PATINS PROJECT -Rapid Fire- » EduChallenge

3/13/2009: VodPod, NASA-Accessibility-Second Life, Sage Math, TypeIt ReadIt Update, Virtual Guidedogs, New Response Method (prize) and more.

danielgmcnulty — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:01:04 +0000

VODPOD: You’ve probably noticed that for the last two weeks, there are some new videos just to the right of the main content area of the blog. This area is usually referred to as the “widget area” and one of my new “widgets” is the VodPod! It’s a free tool that allows me to collect videos that I like in one place and then embed a widget to them in something like a blog or a website. It works with videos that I might find while surfing the net or I can search for videos on a specific topic/keyword. I can create multiple ‘themed’ collections of videos, etc. Check it out, it’s FREE! http://vodpod.com/ **Please be advised that vodpod is just a tool, a resource for making collections of videos that you might find on the internet, such that you can group them for efficiency. As with most other tools, real or virtual, this resource could be used for collecting appropriate/educational videos or potentially inappropriate content. Of course, my intentions are always educational and my belief is that teachers are professional enough to explore tools in an appropriate way as well. Just be advised that vodpod could display links to content that could be inappropriate for the classroom depending on what sort of content you are searching for. The way I’ve utlized the tool however, demonstrates one appropriate and powerful use of this resource.

TypeIt Read It Update: Last Summer, I blogged a little about an application called TypeIt ReadIt for Mac and I actually used this program to create audio for a podcast from a transcript of a class I was teaching one day a week. Version 1.5 is now available and includes some nice features like increased font size to 200pt, more fluent reading, user settings saved, more consistent text to audio and more. However, one feature they removed was highlighting or tracking of the text. This may not be important for your uses (especially if just using for text to audio files), but remember that the research supports tracking or highlighting of the text for all users of text to speech software. TypeItReadIt is also dual platform meaning it’ll work on your Macs and your PC’s, and it’s FREE! Check it out here: www.schoolfreeware.com

There are also some video tutorials available for using it on both Mac and PC here:

The video tutorial for TypeIt ReadIt Mac is found at:

http://blip.tv/file/1830515

The video tutorial for TypeIt ReadIt Windows is found at:

http://blip.tv/file/1830486

Second Life Networking:

I’ll be speaking to a group of college students from Empire State College in NY on April 1 & 2 in the evenings about what PATINS does in the state of Indiana with regard to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Assistive Technology. Their island is intended for university students preparing to be science teachers to have classes and to become familiar with immersive worlds technology. You should consider visiting their place in SL, especially if you are involved in science education: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Empire%20State%20College/58/90/23 I stumbled across this opportunity while visiting ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Island in Second Life and started talking with the professor of this class at Empire State College. …just another example of the amazing networking potential of this tool!

Virtual Guidedogs! I spent about 45 minutes with a lady last week in Second Life, who’s visually impaired in Real Life. She uses a scripted guidedog in Second Life named Max, to help her navigate the virtual world and interact with it. She spent about 45 minutes training me to use the guidedog as well and I have to say that I’m very, very impressed.

Sage Math: www.sagemath.org I also attended a math class in Second Life this week. This was a math teacher demonstrating how a math class could be taught almost entirely in Second Life, which was quite impressive. One of the tools he was using to teach with was the Open Source Sage Math. I’m sure many of you math teachers are already familiar with it, but it was new for me and quite exciting. I’d love to hear comments from those of you using it already or who likely have more knowledge than I about teaching math. It’s definitely worth taking a look at though if you haven’t yet!

Also, while in this Second Life demonstration of a math lesson, I connected with a director at NASA. She noticed that I was using the virtual guidedog and we ended up talking and exchanging links about accessibility. Check out this website she shared with me. I’m sure I’ll be talking more about it in the future: NASA, Accessibility and Second Life: http://prime.jsc.nasa.gov/

NEW! Comment on this blog with your own video and/or audio! Who will be the first to post a video comment to the PATINS Rapid Fire Blog? I think this is really exciting and such a powerful example of an alternate form of response! Remember UDL principle #2; multiple and flexible means of response! I’m so excited about this new feature of the blog that I’m offering a prize to the first one of you who responds with a video and/or audio comment! The prize isn’t much, but it is something useful, it is something real (not virtual) that I’ll send to you and it has to do with PATINS and UDL! So, it’s got to be good right?

Don’t forget to register for the Tech Expo:
www.patinsproject.com/training.html

…and Download your copy of Read:OutLoud Text To Speech Software at no Cost:
www.icam.k12.in.us/DJ/DJLogin.aspx

And Remember to Suggest Workshops for me here: www.patinsproject.com/ne.html

1/2/09: Happy 2009! We Need To Talk…

danielgmcnulty — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:53:44 +0000

Let’s Start Talking More in ‘09: Happy New Year everyone! When thinking about what I could include in this week’s blog, I wanted to create a theme for the new year. I decided on simple, dedicated and powerful. I thought long and hard about what you’ve all told me you find most valuable over the last 2.5 years and two overriding themes consistently presented themselves in workshop evaluation comments, face to face conversations, emails and phone calls. Networking and Hands-On Experiences were, by far, what you’ve all told me you value more than just about anything else.

This is very interesting to me because these two valuables are also what I fear are in most danger of disappearing from our experiences as professional educators completely. It’s no secret that funds are tight and a reoccuring issue over the past couple of years has been lack of professional development funds for educators to attend workshops and conferences (Networking) and lack of lab workshops (Hands-On Experiences). So, how is it that we’ve arrived at a place where the two things educators indicate are of the highest value to them are also two of the first items to be cut? I’m not sure of the answer to that question and I’m not sure our time is well spent determining one.

Rather, we should focus our efforts on ways to be innovative and more efficient. Simple, Dedicated and Powerful. MOBCASTING is something I mentioned quickly once before I think, but it’s something we should revisit in more detail. By the way, I usually link new terminology to it’s entry in Wikipedia as you probably know, but Wikipedia currently has no entry at all for Mobcast!

…Might be a fun exercise as your students come back from break to come up with a definition of Mobcast and enter it in Wikipedia AS A CLASS! How cool! How engaging!

Mobcasting, according to the Whatis.com Podcasting Glossary, is: “an audio program that can be received on cell phones or mobile devices. Also called a “mobilecast” or, in the case of video content, “movlog.“

What I’m suggesting is that educators start using Mobcasting as a quick, simple and powerful way to Network with other educators and also to provide themselves with some Hands-On training in the podcasting areas. Think of Mobcasting as podcasting with the added ability for DISCUSSION!

So, the next few week’s will be dedicated to Mobcasting including detailed step-by-step how-to’s. For now, know that it’s free (although requires cell phones or recording devices of some sort), it’s easy and innovative. It’s honestly as easy as dialing your cell phone and talking into it once someone sets it up.

Think of it as a group of educators using their cell phones to post voice messages, thoughts, ideas, questions to a common pool of audio files available to not only their network, but to the general public if they so choose! This is powerful, it’s mobile, it’s easy and efficient! Let’s Do It!

A Few Mobcasting examples worth taking a look at:

Hurricane Katrina: “A Public Gallery of Thoughts, Images and Sounds in Response to Hurricane Katrina” This was created as an open forum for people to respond via blog posting and/or Mobcast/podcast. Very cool idea!

KnowProse.com: A nice article on many of the aspects of what I have in mind for mobcasting educators. www.knowprose.com/node/1438

AndyCarvin Mobcasting! http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/mobcasting/

TechTV: http://www.g4techtv.com/screensavers/episodes/3852/JibJab_Nerdy_Cookbooks_Mobcasting.html

AND a bonus for this week: With a new computer at home (which is where I am this week), I had a need today to get files off of my iPod before formatting it to the new Mac at home. A great little free application that did the job nicely is called iPoddisk. It’s a helpful tool for anyone making a switch from a PC formatted iPod to Mac. Check it out here: http://mac.sofotex.com/download-129449.html

5/2/08: Interactive WhiteBoards, Seussville, DropIO, EduChallenge…

danielgmcnulty — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:46:23 +0000

Interactive WhiteBoards: I’ve posted briefly before about interactive whiteboards and if you’ve ever attended one of my workshops, you’ve likely heard me rave about the Smartboard I used to teach with in my classroom. It’s the one tool I would honestly have a very difficult time teaching in a classroom without! Anyway, I came across this techlearning posting about interactive whiteboards and thought it was a very concise description of why they have recently become so popular in the education world. It’s a quick read and worth your time if you’re curious about these boards! http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196605172

Seussville Book Creator: Another GREAT find by the NW Coordinator, Jim; this is a Dr. Seuss website where you/your students can create an animated book with Horton characters by choosing your scenes, your characters and then typing in your script! Very fun and likely to motivate a few of your reluctant writers to express themselves a little! Check it out:
http://www.seussville.com/games/storymaker/story_maker.html

DropIO: A free and easy way to exchange files, large or small, via the internet with other people you are collaborating with. This would be a good way to share/exchange podcast files you’re class with working on with someone in another class who is maybe editing them and then posting the episodes, etc! Check this out. There is no need to use your email address, no account to set up, it is private and any sort of media can be “dropped.” http://drop.io/

PATINS State Conference: Don’t forget to submit a call for papers for the 2008 PATINS State Conference General Sessions! Click Here: http://www.patinsproject.com/htm/trainop.html

~EduChallenge #6~

So, last time you were to make sure you had Firefox installed and then to get the Hyperwords Add-on installed into Firefox. (See last weeks post if you’re behind )
This week, take that Hyperwords application and come up with just one single use for it for one specific student in your classroom. Remember all the cool things that Hyperwords can do: translate, link to references, searching, speech to text, highlighting, etc.

THEN, come back here and post comments on your ideas. Don’t post any student names of course, but post a quick comment on your idea and the student’s barrier to learning you think it might help with. This could be a great resource/idea/networking tool IF you all come back here and post comments! …OK, Go!

..and submit a Call For Papers!
http://www.patinsproject.com/htm/trainop.html

4/25/08: PATINS State Conference ‘08, Tech Expo, Learning In Hand, Gabcast, EduChallenge-5!

danielgmcnulty — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:35:35 +0000

PATINS State Conference 2008!!! I know, I know it’s not even May, but this past December’s PATINS State Conference was a such a positive event and we’ve already been in the planning stages for several weeks now to make the next one even better. There will be 45 minute General Sessions as part of this year’s conference and we need the outstanding educators, therapists, administrators, tech. directors, media specialists, etc., who read this blog, to consider submitting a proposal to present one or more of the great things you are doing with and for your students!

The Call For Papers for General Sessions can be submitted online by filling out the form here:
http://www.patinsproject.com/callforpapers.htm
This year’s conference will be held at the Crowne Plaza (same as last year) on November 10th, 11th. So, get those dates on the calendar and into the budget now.

PATINS ‘08 Tech Expo: The 2008 PATINS Tech Expo was a big success! Attendees that I talked with seemed to be very excited about new ideas they had for all the new technology they were seeing and hearing about. I got very excited about several new things I saw as well! Something I’ll likely be doing a workshop on in the Fall will be placing tests or other pieces of digital reading material onto portable devices like iPods w/out a teacher ever having to read the test and the student being able to hear and see the text highlighted as it’s read by the iPod or other device.
Click Here for Photos from the Tech Expo!

iPod Lessons and General iPod How-To:Learning In Hand, iPods in Education from Tony Vincent… A true EXPERT when it comes to iPods and PDAs in classrooms! Everyone, whether or not you love portable content, should visit and become familiar with Tony’s work. Here’s a quick screenshot of the site, which should be enticing enough! Particularly interesting to me at the moment is using iQuiz quizzes on iPods coupled with my Self-Operated iPod Prompting system:

Gabcast again: What a cool tool! I posted briefly about Gabcast as a free way to podcast from your phone (land or cell) back on 3/7/08 (HERE) and have since started really using it myself. I’ve created a free account for myself and the first couple episodes are just Sandy and I testing it out. The third episode is a very short (24 seconds) interview of yesterday’s Skype, Wikis & Blog workshop here in Columbia City. Basically, once your Gabcast account is set up, podcasting really couldn’t be any easier! I simply call a 1-800 number and then punch in my podcast code and then I start talking! As soon as I’m done, I simply push the #2 on my phone which immediately publishes the podcast to the public RSS feed! In other words, within 10 seconds of me publishing by pushing the #2 on my phone, anyone in the world could be listening to that podcast episode! That’s powerful! HOW COOL, for a teacher to podcast a 2 minute note to parents at the end of the day in this way, or for students to do this while on a field trip, or while interviewing other people (which hits a lot of state standards), etc! Obviously there really isn’t any editing or fancy intro/outro music when podcasting this way, but it’s so easy and with most phones, the quality is really quite acceptable, even for an audiophile like myself! If you are interested in subscribing to my Gabcast, here is the RSS feed: www.gabcast.com/casts/19096/rss/rss.xml In iTunes, subscribe by clicking Advanced and the Subscribe to Podcast and then paste the above URL into the text box, like this:

~EduChallenge #5~

Ok, this is pretty simple. I raved for a couple weeks there (3/21 and 3/28) about the Firefox Add-On called Hyperwords, to “make every word on the internet interactive.” I am still absolutely loving this FF Add-On and I think it’s quite possibly the easiest, quickest and most effective way to instantly give students at both ends of the achievement spectrum a very beneficial tool for almost every aspect of the general education curriculum! The challenge this week is to:

1. Get or make sure you have Firefox on your computer. (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)
2. Go get and install the Hyperwords Add-On. (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1941)

And that’s it! I’ve given direct links to both places you’ll need to go, so it’s just a matter of clicking! Next week we’ll build on using Hyperwords in your classrooms, so get it installed this week!

..and submit a Call For Papers!
http://www.patinsproject.com/htm/trainop.html

4/11/08: Blogging Reluctance, Podcast for Free Online, More from the iPod 100 List

danielgmcnulty — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:38:11 +0000

Blogging Reluctance: I’ve talked to many schools recently who are doing some amazing things with blogging in their classrooms. Edublogs states, “Edublogs hosts hundreds of thousands of blogs for teachers, students, researchers, professors, librarians, administrators and anyone and everyone else involved in education.” Yet, I still run into schools/districts that prohibit blogging altogether.

So, I wanted to pass on this link to Techlearning’s short article on reluctant bloggers that found it’s way into my inbox this week and I’d love to hear from you about how/why you’re using blogs OR how/why you’re not using blogs.

Podcast For Free Online: Check out MyPodcast.com for a free online way to record, edit and publish a podcast! Very cool.

A couple more from the iPod 100 List: This week I looked at two more of those 100 Instructional iPod uses I posted a couple weeks ago.

ESL Podcasts was the first one I checked out. These are free podcast intended to help ESL students learn English.

Mogopop! was my next adventure. This is a sharing site for multimedia created by other users for use on iPods. Some areas have quite a bit of content, some of it directly intended for education. Some other areas are still a little sparse, but I’m sure it will continue to grow. I plan on spending quite a bit more time here.

Take the Online Web 2.0 Survey!

It should only take you 2 minutes tops and would certainly help PATINS in knowing how we can better serve schools when it comes to utilizing the abundance of free, online, interactive and collaborative tools available! It’s free, it’s easy and no registration is required: Click Here To Participate in the Survey

3/14/2008:Must See UDL on MSNBC! Kg. Teachers! A Bunch of Blabber, a Quick Web 2.0 Survey, A Great Math Tool and EduChallenge #4

danielgmcnulty — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:07:45 +0000

Web 2.0 Barriers: I think it’s important to have a better understanding of why some places are really embracing Web 2.0 tools and strategies and other places are not using them at all. Using SurveyMonkey, I’ve created a quick and easy survey for you to respond to about using Web 2.0 tools and the challenges you view. I realize that if you are here reading my blog, you are more likely to be one of the people in a place that embraces these tools, but please take just a minute or two and check this out: Click Here to take survey

Do you teach Kg? If you are a Kg Teacher and are looking for exciting ways to ignite your pre-reading and pre-writing curriculum and to make it more accessible, engaging and fun, please get in touch with me. I’d love to help you get some web 2.0 tools in place and I’ve got some exciting, free ideas for doing so! dmcnulty@r8esc.k12.in.us

UDL on msnbc: This is a great video, less than 3 minutes long, about UDL and how Universal Design benefits EVERYONE!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/19558409#19558409

Blab blab Blab…
Blaberize.com is a free website that allows you or your students to upload digital images and then animate the mouth portion of the photo to accompany their voice recording. …might be a fun way to give a presentation or a report that students would certainly find engaging and would also allow them to practice several 21st Century Skills along the way including, working with digital images, uploading, recording and working with audio, etc. http://www.blabberize.com/main/

MathTrax! MathTrax was introduced to me by Mel, the Technology Director in Lakeland. It was “invented by NASA to offer the ability to write out some of the equations they use. It may be an easier/more accessible way for some of your students to write the functions / equations. Check it out! Thanks Mel! http://198.122.144.210/mathtrax/bviDownload.htm

~EduChallenge #4~

If you haven’t gotten into podcasts yet, you are missing out!

EduChallenge #4 is to find 1 Podcast that genuinely interests you and SUBSCRIBE TO IT! Two of the easiest ways to find and subscribe to podcasts are by using the iTunes Store in the iTunes Software and/or the Marketplace in the Zune Software. By the way, don’t the terms, “Store” and “Marketplace” deter you from getting into listening to podcasts. With VERY few exceptions, all podcasts are FREE. So, if you don’t already have either the free Zune software or the free iTunes software is to download and install it, then visit the online store or the marketplace, from within the software, find the podcast area and subscribe to just one podcast that you find interesting and just observe what happens over the next few weeks to you podcast.

2/22/08: Today’s Podcasting Workshop, Microsoft Acess Guide, Reading Website, Another iTunes Alternative and the EduChallenge

danielgmcnulty — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:12:52 +0000

Something I’ve just started is a new podcast where each new episode will be some portions of audio recording from the various workshops that I do. The main purpose behind this is to demonstrate to workshop participants how incredibly easy it is to produce a simple podcast. This will not be anything fancy and to be honest, is MUCH more about the process of podcasting than the product. All of these recordings are done using a basic handheld Olympus digital recorder and NO EDITING… They will all be produced and published w/in minutes of the workshops conclusion using Tool Factory Podcasting software.

The workshop I did today here in Columbia City was actually on podcasting, so I figured it was a good way to start! You can check out the RSS Feed here if you’re interested: http://www.dgmphotography.net/PATINS/Podcasts/DanielGMcNul210208212630/rss.xml

Let me know if you need help subscribing. Sometime in the next week it should also be available on iTunes.
Microsoft AT Guide: Last week I came across this Accessible Technology Guide from Microsoft and thought parts of it could be quite helpful to many people and might be worth checking out. http://www.microsoft.com/enable/education/default.aspx

Starfall Reading: http://www.starfall.com/ A cool, free and potentially very useful reading website, mostly for younger students introduced to me this week by a therapist in the Smith-Green area. Thanks Amy! Good find.

Yamipod: Last week I mentioned the iDump as a descent alternative to working with iPod devices, but not using the iTunes software to do it, because a few districts are not allowing iTunes to be used at all. This week, Jeff at the Central PATINS Site found another one that might be even better than iDump. This one is called Yamipod and is FREE! The full version of iDump was about $10. If you like Yamipod though and use it, you can donate however much you’d like to the developer via his website: http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/home/

~EduChallenge #3~

From the last two week’s EduChallenges, you should have 10 digital images on your computer. Now, we’re going to work with those digital images a little bit in a way that should provide you with some useful skills/tools for classroom purposes. You will be adding text to your images! Probably doable in your sleep for some of you, but for others… relax, this is easy!

First, go to START and Programs and Accessories and then PAINT, as you see displayed in the screen-shot below.

With the PAINT application now open: Click on File and then OPEN and then browse to one of your images.

With one of your images now open, Select the TEXT TOOL on the left side of Paint Application, like this:

Then click and drag out a TEXT BOX in a relatively empty part of your photograph, like this:

Now you can type some text, which will should become sight-words after enough time and use:

Super easy, free and potentially quite beneficial to your classroom activities and instruction. With your remaining 9 photographs, practice adding some text to them! Let me know if you have questions!

Thats it for this week. Next week, I’ll post some requested items such as ideas for podcasting in your classrooms and schools and some information from Dave Edyburn on the issue of giving ZERO Scores and Grading Policies. Don’t forget to register for the Tech Expo, its FREE: http://www.patinsproject.com/htm/tech_expo_08.htm

Upcoming Workshops at my site:

Feb. 22: Classroom Podcasting
March 18: SMARTBoards in Your Classroom
April 24: Intro to Wiki’s, Blogs & Skype for Learning
May 14: Universal Design for Learning & Assistive Technology Overview
May 23: Self-Operated Prompting Systems with the Video iPod

Have a Great Weekend!

2/15/2008: iDump Alternative to iTunes, GoogleReader, Big Search’n and Friendly Images and Sounds

danielgmcnulty — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:46:23 +0000

GoogleReader: Check out this reader or aggregator from Google…. it’s free, it’s fun and it’s a good way to compile lots of content from a number of different sources into one place, hopefully saving you time and effort! You do need a google account to use it, but a google account is really something you should already have and be using anyway

iDump: I’ve learned about a district recently that is not allowing iTunes to be used at all in their school buildings by students or staff. This is a problem because iPods can be such a powerful instructional and educational tool, but without iTunes, their functionality is limited. There are several programs out there that worked with some of the original iPods allowing content to be moved to/from the iPod without need iTunes, but many of those programs are now expensive or just do not work any longer with iPod firmware updates.

SO, I’ve found a program called iDump that comes in both a free and a paid version. I’ve been using it for a little over a week now and really liking it. It seems safe and legal (it won’t convert your protected/encrypted files or remove DRM).

The free version only allows you to go from iPod to PC, but the paid version does both and lots more and costs about $10. See what you think of it: http://www.escsoft.com/ …Or if you know of other programs that will work with the latest iPod firmware updates in this way, please post them and/or let me know about them.

Big.com: http://www.big.com: A magnified search engine powered by Yahoo. Worth checking into for some of your students with visual impairments.

**Copyright-Friendly Online Images for Educational Use:**

Pics4Learning: http://www.pics4learning.com/
Discovery School Clip Art: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/category/fngm0001.html
Teacher Files: http://www.teacherfiles.com/

Copyright-Friendly Online Audio for Educational Use:
Online free sound files seem to be a bit harder to find. There are several sites that exist, but are so filled with inappropriate advertisements, pop-ups, and junk that I refuse to link to them. Here are a couple that aren’t so bad, but AS ALWAYS, please preview anything that you plan to use in your classrooms and always read the copyright info on teh websites as they may change. If anyone has any other/better sources for education and copyright friendly sound files, please post them or email me.

Free Samples and Loops: http://www.free-samples-n-loops.com/
Podsafe Audio: http://podsafeaudio.com/: Free music, some of it quite good, to be used by podcasters as long as you give credit to the artist and aren’t making money from your podcast.

Don’t Forget to Register for FREE!
~PATINS TECH EXPO 2008 ~
To Register:
http://patinsproject.com/htm/tech_expo_08.htm

Upcoming Workshops at the NE PATINS Site:

Feb. 22: Classroom Podcasting
March 18: SMARTBoards in Your Classroom
April 24: Intro to Wiki’s, Blogs & Skype for Learning
May 14: Universal Design for Learning & Assistive Technology Overview
May 23: Self-Operated Prompting Systems with the Video iPod

~EduChallenge #2~

Keeping working on last week’s EduChallenge. Make sure you have 10 digital images on your computer. Next week, the challenge will involve working with those images a little bit.

2/8/2008: Citation Machine, Math Resources Online, iPod Protection and The Very First EduChallenge!

danielgmcnulty — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:41:28 +0000

Citation Machine: A web tool, mostly intended for High School and above, but can certainly be used with younger students with a little bit of creativity. Incorporating the concepts of copyright and intellectual property into what we are teaching can and probably should happen as early as Kindergarten. This tool allows a user to choose the citation format they need along with the type of resource they are citing and then generate bibliographic and in-text citations. What a powerful tool for my own use as well as for students struggling with this sort of task.

Math Resources: This is actually a listing of some online math resources that I emailed out quite some time ago (Pre-Blog), but I wanted to post it to the blog for people who may not have received that previous email and so that it is archived for future reference.

lluminations: http://illuminations.nctm.org/
Webmath: http://www.webmath.com/
MathTools: http://www.mathforum.org/mathtools/
AAA Math: http://www.aaamath.com/
Arcytech: http://arcytech.org/java/
Cyberchase: http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/parentsteachers/lessons.html
Figure This!: http://www.figurethis.org/index.html
Graph Paper Printer: http://webperso.easynet.fr/~philimar/graphpapeng.htm
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics: http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/nav/index.html
PlaneMath: http://www.planemath.com/
Project Interactivate: http://www.shodor.org/master/interactivate/
Talking Calculator: http://www.premier-programming.com/calc/talkingcalc.htm
ThinkQuest Online Math Applications: http://www.thinkquest.org/library/cat_show.html?cat_id=9
WisWeb: http://www.fi.uu.nl/wisweb/welcome_en.html
Adding Integers: http://students.washington.edu/smithr3/integers/learning.html
Algebra/Prealgebra: Using formulas and charting in spreadsheets: http://oregonstate.edu/~niessm/
Developing Mathematical Thinking with Effective Questioning: http://teacherline.pbs.org/teacherline/resources/questionsheet_vma.pdf
MathVIDS: http://coe.jmu.edu/mathvidsr/Default.htm
Multisensory Teaching: Positive and Negative Numbers: http://www.resourceroom.net/math/integers.asp
Visual Fractions: http://www.visualfractions.com/
What Is the Probability of Grabbing a Green M&M?: http://oregonstate.edu/~niessm/
Web Turtle: http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/webturtle/

iPod Protection: This week I’ve received a few emails from school districts who are buying iPods/Zunes and are beginning to implement the Self-Operated Prompting Systems that I’ve been teaching in workshops this year and last year! Very exciting for them! Many schools are wanting to know what I would recommend for cases/protection of the devices, so I thought maybe I’d post my response (which is only my opinion) here in the blog as it may benefit others:

I actually really like the rubberized (silicone) cases that were on some of mine at the PATINS State Conf, TRLD and ATIA. Here’s some that I like and have used extensively from RadTech: http://www.radtech.us/Products/Default.aspx#CategoryiPod There are many other brands too. They are pretty cheap, they don’t make the iPod much more bulky or heavy and I’ve been happy with the protection they provide. I’d probably skip the belt clips, depending on your students of course, but I’ve found that most people, including students, just like to put the iPod in their pocket rather than mess with the belt clip. Then, you may or may not wish to put some sort of protective film on the screens themselves. I have a couple of my personal iPods that do have the film on the screen and one that does not. In fact, my little nano doesn’t have any protection on it at all, as I wanted to see how it held up. I take it everywhere with me and I’m NOT careful with it. It does have some scratches on the back (which don’t effect it’s performance), but the screen is perfect still. My Zune doesn’t have any protection on it at all and it is still in perfect condition as well, though to be honest, I don’t usually take the Zune with me as often as I do the nano.

Don’t Forget to Register for FREE!
~PATINS TECH EXPO 2008 ~
To Register:
http://patinsproject.com/htm/tech_expo_08.htm

Upcoming Workshops at the NE PATINS Site:

Feb. 22: Classroom Podcasting
March 18: SMARTBoards in Your Classroom
April 24: Intro to Wiki’s, Blogs & Skype for Learning
May 14: Universal Design for Learning & Assistive Technology Overview
May 23: Self-Operated Prompting Systems with the Video iPod

~EduChallenge #1~

Ok, I want to keep this fun and easy, but also useful to you. So, for the very first EduChallenge: If you have a digital camera of any sort, or you can borrow one from your school or from a friend, your challenge is to take 10 digital images during this next week of, in, around your classroom. You don’t even have to do anything with the images! Just shoot 10 pics and get them onto your computer’s desktop. For some of you, this challenge is not really any sort of ‘challenge’ at all, but still do it as we’ll build on it with a future challenge. For those of you who’ve never taken a digital image or who might have taken lots of digital images, but never moved them off of your camera and onto your computer, I encourage you to do these 10 shots. They can be 10 shots of whatever! Please keep in mind that if you are taking photos of your students, you should have a permission form on file with the office from your students’ parents/guardians and don’t make any student photos public in anyway. Email me if you have questions or need any help!

ATIA ’08, Open Source ReadingTeacher, ForgeFX, PATINS TechExpo and Announcing EduChallenges

danielgmcnulty — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:40:01 +0000

This morning’s presentation at ATIA ‘08 in Orlando went extremely well overall and I had a full room of people from all over the country, including 4 people from Indiana! I’ve also been collaborating and networking quite a bit with two therapists from my region of the state in Richmond. It’s so good that these two therapists had the opportunity to be here, collaborate with me and to bring back some awesome tools and ideas from ATIA to share with their district!

ReadingTeacher: An open-source (free) reading tool worth checking out for some of your students. This is an open source tool from Jon Polacheck. Readingteacher is very much a work in progress still and Jon would love to have anyone who can help contact him (either a coder or tester) and any other input would be very welcome: http://readingteacher.sourceforge.net/

ForgeFX: Interactive 3D Simulations, sent to me by our Central PATINS Site Coordinator, Jeff Bond. Good find Jeff! Some of these 3D simulations are a great way to make some very abstract concepts a little more concrete and to attach some visual meaning to them, which is highly beneficial to many of our students. I like this one in particular for helping my kids start to understand the relationships of the sun, moon and earth in space: http://www.forgefx.com/casestudies/prenticehall/ph/eclipse/eclipses.htm

And this one, as a surfer, is particularly interesting to me!

http://www.forgefx.com/casestudies/prenticehall/ph/waves/waves.htm

Don’t Forget to Register for FREE!

~PATINS TECH EXPO 2008 ~

April 16, 2008
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!

To Register: http://patinsproject.com/htm/tech_expo_08.htm

Download TechExpo ‘08 Flyer here:
PATINS TechExpo Flyer 2008

~EduChallenge~

Announcing Something New: Something that I’ve found to be very beneficial to just about everything new that I’ve ever wanted to learn (teaching strategies, photography, wakeboarding) is to receive and try to accomplish a regular ‘challenge’ or ‘assignment’ of sorts from someone else also involved in my area of interest. So, I thought it might be useful and maybe even fun for me to add something like that to this blog once in awhile. I probably won’t do it every week, like I do the quick tips & tricks, but maybe once a month or so. Look for it here at the bottom of my blog postings. …first one will be this coming Friday.