Stephen’s Untold Stories

Another one you must bookmark.

If you’re thinking that all your iPod can do is play music, think again. With a little ingenuity and guidance, you can turn your iPod into just about anything, whether it’s a remote control or a notepad. Read on to find more than 75 tutorials that will walk you through projects that will transform your iPod.

Link to site

In case you haven’t seen it, check out ESPN360.com. You can watch live games online, as well as replays of entire games. Not all Internet providers are compatible, but head on over there and see if yours is. Everything is FREE to watch.

Simply amazing!

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I haven’t used Fireworks much at all in the last few years, but I found this great article that has a lot of extensions for it. I realized that I really need to to revisit this amazing program. I used to teach a class on Fireworks, but interest died down and we stopped offering it. I’m strongly considering adding it back to our schedule after the start of the new year.

The main image editor I use these days is Photoshop Elements, and I absolutely love it. Fireworks is still a more powerful program in many ways, and it is not nearly as expensive as the full version of Photoshop. More on this later.

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Most of you have heard that the Clayton County School District has lost its accreditation. The decision was based not on the performance of the students or teachers, but rather the poor example set by its own school board members. Luckily, the students in the district aren’t going to suffer as badly as once thought.Here is a statement released by our state superintendent.

“I am very saddened that the Clayton County School District has lost its accreditation. My immediate thoughts are with the students, teachers and parents who are directly affected by this decision. The future of many excellent students, especially those in Clayton County high schools, has been thrust into turmoil by the actions of the very people who were elected to look out for their best interests.”

“I fully support Governor Perdue’s decision today to follow Judge Malihi’s ruling to remove four of the Clayton County School Board members. There is now a window of opportunity for the new and remaining board members to seek reinstatement of the district’s accreditation within a year and I hope they will commit themselves to fully addressing all of the concerns raised by SACS. As new members of the Clayton County School Board are seated, it is my hope they will commit to operating in full compliance with the letter and spirit of all local and state rules, laws and regulations.”

“In the meantime, I will work with Governor Perdue, University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll Davis and other leaders around the state to help secure the futures of these students and all who attend Clayton County public schools. We will seek any and all flexibility in state policies and rules to make sure thousands of students are not harmed by the actions of the school board.”

Link to press release

I think I speak for just about everyone who works in education when I say that I hope the school district will get its act together and perform the necessary steps to regain its accreditation.

I even like the name of this service.They also have an interesting philosophy about sharing your material.

e-Socrates.org aims to create the best free Moodle hosting service for everyone who wants to do e-learning activities. If you want to create a course, login or create a new account and fill a course request, you’ll have the full moodle power in your hands, without restrictions of any kind! You’ll also be able track your students subscriptions setting a password for the course enrolment.

When you create a course within e-Socrates you always allow website visitors the right to read your contents, you can prevent them from subscribing as students but you can’t prevent them from accessing the material. This is the only “fee” we ask teachers in change of the free hosting service.

e-Socrates

Anybody tried this one? It looks really nice.

• http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school

Wouldn’t this make out lives easier?

Working off of principles proposed by MIT physicists, Intel researchers have been working on what they’re calling a Wireless Resonant Energy Link. During his keynote, Rattner demonstrated how a 60-watt light bulb can be powered wirelessly and said that doing so requires more power than would be needed to charge a typical laptop.

“Wouldn’t it be neat,” he said in the interview, “if we could really cut the cord and not be burdened with all these heavy batteries, and not worry if you have the charger? If we could transmit power wirelessly, think of all the machines that would become much more efficient.”

Joshua Smith, a principal engineer at Intel, said in a separate interview that the company’s researchers are able to wirelessly power the light bulb at a distance of several feet, with a 70 percent efficiency rate — meaning that 30 percent of the energy is being lost during the power transfer.

Link to article

Well, maybe not. But you can read his diary entries 70 years to the day that he wrote them.

• The Orwell Diaries

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I would encourage any of you teachers out there to consider applying for this one. Note that you do not have to currently have the latest and greatest if equipment. Applications aren’t due until October 12th.

The Best Buy Teach Award program recognizes creative uses of interactive technology in K-12 classrooms. Winning programs focus on kids using technology to learn standards-based curriculum, rather than on teaching students to use technology or educators using technology that children aren’t able to use hands-on. The purpose of the Best Buy Teach Award program is to reward schools for the successful interactive programs they have launched using available technology. Please do not be discouraged from applying if your school does not have the most current equipment.

Get all the details here!

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If you’re a student, you qualify!

• The Ultimate Steal

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Looks like this guy’s site just about has it all.

• Itamar Even-Zohar’s Page on SPEECH RECOGNITION

It’s true!

SimpleAssessment is a revolutionary tool that takes all the guesswork out of assessing student technology proficiency.

Load your students into this student technology assessment tool and the assessment process starts automatically. Each student receives a comprehensive assessment on basic technology literacy. The student technology assessment was designed based on the ISTE NETS for Students and can be completed in about one class period. You’ll be provided with both a Pre- and Post-Assessment so you can track progress throughout the school year.

All student technology assessment data is stored for easy reporting. How many students do you need to assess? 100? 2500? 10,000? No worries. All data is stored securely for your reference at any time, day or night - right at your fingertips. No waiting. The system will also allow you to pull historical data, to compare students from year-to-year.

Link to SimpleAssessment

Our neighbors to the west are now using their XO laptops.

The pilot program, running from April 15 to Sept. 1, began with 1,000 of the group’s $200 laptops for students in Glen Iris Elementary School’s first through fifth grades. After some bureaucratic squabbles, the school board went on to approve the city’s purchase of 14,000 more–funded by taxpayer dollars–with plans to eventually include all 15,000 students in the school system’s first through eighth grades.

Link to article

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Evernote is my favorite so far, but I’ve also used Google Notebook and Zoho NOtebook. They are both very good as well. I wish I had time to check out more of these.

• Top 10 Online Note Taking Applications

It’s always been Coke to me.

Click image for larger version.

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More good news for our state.

Georgia’s ACT scores continued to rise in 2008, even as the national average dropped, according to results released today.

Additionally, high school seniors in Georgia’s three largest subgroups – Caucasian, African-American and Hispanic – outscored their peers across the nation.

Georgia’s composite ACT score rose to 20.6 in 2008, up from 20.3 in 2007. The national average dropped to 21.1, down .1 from 2007. Georgia’s scores also increased in every subject area tested by the ACT – English, Reading, Mathematics and Science — and the state’s national ranking increased to 41st, up from 44th last year and from 47th in 2002.

Link to article

Mashable comes through for educators!

• 35 Tools For Teachers, Tutors and Students

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How many do you use? Only 5 for me.

• 19 Most Essential Open Source Applications

Because everyone needs a Wiki (or two).

• 30+ Solutions to Start Your Own Wiki

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Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA. He also made a ton of money in the technology field.

No matter what year you were born, by the time you finish high school, its a completely different world. Today’s high school seniors were born prior to the World Wide Web, wireless internet, digital phones, and changes in world politics that were never imagined.

Compare the technology, political, social world we live in today, and you realize quickly. None of us are born in to the world we live in.

How true!