As the end of the school year draws to a close, I’m trying to be proactive in the area of future software purchases and upgrades. What will we need next year? And most importantly, in what do we really need to invest those limited budget funds? If we upgrade our Macs to OS 10.7, one [...]
Looking for a visual and interactive way for students to display learning? Give SpiceyNodes a try. This free service lets the user create nodemaps (a.k.a. webs or concept maps) about a topic. What takes this tool beyond traditional webbing and graphic organizers of the past is the user’s ability to customize for an audience’s experience. [...]
When I want to make a photo slideshow, I use three criteria in choosing an application or service: 1. What’s the output need to be? In other words, how do I need to display it? 2. How much pizazz does it need to have to meet the intended goal? 3. How much time do I [...]
Over a week ago, I had the pleasure of being able to spend a day and half of professional development time with four other instructional technology specialists and a dozen teachers (grades K-5) exploring Glogster. This time gave way for much needed “play” and discussion about how to integrate this tool into the curriculum. By [...]
Go ahead… press the play button! (Text version: Does your blog or web page have the blahs? How about spicing it up with some talking avatars?) Recently, I have seen quite a few of these critters on various people’s media or projects, and I have to say, I am mesmerized! A talking cartoon totally grabs [...]
Need to survey people, or want your students to administer a survey? Want to make online quizzes for students? Or even better: have students make their own quizzes for each other to demonstrate what they know? Then look no further than Forms in Google Docs. Do you send out an email whenever you need to [...]
Dear Reader,
Here’s some info about this blog.
Jan. 2010 – June 2010 This blog served as a technology professional development portal. It was a chance for us to explore what was (and still is) out there. As we know, a lot of the latest tools and resources only take a few minutes to preview and learn. Making the time is often the trickiest feat. Therefore, I proposed Tech Tuesday. Every Tuesday something new was waiting for you to check out on this blog. On select Tuesdays, there even were face-to-face session in the Abbot lab @ 7:45 A.M. In under 30 minutes, I demonstrated the new tool, and participants got some time to play. It was requested that participants gave the tool a little more thought or another “go”, and then follow-up with a comment on this blog, reviewing the tool for a grade level or subject. The ultimate goal or end product was that one tool or resource would be implemented fully into teaching practices to benefit student learning. We also had a great resource blog for people to consult in the end!
October 2010 – ?: I am going to continue to update the Tech Tuesday blog on at least a monthly basis. There’s still so much to learn and share. So always check in on Tuesdays to see what’s going on, or better yet, subscribe! 
