Study Human Anatomy in 3-D

I was assisting a Science teacher today with her interest in doing some interactive stuff with anatomy.  Here are a couple of things I shared with her.

In regards to anatomy, if you study human anatomy, have you tried this out - BioDigital Human - great with the interactive whiteboard.  Works best in Chrome (because of GL Web requirements).
Zygote Body is another 3-D interactive display of the human anatomy; simpler version.
For the iPad, Anatomy 4D is an amazing Augmented Reality app that used a "target" (piece of paper that you can print).  Then you can manipulate the body around and view system layers together or individually.

iPad Screenshots of Anatomy 4D app

Twitter Follow Feature

Danny Nicholson is the writer for The Whiteboard Blog from the UK; worth looking at.  Also, you can follow Danny on your Google+ network at +WhiteboardblogCoUk.

Tweets by @dannynic

The Power of Infographics

Infographics are a great way to share information in a visually appealing way.  Another great thing about infographics is that because they are created digitally and designed to live digitally, you can embed them in your site or Moodle course for student to view.  Good infographics pull the viewer in by their eye-catching visual appeal, then share important information while they hold your attention.  You can embed infographics in most any site and especially in Moodle.  Put an infographic in an HTML box on a side column.

Visual.ly is one of many sites devoted to some great infographics that you can embed in to your web site or Moodle course.  If you are not sure how to embed an infographic in to a site or Moodle course, please visit this post explaining this process.

Here are some great infographics I found regarding space:

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

SMART Notebook Update for Mac - Floating Toolbar

Your SMART Notebook software for Mac has a new update if you have not noticed so far - 11.3.  Most of us should be at 11.2 currently.  Though this update is not much, it does have a couple of nice features.  The SMART Technologies package that comes with the update includes SMART System Menu, which, when launched, provides an icon in your system menu bar.  This icon acts as a hub for all of your SMART products, including Notebook, Screen Shade, and more; as well as the ability to show or hide the Board Tools.

If you are a frequent, or even minimal, Floating Toolbar user, you are familiar with the Board Tools icon that appears in the dock on your laptop.

From this application you are able to utilize the Floating Toolbar of SMART Tools to integrate with any application on your MacBook.  This is great when you want to annotate or interactively feature something on your projector from your computer for the classroom.

With the 11.3 update to Notebook, you can access the Floating Toolbar from the SMART System Menu - Show or Hide.  No longer will you see the Board Tools icon in your dock; so, don't be alarmed. It's nice having the one, integrated center to access Notebook and the Notebook features and tools.  And, the SMART System Menu icon will remain in your system toolbar when you log in to your laptop.

Student Access to Pages Documents At Home

The great thing about iCloud and the Apple apps that are associated with iCloud, is that you can access and continue to edit the content (documents, spreadsheets, notes, etc) at home without having to bring the iPad home.  Since we have not allowed the students to bring their iPads home yet, this may be a valuable resource.

Let's use the Pages app for demonstration.  Any editing or new update to a Pages document is automatically saved, and saved to iCloud as long as the student has set this feature.

(We went over backing up to iCloud with all of the students at Deployment Day and had them all back up their iPad using iCloud.  I mentioned this part because there is always one or two that may have not listened and did not choose to back up their device in iCloud)

With this auto-save feature of Pages in iCloud, students can access their documents at any network-connected computer.

Simply log in with Apple ID at

icloud.com

From there any Apple user with their Apple ID can access the iCloud features, like Pages.

Users can select an already created document for viewing or editing, or they can create a new document right from their web browser.

Users can also right-click (Mac: option-click) on the thumbnail of the document and download it either as a Pages document, a PDF or as a Word document.

Retrieving a Print From the Color Copier

Just in case there were some who may have forgotten how to retreive a print from the office color copier, this tutorial should be of some help.

If you do not have this color copier set up on your laptop or do not have the "locked" printer setting, please contact me and I will stop by as soon as I can to assist with this.

New Year Started

Here at our high school we are underway with our new school year with many new products, terms, procedures and more.  Enough to make your brain explode for some, I'm sure.

Throughout the year, especially during this first part, I am planing on posting plenty of information and help regarding all of these changes and new products.

I hope to at least make clear and make some sense as to what is what and why.  Please stay tuned and I will do my best to keep fresh, new content coming on a regular basis.

Automatic Zoom

I am here attending Apple Startup workshop for OS X on our new MacBook Air laptops.

Here is one feature that I think is absolutely great for teachers.  Show small details or specific text to students that may be too small on your classroom display or for students in the back of the classroom with out having to hit specific key strokes.

One you set this up, it will stay in the function, allowing you to simply hold your Control key and drag two fingers across your trackpad.

Google Nutrition Search

About a week ago Google announced they were going to feature nutritional information on foods as part of your search results, so that you can instantly access this nutritional information any time.  You can pretty much find the nutritional value from almost any food - from apples to ramen noodles.  The nutrition stats are brought to you by the USDA.  Also, Wikipedia contributes a piece about the searched product.

This video I put together demonstrates how to use the new Google nutritional search.  You will notice that the nutrition results allow for other options - i.e. size, type and preparation of the searched products; and results populate when you make adjustments to these.

More Resources and Content

As I have mentioned in the right-hand column on this blog, I may not post as frequent on this blog as, perhaps, most bloggers, however, I want to encourage you to check my Google+ and Twitter profiles for much more content, resources, techy things, and just plain cool stuff for your classroom.  You do not have to have an account for either of these social networks.  Just go to my profile link for either network and view my tweets/posts for content and web links to content that you may find useful for your curriculum.

In being connected with my Personal Learning Networks on Twitter and Google+, I can find and share much more great stuff that is out there, new and old, that work very well for others in their curriculum plans.  I, also, share new things that I learn that are specific to our school district - Moodle, MLTI applications, Macbook, etc.

My Google+ Profile

My Twitter Profile

Tweets by @Ratkacher

Stay Tuned
I, also, have a Google+ Page, Ratkacher Station (separate from my Profile page), which I opened a while back, which I may begin next school year to direct viewers to for all Edu material.  Because I have more interests than EdTech (Edu Technology) content - i.e. coffee, formula 1 racing, leadership, etc - I like to share what I find in these areas as well.  So, to keep a strictly Edu-devoted stream, I would like to start directing viewers to this Google+ page of mine what will be solely for EdTech material.  That will not officially start until the beginning of the next school year.  However, you are more than welcome to view it, bookmark it, or whatever - Ratkacher Station.

The same will be done for my Twitter profile starting next school year.  My current Twitter profile has a collection of various interests other than EdTech.  I have opened a new Twitter account that will solely be devoted to EdTech - @benjaminnason.  Again, this will not officially start until the beginning of next school year, but you are welcome to save it.

Tweets by @benjaminnason

Twitter Follow Feature

Tweets by @hdiblasi

Tech Use Vs. Tech Integration

Thanks to +Educational Technology and Mobile Learning I found a very helpful table that explains the difference between teachers who "use" technology in their classroom and those teachers who "integrate" technology in their classroom.

There is a common misconception that if teachers are at least making an attempt to use technology in their classroom than that should be good enough.  When, in fact, if the technology is not enhancing the student learning, than it is an ineffective use and better if not used at all.

See where you stand.  I hope this will be helpful.

Read Educational Technology and Mobile Learning's article, as well as teachbytes' original article.

myHistro

I've mentioned myHistro before either through this blog or through twitter/google+.  It is a great product to use for any history or social studies topic.  You can customize a whole presentation using Google Maps in a Timeline sequence; adding your own content with text, images, web links, etc.

Here is a feature myHistro map created by a myHistro user pertaining to the 13 colonies.

The Myth Behind The iOS Multitasking Bar

Perhaps I was the last guy to figure this out, but my eyes were opened when I discovered that having to close out all of my recently used apps in the multitasking bar would greatly increase my iPad battery life was completely bogus.

For all of the faculty and staff that I, as well, proclaimed that it was necessary to close the multitasking bar apps, this is my apology and follow up.

In fact, the way iOS uses its multitasking bar is to display your "recently used apps" ONLY.  Not a "what is currently running in the background and taking up CPU and battery life" multitasking bar.  For most occasions, any of the apps you use get "suspended" when you hit your home button or go to another app.  Meaning, iOS will only allow them about 5 seconds to stay running, then shuts them down; still remembering where you left off.  iOS does the work for you.

Here are three articles that justly explain this misconception of the multitasking bar:

academiPad offers some great suggestions on how to improve speed on slow iPads.

Adding URL to Printed Web Pages in Firefox Web Browser

I recently had a teacher ask me about adding the URL (web address) to printed web pages from Firefox for citation purposes.

Here is the demo I sent him.  You will notice there are a few other options you can choose for data when setting up your Header and/or Footer.

I thought I would share.

Embedding Whole Documents in Your Site or Blog

Some times there may be occasions where you will need more out of your documents or your students documents than simply adding a link for others to access.  There are online services that will allow users to embed whole documents right on a web page or a blog post.  In other words, your chosen document will not only be accessible, but entirely visible and readable without a link or having to download it.

Let me show you.

Here is an example of one service that allows you to upload your documents to their site, then allows you to embed the document in your site.

FoxT.imovie Project 2012 by ratkacher

Those accessing your site or blog can then view and read entire, full-length documents simply because you uploaded documents to the host site and copied the embedding code (HTML) they provide.

("What is embedding code and how do I embed?")

Here are just three services that do this:

Google Drive

Embedding and HTML Code

Perhaps these are terms you have heard before and thought it was something only taught at MIT.  Well understanding it is much simpler than it sounds.

When embedding gadgets, documents, video, widgets or other digital content into a site or blog, the site or blog that hosts the digital content uses what is called HTML code.  Basically, it is a language in the form of text that websites use to display all of the content that is visible on the their site.

Let me, however, set your mind at ease.  You do not have to know anything about HTML code in order to use it to embed anything.  The only skill you will need is how to copy and paste.

When you find digital content that is sharable (like a Vimeo video, or Visual.ly infographics) you will usually find this symbol:  < / > or < >.

Some sites, like YouTube, will simply indicate "Embed" under the Share tab.

From there you will find a series of text and symbols; this is your HTML code.  Once you find this code simply copy the whole amount of text.  If you miss any portion of this code, it will not work.

Let's go to your site or blog that you would like to embed this into.  Your site or blog, in most occasions, will indicate options for embedding your copied HTML code.  I am going to demonstrate this with a Moodle course in this video below.

I hope this has been helpful.  If you have any questions concerning this, please contact me.

Classroom Management Infographic

I know what you're thinking.

"Infographics are a nice way to share data and information, but they are the Hallmark card of digital content"

They are, however, a great way to display data, visually; and that is very helpful for students who need visuals to make meaning of certain information.

There are several creators of quality infographics out there.  Here is one I stumbled on today  from An Ethical Island, while sorting through my old bookmarks:

(this is small in size for demonstration only)

By the way, because infographics are pretty hefty in size, they are designed to stay digital and be shared digitally; save the paper.  So, almost all infographics should have the ability for you to embed them right into your website or Moodle course.

If you have any questions about embedding, contact me.

Here are two other infographic-centered sites that you may find some very useful content for your students.

Learning From Games - Edutopia

I featured +Edutopia in a tweet on Twitter today.  In turn they messaged me back thanking me for the mention and introduced another video of theirs from their Big Thinkers collection on their video blog.  This one features James Paul Gee and he talks about how people learn from online gaming and how there is more at stake than just the game.

We quickly discredit gaming as a waste of time and a distraction, however once you involve interested participants, learning is explosive; and there is more going on than mere drivel.  Learning is no longer a one-layer or linear method, but becomes massively multi-layered.

10 Simple Tech Tips

Many of you who may not feel that you are very tech savvy will love these time-saving tips.  Literally they will add years to your life.  They may sound too simple, however I am sure if you calculated the amount of time wasted when you didn't use these you would be blown away.  I find, in my own experience, when learning a new tech tip or method, if I make an effort to go out of my way and rigorously practice it in my regular workflow.  It soon enough becomes habit and easy to do on a regular basis; almost automatic.  That's my tech tip.

This video from TED Talks, explains some top 10 tips that will save you some time and headaches from your computer to your smart phone.

The Best Firefox Addons

Your Firefox web browser can do more than just browsing.  You can turn your web browser into a powerful machine and make it work for you.  There are thousands of Add-ons that you can easily add to your Firefox web browser.  Though, as mentioned, there are many to choose from, do not fret.  MakeUseOf curates what they feel are the best Firefox Add-ons our there and organizes them in categories for easy finding.  MakeUseOf is one of the Tech News giants that feature many different features out there that be very helpful for you to "MakeUseOf".

Here is their list of approved Firefox Add-ons.

Happy browsing.

Interest-driven Learning

I know this goes against what we are used to and how we have been taught our classrooms should run.  This goes against a lot of what we are required by State and Administration to complete on our curriculum checklists and it almost throws classical classroom structure out the window.  But (you were expecting this), there is some definite food for thought here that can still be incrementally introduced into our classroom curriculum.

From Edutopia.

Simple Math With Your Macbook Spotlight

Something that could be a convenient little tool to teach your students is that they can do simple math right from their Macbook Spotlight.

This may not be a commonly used tool, but it's great when a student needs a quick calculation without having to launch the computer calculator.  MLTI explains:

Spotlight, Open an App Fast - MLTI Minute

This is one of my most used Macbook functions.

iPads in Education - techlearning on Livestream

I have embedded this when it was live.  I am not sure if this will remain once the event is finished.

However, Patrick Larkin, Principal for Berlington High School, New Jersey, is one of the main speakers.  He is well known for implementing a 1to1 iPad initiative in his High School (The Journal).

Watch live streaming video from techlearning at livestream.com

You can also find Patrick Larkin on Twitter:

Must Read:"The Smart Way to Use iPads in the Classroom" slate.me/ZTrGTK #TLTF13
— Patrick Larkin (@patrickmlarkin) April 26, 2013

NASA on Google Maps Street View

This is some pretty cool stuff!  I was recently visiting Google Maps' Street Views of the Kennedy Space Center; something I have been wanting to share with my 8th grade team because they frequently connect with NASA for a video conference for their students via Tandberg.

Right from Street View's galleries you can view several collections of imagery that are amazing, interactive and allow you to tour around the world from the comfort of your own classroom.  Click the "Behind the Scenes" tag for more content about the subject and related links.  Browse through their collections, add them to our curriculum and give your students a really cool, life-like tour.  And these interactive Street View tours are amazing on the interactive whiteboard in front of the class.  Have a student pick their favorite and give the class their own tour.

NASA has their own collection of several different locations allowing you the Grand tour - Space Shuttle main engines, Top of launch pad 39A, Apollo 14 Command Module, Atlantis Space Shuttle, Firing Room #3, and more.

Here is a sample of one of their Street Views.  This is my favorite view from it:

View Larger Map

Adjusting Computer Sleep Threshold

An Introduction to Technology Integration

This is a great demonstration and explanation of Technology Integration created by Edutopia (great Education resource).  And as scary as it may appear to some, Tech Integration is NOT just within the four walls of our school buildings; or districts.  Successful people know how to and are comfortable with collaborating nationally and globally.

Thanks to +David Lee EdTech.

Twitter Follow Feature

20 Google Docs Secrets for busy teachers and students → tonyv.me/20docs Each secret is linked to more info! (via @terryhoganson)
— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) April 12, 2013

Website Evaluation From Common Craft

Common Craft just released another one of their very familiar video tutorials.  This one demonstrates how to evaluate websites for accurate information and reliable sources.  Often students who do research online face the dilema of having to sort through the buzz of information online and can get disillusioned at what is good information and what is simply...crap.

This simple, easy-to-understand video demonstrates how to recognize sites that contain reliable and accurate information and sources in the eyes of an editor.

This would be great to show your students just before you start your research paper or project.

Splashtop 2 Update - Yes, Another One

For those who frequently use Splashtop as their remote desktop app in their classroom, you know that Splashtop releases updates to their product rather frequently.  This is a good thing.  It tells me that they are always seeking to improve themselves and provide more for their customers.  Their past couple of updates have proven that this is true.  This current update that was released today is yet another improvement.

Splashtop, now, offers annotation ability over live remote desktop screen.  This can be very handy when you want to point out specific features on your screen display while you are floating around the room.

This is from their update blog:

What's New in Version v2.3.0.5

- Annotate over any live remote desktop screen, for presentations or classroom instruction (optional in-app purchase; part of Productivity Pack)
Please install the latest streamer from www.splashtop.com to enable annotation

Please contact your Tech support to have them update your Splashtop Streamer on your Macbook for the annotation feature to operate.

Encyclopedia Britannica Application

All of our Teacher and Student MLTI laptops have the full Encyclopedia Britannica available for us at any time.  What a great resource for research and information!  Students can gather information instantly from a source that we all know and trust.

MLTI's MLTI Minute has a couple of video tutorials on using this application.  You can find this application on you laptop by going to the Applications folder or type a search in your spotlight.

The first video will give you a general overview of the application with some of the things you can do with it.  The second video explains how you/your students can add notes to the application.

Filtering Email in FirstClass

I recently had a faculty member ask me to refresh their memory on how to filter email, so they could automatically get rid of the junk mail they were receiving in their FirstClass Inbox. Well, there is a fairly simple way to do this.  However, not only can you get rid of junk mail, but you can sort important messages into specific folders for better email management.

This walk-through explains:

If you have any more questions about Mail Rules or FirstClass in general, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Editing a Pathway in Google Earth - MLTI Minute

Right from the video blog of MLTI Minute.

I love Goole Earth.  I think it is an amazing application for the Science, Social Studies, History, Math, English, Art, etc classrooms.

If you have any questions or are interested in using Google Earth, please contact me.

Feedly Does More Than RSS

Since I moved my "stuff" from Google Reader to Feedly, I have been discovering more and more about some of the great features that Feedly offers, that Google Reader did not.  I had found in the past while using Google Reader that there were some sites offering updates and news that Google Reader could not recognize as appropriate RSS feed, and so did not display in my Reader.  So, I had to resort to accepting email notifications of any updates or news from those sites, which is not, I find, a very efficient way of managing content and data, especially with updates and news.

Here is an example if that sounds a bit confusing.  I like receiving notifications when ever there are new videos uploaded to certain YouTube channels I follow - like Edutopia, Geogebra, SMART Technologies, etc.  However, receiving notifications through email just becomes another task in order to keep my inbox clear; or the emails sit in a folder filling up my space.

Now, I send all of my YouTube feed updates to Feedly.  Feedly is much more friendly when collecting content from most websites.  Much more that Google Reader was.

Google Reader Shutting Down!

Big news yesterday for blogger, blog readers and Google.  Google announced yesterday that they will be shutting down their Google Reader product July 1st of this year.  If you are like me, that is heart-breaking news.  I subscribe to over 200 blogs; and though I do not visit and read every one of them, Google Reader has become a great resource for me and a great way to search.

Nevertheless, we move on.

Alex Kantrowitz from Forbes made some great points about how we do not own the products and services we use online:

"No matter how much work we put in to optimize our online presences, our tools and our experiences, we are still at the mercy of big companies controlling the platforms we operate on...they can make whatever call they want.  And Wednesday night, Google made theirs."  Read More

Drew Olanoff from TechCrunch made some great points and truths about RSS and blog readers:

"Google Reader was just a glorified email inbox." 

So, what do we do now?

There are still a good amount of products out there that do a decent job with collecting and aggregating RSS feeds from blogs.  Here are some articles I have found that give some great suggestions for a Google Reader alternative.

CNet has a great focus on readers that were available on the Web as well as iOS and Android (good thinkin')

Lifehacker gives some explanation of the whole RSS proces as well as how to deal with your current Google Reader subscriptions.

ComputerWorld showcases several articles that feature some great Google Reader alternatives.

My fave and why

After tossing up a couple of options, Feedly is my favorite.  Number one, I need something that I can access on the web as well as an iOS app for my iPad.  Secondly, I can send interesting articles and pages to Pocket; which is my "read later" application (I'll talk about that another time).  The other feature that sold me on this service was its user interface.  I love the flow and visual design of the site and the iOS app; easy to flow through and nice to look at when reading.  With these three major features, I find Feedly the best alternative to Google Reader.  Plus, Feedly just announced that they will offer seamless transitioning from Google Reader to Feedly.

Can't Beat That!

With this huge turn of events from such a giant at Google is, the big question is:

Is blogging heading to strictly micro-blogging on social networks?

Great Classroom Idea From Padlet

I received an email from Padlet (formally Wallwisher) advertising a great idea for the ELA classroom.  If you are not familiar with Padlet, please review my post on it.  Padlet has many options for working collaboratively with your students.  One way is you can create a wall to develop writing skills through poetry with your students.

Wings of Flight is a wall created by Padlet as a great example of students displaying short poems they have created.

Check out Padlet's Gallery of examples others have created to help create ideas of your own.

Palet is safe.  Students need NO account in order to participate.

Twitter Hashtag Feature: #tlchat

#tlchat, according to tagdef.com, "follows topics of interest to Teacher-Librarians, also known as School Librarians or School Library Media Specialists".  Below is a Twitter stream displaying a search on #tlchat.  Search for any hashtag in your Twitter account to view a live stream of content associated with that hashtag.

Tweets about "#tlchat"

Twitter Feature Follow

From education-based Tweeps I follow

Since we're on the topic of Richard Byrne, add him to your follow list.

Tweets by @rmbyrne

Best of the Web 2013 from Richard Byrne

Richard Byrne from Free Technology for Teachers always offer some great resources for teachers.  He will often put together a collective of educational products and services out there that he has found the best.

Below is a presentation of some of these resources.

Best of the Web 2013 from Richard Byrne

New Learner of The 21st Century - Dr. John Seely Brown

An oldie, but a goodie.  From PBS's documentary Digital Media - New Learner of The 21st Century back in 2011, Dr. John Seely Brown talks about what drives people to WANT to learn.  Some great thoughts and concepts on creativity, learning and driven passion.  I love his studies.  Oddly enough, as I was writing this post, Edutopia had just uploaded this video on their YouTube channel today.

"...tinkering brings thought and action together in some very powerful, magical ways"

Watch Extended Interview: Dr. John Seely Brown on PBS.

See more from Digital Media - New Learners Of The 21st Century.

iPad Apps "Cleaning"?

Have you ever noticed "cleaning" under some of your apps, like Facebook, on your iOS device?  It can happen quickly and unnoticed, because I just noticed it for the first time this morning, so I searched for an answer online.

I found an article from iMore.  The article was written back in Dec of 2011 and its perspective is in iOS 5 (iOS 6 is our latest update), however Rene Ritchie's explanation is helpful and to the point.

Check out the article here.

Twitter Follow Feature

From education-based Tweeps I follow

The 6 Biggest Challenges Of Using Education Technology edmc.me/VfWSkC
— Edudemic (@Edudemic) February 14, 2013

My Twitter Education List 

Invite Experts Across Country to Your Classroom

From Richard Byrne, Skype in the Classroom features some great ideas on how you can bring experts to your students via video conferencing with Skype.  They also allow you to connect with other classrooms and teachers who are interested in collaborating.  Listed in each content category are listings of teachers looking for interested classroom connections.

For instance, just posted Feb 1st, Mr Doktor's urban Middle School Geography classroom is looking to discuss physical, cultural, and socioeconomic differences with another classroom; as well as being involved in a service learning project.

Video conferencing (or Distance Learning) is an amazing way to bring in outside visitors and experts in their field to your students.  Not only can it be FREE (some organizations do charge fees), but it is an exciting and engaging way for students to interact with these visiting experts.

Richard Byrne's example demonstrates Yellowstone National Park's Parkranger, Beth Tyler, who offers to visit classrooms via Skype.  Check out the video on his post from a classroom in Maine.  Skype in the Classroom offers many examples of how you can do this, however, video conferencing can be a simple as contacting a professor of your (our) local university or college and have them discuss material relevant to your unit lessons.  Contact a Geology professor for classroom discussions on strata or volcanoes.

Our school system has Tandberg service available with a long list of contacts and schools in our state system that can be contacted for FREE.  Collaborate with another classroom in another part of our state on a project.

Here are some more great video conferencing ideas from Mashable.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions concerning video conferencing and opptions.

A word of advice:  when searching for good video conferencing content, not all organizations offer FREE video conferencing.  Unfortunately, though they look education-friendly, they are out to make a buck as well.  Sometimes you have to get creative or dig a little deeper; that can go for anything, can't it.