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Finding a Balance in Filtering

It has been a long time since I last posted. I typically post from school after my work hours where I have a lot of my educational resources available for reference. Our district however has expanded the reach of there filtering software to block all Blogger sites because a few of these sites may be inappropriate. I am looking at other solutions, but any hosted service that is primarily for blogs is also blocked. I see a definite need for filtering software, but wiping out a powerful educational tool, because there might be a little swearing on a page is overstepping the bounds. No filtering software can protect from everything, but with a vigilant teacher and appropriate supervision most problems can be eliminated. The filtering software should be set to block only the worst of sites, rather than blocking huge blocks of content where 90% is good and legitimate, and of the remaining 10% most only have a few offensive words here or there.

Keeping Older Computers Running Smooth and Safe

In an ideal world we would have a class with a laptop or tablet PC for every child, and we could update them every three or four years to keep current. Unfortunately in the real world we are fighting with trying to keep older computers patched together and running, so that our kids have at least some access to technology. In this and a few of the following articles I will discuss some of the ways we can keep these older machines running smooth.

The first concern is security. If you are not connected to the internet then this is really not an issue, but if you are there are some concerns that should be addressed.

• First keep your operating system up to date. Windows 98 is no longer supported by Microsoft, so this is one situation where updating to a more recent version is necessary. As of now Windows 2000 is still supported, and can be put on donated pc's for free through the fresh start program from Microsoft. Microsoft Fresh Start
  
• Mac computers support cycle is much shorter than Microsoft's, but because fewer people use macs they have not been a target for hackers. You are likely to be safe using a mac even if security updates are not being provided.
• Use an antivirus. AVG still offers a free version of their antivirus, and it is more than capable of meeting your needs.
  

More to come...

Brain Pop Jr. is a great addition to Brain Pop

website: http://www.brainpopjr.com/

Grade: A

Cost: $95 Annual fee for teachers (School, Parent, and other licensing options are available)

I have looked at Brainpop before and have given it a positive review. The addition of Brainpop Jr. which is targeted more to the primary grades, makes it even better. In addition to providing many great educational films featuring fun animated characters, it also contains many learning games and activities to solidify the concepts taught. Student can do Games, Writing, Drawing, read a comic book that teaches the concepts, as well as take a quiz on the subject. It also contains a link for teachers with suggestions of activities that correspond with the video. I can't say the animation is spectacular, but it is sufficient to keep students interested, especially with the well written scripts.

Is it worth the $95? With research you could probably find free resources to teach many of the concepts taught on this site. But if your time is at all valuable it is worth the $10 per school months to have all of these resources in one location. I personally think it is a bargain. My resource students have learned concepts on Brainpop with ease that they struggled to grasp in a traditional classroom setting. To me that is also worth a lot.

Ubunto Feisty Fawn Released/ Great School Solution

Website: http://www.ubuntu.com or http://www.edubuntu.org/

Grade: A

Cost: Free

I have reviewed and suggested Ubuntu before, but with their new upgrade to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, I felt that it was a good time to talk about it again as a solution for schools. Schools face many interesting challenges, but the biggest is lack of current technology, older computers, donated computers, and lack of finances for software to keep everything working and running smoothly. Although it can't fix everything Ubuntu can help us in some of these areas. Ubuntu is a free Open Source Linux operating system that includes a wide variety of software to get you started with most common tasks. Of all the Linux varieties out there Ubunto is probably the easiest to get up and running. It also includes great software that gets you going, including a word processor, a spreadsheet, presentation software, firefox, email, and much more. Edubuntu is the education or kid friendly version that comes bundled with the basic applications as well as many educational titles. If you have an older computer that needs something more secure that an unsupported version of windows, or a donated pc that your not sure about software licencing on, or you just want a fun alternative, Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, and Edubuntu are a great choice.

Murphys Law for Teaching

Site: http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-teaching.html

This is just a fun list for teachers, because it seems to be true to life. I copies just a small portion, please visit the site for the full list.

• The clock in the instructor's room will be wrong.
• Disaster will occur when visitors are in the room.
• A subject interesting to the teacher will bore students.
• The time a teacher takes in explaining is inversely proportional to the information retained by students.
• A meeting's length will be directly proportional to the boredom the speaker produces.

Continued at: http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-teaching.html

A Cool way to Multiply (Video)

Website: http://www.glumbert.com/media/multiply

Grade: A

I found this video that teaches a new method of multiplication. It has worked time and again as I have tried it. Give it a try.

glumbert.com

100 posts which direction should I Go? User Poll

Wow! I have reached the 100 post mark. I have recently been posting rapidly and the posts, are adding up quickly. I currently have about 60 regular subscribers, and I also receive between one and two hundred hits a day. I want to provide you the readers with the best information possible in a format that will benefit you most. My recent posts have been mostly short one or two paragraph reviews of cools sites, tools, and software I have found. I think this is good for teachers because it introduces you to useful tools that make teaching a little more fun. In the past I have also created guides to using technology. For example I did a guide to movie making in which I discussed the tools used and needed for this specific type of project. Which Direction would you like to see Ed Tech Review? Please answer the poll question, and leave comments on this post for your suggestions.

Educated Earth for Edcuation

Website: http://www.educatedearth.net
Grade: B+
Cost: Free

Educated Earth is a very nice site that brings you a wide variety of videos, photographs and articles about the science of our earth. I found a wide variety of videos from an octopus that attacked a shark, to a science demonstration of blowing up bathtubs with a chemical reaction of alkali metals and water.

The only real problem I see is that many of the videos are not hosted on the site, so if your district like mine blocks Youtube and Google Video you may not be able to view them.