Okay, so I know PPT is soooo 2003, but this got me excited again about ppt. I also think this has wonderful potential for the classroom. The application is only available for the PC right now, but I am hoping for a Mac version soon. The application is called LiveWeb and it is FREE. The add-on allows you to embed live, fully interactive web pages into powerpoint with the click only a couple of buttons. It is as easy as adding and image or movie. It works in real-time with refreshed pages. It hides the address bar to prevent students from”accidentally” going to the wrong sites. As soon as you return to the slide at a later time it loads up the original page entered. It works in both ‘03 and ‘07. Try it out and enjoy.
Okay, I have neglected my connectedk12 blog of a little while and need to catch up. Many of you have requested my Web 2.0 ppt so here it is. Feel free to share. I would love to see your favorite new sites I should add. Just add them in the comments section.
Having followed Brain Research since the early 90’s I have been excited by the amount of new information coming out regarding learning and education. It seems that the greater our technology the greater our understanding of how the brain works. Now, for many this only makes sense, but it not until you realize the advances that have lead to this new knowledge base that you fully begin to comprehend what the future could hold.
That future could include a prescriptive educational program for every child based on his/her brain scan results that takes into account not only his/her genetic disposition, but also the environmental factors that are at work as well. Every student is impacted by so many different stimuli and new brain scans can now begin to show how those stimuli map the brain and learning as a whole. I shutter to think what my brain might map out like, but I did have chance to get a glimpse of my 6 month old son’s brain’s inner workings recently as he participated in a cognitive studies research program at Duke University in NC. It was amazing to see how active his brain was and how much he could already process at such a young age. This included differentiating between dots of various numbers and shapes.
I recently did a presentation called “Understanding Your Students’ iBrains” and was thrilled with the response. The presentation can be found here in case you are interested and much of the information is based on research coming out of UCLA and Harvard. I also use material from the books iBrains: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind and Brain Rules. However, I would also encourage anyone interested in the subject to read Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.
Improve Your Vocabulary and Feed The World
Published September 22nd, 2008 in Uncategorized. 2 CommentsFreeRice is the invention of US online fundraising pioneer John Breen. The FreeRice game is at http://www.freerice.com/ and tests the vocabulary of participants. For each click on a correct answer, the website donates money to buy 10 grains of rice for the developing world.
Companies advertising on the website provide the money to the WFP to buy and distribute the rice. FreeRice went online in early October and has now raised 1bn grains of rice, which is enough rice to feed 50,000 people for one day.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7088447.stm
How does playing the vocabulary game at FreeRice can help your students?
· Formulate ideas better
· Write better papers, emails and business letters
· Speak more precisely and persuasively
· Understand what you read in more details
· Read faster because you understand better
· Get better grades in all subjects, as good literacy is essential across the curriculum
· Perform better at job interviews
· Write better papers, emails and business letters
· Speak more precisely and persuasively
· Understand what you read in more details
· Read faster because you understand better
· Get better grades in all subjects, as good literacy is essential across the curriculum
· Perform better at job interviews
The website even claims: “After you have done FreeRice for a couple of days, you may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that you have never consciously used before will begin to pop into your head while you are speaking or writing. You will feel yourself using and knowing more words.”
How does the FreeRice vocabulary program work?
FreeRice has a database containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words appropriate for people just learning English and words that will even challenge academics.
FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.
This certainly is a different way to develop literacy skills and the international dimension…
As promised below you will find the most up-to-date version of my web 2.0 presentation. Please feel free to download the presentation and use it for events you may host or trainings you may provide.
As I have been preparing for an upcoming presentation I have come across a wealth of Web 2.0 sites that I think have great potential in education. Below I have listed a number of the them as well as a couple of wikis that have a collection of web2.0 sites. I would love to see others you have found and love.
Wordle is a site for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes
- Plan club meetings and activities. Share info on a secure company intranet. Collaborate on a team project. Stay connected with family members.
Mixbook is the only site that lets you invite your friends to build books together online that can be shared as widgets on your blog/MySpace/Facebook or ordered as professionally-printed books.
Create and share your own photobook using flickr images
Drop.io is the simplest way to share files online.
Any text can be read to your students. Just simply type, enter a url, upload a document and enter an RSS feed and have any text read to your students. This limits the concerns of the reading level of web pages and can be of assistance to students with disabilities.
This social media site is focused on books. Members can build virtual bookshelves, discover, rate and discuss books, and participate in online groups.
A 3D search features that enhances your search results and provides a visual representation of your results.
Tell your life story or the story of your latest road trip, a day to remember, or a trip around the world. Any time, any picture, any video - mark it here and share it everywhere.
Create a timeline of your class for the year including video, images, text, and links.
Poster your class activities including video, text, and images.
GoAnimate, a platform that allows people to express themselves through animation without having to learn to draw or install any software.
Wiki with great Web 2.0 site
I had the great pleasure this past Friday spending time with nearly 80 educators from across the state of Tennessee. I was amazed by how excited they were to learn new and exciting ways to enhance instruction for their students. As promised I have included the presentations from my sessions below. I am also including a few of the links that I mentioned during the presentation. A special thanks goes out to Teryl Magee from and Tim Childers for their help with the training event in Tennessee.
Well I just finished a wonderful evening with a group of enthusiastic educators from across Osceola County Florida. During the evening many of the educators shared their favorite web links and resources that I promised to collect and share. So below you will find the full list of sites from this evenings sharing session. Thank you to everyone who attended.
- linerider.com
- stumbleupon.com
- geekbrief.tv
- worldwide telescope
- gelessons.com
- acrobat.com
- piclens.com
- speeddial
- blabberize.com
- twitter.com
- del.icio.us
- diigo.com
Hopefully I have included everything from everyone, but if I have missed anything please leave it in the comments section.
Well after an inital launch I was hindered by a HEAVY workload that has prevented me from doing anything but breathing until today…Well, that is mostly true. I was also set back last week after my new computer arrived. It seems that I decided to return to my roots. After starting with Apple computers back in 1978 with an Apple II, I have returned to the world of apple for the first time with my recent purchase of a Mac Book Pro. It arrived last week and after only a week of use I can tell why everyone has been raving about Macs over the past few years. I also see clearly why education is moving more and more in that direction. The best thing I can say so far is that I found it easier to switch to a Mac than I typically find getting any new PC fully up and running within my home environment. Everything I need is handy and already installed. I also LOVE the ease at which you can set up multiple accounts for the computer with entirely different preferences for each user.
Now I am a tech person so I figured the switch would not be too hard for me, but the real test was to see how easily and comfortably my wife was able to switch. Now my wife is a better than average computer user, but she is a typical base user who primarily uses the computer to search the web, email, office applications, and manage her finances. She too was surprised at how easily she adapted to the little differences and how pleased she was with the little advantages the Mac had over our current PC.
Now I know I have a lot to learn about the full functions of the iLife suite and I might even take a couple of classes, but for me this has been my best new computer experience in years. If you have been wavering or your school is trying to decide on their platform I highly recommend paying the little extra and consider a Mac.
PS - My wife who is looking over my shoulder said “Don’t forget about the new computer smell”, which is equates to the new baby smell.
SCETV Presentations from April Technology Workshop
Published April 24th, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 CommentWe had a wonderful time at SCETV as usual. They always host phenomenal events with special thanks to Donna Thompson, Debbie Jarret, Dianne Gregory, and Dean Byrd for their generous hospitality. As promised you will find all of my presentation below. Please contribute to the comments section to help improve the presentations for future attendees and to share other wonderful resources you may have found.
Flickr/familyfountain
Linkedin/Brad Fountain
Twitter/bradfountain
Del.icio.us/brad.fountain
GMail/Your Name