New Tools for Your Use
Did you know we now have three Flip cameras in the library? These cameras are available for teachers to check out for two week periods.
For ideas on how to use the camera in your classroom, visit Robin’s Technology Tips.
Check out Digital Wish if you would like to get one for your classroom. They are offering a buy one, get one free program with shipments beginning September 1st. The cost is $150 for two cameras. Maybe two teachers would like to go in together to purchase a pair.
Up and Coming Technologies
eReaders or electronic readers have been receiving a lot of publicity recently. There are several different versions available today, such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and the Sony Reader. Last year, we were able to purchase 90 Sony Touch Readers with a grant.
The Readers are available for use in the classroom. I am able to load the readers with hundreds of classics that are no longer under copyright. You just have to let me know which titles you are interested in sharing with your classes. At this point, I believe the novelty of the Reader will help entice students to read.
I can also show you how to load handouts on the Readers for the students to use. These will need to be in pdf form which is easy to do.
At some point in the future, I believe we will be able to get our textbooks as ebooks which will certainly help save our students’ backs!
Free Tools on the Web
Are you familiar with Wordle? What’s a Wordle, you ask?
To quote the developer, “Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.”
If Firefox is your browser, and I highly recommend it, here is a tip you can use. If you need to copy the url in the address bar, press CTRL-L to highlight it, then press CTRL-C to copy the address.
Professional Development
If you enjoyed these tips, be sure and sign up for my technology classes this Fall. They will begin in September and be offered weekly for ten weeks. You can attend one or all of the classes as you choose. Just email me at Elaine Willis.
3 comments ↓
I like the look of your blog. Very nice & clean. I look forward to reading your blog during the mini-course.
Best wishes!
Thanks John. I like the clean interface.
My primary professional blog is http://drewillis.edublogs.org/. I think it is too busy, but I get a lot of compliments on its appearance.
Hi,
I love your blog. Beautiful colors. Always did like red and black.
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