Tech Happenings @ LvHS

A fun progam, easy to use, Comic Life is a quick comic creator. Select a template, add pictures, and then add balloons. I need to price for site and/or multi for education. many ideas come to mind: Religion: weekly moral challenge with a single character SocialStudies: Historical figures, famous moments, political satire English: modernize a scene from a play Health issues/challenges/decisions How to's

Why and iPod Touch in Education? here's some neat insight into a tool many of our students use every day when NOT at Louisville. In fact, it probably sits next to them while doing homework or traveling in the car.... weekends at grandmas, etc. This presenter at the 21st Century Learners Symposium in 2009 caught my attention!

Over 50 educational apps for download to an iTouch or iPhone are summarized here beautifully by a teacher at an international school in Singapore. Links to the download are included. Most are free, some $.99.... some free versions of pay versions. Included are Spanish Tutor, Google Earth, iEphemeris Moon Phases, First Aid, Pedometer, Art History, etc. Here is a link to Educational Apps on iTunes. Graphing Calculator, Shakespeare, Classic Literature, French 101, SAT prep, Drivers Ed Lite, Greek gods, Anatomy flash cards, and more!

I added links to free downloads for software.... On the Tech Services Portal page on My Louisville.

I downloaded and tested some open source software recommended at the 21st Century Learners Symposium I attended in October. Titles include: FreeMind mind mapping GraphCalc graphing calculator Audacity (we already use this in some Spanish classes) I am going to try to get a volunteer from the math department to test/evaluate the graphcalc program to see if students can use it on laptops in place of a TI85. I scheduled a "Tech Wednesday" for FreeMind hopeing that many teachers will be interested in that.

For teachers who love to add video and audio to their lectures, California Streaming is being funded for Catholic schools by the Archdiocese. All teachers will have an account with their email address as username. Students will access with generic louisvillehs account username. To use in class teachers will usually download a video to their laptop (either at school or home) then show in class from their laptop. This saves bandwidth use during the school day and can be used each period or next semester/year. Image searches are also available, and photos used in presentations, etc.

New Year is a perfect time to revise tech plan, budget and pd schedules. We will be starting "Tech Wednesdays" for weekly 2-hour hands on workshops. We have invited Crespi faculty to sign up. All workshops utilize free software and web 2.0 tools for instructional and collaborative uses. Teachers will learn how to use as well as discuss ways to use the tools. January 27: Google Docs February 3: Blogging: Blogger February 10: Google Earth/StrataLogica February 17: Digital Mind Mapping: FreeMind Februrary 24: Photo Story "Ken Burns-style" video March 3: Audio and Podcasting using Audacity