[TIPS] we'll have to watch this case carefully

Depending upon how this case comes out, this could REALLY drive a stake through the heart of creativity in schools. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1196318455194970.xml&coll=1   Some kids made a video for class. Fine. Some kids edited the movie to make fun of the kid who starred in it. Wrong. Mother of abused kid sues the school. Outrageous!!       ...

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[TIPS] list of historical anniversaries

During a recent "out-of-the-box" training by the Apple folks as part of the Classrooms for the Future this site was presented to us as part of.. well, part of something else, actually. But I thought your social studies teachers might like this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_anniversaries Yes, it's a wikipedia article. And it shows another reason why wikipedia should NOT be blocked at school. (https://webmail.caiu.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071127-banning-wikipedia-at-school-good-idea-or-missed-opportunity.html - thanks to Courtney Engle for sharing that one with us) Yes, we ALL know by now that you don't want to cite it. Fine. Now let's get past the fear, shall we? ...

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Hidden Programs In Windows XP !

Is it strange to hear , but true that some good programs are hidden in Windows XP !!!Programs :1. Private Character Editor : Used for editing fonts,etc. ** start>>Run ** Now, type eudcedit2. Dr. Watson : This an inbuilt windows repairing software ! ** start>>Run ** Now, type drwtsn323. Media Player 5.1 : Even if you upgrade your Media Player, you can still access your old player in case the new one fails !!! ** start>>Run ** Now, type mplay324. iExpress : Used to create SetupsYou can create your own installers ! ...

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[TIPS] E&ETV - for environmental science teachers

http://www.eenews.net/tv/   There are those who will point to this site and declare it to be a very one-sided viewpoint – and the WRONG side to boot. Others will argue that it’s the correct side and impartial. Whatever your viewpoints this is bound to provide tons of material for debate, or some excellent writing prompt material.   How did I find this? First, I was perusing the list of nominated wikis for the Edublogs contest. One wiki (http://goapes.wikispaces.com/) was mentioned and I spent some time in there. (What? You say you can’t view wikis in school? Shame!) This wiki was put together by the teachers and students of an AP Environmental Science program. It is excellent! Check it out. Look at the books they’re reading. Look at the feeds they’re getting. Check out their...

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[TIPS] Part 2 of the Online story on NPR

Check this out: “The University of Illinois hopes its new "global campus," set to launch early 2008, will reach more than 10,000 new online students in the next few years. At the university's campus in Springfield, Ill., faculty already use blogs and wikis in their courses.”   http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16709807&ft=1&f=1013 This is part two of the series I mentioned earlier. What struck me about that introduction to the feed is that it mentions the professors using blogs and wikis in their classrooms. Yet, many of the districts right around here do not permit such tools. Tools that not only should not be blocked but should be promoted.  Can they even say that they’re preparing students for college? They SURELY cannot say that they’re preparing...

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[TIPS] Online Education - an NPR story

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16638700 It's a fact - online education is here to stay. And it's big business, too. I just finished my Master's in Instructional Technology from Bloomsburg University - all done online. We met once a week synchronously via Centra and the rest of the materials were on Blackboard. For me, the only thing that kept me going were the live weekly sessions. They gave me a sense on a real connection to a class. But, the point is, the entire program was online. The above NPR story is the first part of a two part story. They talk about the University of Illinois-Springfield, in particular. The second part should appear sometime today. If you get a chance, listen to the story. Both parts. Do you subscribe to the podcast? ...

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[TIPS] when does voting end? And a tip

People have been asking (ok… A person has asked), “When does the voting close for the Edublogs award?” To that person I say, “Thanks for asking. Voting ends on December 6th and the winners to be announced the next day.” So, if you’re reading this post, I’d SURELY appreciate a vote here: http://edublogawards.com/2007/best-resource-sharing-blog-2007/ I feel cheapened. Begging for votes. So sad.              OK.. so here’s a tip to balance it out. Lots of folks have been talking about his site recently: http://www.asterpix.com/ Very cool site. It lets you build interactive videos with hypertext bubbles on your videos. Click on a link in the bubble to go to learn more about what’s going on. The only thing that bothers me, again,...

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Eye-Fi Revisited

I had posted earlier about the release of Eye-Fi, which is a 2 Gigabyte SD card with built-in WiFi. I recently purchased the Eye-Fi Card from Amazon and had the opportunity to use it the last couple of days with my Canon Powershot SD500 digital camera. To start off the packaging of the Eye-Fi is very appealing and clever. The Eye-Fi comes in a sliding box that includes a very simple installation guide, the Eye-Fi SD Card, and a USB SD Card Reader. To install the Eye-Fi Manager on my Mac Book, I simply plugged the Eye-Fi SD Card into the USB SD Card Reader and installed the software. Once installed, I opened the Eye-Fi Manager and configured...

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Posted in: digital cameras,eye-fi,phanfae,wifi

[TIPS] edublogs finalist - holy mackerel!

I just realized that I’d been sitting here for the past 5 minutes with my jaw hanging open in complete shock at this. http://edublogawards.com/edublog-awards-2007-finalists-announced/ I had no idea until I read Darren Draper’s post about it and … there it was. MY blog! Nominated in the Best Resource Sharing Blog category. It’s true. Here it is: http://edublogawards.com/2007/best-resource-sharing-blog-2007/ I’m blown away. I’m STILL having to slam my mouth closed when I think of it. Holy cow.Anyway, why not stop in over there and vote for YOUR favorite blog. There are lots of categories. Wow.. I just saw that I can get a ‘badge’ to put on my blog...

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[TIPS] Understanding the foot

Show this one to your biology teachers. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/195 When I saw that it was about the foot I thought, “How good could this be?” I’m glad I watched it.   In this video Robert Full from UC Berkley shows slow motion video of how many different creatures use their feet. Why? To be able to build a robot who feet function just as well. Just wait until you see this video. I think that it would be a fun video to show the biology classes.     ...

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[TIPS] social studies videos

http://www.izzit.org/videoclub/index.php I saw an excellent video in a social studies class today. It was about eminent domain. It was free to teachers. In fact, teachers can get one free each year that they're in the classroom. The ONLY requirement is that they submit a feedback form to them regarding the video. Not bad, eh? The teacher also said that the video he has from this site: http://stosselintheclassroom.org/ is also excellent. Share this with your favorite social studies teacher....

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Get Rid of Computer Consulting Time Wasters

When you are working in computer consulting, you are selling your personality, charisma and business knowledge. But your time is at a premium and you can’t afford to waste it. You have to keep track of every hour, whether billable, sales-related, prospecting or administrative.How do you figure out what is worth your time?Is It a Computer Consulting EmergencyIf you need to get rid of those that will waste your time and be more efficient, you have to know their sense of urgency. Is it a server down issue that is affecting 27 workers and destroying productivity? Then it’s a pretty urgent computer consulting need.It could be something much less urgent, like a broken PDA or something that affects just one person. Figure out what the situation is and whether it is a good use of your computer...

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Posted in: computer consulting

[TIPS] help for PETE&C conference

Ever since last year’s PETE&C conference and word that I was going to be involved with the conference this year, many people have said, “If you need any help, let me know.” Well, if that offer still stands, I’m letting you know. We’re looking for “Ambassadors” (aka volunteers) to help out with a variety of simple tasks from helping the presenters to helping with the many odd jobs that come up throughout the conference. There are two goals for us and for those who take on those roles. First, we want to make sure that the volunteers can still get to see and hear the sessions that interest them. Second, we want to make sure those tasks are done. And so, if you ARE interested in donating a bit of your time, please send me an email to jgates513@gmail.com to let me know. And thank you...

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[TIPS] study to determine if technology helps students learn

Here’s another article that was included in a recent ASCD brief. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071124/LOCAL/711240506/1196/LOCAL11 Indiana University will receive a $3.1 million grant to study how effective technology is in helping students learn. This will be one of the most watched studies in recent years, I’m sure, as districts around the nation –the WORLD – are asking if the money spent on technology is worth it. Now, I don’t want to come off sounding like I’m making excuses before the facts are known, but I would like to ask a question of my own before the study starts. What is the alternative? I hope that the study doesn’t just look at test scores, for example. I know that test scores can make or break a district in these days of NCLB, but I wonder if...

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[TIPS] iTunes tutorial

http://www.5min.com/Video/The-complete-I-tunes-tutorial-3455 Looking for a short iTunes tutorial on how to subscribe to podcasts? Check out that short video clip. The video is a bit bumpy in places, but it does a VERY nice job in showing the novice how to subscribe to podcasts. ...

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[TIPS] free Camtasia?

Yes, it’s true. How on earth did I learn about this? Yes, you guessed it. Through my blogs, of course. J THIS post, to be exact: http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/archives/2007/11/entry_3928.htm   I have used Camtasia to record all sorts of screencasts or to convert other movies I’ve made into other more web-friendly formats. Like this video: http://home.comcast.net/~gates808/cabin/turkey2_controller.swf that I took with my digital camera and converted to flash for fast loading on the web.   Now, this free version is an older version, but so what? It’ll get you started editing and converting and making movies and screencasts in record time. And you’re then eligible for an upgrade to the current version. Still, I believe the education discounts are better than this upgrade price,...

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Can You Say DimDim

This past year I have had the opportunity to experiment with many of the Web 2.0 tools which have allowed me to share my desktop (Yuuguu.com, Gatherplace.net), do video-conferencing (Skype, OoVoo) and to collaborate with others. Using a host of these services has extended my reach shall we say, and I know that the upcoming new year will bring me opportunities to further reach out and provide a host of services that were once just not possible. With broadband access it is now possible to have a genuine presence and provide both tutoring, consulting and training with your computer. Having access to high quality video conferencing through a service...

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Posted in: dimdim,gotomeeting,video conferencing,webex,webinar

IT Marketing: Direct Mail Pointers

Whether you decide to create IT marketing direct mail in the form of a letter, a flyer mailer, a big postcard or a regular-sized postcard, you need to focus on your headline and make it really eye catching. The same concept applies to your message.When you know your prospects’ problems well and what they really want for their businesses, you can best target your IT marketing direct mail pieces.IT Marketing: BenefitsYou need to make your mailings very benefits focused in order to be successful. For example, you can say, “Learn how our computer consulting company saves dental offices $10,000 per year in saved expenses.” If you are mailing to other dental office managers, they will want to contact you to hear more! This means action on their part, and that you need to give them something...

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Posted in: direct mail,IT marketing

[TIPS] The Blue Dot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M Carl Sagen narrates this perspective of the Earth in the galaxy and beyond. Another good writing prompt, perhaps? Someone posted this on the Classroom 2.0 ning. Remember to use zamzar (or something similar) to download it if you can't see YouTube. ...

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[TIPS] The Doomsday Vault

Hardly a topic for Thanksgiving, I realize, but this is when I’ll have time to write about it for a while.   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7097052.stm   I first heard of this story from one of my blogs (can you imagine?), the Long Views blog. I’m a member of the Long Now organization, and a metal card-carrying one, at that. But I digress…   Here is a story about the doomsday vault which is built into a mountain. The vault “…will house seeds from all known varieties of key food crops.” Why? Well, in case of a major disaster of some kind. We’ll need seeds to begin growing crops again. It’s costing the Norwegian government $9m to build.   I don’t know what to say about this. I just think it’s … interesting.   ...

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[TIPS] cyber-bullying at its worst

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2007/11/megans_tragedy.html   You won’t believe this story.   Cyber-bullying has been around since the first bulletin board. But THIS story will shock you. It ends with the suicide of Megan Meier due to continued cyber bullying. But the REAL tragedy and horror of this story lies with who was DOING the bullying. Read it.   You would think that cyber bullying would be the easiest thing in the world to avoid, wouldn’t you? If it’s happening in a chat, block that user. If it’s happening via email, set a rule to auto-delete. But, when it’s happening in your facebook account then only YOU can delete the comments – and you must first read them to see if they should be deleted.   Show these videos to your students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3oO3lbBGJQ...

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MindManager 30 Minute Power Training Videos

I tend to use MindManager Pro 7 daily to plan and organize information that I will need for my seminars and graduate classes, but if you are like me you tend to use only a limited number of features in any software appliction. While I was perusing the Mindjet website I came across their 30 Minute Power Training video sessions which really shows you all of the ways you can use MindManager to be more effective at what you do. The four training video modules include:1. Meeting Effectiveness2. Project Planning3. Information Management4. Collaboration & CommunicationI had a chance to view each of the videos and they gave me some new ways I could...

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Posted in: mind mapping,Mindjet,MindManager Pro 7

[TIPS] Read this

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/11/half-world-away-and-still-youre-near-me.html   Read that post. As she asks, “What are YOU doing to connect?” ...

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Error Reporting in XP

If error reporting in XP is bugging you then turn it off. When a system error occurs in XP, a little dialog box appears asking if you want to report the error to Microsoft. Click the message box to make it disappear. You don't have to report the error if you don't want to and on today's "Call for Help" Leo shows you how to turn off the feature if you find it distracting.To disable error reporting, follow these directions: 1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. 2. Click the Advanced tab on your System Properties dialog box. 3. Click the Error Reporting button on the Advanced tab. ...

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[TIPS] More from TED

Q: What do these folks have in common: Neil Turok, Dave Eggers, and Karen Armstrong?A: They are all winners of the Ted Prize and will be granted a Wish Watch the Ted site for the video of their acceptance speeches. I’m looking forward to it. In the meantime, check out this page: http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/6 It collects the videos by themes. “The Power of Cities”, “Animals that Amaze”, “Rethinking Poverty”, “The Rise of Collaboration” and more. Hover over a picture to see the talks dealing with that topic. You know, I’ve GOT to believe that we’ve got students in our schools who would be motivated and moved to action by some of these folks. Can’t we set aside part of a day each week/month to show a talk and invite conversation? Do you have a moodle site? Set up a discussion...

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[TIPS] Kindle book reader

Many thanks to Joan Adams for sharing this with me. “Did You Know… Predictions are that e-paper will be cheaper than real paper.”Remember that? Well, at almost $400 we’re not there yet. BUT… you MUST check this out. The Kindle reader lets you wirelessly read books, blogs, news feeds and much more. You’ve GOTTA see this video demo on this page!Project this out ten years. Twenty years. Do you think textbook publishers are nervous? Or do you think they’re already making plans for the conversion? Better yet – do you think this device will be banned in our schools? ...

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[TIPS] bubbleshare

Once again someone has asked for a suggestion for an alternative to flickr for creating photo slideshows. Why? If you create an embed object that pulls its images from flickr – and flickr is blocked – then your object won’t work. You can embed a slideshow, send a link to it, or post a or share a photo from the slideshow. You can also order prints or create gifts (calendars, books, posters, etc). There are some nice templates to use with your photos, too.Bubbleshare doesn’t mashup with flickr. You must upload your photos. So, as long as bubbleshare isn’t blocked you can see your pictures. If it IS blocked, ask to have it evaluated. This looks like a very family friendly site. Now, I’m not guaranteeing ANYTHING. I looked at the first 7 pages and didn’t find any that were inappropriate. But,...

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[TIPS] shared links on delicious

My del.icio.us account has become quite the resource for me. It’s not because of what *I* add to it, but for what others have sent me. This is fun. But, it’s also a very good way for students to share sites with you. Show them delicious and let them know your account name. Then encourage them to send you links. Oh… but delicious is blocked in so many schools, isn’t it? Oh well….Look at what has been sent to me recently:1. Mosaic Listserve Tools 2. CogDogRoo » Dominoe 50 Ways 3. Welcome to MyRocketbook.com! ROCKETBOOK Online Study Guides: Watch. Read. Succeed. 4. http://iteachr.com/learn2gether.html 5. Teaching the Civil War with Technology 6. Veropedia - Main Page 7. FreeRice 8. A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods 9. New Class(room)...

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a great time with friends and family! Enjoy! Br...

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Posted in: Thanksgiving

Keyboard shortcut of the week: born to run

You may have noticed that the Start menu has an item called 'Run'. The Run facility is a bit of a throw-back to the days of DOS, when we had to type commands to run programs rather than double click on icons. Nevertheless, it is still a useful tool in the Windows environment.You can open the Run box by clicking on 'Run' in the Start menu, or you can use the keyboard shortcut: hold down a Windows key and press R. The Windows keys have this symbol on, and are generally located near the Alt keys.Once you have opened up the Run box, simply type in a command and hit return. To get you started here is a list of commands and the programs that they open.calc...

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Posted in: Keyboard shortcut

Is There a Kindle in Your Future?

Amazon today released Kindle, a new book eReader gadget that allows you to download books, magazines and blogs. It uses the EVDO network to keep you connected to the Amazon website which means you do not need to be in the range of a Wifi connection to download books or to access the Amazon Store. There is no fee for being connected to the EVDO network for users. The Amazon Kindle will retail for $399 dollars and New York Times best sellers will cost you $9.95 to download. The question I have is, do we need another gadget to read books? While the demonstration looked pretty cool do we really need another electronic device to handle our books?...

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Posted in: Amazon,eReader,iPods,Kindle,Palm

Putting new buttons on toolbars in MS Office

A while ago I wrote an article that suggested that rather than printing directly from web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, it is better to copy the information that you want into a word processor and print it from there. In that article I mentioned the use of the 'Paste Special' in Word, which enables you to remove formatting from the information that you paste. In this article I will explain how to put a button for 'Paste Special' onto the toolbar in word. This technique can also be used to add any of the other available buttons onto the toolbar.Open up word and right-click on one of the toolbars, which are at the top of the screen below...

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Posted in: Excel,PowerPoint,Word Processing

IT Audits and Your Prospects

IT audits are the next logical step when you go on an initial sales call with a prospect. Unless your prospects have an emergency that needs immediate attention, you have to try to sell IT audits to get to the next level with IT services.Prospects may have a very specific concern that is bothering them, at which point you have a place to start and an advantage because you have a potential emergency. However, many times when you go on a sales call, IT audits and half-day technology assessments are a good suggestion.If It’s Fast, It’s FreeYou can propose a very abbreviated version of an IT audit where you go in for half an hour and offer clients a basic list of items to look at further. But when you start to spend more than half an hour, look at hubs, switches, how the Cat 5 stuff is laid...

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Posted in: IT audits

Eye-Fi -Perfect Gift for the Holidays

About a year ago I read about a company that was working on a SD Memory Card which would also include WiFi support. Having a SD Card with WiFi support would allow you to upload your digital pictures from your camera as long as you were in earshot of your WiFi network. It would be as simple as configuring the SD Card and then have your digital camera upload the pictures to your favorite website through your wireless network. Well today I was reading Steve Hargodon's blog as he recounted his experience with Eye-Fi the new 2GB SD Card with built-in WiFi. Steve had a great experience with Eye-Fi out of the box and it looks like this could be a great...

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Posted in: digital cameras,eye-fi,wifi

Finding Sweet Spot Computer Consulting Clients

If you want to do great business with your computer consulting business, you need to decide to work with the sweet spot of small businesses.But how do you decide who fits into this category? How do you really figure out which prospects will bring you enough recurring revenue to be real sweet spot clients? What Are the Signs of Sweet Spot Computer Consulting Clients?Sweet spot clients are located no more than 30-50 minutes driving distance from your home base. You want to be able to get plenty of face time with them and get there quickly in emergencies. You don’t want to have to sit in traffic and waste valuable billing hours. Finding Local Sweet Spot ClientsTo get great computer consulting prospects, you can rent direct mail lists that provide information on businesses in the range of 0...

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Posted in: computer consulting

Google Announces Android

We are living in very exciting times especially with regards to technology and the power that can be harnessed into very small devices. Just this past week, Google announced that they were releasing on Open Source Software Developer Kit called Android that would become new application platform for cell phones. They also announced that they were going to have a pool of $10 million dollars available to reward companies and individuals that designed innovative solutions with Android. To get a sense of the potential of Android- take a look at this YouTube vid...

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Posted in: Android,Google,YouTube

Recorded Webinar Available: Innovate using MindManager Pro 7 both in and out of the Classroom

I want to thank Gaelen and Kymberly from Mindjet, Inc for all their help and assistance for putting together the webinar which I recently did focusing on: Innovative uses of MindManager Pro 7 Pro both in and out of the Classroom. I haven't had a chance to see it yet, but the webinar was recorded and is now available online for those of you who weren't able to see it live. To view the recorded webinar click on this link. I hope you enjoy it- I know I really enjoyed doing the webinar and look forward to working with Mindjet, Inc on some future webina...

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Posted in: brian friedlander,mind mapping,Mindjet,MindManager Pro 7,webinar

[TIPS] Today's Cartoon

Anyone else see today's Dilbert cartoon? Since it's likely blocked at school I'll give you the details. ;-) Scene 1: "Mordac: The preventer of Information Services" Mordac (who has tiny little devil horns) says: "Security is more important than Usability" Scene 2: Mordac continues, "In a perfect world, no-one would be able to use ANYthing." Scene 3: User sitting at a computer. The message on the computer reads, "To complete the log-in procedure stare directly at the sun." Have a GREAT Friday!  :-)...

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Web Based Mind Mapping Applications- Survey

Chuck Frey has posted the results of a his most recent survey on web based mind mapping applications which can be viewed with this link. Chuck's survey are always informative and insightful and speak to the issues of using web based applications for mind mapping. I think that you will find both the quantitative and qualitative results very interesting. In particular, I think you will find user comments very interesting and right on the money. There are certainly lots of advantages as well as disadvantages of using web based applications which the survey highligh...

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Posted in: Chuck Frey,mind mapping,MindManager,survey

[TIPS] Thanksgiving site to see

Many thanks to Ken Pruitt (http://dasdtips.blogspot.com/2007/11/knowing-vs-understanding.html) for sharing this one with us on his blog.  http://www.plimoth.org/education/olc/index_js2.html   This flash-based site will have the kids exploring and discovering all sorts of things about the first Thanksgiving. Make sure you see the Teacher’s Guide.   Oh, and this may load slowly for you as the word spreads on this very timely site.   ...

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[TIPS] A Thanksgiving Lesson idea

I love my blogs. Not "MY" blogs, y' know, but the blogs that I read. Have I mentioned that lately? Take this post: http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=357 He asked his third graders to write a short essay about what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving. Then he.. well, I'll let you read it. But he pointed me/us to this site: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373664,00.html It's a photo story entitled, "What the World Eats." It's just 16 slides. Take a look. THEN write YOUR essay. I'm a lucky man....

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[TIPS] Meet Vicki's students

Why can’t WE do this? http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/11/meet-my-students-live-on-wednesday.html Vicki has some of her students at a conference in Atlanta and they’re going to work on their Flat Classroom Project LIVE! Nice, eh? But the NICER part is that she’s going to stream them live on UStream.tv. She’s going to broadcast her students live to the world as they work on their flat classroom wiki. Compare that to the fact that I tried to show my own little wiki (on Wikispaces) tonight to some teachers in a local district (who don’t get internet from MY IU) and it was BLOCKED. So was my blog. That IU is VERY heavy handed with its filter, but to block Wikispaces? What the @!#$%^ kind of educational philosophy is THAT? Now, we’re all following the same CIPA law, but we’ve got VASTLY...

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[TIPS] The gobbler episode

http://www.itsjerrytime.com/ Nope – this has NOTHING at all to do with school, or tests, or students, or even retirement J I just LOVE the work these two guys do. (Jerry and his brother) If this is your first time watching these, make sure you watch the episode called ”The Strange Trip” or the one about the swimming episode. You’ll see why I can’t mention the exact name. Enjoy....

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Livescribe Smartpen Coming Soon!

I had reported to you several months ago about the Livescribe smartpen which will be released early next year. Livescribe is presently accepting pre-orders at this time through the end of December. If you want to be first in line to receive this technological smartpen you can pre-order and save on the shipping and handling charges. There are some new pictures on the web site which show the actual pen and some of the accessories. The pen looks to be about the size of a Mont Blanc pen and it has an OLED display as well as a microphone and speakers built in. I am hopeful that I can receive a Livescribe smartpen to review for the blog and for my...

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Posted in: Anoto,digital pen,livescribe

Universal Design for Learning and Math Manipulatives

Sitting in a three day workshop on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) gave me some time to reflect on the state of software development and the power of the Internet. The focus of the three day workshop was on helping teachers to remove barriers to math instruction (Grades 5-8) in the classroom. Using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model we were able to look carefully at textbooks and lessons and figure out ways that we could present math lessons so that we provide students with multiple mean of representing math concepts. As our workshop leaders from CAST were presenting the information they pointed us to various sites on the Internet...

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Posted in: math,Universal Design for Learning,visual learning

Choose the Right Handheld Devices

If you want to advise your clients the right way when it comes to handheld devices, there are some tips you can follow that will help you avoid irritating tech support issues.Handheld Devices: Be Smart!You need to tell clients to be careful when they are thinking about buying new handheld devices that have yet to be proven on the market. There can be major design and software bugs that haven’t been fixed yet within the first three or six months after a product is released. Your best bet is to let someone else deal with the frustration of being an early adopter.Also, get software, peripherals and accessories bundled with your handheld device purchase. This will save money and time on installation and improve your chances at compatibility.What Are You Buying?You should pay close attention...

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Posted in: handheld devices

Sounds & videos in PowerPoint on a different PC

If you are setting up a PowerPoint presentation that has audio or video content, make sure that the media files will be available when you give the presentation. For example, you have a slideshow that plays an mp3 when a certain slide is shown. You must make sure that the mp3 file will be accessible wherever you want to show the presentation, that is, if you are using a USB memory stick make sure that the media files are on the stick before you create the link to them in PowerPoint, or if you are using a CD-Rom, make sure all the media files are in the same folder as the PowerPoint file and then burn them all together in the same folder on the CD-R...

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Posted in: PowerPoint

[TIPS] remote control for powerpoint on the mac

MANY thanks to Kurt Paccio for his post that tells us of a free, remote control ap for PowerPoint on the macs. http://weblog.techruminations.org/2007/11/macbook-remote-control-with-powerpoint.html As soon as I get home I'm going to download this one and give it a workout. As Kurt asks, has anyone out there tried this one yet? &nb...

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Bring files back from the dead, continued...

The authors of PC Inspector File Recovery recommend that you install it on a different drive from the one you want to retrieve lost files from. This may not always be possible, but if you have a second drive or a USB memory stick, then install the software onto one of these.Once installed, run the software.Select your language when prompted.Click on the 'Recover Deleted Files' tab as shown on the left of this image.As you can see, I have a number of drives on my PC. On most machines there will only be two drives listed in the list. Select the drive you wish to search for deleted files, usually this will be 'Windows drive C:', and click on the...

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Posted in: File Recovery,Freeware

Get the Computer Consulting Word Out

Your current computer consulting business clients, friends and family have to know all about your business. They should know which kinds of companies you serve, what you do and also that you are very appreciative of referrals. When you ask really good open-ended questions, you might find thyat a simple discussion turns into a $10,000 or even $15,000 opportunity. What Did You Overhear?Sometimes you might overhear conversations in your computer consulting work that tell you someone needs your help. You may get a client asking on behalf of someone in accounting at the same business that is having the same problem over and over again. This is your chance to snag a new opportunity.The Best Questions Are Open EndedYou need to get customers talking in constructive ways about your computer consulting...

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Posted in: computer consulting