NCCE 2009 "Tammy's Tricks & Tips" and "Cellphones in the Classroom"

The first presentation I went to on Thursday was "Tammy's Favorite Technology Tips, Tricks & Tools" by Tammy Worcester.  While I figured that I could just google the tools and figure 'em out I'd had a few folks tell me that Tammy was a presenter that I should see and they were right.  Many of the tools she introduced in this session. as well as the cellphone session (gasp, USING CELLPHONES IN THE CLASSROOM!), were things I'd seen and used but quite a few weren't - and all of them are things I'd like to share.

First, here are the links to Tammy's page of Tips & tricks which she updates every week or so as well as the links to the two presentations of hers that I attended.

Tammy's Home Page

Tammy's Favorite Technology Tips, Tricks & Tools (currently this link doesn't have the handouts but they can also be found on her Web Tools page posted 02.20.2009)

Cell Phones in the Classroom

Now here are the links to a few of the tools she spoke about and my quick take on 'em.

• Blogger - There are a zillion different ways to get your message out there in blog form and Blogger is recognized as one of the best and easiest to use, especially if you already have a google (Gmail) account.  During the course of these two sessions she demonstrated how quickly a blog can be setup (about 3 minutes), how to share ownership and make it a group project, how to embed code into the blog to enable almost any other tool on the web to reside within the framework of the blog, and, most importantly to someone like me who relies more on a mobile device (Blackberry in my case) than a traditional computer, the ability to update blogs from these devices.  I won't go into these in detail, I'm sure there are already a zillion blogs devoted to blogging so once your blog is setup google or email me for more specifics on what you're trying to accomplish.
• JamStudio.com - An easy online alternative to Garageband.  It allows the user to create as simple or complex a composition as they want to, it's perfect for students to make a quick sound or segue for a slide presentation or speech and not have to worry about citations, copyright, etc.  Best of all is that for educators it's free!  Just go down to the bottom of the page and find the link "In the Classroom" to fill out a short grant form (who, what, where, when & why) and they'll send you a free site license code for all your faculty and students right away.  If you're a part of the La Salle community reading this just contact me and I can give you the code I already have for the site.
• vozMe - A quick tool to convert text to speech which can be heard via the web interface or downloaded to the local computer drive.  There are also instructions on how to insert the code into blogs and web pages, for example highlight any text in this posting and then click on the button below.
  
  
  
  
  
  



• KickYouTube - In order to download videos from YouTube I've been using GooTube to pull them offline and it was a simple and quick solution but this one takes the cake.  All you need to do is go to your YouTube video and type the word "kick" in front of "youtube" in the url and hit the refresh button, the resulting screen will allow you to save the video in virtually any format you want.
• Poll Everywhere - If you've wanted to have direct real time feedback from your students but couldn't find an extra $1000 in the sofa here's your solution.  This free site allows the user to set up a poll which participants can then respond to in real time via text (sms) message from their phone or from a web poll.  As you see below it can even embed in your blog or web page - the first box below is for web polling (click on an answer) and the second box shows results as well as the #'s for using the texting feature, feel free to vote!
  
  
• Magic Pen - And finally, what good is a collection of tools if it doesn't include a total time sink.  Magic Pen is a simple, yet addictive, game which has the player create shapes that react (approximately) according to the rules of science in order to knock a red ball into a flag on the other side of the screen.  Like many other games (Line Rider) available for free the fun in playing makes the student forget they're actually learning.

So, this is just a fraction of the information Tammy covered in the two sessions of her which I attended and I haven't even looked at her posted information from the sessions I didn't attend.  Please don't hesitate to ask me for more information on any of these tools or please feel free to post your own tools or observations about these in the comments section below.

Thanks

Scott

My first post

Well,  here we go . . . a blog.  you'd have thought that someone like me would have had one long ago, but no, somehow I've managed to avoid it even longer than Facebook (to which I succumbed a few months ago) but now I've gone and done it.

I've created a blog.  Really, it's not my fault.  I just spent the better part of the week at the NCCE 2009 Conference here in Portland and have so much information that I want to make not of and to share that it just seems the only responsible thing to do.  After watching folks note and update their blogs (as well as learning how to do it from my cell phone) throughout the event I became convinced that I really should finally get around to taking a more active part in the convergence of technologies popularly known as web 2.0 tools, especially in ways they Can be utilized in a High School facility.

So, over the next few days I'll post recaps of the conference and the events I attended as well as just figuring out this blogging thing in particular.  Please feel free to ask me any questions (if I actually publish this link!) and I'll do the best I can to answer them.  

Thanks

Scott