Last Day Post

As the school year comes to a close and I pack up for the last time I would like to thank all of my readers and subscribers for all of their comments and emails.  Your encouragement has helped me maintain my focus when I procrastinated a bit too much.  I did not post as much this year and hope to change that in September.  Next year I hope to rely on Google documents and use more online resources.  I hope to continue creating content online such as Youtube videos.  My students have pushed me to grow as a teacher and introduce new technology into the classroom. 

Enjoy a safe and happy summer

Adding a Plus1 button to your webpage or blogger

I created a silent video that will show you how to install the Google Plus1 button to your blog or website.  The Plus1 button works very similar to the "Like" button.  I used blogger to illustrate how to do this however was successful on my other sites as well.  Remember the Plus1 button will only appear on new browsers.  Bellow are the 2 codes to add. To add to your Header look for head for blog posts search for data:post.body and post the code there.

To get the Code from Google

Browser Differences

In my school we are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.  Recently (over the past 2 weeks ) some sites have not performed as well as they used to.  In some cases like with Google products I receive a message that the website does not support my current browser.  If you look at both pictures of my blog below the top one is Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.  Notice how the Google Plus1 button is missing.  I also notice that Chrome pictured below will load much faster than explorer and I receive much few time outs than explorer.  I know that our administration has security concerns over other browsers like "Bing" for example but I do wonder what browsers other schools and businesses are using.
Please let me know.

MapMyRide

So I gave mapmyride a try yesterday.  It is a pretty cool app.  I like how I can view other peoples bike rides in the area and how you can share your rides with others and take notes.  Compared to mytracks it is fairly similar, however viewing the route on a map is much easier on mapmyride.  I also like how it creates splits so you can view where you are going faster or slower.  mapmyride also does a better job of elevations and being able to view the elevation along the route overview is really cool.  One thing I don't like is that you can't view statistics for the ride online or compare them to other rides.  Maybe I can after I add some more.  Bottom line is that mapmyride available for android or iphones is a very powerful tool and social networking service.  Privacy advocates like myself don't worry.  Mapmyride has plenty of sharing and privacy features which are very easy to use.

Packing up

Our school year is coming to a close and I am getting ready to close up shop.  I took advantage of some extra time off today while some of the students were on a field trip to reflect on how I can better the program next year.  One thing I would like to do is continue to "green" the classroom.  Thanks to implementing DropITto.me I have more student samples than ever before.  I am using these samples to create a PowerPoint presentation and eventually a photostory all new wallwisher to showcase student samples and work.  This will be better than cluttering up bulletin boards with paper that seems to degrade over the coarse of the school year.  Also I am going to create more visuals to define common questions.  My first project is to display computer memory.  For example I would like to display a USB drive next to a stack of Cd's to show how many Cd's a USB could hold.  

What are you going to do differently next year?

Safety and discussion topics

As the year is winding down and I am getting ready to clean up I am coming across articles and other handouts that spur discussions with different classes grade levels.  An article and discussion topic that came up today was "How does my picture show up on Google if I don't tag myself?"  The answer is "Your friends tag you and don't have proper security settings."  Also if your unaware TG Daily posts about how Facebooks facial recognition software encourages tagging of friends.  The article also will tell you how to opt out.  Facecrooks posts some child technology safety tips.   

Lastly it appears Google is holding a scavenger hunt. 

 

Get better search results From Facebook

All Facebook posted this worksheet written by Facebook and Brightedge on how to optimize pages for seach results.  I found the paper to be very interesting and would like to hear feedback on how you implement any of these suggestions.

Facebook bright edge-whitepaper-rev8

View more documents from Jackie Cohen

Embed Plus

I checked out Embed Plus today and WOW this is really cool.  This tool allows you to very quickly select a youtube video and edit the video.  You can create "chapters" for the video so users may "skip" like in a DVD.  You may also stop the video at certain time settings and add annotations.  This is great!  this is perfect to create an online video lesson from an existing youtube video.  You can program in think time, and for advanced users allow "skiping"  I will find a way to use this in the future.

Tracking Changes in Word 2007

I just posted a new video on my Youtube channel. This video will show you how to use the review tab in Word 2007. It will review Track Changes, Multiple Users, Compare and Combine documents, Comments, & Security features.

• Tracking changes allows you to view the changes you or others made to a Word document. By turning tracking changes on and changing the view of the document allows you to return and "undo" a change. Very helpful if you are working on a large document and you may not use the "undo" arrow to go back.


• Comments allow you to enter comments to a document. This is helpful if you are collaborating on a document and need another user to make changes.


• Compare and Combine Documents allow you to do just that. Helpful when collaborating on a group project.


• Security removes personal identifiers from a document.

Schema.org

Ok so this looks like a very helpful site.  To quote the site description "This site provides a collection of schemas, i.e., html tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers. Search engines including Bing, Google and Yahoo! rely on this markup to improve the display of search results, making it easier for people to find the right web pages"  This may be a bit above some of my current students, however it is a great idea and can help explain how search engines gather the data that is displayed during a search.  I am going to forward this link to my librarian and see how we can collaborate together on a lesson to better teach internet search stratigies using Schema.org

Thanks to TechCrunch for pointing this out.

rexxfield.com

Based on a comment I received from another post I checked out Rexxfield.com.  Rexxfiled.com is another online reputation defender service.  While Rexxfield does not publish their pricing I do like their website.  The site is well designed and well written.  Even if you are not in the market for a reputation defender I encourage you to read through the pages to learn about how and why they do what they do.  This is definitely a growing business and when I discuss protecting your Internet reputation with students I can see how businesses such as Rexxfield may find another market.  Most students are concerned about what shows up online, many are more concerned about what colleges and future employers may learn about them.  Most students do understand it is not what they post online but what others post about them that is most damaging or embarrassing.  I encourage students to regularly search themselves online and see what comes up.  Most are very surprised with what they see. 
How do you discuss Internet safety and online reputation safety with your students?