Technology with Intention

Currently viewing the category: "resources"

5 ways to use Google Voice in your classroom

By Jac de Haan On August 28, 2012 · 2 Comments · In resources

I recently spent the afternoon with some enthusiastic teachers at the Mercer Island School District who are prepping for the start to the school year. One of the sessions I presented was an introduction to Google Apps for Edu with a focus on classroom application.

One of the tools I referenced was Google Voice – a free yet powerful web interface for an phone number that can forward to your personal phone numbers, record voicemail, and make smart routing decisions based on rules that you manage.

I love the ability to give families & students a way to contact me without revealing my personal contact information. The other killer feature for me is that any voicemail can be downloaded or embedded as an mp3 with a couple of clicks:

As I tend to do when in a room full of talented educators, I introduced the tool then opened the floor for a conversation of potential applications. As usual, their ideas were much more interesting than mine:

Students on a field trip phone in their responses to leading questions rather than sit on the floor in a museum scribbling a [...]

Read more →

The 5 best digital identity resources

By Jac de Haan On August 25, 2012 · Add Comment · In philosophy, resources

Digital identity & citizenship is an essential part of a relevant education, and of a connected life, in the 21st century. Here are the 5 best resources for learning about digital identity. These websites/documents are useful to parents and teachers interested in learning more about digital ethics, cyberbullying and netiquette:

Net Cetera is a U.S. government produced community outreach toolkit that defines and discusses the impact of common social media platforms with a focus on cyber-safety.

Meeting of Minds: Cross-Generational Dialogue of the Ethics of Digital Life is a 2009 synthesis of conversations between kids and adults that highlights the similarities and differences of each generation’s thoughts on digital media and ethics.

CommonSenseMedia provides curriculum, advice, policy and reviews for parents and teachers to understand the media available today and its potential to influence our behavior and/or beliefs. Their recent research study, Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America, is an enlightening survey and analysis of U.S. parents (published October 2011).

Edutopia.org’s Digital Citizenship Resource Roundup is a collection of articles related to netiquette and online safety. Their free publication, A Parent’s Guide to 21st Century Learning, documents excellent examples of appropriate technology-influenced classroom experiences.

Digital ID: 21st Century Citizenship is “a toolkit of reliable information, [...]

Read more →

35% of teens respond to cyberbullies face-to-face

By Jac de Haan On August 24, 2012 · Add Comment · In resources

Read more →

iPad deployment: to curriculum and beyond

By Jac de Haan On August 16, 2012 · Add Comment · In resources

Read more →

Multi-tasking tablets on the horizon

By Jac de Haan On August 4, 2012 · Add Comment · In resources

Read more →

Free speech-to-text options for OSX & Windows 7

By Jac de Haan On July 27, 2012 · Add Comment · In resources, tutorials

Will keyboarding skills go the way of cursive writing in this decade?

One of the primary obstacles to computing for many students is input. Speech-to-text capabilities, once available only with expensive software, now comes with the latest versions of the 2 most popular consumer operating systems, Windows 7 and OSX. Directions for activating speech-to-text are outlined below:

Windows 7

Open Speech Recognition by clicking the Start button > All Programs.

Select Accessories > Ease of Access > Windows Speech Recognition.

Click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.

Open the program you want to use or select the text box you want to dictate text into.

Say the text that you want dictate.

source: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Dictate-text-using-Speech-Recognition

Apple OSX (10.8)

Open System Preferences from the Apple menu (top left) and click the “Dictation & Speech” panel.

Via the “Dictation” tab, click ”ON” next to “Dictation”

In the resulting popup, select “Enable Dictation”

Open any writing app or go to a text input field and double-tap the “fn” key to bring up Dictation.

When little microphone popup appears, start talking.

When finished, hit the “fn” key again or click the “Done” button.

source: http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/27/enable-dictation-in-os-x-mountain-lion/

Read more →

5 best iPad apps to teach programming

By Jac de Haan On July 16, 2012 · 5 Comments · In resources

While Scratch continues to be my favorite gateway-drug to computer programming, my current students don’t have ready access to desktop or laptop computers. We do, however, have iPads so I’ve been looking at apps to introduce the concepts of branches, loops and conditional statements. Here are my top 5 favorites so far:

Daisy the Dinosaur

Price: Free
Difficulty: Beginner
iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/daisy-the-dinosaur/id490514278?mt=8

Daisy the Dinosaur is a simple drag-and-drop introduction to programming. The app includes a super-cute protagonist, a few tutorials, and a free-play interface. The app has a limited set of simple commands but also includes a when conditional that allows the user to interact with Daisy by touching the screen or shaking the iPad.

Daisy the Dinosaur - iPad programming app

Cargo-Bot

Price: Free
Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate
iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cargo-bot/id519690804?mt=8

Like many of the best puzzles, Cargo-Bot has a simple objective with an infinite number of solutions. The limited functions actually turn into a catalyst for creativity. The learning process has been gamified, with 36 different levels. A perfect introduction to nested scripts – [...]

Read more →

ISTE BINGO & edtech buzzwords

By Jac de Haan On June 23, 2012 · 2 Comments · In resources

Read more →

What to do at ISTE besides learn

By Jac de Haan On June 22, 2012 · Add Comment · In resources

San Diego ISTE There is so much to do at ISTE that many teachers won’t venture beyond the convention center grounds for 3 full days. For those of you who are interested in learning a little about the city of San Diego, here are some tips from an ex-local:

Sun-worshippers will find no shortage of incredible beaches to choose from: Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach – each offers its own vibe. Each of these beaches have fire-pits and you can see the 9:50pm Sea World fireworks display from the beach.

In-n-Out is a California tradition, there are two locations fairly close to the Convention Center. The menu is super-limited, but if you know the insider language you can take advantage of a number of secret items. For adventurous eaters, San Diego has a growing food truck scene.

Traveling with family? If you are considering any indoor activity at all, The New Children’s Museum is a must-see. Educators will appreciate the guided activities – separate lesson plans broken up by age range. Sunday will be the final day of Princess Phoebe’s Birthday Present, playing [...]

Read more →

Creating interactive YouTube videos for the classroom

By Jac de Haan On June 20, 2012 · 3 Comments · In resources

Read more →

learning in public with technology and education

5 ways to use Google Voice in your classroom

The 5 best digital identity resources

35% of teens respond to cyberbullies face-to-face

iPad deployment: to curriculum and beyond

Multi-tasking tablets on the horizon

Free speech-to-text options for OSX & Windows 7

5 best iPad apps to teach programming

ISTE BINGO & edtech buzzwords

What to do at ISTE besides learn

Creating interactive YouTube videos for the classroom

Meta

Latest video upload

iBooks as an e-portfolio

Tech in the news