The Super Book Of Web Tools For Educators

There is lots of great information on there on Web 2.0 and using technology in the classroom for teachers. And if you are a new teacher it can be especially difficult to figure out what to use with kids. But often if you have teachers that are just starting out or need some help figuring all this tech stuff out, it can be a daunting task as there is lots of information.

My good friend Richard Byrne, writer of the wildly popular Free Technology For Teachers blog approached me a few weeks ago and asked me if I would contribute to a free ebook he was putting together. I was happy to contribute a section on social media. Beyond that you have some of the best in the business of education contributing sections as well, such as Patrick Larkin and George Couros, 2 of my favorite administrators giving us the administrators view of technology. Or Kelly Tenkely, Larry Ferlazzo, Lee, Kolbert, Beth Still, Cory Plough, Adam Bellow, and Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. Such an amazing list of educators. I am so honored to be included in a publication with them.

Here is the book. Download it, pass it out, share it with your colleagues, administrators, teammates. Once you have a chance to check it out, head back here and tell me what you think.


Super Book Of Web Tools For Educators

No more Ink from Overheads on Hand

Are you still using your overhead machine? Tired of dealing with cleaning the marker ink off of your hand after school each day? Since I am left handed I had ink all the way up my arm and had to scrub my arm raw every day to get rid of the ink.

Well there is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel "so to speak." If you have a Document Camera in your classroom along with an Interactive White Board or Tablet you can be ink free very soon.

With either Promethean ActivInspire or SmartBoard software you have a toolbar option that allows you to import the image directly from what the Document Camera is seeing and put it into the software and utilize the features of the program to interact and write on top of the displayed image.
Now what does this mean you may be asking? Well you can relegate that overhead to being a coat rack and use your Doc Cams and IWBs to display those old overhead sheets. Yes I am saying to keep all of those great overhead resources that you have used throughout the years just re purpose them and use them in another format.
Place that overhead sheet on top of a blank sheet of paper and then under the doc cam. Open up either the SmartBoard or ActivInspire software and in the toolbar select Inset: Image from Scanner/Camera. You will then click OK on the type of doc cam you are using(comes up as the default). Then look at the screen and there will be a new window that opens with the live image from the doc cam showing. Now click Capture on the window and it will place the image directly into your open Flipchart or Notebook file. Now it is just a matter of picking up a pen from the tray or using your stylus to begin writing on top of the overhead resource without getting any ink your hand.