Instructify

BY KEVIN HODGSON

Juxio bills itself as a site to “create new meaning.” That’s a bit much, but Juxio is an interesting platform for gathering images and writing together in a nicely designed format, which can then be shared easily with other websites or networks.

The finished product looks like a web 2.0 postcard, with images and text laid out in a style that you choose. You can also bundle multiple Juxios together to create a slideshow. I liked that there was an entire page devoted to hints around creating new work, as well as things to consider when it comes to design.

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Here’s a look back at the most popular posts from September.

Skype adds 10-way video calling

Create historical photo mashups with HistoryPin

Instructify is looking for feature writers

Story construction with My StoryMaker

VocabGrabber: See the text in new ways

They Might Be Giants “Here Comes Science” — Catchy tunes, catchy concepts

Can’t keep up with your files? Dropbox is the app for that

One Day on Earth: 10/10/10 offers great opportunities for student collaboration and creativity

Help your English Language Learners stay current with Breaking News English

Try out Last.fm in a social studies or language class

BY REBECCAH HAINES

Instructify has frequently written about the educational uses of Google Earth, here and here, for example. Fortunately, it’s such a good tool that another post won’t be overkill. The Earth and Space Science QUEST site, created by undergrad students at Penn State Brandywine, includes a collection of lessons that utilize Google Earth.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

Teachers are so frequently looking for money for classroom projects, that one more post about a source of funding can’t be redundant. The newest source that I have found is called Digital Wish, “a non-profit on a mission to solve technology shortfalls in classrooms.” This funding source is great because it is specifically for teachers who want technology items in their classrooms.

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BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

When it comes to giving presentations, we’re all familiar with PowerPoint. It gets the job done, but it’s hard to create a great presentation without slogging through its many menus and features. Somewhere in between formatting clipart and configuring slide transitions, you may find yourself wishing for something simpler. Something like Prezi.

Prezi’s innovative approach will really catch your eye. Rather than dividing a presentation into slides, with Prezi you place everything on a single canvas. The simple controls make it easy to insert text, pictures, colors, and shapes. Then you set the “path” the presentation will follow, moving and zooming from one phrase or picture to another. You can also select no path and freely move around the canvas with your mouse.

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

Not all of history has to be ancient. Much of the technology that has become the center of how we communicate, game, and find information has developed over time, although it seems as if the advancements have accelerated in the field of technology. Vintage Technology is a site that seeks to showcase the evolution of devices in our lives through the archiving of old advertisements from the 1950s.

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BY DAN FROELICH

LEARN NC recently announced their Fall 2010 Interactive Conference. Of course, I had to register for the the opportunity to network in a face-to-face environment. After reading about the face-to-face session, I noticed a professionally designed registration widget and wondering which staff member created it. Fortunately, LEARN NC values open software platforms that save taxpayer money. They are using a platform called Eventbrite. Eventbrite allows users to publish, promote, manage, and direct web traffic to discover new events. I immediately checked out this system wondering how much it costs an organization to use this registration system. If you don’t charge a fee for your programs, Eventbrite won’t charge you, either.

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Here’s what’s going on at the NASA Earth Observatory, brought to you by Fred Beyer at EarthSciTeach.

Activity at Shiveluch Volcano

Fires in Utah

Es Safa Volcanic Field, Syria

La Nina in progress

Drought and Air Quality in August 2010

Flooding around Manchhar Lake, Pakistan

Antarctic Ozone Hole 2010

Hurricane Igor

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

Sponsored by the American Geological Institute, this year’s Earth Science Week takes place October 10-16. This year’s theme is “Exploring Energy,” quite an apt theme with this spring/summer’s disaster oil spill in the Gulf.

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that media are focusing on education and teachers these days. Time Magazine runs a cover story and accompanying pieces about the upcoming “Waiting for Superman” documentary. Newsweek publishes some inside features on President Obama’s push for reform with Race to the Top. And now NBC television has launched a website initiative with news anchor Brian Williams that is called Education Nation, which touts itself as a place “to engage the public, through thoughtful dialogue, in pursuit of the shared goal of providing every American with an opportunity to pursue the best education in the world.”

NBC is hosting a series of live summits on the topic of education in the coming weeks, including a September 26 teacher online summit that features educators from around the country. This forum will precede a two-day educational event being held in New York City on September 27 and 28 during which, according to the site, “workforce readiness, developing great teachers, technology and innovation, parental involvement, early education, higher education, and the politics of education” will be explored. The television network will use its various resources and outlets (online home, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, etc.) to broadcast components of this initiative.

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BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

There you are, doing an activity or watching a film in class, and students have so much feedback that you have to stop every few minutes. It’s wonderful to field such honest questions and clever commentary, but if this continues, you’ll never finish the lesson. Fortunately, there’s TodaysMeet, a simple application that will open an outlet for this kind of feedback. It creates a temporary chat room that users may instantly join without the need to register. (more…)

Here’s a look back at some of the best post from September 2009:

Instructifeature: Reach special-needs students using a Voki and Trailfire mashup

Send your students on a twenty-first century scavenger hunt

Kids can create movies, drawings and more with Kerpoof

Make sense of copyright with this handy Classroom Copyright Chart

Stop a global pandemic: play The Great Flu

Learn about Egypt as you run for your life in Escape from the Mummy’s Tomb!

Who doesn’t like CSI? Learning about forensics with CSI Web Adventures

Access Google Docs from Microsoft Office with OffiSync

Observe mind-blowing illusions of sight and sound at Get High Now

Read faster with ReadSpeeder

BY KEVIN HODGSON

10.10.10 is almost here. Are you ready? A project known as “One Day on Earth” seeks to document the ways in which people live and work and play on a single day when our calendar points to the 10th day of the 10th month of the 10th year in the millennium. Sure, it’s sort of odd but it’s a hook that opens up a possibility for creativity for students early in the school year.

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Do you have a great instructional technology idea that you want to share with your fellow educators? Are you a good writer? Instructify is looking for practicing teachers and media specialists to write feature-length (1,500 word) articles on technology integration. If you write something we can use, we’ll publish it on Instructify and LEARN NC, and pay you $200 for your trouble.

For full details, please see our feature writing guidelines.

Photo credit: aurelio.asiain on Flickr.

LEARN NC, Instructify’s parent organization, will hold its Fall Interactive Conference on Thursday, October 14. All the face-to-face seats have been spoken for, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be left out. You can still participate virtually. There will be a live, moderated Q & A, so you can ask questions and interact with presenters and LEARN NC staff.

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