Mendi Benigni

Well I didn’t so I went on a hunt to learn how.  I took me a bit to figure it out but now, in hindsight, it’s not so hard.

1. Place your cursor at the point in your post where the link should appear.
2. Click on Add media from the top of your post window.
3. From the Your Computer section click Browse, choose the file then click Upload.  
   NOTE:  from what I can tell you can only upload PDF files.  I was unsuccessful with .doc, .xls, .ppt and .rtf files.
4. When it uploads a form will display.  Click Insert into Post at the bottom of the form.

Example:  nets-for-teachers-20081

Tags: New Stuff by benignim
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Actually, upon a more detailed look at Lovely Charts I realized I still do love Bubbl.us, however, I think there may be room for both in my life

Lovely Charts is a free (well, sorta), online diagram program.  With it you can create flowcharts, sitemaps, people charts and forms very, very easily.  The interface is very drag and drop which I love and there are more chart formats which I also love.  However, the free version if quite crippled, which I don’t love at all.  You can only create two charts for free and you can’t collaborate on these like you can in Bubbl.us.  For these reasons I’ll probably stick with Bubbl.us as I mind mapping software of choice, however, I won’t rule out the occasional use of Lovely Charts for special occasions.

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Hi my name is Kayla Tripp and i am job shadowing Mrs. Mendi Benigni. I am in the 7th grade. And i go to West Ashley Middle School. Or for all you adults out there (The Old Middleton.)
I was helping her look at a few softwares. One that i recommend is Tech4Learning.
You can chose from five different things to use (frames, image-blender, pixie 2, twist, and web-blender.)
I used Frames. I think anybody could use it. It could work for a quick commercial or advertisement, or a movie for your teaching. Even if you like doing something for fun. Also if you can’t find something you want on the program or they don’t have it. There is a way to search the thing you want from you computer.

________________________________

From Mendi – to go further with this, Tech4Learning also has a great copyright-friendly image/clip art repository. It’s very K12 oriented.  Check it out at Pics4Learning.com!

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So I just checked out the new Google Earth 5 Beta and it’s official, I’m now more addicted than ever!  It was bad enough that I could explore everything on land I ever wanted, now I can explore the oceans and Mars.  As you might expect, National Geographic has some wonderful overlays that contain video of the ocean depths tagged to their location.  These are wonderful and beautiful.  BBC has also tagged it’s Blue Planet series that has some gorgeous video of the deeper sections of our oceans and the creatures that live there.  The coolest feature, I think, is the Animal Tracking.  With this you can track the path of tagged sea animals to get a better understanding of environment and migration patterns.  There is even a feature that allow you to “swim” along with them.  I have to admit that the ocean feature still seems a bit new but I’m sure this will expand as quickly as everything else in Google Earth has expanded.

The interface is better and now gives you easy access, via a dropdown list, to Earth, Sky and Mars (don’t even get me started on how cool Google Sky is).

So don’t wait!  Download Google Earth 5 Beta and then don’t expect to get anything done for quite a while as you sit and explore the Earth, sky and sea.

Tags: New Stuff, software by benignim
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I read about this program on Kathy Schrock’s SOS for Busy Teachers.  It’s called Twiddla and it’s a real-time whiteboard, allowing you and your users to markup a document, website or graphic together.  According to their tagline, Twiddla is a “free, no-setup, web-based meeting playground.”

It’s pretty easy to use without any instruction.  From the Twiddla site click on the big, green “Go” button and you’re off and running.

What can I do in Twiddla?

As with most online whiteboards you can draw with a pencil tool and add shapes like squares, circles and stars.  But that’s not overly useful in an educational environment.  What makes this a good tool is that you can easily import your own content (Word docs, Excel Spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, PDFs).  It also has a Mathematical Formula editor that let’s you create real-time, online math tutorials!  There is also a voice chat tool, which many whiteboards do not have, thus allowing the users to discuss what they are doing and makes for easier collaboration.  Lastly, try the web-browsing tool which allows the entire group to view the same page at the same time.

Are their practical applications in education?

Yep there are!

• A collaborative, real-time, online whiteboard allows you to conduct more engaging online office hours by giving you the ability to draw a concept instead of just typing it.  This is really beneficial in the math and science areas.
• This type of space can be beneficial to class group-work.  So often, group members have a problem getting together in the same place at the same time.  While this does not eliminate the “same time” problem it does allow the group members to get “together” without actually having be together.  This tool is great for idea development.
• What about a collaborative, digital art project where a group works together on a piece.

Check it out.  When you find additional educational uses please post in the comments!!!

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