Free Textbooks

Bookboon is a free service offering free full-length textbooks, travel guides, and business books in digital form. The textbook section of Bookboon offers more than 500 digital textbooks. On Bookboon there are etextbooks available for twenty-five subjects, but the bulk of the etextbooks are focused on Economics, Engineering, and IT. You can browse the title lists to find a book you want or you can search Bookboon by keyword. Bookboon hosts books written in five languages. All of the books are free to download. The only catch is that you have to provide an email address before you can download the books.

I just downloaded the full text on Office 2010. Check it out!

What is that wierd box I see?

That weird box you are starting to see that looks like a cross between a puzzle and a bar code is actually called a QR code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix bar code, readable by dedicated QR bar code readers, smart phones, and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arraigned in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, a URL or other data.

QR codes storing addresses and URL's may appear in magazines, on signs, in stores and supermarkets, business cards, website or on just about any object which users might need information. Users with a smart or camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone's browser.

There are many free, easy to use sites available for creating QR codes on such is http://createqrcode.appspot.com/

Bit.ly

Think about the last time you tried to get all the students in your classroom on the same webpage at the same time. How long did it take to make that happen?

If the URL (short for Uniform Resource Locator) for that page was something like this http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22C6LEW85F/ (CTE Sr Survey) and you wrote it on the whiteboard in your room or you projected it on a screen, it probably took longer than you would have liked to get every student on that page.

There is and easy-to-use tool to fix that problem and it is called Bit.ly.

Bit.ly is a URL shortening service. Anytime you have a long, complicated URL you can use Bit.ly to shorten it down to something much more manageable.

You can create a free Bit.ly account you can customize your shortened URL to make it even more manageable.

For example, it's far easier for me to direct people to http://bit.ly/dKSQZd than it is to http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22C6L3EW85F/. You can use Bit.ly by copying a URL and pasting it into Bit.ly.

Try Bit.ly the next time you're setting up a lesson plan that requires all of your students to enter a long complicated URL.

You can find the link to Bit.ly below and over to the right under Cool Free Stuff.

http://bit.ly/

From Toy to Tool....Cell Phones in the Classroom

I recently came across an article by Marc Prensky "What Can You Learn From A Cell Phone?-Almost Anything!". He stated that one-and-one half billion people, all over the world, are walking around with powerful computers in their pockets and purses. The fact is they often don't realize it, because they call it something else. But today's high-end cell phones have the computing power of a mid-1990's PC (while consuming one one-hundredth of the energy). Even the simplest, voice-only phones have more complex and powerful chips than the 1969 on-board computer that landed a spaceship on the moon!

Today's young people are using their cell phones for communicating by voice, text, and increasingly, digital photographs and videos.

Like all communication and computing devices, cell phones, can be used to learn. So rather than fight the trend for kids to come to school carrying their own powerful learning devices - which they have already paid for! - why not use the opportunity to our advantage?

At this years NERIC Technology Awareness Day, a statement by our District Superintent struck me. He stated "students should not come to school and use less technology that they use on the bus on the way to school".

I came across a site that allows live audience responses, somewhat like voting on American Idol. POLLEVERYWHERE is a text message polling and live audience response system. It is simple enough for anyone to use and flexible enough for a wide range of scenarios to interact with audiences and collect data.

You can insert a poll within an existing PowerPoint and get real time answers from your students. You can also conveniently log into a web site to vote.

Sure, as with any type of technology, students need to be monitored.

We have not used this yet but plan to with several volunteer teachers. Stay tuned....

http://polleverywhere.com

The Social Media Revolution & FYI..Kids Don't Email

Its amazing how fast the world of Social Media moves!

• Over 50% of the world's population is under 30
• 96% of them have joined a social network
• Social Media is the #1 activity on the internet
• Facebook has overtaken Google for weekly internet traffic in the US

These are just some of the interesting statics about Social Media. Check out the video below to see more.

YouTube - Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh): ""

What is SKYPE?

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and, in some countries, to free-of-charge numbers, are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing. You will need a headset and a web cam. http://skype.com

Technology Facilitates Learning in Small Groups

The following is an excerpt from an eSchool News Special Report on Small-Group Collaboration.

Educators are increasingly seeing the value of having students collaborate in small groups on classroom projects—and whether such projects involve producing a written or multimedia presentation, solving a math problem, or creating a video, technology can facilitate the group process.

With businesses seeking employees able to work in teams and collaborate on projects, more educators are looking for ways to incorporate these skills into the learning process.

"Everyone needs to be able to collaborate in a group, because that’s how things are done in the real world. No one sits alone and works by themselves any more," said Stan Silverman, director of technology-based learning systems at the New York Institute of Technology.

Some educators believe students gain a deeper understanding when they participate in group projects.

Lance Sutton, a teacher at Westview Elementary School in Goose Creek, S.C., said: "When a teacher lectures to them, they forget; when you have kids help design something, they will remember for a lifetime."

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards call for students to "use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others."

Collaborative projects not only help teach content, but also can help students develop 21st-century skills such as communication, time management, teamwork, and facilitation. With this approach, the teacher is seen less like an evaluator and more as a coach, facilitator, and mentor. Teachers today need to know how to mix and match those different roles to maximize learning.

Communication and collaboration are among the key skills necessary for succeeding in school and life, as identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, along with such skills as critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, flexibility, and media literacy.