LiveText Helpful Hints....

To change the general color of your workspace, for example from sunset to grape, do this:
Tools --> Account Information --> then edit (Site Preferences)

To change the design of a particular portfolio, do this:
1. Go to the first page of the portfolio document
2. Point and click "Edit Document" on the top bar
3. Point and click "Properties"
4. Go to "Style" and make a selection

How to use Google Earth (A Manual)

I found this manual to be of great help. Visit this website: http://www.eastchester.k12.ny.us/schools/hs/teachers/fermann/GE.htm and then scroll down about five paragraphs to the section "How to Use Google Earth." You can then access a manual (.pdf file).

Image Cut and Paste problems....

Suppose you have an image in a Word Document and you would like to cut and paste it into a PowerPoint presentation. Normal Cut and Paste will not work. There is a trick. You can Cut and Paste it, but be careful where you try to Paste it. You MUST Paste it in an area outside of the title box and outside of the text box. Once it is in some "unused whitespace area," then you simply move it to its intended location.

How to Capture an Image....

Step 1: Select an image from anywhere on the internet you want to capture
Step2: Press the "PrintScreen" key on the keyboard
Step3: Exit out of the website
Step4: Go to the Paint Program (part of Windows Accessories)
Step5: A white box appears in the corner-- resize that box, but keep it relatively small
Step6: It may be hard to get the "resize" icon to appear... keep trying
Step7: Select "EDIT --> PASTE"
Step8: The small box suddenly go huge as the entire page filled in the box
Step9: Select the "dotted box" icon from the paint features
Step10: Enclose the image of interest with the dotted box
Step11: Select "EDIT --> CUT" and the image is gone and placed in memory
Step12: Select "FILE --> NEW"
Step13: When it asks to save changes to untitled, check "No"
Step14: Select "EDIT --> PASTE"
Step15: Resize the white box to match the size of the image
Step16: Select "FILE --> SAVE AS"
Step17: Give it a name
Step18: Save it as Type: JPEG
Step19: Exit out of the paint program
Step20: Go to the PowerPoint slide you wish to insert the image into
Step21: Select "INSERT --> PICTURE --> FROM FILE"
Step22: Browse for the image that was saved on the computer (the JPEG image)
Step23: Double click the image when you find it
Step24: It should be in the PowerPoint slide now!

Review of Delicious.com

For my review of Delicious.com., I will use an unorthodox approach-- a "real-time" review as I learn-by-doing (or learn by trial-and-error).

Let me start by relating my experience with a related site-- ikeepbookmarks.com. I originally wanted to start uploading my personal bookmarks using this site. I attempted to access this site three or four different times and had nothing but trouble with it. I just tried to access it a few minutes ago and got a screen that reads, "Service Unavailable." I also read some reviews of ikeepbookmarks.com and some people posted comments saying that the site is horrible and they wished they had never started using it.

Dr. Cyrus told me that she uses delicious.com and highly recommends it. I then did a google search looking for popular bookmarking sites. The top five are: digg.com, buzz.yahoo.com, technorati.com, delicious.com, and propeller.com. I was glad to see that delicious.com was rated among the top five.

I will now attempt to set up an account with delicious.com.....

I typed in delicious.com to access the website and was able to set up a personal account without too much difficulty. However, when I logged out and logged back in, I had 18 bookmarks already set up in my site, and I had not entered any of them. Sharing a computer or using a computer in a computer lab may have unintended consequences. I suspect that the tabs that had been previously established by another user were automatically placed into my delicious site. I am going to delete all the tabs on this computer and delete the bookmarks in my delicious site and try to start from "scratch"...

I logged out and logged back in... Once you login to delicious, you will be at the delicious home page featuring the several popular bookmarked sites among subscribers of delicious.com. The four main areas to navigate on this site are: home, bookmarks, people, and tags. The bookmarks area is the primary reason for using this sight, i.e., to save a list of bookmarks that is accessible from any computer. This area is further divided into these three sections: my bookmarks, popular, recent. "My bookmarks" is where you would create your personal list of favorite bookmarks. The "popular" area lists websites that are popular among subscribers of the delicious site. The "recent" area lists websites that have been visited recently.

I will now try to build a list of personal websites and enter them into "my bookmarks." I will then logout and log back in....

I think I am going to like this program. I entered three sites into "my bookmarks." I entered yahoo.com (e-mail tag), gmail.com (e-mail tag), and google.com (searchengine tag). I then logged out and logged back in. I found my three bookmarks had been saved correctly. Now I can easily navigate through the worldwide web by visiting my delicious site and then double clicking any particular site I select from the list of sites entered in "my bookmarks" area.

I think I will go back to the delicious site and start entering more websites now. Should be easy to do now....

After working for the past hour on this site, I found a bug in the program. When you enter a bookmark, you can decide if you want to make it a private or public bookmark. If you do not check the box that reads, "Do not share," the bookmark will be public. I initially want all my bookmarks to be private. I failed to check the box on one of my bookmarked sites and so the site was designated as a public site. Noticing the error, I tried to edit the bookmark with the intent that I would check the box and re-save it as a private site. It appeared to work, as an icon with a lock appeared next to my bookmark indicating that the site was now a private site. So far, so good. However, when I clicked on the site and actually entered my bookmarked site and subsequently exited the site, the bookmarked site returned to a public designation. I corrected the problem by having to delete the specific bookmarked website and starting from scratch, making sure that the first thing I did was to check the "Do not share" box!

September 30 (5:30 pm)

An important caveat: Always remember to logout properly. I have found that I visit a lot of sites via delicious and many of the sites require logging in with a password. Several times I have backed out of a site and failed to logout properly, allowing the next computer user to gain access to my account. Furthermore, just a few minutes ago I accessed the delicious site only to find that I was accessing another person's personalized account on delicious.com. This is despite the fact that when I sat down at this particular computer, I had the screen requesting my response to whether I was a "Student" or an "Administrator." Apparently, the previous computer user did not logout to his or her sites appropriately.

(A few days later)

I have not been using delicious for a few days but I do have about twenty bookmarks organized through utilizing seven tag names. It is quite a useful tool. Perhaps a practical example will help explain one of its many uses. Just yesterday, I had a need for obtaining a calendar for my desk in my classroom (I mark off each day of work). Since it is nearing the last day of September, I need to start marking important dates and times on a calendar for the month of October. I went to the delicious site and used their search utility to find sites offering printable calendars. I got immediate access to 352 sites claiming to offer printable calendars. I spent about fifteen minutes examining several of those sites until I found two sites that made it simple to create a printable calendar for a specified month. I then entered those two sites into "my bookmarks" area in my delicious account. I also created a "calendar" tag for those two sites. Consequently, whenever I have a need for a calendar in the future, I will simply navigate via the "calendar" tag to access the calender sites. Then I will choose one of the two sites and have a printed calender in my possession with minimal effort required.


Why is delicious.com important for the classroom?
This website could be a valuable tool for students from elementary school through high school and beyond. With technology use becoming increasingly important for all students, it is essential to have some strategy or technological tool that will aid in organizing, classifying and accessing the dozens of websites that a student uses frequently. It behooves all students to learn organizational skills and good time management at an early age. Delicious.com is one possible site that can be used for these purposes.

How might delicious.com impact student learning?
I will suggest one possible scenario where delicious.com would impact student learning. Students can create "tags" for individual subject areas. Using tags allows one to quickly navigate in and out of these subject area websites. For example, a student can create a section (tag) for math and include such websites as: math.com, mathforum.org, mathnerds.com, webmath.com, and homework.justanswer.com. Similar sections (tags) can be created to organize other helpful sites dealing with science, language arts, foreign languages, physical education, health, career education, and virtually any subject area of interest. Once a student has dozens of helpful websites organized, then it is just a matter of a simple mouse click to access any of the many sites available from within the delicious.com personalized website.

Review of 4teachers.org

Developed by The Advanced Learning Technologies project at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning (ALTEC), 4teachers.org is a site dedicated to assisting teachers integrate technology into their classroom. Faculty and students in ALTEC come from a diverse range of disciplines including the School of Education, the School of Fine Arts, the School of Engineering, and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. This assortment of talent enables ALTEC to empower learners of all types and ages by offering an extensive assortment of technology tools. What follows is a brief description of its offerings:

QuizStar: design, administer, and manage tests and quizzes online

RubiStar: create, edit, save, and access rubrics online

AcademicSkillBuilders: online educational games designed for learning basic math, language arts, vocabulary, and thinking skills

PersuadeStar: helps middle school and high school students write persuasive essays

ClassroomArchitect: design a classroom floor plan to maximize student learning

Equity: browse the following categories to locate resources and tools to help meed the needs of persons with disabilities, special needs, or various multicultural influences: Assessment, Assisted Technology, Disabilities, Gender, Grants, Legal Issues, Multicultural, and Special Needs.

TrackStar: create online lessons by selecting, annotating, and ordering a series of websites together to form an integrated online lesson

Assign-A-Dayz: create online calenders to manage classes and assignments

CasaNotes: templates for typical notes that are sent home to parents or given to the students (e.g. homework assignments, progress reports, field trip forms)

PBLChecklists: quickly create a project-based learning checklist that enables students to understand the exact grading criteria and assists teachers in assessing projects efficiently

TeacherTacklebox: instantly access WebQuest, TrackStar, and ThinkQuest links by specifying a subject, theme, and topic

WebPosterWizard: quickly create worksheets and posters available on-line to students in various classes

NoteStar: streamline research papers and projects through its many features that assist in the preparation of

ThinkTank: develop a research topic by generating a list of subtopics by choosing from a variety of suggestions and by using a random subtopic generator.

KidsVid: produce an instructional or educational video by learning about the processes of scripting, making, editing an actual video... then post it on the website so the whole world can see.

How is 4teachers.org important for the classroom?

4teachers.org empowers teachers by assisting them in their quest to become technologically proficient. Quality teachers produce better functioning students. This site is devoted to developing the full potential of teachers. I have already described many of the educational tools featured on this site. But there is more on this site than these important technology tools. This site also has an area named "Hot teacher topics" that inform educators about important educational issues including protecting kids from online predators, stopping school bullying, and the ramifications of growing up online. Another area on this site is named "4teachers features," and it provides additional support for teachers by providing links to professional development sites, educational video games, and instructional technology sites.

I have found this site to be of great potential value for any educator. I will make it a goal of mine to spend the necessary time and effort to learn more about these tools and resources and try to incorporate them into my teaching repertoire.


How might 4teachers.org impact student learning?

4teachers.org is devoted to helping teachers become better, stronger teachers through the use of digital technologies. Offering such a diverse and comprehensive set of tools (described previously) can do much to impact student learning. Student learning will be expanded as teachers incorporate each of these technology tools into their teaching repertoire. For instance, research suggests that the classroom environment and physical arrangement of classroom furniture can have a positive or negative affect on student learning. The Classroom Architect tool can provide a teacher with an opportunity for experimentation with the layout of a classroom that is best suited for a particular subject area or teaching methodology. KidsVid instructs both teachers and students on the fundamental principles of video production. Teachers can then design projects and assignments that require students to produce a video on various topics of interest. Each one of the aforementioned tools has the potential to have a profound impact on student learning. All that is required is a willingness for a teacher to take the time and effort to access these tools and start using them. The full capabilities and utility of these tools can only be truly understood and realized through persistent use.

Review of Classcentral.com

Using classcentral.com was my first experience with online classrooms. It seems to be a rather comprehensive software system for educators and I was able to learn most of the basic features required to implement an online class.

I created three courses: Geometry, Algebra, and Calculus. For each course, I created two sections-- general and honors. I then developed and posted some assignments, projects, and quizzes. Once an assignment is created, a teacher can associate that assignment with a particular section, multiple sections, or an entire course.

There are several features of this course management system that I find particularly impressive. The calendar feature seems to be of great utility. Once an assignment is created and linked to a class, it is automatically posted on the calendar associated with that class. One may then access any assignment by locating its due date on the course calendar and clicking on the assignment of interest. A course calendar can be displayed in summary form or in detailed form and the range of time can be easily manipulated to span from one day to one quarter or more.

Another feature I like is the rubrics feature. Creating rubrics for assessment purposes has been widely used by many educators in recent years. Classcentral has a rubrics development area that will take you step-by-step through the process of creating a rubric for a particular assignment. In creating a rubric, three options are available: creating one from scratch, revising an existing one, or building a new one by using a template from one already in existence. What's more, there is an extensive gallery of rubrics already designed by others which are easily accessible via a search engine. For example, I tried to search for a rubric appropriate for grading math assignments. I typed in the keywords "math homework". Instantly, 394 hits were there for my inspection. Sometimes, it is best not to "reinvent the wheel."

For an educator to really understand the full utility of classcentral, he or she must actually use it on a daily basis. This is true for most expansive software packages. I have only scratched the surface of all that is possible with this program. Browsing through classcentral's directory of tools, I found a several interesting features. Classcentral has a sister website, The Book Exchange Network, that allows students and educators to fine cheaper book deals and sell their used books online. Classcentral also has an area devoted to forming student clubs. The service offers free websites to all student clubs and organizations. What's more, if a student club already has an existing website, classcentral allows its tools and services to be integrated into any existing website. One final service of note is an online tutor search. Students may be able to obtain the service of a qualified tutor by identifying the subject area of interest and their place of residence. Professional tutors can make their services available through classcentral with relative ease by posting a profile that includes their qualifications and hourly rate for tutoring services. For example, I located three people who posted their tutoring services for algebra and live in close proximity to my hometown.

Why is classcentral important for the classroom? The answer to this should be fairly obvious. Classcentral IS a virtual classroom. Instead of being limited to standard books, chalk, and a blackboard, educators can incorporate technology and create an online classroom, making use of the entire worldwide web as their primary source of information. Web quests and web scavenger hunts are becoming increasingly popular. TeacherTube is making unique, informative, and engrossing videos of all sorts available to anyone with access to the web. The digital age is in full force, and educators must make concerted efforts to change their entrenched, "old school" teaching practices and incorporate the latest computer technologies into their repertoire.

How will it impact student learning? Students today to not learn the same way they did a few decades ago. Most do not have the attention span to learn things in a traditional way. The uninterrupted use of cell phones, ipods, music videos, the internet and other technological apparatus and media demands that teachers take steps to keep students interested and engaged. Many of my high school students do not know their times tables and refuse to make flash cards to help memorize them. Perhaps I need to change my standard assignment from using flash cards. Perhaps I should instead incorporate technology, making use of online classrooms and internet offerings. I noticed that TeacherTube has "rap videos" dedicated to learning the times tables. There are also a multitude of computer games available on educational sites devoted to basic arithmetic skill development. Such games incorporate speed and entertaining graphics as they quiz students and help them acquire proficiency in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.