FringeEdTech

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This video demonstrates the mechanics for embedding a Google Presentation into an LMS (Blackboard 9.1). Note that this video is intended to accompany the fre...

If you know me, then you know I have a fetish for desktop publishing. While extolling the virtues of desktop publishing (and constantly teasing a tutorial in the coming weeks), I often maintain that Publisher is the best kept secret for educators who make their own publications and handouts (remember that piece I did on Paper Technology?). If you read my blog often, you are also probably keenly aware of my propensity to work in the cloud. While championing Google Drive as the best solution…

FringeEdTech is designed to help educators maximize the potential of existing technology - not necessarily the newest, latest, and greatest (although I did just order my Amazon Fire TV today!) toys. So today, I'm not talking about a sweet, shiny new thing. I'm talking about an old philosophy and technically easy idea to implement. I'm talking about embedding. I work in the Office of Online Learning at the college I'm at, but that's a bit of a misnomer as faculty leverage our learning…

Note: Yes, there is some really good advice in here, but you'll have to either suffer my ramblings for a few paragraphs or scroll down for a bit. I think that teachers unanimously agree that the two most popular questions are: "What did I miss when I wasn't in class?" "What's my grade?" Happily tools like Blackboard, Moodle and SchoolTool are have been developed to help make the learning process more personalized and portable for students. In the K12 realm, it even helps give parents some…

Blackboard Barry welcomes you to a quick tutorial Exporting from ANGEL and Importing to Blackboard.

Blogs. Blogs are one of those things that have been around forever in the intertubes. Some blogs are great. Some blogs are awful. But blogs are empowering in that anyone can blog. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone has opinions and perspective. Blogs - despite being one of the oldest modes of participative web technologies - are still one of the staples of internet conversation. The tools have gotten better, and we've (as a society) discovered more ways to enhance them and make them…

I have nothing bombastic to share this week - only a refinement on the age-old practice of screen capturing. But technology doesn't need to be new or shiny or in-your-face. Sometimes, the subtle technologies are the best. I posted last November on TechSmith's Snagit extension for Chrome, and covered the basic mechanics and workflow of using Snagit (which is still my primary screen capture tool). But regardless of how you elect to capture screenshots (Google Screen Capture and Awesome…

In the spirit of adapting technology to the classroom, today I'd like to showcase a new product that I have been playing with the past few days. Initially, it seems that Stormboard has it's greatest strengths in industry and business, after playing with it for a bit, I think it has a lot of merit in the educational realm, too. Stormboard is tough to describe in one word. It's a sticky-whiteboard-collaborative solution for brainstorming - which makes it great for distance collaboration in a…

Let's face it - brevity is en vogue right now (think Twitter and Vine). So today, I thought it would be appropriate to explore a toy that Dan brought to me a few weeks ago. I don't know how long it's been around, but I haven't seen andThenIWasLike used in a classroom setting yet, so I thought it might be cool to generate some feasible implementations. The premise is very simple - use your webcam to record a 3 second clip, and then the server-side software will render it into a moving .gif…

Well, cut-offs still are! I'm not much of a fashionista (although a quick Google Images search assures me that cut-off denim is still quite popular), but I do know that in the parlance of educational computing, cut-offs is a trend that is coming back. Recently in the Office of Online Learning at the college where I work we were investigating options for online registration (for staff development). Our college has a few generic systems in place, but nothing was really precisely aligned with…

I'm a huge advocate of DIY (Do It Yourself) in general, and classroom technology is even more fun to explore from a DIY perspective. As a classroom teacher, I used SMARTBoards as they became available. But somewhere in the evolution of the SMARTBoard, I started using a Tablet PC. I've tried most of the different presentation software, but I still think the SMARTNotebook is the way to go. There were some deficiencies with the SMARTBoard. In the early days, there were no short-throw…

If you don't know what the New Media Consortium is, you should get acquainted. The NMC is an amalgamation of educators, visionaries, boards, staff, and everyone critical to the lifeblood of the future of education. New Media Consortium - soothsayers of education They spark "innovation, learning, and creativity". The website has many valuable resources, but I find the Horizon Report to be one of the most compelling documents for educators. If you haven't read it yet, check it out. The actual…

A colleague sent me this article about why the Science Leadership Academy (SLA), a well-respected magnet school in Philadelphia, switched from MacBooks to Chromebooks. It's an interesting read. And while the article intimates that the decision was fiscally driven, it is my prediction that this ends up providing a more enriching experience for the students. There is a large technology gap between high school and college. Having worked at both, it is obvious to me that the vast majority of…

Every now and then, I come across some useful tools that I want to share. So, I've started an intermittent series called "Odds and Ends" that will feature several useful (and possibly tangential) things I've come across that may provide value to your classroom, your workflow, or your personal workflow. The following, presented in no particular order, are tools I find particularly useful or interesting. THE FRUGAL FILMMAKER As an educator, I've had some opportunities to create productions or…

Happy Holidays! I'll keep this short and sweet. Go here: http://www.itsamessage.com/holiday2011/ Type in the address of your home or your school. Enjoy the show. This neat experiment uses Google Street View, a webGL overlay (for the artistic look on the image), and a snowing animation to bring a nifty, Americana look. Now go enjoy your eggnog!