Chanatown

Now that we're midway through October, it's safe to say that we're officially back to school.  As I'm sure it has been with most teachers, the first weeks of the school year have been a whirlwind, and it's no different as the Technology Integration Specialist. Making sure that things are up and running on the hardware side, as well as supporting existing users of software and web applications, and integrating new technology with new classes, only now have I had the  chance to breathe a bit and catch up with all that is new in the world of edtech. And boy, was I greeted with some goodies! Continue on to see what's new with several of my favorite tools.

Today, I gave a short presentation/demonstration to a class of AVID students on alternatives to PowerPoint. Starting with the mention of the familiar phrase "Death by PowerPoint" and a slideshare by Alexei Kapterev , I then discussed a few quick and easy options for our students. Descriptions of each after the jump, and a webpage with examples can be found here .

In education, the word "free" is music to a teacher's ears. The same applies for this Technology Integration Specialist, and one who was bummed to discover that Xtranormal is now operating on a paid premium business model . As another option for an Asian Studies project, a teacher offered Animoto and this service remains free to educators and students. Which tool will benefit more from the Xtranormal shift to paid only?