Tag: education

Episode 135 – Schools without work

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Patrick and Tony are back in another great episode (truly-this one is pretty darn good). We talk about a world without work and what that does to education and integration specialists and Tony’s take on how to make them more accountable and therefore more effective. OK, check out the talking points below.

1) A World Without Work – by Derek Thompson at the Atlantic

  • Is this possible?
  • Is technology to blame?
  • What would this do to education if there is no work?
  • Is this a good/bad thing?

2) Tony’s article Tech Integration: Are you mapping it? On TIE Online

  • Is it disastrous if a school doesn’t map?
  • What do you say to schools where the tech integrationist also teaches classes?
  • Should there be more documentation (student artifacts, reflections of teachers, etc.)

As always subscribe ot us on iTunes and Podomatic.

You can download this episode by clicking HERE!

Edmodo Challenge!

Patrick Cauley7 Comments

Who will be the champ?

It’s no secret that I love me some Edmodo. The classroom companion has served me very well over the past two years and as they continue to roll out feature after feature it is no wonder that they have over 3.5 million strong. However, Edmodo isn’t the end all be all folks. Heck no! Omar and I are compiling a list (as comprehensive as possible) of Edmodo challengers out there. We are going to take a look at them and decide if Edmodo is truly deserving of the belt or not. Here’s who we are looking at:

The requirements to get into the list must be the following:

  • Has a free option
  • Has a social aspect
  • Assignments can posted and tracked
  • Teachers have control of their classroom/groups
  • Must have a significant user base (some websites can disappear overnight. We are looking for large and stable platforms)

If you, our most devoted readers, know of any websites that we missed, please let us know. In the words of Randy “The Macho Man” Savage “Ohhhhh yeaaaaaahh!”

QR Codes and education

Patrick Cauley31 Comments

What do I think? Scan the QR code below and find out!

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If you don’t have a QR reader or know what one is, then just read on past the break to get my take on QR codes and education. I think it will be worth your while. As always, be sure to leave a comment. Omar and I love those things!

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Posterous.com – A quick how to

Patrick Cauley2 Comments

I’m going to take a tiny break in my timeline extravaganza to quickly add a how to guide for Posterous.com. This blogging platform is pretty sweet and perfect for the casual blogger who cares not for widgets and the like. You can very easily add people to the blog, and it is especially easy to add your own video and multimedia files. Me likes posterous.com very much. Check out the guide below.

Hootcourse – Twitter educationalized

Patrick Cauley2 Comments

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That is definitely not a real word. Anyway, in this post I am going to share with you the online service HootCourse.com. This uses Twitter as a means to create a back channel chat, but it has some nice features that expand it beyond just the normal chat room experience. Basically you use your Twitter or Facebook account to log into HootCourse and it will create a Twitter feed specifically for you. Not sure what that is? Then click on past the break to get all the educationalized information.

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Blogger-How to set up your class blog – THE VIDEO!

Patrick Cauley2 Comments

Yet another video that will help you get your class blog off the ground. This video will show you exactly how easy it is to set up your blog with blogger.com. Just follow these quick steps and your class blog will be up and running. Hope you have as much fun blogging with your class that I do. Happy blogging.

Blogger – How to set up your class blog

Patrick Cauley13 Comments

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Setting up your class blog with blogger.com is a breeze. There is potentially one thing that could cause problems, but I will get to that after the break. Blogger is the second most popular blog platform in the world (after wordpress). Thanks to its ease of use and very visual and easy to navigate settings. It does not offer the power or options as wordpress.com but still many people use it (including my wife). Read on past the break for all the how to goodness.

*NOTE* Blogspot.com and blogger.com are the SAME. There is no difference between the two anymore as Google owns them both.

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Blogs AWAY!

Patrick Cauley1 Comment

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Blogs are great ways for students to express themselves, share their ideas easily with the class, and students can do it anywhere at anytime (provided they have an Internet connection). On top of that, it is a great way to integrate a little English into any subject. This semester was the first time Omar and I tried it with our students and it worked pretty well. While it seems like a no brainer of why creating a class blog is beneficial; there were a lot of details that Omar and I needed to consider before creating our class blogs. Read on past the break to find out what those details were and what we discovered.

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Aaaaaand action!

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I started a unit on video production today with one of my middle school classes. We have been preparing for weeks for the day that we would get to use the coveted Mac lab. Learning about the different cameras, the Mac operating system (AKA Snow Leopard), and how the two interface. Needless to say the kids were very excited. I don’t know if it is working with a cool looking computer, the size of the screen, making videos, but whatever it was, it was a real roller coaster of a class. Read on past the break for what happened.

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Best of the Best: OpenOffice

Patrick Cauley1 Comment

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The first free and major competitor to Microsoft Word is OpenOffice. It was originally managed by Sun Microsystems, but Oracle purchased Sun and is now running the project. To be clear OpenOffice is totally free and contains not just a Word processing program but also a spreadsheet (like Excel), a simple drawing program, a presentation program (like PowerPoint), a database program (like Access), and an equation editor. That is a whole lot of productivity in a free download huh? This post, I’ll be focusing on the word processing part and how it stacks up to the reigning champ Microsoft Word. Read on past the break to see how it may work for you.

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