Free, easy-use tools for bridging the gap between busy teachers and tech-savvy students

This coming Tuesday, June 10, I am conducting a professional development session for K-12 teachers. The following is information related to the session.

Session Overview

Every year students become more tech savvy. And every year teachers struggle to keep up. It’s hard to take time out of busy schedules to learn how to create a class Web page and keep it up to date with a calendar of events, homework assignments, class projects, useful links and other important information.

Fortunately, the latest communication and collaboration tools are far more natural to use than traditional Internet technologies. These tools provide teachers with an effective way to bridge the technology gap and embrace the kinds of tools their students already use.

In this two-part, hands-on session, attendees will create classroom resources and activities with easy-to-use, engaging communication and collaboration tools.

Session Objectives

Part 1: Attendees will be guided through the step-by-step process for building an easy-to-use and easy-to-manage classroom Website and blog, providing a new resource for communication.

Part 2: Attendees will create classroom activities using a wide array of simple-use tools, delivering interactive and engaging contexts for communication and collaboration.

Session Resources

1. Session pretest
2. Wendy Cowan's Symbaloo Link: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/wendycowanspdmix
3. The Teacher Website

Get your students talking outside of class!

Are you a Google docs user? If not you're missing out on a really great (and FREE) resource for student collaboration. In addition, Google forms is great for creating evaluations.

How to get started? Create a Gmail account and log in. Go to Google Docs and start creating!

Here's a couple of examples of documents I've created - feel free to add to them!

1. Google Docs Document
2. Google Docs Slide Presentation 
3. Google Docs form - embedded below!

Using images legally

Need an image/graphic for a presentation? For your website? Or to add to a student handout? Before deciding on an image be sure it's one you can "legally borrow". Basically there are three types of images you will find on the Internet -

1. Public domain & open source images - these images are free to use, but may require citation or permission to modify or edit in any way. 
2. Copyrighted images - Depending on the license, some images are not open for public use. One example of this is an image of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse. To use copyrighted, restricted images, you must have written permission from the copyright holder.
3. Royalty-free & stock images - you may purchase royalty-free & stock images to use without restriction both commercially and privately, but you cannot sell or lease these images.

Need help locating images that you can use legally? Check out the resources below!

Flickr - Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world, securely
Freedigitalphotos.net - Download free and premium stock photos and illustrations for websites, advertising materials, newspapers, magazines, ebooks, book covers and pages, music artwork, software applications and much more. All our free images are of high quality, produced by our community of professional stock photographers and digital illustrators.
Google Images - 1. Go to google search and enter the image search term; 2. Once the results have been rendered, scroll to bottom of page and select "basic version"; 3. Click on advanced search options (top of page); 4. Under need more tools, select images available for reuse; 5. Click on search; 6. Select and open the image as a large file view; 7. Determine if there are any restrictions (should be listed with the image); 8. If credit is required then be sure to copy the URL and image source
Open Clip Art Library - The Open Clipart Library is the largest collaboration community that creates, shares and remixes clipart. All clipart is released to the public domain and may be used in any project for free and with no restrictions.
OpenStockPhotography - All images listed at Open Stock Photography come from Wikimedia Commons and as such "can be used by anyone, for any purpose
Wikipedia Commons - a database of freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute. MP images.png If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.                                                                                                                          ~ Maria Montessori James 1:2-4 ESV  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. I humbly thank my wonderful family for their support in all that I do. Robert Robbie Cowan, Robert Drew Andrew Cowan, and Hunter Cowan Hartselle, Decatur, AL