Chanatown

This week, I had a few epiphanies with regards to using Microsoft SharePoint.  Although I have been training the majority of new teacher website requests using Google Sites, we continue to have a large contingent of teachers using SharePoint for their site construction and we continue to use the platform for many department Intranet and special project sites.  Forced to tool around the admin site of things, I made a few interesting discoveries that will help many of our teachers and add functionality to several sites. These features may not be anything new to you, so feel free to bypass this post. Otherwise, read on for the eye-opening discoveries.

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "The All-Inclusive Classroom Website: How to Stop Collecting Paper Forever" The session took place on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 from 8:30-9:30 am (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=c9408b9dc4" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - The All-Inclusive Classroom Website</a></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

Image by najeebkhan2009 via Flickr Teacher discounts can be found in various places, ranging from online book stores and office supply stores  to cell phone bills . One of the questions I get asked often as a Technology Integration Specialist is the availability of discounts on computers, so I thought I'd share a few resources and provide a quick summary of what is available. I'll continue to update this post as other opportunities arise, so feel free to leave a comment if you know of a particular program not mentioned here.

Recently, I had a request to convert a PDF into an editable document, and although we have access to Adobe Acrobat Professional, that would have meant assigning a ticket and waiting for an install on the user's machine. Instead, I remembered and then recommended that the teacher try the "Convert PDF to Google Doc feature." Before completing selling it to other teachers with similar requests, I gave it a quick test run with the following results.

This week, I had a teacher request an introduction and ongoing support for Prezi . I'm a big fan of the zooming presentation editor and have written several posts about the tool.  For this assignment, the class was divided into 3 groups, and each group had approximately 6-8 students. This represented a perfect opportunity to test the collaborative features of Prezi in a live student environment. After some minor testing with a few dummy accounts, we were ready to go.

Everyone loves free apps, especially when they normally cost a few bucks. Well, coinciding with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference, McGraw-Hill is giving away all of its Everyday Math apps for free.  This will only be valid through the end of the conference, April 16, so stock up now as the apps are normally priced at $1.99.   Available apps include: · Addition Top-It ™ - Subtraction Top-It ™ - Beat the Computer ™ - Name that Number ™ - Equivalent Fractions ™ - Tric-Trac ™ - Monster Squeeze ™ - Baseball Multiplication 1–6™ Facts - Divisibility Dash ™  The apps are available for iPhone and iPad and can be viewed on this website as well as through the iTunes Apps Store. For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

Recently, I received an email alerting me to a new offering from the folks in Redmond, Washington. With a title like Microsoft Mathematics 4.0, I was immediately attracted to what was potentially in store.  A well written paragraph offering "a large collection of tools, tutorials, and instructions designed to help you tackle math and science problems quickly and easily" hooked me in further, though Microsoft had me at the price of "free." Let's take a look to exactly what one gets with Math 4.0.

Image via Wikipedia Ever since the iPad came out in April 2010, I've often been asked about whether schools will be adopting iPads for 1:1 initiatives and when they will be replacing textbooks. Although there are plenty of great apps available , a few case studies where schools have successfully deployed hundreds of iPads , and a promising application that could potentially supplant the traditional hardcover , the actual deployment, management, and overall usefulness of iPads in the classroom (and in my case, a high school classroom) remains to be explored. With the release of LanSchool's iPad application coupled with iPad 2 or better yet for school budgets, less expensive original iPads, the 1:1 discussion can resume (and judging by the comments in Engadget's article , it can get pretty heated).

Image via Wikipedia Interestingly, I had multiple requests yesterday (including one from my father in-law) asking about what web camera would best work with Skype. At ETHS, we are starting to get more classrooms involved with possible exchanges and Skype is a natural and economical resource for connecting two sides of the country or the world together. In an attempt to leverage our increased deployment of over 70 document cameras this year, I had a teacher test our CP-155 document cameras  with Skype, and although we successfully connected with video, she informed me that real-life usage proved to be less than ideal.  To the defense of AverMedia, when I asked a representative about possibly Skyping with the doc cam, they discouraged me from proceeding. It's just not meant to be a web cam at this point in time.  Thus, we take a look at some hardware options designed to bring your video into the world of Skype.

Article first published as Linkable—The Best Way to Share and Organize Links? on Technorati. In the past year, I've created so many accounts that all promise to do the same thing: keep track of my bookmarks. Delicious, Digg, Stumble Upon, you name it - I've signed up for it. However, I have not kept up with any of these, and none have come close to satisfying my desire for something simple, visual, and efficient in keeping track of all the cool new tools and websites that come my way. And that is when I found  Linkable .

Having read and enjoyed Dan Ariely's first book, Predictably Irrational , I was excited about plunging into the follow-up titled The Upside of Irrationality . Also, after reflecting on how SuperFreakonomics (a similar book with some overlapping experiments) can save education , I set about reading Ariely's work with the mindset of an educator. Below are three chapter connections as they apply directly to the classroom.

Welcome 2011 ICE Attendees! Here are the links to my poster resources: Embed/ Link to Prezi Teacher Websites - What Works, What Doesn't, What To Do? on Prezi Embed/ Link to Full eGuide (version 1.0) Open publication - Free publishing - More ice11 Link to Poster Handout Link to ICE 2011 Wiki For more thoughts on Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

Inside this issue: Black History Month on Discovery Education Streaming Announcing "TechSpace" (ETHS) Google Apps Transition (ETHS) Best iPhone Apps EdTech Conferences and more! Open publication - Free publishing - More monthly For more thoughts on Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

Perhaps, it's because I use Groups mostly through our school domain, which is not currently set for pre-release features, or perhaps, it's because I've been so consumed with other work, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the new Google Groups features when logging into my personal Gmail account this morning. Apparently, users were given opt-in options starting late last year , but I swear the link only popped into my account recently. Anyways, here's three reasons why educators may be particularly interested in the new Groups.

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 .

When I recently discovered that Google had resumed sending out Cr-48's, I was being picked up by my wife and we were on our way to our first date night as parents without the baby. I promptly asked, "Did I receive any packages today?" She casually replied, "Oh yeah, there was one." "And...?" I pondered. "Oh, it just said Chrome on it." Classic, and thus began my weekend, chock full of exploration and excitement over the new hardware initiative from the folks in Mountain View . After a week of playing and a day long conference, here are my thoughts and how they tie in with future education deployments.

Inside this issue: Exam Week Workshops (ETHS) Ideas for Second Semester Technology Integration LiveScribe SmartPens Pilot (ETHS) Best iPad Apps EdTech Conferences and more!   Subscribe to all Chanatown Teacher Posts on  RSS  or via  Email here . Open publication - Free publishing - More newsletter

Imagine walking into a Chemistry classroom and seeing the following on the chalkboard:  Today's Agenda: Chemical Reactions Now, picture this on the board instead: Today's Question: What happens when I mix these two things together? Which would grab you and more importantly, which would grab most students, thus enticing them to become engaged and motivated for class that day? I suspect the latter, and it dawned on me even more after reading SuperFreakonomics just how effective essential questions can be.

In an attempt to compete against (or hopefully compete with) prestigious contests such as the Intel Science Talent Search or Siemens Science and Technology Competition, Google's stepped into the arena with the Google Global Science Fair. Open to all students from around the world ages 13-18 and working individually or in groups of two or three, the contest represents a nice opportunity for students to get involved and excited about science, technology, and of course, some valuable experience using Google products. I like that the process seems a bit more open to all students (not just the already scientifically inclined) and less intimidating than the aforementioned contests. Check out the promo video below, and sign up here to register. For more thoughts on Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

Lo and behold, just as I was about to make some edits on an existing Prezi for an upcoming presentation, I find an announcement for a free Prezi app on the iPad along with a "win a free iPad" contest on their website. If there was a web 2.0 tool that was just destined to become an iPad app, I would say Prezi is it. With its zooming presentation format and the drag, zoom, and slide interface, the multi-touch capabilities of the iPad seem to lend themselves perfectly to a well designed application. Let's see what the Prezi folks have created, shall we?