Free Tech for Teachers-A Great Resource

I'd like to introduce all my colleagues who haven't yet discovered Free Tech for Teachers to this great resource for all things tech in the classroom. The author is Richard Byrne, a google-certified teacher who blogs daily and reaches about 60,000 subscribers. He has won numerous awards, including 5 edublogs awards for best resource-sharing blog since 2008. He also maintains several worth checking out, such as iPadApps4School.com, Android4Schools.com, and PracticalEdTech.com. 

This site offers links to many free educational resources on the web and as apps for mobile devices. There are a number of great tutorials that instructors can watch to hone their tech skills. One resource link I particularly found helpful was his alternatives to YouTube. Often, you can't access this website in a public school, and it's not always appropriate to deal with the advertisements that appear on many YouTube videos. The resources he links to are education-based and many are commercial-free.

One of my favorite features is that he reviews and provides resources for both iOS and Android platforms. He also has spaces where readers can contribute their ideas and resources, which opens up the resource bank even more. Not only does he offer assistance with technology, but also addresses some issues that teachers face including how all of this technology works with the Common Core requirements and flipping the classroom. 

I think my favorite feature is to search through apps by keyword. I've killed hours reviewing apps on the appstore; even though there is an education filter, it helps to know that some of that legwork has been done in Richard's recommendations. I highly recommend checking this out so that you will be able to use the internet or your mobile devices to their fullest potential in the classroom!

ScreenCasting for Class

To view in Youtube, visit http://youtu.be/rU59uacniWk

Using Animoto for Class

This week I put together a short video using Animoto. The goal was to present the changes that Classical artists made to the human form, focussing mostly on the female body. There are some features in this product. First, you can easily upload and move images around. It looks a little like a powerpoint slide-sorter layout, so it's easy to navigate. Also, you can upload your powerpoint or Keynote as jpegs into Animoto and bam! it's done. Add your text, videos, and music and your set. However, there were some drawbacks as well; the text slides have a character limit that makes it difficult to communicate some information. You'd have to create several strings of text slides to get everything in. Second, I had a hard time finding out how to embed a YouTube clip into my Animoto. As of publication of this, I'm still looking for instructions on how to do that. Finally, I couldn't find a way to have some slides be presented longer while others are on screen for a shorter amount of time.

But I still think this is a useful tool for students. I can easily upload it to my online classes for them to view. It's more likely an even better tool for students to use to demonstrate their understanding of material. I think it could be great for vocabulary lessons where words are presented followed by images representing that word. What a great way for students and teachers to be creative!