There are still many Indiana schol districts that haven’t taken advantage of this incredible opportunity to install Read:OutLoud text-to-speech on ALL district and ALL student home computers, AT NO COST!  PATINS-Project and the State of Indiana has already purchased this unlimited license for all Indiana K-12 districts with a Digital Rights Manager (DRM).  All the DRM in your district needs to do is go to this website to download the software: http://www.icam.k12.in.us/DJ/DJLogin.aspx

The September 15th letter announcing this unique opportunity for Indiana schools can be downloaded here: http://www.icam.k12.in.us/LEADRMannouncment.pdf

Remember this software can (and should) be used with all students, not just those who qualify for NIMAS File Sets.  Contact me with questions you might have about this opportunity.

TRLD: Two weeks ago I gave a few short intros to several tools I learned at TRLD and promised to go into more detail on them.  So, here’s one of my new favorites!

Bubbl: The first tool worth spending some time with is called, “Bubbl.”  Bubbl is a website: http://bubbl.us/, so it can be accessed on any computer with internet capabilities AND it’s FREE.  Think of Bubbl as a concept mapping or brainstorming application.  Each bubble can be moved, linked or re-linked to other bubbles, named, re-colored.  You don’t even need to sign up for the free account to start using it.  You simply click Start Brainstorming as in the image to the left.  If you want to save your creation, then you do need to create a free account.  This tool, to me, seems like a great resource for the classroom (any classroom) the case conference, parent-teacher conferences, alternate method of response and/or pre-writing preparation for students to use at home, etc.  A sample Bubbl looks like this:

ATIA…and some more from ATIA 2009: The idea of Assimilation vs. Accommodation was something interesting in one of my sessions that I wanted to share.  We all know that far too often, when we try to incorporate or implement technology into the classroom, that it ends up getting dusty over in the corner of the room.  There are likely many reasons this happens, but this concept of Assimilation vs. Accommodation is one that really stuck with me.  Most of the time I think we try to Assimilate technology into what we are already doing in the classroom.  Think of this as doing old things in new ways.  When we do this, we can often end up saving time, being more efficient, etc, but not really changing the core achievement of students.  Accommodation, on the other hand refers to really taking a look at doing things in completely new ways, possibly with new technologies.  Are we truly teaching our students to be literate when we consider non-linear or hypertext reading, interactive text and multi-media reading and navigation?

Mac Screen-Capture: I received a question about screen-capture software for the Mac yesterday and did a little researching that I thought was worth sharing.  On the PC, I certainly have my favorite tools of Camtasia (paid) and CamStudio(free).  But, on the Mac I hadn’t yet found anything I’d consider a favorite.  Here’s a quick list of products on the Free Mac Blog that I thought was certainly worth sharing here: www.freemacblog.com/mac-options-for-capturing-a-video-of-your-screen/.  Playing around with them myself, I have to say that I like iShowU HD the best.  It is not a free one, but relatively inexpensive at around $29.  It includes YouTube upload and capture from video cameras as well.  iShowU (w/out the HD) is around $20.   There is also an iShowU HD PRO for $59 which adds a few features you may or may not need such as watermarking and audio mixing.

JING:  Of course, there is my old friend JING for both the PC and the Mac that will also do screen capture as both still images and video.  However, the free version of JING only records screen video as an swf file.  This is fine, unless you need to convert to another format or do editing on.  The paid version of JING costs $14.95/year and offers many additional features including the recording of video in formats other than swf.

PATINS TECH EXPO 2009

April 16, 2009
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Junior Achievement Building
of Central IN, Inc.
7435 North Keystone Ave.
Indianapolis, IN  46240
No Cost to attend!   Door Prizes
To Register:
http://patinsproject.com/training.html