Tuesday Tech Tip: TED-Ed!

As you know, I’m a fan of TED.  But even if I weren’t, I’d definitely pass this along… TED-Ed has launched a website that has some really great possibilities…

There you’ll find the tools to:

• Watch great educational videos, created by teachers and animators.
• Nominate a fellow educator!
• Each TED-Ed video has a supplementary lesson…
  • Take a multiple choice Quick Quiz while watching the video (with video hints!)
  • Find open-ended questions in the Think section.
  • Dig Deeper to find more resources
  • Save your answers

But here’s the coolest part… you can “flip” any lesson!

• Customize the quizzes, write your own open-ended questions, and modify the resources.
• Grab your finished lesson’s unique web address and share it with students.
• Track your students’ work.
• You can flip any video from YouTube using the TED-Ed platform, including ones you create!

Watch the tour:

Want to win a prize?  Create an account and participate in my flipped lesson here!

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Tuesday Tip: TED

Yesterday, the TED-Ed YouTube channel was launched.  Here’s the scoop.

Not only can you consume TED content, you can create it.  TED-Ed is an invitation to educators, including you!

The biannual TED conference was held a few weeks ago in Long Beach, CA.  TED was created in 1984 as a place for “Ideas Worth Spreading” in the areas of Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  It has since broadened its scope to include science, education, innovation, creativity, culture, and more.

Speakers are invited to give “the talk of their lives” in 18 minutes or less.  There are over 900 TEDtalks available for free and include speakers from Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Al Gore to 12-year-old app developer Thomas Suarez and 10-year-old Adora Svitak talking about what adults can learn from kids.  Ken Robinson’s legendary talk about creativity in schools has been viewed 11 million times, with 10,000 views added each day.

TED Wish: Each year, $1,000,000 is granted to someone with “a wish to change the world” Watch Jamie Oliver and Dave Eggers’ talks about their wishes for kids.

It goes without saying, there’s a few TED apps out there as well.

• TED Air: an Android favorite
• TED for iPhone and iPod Touch
• TED with Subtitles for iPad

Why not share some of these fascinating talks with students?  What sort of discussion might they have about these big ideas?

Why not share some of these fascinating talks with colleagues?  Add a comment here with a favorite TED talk of your own.  It’ll also enter you in this week’s prize drawing… you know the drill.  🙂

It’s Digital Learning Day!

Digital Learning Day is being celebrated all over the country today!  To peek in on the celebration, search Twitter for #DLDay and #WiDigitalLearning.  You can even tweet your own Digital Learning question or comment with #dldefo

In honor of the event, you’ve been adding to our Digital Learning Day Showcase.  Check it out to see what’s been happening and add your own!  You’ll see images of students and staff learning with technology, student work, a few suggestions, and even an award announcement!

Click the image below to find some online digital learning tools.
(also posted on D-Links)

(created using Tagul)

Welcome to Our New Norskies

We’ll have plenty to do this Friday morning, but our flexible format will help. Besides the obvious things like getting into email and where to save documents, we’ll also be looking at GoogleDocs, your new Xoom, Twitter, and more. Here are a few links to get you started:

• Xoom Help Center App (if you didn’t download it yesterday)
• DeFo Moodle
• Intel’s Assessment Library
• GoogleApps Training Guides
• Badgerlink!
• Groupwise Web Mail
• EdReach
• Share your Twitter usernames!

Subscribe to our blog and you’ll get updates about what’s happening with technology, integration, and instruction.

Tuesday Tech Tip: Powerpoint & Projectors

Today, I want to share some tips for Power Point, along ideas for using your projector, wireless keyboard, and wireless mouse.

I ran across this site recently, SlideFest is a “PowerPoint Awards Festival” with Do’s & Don’ts, Slide School 101, Best Of…, and a wealth of tools to help avoid death-by-Power Point.  (You’ll need to have Silverlight installed… Start >> Troubleshooting >> Silverlight >> Install Microsoft Silverlight) PowerPoint has it’s place but it’s not the only tool for presenting information.  Like any tool, it has it’s strengths and weaknesses.  Here are some other presentation tools, and don’t forget about GoogleDocs Presentations.

Oftentimes, teachers use their projectors for students to share their presentations.  There are lots of other ways to utilize the tools you have in your classrooms.  The wireless keyboard and mouse allow your students to interact with the screen from anywhere in the room!  Here are a few ideas:

• Thinkfinity interactives on virtually every subject.
• Google Earth (available from the Start menu.)
• Mindmapping tools (such as Inspiration or these.)
• Here’s a link to the Projector Resources on our website and on the LISD Blog.

SLATE Conference

This afternoon I’ll be presenting at the SLATE Conference in the Dells. Here’s the handout.

If you aren’t at the conference, you can still check out the materials from the presentations.

If you’re here, what are your plans?

What’s Your Next Step?
(polls)