I’ve got a Google Wave account and have been diligently passing along as many invites as I can to educators who definitely need this incredible service. I know that many of my friends don’t exactly understand why they need the service. My pals have been using old-fashioned email for so long that they are still thinking of digital communication in a paradigm that Google Wave is washing away. Thank goodness two amazing individuals of Lifehacker renown, Gina Trapani and Adam Pash, have written The Complete Guide to Google Wave.
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productivity, reference
collaboration, communication, google
The 9.10 release of Ubuntu is here. Say hello to Karmic Koala.
productivity
linux, os
XO laptop image courtesy of Curiouslee
Last night, I completed a no-fail update of the operating system on an XO laptop. If you have students who are using an XO machine, I highly recommend this approach. The update was simple and had the laptop up and running within 30 minutes. I’m brushing up on my XO skills because I’m eagerly following Engadget’s story about Uruguay’s nationwide OLPC education initiative.
open source, productivity
geeky, olpc, os
A wonderful (free) virtualization software package called VirtualBox gives educators a way to better meet the needs of learners across a variety of operating systems. Although pupils have a great deal in common with one another, they also have differing abilities, needs, and learning styles. Beyond their personalities and intellectual potential, they often have access to and make use of computers with different operating systems. Despite the fact that all of the students in a classroom or group may frequently employ web-based resources such as Google Docs to collaborate and learn together, they’ll eventually want to do work individually on computers that have resources uniquely designed to meet their own personal tastes.
For example, suppose there’s a teacher who wants to give her learners more choice in how they complete their work. This teacher knows that the students gravitate toward differing operating systems. One student prefers doing his assignments on a Windows machine, while another is dedicated to completing work on her Mac OS X laptop. A third, more adventurous pupil, after nobly rescuing a surplussed PC destined for a landfill, is happily anticipating learning with a Linux-based desktop. The teacher decides to foster the choices made by the learners. She installs VirtualBox on her own computer to see the applications her pupils are using and how the operate.
VirtualBox is remarkably useful as it runs on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh machines. It also supports a large number of guest operating systems. This means that a math teacher using a Mac with VirtualBox loaded on her machine can actually install and run other operating systems (such as Windows and Linux) at the same time. If one of her students prefers using a Windows-based math application such as GraphCalc to complete his assignment, the instructor can see that program in action within a Windows-based environment on her Mac! This powerful means of meeting the needs of pupils is free.
open source, productivity, virtualization
free, open, opensource, os
I’m constantly getting questions about what educators can and can’t do with copyrighted material. Some instructors are so terrified of copyright restrictions that they totally forgo using any copyrighted material. That’s sad, because many copyrighted resources are excellent tools for learning and teachers really needn’t feel so restricted. Thankfully, one of my friends, a media specialist’s media specialist by the name of Paula Galland, recently sent me a link to a great resource that’s designed to discern whether a teacher’s intended use of copyrighted material meets U.S. legal requirements. Exceptions for Instructors presents straightforward questions that teachers can answer in order to find out if their intended use of copyrighted material will be problematic.
Thanks, Paula!
Related resources:
productivity
copyfight, copyleft, copyright, legal, media
I’m doing a lot of my work on non-PC/Linux-based OS machines these days. As a result, I’m patiently waiting on Google to release a version of its Chrome browser for Mac and Linux. In the interim, I stumbled across CrossOver Chromium, a Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium web browser while nosing around the Codeweavers site. I intend to give the application a whirl.
On a related note, yesterday I found out that Google is releasing an early version of its Google Chrome Frame. It’s a nifty open source (what else would you expect from Google?) plug-in that delivers HTML5 and some other open web technologies to Internet Explorer. As expected, this turn of events has people talking. Thomas Claburn over at InformationWeek has a timely post about the significance of Google’s deft move.
open source, productivity
browser, chrome, google
If you’re trying to clean up the code for a webpage and need a simple, online, means of doing so, hop over to Jesse Ruderman’s spiffy real-time HTML editor.
productivity
editor, html
Your school system could be helping students hone their 21st century skills without expending a great of money. Sponsored by Novell, the openSUSE for Schools project is all about providing free learning tools for educators. This robust site has a huge assortment of rich desktop applications designed to run on a Linux desktop.
Virtually every school system has a number of PC lying around that no one is using. What a wonderful way to breathe new life into old hardware! Best of all, even if the plan doesn’t go as expected, no money has been lost. It’s FREE. Why stop there, though? Relatively inexpensive netbooks could be used as well.
If you really want to students to learn and be prepared for life in a 21st century economy, model what you expect–learn something new! Take a risk and give the openSUSE for Schools project a try. You’ll learn valuable lessons along the way and open up new opportunities for your students.
free, open source, productivity
education, free, linux, open, opensource
Many educators use PowerPoint as if students just love it.
They don’t.
PowerPoint is not the presentation panacea that teachers think it is. As BBC News points out, there’s a problem with how the popular tool is being (mis)used. Veterans of yawn-inducing slideshows have been aware of the problem for a while. In fact, as far back as 2000 in an article entitled Scoring Power Points, author and webzine pioneer, Jamie McKenzie of From Now On identified the malaise and offered ways to mitigate its effects.
Related resources:
- Looking for an alternative to PowerPoint? Take a look at Prezi. This fresh approach to presentation zooms through information in an engaging manner.
- A useful book called Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer presents ideas that teachers and students should bear in mind when creating multimedia presentations. Among Mayer’s suggestions are drawing upon the power of spatial contiguity, using animation and accompanying narrations simultaneously rather than successively, and removing extraneous material.
- Chip and Dan Heath explore what a motivating presenter needs to do in order make an impression on an audience. In their excellent book (one that I continually purchase and give away…yes, it’s that good!) Made to Stick, the Heath brothers explain how to make concepts “sticky” so that listeners remember what was explored. This book should be required reading for educators. Chip and Dan also have a blog that’s quite helpful, too.
productivity
engagement, made-to-stick, PowerPoint, sticky-ideas, sticky-learning
IE6 won’t die off. In fact, it’s pretty hard to kill. Like some retro-revenant it plods onward, mercilessly fouling the experiences of those who want to enjoy what the internet has to offer. Apparently, IE6 is going to be around for a while longer. According to Yahoo’s Christopher Null, even Microsoft can’t destroy it. That’s not surprising as Maggie Shiels over at BBC News reports that Microsoft will support IE6 until 2014. Oh, the horror!
productivity
humor
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