31. Google search strategies

Absolutely everyone uses Google. Recently a friend sent me this tiny URl to a site / blog containing  20 quite relevant search strategies to get the most out of Google.

While many of these are well used eg Use quotation around words to do a very targeted and specific search, there were new ones for me.
I've listed some below that I know definitely will help me out.

Hyhpen for excluding words

Colon for specific sites

Pages that link

Use of an asterix as a wild card

Using Google to solve maths problems

Finding file types

Searching a range of numbers

Tracking packages, faster than the online site.............. So the blogger claims 

How many of these do you use?

What ones would be appropriate to teach our students especially in this the 21 Century?

32. Popplet

I really love this program as I use it to collect inspiration, mind maps, create my photo galleries or just explore  and brainstorm ideas.

  Popplet is suitable for Window and iPad. It's easy to use and you can sign up for free.

 After log in, there appears a pop up window to show you how to create your popplet step by step. You can do more setting by clicking on the wheel button at the top of the page.

  

From one popplet, you can create more and more sub-popplets as you want, you can group them by colour.

You can add video from Youtube, pictures from Flickr or from your computer or even you can draw your own one.



Furthermore, you can share your popplet to social pages like Facebook, Twitter;or embed it to your blog ;or add collaborators by clicking  on the 'Share' button at top right corner.

31 Pictogram

Pictogram is a young students graphing application, very similar to graphing in Infant video tool kit, Blog post 68.. Pictogram is owned by the school and is available to be loaded onto your classroom computer including the lovely green helpful  talking parrot who acts as a prompt.

Pictogram really is a very visual starting point for graphing, and from there you could move to graphing in Infant video kit and or Excel. The graphing categories are already pre-ordained and include many  Western suggestions for graphs including all the predictable ones, hair colour, eye colour, fruit, vegetables etc.




This is a very visual programme designed to scaffold children into graphing. At the top of the window  are 5 icons choices which allows you to display your entered data as shown in the 3 Fruit examples.

Possibly one of the best additional features of Pictogram is that it allows the user to click on the copy icon ( the 2 text documents) and then paste the image into a Word document for example. From here the students can really begin to use their thinking and analytical skills to talk / write about the information shown in their graph.

33. 2 Animate

While this software is designed for younger students, it is a really cool piece of software for children to explore the theory and practice of animations. Every budding Peter Jackson in this world has to start somewhere.

 2 Animate comes in 2 levels, simple mode and advanced mode.
Simple mode has very basic tools and limits the animation to 4 slides. The later
introduces more tools and builds on the skills which have been scaffolded in
simple animations. I tend to jump straight into advanced mode, which does
require the students to do some thinking about the images they draw and how
they will be depicted in the movement. I also prefer the tools and features
available in this mode as they align closely with KidPix making the transition
from one application to another seamless.

 Advanced mode offers unlimited
slides, therefore really encouraging the student to think about small movements
in an animation.

The lasso and the ability to enlarge or shrink the drawings
also encourages thinking eg a growing hungry caterpillar.

Year 1 are quite familiar with the software. They have used
it for growing plants and creating hungry caterpillars in their IPC topic
growing things

How will I use this
in the classroom?

Recounts

     story retelling

Growing

     things

Changing

     lifestyles

Any

     thing to do with movement and motion

Speed

     and distance

The art

     of creating animations

Higher

     order thinking.

Improvements

Technological

     progress.

34. Animoto. Demonstrated by Alan Jacques

Animoto was the slideshow / video application that Alan showed us.
This programme is really easy and intuitive to follow and steps you through creating a video

While it is very easy to use there are a few of pointers that may ease the process or help you out.

1. The photos that you wish to use need to be in a folder. The smaller the resolution the better because you can use more photos. Animoto automatically loads your photos and will only use as many as it takes to make a 30 video. You can arrange the order. If you add text that cuts down on the number of slides. We are using the make a 30 second slide show for free, rather than purchasing the pro version, which of course you can do. I have found that Animoto will use between 23 – 25 low res images

2. Signing in. You can sign in as a new user, or you can sign in with your Facebook account details. A word of caution here. Part of the terms and conditions with using Facebook is that when you upload images to your Facebook page the images then become the property of FB. That’s an aside. If you wish to use your FB log in then there is a warning that Animoto wants to access your FB details WARNING.. I created a new account specifically with Animoto.

3. Animoto offers lots of different templates to use. However many have PRO written on them, therefore reserving these  for the people who decided to upgrade from free to Pro.

4. When up loading your photos Animoto does offer you many options of online applications that store images eg Photbucket, Flicker, Picasa etc. The top selection on the menu is your computer which is really great for photos you have just snapped.

5. Animoto will turn your images automatically to landscape, if you have taken any shots on portrait mode, eg turned your camera on its side to capture a giraffe. This is useful as you don’t have to dg through doing a search and select for landscape images.

6. Animoto offers a few sharing options too. Facebook of course. However blogger is an option if you want use your video in your blog and Animoto gives you the html code. HOWEVER Animoto is only giving you a link, the video doesn’t play in your blog.  Animoto is redirecting you from your blog to their site to play the video. Good salesman techniques.
BeeBots  year 1

7. You can Export your video. I haven’t done this because to date I have “fallen” into the Animoto sales strategy. The sites clearly states “ you can export your video to other sites if you have an account with them”, and then the rider. “This process will take 20 – 30 mins”.  I haven’t had a spare 30 mins to wait, and the time does also depend on your network connection speed, so of course it may be longer.

Happy creating and happy viewing

35. Picasa. Embedding albums, images, and slideshows

Google have produced a really nice "how to" which explains how to use Picasa and embed photo albums, images and slide shows with images into your blog. The tutorial is step by step and is easy to follow, to achieve a really nice result.

Their blurb says ." All it takes is a small snippet of HTML that you paste in the source code for your blog or website. Here's how"

Click here for the link to Google Picasa and embed up load and feel proud of your efforts. Easy as.

36. Words inside words. Neoformix

Uyen my TA at AP primary told me about this online website. She used it for part of a display

Neoformix states that they are "simple tool to generate large text that is made up of words rendered in a smaller font." Neoformix is a word cloud generator with a slight difference. See postings 87 Tagxedo 97 Wordle,  about other word cloud generators

What that Neoformix blurb really means is that there is a box to write a large word in, in this case I chose the word blogging, and a box to write smaller words. The small words that you write appear inside the big word. Neoformix allows to you have quite a large number of smaller words. 

On the home page is a link to a snow flake shaped word generator which has even more options and colour like other really good generators. The snow flake option really encourages thinking and word association as well as all the cool tool that also foster thinking in how will this look? What will me audience see? How can I improve the presentation?

37. Quick tips. :-) Keywords in PDF files

Transfer this knowledge…..Another way of doing the same thing, finding keywords cached in PDF’s or other documents you down load is to use the key commands Ctrl and F .

A small window appears on the top of your screen. Type in your word, use the arrow keys, as every click will move to the next occasion of that key word. Watch the page numbers to look for jumps in pages between keywords.

38. Kidrex search engine. Ideas from Alan Jacques

www.kidrex.org

Kidrex belongs to the Google stable of applications. As Alan explained Kidrex is a web crawler, or a web spider that trolls through all child related pages on the entire net. Kidrex uses Google search technology and safe search strategies. This any site that has inappropriate child content is filtered out in an attempt to keep the children safer. Kidrex also has a section where you can report inappropriate sites.

Using Kidrex  returns sites that are deemed to be child appropriate, and has a small picture icon beside the descriptor, to give children an idea of the content.

As a comparative survey I used the same words in a Kidrex site as in a Google site. While both search engines returned 70,000,000 plus sites Kidrex had filtered out 1,000,000 sites

To return over 70,000,000 sites does indicate I’d need to make much better use of keywords. 

39. Magic Squares in a spreadsheet

Spreadsheets are so much more than graphs. Using formula and calculations really fosters those problem solving skills and stimulates thinking.
The formula provides the user with feedback as the numbers are added together. In this example I've coloured the answer squares and the formula squares, one and the same, yellow. In this example you can see the wee sweetheart has entered numbers which total 17, too high.

The formula
=sum(B3..B5)

Simply you have asked the computer to add the numbers in cells B 3, 4 and 5 and pop you answer in the answer cell

The formula for the diagonal cells is
=sum(B3+C4+D5)

When using a magic square you have to get the numbers to total to 15, as you add across each of the 3 rows, and the 3 columns and diagonally. You place the numbers 1 - 9 in any of the squares, remembering you can only use each number once and the total in the set of squares must equal 15.
Bao was looking rather triumphant, he managed to solve the magic square puzzle every quickly. great problem solving Bao.

40 Sizes of photographs in folders

Knowing how big your photos are is always useful. Frequently we set or our cameras are set to take high resolution photos, or conversely cameras are set to take lower resolution photos. Simple logistics also means the higher the resolution your camera is set to, the smaller the number of photos you can take onto your card and vice versa, the smaller the resolution setting the greater number of photos one can get on a card.

Knowing too, how big the images you have in a particular folder is also helpful, especially as we are about to create Year Book pages and need to use high resolution photos.

To find out:
1. Open the folder containing the images you want to use or want to know about their size.

2. Click on the small icon on the end of the tools menu that has the tiny coloured squares, and scroll down to details.

3.The computer will automatically calculate the size of your images as well as giving you other details of your images, eg when they were taken, when they modifies, where they are kept etc.
Anything over 1,000k or 1 Mg is though of as high resolution. With newer more powerful cameras images can be 3 and 4 Mg

Another way, somewhat slower.
1. Open your folder of photos and hold your curser over the image, without clicking. A small window will open and tell you details of that photo, including its size and the date it was taken.

By the way:
Using that small coloured  icon on the tool bar allows you to change the view of your photos from a list to small icons to large icons/ thumbnails. This is a useful tool when looking for particular photos or files, and particularly useful for small children to find their files, if they can't read the text tile.

41 Answer Garden

Thanks to Ian Battersby for writing this post

To quote the Answer Garden website:

AnswerGarden is a minimalistic feedback tool. Use it in the classroom as an educational tool or at work as a creative brainstorming tool. Or you can embed it on your website or blog to use it as a poll.

It is very easy to use.  

1) Click on 'Create an Answergarden'

2) Enter a topic

3) Fill in the options then click 'Create'.

4) Your Answer Garden is now live. You have several 'Share' options:

As well as Facebook and Twitter and some other one click options, there is URL which will give the link to your Answer Garden on the website, and Embed code if you want to put it on a blog or a wiki.




5) Anyone with the link or who looks at the blog can enter their answer. 

6)  Menu options

Export - allows you to export the results.
Views - tells you how many views you've had.
About - tells you what it is about.
QR - Gives you a QR code linking to your Answer Garden.
Admin - takes you back to the 'More Options' page.

42. Socrative.

Thanks to Ian Battersby for writing this post

Socrative is a web-based system that allows you to pose questions to the class and then collate their responses.  It is easy to use and can be accessed through laptops, iPads, smartphones, etc.  

1) Go to www.socrative.com

2) When you click on the Teacher Log In button, you go to a page where you are asked for an e-mail and a password.  That is all you need to register.  When you return, simply use the same e-mail and password.

3) When you log in, you are taken to the teacher's home page.  At the top is you 'Room Number'. Below there are a number of activities you can do with the children.  The single question activities require you to ask the children orally and as you can see, they could be:
- Multiple Choice
- True/False
- Short Answers

4) At this point the students need to log in.  They also go to www.socrative.com, but then click on 'Student Log In'.  

They simply put in your 'Room Number' and are taken to a screen which will allow them to input multiple choice answers, true/false or short answers.  At the end of the short answers activity, there is an option to 'Vote on Responses' which gives the children a chance to choose their favourite response, or question they would like to know more about.

5) The exit ticket is great for plenaries.  It requires no preparation. The children enter your 'Room Number' and then have 4 questions to answer:
- Name
- How well did you understand the material? (Multiple Choice)
- What did you learn today? (Free response)
- Please solve the problem on the board. (Free response)

When the children have completed the activity, you click on End Activity and then are given the choice of whether you want to download the report or have it e-mailed to you.

6) If you want your own Exit Ticket, you can create a quiz. These take some preparation as you need to decide on the question types and content, but all you need to do is go to the 'Manage Quizzes' section and the rest is fairly intuitive.  These quizzes can be shared so the same quiz could be given to different classes across the year group or Mile Post.

Socrative has been designed to be very user friendly and it is.  There are little Help buttons everywhere that explain what you need to do if you are unsure. 

41. Bloxorz. A maths strategy game

Bloxorz is a challenging, problemsolving, thinking and strategic maths game. There is an online version that requires the plug in flash, to run the game. However the school has downloaded Bloxorz and  the technicians will have install and loaded as a short cut  for you.

Bloxorz is basically a game where you maneuver a block over a hole so that it drops away. You have the option to roll the block or move it end for end towards the hole and position it so that the next move will drop it through the hole. Sounds easy, but reality of  this game is that it requires considerable thinking, problem solving and strategic moving of the block, especially as you advance though the levels.As you advance not only is the game increasing in difficulty, extra attributes are added to increase the complexity such as bridges and platforms. Play it to see! Levels range from 1 - 9 and really is suitable for older children of those that are capable of mathematical challenges.

The opening screen has a slide show which tells you how to play. The students have shown me there are  online cheat sheets which itemise  the maneuvers.

42, BeeBots

At TX Campus we have about 24 BeeBots and the Focus Education Computer software for BeeBot programming. Apart from the fact that using the BeeBot is heaps of fun there is quite significant amount of learning that can be achieved. Maths is definitely a forerunner for both younger and older children. Writing directions is another skill that can be achieved with the BeeBots.

Focus Education programme has accompanying teacher notes which could be useful. While the "mats" purchased for the BeeBots are more for the younger children there is still a lot of differentiation that can be achieved. Basic programming with footsteps turned on would be entry level. However for more higher order thinking try doing the maze with out footsteps, just programming in the commands. When complete send the BeeBot on their way and see how accurate the programming really was.

Each of the varying mats have 3 accompanying activity sheets with differing levels of difficulty. Try completing a race track in wet conditions with oil on the track surface.

Mathematical ideas

• Angles and degrees
• Directions
• Negative and positive numbers, +ve forwards -ve backwards
• Compass directions
• Estimation, how many commands to get the BeeBot through a tunnel etc
• Spelling / words using the alphabet mat
• Shapes
• Money

43 Spreadsheets and graphing with your children

The school have purchased 2 Simplesoftware. Within this software bundle comes a myriad of useful applications for teachers with younger children. One of which  is Infant Video Toolkit that uses spreadsheeting and makes graphs. This is ideal because the complexity of  Excel can be over whelming for younger children.
2 graph is very easy to use. As you are typing in the data into the "spreadsheet' on the left, the graphs is forming on the other side of the screen. I also like the fact that you are prompted with the words ABC to click and to give your graph a title and name the x and y axis. Good foundation learning points for graphing.
As is seen in the graphic below there are 5 types of graphs that can be used to display the data.

44. Smithsonian Museum of Natural Histroy

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in New York is now online and available for virtual tours of the 3 floors of the museum. The five pieces of good news are:

• The site is  so easy to navigate
• The models and graphics are amazing
• The zoom button allows you to read the text beside the exhibits
• You don't have to b able to read to tour around
• Its all free

By clicking on each of the floors you get a floor map and can enter any one of the numerous exhibit halls.







There are a series of navigation buttons on the bottom of the screen to help you navigate your way around including letting you take panoramic views of the halls.

The models and graphics are amazing, and viewing just brilliant due also to the resolution of the site online.
Well worth a visit.

Beware however that the buttons do move quickly and one can get arther seasick navigating backwards and forwards not to mention round and round.

45. Pivot Stick Animator

Pivotstick animator is simple software to create animations. The application is a free download from the net and is already installed on the computers. The success of good animations is small moves, and children sometimes don't understand this until they have made a few animations, and resist the temptation for big moves and jumps. Pivotstick as the name suggests is based on stickfigures. The joints of the stick figures have little coloured dots which are the movable bendy nodes to help create your animation.There is no need to redraw your figures in each frames, just move the body of the stick slightly. When you are using the programme there are additional backgrounds and chararcters under the File Tab, Load figure types or Create figure types

I've got a How to sheet to help you get started if you'd like a copy
Here's a good video to watch

• 
  

The best things about this animation programme:

1. Its simplicity
2. The support material, videos of ideas, step by step instructions on their front page are fabulous
3. Its easy as, for big ones and small ones
4. Links to thinking and creating

How can you use this in your classroom:

1. Retelling a scene of story, myth, fairytale
2. Science; Bones and skeletons. Growing plants, aging, growth
3. IPC Exercise routine Healthy lifestyles
4. Movement and motion
5. Maths, direction, rotation, degrees of movement, left right
6. Mime
7. Having fun
8. Control technology
9. Animations
10. Creating a story
11. Script writing for the characters
12. Thinking creating
13. As cartoon figures, telling a succinct story eg in cartoon format of 4 frames. 
14. Values programme what does integrity look like?
15. Telling a story without words eg Jack climbing the bean stalk
16. Sports animation, eg how to jump high jump, shooting goals in netball basketball
17. Telling a story where there are no pictures  eg scene from Harry Potter
18. Science experiments eg wind socks
19. Showing the airfoils that cause planes to lift off the ground
20. Lifting up and down of cantilever bridges
21. Rising of ships pumping water  in lochs

46. Be Happy. Me

Behappy.me

A friend sent me to this site which is full of quotes by inspirational people and characters eg Dr Seuss that can be used to inspire, for beginning a unit, for kick starting the day, for your BISCAT topic, for SEAL topics or even to kick start your day.

 

The home page is divided into three:

• A list of categories, eg Quote of the day, Most popular, Latest
• The Middle of the screen displays all the various quotes from the sections
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and there boxes of inspirational people that you can click on to find quotes

And of course you can generate your own quotes.