Embrace Technology, Enhance Yourself

These videos were created at the 2009 Elementary Technology Academy. 

Please tell me what you thought of this year’s academy.  What did you enjoy the most?  What would you like to do more of this year?  How can we make the academy better? 

The 4th and 5th grades at Stonewall had a special class about Internet Safety.  They specifically learned about Bullying and Cyberbullying.  They all decided to become Kids Against Bullying!!

The Washington Lee Tech Team has been busy…busy…busy!!!  Check out the blog at http://wltechteam.edublogs.org.  Let us know what you think!!!!

The final follow-up session will be held on May 27 at Washington Lee.  I hope you will try to attend.  All academy participants should have their blogs updated as soon as possible.  I noticed that some of you have used your blogs quite a bit this year and have been blogging with your students.  If you would like help getting it going for next year, please let me know.

It’s a new year and we need to move forward with our blogs and with our use of technology in our classrooms. I know you are all very busy and that SOL’s will be here before we know it but lets remember to integrate. I am always available to come in and work with you on lessons and ways to add more technology to your curriculum. I have a couple of Web 2.0 items I want to share with you at today’s meeting. I will list the links here so that you will have them available to you.

• Podcasting – we’ve used Audacity to create our own podcasts, but if you want to VIEW podcasts and videos, try Odeo. At Odeo, you will find a great collection of digital media.

• Newsletters – create your own eye-catching newsletters online at Letterpop! A FREE Account is available which allows you to send 10 newsletters a year! Check it out!!

• Photo Sharing – we’ve talked about this one before and its still a great option – Flickr. Another place to create and share photos is Bubbleshare.

• Photo Editor – we have had some issues with not having an adequate photo editor available here at school. Your worries are over. There is a FREE one online! Its called Picnik.

• Posters – Create wall-sized posters from any image at Blockposter. I’ve not tried this one yet, but let’s give it a shot!!

• Book Builder – Create and publish books online. This is a great teacher, student, or class project. Take a look at Book Builder.

• Sound Effects – Looking for a good sound effect for a PowerPoint or a Notebook activity that you are working on? You can download 5 Sounds a month for FREE at Soundsnap.

Thank you to all of you who joined us for our first session. I thought the brainstorming of ideas was helpful. I will follow-up with the suggestions made and we will hopefully see your blog traffic pickup. I am here to assist you so please let me know what you need me to do for you.

Preview an attachment before you open it – Outlook 2007

When you receive an attachment in a message and want to quickly see what the attachment contains without opening it, you can preview the attachment in the Reading Pane.  Just select the message that has the attachment, and in the Reading Pane, click the attachment once (not twice, which will open it). The content of the attachment, whether it’s a document, a presentation, an image, or whatever, will appear in the Reading Pane.

RSS is an acronym which stands for Really Simple Syndication.

In simple terms RSS is a simple and effective way of keeping in touch when new information is added to a website without having to visit the site.

I think we solved this problem by putting the code in under HTML, rather than the Visual view. I am still looking for answers on how to get the PictureTrail to work but stay tuned because I will find a way. I know it is something in the code that we are pasting in, but am not sure how to fix it.