Mr. Ruddle's Blog

A Case for K-12 Engineering

2011-10-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

I received a link to this video via email. Help spread it around.

Increased Reading Speed?

2011-10-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

I found ZAP Reader while looking at http://www.rsinnovative.com/. I use their Ruler Game with my Eighth Grade Class.
I am going to try it out on myself and see if I notice any results. I just figured I would share.

Copyright Resources and Somes Examples of Consequences

2011-08-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

At Techapalooza 2011 Joyce Mason presented a session called Copyright not Copywrong. In this post, I am going to share some of the information and resources she shared with the group here.

Since copyright law is very confusing, it seems to be one of the hardest things to teach students and adults. Here is a video from the Copyright Clearance Center that I think does an excellent job of explaining copyright.
http://learn.copyright.com/copyrightoncampus/

Look at this data (embedded below) from http://www.carolsimpson.com/copyright/copyright_action_data_results.htm and notice who reported some of the cases. Think twice before you use something in your classroom.

Here are some other copyright resources I just learned about today.

http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/
http://techapalooza2011.iu1.wikispaces.net/file/view/Fair_Use_Checklist.pdf

Storybird - Collaborative Storytelling

2011-08-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

Storybird is a tool for creating digital books using image galleries and text. You do need to create a FREE account if you want to save and publish your book. You can play around without an account, but you will be given the option to create an account before you close what you made. This is a nice option if you want to demo before you sign up.

The idea behind this tool is that you select an artist or theme and then create a story using the images provided.

Another nice feature is that you can add collaborators to your story. Here is a quick story I create in just a few minutes.

The Night I Went to Bed Without Dinner on Storybird

Museum Bots - Videos

2011-07-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here are two videos of student projects from our Museum Bots units. I am also including the presentation I will be using tomorrow to talk about the project at Carnegie Mellon University.

About the Curriculum

The Museum Bots curriculum was created with the purpose of integrating science, technology, mathematics, social studies, language arts, and art by using robotics as a knowledge vehicle. Students began with an introduction to circuits and robotic components. They created robotic characters from ancient civilizations and narrated about their lives. Students integrated sensors to have their robots interact.

Museum Bots

View more presentations from ruddler.

Animations Made Simple | DoInk

2011-03-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

DoInk is a web-based application that allows users to create animations from scratch or with props submitted by other users. Users can easily share their animations on YouTube and other social networks. You can also embed your creations like I did below. I think this is a promising digital storytelling tool.

Zombie Walk by ruddler, made at DoInk.com

Here are the tutorial videos from the site. Looks pretty easy.

Drawing Tutorial from Aaron White on Vimeo.

Animation Tutorial for DoInk.com from Aaron White on Vimeo.

gambling

Watermark Your Images

2011-02-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across PicMarkr which is a web2.0 tools that allows you to add watermarks to you pictures. You can upload pictures from your computer or connect to facebook, flickr, or picasa. This is a lot easier than using Adobe Photoshop or GIMP. I watermarked a picture from my computer in about 30 seconds. Plus, you can do it from any computer.

You have options to use black and white text and/or backgrounds and you can choose from multiple locations for the watermark.

gambling

Kahn Academy - Free Classroom for the World

2011-02-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

The Khan Academy is a non-profit organization which provides video tutorials for just about everything from developmental math to calculus to physics. Show your math and science teachers. Everyone should know about this site.

Here's the example for Derivative of a position vector valued function

gambling

Global Data Sets in Google Earth

2011-02-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

Someone shared kmlfactbook.org at Pete&C. I looked at it at the moment and had totally forgotten about it. Then, as I was getting caught up with my twitter feed, I saw many people have been tweeting about it. So I took a second look. This is an incredible tool for Social Studies teachers. I am actually a Technology Education teacher but I am planning to use this when I teach about energy.

kmlfactbook lets you view global data sets in Google Earth or with the Google Earth browser plug-in. You can view everything from birthrates to energy consumption to internet users.

First, you choose the category and the data set you want to view. There are seven categories: People, Economy, Transport, Military, Geography, Government, and Communications.

Once you have picked the data, you can click "Preview in Map". This will show the data in the map.

Then, if you click on a country, the data window will appear.

You can also click the "Download KML file" button to save the data file and open it directly in Google Earth. Now, you can save it for later use without an Internet connection. This will open it under your temporary places.

If you want to add it to your places, simply drag it to your "My Places" and rename it.

Now, you can have a bunch of data preloaded to show to your classes.

Discovery Education Pete&C PreConference Notes/Recap

2011-02-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

Hall Davidson

Hall showed us how we can use Wordle and chromakey together. He had us use PollEverywhere to share examples of successes we have had in the last year. He copy and pasted the results into wordpad and elimated any unnecessary information (timestamp, etc). Then, he paste it into wordle and captured the image. Finally, he showed us how to use the image as a background for video in which we could point at the most important words and explain them.

Teach Smarter Not Harder - Porter Palmer

I've used SurveyMonkey for professional development for teachers but I never thought to use it this way. Use survey monkey as part of your pretest to check the students' comfort levels about a topic before you begin. You use choices like I don't know how, I need a little more help, and I know how. You can use the same survey throughout the unit to keep checking the comfort levels to see where you need to make changes to your instruction. Here is an example I made about robotics.

She also showed us Quizlet. It allows you to make online flashcards students can use to study. They can also play it as a game or take in a test format. Another alternative I frequently use is classtools.net. Here is a quick example I made with Quizlet.

Study these flash cards | Study science flash cards

One thing that stuck with me is that Porter said Data Driven Decision Making should be called Data Informed Decision Making. DDDM is like following your GPS and driving into a lake because it told you to. DIDM is like seeing that there is a lake and realizing your GPS is about 500 feet off. You adapt.

Junior Doodle

This project was shared by Maryann Molishus from Council Rock School District. It is based on the work of http://fablefolk.blogspot.com/ . She has students tell a story about a word with a picture, video, or drawing that is then posted on her school website. Here is one example a 2nd grade student did for the word Storm. It seems like a good way reinforce the idea that words often have more than one meaning.

Here is the main site for the project.

http://www.crsd.org/5037092710394/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=89466&5037092710394Nav=|&NodeID=7230

Useful Web Apps

2010-11-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled upon this article from SmashingApps. http://www.smashingapps.com/2010/10/30/9-coolest-web-apps-you-might-not-know-about-but-should.html

I think Alertful is a great idea. CV Maker looks like it is going to be useful for high school juniors and seniors who are creating resumes.

Free Educational Games for Pre - Early Elementary Kids

2010-08-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

I was just introduced to Game Goo, which is a collection of educational practice games provided by Earobics. The purpose of these games is to provide students with the opportunity to develop early reading and language skills.

If you teach pre - early elementary education, this is a FREE site you should definitely check out. http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html

Last Robot Diaries Screencast

2010-08-04T08:21:00.001-07:00

I just finished the screencast for sensors. I used Jing for the previous two screencasts, but I used Camtasia for this one. I discovered the zoom feature and thought it would be useful for this demonstration.

Download now or watch on posterous

sensor_good_video.mp4 (3344 KB)

Robot Diaries http://robotdiaries.posterous.com

First Two Robot Diaries Screencasts

2010-08-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

Here are the first two screencasts I created for the Robot Diaires project. I did not realize that I had the mic muted, so it defaulted to the mic on the webcam, which was pointing at the floor. I fixed the audio the best I could in Camtasia. If enough people think I should re-record it, I will.

Download now or watch on posterous

Parts.mp4 (3251 KB)

Download now or watch on posterous

Programming.mp4 (2379 KB)

Robot Diaries http://robotdiaries.posterous.com

Stop Motion

2010-08-02T06:36:00.001-07:00

Here are Rob Ruddle's sample stop motion videos.

Download now or watch on posterous

dude_final.avi (12856 KB)

Download now or watch on posterous

triangle.avi (22446 KB)

Robot Diaries http://robotdiaries.posterous.com

A.nnotate Documents and Images

2010-06-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

A.nnotate is a site that allows you to upload documents or images and annotate them. The free version allows you to share with peers but you will have to upgrade if you want to be able to collaboratively add notes to the same document.

You can upload images, PDFs, or MS Office documents. This is nice because you don't have to worry about someone having an older version of Word that won't open your document. Everything, including fonts will remain intact. All you have to do, is share the link.

Here is an image of my family with some Star Wars characters I used as an example. http://a.nnotate.com/docs/2010-06-08/TdxcIKoq/index.html

Oil Spill Visualization in Education

2010-06-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

Http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/ is a site that uses real data from NOAA to create an image that will lay over a map to help people understand the true seriousness of the oil spill disaster. You can select any location and the image will show you what the oil spill would look like if it happened there. According to the site, it is usually updated once a day. I selected my home town and here is the image I saw.

Think of how you could use this site in education. A social studies teacher could probably use this to talk about how society is being effected. An English teacher could show a map of the local area and have students write about how their lives would change if this actually did happen to them. If anything, it will help students empathize with the people being affected.

Windows 7 Tip - Dock it in the System Tray

2010-05-31T19:00:00.000-07:00

For those of you that use apps like Skype and other chat clients, which used to dock in the system tray, you probably noticed that Windows 7 keeps them in the taskbar when they are open. This can be annoying especially if you are working on a bunch things at once and already have a lot of icons down there.

Here's the solution
If they app docked in the tray on Windows Vista or XP, you can set the app to run in compatibility mode. To do this, right-click on the shortcut for the program and choose "Properties". Then, you will see a "Compatibility" tab. Click that tab and choose the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" option. Then, select the version of Windows you want. I choose Vista and that works for me.

New YouTube Sharing Option: Unlisted

2010-05-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

Youtube has created a third option of sharing videos. Before, you were able to make the video Public (anyone can search for and see it) or Private (only YouTube users you specify can view it). Now, there is an option that falls between the two. This option is called "Unlisted". This option will not allow the video to show up in search results. So, only people who know the link to the video will be able to see it. And, they will not need to have a YouTube account. Below, you will find video from Tekzilla on Revision3.

Fuzzwich - Animation for Everyone ???

2010-05-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon Fuzzwich while catching up on Twitter. Fuzzwich allows the user to create a mini video. There are characters you will recognized, but you can replace their heads with yours. It looks like it would be a useful tool for storytelling. BUT...

I am still on the fence (leaning toward the no side) when it comes to using it in the classroom. Here's why.

1. I think the students would get the hang of the site quickly. But, the actions are very limited and include fighting moves. On a positive note, you can change the facial expressions.

2. Some of the characters have weapons and there is a dog you can make pee on things.

Don't get me wrong. I had a lot of fun playing with the site and I could see myself playing with it for hours. I just wouldn't use it in a classroom setting.

Here's a short video I made with Fuzzwich

Tagxedo - Custom Tag Clouds

2010-05-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Tagxedo is a site that allows the user to turn words into tag clouds. The thing that sold me on this tool was that I was able to upload a picture of myself and make a tag cloud shaped like my head (see below). You can change the color scheme of your tag cloud and there are pre-loaded shapes you can use.

Then, you can save the cloud as an image or embed it.

As of right now, the site is in beta so all the features are free. Eventually, there will be a pro version and you will have to upgrade to get some of the advanced features.

You can view a gallery of clouds here.

Mouse Mischief - Free tool lets students participate during class

2010-04-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

What Is It?
Mouse Mischief is a free tool from Microsoft that you can add to PowerPoint to allow multiple students to participate in your presentations. You can add multiple choice, true/false, yes/no, or drawing question into your presentation and the students can use any computer mouse to answer questions.

How Do I Get It ?
All you have to do is go to http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/ and download the application. Once it is installed, you will see a new toolbar for Mouse Mischief in the PowerPoint ribbon. Now, when you open a PowerPoint presentation, you will be able to add interactive items very easily.

Can I See It In Action?
Yes. There is a link to an eSchoolNews article below that contains a video.

How Did You Find This?
I was getting caught up with Twitter and I saw that a ton of people were tweeting about Mouse Mischief. Then, I found an article from eSchoolNews that explains it a little better.

Here is a link to the article from eSchoolNews: Free tool lets students participate during class

Free Web Comic Creator - Chogger

2010-04-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled upon Chogger.com. This is a free Web Comic Strip Creator that only takes a few minutes to master. In the past, we have used stripgenerator.com to create comic "renditions" of Edgar Allan Poe poems/stories in the 11th grade English classes in our district. The problem we ran into was that Stripgenerator limits the amount of space that can be use for each comic. So, some students had to make three or four seperate comics to retell one story. One positive thing about Stripgenerator is that they had tons of pre-made objects that you can use. While Chogger does not have the pre-fab objects and images, you can upload your own images as well as draw your own objects. Also, Chogger allows to add more cells as well as more rows of cells. So, you can make your comic larger if you need to. I am seriously considering using Chogger in place of Stripgenerator for the Poe activity next school year. The only thing I would like to see added is the ability to embed the comics after they are finish. If there was a way to this, I missed it. Below is a screenshot of a comic I made in less than 5 minutes. Of course, given more time, I could fix up Bill and take better pictures. But, those familiar with digital storytelling know that it is about the quality of the story and not always able the appearance. Creating a Chogger account only took about 30 seconds.

Start Youtube Videos Where You Want

2010-04-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Youtubetime.com is a website that allows you to enter the URL for a Youtube video and a specific start time. The site then provides you with a link that will start the video at a specific point. This is good for classrooms, where a teacher might want to show only part of a video. Instead of the teacher loading the video and having to try to find the part they want to show each time, they can do it one time and save the link provided by Youtubetime.com. Note: you want to use the actual URL not the embed code.

This can be done without Youtubetime by simply adding the following to a Youtube URL. #t=XmXXs. So, if I wanted to start 24 seconds into a video, I would add #t=0m24s to the end of the URL. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8 would become http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8#t=0m24s

The advantage of using this website is that you don't have to remember this code and it is easy to share this trick with other people.

Google for Teachers - Free 33 Page Guide

2010-04-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my Twitter PLN, I just stumbled upon this 33 Page Guide for using Google in the classroom. This document was provided by Free Technology for Teachers. This guide covers everything from using the advanced search tools to using Google Docs to create quizzes that can be posted online. Every teachers can find something they can use in here. Pass it along.

Google for Teachers -