(Warning: this one may be a bit on the geeky side…)
Following on from the post earlier today about inserting comments in Microsoft Word, someone asked whether it’s possible to create a comment bank in Word. When marking lots of papers in digital format - which is good because it’s quick and saves lots of paper - this would save you from having to retype frequently used comments umpteen times.
The answer is “Yes, you can - using macros“. I’ll explain how here…
Last year I wrote a post on why I think wikis are so cool and I’d like to repeat and/or continue on this train of thought here.
First of all, if you don’t quite know what a wiki is, here’s a pretty decent three-minute fifty-two second explanation of how it works:
Did you know you can add comments to students’ (or colleagues’) Word documents, both in text and voice format?
Just over a year ago I wrote about a massive collection of SMART Board files for free downloading, and while I got good feedback on that tip, many did not find the time to check it out. Thus, I thought it was time to put it out there again.
If you’re interested in the intersection of technology and education - which these days covers a rather large part of education - you might like to check out this new podcast. The host, Jeff Utecht, is a teacher at Shanghai American School, as well as a presenter and IT consultant for schools in the Asia region, but for a number of the episodes - a series of conversational episodes called called SOS (Shifting Our Schools) - he is joined by teachers from various other schools in the region, where they discuss
the latest conversations in the educational blogosphere as well as deep thinking about education and the changing nature of learning.
This is highly relevant material for international school teachers and administrators, and the latest episode is from the EARCOS conference just the other week, where Jeff was one of the presenters.
To subscribe with iTunes, click here: 
If, on the other hand, you don’t want to use iTunes, you can also just go to the site itself (http://www.thethinkingstick.com/ondeck/archivepage/) and browse the links there to download individual episodes or recorded conference presentations or conversations to your computer and listen to in Media Player.
Way back in October, I wrote a blog entry called Web Searching 101, outlining some basic web searching tricks using Google, but mentioned that some techniques work better with other search engines, for example AltaVista, and I promised to write a follow-up, Web Searching 201. Better late than never, so here goes…
A simple Google search may appear to give you the most relevant hits first, but that is not necessarily the case. A number of techniques can be used to (artificially) improve a site’s page rank, i.e. how high on the list of hits it appears. For companies with an online presence, getting a high page rank has enormous potential to increase traffic to their site and thus (hopefully) boost their business. Not surprisingly, SEOs (Search Engine Optimizers) are in high demand these days.
Most often, when Internet users do a web search, they just choose one of the first few links that appear and don’t even bother going to the second page of hits. In some cases that’s fine, but they should be aware that a carefully crafted search algorithm has determined the order of the results you get, thus the results necessarily contain a certain bias.
All Internet users will benefit from learning how to formulate search criteria to target their search more carefully, and this is something we all ought teach our students specifically before sending them to the lab to do research.
Here are some powerful ways to get a lot more out of your web search engine. (Note: all these examples are for using the search engine http://www.altavista.com.)
ISM’s Pre K - 12 technology standards will be based on the NETS standards from ISTE, and we are currently in the process of formulating indicators for the standards. As the school gets standards in place for the various subject areas and departments start entering units into Atlas Rubicon, all teachers will need to become more familiar with the NETS standards, as meeting these will require some integration of technology use in other subjects.
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On Monday this week, we started the new semester with the now annual IT @ ISM Expo. The feedback after the event was good, and many seemed inspired by what they had seen and heard, whether the new ideas came from the intended topic or just something that came up incidentally during conversations. There were several sessions devoted to podcasting, and a number of classes have started experimenting with this over the last couple of months.
One concern brought up by a presenter afterwards was the risk that you might end up preaching to the converted, as some attendees seem to select topics they already know they’re interested in, when part of the intention is to expose teachers to new ideas. However, ideas often come bubbling forth anyway, through conversations with other teachers. The interactive format with small groups gives rise to conversations with people you may not otherwise have talked to, often from other grade levels, departments and divisions.
Another concern was the timing, as some seem to have prioritized report writing over the chance to learn from each other. This is a pity of course, and we can try to avoid that for next year’s event. For those who missed a topic they would have liked to learn about, there is a folder in Staff Resources with resource files/handouts from most of the events (please note that this link only works if you are logged on to the network - if not, you have to log in and navigate to Staff Resources >> CommonFolders >> IT Expo 08 via the public site).
Thanks to all the presenters!
Social bookmarking - ever heard of it? It’s yet another example of a powerful new way of collaborating. In the immortal words of Herry Monster, two heads are better than one. Here’s why and how…
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In a previous post, Fred posted some shownotes from his recent Wednesday morning in-service on web skills. I’d just like to expand on this a bit. If you’re an MS or HS teacher and plan for your students to do research on a topic, you can share the below hints with your students before they start. Effective web searching involves a whole set of skills that need reinforcing over time.
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21st Century Skills Assessment Blogging Collaboration Curriculum del.icio.us Ethics Gaming Guidelines Humour Internet k12online07 k12online07pc Laptops Learning Management Systems Library Media Microsoft Podcasting Programming Resources RSS Safety Seamless Integration Social Bookmarking Social Networking Standards Support Teaching ideas Thinking skills Web 2.0 Wiki
