Tech Tidbit Video: Meerkat

The latest Tech Tidbit video focuses on Meerkat, an iOS app that is available for download from the iTunes App Store for iPhones or iPads.  (Sorry, no Android devices yet!)  Meerkat is an app that allows you to livestream video and audio over the internet and let others access it via Twitter!  (So, you do need an active Twitter account as well to "tweet" out the link to your livestream!

Not only can you livestream video using Meerkat, you can also follow other Meerkat users and be alerted to when they are broadcasting live.  You can also view other livestreams from Meerkat users.  Once you complete a livestream, you can save the video to Meerkat, depending on the length of the video.  However, once a livestream has concluded on Meerkat, you cannot watch a replay of the video via the link on the Twitter post.  

You can use Meerkat for a wide variety of purposes including the sharing of a class event, viewing a presentation from your peers, listening to a presentation from an expert on a particular topic, and more!  Meerkat should not be used to pirate licensed and/or copyrighted materials such as music, movies, or television shows.  

Tech TIdbit Video: 3 Online Tools to view YouTube videos without ads or side videos

The latest Tech Tidbits video demonstrates 3 online website tools that allow you to view YouTube videos without advertisements or side videos that might distract viewers.  

• Viewpure
• Safeshare.tv
• Watchkin.com

Teenage girls in Ghana learn to code

Currently, it seems that the majority of the stories you hear about the role of women in Africa either deal with the abduction of Nigerian girls by the soldiers of Boko Haram, or the limited access most girls have to equitable education. However,  there are encouraging stories demonstrating that many girls in Africa are being given chances to become engaged in their education.  For example, in the slum called Nima, in the Ghana capital of Accra, several teenaged girls are enrolled in classes teaching them to code.  Read more about this story here
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This image was captured by @pkopoku during our @Techneedsgirls workshop in the slum in Nima #AfricanChildDay pic.twitter.com/SPJ71zWmlV
— Regina Agyare (@ragyare) June 16, 2014

Tech Tidbit video: Parapara Animation Tool

This week's Tech Tidbit demonstrates the use of the Parapara Animation Tool, which allows you to create simple animated cartoons, which loop endlessly.
The site is free of charge and does not require you to sign up for an account. The display allows you to draw your animation one frame at a time, and then add as many frames as you would like.  

Once you have created each frame of your animation, you add a title as well as the name of the creator, and the site creates a unique URL link where the animation can be viewed.  You can also send the link to others via e-mail, and it also creates a QR code for the link that you can access via a QR code reader.  You can also display the cartoon in a website via embed code.

Teachers can use this site for educational purposes by having students create frames demonstrating steps in a process for science or social studies.  They could also use this site to display information about themselves or their interests...any way you can imagine!   

Tech Tidbits Video: TitanPad.com

One of the key themes of the Common Core Curriculum is to have students collaborate together on projects, documents, etc.  One of the main struggles is how to integrate technology so that students can collaborate simultaneously on assignments.  This week's tech tool is TitanPad, which is a free tool that allows users to create word processing documents online and share editing rights with the people they invite using a unique URL link.  Each user in TitanPad (up to 8 different users) has a different color that highlights the text they enter in the document.  Each collaborator can enter and edit text simultaneously, even the text of the other users.  

This tool can be used by students to create, edit, and finalize word processing documents without emailing the file back and forth to each other.  Although using Google Docs would be the ideal environment for such an activity, none of the students in Wake County do not have WCPSS-provided Google Drive accounts as of yet.  TitanPad is one webtool that students can use to experience collaborative word processing until these accounts are provided.

Girl Receives new 3-D Printed Hand

A little girl who had her hand amputated soon after birth has received a new artificial hand courtesy of a 3-D printer.  (Source: NBCNews.com)

Smartbox: A Product Right In Line For Only Opportunistic Leaders!

Presenting...SMARTBOX by Inbox!  An idea whose time has come!