Educational Technology

Great Science Fair resource created by a student

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

I just found out about a great resource for students about science fairs. It was created by a student, Kevin Temmer, as part of his community outreach project in high school and is an animated video that teaches students about the science fair. NASA, the National Science Foundation and National Geographic have featured this video.

You can view the animation here: http://www.schooltube.com/video/f0c0a7a0e5cd2646928c/Prepare-for-the-Science-Fair and it is embedded below. It is 15 minutes long.

The NASA profile on his animation can be viewed here: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/science-fair-is-a-winner.html

Kevin's father shared this information with me because Kevin would like more students to view this to help inspire them to participate in science fairs and pursue science careers. It's also a good example of the kinds of projects that students can do outside of the typical assignments.

Share it with your students and colleagues.

Here is the video:

Free booklets with high school and college success tips for students

2012-01-25T06:30:00.000-08:00

Barcharts is a company that prints up those colorful laminated quick study booklets you see at the bookstore and even supermarket. I've purchased a few over the years (Physics, Computer, Accounting) and found them to be very useful. They have quick study booklets on almost any topic from Biology to Physics to History, Economics, Cooking, Computers and much more. Different titles come different sizes, including full size (8 1/2" x 11"), pocket size, poster and more. They average about $6 each.

They also offer some free quick study booklets on some topics that are very useful for educators and students. The ones that I always share with my students are: Keys to High School Success, Keys to College Success, and Surviving the College Ride. They all include very useful tips on studying, time management, how to get help, and much more. They are all available as FREE PDF file downloads.

There are also some fun free ones including Stupid Jokes, Umpire and Referee Signals, and Ramen Noodle Recipes.

Share this with your students.

ActivePresenter - free screencasting software

2012-01-25T06:00:00.001-08:00

ActivePresenter is a screencasting software that allows you to capture and publish what you did on your computer (similar to Camtasia).

The free version has some great features and export formats. It allows you to record your whole desktop, a specific window or a preset size window.

You can edit your recording afterwards using a timeline on the bottom of the screen to see ahead and behind the current view. You can insert things like annotations, voice overs, mouse clicks other videos and screenshots.

You can then export your project in different formats, including images, Video (AVI, WMV, MPEG4 and WebM) or Flash Video (FLV), PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a few other formats.

This is a great way for educators to produce tutorials, student help sessions and more.

PDFBinder - simple tool to merge PDF documents into one

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

PDFBinder is a free tool that allows you to merge multiple PDF documents into one. Simply click "add file" select the PDF documents you want to merge, and then click "Bind". That's it.

This is a great resource for schools and teachers that use PDF documents often. Sometimes you have different files, whether scans of paper documents, PDFs of websites or already created PDFs, that you want as one file.

Other PDF Resources:

Crocodoc - markup PDF files for free

Fill Any PDF form - fill out, sign and send forms

I Love PDF - merge or split PDF files

Lots of PDF resources - print, markup, convert and more

Go Paperless:

Unfettered by Stuff - or "Why I don't lug stuff home every night"

Tools to go Paperless (in school and at home)

Evernote for Educators

Google for Educators

The 3 apps and services I can't live without

2012-01-25T05:39:00.000-08:00

Top 3

This week I've had two colleagues and three or 4 students ask me what technology apps and services I use the most or can't live without. The reason was that they were looking to get started using some new things and wanted to pick a couple that they could learn and use for a majority of their needs instead of learning and using lots of different apps. So, here are my 3 apps/services that I can not live without:

1. Evernote - Evernote, an electronic notebook with lots of great features, is my main tool. I have lesson plans, lesson notes, lesson resources, research, travel info, recipes, lesson schedule, meeting notes, attached files, clippings from web sites, to do lists, personal references, tech resources and instructions and so much more. It is the main app I use for almost everything.

2. Dropbox - Dropbox is a great file sync, backup, and sharing service that you can use for free. The rest of the files I need to use that are not in Evernote are setup in my Dropbox so that they are synced on my home and school computers and my smartphone. I can access my files from any web browser also. I never have to worry about losing a flash drive or forgetting to copy or email myself a file.

3. Google - I know this is kind of vague because Google has so many services, but I use a lot of them. Blogger for this blog and my class blogs, Sites for my class website, Gmail, Google+, Calendar, iGoogle, Docs, search and so much more.

With these three apps/services, I am organized and have all my data and materials available at any time. All three have great apps for my Android SmartPhone also.

When I help get people started using web 2.0 apps like these, I always want to start them with just one or two at a time. These three can do most of what people need. They are easy to use, yet powerful, and there is a lot of resources and support for using them.

What are the three apps or services you can't live without?

Runner-Up:

I use Tweetdeck in Chrome browser to access my PLN on Twitter. So, I guess I really have 4 I can't live without.

Related:

Why I use Google Resources and Tools as an Educator

Android Smartphone and Apps I use as an Educator

Google Calendar for Educators

2012-01-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

Google Calendar is one of Google's many free resources that I use. It has some features that make it very useful.

It's accessible on any web browser and integrates and syncs with smartphones, Outlook, Apple iCal and Mozilla Sunbird.

I have all of my appointments, due dates, deadlines, etc. on it. I color code them based on school, blog, degree program, meetings, fun, etc. My wife and I share our Google Calendar's with each other so we can easily see each other's schedules. If you use Google Tasks and set a due date for the task, it will show up on your calendar for that day. I also have US holidays and the Yankees schedule on my calendar.

The reminders feature makes sure you don't miss an appointment or forget to do something. You can set it to just have a pop-up reminder (which also triggers an alert on your Android Phone), send an email, or send a text message and set a time for the reminder.

You can invite people to an event you have set up and then they can RSVP via email or Google Calendar.

It also makes it easy to set up appointments. This is great for administrators or educators who want to make it easier to schedule appointments with staff, parents, or students. The Appointment Slots feature lets you set time slots on your calendar that other people can sigh up for. This is great for office hours and parent conferences.

You can also share your calendar on blogs and websites. Create a calendar for your school or classroom and post it on your site with upcoming events.

Google Calendar is very powerful, easy to use, very useful, and free.

Some great Physics apps for Android

2012-01-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

Androinica, a nice site for Android news and app information, has a nice article with Physics apps for Android that allow you to take measurements.

The apps include a ruler, distance measurement using your camera, protractor using gyro, sound meter, metal detector, compass, speedometer and Physics Gizmo from Phil Wagner (who's part of my PLN) which allows you to use the accelerometer for experiments.

These are some great ways to use Android devices in the classroom.

Related Articles:

Android 4 Schools - great new site with info and resources for Android in education

Android resources - information, news, resources, and more

Android Apps related to Bloom's Taxonomy

Android Smartphone and Apps I use as an educator

Transitioning to College - Helping students Succeed - college library help

2012-01-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

Transitioning to College Helping You Succeed is a site that has some great resources and tips to help students go from high school to college successfully. Specifically, it deals with the differences between libraries at the college level.

There are educator resources and activities to due with students to help prepare them and there are student learning modules that follow two college freshmen as they learn tips for success.

The Teaching Channel - video lessons and resources for educators

2012-01-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

The Teaching Channel is free resource for educators that has video lessons and lesson resources for educators. There are videos on all different areas including science, differentiation, classroom management, assessment, collaboration, and different academic subject areas.

Videos are searchable and sorted by topic, subject, and grade and range from 1 min in length to 15 minutes (the longest I found).

Videos are categorized as "Teaching Practice" - sort professional development type topics, and "Lesson Ideas". The ones I watched were very good and I got some great project ideas for my physics class.

Check it out.

DENSCIcon - free online/live professional development this coming Saturday

2012-01-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

Discovery Education is an excellent resource for educators. They have great fee-based products (Streaming, Assessment, Science and more) and over 30 free resources available for educators. The Discovery Educator Network is also a great resource for educators where they can connect with other educators and share resources and information. They also provide excellent, free, professional development through out the year. These sessions are held online and there are in-person events to coincide with the online program.

The 3rd Annual DEN SCIcon will be held this coming Saturday, January 28th. The DEN SCIcon provides participants with effective strategies for transforming science classes through effective integration of digital media content. The conference is live and online so you can join in from home. There are also in-person events around the country, hosted by the local DEN Leadership Council (made up of educators). See below for more in person events. It is all FREE.

You must register whether attending online, or an in-person event.

The agenda is listed below and you can register for the online sessions here: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/scicon2012

This is a great opportunity to gain some great ideas and resources for free. I've participated for the last two years and it was well worth the time.

General Agenda (all times ET)

9 AM
Opening SessionYour Attention Please: 10 Ways to Engage Your Students in Science - Lance Rougeux

10 AM
Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Student Learning through Inquiry-based Instruction - Trinette Green

11 AM
What’s the GIST? Bridging Literacy and Science - Brad Fountain

12 PM
The Common Core Connection - Kelly Pauling

1 PM
Busting the Myths of Project Based Learning in the Science Classroom - Mike Bryant

2 PM
Closing Session
The Scientific Method… It’s Not Just For Chapter One Anymore - Patti Duncan

In Person Events:

Connecticut - the CT DEN leadership council will be hosting a live event for the SCICon virtual conference at the Mark Twain House in Hartford on Saturday, January 28, 2012. For more information and to register, click here.

Peoria, AZ (Register here)
Kansas City, MO (Register here)
St. Louis, MO (Register here)
Townsend, MT (Register here)
Cullowhee, NC (Register here)
Greensboro, NC (Register here)
Piqua, OH (Register here)
Cope, SC (Register here)
Knoxville, TN (Register here)
Richardson, TX (Register here)

The Andes Physics Tutor - intelligent homework helper for Physics

2012-01-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

The Andes Physics Tutor

The Andes Physics Tutor is a free resource that is described as "an intelligent homework helper for Physics." Andes allows students work draw diagrams, enter equations, and define variables just as if they were doing so on paper, but Andes will tell the students if they are correct or not, and give hings when asked. Research showed students learned more this way than with traditional paper problems.

Teachers just click "Try Andes" and select the topics and problems and then assign them to the students. The students enter their name (no login) and then complete the problem. The problem screen is nice with a variety of tools for the students to use.

There are over 500 problems that cover most of the topics that a first year, 2 semester, Trig/Algebra based physics course would cover. Andes can be used for high school physics or 1st year college physics.

This is a great, free resources for physics teachers and physics students.

Currently, the Andes project lives at Arizona State University with support from the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, National Science Foundation award No. SBE-0836012. Previously, Andes was developed at the University of Pittsburgh and the United States Naval Academy with support from the Office of Naval Research, grant No. N00014-96-1-0260.

Scribus - free, powerful alternative to Publisher

2012-01-24T06:00:00.001-08:00

Scribus is a free software app that does much of what Microsoft Publisher does. It's a nice free alternative. It's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

It has a friendly, easy to use interface and is very powerful. You can use it to create brochures, business cards, posters, and much more and it allows you to create them in PDF form.

This is a great alternative for schools and students who either don't have money to upgrade Office to include Publisher, or who already use other alternatives like LibreOffice.

Related Article:
Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

Desmos - a better, free, online calculator

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

A Better Calculator is a new, free, online graphing calculator from Demos (who also offers a service to create online interactive media). There is nothing to download as it runs online. It is easy to use, full color, full functioned. You can share your work online or even share it with others (like your students) or students can share it with their teacher.

The screen is nicely laid out with the functions and expressions on the left and the graph on the right. There is help available and even some examples to look at.

It is also now built with HTML5 so it works on all devices, including the iPad.

This could easily replace all those expensive graphing calculators that students have. I was able to access and use this on my smartphone browser also.

Google is now a Graphing Calculator

Web 2.0 Calc - Online Scientific Calculator

Free online Math Calculators

Sooeet Online Calculators

Microsoft Mathematics - free math resources and calculator

Free Online Calculators

Circus Physics - lesson resources for teachers

2012-01-24T05:30:00.002-08:00

PBS has a great site on Physics of the Circus. The site is a companion to their show Circus, which you can watch on the site.

The site has resources, lesson plans, video clips, and more on Physics related to the circus. They are organized by concept area, such as Projectile Motion, Newton's Laws, Conservation of Energy and more.

Since most students have seen a circus on TV or been to one, this is a good way to make physics engaging and relate it to something they know.

Jux - a new way to present material

2012-01-24T05:30:00.001-08:00

Jux is a new service that I just found out about that allows you to create and share presentations in a new way. You can add images and text very easily and add effects to create the impact and emphasis you want. It showcases your presentation fullscreen on desktop, iPad, iPhone and more platforms are coming.

Photos are shown at full resolution, you can add videos, write text over photos as backgrounds, and even create some great lists using it.

It is free, but requires you to create a login account.

This is a new way to create stunning presentations. Students and educators can both use it.

Storify - create engaging social stories

2012-01-24T05:30:00.000-08:00

Storify is a service that allows you to create a story or collect resources from social media sources. Using the Storify editor you can search social media networks to gather elements, including status updates, photos, or videos, to create a story. You can even add narrative to it. You can then embed and share your story across the web.

This is a great way to gather information from across the web and turn it into a cohesive story. Teachers could use it for lessons and students could use it to create reports and projects on different topics.

JustBeamIt file sharing service comes in very handy

2012-01-24T05:19:00.000-08:00

In addition to teaching high school Physics, I also teach Paramedic classes. I was teaching a class last night and the program coordinator wanted a copy of my presentation for the site and for handouts. I had a lot of images in the presentation and it was over 17MB, which means it was going to email well.

So, I used JustBeamIt. With Justbeamit, you simply upload a file (drag and drop), get the private link and send the link to the person you want to share the file with. Leave the browser page open until the person downloads the file. The page will tell you when they have downloaded it.

No account sign up is required and it's very easy to use.

This is a great resource when you need to share a large file.

Some Other file sharing services:

Gett - http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/gett-gett-free-service-to-share-files.html

FileStork - http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/filestork-request-files-from-anyone.html

Fyles - http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/05/fyels-free-easy-simple-file-sharing.html

AVG LiveKive - http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/04/avg-launches-file-sync-backup-and-share.html

minus - http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/minus-file-sharing-service.html

AirDropper - http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/airdropper-request-file-from-anyone.html

DROPitTOme - http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2010/11/dropittome-receive-files-to-your-inbox.html

Guest Post - Preparing yourself prior to applying for your first job

2012-01-24T04:44:00.000-08:00

Guest Post:

If you are a recent graduate you may find yourself in a competitive market where there are more applicants than graduate jobs. This article covers some useful tips that you may want to consider, prior to job hunting.

Check your social media behavior

Recruiters nowadays may check your online behavior by typing your name into Google or perhaps looking on your LinkedIn or Facebook profile, depending on the job you are applying for. In order to be safe, you should regularly enter your own name in the search engine and see which results appear. If you have even the slightest doubt that the search results might put recruiters off, you should ensure that it is deleted or hidden from the public.

In addition, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is updated correctly as this will give a good impression to the recruiter. LinkedIn allows you to fill in details about yourself such as the skills you possess, your educational achievements and previous work experience. Make sure to do this as detailed as possible. You can chose which items you would like to be visible to the public and which items you only show your connections. You can also do this with your profile picture.

Ask for recommendations

If you have got previous work experience where you performed well, see if your boss or a fellow colleague is on LinkedIn as well and invite them to write a recommendation for you. When you write them, make sure to personalise your message instead of the automatic message LinkedIn creates for you. When they have written the recommendation it does not mean that it will appear straight away on your profile as you can chose to reject the recommendation or to accept it. Also, if you would like recruiters to know that you have been recommended but don’t want recruiters to read the recommendation, you can also chose to “hide” the recommendation for the public in your settings whilst viewers still see that you have been recommended.

Do your research

When you start applying for jobs it is wise to do some research prior to sending them your cv and covering letter and to include this in your covering letter. Don’t mention things that are too obvious or are too general such as “I would be keen on working for X because of the numerous awards you have won in X” but dig deeper and see if you c`n find anything that isn’t easy to find.

Also, don’t just apply for a few jobs but send consider any job that you feel would be suitable for you. You will then receive more interview invitations which in turn will allow you to practise your interview skills and to familiarize yourself with the types of questions recruiters may ask you. This will also boost your confidence which in turn increases the chances of getting the job you want.

Wow - was very productive - 12 new posts today on EdTechGuy

2012-01-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, I was more productive this weekend than I thought. I posted 12 new articles today (most were written over the weekend and scheduled for today, and a couple were done during my lunch today in school.)

Some great resources too: notetaking, STEM resources, Google scholarships, educator and student essentials to carry with you, Physics resources, digital learning resources, web curation, lots of webtools, and a Learning Management System.

Check them all out. I'd love to hear some feedback on them too.

Studyers - create, organize, and share notes

2012-01-23T09:30:00.000-08:00

Studyers is an alpha invite site that I just started using this weekend that allows students to create, organize, and share notes from class. It is from the same developer that made InstaNotes, which I also just reviewed.

What is different about Studyers from other note taking apps is that students can easily add the lecturer's presentation to their notebook and then take notes below each slide and add drawings or graphs. You can also easily share your notes with others. There is also a direct link to look things up on Wikipedia, which can come in very handy during class.

It was very easy to use and there is a "getting started" notebook in the alpha users account I used.

There is also a video about using Studyers here: http://vimeo.com/34774882

This will be a great tool for educators and students for taking and organizing notes. I think it would also be great as a modification for students who need to have lecture notes in front of them as they work. It's simple interface limits distractions, yet it has the features you need.

Hopefully it will be released to Beta soon so that more people can try it out.

What's in your bag? What's in my educator bag - conferences, etc.

2012-01-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

I’m a physics teacher, so I don’t need to carry much to and from school (I have everything in the cloud).

I only carry my smart phone (Droid Incredible 2) with me. Everything else is synced through Dropbox between my home and school computers.

At school, if I am going to a meeting or training, I either use my smart phone or Google CR-48 Chromebook while in the building. The CR-48 battery lasts forever and it’s very light.

If I’m going out of the building to a conference or training, I do use a bag that will have the following things in it:

- HP TouchPad (in it’s case)
- Livescribe Pen and Pad
- regular pen and a small pad/post it notes combo
- charger for my smart phone and TouchPad (although I’ve only needed the TouchPad charger for multi-day events). I also have an external battery for my phone that I sometimes bring.
- business cards
- water
- tissues
- chap stick
- If I’m presenting at a conference, I usually bring the Chromebook and my remote.

I always have my Swiss Army Flash knife on my key ring. It has a knife, screwdriver, pen, LED light, scissors, and a 4GB flash drive. Between this and my Droid I2 I rarely need anything else.

I have a simple bag I got from the school that I put everything in.

If mobile/traveling for training and conferences:

tablet or laptop and charger
CD/flash drive with apps and utilities
pad and pen
dry erase markers
remote control
VGA cable
post it notes
water, snack, gum, chapstick, tissues
smartphone cable/charger
Mimio - turns any whiteboard into an interactive whiteboard.

What do you have in your bag?

Related Articles:

Cloud File Sync and Backup Services

HP TouchPad

Smartphone and Apps I Use as Educator

Mimio Teach system

Google Chromebook

Livescribe Pen

Unfettered by Stuff - or Why I don't lug things home everynight

Technology I use on a Daily Basis - updated for this year

Essentials Bag for Students - what they need to have

2012-01-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

What I think students should have in their school bag (high school and college) as essential materials.

1. Laptop or Tablet and charger - depends on student needs, school policies, etc.

2. Notetaking app - Evernote, Simplenote, etc.

3. Cloud file service - ok, not in bag, but a must have to backup and access files

4. Flash drive for backup

5. Smartphone and Charger. Apps: Evernote, Cloud file service, calculator, LMS app for their school, etc.

6. Pen and pencil and eraser

7. Notepad

8. 3-ring binder for paper notes and handouts

9. Mini stapler

10. Hole punch to put papers into binder

What would you include?

Related:

My Favorite Resources for Educators and Students

Notetaking Apps - a comparison of some of the popular ones

InstaNotes - take notes in browser then email

2012-01-23T08:06:00.000-08:00

InstaNotes

InstaNotes is a very cool, free site I just learned about today from the developer, @studyers, that allows you to take simple notes in your browser window and then you can email them out after. It uses Facebook to login.

This would be a great resource for students who are on a school or shared computer and need to take notes. When done, they could just email their notes to themselves, or anyone else, and they are done. No software to install.

What I use with Physics classes instead of textbook

2012-01-23T07:12:00.000-08:00

Apple made a big announcement last week about iBooks2 and digital textbooks. You can read my thoughts on it here.

Some other teachers asked me what I use with my classes, since I don't use a textbook. The textbooks we have are 20+ years old, hard to understand and not very good in general. Instead, I use a collection of resources with my students. (I do use a Physics textbook, Giancoli Physics, with my AP class).

All of my lesson plans and resources are organized in Evernote. This is where I have unit and topic lesson plans, objectives, links, activities, projects, and all of my files. It is also what I use to organize and schedule what I'm doing each day in class.

Students may check out one of our physics textbooks if they want, but no one does. There are also a variety of textbooks in my class that students can use if they want.

1. Lecture notes - I do a lot of labs, projects, and investigations with my classes, but I start each topic off with a short lecture and discussion, example problems, along with demonstrations and applications of the topic to real life. There are also short video clips and animations which help explain concepts. I want the students to have a basic understanding before going off on their own. The lectures are usually on PowerPoint with links, videos and live demos. The PowerPoint slides are posted on the class website.

2. Class website - the class website has the lecture notes, handouts, links, and other resources for the students.

3. Class blog - the class blog is where I have links, post class updates, and post assignments and reminders.

4. Problem sets - each section has problem sets. The packets have a short summary of the concept, as well as example problems and then the practice problems students do. They start the "homework" in class so that I can assist them and then they finish them at home. These packets become a mini-textbook of sorts. They also get lots of other handouts, including math reference, physics equations, problem solving tips, and more.

5. Labs, Projects, and Activities - we do at least 2 labs for each topic and a lot of projects and activities through the year. We use software (Multimedia Science School), along with websites, webquests, hands-on labs, and research and design/build projects. Many labs are done virtually using PhET. Projects include balloon launch for projectile motion, bridge building for forces/stress, and rockets at the end of the year, among others..

6. E-textbooks - I provide links to online physics textbooks and downloadable physics textbooks so that they have them as a resource. I do not specifically use them or refer to them in class.

7. Websites - there are a couple of great websites I use with the class, including the PhysicsClassroom, PhET, and some great videos on different sites. I have also found Dolores Gende's site to be invaluable to me as a teacher and to my students. She has some great Physics resources and links on her site.

8. Discovery Education - I use Discovery Education Streaming for videos, I get images and lesson ideas from the STEM Academy and Science of Everyday Life and the Discovery Educator Network. There are over 25 Free Resources for educators to use.

These are the main resources. There are more. I get resources from different textbooks, web sites, other educators and more.

What do you use, instead of / in addition to, texbooks in your classroom?

Here is a full listing and description of some of the sites and resources I use:

1. The Physics Classroom - this site is excellent. It has a tutorial section (online lessons with links, practice problems and simulations) along with a review section, help for solving word problems, links, multimedia resources and much more. The lessons are in easy to understand terms and each subject area is broken down into small parts. One of the best physics resources available.

2. PhET - Online or downloadable simulations and virtual labs. There are also teacher created lesson plans and resources for each lab/simulation. The quality of these resources is excellent and they really help students visualize and learn physics concepts. There are also simulations/virtual labs for Chemistry, Biology, Math and Earth Science.

3. Physics Study Guide wikibook - great content and explanations and has links to other resources. Can be used as a study guide or even as a basic textbook.

4. Motion Mountain - free downloadable Physics textbook - covers kinematics, light, electromanetism, relativity, and some other topics.

5. FHSST Physics online wikibook - Free High School Science Texts - covers all the physics concepts and has explanations and examples. Can easily be used as an e-textbook.

6. AP Physics B video lectures - excellent videos about each topic in physics. Great for review or for students who want another explanation of a concept. Geared towards AP Physics B, but can be used for any physics class.

7. Learn AP Physics - has practice problems, links, explanations, and videos. Includes some of the videos from #6 above. Geared towards AP Physics, but can be used for other classes also.

8. Online Physics Study Guide - topic explanations, simulations, practice problems, and more.

Digital Learning Day Feb 1, 2012 - free resources for educators

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Digital Learning Day is February 1, 2012 and is a year long national awareness campaign to improve teaching and learning through the use of digital tools and technology.

The site asks for people to participate and sign up, but also has some great resources for educators, administration, and more. Resources are in toolkits and include Project Based Learning, lesson plans and ideas, collaboration tools, and much more.

You can sign up and participate, or just use the resources with your classes.

Pearltrees - visually organize resources from the web

2012-01-23T06:30:00.000-08:00

Pearltrees is a great, free site that lets you organize web content in a visual pattern. There is a Chrome browser extension that makes it easy to add sites to your tree. Trees can be shared and even worked on collaboratively.

What is nice about this vs. other bookmarking tools is that you can organize your sites visually and connected by related topics or ideas.

There are no limits to how many trees you can create, and you can either use the extension or just add in links manually.

This is a great tool for educators to use to organize web resources for themselves, their classes and students, or for colleagues. It is also great for students to use for organizing for themselves, or for a class project.

Here is an example Pearltree on Educator Resources:

Generation Google Scholarship for HS Sr's in Computer Science

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Google has announced the Generation Google Scholarship for current high school seniors planning on studying computer science in college in the US or Canada. Recipients will receive scholarship money as well as being able to attend Google's Computer Science Summer Institute.

This is a great opportunity for students to get a scholarship to help with funding their education and get valuable experience in computer science.

The application deadline is February 10, 2012.

OpenClass - Pearson and Google combine to make free LMS

2012-01-23T05:13:00.000-08:00

OpenClass is a free Learning Management System (LMS) from Pearson and Google that combines course management tools with social networking and community tools. Educators can import any material they want into the system. It is available through Google Apps for Education and hosted by Pearson. It is free, easy to use, and powerful.

LMS are a great way for educators to organize their course materials and share with students, communicate and interact with students and parents, and even run online courses.

National STEM Video Game Challenge

2012-01-23T05:00:00.001-08:00

The National STEM Video Game Challenge is a multi-year competition to motivate interest in STEM through video games. Video games, both playing and creating, can teach higher-order thinking skills, including analysis, problem solving, planning and communication. The challenge is a game making challenge.

Game based learning is a great way for students to learn skills and a great way to make STEM topics more engaging for students.

There are categories for Middle School, High School, College, and even for Educators. Prizes include laptops, software and money.

The site has resources for game design and creation, as well as STEM resources.

This is a great resource for any STEM educator to use with their students, or even as an after-school activity.

Great Free Science & Math Resources from Jefferson Lab

2012-01-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Jefferson Lab is a research lab in Virginia that also has some great, free Science and Math Resources for students and educators.

The site has Teacher Resources with activities, lesson plans, projects, worksheets, and more. There are sections for students with homework help, videos, puzzles and resources. There are science and math games, flash cards, videos, puzzles, and science demonstration videos.

The site also has online practice tests for science, math and technology based on Virginia standards. The student can select the number of questions, topics (math including algebra and geometry, science including biology and chemistry, and technology) and then get started. It tells the student if they are correct or not so the student can learn from it.

This is a great, free resource for Science and Math students and educators.

30+ Webtools to Engage Today's Classrooms

2012-01-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

30+ Webtools to Engage Today's Classrooms is a Livebinder full of great web resources for educators to use in the classroom.

The resources are sorted by category, including Brainstorming, Journalism, Google, Fun, Kid-Friendly, Organization, Screencasting, and more. There are some great resources here for any teacher to use.

This is a great place to find some great resources to use in your classroom.

Most Read Posts on EdTechGuy for the past week

2012-01-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Here are the most read posts from the past week on EdTechGuy:

1. The How's, Why's and Value of Educational Technology

2. New Evernote for Education resource page

3. Apple Announces iBooks2 E-Textbooks - my initial thoughts

4. Wolfram announces Wolfram Education Portal

5. Why I Use Google's Products as an Educator

6. Yummy Math - making math relevant to the world

7. 19 Pencils - quick and easy tools for learning

8. 5 Great course management resources for educators

9. Doodle 4 Google contest for K12 US Students - win a scholarship

10. Improving Literacy and Digital Literacy with Adobe Digital School Collection

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"Lehr und Kunst" or "Theory and Practice." - what we strive for in education

2012-01-20T07:27:00.000-08:00

"Lehr und Kunst" or "Theory and Practice." (Learning and Skilled Arts) is the motto for my alma mater, WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute). I really like this as a motto for all education.

The motto appears in the ribbon above the shield. The books represent theory and the arm and hammer represent the practice or skilled art.

We are trying to teach our students facts, knowledge and information, but they also have to be able to apply this to different situations. The practice of applying knowledge is so important. lt;/div>

We talk about 21st century skills, like communicating, working in teams, life-long learning, analysis, applying, critical thinking, and problem solving. This is what we need to teach our students. They need to be able to learn skills and knowledge and then apply them to a situation.

How do we do this? Project Based Learning, Contextual learning, internships, practicals, scenarios all help students learn theory and then apply it in practice. To help our students be successful, we need to help them learn theory and how to apply that theory.

WPI Plan - a great educational model for all schools

EMS Education Practices

Project Based Learning

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EMS Education practices - some good ideas for K12

2012-01-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

In my other life, I am a Paramedic and EMS-Instructor. I've been in EMS since 1988 in college and have been instructing at different levels since 1990. I love it (although I've had two knee surgeries and I am currently not able to work on the road due to a back injury).

I am one of the senior instructors at the local EMS training program, teaching EMT, Advanced EMT and Paramedic programs. I also taught an EMT class at my school for many years. The Paramedic program is my main class that I teach now and we do some great things that can be applied to K12 education as well.

As background, the Paramedic program is about 14 months long, meeting 2 nights a week for 4 hours each night, plus multiple weekend classes and hundreds of hours of clinical time. Paramedics can intubate, defibrillate, pace, administer over 30 medications, start IV's, insert needles into a patient's bone, decompress a pneumothorax, insert a breathing device into a patient's neck through the skin, assess a patient and perform dozens of medical and trauma skills.

1. Lecture - yes, we lecture. We use the lectures to get information to the students so that they have a base of information to work with. We assign reading on the topic ahead of time and hit the main points in class. The lectures are interactive though, with demonstrations, discussions, and lots of questions to the students.

2. Practicals - these are similar to labs in science. Practicals are over 60% of the course. We have teaching practicals where we demonstrate and teach skills. We also do scenarios where the students have to apply what they have learned to work through a scenario and successfully treat a patient verbally,. There are the hands on practicals where they have to work through a scenario and do certain skills. We have manikins and life "victims" along with all of the equipment that they would use on an ambulance. We also set up very realistic scenarios outside, in the dark, in an actual vehicle, and so forth. This is where they truly learn and demonstrate their understanding of the concepts.

3. Simulations and Virtual environments - there are some virtual/online quizzes and scenarios that are available, as well as video scenarios that we will use in class. We also use video and audio clips to show them things they wouldn't be able to experience otherwise, such as lung sounds of a patient with respiratory problems, and young children in critical condition. We also use EKG simulators, IV arms, and manikins to simulate real situations. There are some very nice simulator manikins out there. We do not have the $50,000 one my colleague Richard Byrne saw recently, or the $100,000 one I used when taking a Terrorism and Special Operations EMS course with the Feds, but we have some good ones. The $100k one had two computers and a tank of compressed O2 running it and could sweat, cry, recreate lung sounds and change status based on treatment given.

4. Clinical Time - this is where the students do observations on an ambulance and in different departments in the hospital. They then start doing patient treatment and procedures under the watchful eye of their preceptors during their clinical time. They are applying what they have learned to real patients, in real situations. Talk about learning in context.

5. Textbooks - we use textbooks. The paramedic course textbook comes in 5 volumes, each of which is big, plus there are textbooks for CPR, Cardiology, Anatomy, ACLS and PALS. They are adjuncts to what they learn in class. They also receive tons of information in class and from a variety of sources, including web sites. The publishers of the textbooks also have some good online material.

6. Assessments - Students are assessed through practicals, written tests and quizzes, research projects, clinical reports. In order to successfully complete the course, they must have a minimum overall average as well as pass the final written and practical exams (10 stations). To get licensed, they must pass the National Registry written and practical exams. High stakes to be sure, but not just written. The practicals test their ability to apply their knowledge.

I think K12 education needs more hands-on, context based, application learning, such as with Project Based Learning. Clinicals could be replaced by more field trips, internships, shadowing professionals, and the like. Assessments should always be more than just a written test. And textbooks are one tool for learning, not the curriculum or main learning tool.

I also teach EMS Instructor courses, teaching EMTs and Paramedics to become instructors and educators. I stress all of the things that are important in education and all of the things that are important in EMS.

See Also:

Bridgeport Hospital EMS Programs

National Association of EMS Educators

5 Great course management resources for educators

2012-01-20T06:13:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of course management tools available for educators, including Blackboard and PowerSchool, that allow educators to do attendance, grading, post and organize resources and lessons, and interact with students. Many of them cost money. Moodle is free, but you have to pay to host it somewhere, or host it yourself. There are some great, free alternatives available. Here's a list, in no particular order.

Engrade - Engrade is a web-based, free gradebook that is very powerful, full featured, and easy to use. I used it for many years until our school got a new SIS with an integrated gradebook. Students and parents can even have view access to see their grades at any time. It's even expanded with more features. In addition to the gradebook and attendance, you can create online quizzes that self grade, message students, set up flashcards, wikis, discussion groups, and more.

Schoology -Schoology is a free course management system for educators that allows them to manage their lessons, post resources and assignments, create quizzes, link to additional resources, conduct online courses, provide one-on-one help sessions and host discussions.

Edmodo - Edmodo is a tool that many teachers already use and more are discovering every day. Edmodo is a free social learning network for teachers, students and schools, providing a way to connect and collaborate, share content, access homework and grades, and much more.

My Big Campus - My Big Campus allows schools and teachers to create a virtual classroom to use with their students. There is a resource library with videos, web sites, wiki’s and more. You can create groups and blogs and use the messaging system. Teachers can create a classroom calendar and even create, assign, and grade student assignments. The teacher can keep up with what the students are doing through the notification system too. Teachers can upload files to share with their students.

Coursekit - Coursekit combines a variety of tools for educators to use for extending their classroom or even creating an online course. Discussion groups, assignments with grading, resource sharing, a class calendar, and a community forum are just some of the tools available. Educators can post links, videos, and other files, hold online discussions, and even write a blog post.

You can also use Blogs, Web sites, and Wiki's to organize and share lesson materials, have discussions, and create assignments. My district uses PowerSchool for attendance and gradebook, but I use classroom blogs, a class website, and Google resources to share resources, post information, and communicate with my students.

What course management system do you use? Why do you like/dislike it? What would be your perfect course management system?

Learnboost announces student/parent access upgrade

2012-01-20T05:40:00.000-08:00

LearnBoost is an online grade book and lesson planner that is available for free to educators. It has a grade book, lesson planner, attendance, reporting and calendar. It is easy to use, visually appealing, and you can share information with students and parents. The lesson planner is integrated with state standards and you integrate the whole system with Google Apps.

It is an excellent product and they have just announced a nice upgrade. Parent and Student access to view grades online have been updated. It is now easier to grant access to them to view grades, attendance, calendars and course information. The process is very simple to do.

To read the whole release and information go to their article: http://blog.learnboost.com/blog/view-grades-online-parent-student-access-update/

LearnBoost is a great alternative to paying for course management and gradebook systems.

Schoology - manage lessons, engage students, share content, and connect with other educators

2012-01-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

Schoology is a free course management system for educators that allows them to manage their lessons, post resources and assignments, create quizzes, link to additional resources, conduct online courses, provide one-on-one help sessions and host discussions.

It allows educators to connect and engage their students, parents, and other educators. You can create lessons with a variety of media and content, organize them as needed,

You can connect and import from Google Docs, Khan Academy, Blackboard, Moodle and Examview so you can use all these resources in your Schoology account. You can also create online discussions, link to other resources, search for resources other teachers have posted, create and automatically assess online quizzes and track user data.

It's a very powerful tool that can help teachers create and organize lesson materials and connect with their students.

There is a premium version for schools and districts that adds additional enterprise type features.

Related services: Blackboard, Edmodo, Moodle, My Big Campus, it's Learning, CourseKit, and LearnBoost.

Celly - free, Instant Group Texting and Polls

2012-01-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

Celly is a free service that offers group text messaging and polling. You can have open group chats, one-way alerts or even moderated chats. It is set up as a "cell" with a unique name so that you can invite the people you want to join. It is free to use (standard text messaging rates apply though) and anyone with a mobile phone or access to the web can use it. There is a full web console to control and monitor things and you can either create a Celly login or login with Facebook or Twitter.

It is secure and private, there are no limits to the number of people on a cell, and you can use it for polls.

There are also many more features such as media links, notes and more.

Celly would be a great way for schools and teachers to communicate with each other, parents and students.

Apple Announces iBooks2 E-Textbooks - my initial thoughts

2012-01-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

Today Apple announced iBooks2 and interactive textbooks for the iPad. These new textbooks would combine graphics, interactive elements, notes, highlighting, widgets, videos, and more. They have created a Mac application to allow anyone to create one of these new "iTextbooks" and are partnering with major educational publishers to release pre-made electronic textbooks for the iPad.

They look great. Stunning visually, interactive, and more likely to get students to actually read their textbooks. The interactive features are amazing and I think it's a great idea and will engage students more. We know students like doing things electronically and interactive and multimedia are better than static paper.

But, I have an issue. They are only available on iPads. So, what happens to the schools, teachers, and students that don't have iPads and don't have the money to purchase them? What about all the school systems and people who have Windows, or recently got Android tablets like the Kindle Fire? They get left out in the cold.

Even The Verge reporter mentions this at the end of the presentation: "What about getting students iPads more easily?"

What I would prefer to see the textbook publishers and technology companies do is to make a platform-independent or web-based e-textbooks like this. That way, schools, students, and teachers can use the devices and OS's that they already have to access them.

I don't even use a textbook with my Physics classes because the ones we have are old and not easy to read. Instead, I have a collection of resources on the class web site that students use. These resources include 4 interactive websites, 2 online physics textbooks, and multiple online, virtual, interactive labs and simulations. No need for one textbook.

The new iBooks2 will automatically generate study cards. This eliminates that fact that the process of creating study cards helps students learn and study. The instant look up of the meaning of the word may make students note even learn words. Why learn it when you can just look it up?

There are ways to create amazing, interactive electronic textbooks so that they could be used on any platform. Maybe Adobe Acrobat X could be used since it can handle multimedia and interactive content? Maybe Apple and the Publishers could work on a conversion or porting system to port these e-texts to Windows and Android? Maybe they can use HTML5 to make web versions so anyone could access them, on any device, just using their access code?

I think these are definitely better than paper textbooks, and more cost effective at $14.99 vs. $80 - $130, but they are only for Apple. Many school districts have investments in Windows or Android and can't afford to switch to Apple. Many students have Android smartphones and Windows computers. What about them?

Maybe this is an opportunity for a company to come in and work to port these e-texts to the web and other platforms?

Apple also announced iTunes U and an app for the iPad for educators to use as a type of course management system. Again, can I access those features and content without installing iTunes? There are also tons of free course management systems that are web-based and completely platform independent, like My Big Campus, Moodle, Google's apps, it's Learning, CourseKit, LearnBoost, Edmodo, Schoology and many more.

I believe that educational resources should be platform and company independent so that ALL students, schools and teachers can use them without needing to purchase new hardware.

What do you think?

Related Article:
On device apps/software vs. web apps - which is better for schools?

gnowledge - create, publish, share and take assessments

2012-01-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

gnowledge is a free service that lets you create, publish, share and take tests, exercises and assignments. You can create tests which are then indexed on your home page ("Vanity") which also shows the scores and answers. You can share the tests with your students and monitor their performance. The tests can be randomized so that students can take them multiple times as practice.

This site could be very useful for practice tests, formative or summative assessments and data collection for teachers and schools.

Students could also create their own tests as study aids and can see if there are any available tests that could help them.

The site is easy to use and has tutorial videos available to help, along with a support page.

Improving Literacy and Digital Literacy with Adobe Digital School Collection

2012-01-19T06:12:00.000-08:00

The Adobe Digital School Collection (ADSC) is a bundle of software for K-12 students and educators and is available for Windows and Mac OS.

Included in the bundle is Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, Adobe Premiere Elements 10 and Adobe Acrobat X Pro.

Literacy and Digital Literacy are two major issues in education. Students need to be able to read for information, write to communicate and also use and communicate with digital tools. We all know that we need to teach our students skills that will help them adapt to an ever-changing world, careers, and future education. Students need to be able to solve problems while thinking critically, using creativity, working collaboratively, communicating, and using digital tools. Adobe's Digital School Collection allows students to develop and hone these skills.

Students can be tasked with a project in which they have to work together and solve problems creatively and then communicate their solution and results to others. These tools are used extensively in industry and in higher education so students will be learning to use tools that they will see again. They can use Photoshop and Premiere to create their project materials and then present and share the project using Acrobat X.

Throughout the project, students will have to be able to read for information in their research, analyze that information to use it to solve their task, and then communicate clearly for the final project.

Acrobat X lets them combine images, text, audio and video into one final product. This is also a great way to create and share student portfolios.

There are Educator resources for using the ADSC in your classrooms in the Adobe Education Exchange. There are 23 lesson plans, tech guides, user guides, teacher guides, and completed examples to view. There are over 36,000 members in the community and that number continues to grow.

DISCLAIMER: I received a free copy of the Adobe Digital Schools Collection to do this review. I have been using it, and the Adobe Education Exchange, as part of this review.

National Center for Earth and Space Science Education - great resources

2012-01-19T05:53:00.000-08:00

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education has a great motto "Inspire...then Educate." The NCESSE is a great resource for STEM teachers as it creates and oversees different initiatives, projects, and educational resources in these areas, with a focus on Earth and Space.

There are a lot of different resources, from professional development, to community projects, to science news and research.

There are also free Education Modules for grade K-12 that are very comprehensive and include full lesson plans, background information, activities, assessments, inquiry based hands-on activities, rubrics, handouts and more. There are 5 modules available right now and each module is broken up into three (K-4, 5-8, 9-12) or four (K-2, 3-4, 5-8, 9-12) grade levels. The modules are on topics such as the solar system, earth science, extreme environment of space, human space exploration, and the search for life in the universe.

You can download any of the lessons. There is also a Lesson Layout with descriptions of each section that you can download: Lesson Layout (PDF, 490 kb).

At a time when there is a great disparity in educationalpreparedness for students across America…

At a time when it should be the birthright of all students to an educationthat allows them to successfully enter the job markets of the 21^stcentury…

At a time when America must inspire its next generation of scientists and engineers ifwe as a nation are to compete in the technology markets of the 21^st century…

We need to improve STEM education. NCESSE can help.

Wolfram announces Wolfram Education Portal

2012-01-19T05:25:00.000-08:00

Wolfram, the makers of Wolfram Alpha, the computational search engine, and Mathematica, announced yesterday the launch of the Wolfram Education Portal. The portal will have dynamic teaching and learning tools, organized by course, such as dynamic textbook, lesson plans, interactive demonstrations, widgets and more.

It is in Beta at this time, but anyone can sign up for a free account and access the materials.

Materials are available for Algebra and Calculus and Pre-Calculus are coming soon. Future features include forums, problem generators, web based apps, and personalized content. The problem generators will allow students to work on problems online and it will change the difficulty and type of question based on the previous answers.

The interactive textbook was developed in collaboration with the CK-12 Foundation which produces free K-12 materials and e-textbooks. I've used many of the CK-12 materials and they are very good.

The interactive textbook has Wolfram|Alpha widgets and links and interactive demonstrations from Mathematica.

This is a great resource for math teachers and any teacher or parent looking to help a student with math (or brush up on their own math skills).

Take a look: Wolfram Education Portal

Source: Wolfram Blog announcement of Wolfram Education

Yummy Math - making math relevant to the world

2012-01-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

Yummy Math is a new site I just learned about from one of it's founders, Brian Marks. The site is run by Brian, a math instructional coach, and Leslie Lewis, a retired math teacher.

The site provides free activities and ideas to relate math concepts with real life. Math is much more interesting and easier to learn when it is in the context of something familiar to the students, like sports and games.

They have the activities written to correspond with standards and sorted by math topic, like Algebra, Geometry, Math and Science, and much more.

This is a great resource for anyone who has math in their class.

Doodle 4 Google contest for K12 US Students - win a scholarship

2012-01-18T07:41:00.000-08:00

Google is once again hosting a Doodle 4 Google contest for K-12 students in the US. Students create a doodle of the Google logo based on this years topic "If I could travel in time, I'd visit...". The winner gets their design on the Google homepage and gets a $30,000 college scholarship along with a $50,000 technology grant for their school.

The theme, "If I could travel in time, I'd visit..." could mean visiting past, present, or future setting. Last year's contest had over 100,000 entries, so competition is fierce. There will be one winner per state and then from those 50 State winners, the 5 National Finalists and the National winner will be chosen.

This year the winning Doodle will also appear on a special edition Crayola 64 crayon box!!

To enter, you just need to submit your child's or student's artwork by March 20th with a signed and completed entry form.

There will be some celebrity judges along with the Google employee judges. They will determine the State finalists. On May 2nd, the State finalists will be up for public vote.

Being a finalist is pretty cool and all 50 state finalists will get flown to New York city for the national awards ceremony on May 17th. The winning Doodle will appear on May 18th and all of the 50 state winning doodles will be displayed at the New York Public Library.

Complete rules, prizes, and registration information is available at the Doodle 4 Google site.

This is a great way to get students thinking creatively and coming up with some great ideas, as well as having a chance to win a scholarship.

CX - free file sync, share, and backup

2012-01-18T06:27:00.000-08:00

CX is a new file sync, share and backup service, similar to Dropbox or Sugarsync that I just learned about from the Education Technology Blog.

CX allows you to backup your files, sync them across multiple devices, share your files and collaborate on them with others, and even discover new ideas and friends.

A free account starts off at 10GB of storage, which is more that the other services offer. Like the other services, you can earn more storage for referring others to sign up (to a maximum of 16GB). There are also paid plans with more storage (50GB, 100GB and custom amounts).

It is currently available for iOS and Android is coming soon. No mention of other mobile OS's.

What is unique is that every file you share has a comment system so you can share it and collaborate with others on it.

I think everyone needs to use some sort of file backup and sync service. Try CX out.

19 Pencils - quick and easy tools for learning

2012-01-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

19 Pencils is a beta site that has some great resources for educators. It is a resource creation and sharing tool that would be a great addition to your resource bag. You can find and create quizzes, create a class website, share websites you've found, share resources and even track how your students do on your quizzes.

It was created by a group of parents, who are also technology experts. There are free and premium accounts.

It is easy to use and has some great tools for educators. Check it out!

19 Pencils website

19 Pencils blog - updates, tips and more

Follow 19 Pencils on Twitter - http://twitter.com/19Pencils

Why I Use Google's Products as an Educator

2012-01-18T05:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I wrote a post entitled "Alternatives to Google's web services and apps" in which I listed a variety of services and apps that do what Google's tools and apps do for people who may not want to use Google's. I use Google's tools and apps extensively though, and here's why.

Google has a lot of great tools and apps that I use for both personal and school. I use iGoogle as my homepage and as an organizational tool, I use Gmail for email, I use Google Docs for word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets, along with surveys. I use Google Calendar, Blogger for this blog and my class blogs, Google Sites for my class web site, Google Tasks, Picasa and Piknik, Google+ as a great social media tool, Chrome web browser, Google Bookmarks, goo.gl URL shortener, Google Reader, Google Voice to communicate with parents, Google Maps and Google search. I also use other Google tools on occasion.

I use them because they work great, are easy to use, integrate with each other, work perfectly on the Chrome web browser and on my Android smartphone, only need a single login for them all and login once on Chrome to get into them all, they are free, there is a huge amount of support available and there are great resources for educators for using these tools in education.

Google's tools have great features like sharing and collaboration with others. I love being able to share a document or presentation with someone else and even work on it at the same time. I love being able to share calendar events and have multiple calendars visible at once. I love being able to easily create a blog or website for my classes. I love being able to connect with others on Google + and not be distracted by games and apps like on Facebook. I like the way Google's tools work, integrate, collaborate and present information. Gmail's conversation view stacks email replies together. Microsoft's Exchange email doesn't quite get this right.

The Chrome web browser is secure and fast with great extensions and add-on's to make it even more useful. The goo.gl URL shortener and Evernote web clipper make sharing and saving web sites and information easy. Google Reader is easy to set up and read my feeds and Google Maps has some great features like street view, 3D building views, inside maps, and directions for walking and using public transit. Google search has always been easy and relevant.

My students also love using Google tools. At the beginning of the school year I share lots of resources with them and Google is one of them. Most of them already have Gmail accounts, but are pleasantly surprised by the rest of the tools available. They end up using Docs for class assignments, creating blogs and websites as part of projects, and start using the other tools to get better organized. They always thank me for showing them these resources. The Google Student Blog is also a great resource for them.

The other thing that is nice about these Google tools is the ability to back up and export all of your data from each resource. That means that your data and what you have created are not locked into Google. Each tool has the ability to let you export your data in different formats so you can migrate it to a different service or just back it up. This is great piece-of-mind.

Android and Google's resources, obviously, work great together. Every single Google app I use has an Android app that works great. This means that I can do everything with my smartphone and don't even need a desktop. This means that I can do my work at any time, any place, which makes me more productive. Google tools also work great on mobile browsers.

In addition to Google's resources, my other main resources are TweetDeck and Evernote. I use TweetDeck to connect, share, and learn with my Personal Learning Network, and I use Evernote to organize data, take notes, plan lessons, and clip and save information from web sites. With these two web apps and Google's, I can do 99% of what I need to do on a daily basis. I don't need to use other resources. And, since my data is backed up on my computer, if Google decided to shut down any of these apps, I'd still be ok.

Google provides excellent resources that are free, work great, and have great features.

Related Articles and in-depth information:

Google for Educators Resources - how, why, and help on using Google's tools

Google for Educators - the latest resources and tools

iGoogle as an educational and organizational tool

10 Ways to Use Google+ in the Classroom

Google for Educators - great resources for using Google in school

Sync your Google Docs to your Computer

Lesson Plans using Google Apps for Education

How I use websites and blogs with my classes

Tips on Better Searches on Google

Google Calendar - get organized - great for education

Google goo.gl URL Shortener

Google in Educaiton

My Top 10 Google Resources for Education

Google Apps Education Training Center

Integrating Google Tools 4 Teachers

BBC Languages - start learning a foreign language

2012-01-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

BBC Languages is a great, free resource I just learned about from the Future Education Tech blog.

BBC Languages has audio and video courses to help you learn French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Chinese. There are also some other languages available and you can learn essential phrases in 40 different languages.

The courses are for beginners and are 12 weeks long. There is also information on the alphabet and culture behind the languages.

This is a great resource for students and teachers alike.

No Name Calling Week - educator resources to combat bullying

2012-01-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

Next week is No Name-Calling Week (Jan 23-27, 2012). This is an important opportunity for teachers to work with their students to help stop bullying and name-calling.

The site has some great resources for educators including lesson plans for different age groups. You can download the lesson plans or order a resource kit. The resource kit is not free, but there are some great ideas on the web site too.

Take this time to help combat bullying in school.

Alternatives to Google's web services and apps

2012-01-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

I'm a huge lover and user of Google's numerous apps and tools. I use iGoogle, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Blogger, Google Sites, Google search, Google Tasks, Google+, Chrome, Google bookmarks, Google Reader, Google Voice, Google Maps, and much more.

But not everyone likes Google or wants to use their tools and resources. So, what do you do?

There are some great alternatives out there. Zoho is another suite of online services that educators can use. They have email, calendar, documents and more available. Another alternative is Evernote. Evernote is a free notes tool that can also be used for bookmarks, task lists, documents, and much more. I use Evernote extensively, along with lots of Google's tools.

Firefox is a great alternative to Chrome, OpenOffice can replace Docs, Facebook vs. Google+, Wordpress vs. Blogger, Diigo vs. bookmarks, Hotmail vs. Gmail, Bing vs. Google Maps and Search, and so on.

Lifehacker, a great site for all things, has a great article where they list a bunch of alternatives to popular Google tools.

Do you use Google, or do you use other services (or a combination like me)?

Related:

Google for Educators Resources

Evernote for Educators

Lifehacker - tips and information for everything

Equation Editor for Google Chrome

2012-01-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

The Daum Equation Editor is a free add-on web app for Google Chrome that allows you to easily and quickly create and edit a formula. This is a great resource for math and science educators and students because now they can use formulas in web apps and Google Docs much easier. The equations can be saved as text or images and then inserted in documents or web sites. The equation editor has a nice menu to use for selecting symbols and functions and you can modify the size and font of the equation.

Check it out in the Chrome Web Store.

The How's, Why's and Value of Educational Technology

2012-01-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

Educational Technology - it's a term that technically can mean anything from a pen or overhead to laptops and interactive web 2.0 technologies. Some schools and teachers use a lot of technology with their classes, some use very little. Some schools and teachers use technology very well and others don't. Some use it to do things differently and some use it to do different things. Let's explore how, why and the value of educational technology. How should it be used? Why should it be used? What's the value in using it?

There is a lot of technology out there to use. At a minimum, every teacher should have a computer, projector, and speakers. Ideally, every student should have access to a computer, whether laptop carts, computer labs, or computers in the classroom. I'm lucky in that I have 7 student computers in my classroom to use. We also have a laptop cart and computer lab for the science department. It's also important to find out what computer and internet access students have outside of school before using technology.

With the huge amount of hardware, software, and web apps, an educator has a lot to sort through. How do you find good resources and ideas of how to use them in your classroom? Twitter, educator blogs, conferences and professional development are great ways to learn about educational technology resources and how to use them effectively in your classroom. Google apps and tools, Evernote, Glogster, Discovery Education are some of the major technology products used by educators and they have great resources for educators. Create a Personal Learning Network (PLN) and learn from them. Explore the internet and see what's out there.

The lesson objectives always come first. What are the students going to learn? How do you want them to learn it? What resources do you have? Once you have your lesson objectives and answers to these questions you can start to look at how technology might be used in that lesson. I use very low tech labs with my Physics classes and I use high tech labs with sensors, electronic graphs and more. I use virtual labs and investigations. I use simple labs because the concept they are exploring won't be overshadowed by technology. I use high tech labs and sensors so that they learn how to use the technology. I use virtual labs for two reasons. Sometimes I don't have the physical lab equipment, so virtual labs, like PhET, allow my students to do these labs for free and online. I also like some virtual labs because they let students visualize the concepts better than a hands-on live lab. Thermodynamics is an example of this. In the virtual labs, they can actually see the molecules moving and changing speeds, along with the change in temperature and kinetic energy. This is very hard to visualize in a live lab.

I do a lot of projects. Technology comes into play in some when students use simulation and analysis software to design and investigate the project. They go low tech when they build their design using balsa wood or paper. Students can create low tech project reports using posters, or they can use technology and create web page, Glog, etc.

Technology is also a great communication tool. Class blogs, websites, messaging, and the like can help teachers communicate and share with students and teachers. It also allows students to communicate among themselves and collaborate on projects.

Technology can also be used to differentiate teaching and learning. Teachers can use PowerPoint to have text, images, videos and more for students. The slides can also be printed and posted to helps students. Teachers can use videos, animations, web sites, podcasts and more to present information in different ways. Teachers can also differentiate assessment by having students choose how they would like to demonstrate their learning. Students could create electronic posters, Glogs, web sites, videos, blogs and more to show that they have mastered the material.

I have also used technology for backup plans, to communicate lessons when I'm absent, and to save my back.

Backup plans are extremely important as a teacher. Also having all of your files and data backed up is important. Technology can fail, so you need to have back up plans that account for that. You also need to have backup plans for students who miss class and when class runs short. Technology can provide you with alternative assignments and lessons, as well as last minute lesson plans and resources.

I have had a couple of extended absences due to illness, injury, or serving on a jury, over the last 10 years. I have been able to use technology to communicate with my students and create some great lessons for them to do when I was away. Virtual labs and investigations, web quests, interactive software all were used while I was out instead of boring work sheets. I could communicate with my students and colleagues to answer questions and make sure things were going well in the classroom.

I have a serious back injury from working as a Paramedic. There are times when it really bothers me. Technology has helped with this. I don't carry things home because I have everything electronic and synced online. I can also use a document camera and my projector and my smartphone with remote control software to sit and still "write things on the board" and control the computer. This has saved my back on many occasions.

Money and budgets are a huge issue right now in education. I haven't been able to order materials or lab equipment for years. Online, free, virtual labs and simulations have allowed me to continue to have students explore concepts in a lab atmosphere even without the equipment. Free alternatives to licensed software can also help save money, along with going paperless and saving the cost of paper, printers, and copiers.

Value of Educational Technology: (or, how does it help teachers and students)

Organization - things like Google Calendar, iGoogle, Evernote help keep us organized and more efficient

Collaboration - Google Docs, Twitter, Prezi, Blogs, Wiki's, Scriblar, and more allow teachers and students to interact, work together, and work with others.

Web 2.0 - in general, allows students and teachers to create and interact instead of just observing

Personal Learning Network (PLN) - learning and sharing what you know

Professional development - online resources, informal through PLN, online classes

Research/Information - the internet ('nuff said)

Virtual labs, trips - take your students to places they'd never get to see otherwise, do labs and experiences with them, even when you don't have the supplies or equipment.

Save time and money

Provide new learning experiences and help improve education

Connect with students and parents easier - email, websites, blogs, etc.

Provide differentiated educational experiences (video, audio, print, interactive, help and tutoring)

My physics classes do not have a textbook because I use two free online physics texts, three great websites, and a free downloadable pdf version of a physics textbook. Savings of $140 per student. (the textbook we have is very old and out of date)

I don't print out anywhere near the amount of paper for students that I used to because I post things on the class blogs and website. Savings of literally tens of thousands of pieces of paper and copier toner and my time.

Electronic grade book, attendance, note taking, etc. has saved money on grade books and paper (and allowed parents to keep track of their child's performance)

Free online virtual labs and simulations instead of paying for licenses or lab equipment

Free software / services (Google Docs, Sites, Blogger, Evernote, etc) instead of paying for licenses - students can therefore do things at home that they normally couldn't afford to do either.

Educational technology can save money, allow use to communicate, and allow for new and exciting learning activities for students. The lesson objectives come first, then you can find some technology to help you and your students reach those objectives.

Related:

My Favorite Resources for Students and Educators

Differentiating with Web 2.0 Technologies

Technology I use Everyday as an Educator

Unfettered by Stuff - or "Why I don't lug stuff home every night"
Google for Educators

Evernote for Educators

25 Free Resources from Discovery Education

Technology has Helped During Absences and Injuries

Tools to Go Paperless in School

How do you use educational technology? How do you decide what to use and how?

Good to Know - online safety program - is officially live

2012-01-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

I recently wrote about Google's Good to Know online safety and information campaign. It was officially announced and launched in the US this week.

It has information and tips for internet safety, how your data is collected and used online, how Google uses data, and how to manage your data and what you share with web sites and Google.

This is a great resource for educators to use with their students, colleagues and friends and family.

New Evernote for Education resource page

2012-01-17T06:46:00.000-08:00

I am a huge lover and user of Evernote. It is my main resource for lesson plans, lesson schedules, notes and so much more.

I've written about Evernote many times on this blog, have shared it with educators at conferences and professional development, and show my students how to use it.

I decided to create a permanent page on this blog with an overview of what Evernote is, how to use it in education, and how to get started using it and find help.

Check out this page and share it with others.

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/evernote-for-education.html

National Engineers Week Feb 19-25 - great resource for educators

2012-01-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

National Engineers Week is February 19 - 25, 2012. This is a great time to expose students to engineering as a career and to incorporate engineering ideas and projects in your classes.

The National Engineers Week web site has resources for educators to use including lesson ideas, types of engineering, and much more. It's also a great resource for teachers to use all year long for STEM subjects.

The site also has information for engineers looking to get involved in spreading the word, including having them contact local schools to volunteer to come in and talk to the students about being an engineer. As educators, this is a great idea for us also. Bring in guest speakers to your classes to talk to the students.

Share the great opportunities and career that is engineering with your students. (I'm a little biased having been an Aerospace Engineer for 10 years before becoming an educator).

This falls on our February vacation week so I'm going to introduce it the week before and give them some interesting research to do over the break on a project we'll be doing in Physics class.

Related:

STEM Resources for Educators

Free OCR - Optical Character Recognition (online service)

2012-01-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

Free OCR is a free, obviously from it's name, online service that can convert scanned documents into editable text. This can save you the time it would take to retype the original document. It takes a scanned image of text and converts it to a real text file.

Free OCR will accept documents in PDF, JPG, GIF, TIFF or BMP format. It will accept documents up to 2MB in size, which is pretty big.

Free OCR worked just as well as a commercial OCR software that came with my scanner, with the same amount of errors (minimal) and time frame. PDF files worked the best, with the least amount of issues and errors. You still need to check over the converted document for errors, as no OCR system is 100% accurate.

The fact that it is web based also means that you don't have to install anything on your computer and you can use it from any system or web browser.

This is a great way to digitize papers, articles, and memos into an editable format. It really comes in handy when you can't find, or can't get access to, the original electronic file.

Should schools require students to purchase specific types of tech?

2012-01-16T09:41:00.000-08:00

(this was originally posted in 2009, but I thought it was still timely)

Technology is a great educational resource and tool. There are literally thousands of types of technology, software, and hardware out there for educators and students to use. But what happens when a school requires students to have a specific brand of technology?

Many colleges require students to have a laptop and if they don't own one, they can get one at a discount through the school. Other colleges issue the students laptops with the cost included in the tuition and fess. Some schools now require students to purchase iPhone's or iPod Touches. While I'm all for students having great technology tools, I have a problem with schools mandating the brand or system that students use.

The iPhone and iPad are cultural and business phenomenons. Apple has sold millions of them around the world and it is difficult to go one day without seeing someone using one. The iPhone, and iPod Touch, have a huge number of great applications that are useful to students and educators. But does that mean that students should have to use it at a school? What happened to freedom to choose and a free market? Along the same lines, some schools or departments at schools, require their students to purchase Mac's instead of PC's. Other schools require students to purchase Windows based laptops.

This is not a good thing. Restricting students to a certain brand, company or system is wrong. Students should be allowed to purchase what ever brand or system that they are comfortable with. In this day and age, it doesn't really matter which system you have, you can do anything you need to. Mac's have Microsoft Office on them, Windows can do video, audio, and graphics. Web based applications like Google Docs, Zoho, and more mean that the operating system doesn't really matter anymore. Other smart phones can do what the iPhone can do. I did a comparison of the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and Palm Pre systems and found that every educational application available on the iPhone has some sort of counterpart on the other systems. All of them can go to the Internet, get email, view videos, view documents, take pictures, text message, and more. In fact, some of them have more educational tools available than the iPhone.

What about service contracts? A student with a phone from Verizon or Sprint shouldn't have to switch to AT&T because their school requires them to have an iPhone. They also shouldn't have to carry two devices if they keep their own smart phone and have to purchase an iPod Touch for school. If they already have an iPhone, they shouldn't have to switch to Windows Mobile, or Blackberry because the school wants them to.

Schools need to stay away from dictating the brand or system that students should have, and instead list what students should be able to do with their own laptop or smart phone. Schools need to also make sure that their applications are system independent. Lectures, applications, documents, and more should be able to be used on Mac, Windows, Linux, Palm, Android, Blackberry, or any other system. Schools should spend their time on making sure that students can use any system instead of pushing students towards a specific system.

If a school uses mainly web apps, there is little-to-no support needed from IT, and the web apps are platform independent. I've written about web apps vs. on device software before.

Freedom of choice and a free market system are the only way to encourage inventiveness and allow students to be comfortable with their technology. Let the companies do the marketing for their products. Schools should do the educating.

What do you think?

Fun and useful things to do with your smartphone camera

2012-01-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of some fun and useful things to do with your smartphone camera:

1. Remember where you’re parked at the airport or any crowded lot. Photograph the nearest parking location sign.

2. Take a picture of your hotel, building address, room number, and the nearest street sign.

3. Take a photo of your child every day as a safety precaution when you’re traveling.

4. Capture a whiteboard after a meeting.

5. Document damage after a car accident.

6. Document your home and belongings as proof for your insurance company in the event of a loss.

7. Snap a picture of the takeout menu and business hours of your favorite restaurant.

8. Shoot a photo of a flyer for an upcoming event or item for sale.

9. If you lend out CDs, DVDs and books to friends, take pictures and label them with your friends’ names.

10.Take a picture of something you’re about to disassemble, then use it as a reference when you’re putting it back together.

11. Entertain kids with a photo scavenger hunt, with a list of things to take pictures of.

12. Photograph yourself when you don’t have a mirror.

Some education related things:

1. Take a picture of things you wrote on the board for one class so you use the exact same thing for the next class or post it on your class website for future reference. I let the students do this too.

2. Take a picture of a memo on a bulletin board, handout, etc.

3. Take a picture of lab setups for future use or to include in lab instructions. My students do this and include the pictures in their lab reports.

4. Take a picture of your room set up at the end of the year so you make sure everything gets back after summer cleaning.

5. Document anything you need documented. Take a picture of things instead of writing things down.

You can save the photos on your camera phone, export them to your computer, upload them to a website, or even use Evernote to save and organize them. Evernote can even search the text inside an image.

I have Sugarsync set up on my Android smartphone to automatically backup all my photos and videos and sync them to my computer.

What are your ideas?

OrangeBook - easily create online portfolios of student work

2012-01-16T09:22:00.000-08:00

OrangeBook is a pre-beta service that promises to allow teachers to easily create digital portfolios of student work using pictures of the work and then sorting it and making it accessible.

It is not available yet, but they are allowing teachers to sign up to be a part of the initial offering.

If you are looking for a way to do e-portfolios with your students, sign up to be notified when this is available.

Most Read Posts from Last Week

2012-01-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

Here are the most read posts from last week:

1. Integrating Google Tools 4 Teachers - great resources for using Google's many tools in school

2. Pastevid - record and share your screen

3. Google Body is now Zygote Body and it's live - 3D visual body for anatomy

4. Google Digital Literacy Tour - digital literacy resources

5. Biology Corner - resources, lesson plans, and more for Biology (and Physics and Earth Science)

6. Survival Tips for Educators and Presenters - backup plans and tips

7. STEM Resources Livebinder - lots of great resources for STEM subjects and ideas

8. STEM Resources permanent page on blog - STEM resources collected on one page

9. Tech&Learning - free magazine and web site with resources for educators

10. Amazon Send - easy and free way to send files from your computer to your Kindle device

If you are reading this blog and like it, please consider subscribing to it. The subscription links are on the right side of the blog, down just a bit (below the ads).

Discovery Education has some great new resources

2012-01-13T10:52:00.000-08:00

Discovery Education, already a great resource for educators, has added some more resources to their lineup.

Some of the new content added to Discovery Education:

PBS Newshour: Autism Now - A comprehensive look at autism and its impact is designed to provide viewers with an authoritative, balanced look at the latest scientific research and medical thinking about the disorder.

Hazard Recognition Driving for Teens - This program profiles the hazards of driving and the steps to take to decrease the chance of an accident. Scanning, recognizing, and reacting make a good defensive driver.

Financial Literacy: Teach It! - Jumpstart your students’ personal financial skills with this dynamic series. Today’s students face a myriad of financial choices. Mastering basic financial skills sets them on a path for financial success.

Along with:

Through the Wormhole: Season 2

Tornado Rampage 2011 (April 2011)

Last Shuttle: Our Journey - last shuttle mission

Nuclear Nightmare: Japan In Crisis - March 2011 earthquake and tsunami

And much more.

Check out the new content at: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/New-Content/

NASA Eyes on the Earth - vital signs of the planet

2012-01-13T06:24:00.000-08:00

NASA has another great resource for educators: NASA Eyes on the Earth. This site allows you to visualize actual satellite imagery and data in relation to the climate of the Earth. You can view data for air temperature, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide levels, sea levels, ozone, ice and water. You can explore and follow NASA satellites and see how they collect data about the Earth's atmosphere, land and sea. There are also some great images to view.

It launches in a separate window and can be viewed full screen. The 3D graphics are amazing and it follows the satellites in real time.

This is a resource that would be great for any science class, especially environmental science and Earth science.

NASA 3D Resources - fun and educational

2012-01-13T06:10:00.000-08:00

NASA is a great resource for educators with literally hundreds of sites and resources available for free. Another one I just found is NASA 3D Resources. The 3D resources page has 3D models, textures, and images from inside NASA. All of these resources are free to download and use.

The 3D models can be used in almost any 3D software package and include the ISS, satellites, spacesuits and more. This could be a great resource for STEM classes, especially design, CAD, and engineering.

The images and textures are in .jpg and .tif formats in the original resolution. They include images of the moon, planets, and even a control panel from a space craft.

Voyager Image of Jupiter

There are also some cool simulations that would be great for use in education.

NetworKing is a game that allows you to take on the role of Network Manager and puts you in charge of building up a communications network that you will use to support scientific missions.

Station SpaceWalk is a simulation of doing a space walk to conduct repairs on the International Space Station.

There is an interactive demo of the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) system that shows how it provides communication services for NASA missions.

All of these are great educational experiences for students. Students learn about STEM subjects, get to think critically and solve real world problems.

Guggenheim Museum makes 65 Art Catalogs Available Online

2012-01-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

The famous Guggenheim Art Museum in New York City has just made 65 Art Catalogs available online for free. The catalogs include different topics and artists.

This is a great resource for art and art history classes to use.

The Guggenheim also has a great education page with resources for educators.

Amazon Send - easily send files to your Kindle from computer

2012-01-13T05:44:00.000-08:00

Do you have a Kindle? Do you want to easily send documents to your Kindle? Here you go:

Send to Kindle is a free app that allows you to send documents directly form your computer to your Kindle device or app. It works in Windows (XP, Vista, 7) (Mac version is being worked on) and is easy to use. Simply right-click a file in explorer and the select "Send to Kindle". You can send multiple files and even send an open document to your Kindle through the Print function where you chose "Send to Kindle" instead of your printer.

You can send PDFs, Word, text, RTF and images and the documents are archived with your Kindle e-books available for download to all of your Kindle devices.

This is great for teachers and students using Kindles who want to be able to access other document files on their Kindle.

Virtual 4T Conference - call for proposals for free education conf

2012-01-13T05:32:00.000-08:00

The Virtual 4T (Teachers Teaching Teachers about Technology) Conference is a free, virtual conference open to all educators around the world. It provides an opportunity for educators to connect, network and learn from each other. Most sessions are targeted to K-12 education, but could be applied to higher ed.

Preconference workshops begin Saturday May 19th and the opening Keynote is Sunday May 20th at 7pm. The conference continues through to 8pm on Wednesday May 22nd with all sessions running live and then being archived.

They are currently invited educators and others to submit conference session proposals.

Registration is required to attend even though it is free.

This is another great, free opportunity for educators to share what they know and learn from others.

This is the second year it is being run.

The conference hashtag on Twitter is #4tvirtualcon12

Survival Tips for Educators and Presenters

2012-01-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

Being an educator is a great, responsible job. When we go out and educate, we need to make sure we are prepared and have back up plans. Here are some tips to make sure your presentation and training goes well.

As educators and presenters, we can find ourselves at hotels, conference centers, school classrooms, training centers, garages, basements, outdoor venues, and much more. We need to know where we will be teaching and be prepared for that environment. Always get information about the facility and the resources available to you in advance.

Find out who your audience is, what they want to learn, and why they are learning it.

Prepare your lesson plan for your training program:

Know your material

Plan for unexpected

Rehearse, Rehearse

Expect that something will not work

Your lesson plan for your presentation or lesson should include:

Title of lesson or presentation, concept/topic being taught, any standards addressed, goals and objectives, materials, procedure (lecture, demo, etc), closure, assessment and anticipated questions. You should include in your materials list the backup materials listed below.

TIPS:

Laptop - have spare battery or make sure battery is fully charged (in case of no power outlet)

Projector (lamps burn out, make sure yours isn't too old or have a spare lamp or projector)

Speakers - if you have video or audio content

Backup of files on a flash drive (problem with hard drive file, using a backup computer, etc)

Don't count on having internet access at the facility (use screen shots of websites). Sometimes the WiFi networks get overloaded with all the participants going online.

Post your presentation online so that the participants can view it real time. Google Docs is a great way to do this.

Extension cord and power strip (in case facility doesn't have one)

Extra copies of handouts, post handouts online (like Google Docs), etc.

Print out of lecture notes and information (in case of catastrophic failures you can use this to teach from. If you make copies of your lecture notes it's even easier.)

Flip chart with markers (for notes, etc. and also in case of hardware failure)

Can your files work on their computer? (software) - having them in a generic form like PDF is better than PowerPoint or Keynote

Have a backup projector or laptop available if facility is providing computer and projector

Bring a drink (water, etc) and a snack for yourself.

Notepad and pen for notes.

Dry Erase markers (in case facility has a board but no markers)

Materials for demonstrations or hands-on activities (bring extra and don't rely on facility to have what you need)

Take a deep breath before going up to present and relax.

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Share your tips with us!

Merge PDF files for free - great tool

2012-01-12T14:42:00.000-08:00

I have been a long time user of CutePDF Writer to create PDF files from other files like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and even webpages. It simple installs as a "printer" on your computer and you select that instead of your actual printer.

Today, I found out how to merge multiple PDF files into one PDF file. The best news, it's free!

Quick PDF tools is a great resource. The software is easy to install and very easy to use and the website has easy to follow instructions. You simple select the PDF files you want to merge in Windows Explorer, right click, select QuickPDF tools, and select merge. You can then order them in the window in the order you want them merged, and then select merge. It is really that easy.

I ended up using it to merge 15 different PDF files into one guidebook that I use when teaching Google for Educators. It was easy to do and saved me a lot of time and effort.

Check it out!

Crocodoc - markup PDF files for free

2012-01-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

Crocodoc is a free, online service that allows you to upload and markup documents, including PDF files. You can not actually edit the PDF file, but can add text, highlight, draw, and even strikeout text. When you strikeout text, it opens a new text box above the strikeout for you to edit.

I used it recently to make a change to a physics lab I use with my students. It is a PDF file and I just wanted to make some small changes to the procedure. I uploaded the file, make the markups, and downloaded it. No account is necessary.

You can create an account and store files on the system. It even allows multiple people to markup and collaborate on work. Crocodoc works with PDF files, Word Documents, images, and PowerPoint presentations. You can view and mark up your files online. The documents can be shared with others who can all mark the files up collaboratively. You can make revisions, highlight or strikeout text, add notes and comments. Files are stored on their servers and can be password protected.

This is a great tool for educators and students to use for sharing work, working collaboratively, and providing feedback on work.

Biology Corner - awesome resources for Biology and more!

2012-01-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

The Biology Corner is a fantastic web site my wife uses quite often. The site has resources for teachers including lesson plans, web quests, quizzes, and much more. The site is set up by "class" - Anatomy 1 and 2, AP Biology, Biology 1 and 1a, Biology 2 and 2a, and Physics.

Worksheets are also sorted by topic, and images and media have their own menu.

The material is very useful and I like the class format for the resources. It is set up sequentially and allows for easy scanning for resources.

Tech & Learning - free magazine and website with great resources for educators

2012-01-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

Tech&Learning is a great resource for educators. It is a print/online magazine, along with a great website. They also produce TechForum educational conferences and Virtual TechForum.

The Tech&Learning magazine, available free to qualified educators, is released monthly and contains articles, tips, resources, product reviews, and much more.

The website has a link to the electronic version of the magazine, the Tech&Learning Advisor blogs, links to resources from past TechForums, and more resources. There are articles on best practices, administration, integrating technology, professional development, free resources, tips and tricks, grant help, and so much more.

The Tech&Learning Advisors are educators who write articles for the TL Blog section of the website, contribute articles to the magazine, and also help review products and present at TechForum. Some of the names may be familiar to you as they are also very active online with Twitter and their own blogs and present extensively at conferences and unconferences around the world.

The staff are friendly and helpful, the TechForum conferences are great, fun, and informative, and the site and magazine have incredible information and resources.

Tech&Learning also maintains a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Tech&Learning is an excellent resource for all educators. It's free and contains a tremendous amount of information, links, resources, and tips and ideas.

I believe that it is a tremendous resource for educators and wanted to make sure more educators could take advantage of it.

Note: I am a TL Advisor and contribute twice monthly to the TL Advisor blogs. I have also have articles of mine published in the print magazine and present at TechForum.

Lifehacker - tips and information for everything

2012-01-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

Lifehacker is one of those web sites that has so much stuff you don't know where to start.

Lifehacker features tips, shortcuts, downloads, and information to help you get things done smarter and more efficiently. Lifehacker has won many awards and accolades and I always find good ideas or resources on the site.

Software, web sites, products, tips and tricks, and other ideas are published each day (sometimes more than 20 articles per day). They range from web browser extensions, to how to maintain a computer, to how to best grill a steak to fixing things at home, and more. Chances are if you have a question, they have an answer.

I've found some great tips on cooking, travel and technology on Lifehacker.

I highly recommend subscribing to Lifehacker and browsing the site. There are always new jewels to be found.

Edheads - cool activities and projects

2012-01-12T12:13:00.000-08:00

Edheads is a great web site that has online projects for students to do. These projects help students explore and learn about a variety of topics.

Some of the projects include - design a cell phone, virtual knee surgery, simple machines, and more.

I found it fun also! Try it out yourself and you will find that it is a nice resource to use in your classroom. The crash scene project was fun and is great for a physics class.

They are also looking for ideas from teachers to add to the collection and there is a nice teacher resource center.

Google Science Fair 2012 is here!

2012-01-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

The second annual Google Science Fair is open. Google started the science fair last year and it was a huge success. Students enter their projects and can win some really great prizes. The projects from last year were pretty impressive too.

Students simply register online, get parental consent, do their project site online and then submit the project.

The site has great tips and resources for students and educators. There are three age categories 13-14, 15-16 and 17-18 and prizes in each category. The one grand prize includes a trip to the Galapagos, a $50,000 scholarship, and a hands on experience at either Lego, CERN or Google. Other prizes include $25,000 scholarships, Chromebooks and Chromebook kits for their classroom, intern experiences and much more.

This is a great way for students to work through a science project and have it viewed internationally and have the chance to win some great prizes.

There is a great page with Educator resources, lesson plans, and more to get students started on a project.

For more information or to get started, go to the Google Science Fair site.

Google adds threaded comments to Blogger

2012-01-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

Google has announced a nice upgrade to Blogger -t he ability to have threaded comments. This means that people can reply to someone else's comment and it will show up under that comment instead of as a general comment on the post. This can make comment discussions easier to follow.

If you use Blogger and want to enable this feature, go HERE for full instructions.

Related:

Google Resources for Educators

Getting Started with Blogger

Pastevid - free, easy, shareable screen recording

2012-01-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

Pastevid is a easy, free screen recording service that lets you quickly record your screen and share it with others. The free version does not even require a sign in. You can sign in with Google, Facebook or a Pastevid account if you want.

You can capture your entire screen or just part of it and it includes voice recording. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Just go to the site and click "record now" or sign in.

The Basic (free version) includes YouTube integration, instant download, short links, and the ability to play on any device. There is a 150 min video limit and videos expire after 2 months. If you find that you really need more features, you can upgrade to premium for $10/month or $60/year.

This is a great resource for recording your screen for web casts, lectures, professional development and more.

STEM Resources LiveBinder - lots of great resources

2012-01-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

As a former engineer and current physics teacher, STEM subjects are a big deal to me. I recently created a permanent page on this blog to organize some of my favorite STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) resources and just found another great one that I've added to the list.

STEM Engineering Resources Livebinder is a Livebinder collection of great STEM resources. They are divided into categories - NASA Education, STEM Teacher Sites, Engineering Ed Resources, Blogs, News Articles, Student Resources, and Robotics. The resources and materials collected here are great for any teacher looking to increase or improve the STEM lessons in their classroom.

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Education Resources

2012-01-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

NASA has some incredible resources for educators. Here's another one.

The famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a great education site that has a lot of great resources. There are resources for students and educators on topics such as Discovery Guides about the planets and NASA Missions, classroom activities, videos, multimedia resources, and much more. There are after-school activities, teacher professional development, and in-depth projects to use.

JPL also has internships for students, which are a great opportunity for students to get some great learning and experience.

The site is easy to navigate and the resources are excellent. They can be used in any classroom.

Winter Storm Season is upon us - free emergency preparedness resources

2012-01-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Here in the NorthEast (USA) it's winter storm season. By this time last year, we had had a few serious winter storms and we got hit by a tropical storm at the beginning of this school year and then an October snow storm that both caused a lot of problems, power outages, and damage.

Students, teachers, parents, and schools need to be prepared to handle different kinds of emergencies. Here is a link to a huge amount of resources for emergency preparedness, planning, and education.

Free Resources for Emergency Preparedness

Includes information, planning tips, and even lesson resources for teachers.

iBioSeminars - Free Biology videos online

2012-01-11T08:09:00.000-08:00

iBioSeminars is a site that contains free Biology videos. The videos are on-demand lectures that are available to view online or download. Each video starts with an extended introduction so that students can understand the topic better. They are mainly geared towards college, but teachers could use them to review concepts or learn about new topics and they could also be used with AP Biology classes.

There is an education page on the site that has lecture notes, questions and answers, and short video clips to use for teaching. The videos cover a huge range of Biology topics and subjects.

City of Materials - materials science and engineering resources

2012-01-11T07:50:00.000-08:00

City of Materials is a site from the American Society of Materials that contains resources, CSI type cases, podcasts, hands on activities, an introduction to the basics of materials science, podcasts and lots of resources for educators.

The site is very nicely designed and the activities are great and it explains the topics very well.

There is also information on careers in materials science and engineering.

Materials science and engineering is a very important area that affects everyone, everyday. This site is a great resource for teachers to use to get students interested in these areas and STEM in general.

STEM Resources collected on one web page

2012-01-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

I just added another permanent page at the top of this blog for STEM Resources. The page has resources for students and educators for science, technology, engineering and math organized by sub-topic.

I decided to do this to collect these great resources in one place to make them easier to find.

Are there any you think should be added?

Google Body is now Zygote Body and it's live

2012-01-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

Google used to have a great 3D human anatomy resource called Google Body Browser. It was an interactive way to explore the human body. It's been described as "Google Earth" for the human body.

Google shut it down when they shut down Google Labs, but Zygote, the company that developed it for Google, has brought it back as the Zygote Body.

The site is new and you need to use a browser and OS that supports webGL. Most new browsers support this, but Windows XP does not. (for more information on webGL, go here.)

What's really neat about Zygote Body, is that you can hide/shade different body systems to explore in more detail. You can move the image around in 3 dimensions, zoom in and out, and get a really good view of anatomy. You can even search for body parts and turn the labels on and off.

There is also an Android app on the way.

This is a good resource for Biology, Anatomy, A&P and medical classes to use.

Updated lots of Resources on Ed Tech Guy blog

2012-01-10T07:21:00.000-08:00

Today I just updated a lot of resources on this blog. I have some permanent pages on the top of the blog that I updated and I added a new one.

New permanent page: My Favorite Resources for Teachers and Students

I also updated the following permanent pages with new resources and updated information:

Create a Personal Learning Network - added new resources and updated links and information

Google for Educators Resources - added some new ones and added Android resources.

Project Based Learning - added many new resources

Please share these pages and this site with your colleagues.

If you are reading this blog and like it, please consider subscribing to it. The subscription links are on the right side of the blog, down just a bit (below the ads).

The Educator's PLN - the personal learning network of educators

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

Personal Learning Networks are a great way to be a life-long learner and connect and collaborate with other educators. The Educator's PLN is a great resource to add to your PLN.

The Educator's PLN is an interactive site for educators that was created by Tom Whitby. Membership is free. On the main page, you can see summary of recent activity on the site and links to the rest of the site. There is a profile page that you can modify with your information and favorite pages. There are hundreds of educational videos, discussion forums, group pages, a chat page, a page with feed from the #Edchat on Twitter, and events page and more.

This site is a great place to connect and collaborate with educators, share resources, and learn.

Related:

Create a Personal Learning Network

Twitter Resources for Educators

Twitter for Education

Google Digital Literacy Tour - curriculum on online responsibility and safety

2012-01-10T04:30:00.000-08:00

Google, one of my favorite resources as an educator, has another great resource for students and teachers.

The Google Digital Literacy Tour is a curriculum developed by Google and iKeepSafe that educators can use in the classroom to teach online responsibility to students.

It is a fun, interactive curriculum with hands-on activities and scenarios and is broken into 3 parts. Each part as PDF downloads for educators and students, along with lessons and videos. There is a guidebook for the teacher, along with videos and presentations.

The three parts are: Detecting Lies and Staying True, Playing and Staying Safe Online, and Steering Clear of Cyber Tricks.

This is a great resource to use with students as you teach them cyber-skills and computer use. It is also a great resource to share with adults who may not know enough about cyber-safety and use.\

Related:

Google Resources for Educators

10 Important Skills Students Need for the Future

NASA - Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle site

2012-01-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

NASA, which already has tons of great resources for education, has a great site about the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew vehicle. The Orion MPCV is the future for American manned space flight. It will be the exploration vehicle that will carry astronauts to space and then return them.

The site has information on the MPCV, information on the design, construction and engineering of it, and cut away views of the space craft.

This is a great way to get students excited and interested about STEM subjects and talk to them about the future of manned spaceflight.

Related:

NASA Education Resources

Integrating Google Tools 4 Teachers

2012-01-09T05:30:00.001-08:00

I'm a huge fan and user of Google's many tools and resources for educators. I recently found another great site that helps teachers learn about these tools and how to use them in the classroom.

Integrating Google Tools 4 Teachers has tips, resources, and ideas for using Google tools such as Docs, Presentations, Sites, Maps and more in the classroom, including a section on using Google tools to help with STEM education. It even has a list of pro's and con's for Google Apps for Education and regular Google tools. The site is run by Colette Cassinelli, a Google Certified Teacher.

This is a great site to find out more about Google Tools and how to use them in your classroom.

Android vs. iOS security

2012-01-09T05:30:00.000-08:00

Mobile devices, mainly Google's Android and Apple's iOS, are rapidly spreading throughout education. The security of these devices and their operating systems are very important to schools. Every system has weaknesses and no system is totally secure or safe from attack. In addition to security, schools should look at cost and functionality of the devices.

While I've used Apple devices before (friends' and coworkers'), I own Android and webOS devices.
Here are some great resources about Android Apps and devices:
Android 4 Schools
Android Smartphone and Apps I use as an Educator
Android Resources, News and more

Great Resource for iOS - tips, app reviews, hardware reviews, news and more

Here is a great infographic from VeraCode that examines the security features of Android and iOS, and also takes a look at their strengths and weaknesses.

Infographic by Veracode Application Security

Endangered Species FactSheets

2012-01-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Kid's Planet has a great resource on endangered species of the world, E-Species Fact Files. The site has fact sheets on over 50 endangered species, organized by area of the world.

The site links to the Defenders of Wildlife site. Each fact sheet has photos, information on the habitat and dangers to the animal.

This is a great resource to use with any class to show students how important protecting these species is.

Most read posts for the past week

2012-01-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here are the most read posts for the past week:

1. Great Physics Resources for Teachers and Students - this got a huge amount of reads over the rest. I'm very happy that people are finding it useful.

2. Insync - Sync Google Docs to your Computer

3. My Favorite Resources for Students and Teachers - some great stuff here.

4. How to Embed video in PowerPoint and package as a single file

5. 10 Important Skills Students Need for the Future

6. Infographic - Consequences of Teaching to the Test

7. NASA Debunks 2012 Apocalypse with new FAQ

And I really like this one:

Making School Relevant for Students - I posted it on Thursday, but it's already gotten a lot of hits. I feel very strongly about this topic too.

If you are reading this blog and like it, please consider subscribing to it. The subscription links are on the right side of the blog, down just a bit (below the ads).

HP webOS TouchPad Tablet - updated review after 6 months of use

2012-01-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

Here is my original review of the HP webOS TouchPad tablet. At the end is an update after 6 months of use.

HP TouchPad tablet (webOS)

I have used webOS (yes, the “w” is lowercase) since getting my Pre+ smartphone in February of 2010 and love it. webOS has always gotten great reviews from technology writers and reviewers, but Palm never marketed it correctly. HP bought Palm in April of 2010, mainly for webOS, and promised to go all out with the operating system. They just launched the Veer (a very small, but powerful, smartphone) and the TouchPad tablet and the Pre3 is on the way. They are heavily marketing webOS and the new devices and have even talked about using webOS on full computers.

I bought the TouchPad on the early launch day, July 1st and love it! I had a chance to use one at HP's booth at ISTE11 and loved it. Having been a webOS user for the last 2 years, using the TouchPad required almost no learning curve. It’s a little thicker and heavier than the iPad2, but not noticeable to me (I’ve used an iPad2 before and held one at the Best Buy store and compared them). It’s black and nice and shiny, which shows finger prints, but HP includes a nice cloth to wipe off the fingerprints that every touchscreen device gets. Currently there is only a WiFi version, but 3G versions are planned. You can also tether the TouchPad to your smartphone. The suggested retail price is 16GB for $499.99 and 32GB for $599.99, but most retailers are offering deals or lower prices. If you already own a webOS phone, you can get a $50 rebate when you purchase a TouchPad.

webOS is really easy to use and very intuitive, using cards (like windows or tabs) to do true multi-tasking. Setting up the device was a breeze, especially since it connected to my Palm (now HP) profile where my Pre+ data and settings was synced to and automatically brought in my apps and connections. The profile can be used on more than one device so a school could set up one profile to keep all of the devices set up the same.

webOS and the TouchPad have some very cool features that make them very easy to use and very useful.

Technical Specs for the TouchPad:

webOS 3.0
16GB or 32GB built in storage
1.6 lbs, 0.54” thick x 9.45” long x 7.48” wide
Display - 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 LCD capacitive touch (same as iPad2) - excellent viewing, even in sunlight
1.2GHz Snapdragon processor paired with 1GB of RAM
8-9 hours of battery life (continuous use - used mine on and off for three days without charging)
Micro USB port (for syncing files in USB drive mode or music using HP Play) and charging through the included charger (the Touchstone is a must-have accessory)
Front facing camera for video calls and video conferencing
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n radio, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR compatibility, a light sensor, accelerometer, compass, and gyro
Stereo speakers, headphone jack, power button, home button (can use gesture to get to home also), and volume buttons.

Virtual on-screen keyboard - easy to use, three sizes, and has a number row always visible.
There are thousands of apps for webOS and you can use the smartphone apps on the TouchPad. More apps come out every day. I can do everything I need to do. Amazon Kindle, QuickOffice, Facebook, Spaz (Twitter - similar to Tweetdeck), calendar, email, memos, Acrobat reader, Maps (Bing), Music, HP Movie Store, HP Play Music app, TapNote, Angry Birds, Pandora, Evernote, and much more.
Web browser supports Flash - and it works great. A huge number of website still use Flash and the browser lets you view these sites (unlike the iPad and iOS). This is important to me because many of the educational sites I use and virtual labs are Flash based. It’s also cool to watch YouTube videos on the YouTube page just like on your computer. It also allows you to watch Discovery Education Streaming videos right in your browser.
Google works - all of the Google applications I use work great in the browser including Docs, Blogger and Google+. No need for any special apps.
True Multi-tasking - webOS allows true multi-tasking using cards for each app (Iike a window). It’s extremely simple to view all open apps and select one or even close it using simple gestures. Apps run in the background just like on your PC. This makes it very easy to get work done and jump from app to app.

Synergy - syncs and brings together all your contacts from your email systems and even Facebook as well as your calendars.
Box.net - 50GB of free storage on Box.net
Messaging - natively supports Google Talk, AIM, Skype audio and video calls, Yahoo! Messenger and future third-party apps. TouchPad owners who also have a webOS smartphone can send and receive text messages from the application as well.
QuickOffice - view and edit office documents using QuickOffice. Links directly to Dropbox also.
Accessories

case with cover that folds as a support (similar to the iPads)
Touchstone charger - very cool - wireless charging - simply set your TouchPad (or webOS phone) on the Touchstone and it starts charging using inductive charging technology. It also automatically displays different things based on your selection, such as a clock or your agenda. I have it set as a clock on my desk

Wireless keyboard - connect via Bluetooth to the TouchPad. Set your TouchPad on the TouchStone charger and use the keyboard or bring the keyboard with you.

Email - allows multiple accounts, including Gmail and Exchange, and you can view all your inboxes together or separately.
Print wirelessly to compatible HP Printers
Large developer base and homebrew community. HP embraces “jailbreaking” which isn’t actually needed - and homebrew developers.
Notifications - notifications are unobtrusive and appear at the top of the screen. They do not interrupt what you are doing. Email, Facebook notifications, Twitter, and many other apps use the notification system.

Just Type - just type on the main screen and it will search your apps, contacts, web history and Google for what you are looking for. You can even start an email or open othe apps from it.
Beats Audio - the TouchPad has Beats Audio which is a very impressive audio system. The built-in stereo speakers are excellent, but it sounds even better on your headphones.
Entertainment - TV shows, movies, and more through Hulu, HBO on the Go and more.
Connect to your webOS smartphone - the TouchPad can connect to your Veer or Pre3 (or other webOS smartphones) and you can access your text messages and even make phone calls on your TouchPad. Leave your phone on your charger and just use the TouchPad.
Touch to Share - just touch the Veer or Pre3 to the Touchpad and transfer what you were doing from one device to the other. For instance, you are looking up directions or information on your TouchPad and then want to head out the door and leave the TouchPad at home. Just touch the phone to the TouchPad and transfer the website over to the phone.
Butler Service - free 90-day HP webOS Butler Service to help you setup and use your device.

Educational Use:
webOS is easy to use and allows multitasking. The browser supports Flash and works great with Google and other web apps. The TouchPad is sturdy and well built. There are tons of apps. Updates are done over the air so you don’t need to plug it into a computer. It Works Like Nothing Else. I really is a great device for education.

Best Resource for Everything webOS: Precentral.net - resources, reviews, tips, community forum, and much more.

Conclusion - I love webOS and think it is truly the best mobile operating system around. The TouchPad is pretty awesome and allows me to do everything I need to do with a computer, whether work, school, or fun. I highly recommend it as a tablet and I highly recommend checking out the Veer and Pre3 as smartphones. (I wrote this article in Google Docs and then posted it on Blogger all from my TouchPad).

Check out this in-depth review of the TouchPad for more: http://www.precentral.net/review-hp-touchpad

Check out this series of articles about a person who is only using a TouchPad for everything (since his house was burglerized and his laptop and TV were stolen). http://www.precentral.net/life-webos-and-webos-only

Related Articles:
7 Ways the TouchPad burns the iPad
Most used Apps on my Palm Pre+ and What I use them for
Educational Apps for webOS
HP Announces three new webOS devices
Analysis of webOS vs. iOS (iPhone)
HP Buys Palm - What could that mean for education?
Review of Palm Pre+ and Pixi+

(Disclaimer - I did NOT receive any compensation from HP for this review).

UPDATED:

HP cancelled the TouchPad within a couple of months of launch and put it on a fire sale. Those of us that purchased it at full price ($499 - $599) were able to get a refund for the difference. The 32GB version was on sale for $149 and the 16GB at $99. (They have also cancelled the Veer and Pre3 smart phones and are open-sourcing webOS).

Purchasers who already owned a Palm webOS phone also got a $50 rebate and $50 in free apps, so my 32GB TouchPad only had an effective cost of $50. Not bad for a pretty awesome device.

There are not a lot of apps for the TouchPad, but it can run webOS phone apps, which there were a few thousand of, has a browser that can view Flash, and has some great apps available.

It can do everything I want it to. RSS Reader, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Kindle app, office files with QuickOffice, web browsing, access all my Google apps, listen to music, and more. The Splashtop Remote Desktop app allows me to connect to my computer using my TouchPad and anything I could do on my computer, I can do on the TouchPad. This easily makes up for the lack of apps. I was watching Netflix on my TouchPad today and there is no app. I was using Splashtop Remote to access it on my computer.

I've also installed Preware, which is rooting or jailbraking, but encouraged by HP/Palm, not restricted. With Preware, I've installed a bunch of homebrew apps and patches that have made the TouchPad even better by optimizing the OS and speeding up the processor (to 1.5 GHz). It also has a save and restore app so that if HP ever shuts down the Synergy system, webOS users are all set.

I've used it in meetings and at conferences to take notes, access the internet and much more. I read books, watch movies, surf the web, access social networking, check my email, stay organized with my Google Tasks and Google Calendar (which are kept in sync with my Google account and on my Android smartphone), play some very cool games (including Angry Birds) and much more.

So, even though the device was cancelled, there is very little app support, and HP is not doing much with the software (besides open sourcing it), it is a great device. webOS is awesome and still has the best multi-tasking and notifications (better than Android or iOS5) and between the available apps, web browser and Splashtop remote, it does everything I need it to do.

Anyone have a TouchPad? What are your experiences with it?