Picnik Anyone? A free, online photo/image editing program. Obviously, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that Photoshop has, but it has it’s advantages. It is free and it is online, so you can access it and use it to edit your images when you might be at another computer that doesn’t have your Photoshop or other editor of choice installed. Check it out. This is an online tool that I’ve been meaning to spend some time with for over a year now. This weekend I finally got to play with it for a while and I’m fairly impressed. http://www.picnik.com/

Zoho Show: A powerful way to create multimedia presentations online with pre-built themes and drag and drop ease of use. Check it out here as a potential Alternate Response Format for some of your students, which of course is UDL Principle #2; Multiple and Flexible means of allowing your students to respond or to show you what they know! http://show.zoho.com/jsp/zoho_login.jsp?serviceurl=%2FHome.do

Animoto: An online, free way for your students upload images, select music and produce short videos! Another great alternate response format choice for your students! http://animoto.com/

Ning: Free Online Social Networking.

Cell Phone Podcasting? You probably have a cell phone and you probably have some idea about what podcasting is by now. (If you don’t, call me tomorrow NE Indiana!) Well, here is a website that will allow you to record podcasts using your cell phone or VOIP, add audio to your blogs and more! This site may not be anything new to some of you, but if you haven’t really given it a shot, this is well worth checking into. http://www.gabcast.com/

UDL Collaboration Day: Last week, on February 26, Indiana’s UDL Pilot School Teams, came together in Indianapolis to share what they’ve been working on within their buildings this year as well as in past years of the UDL grant. This was also the first time that brand new UDL Pilot Teams joined in on the Collaboration Day. Wow, there are some Indiana schools doing amazing things with their Universally Designed Learning environments! See photos from this year’s collaboration day here: http://www.patinsproject.com/UDLCollab2008Gallery/index.html
Learn more about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how it has been a major piece of PATINS and Indiana since 2003: http://www.patinsproject.com/universal_design_for_learning_project.htm

Don’t Forget about the …

PATINS TECH EXPO 2008
April 16, 2008
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
No Cost to attend!
Free Box Lunch Included
To Register:
http://patinsproject.com/htm/tech_expo_08.htm

~Upcoming Workshops at my site:~

• March 18: SMARTBoards in Your Classroom (few spots left)
• April 24: Intro to Wiki’s, Blogs & Skype for Learning
• May 5th: UDL and RTI: The Intersection
• May 14: Universal Design for Learning & Assistive Technology Overview
• May 23: Self-Operated Prompting Systems with the Video iPod
  

  Click Here For Registration Form

The first week in April, I will also be presenting at the ‘08 CEC Conference in Boston. If anyone from the NE Region is also attending this conference and would like to network, just let me know.

Next week the ~EduChallenge~ will return with another pretty easy objective for you to try. Hopefully, the last one, using MS Paint (or similar program) to add TEXT to your digital images, has been no problem for you. Don’t hesitate to contact me for help though!