LM TechTalk

Giveaway of the Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:58:00 +0000

This is a really neat site that offers one free software each day. If you want to try the "Pick of the Day" you can download it for free - but only on that day. It's worth a look! I have also included it on the bottom of the left sidebar.

Mr. Picasso Head

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:30:00 +0000

From Carol:

For those of you who have or will do Picasso this is an excellent site. It might be worth keeping for a try next year if you have already done your unit this year. http://www.mrpicassohead.com/

Power Searching Within Google

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 02:54:00 +0000

This is a PowerPoint presentation that I use with kids in Middle Years but thought it might be useful to everyone. If you follow some of the tips given it will help you narrow down searches within Google. Give it a try....it certainly makes my life easier when I'm trying to find something on the net!

More Interactive Math Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:51:00 +0000

This is a great site if you're looking for interactive math resources: Johnnie's Math Page

This site is a neatly organized, kid friendly directory of interactive math sites. It goes well with the Virtual Manipulatives Website Carol emailed out a few days ago.

It was selected by Kathy Schrock as the site of the week at https://pembinatrails.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/sos.html

Blinkx

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:13:00 +0000

Have you ever looked for a short video clip to show your students on any given topic? You may want to take a look at Blinkx. It is a search engine for videos. Rather than text it uses speech recognition technology to search content in the video itself. Keep in mind that Blinkx only searches words/speech - it does not search or recognize graphics. It's a good idea to preview first.

Quintura.com

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:53:00 +0000

This is phenomenal! Try quintura.com for a topic you are doing. The web is there and just keeps you going until you get exactly what you want.

Outline Maps for Your Classrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:33:00 +0000

Marg has sent the following links for maps you can use/print:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/outline_sites.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html
http://geography.about.com/library/blank/blxcanada.htm
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/
http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/outlinecanada
http://www.brocku.ca/maplibrary/digital/inhouse.html

We will also put them as permanent links under Social Studies.

Instant Poetry Forms

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:54:00 +0000

Instant Poetry Forms allows you to choose a poetry form, then add the words to make the poem your own.

New Social Studies Resources!

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:17:00 +0000

From Marg Stimson:

You might know about the Social Studies web pages linked at http://www.pembinatrails.ca/program/library/ss

Next time you visit the SS pages, click the refresh button on your browser and you'll see a new link at the very top of each of the pages for Grades 5 to 8.

Those pages now feature a unique search engine made by using Google Co-op and just the sites that are shown on the particular grade level page.

An interested teacher could bookmark the appropriate search engine or add the search engine url (s) as a link within a blog, wiki, del.icio.us account or web page for easy student access.

The Grade 5 & 6 links were identified by Pembina Trails staff and the Grades 7 & 8 links were selected by River East Transcona staff.

Free Audio Books

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 15:09:00 +0000

Open Culture is a great place to download free audio books that are part of the public domain. They are mostly classics that include such titles as The Red Badge of Courage, Poe's work such as The Telltale Heart, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the list goes on and on. Take a look!

Information Fluency Project

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 15:09:00 +0000

The link below will lead you to an abundant supply of resources on the topic of information fluency.

IMSA 21 Century Information Fluency Project
http://21cif.imsa.edu/
Registration required. Free.

Once registered, you can easily access the pdf files, applications (like the citation wizard), presentations, podcasts, tutorials, training modules, challenges, excellent site recommendations, and research on information fluency topics. A bonus is that the site is searchable which is very convenient if you get lost or want something specific.

Teachers and TLs will find lots of practical resources to help develop student competencies in working with digital information.

Google Co-op

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 14:04:00 +0000

If you have ever asked your students to use the internet to research a topic I think you will LOVE this! Marg Stimson has sent a link to Google Co-op which allows people to customize their own search engines.

Here's an example of a Media Literacy search engine Marg made: http://google.com/coop/cse?cx=012124055334567209852%3Ayjixojitcuu

Try searching with the search engine above with the key phrase "lesson plan". Clear and try it again with the keyword “Manitoba”. You’ll see that your search is restricted to a set of about a dozen Media Literacy sites that Marg pre-identified, giving you a manageable number of search results. This is not a filter, just a way to narrow the range of the search.

This is an excellent way to narrow searches for kids. Time spent narrowing the search for them will be time well spent! It does require a Gmail account which is very easy to set up but it is by invitation only. Only registered users of Gmail can send invitations. If you need an invitation, please let me know and I will send you one!

Holiday Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:35:00 +0000

From Marg Stimson:

There is an updated Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah link list at https://pembinatrails.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://schlib.pbwiki.com/Recommended%2520Resources

Here's a sample section from that list that shows the ways to resources for all levels.

Teacher Planet: December Calendar
https://pembinatrails.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.teacherplanet.com/calendar/
The calendar leads to some good resources for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa,
Christmas, and Human Rights Day. Also, Snow and Ice links are available at https://pembinatrails.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/snowice.php
https://pembinatrails.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/kwanzaa.php
https://pembinatrails.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/hanukkah.php
https://pembinatrails.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/christmas.php

Yahoo Directory: Holidays and Observances
https://pembinatrails.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Holidays_and_Observances/
Links for every holiday you can imagine. This will lead you to many good sites and resources, such as the more than 890 sites for Christmas and over 100 sites for Hanukkah

Feel free to edit the Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or other of the lists at SCHLIB and share in any way that suits you, for any not-for-profit purpose.

Google Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 16:41:00 +0000

We recently had Google Earth installed on every computer in the building. It can be a very powerful tool to use in our classrooms. Now we can view the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions, instead of 2D like other map programs/sites. It can also be tapped into when you need an atlas for a lesson. For example, in Grade 8 Math just a few weeks ago we used Google Earth to calculate the distance from Vancouver to Montreal for a math problem. It can give driving distances as well as "as the crow flies."

The site Google Earth Lessons provides information and tips to learn how to use Google Earth. Also, it's good to know that Google Earth is a free download if you would like to put it on your home computer.

Just One More Book

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 18:46:00 +0000

Marg Stimson has shared a site called Just One More Book where students can hear Canadian authors & illustrators like Sheree Fitch talk about their passion for writing, reading, or art.

If you download iTunes (as anyone with a computer can), it will track your subscription to this podcast.

Is Google the best search engine?

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 16:45:00 +0000

Google seems to be the most popular search engine going these days. I daresay that if you ask any of our students where they go to find information, they would say Google. I also watch time and time again students click on the first entry that comes up after a search, thinking it is the most relevant. What many people don't know is that Google's search technology operates on popularity, on how many people "link" to that particular page. So in other words, the sites move up and down the list according to how many links are coming in to the site. Order of the results often has little to do with relevance.

Ask.com (formerly also known as teoma.com or askjeeves.com), on the other hand, works the opposite way. Relevance and popularity are based on how many links are going out of each site. It is based on subject-specific popularity and in most cases Ask.com will give the more relevant results first.

Students just need to know that Google is not the only game in town and that there are other options. For more information check out this article in eSchool News Online.

Holiday Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 12:40:00 +0000

I found this on The Shifted Librarian blogpost. It's a fun website that might add to your holiday planning and resources. Check out Create-A-Snowman. (This link came from teachers in Florida who have to "suffer" through 70 degree F winters.)

Social Bookmarking

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:23:00 +0000

Have you ever wanted to set up a common bookmark page that all of your students can access? Maybe even have your students add links as well? I have had good results from a site called del.icio.us. All it takes is for you to set up a user account with a password. If you want your students to add links you can share the password with them. It can be changed again if you need to restrict access after a project is finished. Another way is to set up a separate account for each project you are working on. It's easy - and free.

Here is my school related site if you would like to take a look: del.icio.us/kphillips. My kids do not have password access to this. We use separate accounts for different projects in the lab.

Welcome to our technology/library resource page!

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Phillips) — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:13:00 +0000

We thought it would be a good idea to gather common resources, links, and ideas to help us begin our ICT journey together as a team. Please feel free to email Karen Phillips or Carol Husack with any links or ideas that you would like to share with other people. This could turn into a wonderful resource if we all contribute!