The following video will show you how to make a test/quiz using google forms. It will also show you how to set it up to self-grade; a great time saving feature for teachers.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Google Earth
The following video will provide lesson ideas for math and science using google earth. It will also show the earth plug-in for google maps and how to collaborate with others.
Line of best fit in Google Docs
This video will walk you through the steps for making a line of best fit using Google Spreadsheets. This video is used in my Algebra class for a lesson about best fit lines focusing on correlations in body measurements.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Finding what you are looking for?
Have you ever wanted your students to do research but use only certain websites? Take for example a webquest on future careers. I would want my students to get accurate information not just what someone posted on facebook. Maybe I would limit them to Kuder.com (Career Assessment, Education, and Career Planning) and stats.bls.gov (US Bureau of Labor Statistics) along with a few others, so I know the information they find will be creditable. However, giving them just these links to follow could be time consuming, using only the link parameters of each individual site, and almost counterproductive. Wouldn’t it be faster to type your chosen career into google and get all the results? But how do you just find the information on the sites you want? Google Custom Search is how!!!
With Google Custom Search you can search a single site (maybe your own if you want a search this site, search bar) or multiple sites as suggested above.
Make sure you read the “Learn more about URL formatting” section to ensure you have your search set up correctly and happy googling.
Something educational on YouTube???
Zamzar.com is a great site for teachers. Have you ever found a “good” video on Youtube but you couldn’t show it to your students because the firewall blocked your access? Zamzar can help. It lets you save files from websites like Youtube, TeacherTube, Google Video, Myspace, and others to your flash drive at home and take them to school. It is also great for converting files like .wav into .mp3 or other file conversions that may be needed. The only problem I found is this site does not let you save videos from every site. I needed to download and edit (shorten) a video I found on a vimeo.com site and zamzar would not work. I was able to find another site to use, but for most things Zamzar will do the trick.
So start searching Youtube again for some videos, just make sure what you show is educational sound.
Photo editing not just for the Pros.
Picnik.com is a great website for photo editing. I know you have seen the Christmas card that has everything in black and white except the ornaments on the tree, or the black and white photo of the child playing on the bright yellow tonka truck. I too have seen this and wanted to be able to edit my photos, but I was not going to pay the hundreds of dollars to buy the professional software just to satisfy my need to dabble in the photo world. With several hours of google searching I discovered picnik. It is a great, easy to use program. There is nothing to download, because your photos are imported, edited, and then saved back on your computer. Then you print the files the same way you would your other digital photos. This is a great, free alternative to the pricey software. Addition features can be purchased, but I didn’t find any need because there are several cool features provided when you sign up for the free version.
Typically I use this site for personal use, but it makes great photos for gifts like senior night, or awards night, or even retirement parties. Check out the site and start editing your digital photos for free!!! http://www.picnik.com/
Not just your ordinary slideshow.
Animoto.com is a great website for making presentations and slideshows. I was first introduced to animoto by taking an iDiscovery course. I was skeptical at first teaching math as to how I could use this in my class. I don’t use PowerPoint presentations very much because I think math is a subject that is best taught by working through the process and explaining as you go. However once I explored the website and looked at some of the samples they show, my gears started spinning. Anyone can make free 30 second clips but that is not long enough for most of what I want to do. Fortunately, teachers can apply for a free account that also provides an activation code so students can make full length videos too. I have created videos that demonstrate how to perform different geometric constructions. My students find these more engaging than just watching me make the constructions on the smartboard, with the added benefit that they can access them at home with internet access. Check out the sample video:
Additionally, this is a great alternative to having your students create PowerPoints. Before discovering animoto, I had my geometry students create slideshows to illustrate the properties of specific quadrilaterals when we studied that chapter. The animoto presentations are so much better; I will not be going back. Not only do they look professional created, but it takes all the time spent on animations and transitions out of the project by analyzing the music and choreographing the slides. When using PowerPoint, my students would spend have the time making it look cute, and then the content was very poor and incorrect. Now I have my students use PowerPoint to create the slides only, and then we export them as .jpgs to upload in animoto.
Finally the other thing that I have used animoto for is to create DVD’s. I coach varsity volleyball at the high school where I teach, and this past year I created a video for senior night and our awards night. In the past I just talked about the different events of the season, but last fall we relived them. As part of their gifts, I gave all of the seniors a copy of both DVD’s. The website makes it so easy to design, and create. There is an upgrade charge (I think $5) to get HD DVD quality video, but it is well worth it. Then you can download and burn to your DVD’s.
***One thing to note as of right now, the videos will only be as long as your song and you can only upload 1 song. For the volleyball videos to be longer, I merged 2 song files into one .mp3. This worked great but required additional software that I found free on the internet. There is also a 10MB limit for the song. This site is constantly adding new features and improving existing one. I hope in the future you will be able to add multiple songs.
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