We have a computer lab license for brainpop.com, an awesome website for short animated videos on just about any topic in the curriculum. If you are looking for material to introduce, reinforce, or review a topic, Brainpop may be just what you need. Check it out at:
See someone in the computer lab for the school username and password.
Tuesday’s Technology Tip…
(little bits of information to hopefully make your computing life easier)
If you are in the market for a new computer at home, you have access to educator’s prices for being affiliated with a school. For Dell computers, the district has a special code (and website) with the employee purchase program. See someone in the computer lab for the necessary info. For Apple computers, simply identify yourself as an educator at the Apple Store (online or in the mall) to get the discounted prices.
Wireless acccess to the network from anywhere in the building is still spotty. If you are close enough to an access point, it is great. If you are not close enough, it is not so great. IT has made a committment to get the wireless overlay network totally fixed during next school year. When that happens, we will truly have an “anywhere, anytime” network in the school.
Tuesday’s Technology Tip…
(little bits of information to hopefully make your computing life easier)
On the homepage of WITS in the left column, you should see a blue heading titled Student Intranet. Underneath are links to For Parents and Student Showcase. To see current (or past) PTSA newsletters, other information for parents, or recent work done by our students, these are the places to find them.
Thanks to an outstanding staff for a great day today. I feel one of my most important jobs is professional development. The more teachers feel comfortable integrating technology, the more it can benefit the learning process. I hope you found the day as beneficial as we hoped it to be.
“…good pedagogy trumps good technology. Bolting technology onto the current industrial model of school, “integrating technology across the curriculum,” has the hidden danger of freezing an outdated curriculum in place longer than it deserves. We need a lot of bright people to spend a long time thinkng about what children should learn in order to make important contributions to our society.”
~Alan November
McLester, Susan. “Q&A with Alan November.” Technology & Learning April 2005 : 64.
Ideas are awesome. Thinking out of the box is key to having a unique voice. Oneword.com provides just that – one word – and you have 60 seconds to write the first thing that comes to mind about the word. Very cool. Very fast. Very fun.
Go for it – what do you have to be afraid of?
Tuesday’s Technology Tip..
(little bits of information to hopefully make your computing life easier)
Google has added a new service to its map feature which has satellite images of the mapped location. Type in an address, click on the satellite link, and you get a bird’s eye view, with decent zoom and resolution.
Go to http://maps.google.com
type in the address and click search
when the normal map shows up, look to the upper right of the screen for a link that reads satellite
there you are!
Big brother really is watching…
PS The satellite images can be up to 5 or 6 years old. If you check out Heim, you can tell how it is at least a 3 year old picture.
Here is a question that comes up all the time. “I just printed – which printer will my stuff come out on?” At home, with one printer, the answer is simple. In school we are networked, which means you can print to just about any printer from any computer. So the question becomes, “which printer did you choose to print to?”
BTW, the answer is to look at the print dialog box before you click print – it tells which printer the computer is currently set to. 🙂
In the last couple of days I have heard about a program called iSafe. In the online world it is increasingly important for students (and adults) to be careful of who they interact with and how much of their real identity they share. iSafe is a program that teaches students how to stay safe while on the Internet. iSafe is a federally funded program that can be incorporated for free into the school. We’ll be looking at it for next year.
