ICY+TEA+MID-NOVEMBER+2012

toc Back to HOME > ICY TEA =ICY TEA - MID-NOVEMBER 2012= media type="youtube" key="kAG39jKi0lI" height="283" width="504"

A - OUT OF OFFICE
If you want to let people know that you won't be checking your First Class for a couple of days, you can leave an out-of-office reply. Here's how. media type="youtube" key="x93Mz463THg" height="315" width="420"

B - INCLUDE TEXT IN REPLY
There is an option in FC to include in your reply the text of the previous email which gives readers context for the conversation. It seems that this is not the default setting (as it usually is in webmail). Here is how you enable it, if you wish:
 * Edit > Preferences > Messaging > Initial Content > check: Use 'Reply with Quote' ... **

C - STOP THE DING!
Someone recently observed to me that the ding every time an email comes in is an enemy of productivity. You can turn it off, if you wish, or at least turn it down like this:
 * Edit > Preferences > Messaging > Audio > Volume for built-in sounds (varies from Max to Off). **

3 - LANGUAGE DEPT WEEBLY
Continuing Icy Tea's celebration of ISL uses of technology to enhance teaching, here is our Languages colleagues' Weebly. A [|Weebly] is a very professional-looking and easy to assemble website with blogging possibilities. []

4 - GOOGLE PRESENTATIONS
You may have heard some talk recently about Google docs. There are many uses for these and there will be much to follow, but here are a couple of examples of conventional Powerpoint presentations uploaded to Google. The advantages are that they can then be shared by just sending the link rather than the whole file; and if you update the file, your audience does not have old versions. It is also available to a wider audience and more than one person can easily contribute. These two presentations are the Cancer Shave assembly and Stacie Allard's great presentation for students on personal organisation. http://devicesquad.wikispaces.com/GOOGLE+PRESENTATIONS

5 - iPAD TIPS AND TRICKS
You are hereby invited to a special event for iPad owners which will be held during the Library Open House on Friday 7 December straight after school. As well as greeting the new library collection, some experienced iPad users will be demonstrating some cool tricks and apps. And there will be drinks, snacks, child-care and a raffle with a fabulous prize. Quick tricks:
 * On the iPad, when you type a double space it is replaced with a full-stop and then a space which is very helpful when you learn it.
 * You can also split the keyboard in two by pulling two fingers away from each other. If you don't know why that would be useful, ask a young person (I had to).
 * Did you know you can do a screenshot by clicking the power and home buttons simultaneously?

6 - PHOTOPIN - CREATIVE COMMONS IMAGES
We are all rightly concerned about the ease with which intellectual property rights are infringed by people taking others' work without attribution. One way to find images which you are allowed to use (with attribution) is at [|photopin.com]. It searches flickr and then serves up some great images which have a Creative Commons licence as well as the attribution. Students in the Middle School have been using this free service in their ICT in Action activities. media type="custom" key="21469040"

7 - KATHY SCHROCK
There is so much middling advice on the Web, it's great when you find a really reliable site to browse. That's what I think of Kathy Shrock's website [|schrockguide]. For example, here is her 21st century Bloom's taxonomy:

8 - THINKING GALLERY
For ToK teachers, over the last couple of years, I have made a collection of articles and videos which each implies a knowledge issue such as the students are required to explore in their presentations. Here: thinking gallery

A - MUSIC
[|JAM WITH CHROME], though I think you can do better than this video. media type="youtube" key="YkvKICWaRT4" height="315" width="560"

B - GEOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL STUDIES
[|GLOBAL CLOSET MANAGER] is an initiative from National Geographic in which students can each log the origin of the items in their clothes closet. There are lots of other social studies activities at the same website.

C - SCIENCE
There is an increasing number of citizen Science projects in which input from individuals contributes to real scientific research. One of the first which I did was [|GALAXY ZOO] in which we categorised around one million galaxies in a way computers can't do. Presently you can also search for exploding stars, map the moon, extract climate data from old ships' logs, listen to whales, investigate cancer. One Dutch teacher had [|Hanny's Voorwerp] named after her. Students love doing citizen science. There's also[| Project Noah] which logs animals in your local environment.

D - MATHEMATICS
[|SKETCH UP] (formerly a Google project) is an amazing program. Here are some[| ideas for Mathematics] using it: media type="custom" key="21469336"

=AND FINALLY ...= media type="youtube" key="EhkxDIr0y2U" height="315" width="560"