Technology


 * Technology**


 * * documenting specific technology that could be used to teach the OSSMC and why it would be effective
 * a 1-2 page summary of your views on how technology could be used to teach the OSSMC
 * lesson plans that were used in the successful implementation of technology in the class
 * listing of new software you have learned that might help you teach math
 * create a set of instruction videos on ho to use a new technology using Jing or Camtastia
 * I would love for 2-3 people to create short videos on how to use the TI83/84 calculator (come see me for this) ||

Okay just an announcement for those that haven't figured it out: **The war is over. Microsoft won. Everybody has gone home**.
 * Spew:**

I'm sick and tired of two things:
 * 1) People who rant about the shortcomings of MS products. I, having worked directly with, and depended upon, software developers for the last 10yrs have a well developed hate-on for software in general. That being said, I can assure you that MS products are generally at the upper end of function, value and thought-out-edness. There is a culture that software programmers live in that is quite disconnected with the concept of "It needs to work Goddammit!"* - this is a simple fact. If you can come to terms with that, then you'll find that MS products are signficantly better than most others.
 * 2) Software applications that obtusely attempt to avoid doing things the "Microsoft way". See the announcement above!


 * - I am not exaggerating much when I state: "When a software programmer says 'It works', what he means is 'It is not presently engulfed in flames'"


 * New technologies that I have been exposed to:**

Thought - in lesson 2 there was a clicker question that I knew most persons would answer not accurately - see if Robin retains the survey data. I used clickers in a non-math class and they were kind of fun. Link for software download: [|www.einstruction.com]
 * Clickers** - seems like a fun diversion, but I'm not sure if they're a very useful educational tool - I need to see more usages

You can embed the voting right into the PowerPoint instead of opening it separate. You just have to download the CPS for PowerPoint plugin and then it's pretty user friendly. [] - download version 6.59 of CPS PowerPoint and install. [] - this is basically the easy to use help file that tells you how to add CPS voting right to the PowerPoint page.


 * PiratePad** - a webtool that allows multi-user editing - seems like this might be good for those group work activities where usually one person is the scribe, and the others don't have a permanent record. I need to look into this, and see if we can start using it in other courses. []


 * MS One Note** - using this now to take notes -wish that I had started earlier. It's not necessarily a super tool, but I've just got to break the habit of jotting things on paper.


 * MSN Live Messanger** - joined this


 * WikiSpaces** - I had a vague idea of what a wiki was all about (from Wikipedia and work), but I need to see more examples of "personal" wiki's to get a better understanding of what these are all about. www.wikispaces.com


 * Gizmos** - I signed up for a trial at Explore Learning.com today and watched the intro video. I also played with a gizmo for dividing fractions, which gave me some good ideas for my lesson plan topic. Will definitely look at more Gizmos. [|www.explorelearning.com]

Great tool for making web-based audio-supported on-screen videos. Made a video of a Minds-ON activity. Also did a voice over of my ICT Prezi presentation. [|www.TechSmith.com/Jing]
 * Jing**

Cool tool for making fancy looking "splash screen" presentations. But the features and functionality are limited. [|www.prezi.com]
 * Prezi**

This site is really cool for taking instant polls - assuming audience has access to internet. [|www.polleverywhere.com]
 * Polleverywhere.com**

Of course, I've used Powerpoint since it was first released, but I found that you can create some very dynamic presentation effects slide templates. And you can download good starting templates from the help menu
 * PowerPoint**

Not sure about this one yet. I played with the demos and wasn't really impressed. The intent seems to be geared towards histogram type data. Being able to surround a chart with text like a brochure is nice, but in general I think you might be better off with Excel.
 * TinkerPlots**

Aha - now I understand two keys: You can drag any attribute onto either axis The colour shading of the data points on the graph represents a third attribute.

I made a couple of simple boards for my Minds-ON activity & video, and I was quite disappointed with the clunkiness of the drawing graphics tools. Really not up to par, but I need to play some more too.
 * SmartNote**

Greg offered that bringing up One Note is a good shortcut to using the board effectively, but simplistically without using the SmartNote interfaces. Apparently the drawing tools in One Note are better than those of Word, which I already think are quite good.

I did some more work with SmartNote. You get used to the clunkiness of the graphics - but geezus kriste it's 2010 people! It should be better than this!

[]
 * Online Geoboards**

[]
 * Online Algebra Tiles**

A cloud program for developing mind maps and flowcharts. The Lite version seems almost useless. Otherwise a basic tool, with a few too many bugs for my liking. Still can't imagine why our laptops weren't installed with MS Visio. I've never been a Visio fan (I don't think anyone proficient in AutoCAD can be a fan of Visio), but it seems like a real SNAFU to give us Access and not Visio. []
 * CMaps**

Okay, so now I can make simple html webpages, thanks to our ICT course. The most disappointing thing about Dreamweaver is that "What you see is NOT what you get". The programmers would probably argue that they are limited by html, but I counter that **It is 2010 for Godsake**! Not good enough. (Chalk one up for practising assessment!)
 * Adobe Dreamweaver:**

Originally this was introduced to me as a way to synchronize work on "workplace" and "home" computers. If there's one thing that I learned in 17years of engineering practice it is that they don't pay me enough to take my work home with me! As such, I didn't see much use in DropBox, for myself anyway. However, I have now learned that it's a great way for partners or groups to share collaborative work. DropBox sets up an automatically synchronizing folder where you can keep your collaborative work. This way, everyone has access to the "latest" without having to email stuff around. Pretty cool. [|www.dropbox.com]
 * DropBox:**


 * Youtube Accessories**

[|keepvid.com] - the perfect way to download a youtube movie so that you can play it off your laptop with no internet.