Cool Tools for School

I tried out Google Sketch Up, which is a free 3-D CAD (Computer Assisted Drafting) program. It's not worth the time to learn in my mind because of its limited features. I've been spoiled by Autodesk Software and just can't seem to find a suitable replacement. I'd buy the Autodesk Software, but it's in the hundreds of dollars and more powerful than I need. Sketch Up looke promising, but you can't import pictures for backgrounds, create multi-sided polygons, or o-snap to gridpoints. So, it just won't work for me.

Createagraph is a nice piece of basic graphing software, but is a far cry from Excel. Once again, this free software offers the bare bones basics, but its professional counterpart blows it out of the water. This is a natural occurence, yet it would be nice to find free (or less costly) software programs that go beyond the basic tools, yet keep things basic in an effort to keep prices down. There not be a suitable market for this though. So, the option is to either buy the expensive toy or deal with the basic one.

Samorost-1 is a creepy, odd exploratory game about trying to explore an alien space ship. I wouldn't recommend it for schools. The 3rd screen has an animation of a guy smoking a huka...

Wordle

Wordle is pretty fun!

I created on for the Pythagorean Theorem and another for an introduction to Euclidean Geometry. I think this is a great way to get students interested in seeing a "big picture" (main concept" without forcing them to read a boring paragraph.

It also incorporates various parts of their brains (in my opinion). I think it speaks to both their logical and creative sides...which most likely helps them to integrate new ideas.

Digital Storytelling

I've been playing around with Digital Storytelling for some time now. Recently, I made this slide shows set to music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDmWpmaJL6c

I made this on movie maker & it was pretty simple and painless. Similar products can be made using Powerpoint, but they run a little smoother and are easier to build.

Students could use this to make presentations similar to those they've been making in Powerpoint in past years. I think that the simplicity of using Automoto or a comparable website/program will encourage students to use this form of media more often though.

Diigo

Diigo is a rather complicated, but useful site for social bookmarking of other websites. I prefer using iGoogle to keep my bookmarks available from any computer I use. However, they are not open to public sharing. For that purpose, Diigo is superior.

Moodle is a alternative option for students if they wish to keep a wiki/sharing page open. From a class moodle page, links can be added & comments can be stored about the web pages.

If a teacher wants yet more control, then his/her school website could also contain a page of links, and that would give the teacher tighter control of which website links were added to a class list. This option would require a lot more input by the teacher though.

I think that as long as Diigo were closely monitored by the teacher, it would be a very useful site during research work in the classroom.

Wikis

Wikis have an advantage over Google Docs in that people my sign up to be members without needing an invitation. So, people interested in a particular subject can congregate and "make new friends" without needing to already be in an "inner circle".

However, with this advantage comes the other side of the knife edge. There is a potential for unwanted posts & changes to be made. Internet "graffiti" can run rampant on wikis whilst being all but nonexistant on "invitation only" Google Docs.

Moderating a wiki takes a higher level of monitering. However, it allows for a greater number of "strangers with common interests" to share and learn.

6 of 1, half a dozen of the other I suppose...

Google Reader

Among a couple of rather nerdy Math readers, I also added the "Official Google Blog" to my list of 5 readers. It's a nice "one stop shop" to keep myself updated on how Google, & Gmail are helping me keep up with the exponentially growing world of technology on the Interwebs.

Google Reader is a nice way to have selected blogs come to my home page. Good stuff!

ITunes U

ITunes U is actually pretty "swanky". I now have a lecture about "modern scientific uses of hyperbolic geometry" on my IPod. That's pretty cool for a high end math nerd such as myself.

VoiceThread

I signed up for VoiceThread recently and watched my first video.



This was the video I watched & commented on.

Skype

Kevin Dennis & I "Skyed" one another one evening last week. The online video conferencing software was nice, and much easier to use than AOL's Live Chat which I've been using to allow my kids to video chat with their grandparents.

I'm not certain if Skype has recently renovated their home page, but this past visit to their site was much easier to navigate than previous attempts at setting up an account.

My only complaint about my first attempt at "Skyping" was that once I closed the window that contained my conversation with Kevin, the connection did not close as well. I could not see any connection to Skype via my task bar, however I could still talk to Kevin & hear him...and he could still see me. It wasn't until I pulled the USB plug of my webcam from its port that the connection was closed. I thought that was sketchy.

Overall, I could see Skype being used in the classroom as a tool for communicating with either peers from another school or current authorties of relevant topics that we discuss in class. Such video sessions could offer my students a glimpse at the larger world of math in our global community and offer a means to reinforce the importance of learning the topics we discuss every day.

Audacity

I made my audacity file today. It went pretty smoothly. I used to as a way to accurately give repeated instructions to each of my classes during finals. It seems that students still have trouble understanding how sensitive scantron machines are. So, they carelessly write on the answer sheet, which results in points being taken away.

Anyway, the audacity program does offer a simple, and viable option for recording audio tracks and playing back in the classroom.

I used the .wav files because I could not download the LAME file (as I'm not an administrator). I won't have a problem using the .wav file, however I would like the LAME file because I feel that the .avi file is a more universal recording.

I'll look into getting the LAME file...

Here's a link to my Audacity "trial file"

http://www.mariemontschools.org/vahue/OAA%20Audacity%20File.wav