Have you seen these things? If you haven’t yet, you will. The image on the left is an example of an emerging technology called a “QR” code. QR stands for “quick response” and can be thought of as  a bar code on steroids.     Want to learn more? Then watch this video from cnet.com   Okay, so what does this have to do with Teachers, Technology, and Transforming classrooms? Well, the answer is in [...]

Have you ever wondered how you could embed a viewer in your blog or web site so you could display a PDF? Well, wonder no more! Google offers a feature that lets you embed a PDF. To make this work, the file you want to display must be available online. So, upload a document somewhere on the web and then follow these instructions! We need to insert an iframe. An iframe allows content that is [...]

Posted on the Google Docs blog yesterday… Today, we’re pleased to announce preview versions of the new Google document and spreadsheet editors and a new standalone drawings editor, all built with an even greater focus on speed and collaboration. To get a taste of what’s new today, check out our video:   Hurray! I have been working on a graduate class project with three others and the changes announced yesterday to the suite of tools [...]

I had the pleasure of participating in a Google Workshop for Educators a few weeks ago and at the session was directed to some crib sheets created for a variety of Google applications. Each sheet has a short description of the tool, why it should be used, some instructional ideas, and example of the tool in action, and some additional related resources. I hope they are of value to you! Google Apps Blogger Google Docs [...]

Last Thursday morning I traveled to Vancouver to speak with Mark Bricklin, a reporter for the Vail Daily (Vail, Colorado), who was covering elements of the 2010 Winter Games for the newspaper. Okay, I didn’t really go there in person but used Skype to transport two classrooms of students to the Media Press Center. The original plan was to contact Mark from one of the venues but a wireless connection was not reliable for this [...]

A colleague asked me how to delete every second row of data in an Excel spreadsheet that contains thousands of rows. Manual deletion in this case (holding the CTRL key on a PC) while selecting every second row would take too long. A quick search turned up this tip in the Excel Forum. Insert a “helper” column to the left of the first column. Enter this formula: =mod(row(),2) Copy down the formula to the end [...]

This article was first published in the August issue of T.H.E. Journal, and I thought it might be of help to someone looking for some open source software: THE APPS BUNDLED with Edubuntu are just the tip of the iceberg of open source programs for education. The open source apps used by Indiana’s Affordable Classroom Computers for Every Secondary Student program alone include: Blender: (Also in Ubuntu.) A 3-D computer animation program. Supports modeling, animation, [...]

On Friday (February 5, 2010), I first heard about this online tool from the network administrator. It seems that a teacher had requested that he unblock this site from our Internet filtering software, and wanted to know if I knew anything about it. This was the first I had learned of the site so I took a peek. Wallwisher is “a notice board maker,” according to the site. You can post announcements, keep notes, ask [...]

Do you want to quickly and easily generate vocabulary lists for your students? Well, say no more, VocabGrabber is here! Get your list in three easy steps! Copy text from any document Paste the copied text into the box Grab your vocabulary words! More details from the web site: “VocabGrabber analyzes any text you’re interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just [...]

Have you heard about this? Google Squared is an experimental tool that takes a category (like US presidents, roller coasters, or digital cameras) and attempts to create a starter “square” of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web. You can modify your square by removing rows and columns you don’t like–or by adding new rows and columns and having Google Squared attempt to fetch the relevant facts. Verify and correct the facts [...]