More Episode 14 Info

Some additional information about Episode 14 (ISMF):

You can check out the project created by the Cannelton, IN Elementary School Media Club, a website titled "The Moon and Beyond," which is one of the projects profiled in the podcast, at:

http://www.siec.k12.in.us/cannelton/beyondmoon/

I don't have a URL for the other project, but it was created by kids at Heard Elementary Academy in Savannah, GA (there were quite a few projects from GA at the ISMF), specifically from the Gifted Education Program, which is led by Allison Roberts, Kim Mercer and Sally Watson. Kudos to both groups!

The enthusiasm of both the adults and the kids that I interviewed was inspiring, and I can tell that these media projects have made a big impact on the students.

Cheers,
Chris

Episode 14 (International Student Media Festival) is Available!

Episode 14 is now available! Some of you may be listening to it right now. This episode features a few short, entertaining and informative interviews with teacher, parent and student participants of the International Student Media Festival (http://www.ismf.net), recently held in Dallas, Texas. This festival highlights the creative work of K-12 students in a number of formats, such as still photgraphy, web design, and digital video. The episode is the shortest "Teach with Tech" so far, at under fifteen minutes, so it's a quick, fun listen. Hopefully, it will inspire some of you K-12 teachers to start projects with your students for next year's ISMF.

The blog has undergone a slight facelift, with the new Blogger dashboard. Hopefully, it is more readable now. I'm thinking a specific "Teach with Tech" logo would be nice to have sometime...

I've got a couple of interviews coming up, as well as some more material that might make it into a podcast, so stay tuned....

Chris

Back from AECT! & Podcasting Screencast

Had a great time at the Association for Educational Communication conference in Dallas, Texas. Met a lot of charming, inteliigent people and saw some old friends. As I suspected, I barely got out of the conference hotel, so I don't have a great sense of what Dallas has to offer, though I did enjoy the Mexican food at RJs on the West End.

At AECT, I presented on the topic of "Podcasting: A New Medium for Distance Learning." It was a packed room and numerous people asked me for a copy of my slides. Better than that, I've created an enhanced podcast or screencast for you, for free download. Just click on the title above. You will probably find that it opens in iTunes, but Quicktime Player should work fine, too. (Actually, I just tried this out, on Windows---for some reason, the slides are almost unreadable in Quicktime, so you will want to use iTunes after all.) I may make this a part of a "Teach with Tech" (Enhanced Podcast) series, along with my HTML tutorial, and make it subscribable. But I don't want to confuse things and upload it along with the regular "Teach with Tech." By the way, I used Profcast to make the screencast and it couldn't have been easier.

Also, while at AECT, I participated in a Skypecast, which is a live broadcast over Skype, in a show called "EdTechTalk Brainstorm." It was a lot of fun, partly because of my co-guest (is that a word?) Jennifer Maddrell, who is an IU grad student in Instructional Systems Technology. We will both be appearing on EdTech Weekly this coming Sunday at 7pm Bloomington time. They should also have an mp3 archive of this past Sunday's session up soon, so check it out. Not that my contributions were all that meaningful, but....

Do you know about the International Student Media Festival? Sponsored by AECT, it is a wonderful opportunity for K-12 students to show off their work, in areas such as still photography, stills with audio, websites, and digital video productions. I assisted as one of the judges this year, and also attended some of the events, such as Marco Torres' inspiring keynote, and the viewing of K-6 projects. I also interviewed some parents and kids, who were very excited about the ISMF. More about this in a future podcast.

More to come....

Chris

Off to AECT!

This week, I will be in Dallas, at the Association of Educational Communications and Technology conference, along with some familiar "Teach with Tech" voices--Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich and Mark Millard, two IU colleagues. I'm busy loading up my iPod with podcast episodes for the trip, including This Week in Tech, Security Now!, MacObserver's Weekly Roundup, The Tech Teachers, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! (NPR's news game show), Bill Maher, PennRadio.... Alas, no Smelly Monkeys (no new episode since September 3!). All of these can be found on iTunes, so I'm not going to provide URLs here.

I also downloaded the first two episodes of EdTechTalk Weekly, which is a roundtable discussion of the week's educational technology news. More about this show later....

I plan to do some podcasting from the conference. Might even make a blog posting, if I have time. Should be at least one new "Teach with Tech" episode before October is over, maybe more!

Stay Tuned,
Chris

Episode 13 is Online!, Internet Safety, and More Wikis!

Episode 13: "College Teaching Tech Tips!" is now available!

A number of quick and easy ways to integrate technology into the college classroom are discussed during this, our second, interview with Anne T. Ottenbreit-Leftwich, from the Indiana University School of Education. This time, she puts her experiences working in Instructional Consulting-type office at Purdue to good use as we discuss a wide range of ways that instructors can integrate technology into their teaching--or just improve their teaching in general. The tips come fast and furious in this one, so buckle your seat belts!

Internet Safety for Kids

In my online course, we have a weekly chat, and last Sunday's chat was about Internet Safety. I shared this URL with them, and I'll share it with you. It gives a nice list of tips to share with kids about keeping safe on the Net:

http://www.netsmartz.org/safety/safetytips.htm

They have some useful videos on the site, too. Check out the ones about cyberbullying. Did you even know there was such a thing?

More Wikis!

Anne just sent me this cool link, full of ideas on how to use wikis in the classroom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_university_
projects# Considerations_and_suggestions


Till next time,
Chris

Podcasting comes to Oncourse, Skype Video, Packetville

Podcasting comes to Oncourse

Here at Indiana University, we use Oncourse CL as our learning management system. It is part of the Sakai Project, and other institutions have the same system under a different name. It is similar to Blackboard and WebCT, which are popular commercial systems. The Oncourse Developers have now added a podcast tool to the system. It can be turned on by going to Site Setup link on the lefthand navigation bar, choosing Edit Tools and selecting Podcasts. Then it will appear in the lefthand navigation bar, visible to the students. You can upload an mp3 file, and Oncourse will host it. Then, you fill out a few form fields which creates the RSS file, which is also hosted on Oncourse. Finally, it provides you with the URL to enter into iTunes or whatever podcatcher or ipod directory you want, which allows people to subscribe to it. Or the students can download it immediately from Oncourse. I'm giving my W505 students the option to create podcasts this semester; I hope at least a few of them take me up on it.

Skype now does PC-Mac Video

For the longest time, the only way to do free videoconferencing between the PC and the Mac was to use AOL Instant Messenger, which interfaced with iChat. But now Skype is offering a new version of its Mac client with videoconferencing capabilities--it worke with the iSight cam from Apple.

Packetville

I haven't had a lot of time to explore this K-12 resource yet, but it looks pretty impressive. I played a game about packets which got across the idea of how information travels over the internet pretty well. Worth checking out!
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/edu/packetville/index.html

That's all for now,
Chris

Episode 13 on its way!

Episode 13 has been recorded! As promised, it's the second visit to the "Teach with Tech" studios from Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich, who recently joined the Indiana University Instructional Systems Technology faculty. Hailing from our rival, Purdue, she has wonderful ideas for integrating technology into teaching. This time, we discuss a wide range of ideas for using technology in the college classroom. We had a great time sharing tips and techniques, and I'm sure our listeners will find some useful new ideas in our discussion.

I hate to be a tease, but I think I'm going to hold onto this one for a week or two, though, and release it near the end of the month, to keep to the normal once-a-month schedule.

Podfade, More Opera 9, Space Podcasts!

Podfade? Not me!

Our colleagues in podcasting, the Smelly Monkeys, are facing a problem that podcasters have if they don't release episodes in a regular fashion--the audience fades away. They address this issue amusingly in their Episode 50, which came out on Sept.1, quite a long while after the previous episode, July 30. (In case you don't remember who the Monkeys of Smell are, check out Teach with Tech Episode 9, and visit their site--http://smellymonkeys.blogspot.com/)

This brings up the issue of podfade--podcasts being abandoned, or seemingly being abandoned. Wired made a big deal of this in a recent article--(http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70171-0.html?tw=wn_index_1). Of course, this is to be expected to some extent--how many web pages were abandoned after the initial surge of excitement about the WWW? As a podcaster, you do have some control over the appearance of podfade--here's a good article on the subject: http://webfeedcentral.com/2006/02/20/avoiding-podfade/. Basically, the advice is what I call the "Peanuts Rule" or if you prefer something more modern, "The Calvin and Hobbes" Rule. The rule is basically to avoid time-sensitive references in your podcasts. The reason, one reason anyway, that the two comics I mention don't seem dated today, as they appear in the newspapers in reruns, is because of that. Charlie Brown never referenced the Vietnam War, and Calvin never pretended to be invading Iraq (the first time).

The most obvious rule though, is the "Nike Rule"--Just do it. Get off your butt and make another episode! This is especially challenging, I know, if you're a K-12 teacher or professor, as you have lots of other things to do. But if you want to keep whatever audience you have, and to make it grow, you have to make sure people know the podcast is a going concern, and worth investing time in, which means keeping to a schedule.

Which means sometimes it may be better to delay episodes, too. This Friday, i plan to record another episode with Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich, about easy ways to integrate technology into the curriculum, and I know I'll be very excited to share it all with you immediately--but I will probably put off releasing it until near the end of the month, to keep the program on a roughly monthly schedule.

More Opera 9 News

"Letters, we get letters..." I love listener mail, especially when it includes useful technology tips! A "Teach with Tech" listener, Troy Hicks, writes:

"I just wanted to touch base with you about your Teach with Tech podcast. I have been listening for a few months and I appreciate how you discuss new technologies and contextualize them in K-12 and higher ed applications.

Just a quick comment on your Opera segment from last month. I have been an Opera user for a few years (yes, I paid for it a long time ago, before Opera 9, because I thought it was that good). Besides all the great tips that you gave (I didn’t even realize the one about the trashcan), you might also want to think about telling your faculty and students that there are some handy mouse features that you can use on a PC or Mac (if you have a 2 button mouse).

* Want more info about a word or phrase on a page that you are viewing? Highlight it, then right click and select one of the many search features.
* Want to email someone, but you aren’t using Opera as your email client? Right click on the email address, copy it, and paste it in your email client.
* Want to navigate web pages faster? Use Mouse gestures: http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/mouse/
* Got a URL that you have copied or a word that you want to copy from somewhere and search using Opera? Right click in the address box or search box and choose “paste and go” to effectively paste and hit enter at the same time.

There are more mouse tools that I am sure are out there that I don’t even know, but these — along with the tips you offered — make my browsing life much easier." Thanks, Troy! Check out his blog at http://hickstro.org/

I welcome more listener contributions! Or just emails of praise!

Space Podcast

A cool new resource, especially for elementary science, from the NASA site:
http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/educators/podcast/

Isn't that the bummer about Pluto, by the way?

Chris

Episode 12 is Online!

Hello again, Teach with Tech fans!

Episode 12 is now available, and visible in iTunes. It focuses on two big topics: using wikis in the classroom, and the new features of Apple's upcoming version of OSX, Leopard, including Time Machine and Webclip, and improvements to iChat, Mail and Widgets.
I had a great time discussing these topics with Mark Millard, from
Indiana University's
Teaching and Learning with Technology Centers.

With both of these topics, we go beyond the general discussion of the cool technology and talk about how instructors, college and K-12, can use them. We welcome your suggestions, too!

Do you wiki?
Our learning management system, Oncourse, part of the Sakai Project, now has a wiki, and instructors are starting to use it, including myself, with my online course. Hey, this is a good time for a shoutout to my new Education W505: Using the Internet in the K-12 Classroom students! (It's not too late to join us!)

Just a reminder, you can find our episodes in this fine educational podcast directory (as well as at the IC website, iTunes, etc.):
http://www.recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/professional/teachwithtech.php

I'm happy to announce that Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich will be joining us again, to talk about quick and easy ways to integrate technology into your teaching. This time, we focus on the college classroom. We'll both also be appearing at the AECT National Conference (Mark, too!) in Dallas in October. And yes, we will be podcasting from the event!

Cheers,
Chris

Updates: Powerpoint Jeopardy!, Opera 9

Hello again!

More Powerpoint Games.
I'm preparing a Powerpoint game (which we discussed in Episode 10) about Indiana University to use with our Partners in Education program, so I thought I'd share some related resources that I found:

Powerpoint Jeopardy Games
http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/countyjeopardygames.htm
A great selection of K-12 Jeopardy games from some Kentucky teachers.

Powerpoint Activities
http://teach.fcps.net/trt10/PowerPoint.htm
Has links to a Hollywood Squares and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire templates too. The Millionaire one is very cool, but I wish it came with instructions.

Opera 9 Problem fixed.
In a previous entry here, I mentioned I was having problems with YouTube and Google Video working on Opera on my MacBook Pro. Well, the sites seem to use Flash to present their videos. It turns out that you need to delete a file called Flash Plugin Enabler.plugin from the HD/Library/Internet Plugins/ folder. Then restart
Opera and you've got videos!

Stay tuned for Episode 12!

Chris

News, Info and Tips!

New Center at IU. One of the most commonly cited criticisms of educational research is that teachers don't use it, that the connection between the university teacher education programs and the everyday K-12 classroom is not being made. Well, the Indiana University School of Education is seeking to bridge that gap by creating the Center for Educational Sciences Research and P-16 Collaboration. This center will be focused on presenting best practices to teachers in the Indianapolis area (at least at first), primarily in the Math and Science Education areas.

More on Opera 9. I really like Opera's Magic Wand feature, too. All modern web browsers have some scheme to save login information, but the Magic Wand is a pretty elegant way to do it. Not only does it make logging in to site with saved information as easy as clicking on the wand, but if you have say, two different Hotmail accounts, it allows you to choose between them when logging in. This is something I haven't seen before.

One negative for Opera 9 is that it doesn't seem to work with YouTube or Google Video. I downloaded an Opera widget for You Tube but that doesn't let me search for videos successfully.

Oncourse Wiki. IU's learning management system, Oncourse CL, part of the Sakai Project, now has a wiki system. A wiki, in case you didn't attend our Podcasts, Blogs and Wikis workshop, is a collaborative writing tool that allows people to work on the same document through a web interface. Wikipedia is the most famous example, though I note places like Amazon are starting to incorporate them too. Previous postings on this blog provide links to K-12 and postsecondary Wiki resources.

Search Engine Security and Ego Searching. The recent release by AOL of subscribers' search terms brings up concerns about the security of your search history. People have used this database and tracked down individual users, even though AOL stripped out usernames from the records. One reason they were able to do this was because of ego searching. Ego searching (as opposed to Eggo searching) is the looking up of one's own name in a search engine. This can be a useful way of finding out what people are saying about you, and obviously there are business and professional reasons to do it, but it also makes it easier to identify your individual search history if those records get out in the future. Wired has a good article with tips on protecting your private search information.

Try Something New for the New School Year! Why not try a new way to use technology in your teaching this school year? Episode 10 talked about a few. You could also consider using podcasts as an assignment option, instead of another paper; create a class calendar using iPhoto; videoconferencing with a guest expert or another classroom somewhere else in the world; using web-based video clips (check and see if your school has subscribed to a service like UnitedStreaming); creating a class blog to share information with parents and grandparents; have students create a wiki about your city or town; use GoogleEarth to plan simulated trips to other countries, or to look up where news events are taking place; check out how hot it is for our soldiers in Iraq today through the web; educate your students about the dangers of giving out too much information online, in places like MySpace; build a simulated rocket and fly it; search out the meaning of your name and where it comes from; make your own class t-shirts based on student designs using iron-ons.... That's just a start! Hopefully, this list has given you some inspiration for new things to try! Would love to hear additional ideas (and some good postsecondary ideas too!)--either add them by commenting here or email me at ic@indiana.edu.

Episode 11 Notes! Now with Wikiality!

 Well, the Fall semester is just about upon us here at Indiana University, as it is for most of you, I am sure, whether you are teaching at the college or K-12 level.  So Episode 11 is officially our "Back to School" edition.  I'll be teaching my online course again starting at the end of this 
month.  It's called Education W505: Using the Internet in the K12 Classroom. 

I'm revising  the course now to incorporate some new content that I want to 
cover.  Also, this will be the first time I teach without a print textbook to fall back on.  This will make the course cheaper for students, and they'll have the 
most up-to-date information from online sources.  Still time to register--the course doesn't start till 8/29.  International students welcome!  (Sorry this paragraph breaks so strangely--something is wrong with the text wrapping here.)

Did you hear about Stephen Colbert encouraging his audience to purposely falsify a Wikipedia posting on elephants--to state that the population of African elephants had recently tripled?   Naughty, naughty, Stephen--but it does serve as an important reminder to
consider the implications of "Wiki-ality." This is something we should discuss with our students when having them do Internet-based research. See it for yourself by clicking here.

Bringing democracy to knowledge, indeed!  Anyway, back to the new episode of "Teach with Tech."  Basically, the show is as described below in the previous posting.  Would love to hear what you think (ic@indiana.edu).

Episode 11 on its way!

Don't fear, brave Teach with Tech fans!   Episode 11 is being recorded as we speak, more or less, and should be online before the month is over.

This episode's topics:

• The new Opera browser (very cool!)
  
• The future of digital video: Hard-drive based camcorders and still cameras that can shoot DVD-quality video
  
• "Podcasts Coming to IU"--a recent Indiana Daily Student headline.  "Coming?"  What about Teach with Tech?  What about the Bonkcasts?  And my own podcasts for my W505 students?  Not to mention instructors using the iStream (IU login required) service to publish their podcasts.   Podcasts have been at IU since mid-2005!  But you, loyal listener, already knew that, didn't you?
  
• and more!

Watch this space!

Show Notes from Episode 10

Here are some links about various things that were mentioned in Episode 10. I'm not really going to describe these, though. If you're interested in more information about them, and how they relate to each other, listen to the podcast...

Jeopardy Powerpoint Template
http://www.graves.k12.ky.us/tech/jeopardy_instructions.htm

Microsoft Office Templates
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/templates/default.aspx

Don't have Office? OpenOffice uses Microsoft Templates
http://www.openoffice.org/

Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/

Flash Earth: A Web-based interface for Google Earth and Windows Live Local
http://www.flashearth.com/

WikiMapia
http://www.wikimapia.org/

United Streaming
http://www5.unitedstreaming.com/index.cfm

Peg Ertmer
http://www.edci.purdue.edu/ertmer/main_home.htm

The Global Campfire
http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/www/famres/
pctogeth/campfire/campfire.html

Anne Ottenbreich-Leftwich
http://innovationsinedtech.blogspot.com/

Comments, suggestions, additions welcomed! If you're going to plug your own podcast with your comment, fine, but please give a few specific comments about "Teach with Tech" first.

Cheers,
Chris

Teaching with Technology Tips Websites

Well, Episode 10, titled "Somewhat Fewer than 50 Tips for Teaching with Technology in Your Classroom Tomorrow!" has been recorded and is being edited. It should be out the door by Monday. Just barely missing my target of getting one out every month. To tide you over until the podcast is available, here are some neat technology tips websites....

Marilyn Western's Technology Tips for Classroom Teachers
http://www.edzone.net/~mwestern/
I like "101 Uses for a Classroom Computer"
http://www.edzone.net/%7Emwestern/101.html
Some broken links though that are annoying.

Tammy's Technology Tips for Teachers
http://www.essdack.org/tips/
Has some interesting student projects.

Teaching TIps Newsletter Archive
http://www.teach-nology.com/newsletters/archive/
Over 300 brief newsletters with links to various tools and resources, including a "Teaching Tip of the Week" Might be worth subscribing to!

Teaching with Technology
http://teacher.scholastic.com/technology/
Scholastic provides advice on using cameras, making digital movies, and managing your classroom computer center, as well as having a database of online activities. I like their ePals (keypals) pages: http://www.epals.com/scholastic/index_sch.html?seesf=8939232

Technology and Learning: The Resource for Education Technology Leaders
http://www.techLEARNING.com
This site has interesting articles on new technologies such as clickers (personal response systems), smartboards, tablet PCs, wireless sound reinforcement systems and more. Has a grants database to help fund your school's projects!
Lots of tutorials here: http://www.techlearning.com/quickflicks/archives.jhtml

Teaching and Learning with Technology Tips
http://tlt.psu.edu/suggestions/tlt_tips/
This site focuses on higher education, and includes diversity and classroom management tips. Talks a lot about ANGEL, which is a particular learning management system, but you could replace the references with Blackboard or WebCT or whatever you're using. Table format is easy to read quickly.

This episode's interviewee, Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich, provides a couple more sites:

"Here's a list of websites I compiled for teachers at a local school of the top websites I thought were great for teachers: http://research.education.purdue.edu/challenge/resources.html

Here's another really great one by Annette Lamb - 7 Simple Ways to begin using technology: http://eduscapes.com/sessions/simple/index.htm

More suggestions are welcomed!

Check back on Monday, July 3rd for the new episode!

Chris

50 Ways to Use Technology in Your Classroom Tomorrow!

Well, on it's way in the sense that there is a plan to do it sometime this month.... But it will be worth waiting for. I've really enjoyed these recent interviews about podcasting, but I do realize that creating podcasts isn't for every teacher in every situation. In this next episode, I will broaden the scope quite a bit and discuss other options for the technology-using teacher.

I am pleased to announce that Anne T. Ottenbreit-Leftwich, who has just joined us in the Instructional Systems Technology department here at Indiana University, will be my guest in the next podcast episode, and we will be discussing "50 Ways to Use Technology in Your Classroom Tomorrow." I very much look forward to our conversation!

Episode 9 is Available!

Hopefully, those of you who have subscribed, through iTunes and elsewhere, are downloading it at this very minute! There are links on the right hand sidebar to download it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Episode 9 is on its way!

Sorry for the delay with the episode, but I think you'll agree it was worth it once you hear it. I had a lot of fun interviewing the Smelly Monkeys (Gareth, Trevor and Simon). I'll have to admit that this strays a bit from our usual teaching-related topics, but its a wonderful example of a parent-child project that utilizes technology. As Gareth told me, there are many benefits to the child with a project like this.

"These include:
* The ability to synthesize ideas and communicate to an audience
* Family bonding
* Interaction (through me) with an international audience
* Timing and presentation, and
* Role playing & humor (Simon surprised me in show #44 when describing how it works for his brother to play the serious role against his obnoxious role)"

As I said in a previous post, why not consider doing something like this with your kids?

5/17 ADDITION: I should also say that listening to this show may have some benefits to parents. Gareth does a wonderful job of managing these two rambunctious boys. Listen to the calm, affectionate way he keeps them on track throughout the episodes. When one of them begins to get too wild, he distracts them instead of getting angry or punitive. Anyway, I was impressed, and I think some parents out there could improve their relationships with their kids by using his interactions with the boys as a model. END OF ADDITION

I'm finishing up the editing right now. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I had to edit out most of the questions that the boys fired at me (my answers weren't all that interesting anyway, though if someone really wants to know my favorite beer and baseball team, just email me). Due to Audio Hijack's only recording their side of the conversation, I also have had to rerecord all my questions. Hopefully, that won't be too obvious in the end product. The combination of iChat and Garageband really makes these online interviews easy, but I have yet to have an interviewee that is on a Mac and therefore has iChat, and I've had intermittent problems with using AOL Instant Messenger, which is compatible with iChat but for some reason some Windows people have problems with the invitations to chat--they can't find them or don't get them or something. I think the audio with Skype is better than with iChat, but this having it only get half of the conversation is annoying and makes more work for me. :(

Episode 9 may be online as soon as later today... Watch this space....

Chris

Episode 9: A Barrelfull of Smelly Monkeys!

As you may know, monkeys are all the rage in podcastdom. Ricky Gervais has his Monkey News, Penn Gillette has his Monkey Tuesday... So I thought this program needed some monkey content as well. So, Episode 9 will now focus on the Smelly Monkeys (http://www.smellymonkeys.com), who are described in the previous posting. As for the other content, I'm not sure if I'll get to it or not, as I expect the conversation with the Smelly Monkeys to be pretty engaging and entertaining, as well as insightful.

Episode 9 Notes

Episode 9 Notes:

Here, in advance of the new podcast episode, are some notes about what I plan to cover, more or less, and relevant links. Comments, suggestions and additions welcomed!

Bootcamp, Smelly Monkeys, and More!

Bootcamp
Macs have been able to run Microsoft operating systems for a long, long time now, with programs like Virtual PC. But never before has the experience been exactly like running Windows on an Intel machine. Now, with the new Intel-based Macs, you can boot up in Windows and have the full, normal experience of running it on a Dell or Gateway. For Mac-using educators, that means you can run those programs that are still Windows-only, such as Atlas.ti, Access, Publisher and others.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Google Earth
Wow! Now you can view the earth the way the CIA does, from space down to street level, in high photo resolution. The Grand Canyon is even in a kind of 3D. Imagine teaching geography to kids with a tool like this! And there are professional applications, too. Going to a conference? Check out where the hotel is in relation to the convention center. And it's a free download for Windows and Mac!
http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

Videocam
Having a built in videocam in your computer, like I do with my MacBook Pro, is really handy. Great for quickly recording classroom activities without hunting down a digital videocamera. Saves time, too, as there is no capturing involved. Kids love the Photo Booth application, where they can take instant pictures of themselves through various fun filters, sort of like a cross between a photo booth in a mall and a set of funhouse mirrors. I'm sure there are Windows machines with these cams as well....

Ace Kids: Podcasting with Class
http://www.adrianbruce.com/acekids/
Some fun podcasts from a class of elementary kids from down under. Love those Australian accents! "It's been great having a worldwide audience and we thoroughly recommend that your teacher learns to podcast!"

Smelly Monkeys
http://smellymonkeys.blogspot.com/
Listen to a father and his 8-year-old twin sons cover a range of topics: baseball, King Kong, tennis, the Pygmy Mouse Lemur, etc. Why not do something like this with your kids?

Children's Literature Podcasts

Club Kidcast
http://clubkidcast.com/category/podcast-episodes/
Cuddle up with a blankie and your iPod and listen to "The Princess and the Pea", "Tom Thumb", "The Velveteen Rabbit", and more!

Podcasts for Children
http://childrenspodcast.typepad.com/
Original stories for children: "The Flying Rock," "The Wishing Chicken" and more. Tested by the author with his own children. Especially good for bedtime, I would think.

The Story Spieler
http://www.storyspieler.com/podcast/
This site features Peter Pan, The Wonderful Land of Oz, "The Ugly Duckling", "Annie the Goose Girl" and others. Not just children's lit here; a number of recordings on topics kids wouldn't be interested in (nothing offensive, though, that I saw).

Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1
This archive of public domain full-text literature now hosts audio versions of many classics. Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allen Poe. Some books are read by humans like you and me, some by computer software.

A Proud Teacher Shares...

W505 Student Work: Webquests, Blogs, Educational Websites
http://www.indiana.edu/~w505a/studwork.html
Check out my students' excellent work!
Webquests on Tobacco Awareness, Around the World in 18 Weeks, Meet Abraham Lincoln, etc. Blogs on teaching EFL, poetry, homeschooling and more. Websites on topology, spiders, Indiana authors, fractals, magnets and guitars, and other great education-related topics.