowed you to throw your screen to an HDMI Connected device which meant you needed help to get it to a VGA Projector. OR you could buy a Document Camera for a variety of prices. I used a HueHD for a long time  to share my iPad screen. But recently some colleagues and I  have come across two amazingly useful tools that let you lose the hardware: 

AirServerApp This little app is software that takes advantage of the AirPlay feature of the iOS. Apple's iOS allows most iOS devices to mirror their screen to an Apple TV. The app essentially allows the iOS device to recognize a window on the computer an Apple TV. So now with your computer already connected to a projector you can share your screen to your computer and it will project to the screen.

 ReflectionApp This app does mostly the same as above. It is a little more expensive. Reflection offers 1 license while Airserver offers licenses on 5 computers.  The main advantage Reflection has is that it shows the iOS screen with a Skin that looks like the device. This makes it a bit more obvious that you are sharing your screen. So for just a few dollars you can now share your screen and leave the hardware behind.

A history of the World in 100 Objects

Web address: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/british-museum-objects/

Recently I finished Psych - the whole series.  In a fit of self disgust for watching 5 seasons (that's all that is on Netflix) and approximately 60 hours of Gus and Shawn's shenanigans, I decided to try something more productive. I started looking around and discovered some really great podcasts. My favorite: A history of the world in 100 Objects.  The site has high resolution images of the objects and you can listen to the podcast or download it.  At about 15 minutes each I can usually listen to 3 to 5 of them a day while checking up on email.  But please Watch Out.  Not all the objects nor all the podcasts are for younger viewers.

Find your Place in the World

There are lots of tools and methods for mapping our world. One good definition of technology is: tools humans use to interact with their world.

Everything from using a stick to draw in the dirt, to sextants and astrolabes, right on up to the most complex of GPS systems are technologies for mapping our world. GIS is an acronym for Geographic Information System. If you would like to learn more about using these softwares well. Right now you can learn even more: ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.) is a premier provider of all kinds of Mapping software, data, and professional development. If you want to learn more about a course available this summer then Vist the TG3 page to learn more and apply.

QR Treasure Hunt Generator

Web address: http://www.classtools.net/QR/create.php

Ever seen one of these crazy things???

  Well whether you have or haven't it's worth know what they are and a cool website to use them with.  They are called a QR (QuickReader) code and are sometimes also referred to as a 3-d barcode.  Normal barcodes are just lines and based on the thickness of the black and white lines a certain amount of data can be stored in the barcode.

 

The more complex QR codes can contain more information. You can imagine it like overlaying two barcodes perpendicular to each other. There are lots of apps out there that read these codes. ScanLife and TapMedia (http://www.tapmedia.co.uk/more-apps.htm) both provide apps for all the platforms. So back to the Web of the Week!, this nifty page will let you create a QR code treasure hunt. The kids scan the codes with whatever device they have and they get a quiz! This can be posted around a room or around a school for kids to go and look for.

Keep the electrons flowing!

 I usually plug my phone in to charge every night and unplug it first thing in the morning.  Some days i will still have 30% left at the end of my day but more often I find myself dismissing those reminders that my battery is low by 3:00 p.m.  What is a tech addict to do?  How to I keep those tweets twittering?  Well one way is extra batteries? But wait, you can't change your battery?  Or you carry a tablet and a phone? Well there is a solution.  A great one or actually two: Zagg makes a small plug in charger that also carries a few different sizes for more or less charge (and more or less money) depending on your needs (and pocketbook) Mophie makes some extended battery packs for the iPhones but if you have a tablet or other type of smartphone or even and iPod touch they also make a battery pack that will recharge about anything.

Rover - The Browser for Education

With Adobe announcing that they will no longer be developing Flash the future of interactivity on the web seems to be following the vision Steve Jobs had for it. HTML 5 allows most of the kinds of interactivity that formerly required the intense system use of Flash but at a fraction of the computing power. But for those of us in education who are still using Flash based sites and want to continue to use them there is Rover - The Browser for Education. It is a tool that allows you to access Flash sites on an iPad. Give a test drive and see what you think. Share some of your favorite Flash based education sites in the comments.

Web of the Week Wednesday: PrimaryPad

Web address: http://primarypad.com/ 

Sometimes you want quick easy login free collaboration.  While GoogleDocs gives us some rich, robust and protected options for collaboration PrimaryPad lets you do it quickly and without students needing a login.  

 This technology was also used to create http://typewith.me/ and was purchased by Google to form the foundation of their latest updates to collaboration in real time. Learn more about Google's interactions with EtherPad here: http://etherpad.com/ So this week you kind of got 3 for 1!

Tech Tip Tuesday: Go Mobile with the Common Core

If you are looking for a good way to incorporate the Common Core Standards into your class what better way than going mobile? The Common Core Standards were developed in a project initiated by the National Governors Association. These standards are available on Mobile Apps.  You can look up and see which standards apply to a specific Grade Level.  Having these standards at our fingertips can be a great first step to allowing these standards to change our classroom practices. Get the Apps Here:

Android

iOS