Monday, August 18, 2008

teacher techies


You've made the commitment to teach from a technological platform, thereby bringing your classroom into the 21st century. You've spent the summer researching your options and trying out various teacher tech tools. Now that the new semester is gearing up, however, the time dedicated to your own learning objectives has to be put aside while you devote all your time to teaching.

Still, you think to yourself wistfully: if only I had time to figure out how to stream video from my website, so I could share a particular lesson with other departmental faculty or parents.

You need EdTech101, a quick tutorial and reference guide for educators, delivered in an easy to assimilate podcast. Your host, Brian C. Dvorak, is a California public school district technology guru, determined to provide techno-tips to "fellow educators out there in the trenches."

Each of Dvorak's podcasts accompanies a link to whatever product he's featuring. By opening that link in another tab in your browser, you can preview the application at the same time he's telling you about it.

As for that video streaming project? EdTech101 reviews UStream.tv, an amazingly easy method for accomplishing this feat. Dvorak is sensitive to educators' needs for security and privacy, and suggests ways to ensure both while using this application.

A couple of his more recent reviews include Animoto and Jing, two web apps I've featured in the past month. Assign EdTech101's podcasts as homework assignments for your students and they will come into class ready to create great presentations.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely be sharing this site with teachers looking to work technology into their units and lessons.

ggratton said...

thehurt, You're welcome! When I find sites like this, I can't wait to pass them on! ggratton