Free Technology for Teachers

Think Tutorial - Free Web Apps & Software Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:29:00 +0000

Think Tutorial is a site providing free, easy to follow tutorials on a variety of web services and software. On Think Tutorial you will find tutorials for taking advantage of the many features of popular email services like Gmail, Apple Mail, Hotmail, and Yahoo mail. You will also find tutorials for using iWork and Word. Want to learn how to use LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook? Think Tutorial has you covered there too. Need to know how to alter settings in your favorite web browser? Think Tutorial has tutorials for that too.

Applications for Education
Before you make your next set of how-to screen captures for students and or colleagues, check out Think Tutorial. Think Tutorial could be a good reference to point students and colleagues towards when they need help with email, browser, or software settings.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Learn It In 5 - Tech How-to Videos for Teachers
Google for Teachers - Free Ebook
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook

Skype Introduces Group Calling for 10

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:04:00 +0000

Back in May Skype introduced five way calling as a beta product for Windows. Apparently the testing went well enough that today they introduced ten way video calling. Ten way calling is a Windows only beta product. You can read more about it here or download it here.

Applications for Education
Ten way calling could be used to connect classrooms for mini-global conferences. Ten way calling could also be used to host group study sessions online.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Connecting Classrooms Through VoiceThread
A Simple Guide to Google Video Chat
3 Ways Other than Skype to Bring Experts Into Class

Insightful News Infographics

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:19:00 +0000

Mashable has an article today titled 10 of the Web's Most Insightful Infographics. I looked through the list and while I didn't think all of them were great, there were a couple that jumped out at me. Actually the two that I'm going to highlight below are really interactive maps that Mashable called infographics.

Geography of a Recession is an interactive map found on the NY Times website. The map outlines every county in the United States. Click on any county to see the unemployment rate for that county and the increase or decrease in unemployment over the last year.

The World Factbook Dashboard is an interactive map that allows you to color code the world based on statistics including population, infant mortality, GDP, and inflation.

Applications for Education
Both of the interactive maps listed above could be useful for economics lessons for students to compare the economic well being of different parts of the world. You could use these maps as the launching point for further research into the causes of the economic differences between different places.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Is It Better to Rent or Buy? Interactive Infographic
Two Cool Economics Infographics

Videos for Learning About Congress

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:18:00 +0000

Yesterday, my post about 47 Alternatives to YouTube started with the statement that some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. And right on que, this morning I discovered that the Center on Congress at Indiana University has a YouTube channel containing 25 short educational videos. The videos cover topics like Federalism, Checks & Balances, and the legislative process. The video below contains a short lesson on how a bill becomes law.

Applications for Education

I plan to use a couple of the clips from the Center on Congress at Indiana University with my Civics students as quick review items.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:

Interactive Activities About US Government

Constitution Day Lessons from Sunnylands

Students Discuss Who Is Responsible for Education

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:08:00 +0000

This morning's episode of CNN Student News contains a segment in which students share their thoughts about the question, "what do you think students can do to get a better education?" This is a great question to ask our own students at the beginning of the new school year. Watch the video below.

Click here if you cannot see the video.

Safe Kids - Videos and Lessons for Teaching Safety

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:36:00 +0000

Safe Kids USA is a network of organizations dedicated to preventing childhood accidents. One of the ways that Safe Kids USA pursues that goal is through the production of educational materials for teachers and parents. The Safe Kids USA educators' section offers free lessons, games, and fact sheets appropriate for pre-K and elementary school use. For parents, Safe Kids USA offers videos and safety guides addressing a number of potential hazards. Safe Kids USA even offers a section of videos and safety guides addressing the specific needs of children with special needs.

Embedded below is a Safe Kids USA video about fire safety for all families.

Applications for Education
As a high school teacher I don't have to do nearly as much as elementary school teachers do in terms of teaching kids about fire safety, crossing streets, and other routine safety issues. (In fact, my safety lessons are limited to fire and lock-down drills). If I was a pre-K or elementary school teacher, I would take a look at the teaching activities and videos offered by Safe Kids USA.

Month in Review - August's Most Popular Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:19:00 +0000

As I do every month, I've compiled a list of the month's ten most popular posts. Before I jump to the list I have to say thank you again to everyone that has Tweeted, emailed, and otherwise shared links to Free Technology for Teachers. Statistically speaking, August was an awesome month for Free Technology for Teachers. This month saw new record highs for unique visits, pageviews, and new subscribers. It's great to know that more teachers are learning about the free resources that can make our students' learning experiences better. Thank you all for helping to get the word out.

These were the ten most popular posts in August:
1. 11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year
2. 5 Lesser-Known Google Tools for Teachers & Students
3. 140 New Things Being Tried In Classroom This Fall
4. 7 Sources of Free Sounds for Multimedia Projects
5. 7 Organization Tools for Students
6. Seven Search Engines for Students
7. Do You Moodle? Three Helpful Resources
8. How To Do 11 Techy Things In the New School Year
9. 38 Weeks of Algebra Lessons
10. 100+ Free Textbooks from Open Culture

If you enjoyed the links above, please consider subscribing to
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One Cheeseburger = 15,000 Google Searches

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:49:00 +0000

While this post does have a potentially useful factoid in it, it is definitely the least serious post I've ever written.

As this commercial informed us in the 1980's, the world may never know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. The answer to that problem might remain a mystery forever, but thanks to Google I don't have to worry about how many Google Searches it takes to equal the amount of CO2 produced by the manufacture of a cheeseburger. Going Green at Google is Google's website designed to explain the measures they're taking to reduce their carbon footprint. Going Green at Google's homepage features a chart depicting how many Google searches it would take to equal the CO2 produced by routine activities and everyday products.

And purely just for fun, here's the video referenced above.

47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:30:00 +0000

Some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, many teachers cannot access YouTube in their classrooms. That is why I originally wrote what became one of the most popular posts to ever appear on Free Technology for Teachers, 30+ Alternatives to YouTube. That post is now fourteen months old and I've come across more alternatives in that time. Also in that time span some of the resources on the list have shut down. So it's time to update the list.

1. School Tube is a website dedicated to the sharing of videos created by students and teachers. School Tube allows teachers and schools to create their own channels for sharing their students' works. School Tube also provides excellent how-to resources, copyright-friendly media, and lesson plans for using video in the classroom.

2. Teacher Tube has been around for a while now, but I still run into teachers who have not heard of it. Teacher Tube provides user generated videos for teachers by teachers. Many of the videos on Teacher Tube have teachers sharing lesson plans in action. Some videos on Teacher Tube are simply inspirational. And other videos don't have teachers or students in them, but contain educational lessons none the less.

3. Teachers.tv is a UK- based website of videos for teachers and about teaching. Teachers.tv provides hundreds of videos available for free download. On Teachers.tv there are videos for all grade levels and content areas. Teachers.tv also has videos about teaching methods and practices.

4. Next Vista is a nonprofit, advertising-free video sharing site run by Google Certified Teacher Rushton Hurley. Next Vista has three video categories. The Light Bulbs category is for videos that teach you how to do something and or provides an explanation of a topic. The Global Views video category contains videos created to promote understanding of cultures around the world. The Seeing Service video category highlights the work of people who are working to make a difference in the lives of others. Watch this interview I did with Rushton to learn more about Next Vista.

5. Academic Earth is a video depot for individual lectures and entire courses from some of the top universities in the United States. Visitors to Academic Earth will find lectures and courses from Yale, MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.

6. Snag Films and its companion site Snag Learning are great places to watch full length documentaries from producers like National Geographic for free. Snag Learning provides a catalog of educational films that are accompanied by classroom discussion questions.

7. How Stuff Works is a video site that I have spent hours exploring at times because I was sucked in by the quality of the educational content.

8. Viddler is a service that I enjoy using because of its integrated in-video commenting system. Viddler also allows you to record videos directly to the site through your webcam. I use Viddler to post messages to my students on my classroom blow when I know that I'm going to be out of the classroom.

9. One of the first things you'll notice about Vimeo is the image quality of the videos. The image and sound quality of the videos on Vimeo is far superior to many of those found on YouTube. Vimeo has all of the sharing options found on YouTube, but in a much cleaner and easier to use interface.

10. Blip.tv aims to provide video creators with a high-quality service for sharing their web shows. The content on Blip.tv tends not to include "cat" videos and "hey, Mom, watch this!" content.

11. Dot Sub is full of user generated content that is subtitled into many different languages. I had a hearing impaired student a couple of years ago and Dot Sub was very useful for both of us.

12. CNN Student News is a daily web show highlighting a handful of stories. The stories covered by CNN Student News range from traditional serious news topics to how-to stories appealing mostly to students to light and fun stories. As a social studies teacher every week I find at least a couple of stories from CNN Student News that I can work into my curriculum. CNN Student News provides printable maps and a daily news quiz to go along with each episode.

13. If you're interested in showing your students the inner workings of Congressional proceedings, visit the C-Span video library.

14. To give my students a little more global perspective on the news than CNN Student News provides, I will use Reuters Video Index.

15. Hulu, a joint venture of NBC and News Corps, offers high quality video of television shows, movies, and old news broadcasts. In the past I've featured Hulu collections of NOVA programming and NBC News Time Capsules.

16. TED Talks are a great source of inspirational, thought-provoking, educational, and entertaining presentations given by some of the world's leading experts on a wide variety of topics. Check out this list of 15 TED Talks for Teachers.

17. Big Think is a video website containing expert commentary on a wide range of issues and ideas. The experts featured on Big Think really are experts in their fields. Harvard Professors, editors of major news publications, politicians, and other recognized authorities offer their commentary on various issues and ideas. Registered users of Big Think can comment on and discuss the videos or post an idea to have others discuss.

18. Untamed Science offers a collection of videos and podcasts about biology and Earth science topics.

19. FORA.tv is similar to Big Think in that it presents videos relevant to topics in the news and in the public conscious today. The videos feature well known personalities and experts talking about the important issues of the day. You will also videos of debates, press conferences, and public meetings.

20. PopTech is a conference similar to TED that features leading experts from a variety of fields sharing their knowledge and passions. Videos of the presentations can be found on the PopTech website.

21. iCue, presented by NBC News, features videos about history and current events. There is a capability to connect with other students to discuss topics and learn together. There are also quizzes and learning activities associated with many of the videos.

22. Current TV, the cable network started in part by Al Gore, features user generated content about a diverse array of cultural and current news topics.

23. PBS Video offers videos from the most popular shows including Frontline, NOVA, Nature, and American Experience. For the younger crowd, PBS Kids offers videos as well. If you're not sure what you're looking for, but you think PBS has an appropriate video you can search the PBS Video center by topic.

24 & 25. The History Channel and the Discovery Channel both offer a lot of content similar to and, in some cases, identical to that which is found on their respective television networks.

26. In addition to resources for learning languages, LangMedia offers a section called Culture Talk. LangMedia Culture Talk is a collection of video clips of interviews and discussions with people from many different countries, of different ages and from different walks of life. The videos are intended to give viewers insight into the cultures of peoples around the globe. Some of the videos feature English speakers while other videos do not. Those videos that are not in English are accompanied by a written English transcript.

27. The USGS Multimedia Gallery contains large collections of educational videos, animations, podcasts, and image galleries. You can search each collection by topic and or keyword tags. RSS feeds are available for each gallery.

28. PupilTube is a source of user-generated how-to videos. PupilTube hosts videos in thirteen categories. Some of the videos visitors to PupilTube can find include how to calculate compound interest, how to learn common Spanish phrases, and how to protect yourself from credit card fraud.

29. MonkeeSee.com is a collection of videos featuring experts sharing knowledge and how-to tips about the topic of their fields of expertise. MonkeySee.com, like many other video websites, has channels or categories. The channel most useful to teachers and students is the Careers & Education channel.

30. Europa Film Treasures is an online archive of classic European films. The films in the archive can be viewed for free on Europa Film Treasures. You can search the archives by dates, genre, country of origin, production method, and director. Along with each film in the collection Europa Film Treasures provides some background information such as production method, storyline, director's bio, and information about the the people appearing on camera.

31. Clip Syndicate is a provider of professionally produced news videos from television stations and other media outlets around the United States. Clip Syndicate also provides videos from the Associated Press. All of the videos on Clip Syndicate are categorized into 86 different channels. Users of Clip Syndicate can embed into their blogs one video or an entire channel of videos.

32. Explore.org produces and hosts high-quality documentary films and photographs. The films and images focus on exploring the world and the work of non-profit organizations around the world. The films and images are organized by location and by charitable and or environmental cause. Explore.org is funded in part by the Annenburg Foundation.

33. 22 Frames is a service that provides a central location for locating captioned videos for learning English and for Internet users who have hearing impairments. 22 Frames provides more than just captioned videos. For each video 22 Frames provides a list of idioms, slang words, and commonly mispronounced words in each video. 22 Frames tells viewers where each use of idioms, slang, and commonly mispronounced words appears in each video. Viewers can click on any of the words in the lists provided by 22 Frames to find a definition for each word and to find pronunciation tips.

34. I like websites whose names say exactly what they offers. Free Video Lectures is one of those sites. Free Video Lectures is a library of more than 18,000 video lectures from more than 700 courses offered by some of the world's top colleges and universities. The library of videos can be searched by subject and or university. The video sources are a mix of YouTube and other providers. Many of the videos are available for free download.

35. Kids Tube is a video sharing hosting and sharing site designed for hosting content produced by kids and content about kids. Kids Tube monitors all submissions and monitors comments left on videos. To encourage students to develop their videography skills, Kids Tube holds weekly videos submission contests. The contests are arranged around a theme and one winner is selected by the Kids Tube team.

36. ESL Basics is a site that provides short video vocabulary lessons for beginning and advanced ESL students. For teachers, ESL Basics has a small collection of suggestions and ideas for teaching ESL. ESL Basics is adding new content on a regular basis.

37. FedFlix, hosted by the Internet Archive, is a collection of nearly 2000 films produced by the US government during the 20th Century. The topics of these films range from presidential speeches to agricultural practices to public health and safety. Some films are instructional in nature, for example there is a film for police officers on how to arrest someone. Other films are more informative in nature and some films are flat-out propaganda films. All of the FedFlix films are in the public domain so feel free to reuse and remix them as you and your students desire. The films can be downloaded or viewed online. Films can also be embedded into your blog or website.

38. Art Babble is a video website designed and maintained by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The purpose of Art Babble is to provide a place for people to learn about the creation of art, artists, and collections through quality video productions. Visitors to Art Babble will find videos related to many forms of and formats for art. Browse the video channels and you'll find videos covering a wide array of topics including abstract art, European Art and Design, African Art, graphic design, glass, sculpture, surrealism, and much more.

39. Math A Tube is a compilation of videos from a variety of users and other websites. Videos are categorized by mathematics topics and sub-topics. The videos demonstrate everything from basic addition through Geometry. The videos on Math A Tube are user-generated so some videos are better than others.

40. The Kids Know It Network is full of educational interactive games and movies intended for elementary school students. The Kids Know It Network hosts a number of animated videos explaining and demonstrating concepts from math, science, geography, and English. Each video starts with an introduction to a topic and is followed by a quiz. If a student gets less than 80% of the items correct they are prompted to start the video again.

41. The Futures Channel has come to the rescue of Math teachers who are constantly asked the question, "when are we ever going to use this?" On the Futures Channel there are many lesson plans and lesson ideas relating math (and other subjects) to current "real life" situations. And by "real life" the Futures Channel doesn't mean just converting recipes like my high school Algebra book did. Check out the Futures Channel today and stop answering the question, "when are we ever going to use this?" The Futures Channel isn't limited to just mathematics videos, you will also find videos for science, music, art, business, sports, and more.

42. The Biology Department at Davidson College has a large collection of videos and animations of cell biology processes. Most of the videos are in QuickTime format while most of the animations are GIF animations. The collection is divided into five categories; Movies of Cells, Movies of Cellular Calcium, Movies of Molecular Methods, Molecular Movies, and a miscellaneous category.

43. Wired Science has hundreds of videos addressing a variety of science and technology topics. In addition to the library of videos, Wired Science, has great articles and lists of science resources.

44. Test Toob is a free website where science teachers and science students can share videos of the experiments they conduct. The service is designed for use by middle schools and high schools. In addition to providing video sharing services, Test Toob offers suggestions for experiments that students can conduct.

45. Math TV offers an extensive collection of high quality mathematics tutorials. Math TV's video lessons cover basic mathematics and Algebra. Math TV videos are not easily embedded in other websites, but they are free and you can create your own individualized playlists.

46. Brightstorm is a provider of online study materials for mathematics as well as ACT and SAT preparation. The ACT and SAT preparation materials are not free, but the mathematics tutorials are free. The mathematics tutorials are videos featuring mathematics teachers explaining and demonstrating how to solve mathematics problems. There are tutorial videos covering Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus.

47. The Week in Rap is produced by the same people that produce Flocabulary. Each Friday The Week In Rap posts a weekly news summary in the form of a rap music video. The videos cover stories from national and international politics as well as sports and entertainment news.

48. Please add your suggestions in the comments.

And if you are fortunate enough to work in a school that allows you to use YouTube, you still might want to use View Pure or Safe Share to prevent the accidental display of inappropriate "related" videos or advertisements.

Back to School With Wolfram Alpha

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Just in time for the new school year, Wolfram Alpha is hosting a series of webinars for teachers. The purpose of the webinars is to help teachers explore the functions of Wolfram Alpha and the ways in which Wolfram Alpha can be used in education. There will be a live question and answer period during the webinars. The webinars are free, but are limited to 100 participants. Webinars will be held on September 2, 8, 9, and 13. Click here to register and learn more about the Wolfram Alpha Back to School Webinars.

Applications for Education
If you've heard about Wolfram Alpha, but you're not quite sure what it's all about these webinars could be for you.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Wolfram Alpha Launches a Custom Widget Builder
Goofram - Google and Wolfram Alpha Side by Side
Wolfram Alpha for Educators - Free Lesson Plans

Art Babble - Videos About Art

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:24:00 +0000

Art Babble is a video website designed and maintained by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The purpose of Art Babble is to provide a place for people to learn about the creation of art, artists, and collections through quality video productions. Visitors to Art Babble will find videos related to many forms of and formats for art. Browse the video channels and you'll find videos covering a wide array of topics including abstract art, European Art and Design, African Art, graphic design, glass, sculpture, surrealism, and much more.

Embedded below is a video from Art Babble about the art of Frank Gohlke.

I learned about Art Babble on Twitter, but I forgot to note who I first saw post it. If it was you that shared it with me, please let me know so I can credit you.

Applications for Education
Art Babble could be a great resource for anyone teaching art appreciation courses. Some of the videos on Art Babble could also provide the inspiration some students are looking for to get started on their own works of art.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
ArtsEdge - Podcasts and Lesson Plans
Smarthistory - A Multimedia Art History Book
Ansel Adams's Yosemite

60+ Virtual Tours & Webcams for Social Studies

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:22:00 +0000

Angela Cunningham is a high school school Social Studies teacher in Kentucky that I've had the pleasure of meeting at the last two ISTE conferences. Through her blog ChangeED Angela has shared some great ideas and resources for teaching history, civics, and geography. Yesterday, Angela posted a Google Map on which she's made placemarks representing more than 60 webcams and virtual tours. Click any placemark on the map to find a link to a virtual tour or webcam for that location. The map is embedded below.

View Virtual Tours & Webcams in a larger map

Thanks to Angela for permission to share her map with all of you. Make sure you check out Angela Cunningham's blog for more history, civics, and geography resources.

Applications for Education
When I saw this map I immediately thought that it would be a great resource for teachers of geography, history, and world studies. The map of virtual tours and webcams could also be useful for literature teachers to give their students a real-life look at places mentioned in the books they read.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Documenting the American South
Great Classroom Discussion Guide
8 Wonders of the Solar System - Virtual Tour

Student Blogging Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Disclosure: Edublogs is an advertiser on Free Technology for Teachers.

Edublogs is once again hosting a student blogging challenge. The Student Blogging Challenge is a ten week series of tasks designed to help students (and teachers) improve their blogging skills. Completing the tasks of the challenge will help students not only learn how to write better blog posts, but also how to be better online communicators in general. The challenge is open to all classroom blogs and individual student blogs. You do not have to use an Edublogs-hosted blog in order to participate. Participation is free for all. Click here to register and or to learn more about the Student Blogging Challenge.

Applications for Education
Communicating effectively through online mediums such as blogs, is a very important skill that today's students should learn. The Student Blogging Challenge will help you help your students develop that skill. If you already have your students blogging, you can work most, if not all, of the challenges into their current blogging habits.

Here is a related item that may be of interest to you:
What You Wanted to Know About Student Blogging

7 Places & Ways to Find Copyright-friendly Images

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, I published a post about NASA contributing images to Flickr's Commons collection. The Commons is a great place to find images that are free of copyright restrictions. But, if The Commons doesn't have what you or your students need for a multimedia project, here are seven other places you can try your search.

Morgue File provides free photos with license to remix. The Morgue File photo collection contains thousands of images that anyone can use for free in academic or commercial presentations. The image collection can be searched by subject category, image size, color, or rating. Morgue File is more than just a source for free images. The Morgue File also features a "classroom" where visitors can learn photography techniques and get tips about image editing.

William Vann's EduPic Graphical Resource provides free photographs and drawings for teachers and students to use in their classrooms. Mr. Vann is an amateur photograph (a good one at that) and a teacher. Mr. Vann gives permission to teachers and students to use the images in any manner needed for instructional and learning purposes.

Animal Photos is a great source of Creative Commons licensed photos of animals. All of the photos are categorized by animal. Each image indicates the type of Creative Commons license associated with the picture. Animal Photos also offers advice on giving attribution for each photo.

The World Images Kiosk hosted by San Jose State University offers more than 75,000 images that teachers and students can use in their academic projects. All of the images can be used under a Creative Commons license that requires you to give proper attribution when necessary. You can find images by using the search box or you can browse through more than 800 portfolios and groups organized by subject.

Photos 8 is a great place to find thousands of images that are in the public domain. These images can be used in any way that you and your students see fit. There are twenty-two categories of images of which the largest collections are of animals, birds, and sunsets.

To find images that can be reused and remixed use Google's Advanced Image search options. To use the usage rights filter option, select "advanced image search" on the main Google Images page. Once in the "advanced image search" page, you will find the usage rights options at the bottom of the page. In the usage rights menu you can select one of four options; "labeled for reuse," "labeled for commercial reuse," "labeled for reuse with modification," or "labeled for commercial reuse with modification."

Yahoo Images has an option similar to Google's for finding Creative Commons licensed images. When you search for images using Yahoo's image search tool, you can select filters to refine results to show only images that are licensed under Creative Commons. The filters allow you to select filters for images that can be used for commercial purposes or images that are licensed for remixing and building upon.

Bonus: Public Domain Video Clips

FedFlix, hosted by the Internet Archive, is a collection of nearly 2000 films produced by the US government during the 20th Century. The topics of these films range from presidential speeches to agricultural practices to public health and safety. Some films are instructional in nature, for example there is a film for police officers on how to arrest someone. Other films are more informative in nature and some films are flat-out propaganda films. All of the FedFlix films are in the public domain so feel free to reuse and remix them as you and your students desire. The films can be downloaded or viewed online. Films can also be embedded into your blog or website.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Comprehensive Lesson Plans for Teaching Copyright
Creative Thinking - Lessons About Copyright
Copyright for Educators

Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:15:00 +0000

As we know, the Internet is a great place to find information on anything that sparks your curiosity. Likewise, the web is a great resource for students, but they need to know how to evaluate what they find and discern the good from the bad. That's where we come in as teachers. And to help us help our students, Microsoft offers us a free 37 page ebook titled Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research Skills. The ebook presents strategies for teaching Internet search skills and strategies for evaluating information. The ebook also links to many additional resources for teaching web search strategies. There are strategies and resources appropriate for students from in early elementary grades through high school included in the ebook. As you might expect, the ebook is heavy on references to Bing and other Microsoft products, but overall it is a good resource worth your time to download and read.

H/T to Steven Anderson for sharing this resource on Twitter.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How Web Search Works
Sweet Search - A Search Engine for Students
How to Create a Custom Search Engine

Find Images from NASA in The Commons on Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:24:00 +0000

The Commons on Flickr is a good place to find public domain images from archiving institutions around the world. Today, NASA joined The Commons by contributing 180 photographs in three sets to the The Commons. The image sets are titled Building NASA, Launch and Takeoff, and NASA Center Namesakes. All of the images are available for reuse without any copyright restrictions.

This a photo from the Launch and Takeoff set. I saw a photo very similar to this one as an elementary school kid and was very intrigued by it.

H/T to Read Write Web for the news about NASA's additions to Flickr.

Applications for Education
The Commons on Flickr is a good resource for students in need of images for multimedia projects for history, literature, and other content areas. A requirement of contributors to The Commons is that all images are made available without copyright restrictions. Check out some of the other institutions contributing to The Commons.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
NASA Space Place - Where Science is Fun!
NASA Images - Embed Galleries of Images and Videos
Video - Space Shuttle from Hangar to Launch

Inspirational & Historic Moments on YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:00:00 +0000

YouTube can be a good source of material for lessons and activities in many content areas. This is particularly true for Social Studies teachers. Mashable recently published a list of ten inspirational moments on YouTube. Most of the videos in their list are not only inspirational, but also historic events. I've included one of the videos from the list below.

Wright Brothers Have Lift Off

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
30+ Alternatives to YouTube
Making Videos on the Web
22 Frames - Captioned Videos & More for ESL

BlogBooker - Turn Your Blog to a PDF Book

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Last month when I wrote about Anthologize which turns WordPress blogs into PDF books or ebooks, Blogger users felt left out. Today I have good news for Blogger users that want to turn the contents of their blogs into ebooks. BlogBooker is a free service that allows you to turn your the contents of your Blogger blog into a PDF. Using BlogBooker is a fairly straight-forward process.

BlogBooker walks you through each step of the process except for the very first step which might sound a little too "techy" for some Blogger users, but it's actually quite easy. The first step in using BlogBooker is to export the contents of your blog as an XML file. This is actually easy to do in Blogger. Step one is to open the "settings" menu of your Blogger blog. Step two is to select "export blog" under "basic" menu. Step three is to click "download." Don't worry, exporting the contents of your blog will not remove any content from your blog. After you've completed the export process, jump over to BlogBooker and follow their directions for completing the transition from XML file to PDF.

A quick note about the process on BlogBooker, you might want to consider turning off some the additional BlogBooker such as "ToC" and "Header/Footer" unless you want to save that data.

Here are screenshots of the process of exporting your Blogger blog.
Step 1 - Settings tab - basics - export blog. (Click image to enlarge)

Step 2 - Download.

BlogBooker also works for WordPress and Live Journal.

Applications for Education
BlogBooker could be a good resource at the end of a semester or at the end of a school year for creating a permanent, physical record of your students' online writing.

Katrina - Then and Now

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Today's episode of CNN Student News begins with segment about the effects of Hurricane Katrina still felt in New Orleans. The segment includes images taken in the days right after Hurricane Katrina hit compared with images of those same places today. The video is embedded below.

Visit Larry Ferlazzo's list for more resources for teaching about the five year anniversary of Hurrican Katrina.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:

Five Resources for Lessons About Hurricanes

Five Resources for Learning About Volcanoes

What's Your Best Advice for New Teachers?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:25:00 +0000

Ten days ago I asked you to share the new thing(s) you're planning to do in the new school year. In 72 hours 140 of you responded and I shared all of your responses here. Following up on the success of that survey I've created another survey for us to share our best advice for new teachers entering the classroom this fall. As I did with the survey about the new things we're trying this year, I will compile all of the survey responses and post them in a Google Documents presentation. I will leave the survey open through 12pm EST on Wednesday then post the responses on Thursday morning. If you want to me to link back to your Twitter account or blog, please include those links in your response.

Survey is now closed.

Back to School Tech with CNN & Mario Armstrong

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:57:00 +0000

As I shared yesterday, the highlight of my weekend was being mentioned by Mario Armstrong during his Saturday morning CNN segment. Yesterday's segment was part of a series of back to school tech tips. I've embedded those segments below.

Yesterday's segment - Tutor.com and Free Technology for Teachers.

August 21 segment - Organization tools

My list of student organization tools can be found here.

August 16 segment - Laptops vs. Netbooks - Mario's recommendations.

If you're in the netbook market, I have been very happy with my Acer Netbook(affiliate link).

August 8 segment - saving money on back to school supplies including books.

If you're viewing this in RSS, click through to see the videos.

One Principal's Approach to Cell Phones in Classrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:14:00 +0000

Last week I posted a video about two approaches to dealing with cell phones in schools. In short, the video featured a school with a zero-use policy toward cell phones and a school that was trying to use cell phones as mobile learning devices. This morning The Boston Globe featured Burlington, Massachusetts High School principal Patrick Larkin and his vision for the use of technology in his school. One of the things that jumped-out at me while reading the article was this quote from Patrick in response to a question about concerns that students will cheat or be distracted by using cell phones or laptops: “If they want to cheat, they’re going to cheat,’’ Larkin said, “with technology or anything else.’’ He said he doesn’t see much difference between this and the old scourge of teachers — note passing. “We’ve had no problem with note passing the last few years . . . I wonder why . . . they’re texting!’’ he said. Read the whole article here and make sure you read the closing quote from Principal Larkin.

Patrick Larkin takes an approach to dealing with cell phones in schools that many of us would like to see in schools. Rather than spending our effort and limited time telling students to put away their pocket computers (cell phones) we should put that effort into learning how we can leverage mobile devices to improve the learning experiences of our students.

On a related note, here is Patrick's guest post on this blog: Every Principal Needs A Blog!

Welcome CNN Viewers!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:42:00 +0000

Welcome to those arriving after hearing about Free Technology for Teachers on CNN. Below are some of the most popular resources you will find on here. You may also want to try a search in the search box to the right for resources related to your teaching area. If you like what you see below, please consider subscribing to the RSS or Email updates.

30+ Alternatives to YouTube
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Making Videos on the Web - A Free Guide for Teachers and Students.

Google for Teachers - A Free 33 Page Guide

We're sorry, your browser doesn't support IFrames. You can still &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.yudu.com/item/details/144339/Google-for-Teachers?refid=19189"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;visit this item.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;, however.
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Publishing Software from YUDU

Google for Teachers II - A Free 33 Page Guide

We're sorry, your browser doesn't support IFrames. You can still &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.yudu.com/item/details/184793/Google-for-Teachers-II-?refid=19189"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;visit this item.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;, however.
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Digital Publishing with YUDU

How to do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year - Free Guide

We're sorry, your browser doesn't support IFrames. You can still &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.yudu.com/item/details/204517/How-to-do-11-Techy-Things-in-the-New-School-Year?refid=19189"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;visit this item.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;, however.
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Self Publishing with YUDU

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Week in Review - A Mention on National TV

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0000

The big news for this week's week-in-review post was going be the news that twice this week Free Technology for Teachers reached new records for visits in a day. But as I was composing the post Mario Armstrong mentioned Free Technology for Teachers on his weekly CNN segment. I didn't have any advance notice that Mario was going to do that so, needless to say, I was stoked, jacked-up, excited, part an adjective! CNN is doing a series of back-to-school tech segments and it was during this morning's segment that the host asked Mario for a recommendation for teachers and he mentioned Free Technology for Teachers. I'll get the video up when it becomes available. Thank you Mario! Read Mario's blog post about it here.

As mentioned above, twice this week Free Technology for Teachers reached new records for visitors in a day and visitors for a week. Thank you to everyone that helped to make that possible by sharing posts on Twitter, Facebook, Diigo, and many other social networking sites. Together we can help more educators learn about free resources that can improve our students' learning experiences.

Here are the most popular items of the last week:
1. 140 New Things Being Tried In Classrooms This Fall
2. 100+ Free Textbooks from Open Culture
3. 7 Resources for Detecting and Preventing Plagiarism
4. Glogster Video Tutorial
5. 7 Sources of Free Sounds for Multimedia Projects
6. Blog, Wiki, or Doc? Which Is Right for You?
7. 7 Organization Tools for Students

If you enjoyed the links above, please consider subscribing to
Free Technology for Teachers if you haven't already done so.
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PostLearn.com powers the job board on Free Technology for Teachers.
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7 Organization Tools for Students

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0000

The beginning of the school year is when many students (and some teachers) make the resolution to improve their organization skills. The web is full for tools that can help people organize and keep track of the important things that they need to get done. Here are seven tools that might help your students in their quests to keep track of the things they need to get done this year. The first two services in the list have mobile apps that students can use too.

Soshiku is a free personal planner designed for high school and college students. Soshiku lets students organize their assignments by course, add assignments, and receive text message and or email reminders before each assignment is due. Students can add assignments to their calendars directly on the Soshiku website or via text message. Registering and getting started with Soshiku is quick and the user interface is very intuitive and easy to learn.

Remember the Milk is a free personal organization tool that works online and with mobile phones. Many high school students are carrying cell phones with them so capitalize on that and talk to parents and students about using a cell phone to get organized. Remember the Milk allows students to add assignment due dates to their to-do lists via text, email, or directly on their account homepage. A word of caution, while this services is free, students could incur a lot of charges from text and data communication on their mobile phones so be sure to discuss these options with parents before having students use the text/ data tools.

Track Class offers all of the features that we have come to expect in online student organizers. Through Track Class students can keep a schedule of courses, track assignment dates, write and save notes, and maintain a calendar of events. Inside Track Class students can also save files such as essays they've written and slideshow presentations they've created.

43 Things is an interesting way to track goals and achievements. 43 Things is not a personal organizer, it's a goal tracker. The service is simple, users enter a list of things that they want to accomplish and other users can "cheer" them on until the goal is reached.

Ta-da List is a simple to-do list creation tool built by 37 Signals. Ta-da List allows to you to create a to-do list in 30 seconds. Just sign-up and start building lists. Your lists will be hosted at a unique url assigned just to you. Direct your browser to that url to check-off items on your lists or to create a new list.

Squareleaf is a simple system for creating and managing online sticky notes. To use Squareleaf just register for an account and begin creating notes. Your notes are displayed on an online "whiteboard." On your Squareleaf whiteboard you can arrange your sticky notes in any pattern that you like. The size and color of the sticky notes can also be adjusted.