Watch a robotic roach launch a robotic bird!

Source: Wired UK

Tech Tidbits video: Athenir

Athenir is a relatively new search engine that displays search results as visualizations of related terms.  While the search results are displayed on the right side of the screen, the visualizations for the search results look similar to groups of cells.

               

As you click on each search term, the visualization display creates smaller sub-groups of related search terms that users can click on to delve further into the search results. Athenir serves as an effective search engine for students who have difficulty related one group of search terms to another. 

Inviting Digital Visitors in the classroom with Video Conferencing tools

A friend and former co-worker of mine recently invited a professional musician/friend of his to listen to and offer constructive advice to his middle school band students via Skype.  She listened to them play while he and his class appeared in the lower right corner of the screen.

I remember showing his how to use Skype years ago, and I was excited to watch his archived video of his Skyping experience with his class.  I am hopeful that as the new school year approaches, that more of the teachers at both of my schools become more interested in video conferencing using Skype, Google Hangout, or other similar tools. 

Tech Tidbit video: LucidPress (Digital Multimedia Publishing)

LucidPress allows users to create and publish digital multimedia publications for online display, sharing, and access.  By signing up for a free account, you can store up to 25 mb worth of projects, and create digital publications for print, or for online sharing and access.  The tool menu is similar to that of PowerPoint or Microsoft Publisher, in that you can insert text boxes and format text, as well as insert and resize images.  You can also insert online videos by entering the URL to online videos found on YouTube, Vimeo, and other video sharing sites.  You can publish these documents and share them via e-mail, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google +. You can also download the publication as digital image files such as jpeg files.

  

If you wish to embed your publication on a website, you can instantly sign up for a free trial subscription that allows you access to the paid pro feature menu.  By using LucidPress, you can have students create digital artifacts and bypass posterboard and markers, which can become damaged when displayed. 

What is a MakerSpace?

Interesting video I found answering the question: 

"What Is A MakerSpace?"

(Courtesy of gcaavideos)

3D Printing in Kindergarten..."Printergarten"?

This past weekend my elementary school held "Saturday School"...a 1/2 day making up one of the days we missed back in February due to snow and ice. You would think that it wouldn't be a noteworthy day, especially since it was a make-up day.  Not so!  In one particular kindergarten class, they were experiencing the use of a 3D printer!  

The students were able to select the models for the objects they wanted to have printed, including a Star Wars "Death Star", letters of the alphabet, a cupcake with a separate top and bottom, and a chameleon! It was like having a MakerSpace in their classroom for the day!  What a unique and memorable learning experience using technology in education!

  

Tech Tidbit video: SketchToy

SketchToy is a fun whiteboard drawing tool that has the added fun bonus of enabling your drawing to "squiggle" to vary degrees.  It operates similarly to other whiteboard application tools, with the option of sharing the drawing with others via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and you can also download the drawing as a .PNG file as well.

                               

Students can save their pictures they draw in SketchToy and use them in digital storytelling projects.  You can also link to each drawing with a unique URL that is generated once the drawing is saved.

Tech Tidbit Video: Embedding a video from Google Drive into a website

Many teachers this time of year are spotlighting their students' work by creating videos of class projects, etc.  However, they don't always want to upload these videos to YouTube or Vimeo for the general public to find.  (Yes, there are privacy settings on these video sharing sites, but for the sake of argument...ha ha!)

One way you can share your videos with your primary stakeholders (your students and their families) is by uploading your video to your Google Drive account and embedding the video onto your website.  This video will demonstrate how you can do this!

Tech Tidbit Video: LucidChart

The latest Tech Tidbits video focuses on LucidChart, a concept-mapping site that allows users to create concept maps for a variety of purposes, incuding organizational charts, connecting concepts with related topics, and much more.  There are a large number of shapes, icons, and symbols that you can drag onto the template screen and connect together.


There are, admittedly, a lot of concept-mapping online tools out there, but LucidChart is allowing those who sign up for a free account with their educational e-mail address can request a free upgrade to a LucidChart Pro account at this address: https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/education/K12 .
Approval for the request usually will be granted within 24-48 hours.