EduTech’s West Central Region Blog

Today, I worked on creating a Fall Visit Glog! Glogs are interactive posters that can contain links to websites and documents as well as images and text.  Glogs are created using a free online application called Glogster.  One of the really cool things about it is that teachers can use the educational application of Glogster and create up to 200 student accounts.  According to http://edu.glogster.com/, here are some reasons for using Glogster in your own classrooms:

1. A creative, dynamic, and innovative digital outlet that captures learner’s excitement for online creations, keeps learners engaged in course content, and makes teaching and learning more fun.

2. A private and safe platform, monitored directly by teachers. Teachers control all the activities of their learners.

3. A valuable teaching tool that integrates diverse core subjects including math, science, history, art, photography, music and more for individual learner portfolios, unique alternative assessments, and differentiated instructional activities.

4. A fun, imaginative, and powerful learning experience which fosters independent creative self expression, positive learner-teacher relationships, and teamwork on collaborative class projects.

5. A vibrant, multi-sensory learning experience which integrates learner’s knowledge and skills into traditionally text-oriented subjects and motivates learner’s desire to explore topics in which they may previously have been less interested.

So check out My Fall Visit Glog then try it yourselves.  Better yet, have your students do it!  So much better than posterboard!

Here are a couple of examples of North Dakota Student Glogs:

Literacy

Civil War

According to Grantastic Designs, there are 5 basic rules of web design and layout.

Your web site should be easy to read
–High contrast with the text and background
–Text should not be too large or too small
–Good use of white space

Your web site should be easy to navigate
–Consider the audience
–Organize consistently

Your web site should be easy to find
–The URL should be easy to remember
–The URL should be as concise as possible

Your web page layout and design should be consistent throughout the site
–Each page has the same look and feel
–Text should be consistent

You web site should be quick to download
–Images should not be too large
–Animations should be kept to a minimum
–All linked documents should be in PDF format

To find out more information about Grantastic’s recommendations, go to http://www.grantasticdesigns.com/5rules.html

Wikipedia also has some good information regarding the terminology used in web design. Here’s a link to that page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_design

Have you ever wished you could remember where that great article, resource or web page was located? Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, organize, share and search for bookmarks of web pages. Just like creating a bookmark in your web browser, a social bookmark is stored on the web for access from any computer. This makes it possible for you to find your favorite web page you’ve bookmarked at the office at home as well. With social bookmarking the links can be made public to share with others via email or online. People can then view your bookmarks chronologically, by category or by search engine.

There are many free social bookmarking services. I have listed a few below:
Connotea
del.icio.us
Digg
Diigo
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Netvouz
Newsvine
reddit
Simpy
Stumbleupon

There are advantages to using social bookmarking. Remote access from any computer connected to the Internet, tags created by human beings rather than algorithmic software and rank based on use are a few.

I currently use Furl. Check out my Furl page http://www.furl.net/members/lynneanneanderson
Happy bookmarking!!!

As I have been teaching ActivBoard and SMARTBoard workshops across the region, some of you have expressed a desire to change the background color of your interactive whiteboards to make them easier on the eyes.

To change the background color setting on your ActivBoard:
1. Click on the Main Menu button
2. Select Studio Settings (PC) or Preferences (Mac)
3. Select Flipchart
4. Check the box Replace white surface with the following color:
5. Click on the white box to the right and select a color from the color wheel
This will now be the default color every time you use your ActivBoard.

To change the background color on your SMARTBoard:
1. On the Main Menu, click Format
2. Select Background Color
3. Select a color
This will not change the default color. You will need to change this every time you create a new notebook.

I hope this helps. If you find other tips and tricks, please let me know and I’ll share them with others. Thanks!

If you’ve ever had problems presenting a PowerPoint slideshow, packaging your PowerPoint could be the answer! Here’s why: media files and most sound files are not a part of the PowerPoint presentation and are only linked to your slide show. This can cause problems when transferring the presentation to another computer, as the linked files are not actually present and cannot be opened.

Creating a PowerPoint Package allows you to “pack” your entire presentation and all of the linked files into one folder so that it can be easily transferred to another computer without losing any of the linked pictures, sounds, movies, or other file types.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2004 (Mac)
1. Open the PowerPoint presentation you want to package.
2. From the File menu, click Save As.
3. ClickPowerPoint Package.
4. In the Save As box type a name for the folder.
5. Click Save.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 (Windows)
1. Open the PowerPoint presentation you want to package.
2. From the File menu, click Package for CD.
3. Type a name for the folder.
4. Click Copy to Folder then specify its path.
5. Click OK.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 (Windows)
1. Open the PowerPoint presentation you want to package.
2. From the Office Button, click Publish.
3. Click on Package for CD.
4. Type a name for the folder.
5. Click Copy to Folder then specify its path.
6. Click OK.