Free Graphics Resources

Programs like Microsoft Word and OpenOffice have some drawing capabilities. I like both of them and have been able to do very simple shapes and layouts with them. But sometimes I want to create something more detailed and involved, or my students are looking for a way to create their own pictures and graphics.

I love free stuff, and I have found Inkscape to be a very capable graphics program, and it's free. In fact, it has a lot more capabilities and functions then I will ever be able to use. But, it is relatively easy to use for basic things and has article, tutorials, and documentation to help you.

Inkscape links to another great free graphics resource, the Open Clip Art Library. This site has thousands of images and clip art that are free to use. Most people don't realize that you can't just use any image you find on the internet without crediting it or paying for it. This site makes it easy to find free images. As a side note, Goolge Image Search also has an option for only displaying images that are available for public use.

Check these out and have some fun creating your own images and graphics.

Free cool tools for teachers

Harmony Hollow software has some great software and a really great set for teachers.

The Totally Free Teacher's Tool Suite is a set of free software items that are very useful for teachers. The suite includes Gift Wiz, The Hat, Cool Timer, and Text Tally.

Gift Wiz is a tool to select and match up people for gift exchanges, but I have used it to match up partners for labs and projects.

The Hat allows you to randomize any list. I use it to randomly pick on students or to sort students in different orders.

Cool Timer is an on screen timer. I project it up on the board so that students can see how much time they have left for the activity they are working on. You can select different sounds to use as the alert. I have fun picking different ones.

Text Tally is an easy way to count words, characters, and lines in a document.

I use the first three quite often, as do a lot of my colleagues. One word of caution, our school's blocking software doesn't allow us to get to Harmony Hollow's site so you might need to download the program and home and then bring it in to school.

Enjoy!

Free Educational Technology Magazines

There are a lot of educational and educational technology journals and magazines out there. I have two favorites, both of which are free.

The first one is Tech&Learning magazine, which I am a TL Advisor for. I write a bi-monthly blog and do product reviews for them. The magazine has a lot of great articles and resources for teachers. They also run educational technology conferences around the country. The conferences are a great way for educators to see what is new and how to integrate technology into their classrooms.

The other one is THE Journal. THE Journal is another great resource with some really good articles, tips, and information for educators.

Both magazines also have great websites with a plethora of information. You can subscribe to either an electronic or paper version of the magazines.

The articles and information in both magazines are well written, timely, and relevent and well worth reading.

New posts to start soon

Sorry for the lack of articles lately. I've been on the road, checking out farmer's markets in CT, checking towns for future house purchase, and doing some lecturing and teaching. I have lots of new articles that will be published shortly. Stand by!

SugarSync Update

I've been using SugarSync for a few months now and love it. I have a computer at home that I do a lot of work on, the Acer netbook for teaching EMS classes at different locations and doing work on the fly, and my computer at school. It was always a pain to keep these computers and the files in sync, but SugarSync has fixed that problem.

I have the "Magic Folder" on each computer and SugarSync automatically keeps them all in sync. That means that I can work on the files on my home computer and it will automatically upload the new or modified file to SugarSync's servers and then when I turn on one of the other computers, SugarSync will automatically download and sync the new or modified file onto that computer. I can also access, edit, and save any file through the SugarSync web site on any computer.

I have yet to need to use more than the 2GB free account, but I'm thinking of upgrading to the 30GB account ($49.99 for the year, or $4.99 per month) and keeping more files accessible.

Try it out. I found it to be easy to use and a great resource. I will be sharing it with my students also, so that they can access their files at school so that they don't have to keep bringing in flash drives.

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is the most widely used office productivity suite, but it isn't the only one. It used to come included with many computers, but nowadays it is only a trial version. This means that people are having to pay for Microsoft Office in addition to the cost of a computer. Many people are still using Office 2003, which Microsoft will stop supporting in the future. With budgets a major issue, as usual, schools, teachers, and students can get free alternatives to Microsoft Office.

There are some free alternatives out there. The two I use are Google Docs and Openoffice.org.

Google Docs, detailed more here, is great for online collaboration of documents because you can share the documents with others. Everything is hosted online, although there is an offline version. It is great for students because their documents are stored online and they can access them from any internet accessable computer. Google Docs includes word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation applications. Because it is web based, you can use it on Windows, Mac, or Linu. And, it's free.

Openoffice.org is free software from Sun Microsystems. Unlike Google Docs, Openoffice is software you download to your computer and the files reside on your computer. (for ideas on syncing files among multiple computers, check out SugarSync).

Openoffice is a fully functional office productivity system that rivals Microsoft Office in many ways and includes applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, formulas and graphics. I have found it really easy to use coming from Microsoft Office since the menu's and commands are very similar. Openoffice can save files in many formats, including Microsoft Office formats so that you can use them on other computers without a problem. Openoffice is available in multiple languages and for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Google Docs and OpenOffice can save students, faculty, and schools a fortune in licensing fees and allow better collaboration and productivity.

Fun things to do with a camera phone

It's summer vacation, so I thought that I would post some things that aren't necessarily all about education.

Here's a list of some things to do with a camera phone:

1. Remember where you’re parked at the airport or any crowded lot. Photograph the nearest parking location sign.

2. Take a picture of your hotel, building address, room number, and the nearest street sign.

3. Take a photo of your child every day as a safety precaution when you’re traveling.

4. Capture a whiteboard after a meeting.

5. Document damage after a car accident.

6. Document your home and belongings as proof for your insurance company in the event of a loss.

7. Snap a picture of the takeout menu and business hours of your favorite restaurant.

8. Shoot a photo of a flyer for an upcoming event or item for sale.

9. If you lend out CDs, DVDs and books to friends, take pictures and label them with your friends’ names.

10.Take a picture of something you’re about to disassemble, then use it as a reference when you’re putting it back together.

11. Entertain kids with a photo scavenger hunt, with a list of things to take pictures of.

12. Photograph yourself when you don’t have a mirror.

Some education related things:

1. Take a picture of things you wrote on the board for one class so you use the exact same thing for the next class.

2. Take a picture of a memo on a bulletin board.

3. Take a picture of lab setups for future use or to include in lab instructions

4. Take a picture of your room set up at the end of the year so you make sure everything gets back after summer cleaning.

5. Document anything you need documented.

You can save the photos on your camera phone, export them to your computer, upload them to a website, or even use Evernote to save and organize them.

Enjoy your summer!