Inside this issue:

Canastota Central School’s Technology Newsletter

Well Connected! VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3

FEBRUARY 2011

“The web is a world of pure

connection, free of the arbitrary constraints of matter,

distance and time.”

~David Weinberger, technologist, author

The Numbers Tell The Story

35 - the number of hours of video up-loaded to YouTube every sixty seconds. (mashable.com)

8.25 million - number of iPads sold so far (cnn.com)

1.6 million - the number of accidents caused each year by the use of cell phones (National Safety Council)

1,540 - the average number of photos you

can fit on a 4G memory card with a 10

Megapixel camera, and an image size

of 3648x2736

(sdcard.org)

Why Educators Need to Embrace Internet Technologies

Reason #1 - Professional Development. As the world continues

to embrace and evolve the Internet, businesses and organizations are

increasingly looking for ways to tap into this resource. It is in the

best interest of educators, and professionals in general, to be aware

of what the Internet has to offer. We can choose to sit back and wish

it would all just go away because it’s too hard to find the time for it,

or we can choose to embrace it, and look for ways to learn more about it. Another unavoidable fact is the growing desire for experi-

ence and familiarity with the Internet and other computer technolo-

gies as a hiring requirement in the educational field.

Reason #2 - The Power To Engage. Internet tools can be fun

and interactive! What a great way to engage students in the class-

room. Many of the tools are collaborative, and they are all hands-on.

Applications that allow for the creation of cool looking timelines, vid-

eos, or other dynamic presentations can be a lot of fun, and when a

student realizes that they can easily make the resulting creation avail-able for viewing on the Internet, it can be pretty exciting!

Reason #3 - Students Use Them Already. “Meet them where

they live!” We’ve all heard this, and there is a solid undercurrent of

wisdom in it. Many students use Internet tools on a regular basis. If

you use some of them in your classroom, you will be talking to them in their language. And for those who have not been exposed to a given

technology, you’ll be teaching them something they are predisposed

to learning more about.

Reason #4 - It’s Not Going To Go Away (It Will Only

Grow). The Internet is here to stay. For a long time “average us-

ers” have had access to the Internet, and we’re now knee deep in the Social Media revolution that has defined Web 2.0. It isn’t a fad. It’s

already woven into the fabric of the daily lives of millions of people.

There are countless ways in which the multitude of tools and tech-

nologies available on the Internet are being used in wonderfully con-

structive ways. Be a part of it and contribute your voice. Encourage

your students to do the same.

Reason #5 - Businesses Want to Hire Workers Who Under-

stand The Internet If you introduce your students to technologies like Blogs, RSS Feeds,

Wikis, and so on, you will be helping to build their resume. Busi-

nesses and organizations are more interested in these types of tools

every day. They’re thinking about how to get on board and get ahead

of the curve, and how theses tools can offer value in the workplace.

Blogs are being used to provide updates about new developments,

Wikis are used as knowledge bases, RSS Feeds are being used to cap-

ture a steady stream of information about topics of interest, Social

Bookmarking tools are being used for research, and the list goes on and on. Name any Internet technology, and there is a growing list of

business applications for it. www.emergingtech.com

Why Educators Should Embrace Technology 1

The Numbers Tell the Story 1

Just for Fun Websites 2

Why Multi-Tasking Can’t Work 2

GroupWise Tip 2

Web Tools 2

SMARTBoard 3

Microsoft Word Tips 4

Teachers on Target 6

History of the Internet 5

Poetry Writer 5

Mac Tips 6

WELL CONNECTED! Page 2

GroupWise Tip:

You can use GroupWise to store files without having

to email them to yourself. Here’s how:

Choose a folder from the left-hand pane where you’d like to store the new document (I use the Documents folder).

Click on File/New from top menu, then choose Document. Follow the prompts to upload and store your document. (Select a file should be the default. If not, choose that option.)

When you get to "Document Subject," what

you enter will show as the subject line of in your GroupWise window..

Your document is now available wherever you have email access.

Just for fun… http://www.glancely.com/ - a cool visual shopping site http://www.goodtyping.com/ - free online typing course, in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Ger-man or even Portuguese! http://www.eightprinciples.com/ - discover the eight principles of fun http://www.kidchess.com/gamestoplay.html - learn to play chess online http://www.interestingfacts.org/ - interesting and sometimes strange facts You can't learn what you don't

pay attention to.

~Jeff King, TCU’s Koehler

Center for Teaching Excellence

“You can’t do two things at once that require using the same part of your

brain, especially if what you’re trying

to do is take in, manipulate, or store information. Prove it to yourself: think right now about two completely differ-

ent things at the same time, like your last vacation and

what you had for lunch yesterday.” “You can’t think

about them both at the same time, instead you’re actually switching back and forth between the two. Thus, not

really concentrating on, or understanding, either one.”

Read more about this “mental brown-out” at:

http://fno.org/jan2011/brownout.html

Wouldn't it be great if you could take pieces of your

favorite web sites and put them on your desktop?

Things like that auction you've got your eye on, your

web mail's inbox, or even that search box you're al-ways using. Snippage lets you do just that.

http://snippage.gabocorp.com/

http://www.videosprout.com/

VideoSprout lets you share videos, with whoever

you want, privately! The only people who can see

your video are the ones you send it to

Page 3 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3

Come share your “SMART” ideas!

We’re excited to report that in our recent

technology survey several staff members

expressed an interest in joining a

SMARTBoard Users’ Group!

So, we’re going to create a group and once a

month we’ll get together to share ideas and

help new users. Everyone is welcome to join us

and check out the amazing things you can do

with this exciting technology.

In the meantime, check out the resources

assembled on Canastota’s

technology webpage.

Questions/Suggestions? Email

Margaret McNamara

http://www.eduplace.com/edugames.html

This website, created by Houghton Mifflin,

contains many different interactive fun games in proof-reading, close activi-ties, vocabulary, and

letter patterns.

Tips for a SMARTer

classroom!

http://www.transum.org/

Software/SW/index.asp

A collection of awesome

Math activities!

Page

http://www.biology4kids.com/

Add a pull tab to every slide when develop-

ing a new lesson using the Lesson Activity

Kit. These little tabs allow a teacher to

quickly pull in supporting information

without the need to change screens.

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/calculator/

Use this free talking calculator with your

SMARTBoard Math activity!

Using the pens, write on the board. Replace the pens and

move the text around with your finger. This is really

good when brainstorming. You can group, sequence or

order your annotations.

Tap the writing once to create a box with a drop down

menu. This menu will allow you to change any hand-

written annotation into text.

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3 Page 4

Word Count in MS Word

Need to know how many times a particular word

appears in a document? Here's a handy trick that

will tell you the count, using a tool with which you

are likely already familiar.

1. If you want to count only in a particular area of your

document, select the text you want included in the count. Otherwise Word will check the entire document.

2. Press Ctrl+H, or choose Replace from the Edit menu. Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and

Replace dialog box.

3. In the Find What box, enter the word you want to

count.

4. In the Replace With box, enter the same word.

5. Click Replace All.

Follow the steps below to create a screenshot is

Microsoft Office:

You can capture your entire screen or just a single dialog

box. You can simply click the Print Screen button on your keyboard to capture the entire screen or ALT + Print Screen

to capture the active window or dialog box.

Paste the captured screen into your document by

right clicking and choosing paste, or by clicking CTRL + V.

“Teachers need to stop saying,

„Hand it in,‟ and start saying

„Publish It.‟”

~Alan November,

author and education consultant

Format Painter

Let’s say you’ve formatted some text within your document and now

you want to apply the same formatting somewhere else. It can be

difficult to remember what font, size, color, etc. you used. The good

news is you don’t have to! You can use the Format Painter.

Instead of manually applying the font, font effects, centered para-

graph alignment, and other formatting tools to each new section, you

can quickly copy all of the formatting attributes by using one toolbar

button. You’ll find the Format Painter tool in your standard toolbar. (The Format Painter tool looks like a

paintbrush on your Standard toolbar.)

To do this, simply highlight the text you want to copy. Then, click Format Painter, and select the text you

want to apply the formatting to. The text takes on the new formatting.

Word replaces all occurrences of the word with itself, so there really are no changes done to your document. How-

ever, a dialog box appears that indicates how many changes

were performed; this is your word count.

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3 Page 5

Teachers on Target provides teachers with

activities that are designed to build connections

with colleagues, students, and “ones professional-

ism.” These professional development activities

work to meet such objectives as “improving

teaching competence, building great collegiality,

understanding and appreciating the art of teach-

ing, and discovering the interplay of self, career

and professionalism.”

http://www.teachersontarget.com

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsf-net/

Explore the history of the Internet with the

National Science Foundation.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/

poetry/flash_pie.htm

Online poetry creator-great for use with

your SMARTBoard!

Thinking about buying an eReader? Check out this comparison chart first.

http://www.wireless-reading-device.net/ebook-reader-comparison-chart

Page 6 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3

Using the Faces Feature in iPhoto to Automatically Identify People in Your Photos. Begin by clicking on any photograph with a person in it. Photos where you can see a person's whole face will work best for the initial setup.

In iPhoto, click on the "Name" icon in the bottom left corner of your window. Then, click on the box that says "Unknown Face."

Click on the area with the text "Unnamed" and enter in the name of the person in the photograph. Repeat this task a couple times for each person. Two to three identifica-tions of the same person should be enough for Faces to recognize this per-son. Occasionally, iPhoto will ask if the face it identified is a specific person. You can either accept or reject this identification by clicking the check mark or the "x" respectively.

You can identify a face that iPhoto missed by clicking on the "Add Missing Face" button in the

bottom left corner of your window. Drag the square around the face of the person who hasn't been identified by iPhoto and click "Done." Name the

person as you did in Step 5.

To confirm the same face in other photos: Click on "Faces" on the left-hand side of the iPhoto window. Double-click one of the people you just identified. Click on the "Confirm Name" button on the bottom of the window. Click once on "Click to confirm" on

the photos that match the person you selected . The more you do this, the more easily iPhoto will automatically recognize the majority of the people in your photos!

There’s an

App For

That!

Learn to play the piano anytime and anywhere.

Virtuoso Piano 3 is the perfect free piano to learn the basics of

music or just having fun.

Easy as a toy, accurate as a professional instrument.