Another excellent Edublogs.org blog

I was looking at putting some screencasts onto our VLE to show staff how to use it. I managed to use Jing to do the screencasts, but it only saved as an swf file. I tried to upload this to the VLE but was unsuccessful. I know that our VLE allows embedding of youtube videos, so i got an account. I then tried to convert the videos, as youtube won’t allow swf videos, but i had no luck.

Then i stumbled across www.screencast-o-matic.com . I had seen the site before but not used it, but once i saw the fact that you could upload straight to youtube i had a go. It is very simple to use, and uploaded with out any hassle to youtube. I can now embed these into the VLE- job done!!

I like simple, easy to use sites which solve a problem i am having- Thanks screencast-o-matic!!

       Versus      

Have you heard of Prezi?

It is an excellent presentation website which allows you to move around the ‘canvass’ in a free flowing way.  You can also zoom in on the media you have on the canvass. You do need to convert things to PDF at the moment, but that is a small annoyance. I have used it to keep assessments on. I have a picture of the student then i have put a picture of their work down the side, but put it small so that they can build their work up on their picture!

However, with prezi you need to create your work. With ppt Plex you can apply that to your current powerpints. It makes you presentation more flexible and you can move around the slides in any way you like, and as with prezi you can zoom in on the slides and sections of pictures etc.

Have a look at these links;

http://prezi.com/

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/pptPlex/Pages/default.aspx

I have been using both, but see ppt plex as being more useful as it can be applied to work i have already done.

What do you think?

I have recently downloaded a small add on to powerpoint which has helped me no end in assemblies and lessons.

This add on allows you to insert live webpages into your presentation. Once this has been done you can navigate around the page and show content from the webpage. I have used it on a number of occasions. One was in an assembly where i showed a video from the bbc website, and secondly in a lesson where i was able to show students around the wreck of the Titanic on a virtual tour.

Now you may say ‘but i can just go on the net!’. Yes that is true. But this very small add on means you don’t have to fiddle around with coming in and out of the presentation and you know the site you want is right there.

Have a look and download at; http://skp.mvps.org/liveweb.htm

Example here; esafety assembly

   I have been using evernote for about 6 months now and i have become a huge fan. This piece of free software has made my life a lot easier.

The beauty of evernote is that it works on your computer, but is also synced with the web site as well, so you can access your digital scrap book where ever there is a web connected computer.

As a teacher i get lots of pieces of paper, and some are actually important! If they are i take a picture with my sony ericson w800i phone, upload the picture and add it to evernote. Also when searching for lesson ideas and resources i can add websites to evernote (either the whole page or selected text and pictures). I did think ’this is great, but what happens when i have so many notes that i can’t remember where i put them on evernote’. However, when something is uploaded or saved it is indexed and becomes searchable within evernote. So all you need do is type the key word and all notes with that word in the text is found. It even indexes hand written notes, and text in pictures!

Evernote has made my much more organised and allowed me to have a central place to store all my ideas.

Have a look at the video telling you a little about evernote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ncr1Ee9e8
 

  I have come across this from a number of sources on the web, cool teacher podcast by Chris Haskell being the main one. This is a site that allows you to put a number of different media onto an interactive poster. You can put video, pictures and text onto the poster and build the poster up to show who you are, your interests etc.

I have thought of a number of uses;

1. Web based lesson plan with interactive media embedded (this is a quick one i put together).
2. Students use glogster to produce a more interactive poster on the web.
3. Resource poster for teacher to pull up at any time.

I like this web 2.0 site and think it bring life to posters. It would be good to be able to drag pictures and video from the web rather than have to upload. However this is a small annoyance really. Give it a go!

www.glogster.com

Any other uses?

Pictures paint a thousand words!

This is a great site which puts these words into pictures. www.wordle.net has allowed me to set this up to put into a presentation for parents evening.

Mother-in-laws can be useful sometimes. Mine has just brought an ipod 80mgb classic. While on holiday i had a play around with it and noticed you can play quizes on them. I now this is not brand new, but it was something i had not seen before. So i thought ‘how could this work in the classroom?’

I had a look into it and found some really interesting sites. http://www.iquizr.com/ is a free webbased quiz maker which looks interesting to use, and i am going to check it out with students when i get back to school.

It is easy to use, and quick to make the quiz up. Here is an example i did in minutes http://iquizr.com/quiz/465 (not great, but gives an idea). The files are downloaded as zip files, then to get them on the ipod the students need to have iquiz on their ipod, which they can download from the itunes store for $0.99. Cheap as chips!!

Are you keen to use mobiles in your lessons? Take control of the agenda when it comes to mobile phones? Use them to enhance learning? Maybe this will be of interest to you?

I have been using a system available in the UK and Australia called www.smspoll.net

 The system allows you to put the poll in a powerpoint presentation and get students to vote on any issue or question you like. Once the votes have been cast the poll is updated in real time within your powerpoint. The students seem to really love this, and get involved with the learning much more. Students start asking ‘which one did you vote for?’ then question why they made that choice.

All the pupils do is text the number associated to their choice to the phone number at the top of the page. Here is an example.

There is a cost to the texter (i.e. the student) but most of the students seem to get hundreds of free texts anyway! Also the cost is only the normal standard rate for a text on their network. The other way to do this is to find out who gets free texts with their contract and put groups together with someone in who has this facility in their mobile phone contract.

This is great as a plenary, or as a motivation break in the lesson itself. You can pose questions to ponder, equations to solve, vocabulary questions the possibilities seem boundless.

What do you think? Leave a comment to get the discussion going.

 How good would it be to send messages to students in your class, community, school or sixth form? Well thanks to a post from Liz Kolb (http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/2008/07/sendible.html) about a new site called sendible, this could be possible.

Once you sign up to the site, you simply add contacts to your address list, and then decide if you want to send an email or SMS to them. You can also send reminders to yourself. See this demo from demogirl- http://www.viddler.com/explore/molzy/videos/119/

Applications;

This could be used to send messages to a class about revision, a website to visit, a homework task, an exam date, coursework deadlines or a trip. The possibilities seem endless! I will be setting this up with my yr11 class next year to keep them reminded of key dates and set some random questions to keep them on their toes.

Any other ideas, please feel free to add your suggestions.

 Getting student feedback is an important part of the teaching process. Students need their say about what is working and how we as teachers can improve what we do. But how do we do that?

One way i have been playing with this is by using online polls. Now i am sure this is not revolutionary, but it is always good to revisit things! I have used zoho polls.

I have written before about zoho, and stumbled across their poll app the other day. It is very simple to use and has a number of applications (see this screencast for a guide). I have used it to get some feedback from the students involved in a pilot group in school, and their view of how the year has gone. Other uses could be;

1. Student council votes.
2. New uniform.
3. What students are motivated by.
4. Answers to a difficult question they have to research then input their answer after they have found out as a homework task.

I am sure their could be many more. If you think of any add them as a comment.