Volume 3, Issue 9
Streaming, Again
Many of you may not be aware
that just a single person streaming
a video (or music from the Inter-
net) can severely consume band-
width in a school thus slowing
everything to a near halt. Prob-
lems were experienced during the
training sessions for PowerSchool
in which the bandwidth of the
school hosting the training was
pegged, slowing training to a halt.
You may think you are the only
one streaming at any one time, but
unless you contact everyone in the
building, you really don’t know.
Upon accessing the admin re-
ports for DE streaming (used to be
unitedstreaming) I see where most
users are still relying on streaming
videos rather than downloading
them – in all the schools I visit.
The gradebook we will be using
next year is hosted online; the
program will not be on your com-
puter. Teachers who are stream-
ing music and videos will be limit-
ing the capacity of other teachers
to work in their gradebooks. Be-
cause of the problems streaming
creates, the tech department in
considering reverting back to the
old restriction on streaming during
school hours.
Internet Safety Lessons
Don’t forget you need to teach
at least one lesson on Internet
Safety during the school year.
Once the lesson has been taught,
please submit your lesson plan to
your tech coach (indicate the por-
tion pertaining to Internet Safety).
The lesson does not need to be Timothy M. Kaine as a joint
elaborate. In fact, if you take your
students to the lab to use comput-
ers, do a brief “don’t forget
______” or “remember _______”
and write in your lesson plan what
you told the students.
Cyberbullying Lessons
The National School Board As-
sociation offers free lesson plans
and student activity sheets on the
subject of cyberbullying. There
are currently 4 lessons for grades
6-8. These have activity sheets
and do not require computer
access for the lesson.
http://cybersmartcurriculum.or
g/cyberbullying/nsba/lessons/
Eclipse Crossword
http://www.eclipsecrossword.com/
Eclipse Crossword is a free
software download for creating
crosswords – great for vocabulary
review. Since it is a software
download to install on your laptop,
you can use it when you don’t
have the Internet, unlike the Dis-
covery School puzzles.
This would make for a nice
change of pace while reviewing
SOLs.
Virginia iTunes U
Virginia on iTunes U was
launched on April 8 by Governor
project of the Virginia Department
of Education, Apple, Radford
University, Blue Ridge Public
Television, and Thinkfinity.
iTunes U for K-12 education is a
dedicated area within Apple’s
iTunes Store featuring free access
to educational content. Students,
teachers, and other interested users
can easily search, download, and
play audio and video content from
any computer with Internet access,
and learn on the go with iPod,
iPhone, or similar devices. You
will also find other educational
content, such as lesson plans and
parent newsletters, provided in
Adobe Acrobat PDF.
World Digital Library
http://www.wdl.org/en/ is a
great resource for social studies:
The World Digital Library
(WDL) makes available on the
Internet, free of charge and in
multilingual format, significant
primary materials from countries
and cultures around the world.
From an eSchoolNews article:
“National libraries and the U.N.
education agency on April 21 put
some of humanity's earliest writ-
ten works online. The antiquities
range from ancient Chinese oracle
bones that might be more than
3,000 years old to the first ex-
tant European map of the New
World, dating back nearly 450
years.”
The principal objectives of the
WDL are to:
 Promote international and in-
tercultural understanding;
Expand the volume and variety
of cultural content on the In-
ternet;
Provide resources for educa-
tors, scholars, and general au-
diences;
Build capacity in partner insti-
tutions to narrow the digital
divide within and between
countries.
Think Green
http://www.thinkgreen.com/classr
oom
Waste Management and Dis-
covery Education have partnered
to engage students in learning
about the environment. Teachers
will find standards-based lesson
plans, tools and hands-on activi-
ties to enliven classroom learning
and at-home extensions. Students
will find video clips and step-by-
step interactive activities to ex-
pand their knowledge of the planet
we share.
What happens to the waste we
all produce? When does it make
sense to recycle? Can trash be-
come energy? These are just a few
of the timely topics to explore
here.
TweenTribune
http://tweentribune.com/
TweenTribune is a daily news
site for tweens. Each day links to
compelling news stories are posted
to the site. Tweens work with pro-
fessional journalists to choose
which stories appear.
As a teacher you can register
your classroom. Once your stu-
dents create accounts (free, no
email required) and begin using
the site, custom pages are generat-
ed showing which news stories
your students have commented on
(you can even print a report of
your students and their com-
ments). You do have the ability to
moderate (and delete) comments
before they are posted.
50+ Ways to Create Digital
Stories With Students
http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/
2009/04/27/50-ways-to-create-
digital-stories-with-students/
Creating stories using web tools
is fun and engaging for student
while also teaching them new
skills. Best of all you can embed
them in blog posts to grab readers;
including something a bit different
makes reading posts more interest-
ing.
This blog post discusses ways
to incorporate Web 2.0 tools that
can be used to create stories. As
the state of Virginia refocuses its
technology plan to actual imple-
menting classroom use of technol-
ogy, this is a good way for teach-
ers of all subjects to encourage
students to use technology while
learning.
Video Resources
I am frequently asked about
video resources beyond DE
streaming. There are many out
there, some are better than others.
Here are a few you may not be
aware of:
Edublogs TV
(http://edublogs.tv/)
Nibipedia
(http://nibipedia.com/)
TED: Ideas worth spreading
(http://www.ted.com/index.php)
TeacherTube
(http://www.teachertube.com/)
SchoolTube
(http://www.schooltube.com/)
Math and Algebra Help
(http://www.mathtv.com/)
Math Playground
(http://www.mathplayground.com/
mathtv.html)
Wikipedia for Schools
http://schools-wikipedia.org/
Many of you know of Wikipe-
dia. Many of you are hesitant to
use it for a variety of reasons. But
did you know there is an educa-
tional version? The educational
version is gleaned from the main
Wikipedia and then fact checked
for accuracy. Rather than the dy-
namic wiki that Wikipedia is
where anyone can submit and edit
content, Wikipedia for Schools is
static. It cannot be added to or
changed by readers. You can even
download the education version
and place it on a classroom com-
puter.
“The updated selection
(2008/9) has the content of a 20
volume encyclopedia - with
34,500 pictures, 20 million words
and articles on more than 5500
topics. Please note that Wikipe-
dia's policies are that content has
to be verifiable and based on rec-
ognized reliable sources. We have
not included references and
sources in this selection, but you
can check them at Wikipedia on-
line if you have any questions.
This selection is a part of a larger
collection at Wikipedia, which we
commend especially for older
children. We have tried to tidy up
all links to material not included
(such as images where we per-
ceived a copyright problem) but
occasional "dead-ends" may re-
main, particularly in "part of a se-
ries" content boxes. Please let us
know of any other faults, at the
present time apart from a delibe-
rate "Easter Egg", all known faults
have been fixed. If you find pieces
of foreign text appear as "?????"
or similar, however, this is likely
to be because you don't have a
font installed for that language:
please check the same article on
Wikipedia itself.”
Beyond Google (and Yahoo
and Ask and….)
Worio Search is a discovery
engine that works alongside key-
word search to expose you to stuff
you've been missing using though
typical Internet search alone. Wo-
rio displays search results from
your favorite search engine
(Google, Yahoo, or MSN Live) on
the left side of your window and a
series of related results on the
right. Worio also displays sug-
gested search terms related to your
original search.
Give it a try at
http://www.worio.com/search/ If
you create an account on Worio it
will “learn” about you and popu-
late your “discovery feed” with
results you like.
Public Domain Photos
http://www.photos8.com/ offers
thousands of high resolution pho-
tos for any use. If used the owner
simply asks you give credit to the
site, such as "Photo courtesy Pho-
tos8.com".
PowerPoint Game
Templates
http://facstaff.uww.edu/jonesd/ga
mes/index.html
“The Parade of Games web site
was created to provide educators
with easy-to-assemble educational
games in a technology-enhanced
environment to support key learn-
ing points.”
The site provides descriptions
and uses of each of the 16 tem-
plates. You can download the
template and you can also down-
load a sample created with the
template.
Compfight
http://compfight.com/
Compfight is an image search
engine I learned about in Wes
Fryer’s “Copyright for Education”
presentation
(http://www.slideshare.net/wfryer/
copyright-for-educators). It al-
lows you to search Flickr for Crea-
tive Commons licensed images to
use in documents and digital pres-
entations. You can search by
keyword or by Flickr tags.
This is a great tool for students
to use to search for images for use
in presentations. However, it is
strongly suggested you turn on the
“Safe Search” option (you should
use this in all searches students are
doing – the first article in this
newsletter explains how to do this
in Google).
Scribble Maps
http://scribblemaps.com
Scribble Maps is the quick and
easy way to rapidly make and
share maps!
With Scribble Maps you can:
- Draw shapes and Scribble!
- Place Markers and text
- Create a Custom Widget
- Save as KML/GPX
- Send maps to friends
Use Scribble Maps to focus on
a battle site. Use Scribble Maps to
draw migration or trade routes.
Use Scribble Maps to show a loca-
tion in a book or track movement
of characters.
Classroom Materials
Classifieds
http://www.hootofloot.com/
Hoot of Loot offers teachers a
marketplace to buy and sell used
classroom supplies – please, oh
please, do NOT sell ACPS-
purchased materials.
Document Cameras
Numerous teachers at NMS,
and a few at AMS, have checked
out document cameras (and love
them!). Using one and want more
ideas? Want to know how you
could use one in your room before
you check one out? Try these
links for ideas:
100 Ideas for Data Presenters
and Document Cameras
http://ppsblogs.net/brianmcke
e/files/2009/01/doccamerause
s.doc (this is a Word docu-
ment from an ITRT in
Portsmouth)