Move beyond index cards: 12 ways to organize information online
By Christian Howd | July 10, 2007 | 4 Comments
(3 votes, average: 1.67 out of 5)
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Wavy lines, wavy lines. Now we’re in full flash-back mode. See the card catalog over there? Students are taking notes on index cards, only one idea for each card. Some are looking through book bibliographies to hunt down books for further study. Some are tracking down articles through those proprietary research databases. Just insert your copy card to print them out. Wavy lines, wavy lines.
Okay, we’re back. Collecting information and research sure is different than it used to be. In fact, it’s a lot different, according to a recent survey:
Seventy-one percent of teens say the Internet is their primary source for information for completing their most recent school project or report. Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that teens are increasingly using the Web as an essential study aid outside the classroom. For instance, 78 percent say the Internet regularly helps them with classroom assignments…
While this doesn’t mean completely eliminating the old methods of research and organization, it does mean that students should be taught how to effectively use the web for research. They are already doing it, so let’s help them do it better. But that’s not the only reason. Accessing information online will only grow in the future, and it will be imperative for their future careers to be able to effectively collect and organize information online.
If you are planning on your students doing any type of research in your class(es), then why not also introduce them to a way to organize that information online? You will not only be targeting language arts standards, but technology standards for information literacy as well. Here are 12 resources for information collection and organization:
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Get rid of stuff with free online classified ad sites
By Christian Howd | July 9, 2007 | 1 Comment
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We’ve blogged before about the hidden locations in which clutter can reside in a classroom. But what happens when you locate clutter? How do you get rid of it? In the vein of “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” give it to someone else. And by give, I mean, sell.
You could go to eBay. But you have to pay listing fees and deal with the hassle of shipping your items to their purchasers. For a quick, easy and free way to sell your stuff online, try a location-based classified ad site instead.
These sites allow users to post classified ads to a specific geographic location. While the pool of potential purchasers is smaller than with eBay, the advantage is that the listings are free and the inconvience of shipping is usually eliminated as your purchaser can just swing by to pick up their item.
If you want to give this a shot, try these two free online classified ad sites:
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Schools and the hard IT choice
By Todd DuLude | July 6, 2007 | Be the first to comment
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People generally have a strong preference when it comes to their desktop computer. However, bulk purchasing meant to cut costs determine the platform educational institutions use. Microsoft and Apple have been notoriously unfriendly to the bottom line of school districts for years.
In the back rooms of many school districts sit servers that have worked uninterrupted for years. They’re veritable workhorses that rarely need maintenance or have suffered infiltration by some vicious hacker. It’s a good chance that some form of Linux resides on those machines.
With pressure to upgrade, Linux is beginning to venture out of the back room and onto the desktop. Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 could very well be the answer to the school system at an operating system crossroad. It labels itself as 90% the functionality of Windows Vista for 10% the cost.
With pressure to upgrade desktop stations, Linux is beginning to look good to many schools.
If that’s too steep try the completely free Ubuntu and its variety of sub-distributions such as Edubuntu (the educationally pre-packaged version). This system customarily installs in about twenty minutes and is fast becoming the wunderkind of the Linux world. They’ll even send you a fully bootable CD of the system at their cost if you don’t have the time or the connection to download a copy. Don’t want to install it over your current OS? Run the complete version from the CD!
To be sure, the choice is one for the future as districts begin to look at ways to save the almighty buck.
Here are six compelling reasons to consider Linux as an operating system in your school district:
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Save time and money with the Staple Free Stapler
By Christian Howd | July 2, 2007 | Be the first to comment
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“The stapler’s jammed!” a student shouts from across the room. Argh! Now you have to stop everything, fix it for them, locate more staples, go ask the office because you are probably out of staples, and hope that the staple cache lasts to the end of the year. Staplers are one piece of classroom tech that is used frequently, but can oftentimes underperform, causing frustration and time wasting. But being able to staple papers together is an organizational must. So what to do about this little problem?
4 Things technology can’t replace
By Christian Howd | June 27, 2007 | 2 Comments
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Don’t get us wrong. At TeachClever, we’re all about using technology to make us better, more productive teachers. For the most part, we are faster, more efficient and effective due to technology. But Andrew Kantor from USA Today points out that technology can’t, or shouldn’t replace everything. Here are four things that technology doesn’t effectively replace and what it means for teachers:
Spelling. Sure spell check is a wonderful tool for editing, but it’s easy to become dependent on it. Rather than learn to spell words correctly, we just wait for the spell check to tell us we’re wrong. So we never learn to spell those challenging words, like dependent, which I spelled wrong typing this article and let spell check fix it. And I’ll probably spell it wrong again next time.
Teaching students spelling and word study are still valuable skills. Most students will create content digitally in their futures, but there will still be a place for writing by hand. And pausing to think about the correct spelling of a word is a waste of time.
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9 Places to find hidden clutter in your classroom
By Christian Howd | June 23, 2007 | 1 Comment
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Classrooms have a way of hiding clutter. Closets, book shelves, tables, desks and counters are all inviting surfaces for those random objects that collect around the classroom. The Unclutterer blog says that, while you might have a place to store an object, you might not have the best place to store it. Even further:
Just because you have space to store an object doesn’t mean that you should.
So if you are looking for places to starting decluttering your classroom, here are a few ideas:
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What’s growing on your keyboard?
By Christian Howd | June 21, 2007 | Be the first to comment
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Studies show that computer keyboards have more bacteria than toilet seats.
Yuck! That’s from an NPR report and they have a pretty extreme solution to the problem: just toss your keyboard in the dishwasher! While you may not want to do that with school equipment, having 30 pairs (or more) of grimy-fingered hands all over your classroom or lab computer keyboards might make you wonder what’s growing in there.
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