Friday, March 30, 2012

World Backup Day - make sure your data and files are backed up!


CopyBackupFiles Want to backup files? Here are 8 free web applications that can help you

Tomorrow is World Backup Day!

Everyone needs to have their files backed up. It is very easy to have your flash drive, hard drive, or computer crash, get damaged, or have your flash drive or laptop get lost or stolen. And it always happens at the worst possible time.

There are many different ways to backup your files. You can use an external hard drive, backup to a flash drive, or backup your files to the cloud. I use a mixture of both.

1. External Hard Drive - an external hard drive is a great way to back up your files locally. This proves very useful if your computer goes down and you have no internet. Many of them come with software build in to set up automatic backups and Windows and Mac have automatic backup apps. You can even make an image of your hard drive so that you don't have to reinstall software if you need to start from scratch.

2. Flash Drive - a flash drive can also be used for backup, but they are more expensive than hard drives for similar storage capacities. I do use a flash drive as a backup at school of my main files.

3. Cloud based backup - this is my favorite way to backup my files because it is automatic, free, and I can sync my files to multiple computers which means I have access to them locally. They also allow me to access my files from any computer, or even smartphone, via the web (and smartphone apps).There are many different ones available. They all have some sort of free plan and many allow you to get extra free memory through referrals. Here are a few of my favorites:




Dropbox is a service that allows you to sync your files on your computer with their system as a backup. This also allows you to access the files anywhere. You can also sync the files across multiple computers. This means that you have automatic backup of your files and 24/7 access to your files. I have it set up to sync a folder on my home computer, wife's computer and school computer so I don't have to worry about having multiple versions or forgetting a flash drive.

There are also Dropbox apps for iPhone, Android, iPad, webOS and Blackberry. You can also access the mobile site from any web-enabled phone. Imagine being able to access all of your files on your smartphone!

You can also share files with others. I teach EMS classes (EMT and Paramedic) and the course coordinator shares files on it with instructors through one folder and students in another folder. It makes things very easy for all of us.

Dropbox is a great service for teachers and students. Access to all of your files anywhere, backup of your files, and the ability to share files.



SugarSync - Sugarsync is another powerful sync and backup service. You can have it back up your files on their server, and sync the files among multiple computers. So, my files on my home computer are synced to my laptop and my school computer. You can also access these files through any web browser, and there are apps for smart phones. You can even access them with a mobile web browser if you don't have an app. You get 5GB for free and there are fee based plans with more storage. I can access my files anywhere, on any device, which makes it very convenient. You select the directories that you want to be backed up. The "Magic Briefcase" is the directory or folder you pick to be automatically backed up and synced. As soon as I save a file to that directory, it is uploaded to their servers.

The Websync feature is also nice. If you are accessing your files through the website, you can select "Edit with websync" and a Java program will download a temp copy of your file, allow you to edit and save it and then upload the new version. You can also share files with others through email or the web.

Sugarsync came in very handy for my wife. 1 week after setting it up on her computer, her hard drive died. Completely dead and no data was recoverable. If it wasn't for Sugarsync, she would have lost over 2 weeks of work (since her last backup). The automatic sync and backup is wonderful.



Box - is similar to the others. The free version only has 5GB of storage, and you can purchase more storage.  Box has been giving out free 50GB accounts to many people (HP TouchPad, iOS 5) too. The only downside is that the free version does not sync your files. 




Mozy.com is another online file storage, sync, and backup service that offers a 2GB free account. I haven't used it, but it seems to work the same as the others.







Uploadingit is another file sharing and syncing service that I found. It has free and fee-based plans, allowing you to upload, sync, and share files.

The file manager works like a desktop app and is simple to use. You can upload multiple files at once, drag and drop, move, rename, and organize files and folders.

The free plan offers 10GB of space and 10GB of daily bandwidth. It does have a 200MB max file size limit and advertisements, but it's free. You can upgrade to paid plans to increase disk space, bandwidth, get rid of ads, ability to hotlink files, and also increase your priority download.

It is another, free file syncing and sharing service that is very useful for teachers and students.

Google Docs - you can upload any type of file (up to 250MB each) and you get 1GB of storage free. You can purchase additional storage at $0.25/GB/year, which is a good deal. There is no automatic sync built in. There are some 3rd party applications that you can use (like GDocBackup, which I use.) It doesn't sync to your desktop or backup automatically, but it is still very useful. 



Amazon Cloud Drive is another way to back up your files. You get 5GB of free storage, but it does not sync your files, it is just on online storage service. 




CX is a new file sync, share and backup service, similar to Dropbox or Sugarsync that I just learned about from the Education Technology Blog.

CX allows you to backup your files, sync them across multiple devices, share your files and collaborate on them with others, and even discover new ideas and friends.

A free account starts off at 10GB of storage, which is more that the other services offer. Like the other services, you can earn more storage for referring others to sign up (to a maximum of 16GB). There are also paid plans with more storage (50GB, 100GB and custom amounts).

It is currently available for iOS and Android is coming soon. No mention of other mobile OS's.

What is unique is that every file you share has a comment system so you can share it and collaborate with others on it.




Pogoplug, a company that already has streaming and sharing devices, announced a new service: Pogoplug Cloud.

The Pogoplug Cloud service provides 5GB of free storage and allows users to store their files online. They can then access, share, or stream the content from their mobile device. You sign up directly from any mobile phone, web browser, or tablet. You can purchase additional online storage also. 50GB is $9.95 per month and 100GB is $19.95 per month. Pricing is similar to many other cloud storage systems.

One thing that is different is that you can host a private, unlimited cloud for no monthly fees by purchasing a Pogoplug box ($99) and connecting it to your network.

Pogoplug will automatically upload photos and videos from your mobile phone to your Pogoplug cloud with no syncing required. (I have Sugarsync set up to do this on my Android phone). You can share anything in your cloud through email, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and even create shared folders. You can also stream videos, photos, and musics to your phone.

There are free apps for iOS and Android.





SpiderOak.com - Online Backup, Storage, Sharing and Sync


SpiderOak is another free backup, sync, sharing and storage system. It works on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

There is a free 2GB account and you can earn up to 50GB of free storage by referring friends.

It's another great way to make sure that your files are backed up and available to you any where.






I do a lot of work online and in the cloud and find it very convenient and useful to do so. But, I also know that there can be internet connection issues and those cloud services can crash or have problems so I backup all of my cloud based data to my computer too.


I use Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Sites, Blogger, iGoogleEvernote, Aviary and more. Web based computing allows me to have access to my data and files anywhere that I can get internet access, including on my smart phone. It also allows me to share data and information with others. I also like web based apps and data because it is platform independent - Windows, Linux, Mac - it doesn't matter. The web based apps also, in my experience, seem to run better on older, slower computers than native applications.

I'm also a believer in being prepared and having backups of my data. The services I use have great data centers and backup, but sometimes their servers go down, and sometimes I may not be able to get internet access.

I backup all of my work and data in multiple places so that I always have access to it, even without an internet connection. Here's what and how I do:

Google Docs - I use GDocBackup to backup my Google Docs. I also have Google Gears installed so my files are synced with my computer that way too. You can also export your Google Docs to your hard drive.

Evernote - I have Evernote's desktop application at home so all of my notes are backed up on my home computer. I also export the data once a week to an html and txt file for backup.

Google Products - I also export my Blogger blogs, iGoogle Settings, Google Reader subscriptions, Calendar, email, tasks, and bookmarks once a week as a back up. For each of them, go to settings and look for the export command. Here's more information on how to export data from Google's services.
(I use Google Chrome so my bookmarks are synced between my two computers.)

Google Sites - I use HTTrack Website Copier to make a backup of my website.

All of the backup files are in a directory that is automatically backed up to SugarSync and then kept in sync on both my school and home computers. Sugarsync does this automatically, so it is no effort for me. I also have really, really important data (financial, digitized paper records, etc) on a flash drive in my fireproof safe. Just in case.

My Android smart phone automatically syncs with my Google Calendar, Google Contacts and other Google services and I have my Evernote notebooks synced to it as well. I can also access all of my files on the cloud services through my smartphone.

This may all sound like overkill to some people, but I feel more comfortable knowing that my data is safe, backed up, and easily accessible. 





Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Free Teacher Guides from Microsoft - great resources


Microsoft

Microsoft has some great Teacher Guides available for free. The guides have teaching tips and step-by-step instructions on a variety of topics and tools and technologies.

The guides are all free and downloadable in PDF form.

Topics include: Critical Thinking in web searches, Windows Movie Maker, Free tools from Microsoft, Digital Storytelling, Microsoft Office, web apps, OneNote, Bing and Mathematics, and Accessibility in the Classroom.

The guides are easy to use and read and a great resource.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/guides/Pages/index.aspx











NASA Rockets Educator Guide - updated and free - great resource



NASA is an excellent resource for educators with sites, lesson resources, and more available.

One of the resources I really like, and use each year, is the Rockets Educator Guide. NASA has recently updated it with some new information and materials. It's available as a free PDF download here.


Cover of the Rockets Educator Guide+

The NASA - The Rockets Educator Guide includes lesson plans and activity ideas. This guide has some great activities like rockets using film canisters, baking soda, and vinegar, paper rockets, altitude trackers and more. There is even a part on the history of rockets.

I use this at the end of the year in a project on Rockets, combining topics from throughout the year in a fun project.

Here's more on the project: http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/05/rockets-great-project-for-end-of-year.html


More NASA Resources:

Quickly find free NASA educational resources
Here are a lot more great, free Educational Resources from NASA






PDF - interesting infographic and lots of resources for using them



PDF, Portable Document Format, files are ubiquitous. They are everywhere. They are a great way to share and publish files since they can be locked, watermarked, and viewed on pretty much any device or OS. Most office suites allow you to save files as PDF formats and there are some other great tools for creating them.

Here are some great resources for working with PDF files and an infographic about PDF files and the format.

Lots of PDF resources - print, markup, convert and more

PDFBinder - simple tool to merge PDF documents into one

BabyPDF - Edit PDF documents for free
Crocodoc - markup PDF files for free

Fill Any PDF form - fill out, sign and send forms

I Love PDF - merge or split PDF files

Adobe Digital School Collection - supporting creativity and digital literacy - includes Adobe Acrobat for creating PDF files














Google Summer of Code Student Internships applications open


Google Summer of Code


Google is once again hosting a summer internship for students called "Summer of Code." It is a paid internship for students who will work on open source projects. Organizations submit proposals for projects, students apply to work on those projects and then Google gets them connected to code over the summer. Student applications are now open with a deadline of April 6th. There are 180 projects for students to chose from. 



More information is available here:


Evernote Android App gets Speech-to-text built in



Evernote, one of my favorite and most useful apps, has an update for Evernote's Android app that now includes Speech-to-text. The speech recognition allows you speak and the app will create text into the note. This is also a great way to have transcribed notes without the transcriptionist.

This can also be useful for students and teachers as a learning tool, note taking, and even for students with disabilities to be able to take notes by voice instead of by hand.


The Evernote blogs says it only works on Android 4.0 (ICS) and some other devices, but it works great on my Droid Incredible 2 running Android 2.3.4. I dictated a few notes and it only had one error out of a full paragraph (it missed one letter).

You can get the updated app in Google Play

Source: Evernote Blog: http://blog.evernote.com/2012/03/27/evernote-for-android-update-speech-to-text-and-big-widget-enhancements/


Related:

Evernote for Educators - resources for getting started and using Evernote in Education

Android Smartphone and Apps I use as an educator

Android for Education resources and apps









Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Glogster Earth Day Contest - great education project with prizes


Glogster EDU

Glogster Edu and the Go Green Initiative are hosting an Earth Day Contest. The challenge is to investigate the water, energy and food systems in your community and come up with ideas to make those systems greener or more sustainable and create a Glog with text, images, audio and video.

The contest includes $2500 in cash prizes for students and $7000 in prizes for classrooms and schools. Prizes include a FlipCam, organic garden, full-service BBQ, stagecoach ride and more.

Entries must be submitted by Earth Day, April 22, 2012. Entry is free and open to all K-12 students.
Contest page: http://edu.glogster.com/contest/Go-Green-Initiative-Earth-Day-Contest/

Join now!




Related:

Glogster - multimedia tool that's great for educators and students

Great Earth Day Resources for Educators






Three Ring - free app to create educational portfolios of student work



Three Ring is a free app for Android or iOS that allows teachers to quickly digitize and organize student work into portfolios. You use the app to create the digital portfolio (take a picture) and then the photos are uploaded to the Three Ring site where you can organize the student work, create digital portfolios, share work and examples, and even use it for formative assessment. You can even tag the photos before you upload for easier organization.

This is a great resource for teachers to use to collect and organize student work.

Google Play Android Market: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.threering.threering
Apple App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/three-ring/id504311049


Take a picture with the app...
...and find it stored on the website, where you can sort and share it.


Source: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Related:

Android for Education resources and apps

Android Smartphone and Apps I use as an educator


Using Evernote for ePortfolios - great idea

OrangeBook - easily create online portfolios of student work








Free Science Fiction Classics on the Web (books and audio)




OpenCulture, a great resource for lots of things, has a great list of free science fiction classics available online, in both text and audio formats. 

The books include classics from Asimov, Huxley, Orwell, Orson Welles, and even the Chronicles of Narnia.

This is a great resource for teachers and students to get free copies of the books, and the audio books can help ELL and struggling readers.




Related:

Other resources from Open Culture





National Geographic releases images of Titanic site




National Geographic has released new images of the wreckage site of the RMS Titanic. The images are mosaics, made up of thousands of images from sonar and photos, in high res. It shows everything as a whole, versus small individual areas.

The images are available in the print edition of National Geographic, on their website, or in the iPad edition of the magazine.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/04/titanic/titanic-photography

These images are a great resource for teachers and students studying the tragedy.


At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the “unsinkable” R.M.S. Titanicdisappeared beneath the waves, taking with her 1,500 souls. One hundred years later, new technologies have revealed the most complete—and most intimate—images of the famous wreck.


Photo: The ghostly bow of the Titanic





Source: The Verge




Related:

Wind Power interactive - great resource from NatGeo

National Geographic Education - teacher resources

Sea Monsters - Nat Geo - ancient sea creatures

Animal Facts from Nat Geo - great resource





Hojoki - make all your cloud apps work together - very cool & free



Hojoki is a new service I just learned about from the Hojoki team. It's a very cool idea - it takes all of your online productivity apps and turns them into a newsfeed and collaborative space to work on projects.

I played with it a little today and will be using it more this week. It looks like something that could be very useful for education.

It' is in Beta now and free and there will always be a free plan available.

Here's more information and a video about it:






Teachers utilizing the cloud: Hojoki is your collaborative newsfeed for Google Docs, Calendar, Dropbox, Evernote and more

Hojoki’s basic idea is very simple: they offer one newsfeed for productivity apps. It connects to apps like Google Documents, Evernote, Dropbox, Mendeley and Google Calendar, building you a newsfeed and a collaborative space for your work.

Anytime an activity in any of your connected apps occurs, Hojoki informs you. You can share your activities with others in workspaces, where you can discuss events and manage whatever projects you’re working on. You never miss important changes from co-workers and have all your content in one place.





Why this is so interesting for Teachers?
Some of the tools Hojoki integrates are very powerful and established tools for education:

Google Documents for classroom collaboration
Google Calendar to share calendars with colleagues and classes
Dropbox for sharing and syncing files
Evernote with lot’s of uses prior, during and after class
If you and your colleagues use more than one of those tools, you know the problem. It’s almost impossible to manage communication and collaboration across all the apps efficiently. So both teachers and students spend a lot of time logging into lots of tools, checking for updates and informing each other on changes and updates.

Hojoki solves that fragmentation problem as it brings all the tools and all people involved in one browser tab and allows the creation of workspaces for collaboration.


How to use Hojoki in Education
Hojoki brings teachers and students and, most importantly, their tools together on one page. Here are three suggestions from the Hojoki team for educational use:

Creating and sharing teaching materials    
When creating and sharing teaching materials, teachers often use Google Docs, Dropbox and Evernote. As long as everyone is using the same app, everything is fine. But as soon as content spreads across apps, things become confusing. Everyone needs to log in, check frequently for changes and give feedback on other channels, like email. With Hojoki, you can connect all relevant content from lots of apps to a workspace to get instantly notified if someone updated or added something. Besides that, you get a full searchable history of changes in your teaching materials. Here’s an infographic that shows a typical workflow in Hojoki: http://blog.hojoki.com/post/20002424193/teaching-in-the-cloud-infographic


Online Classrooms
If you share and update content from Dropbox, Evernote and Google Docs on a regular basis for a class, create a workspace with your students in Hojoki and add the relevant content. By doing this, Hojoki shows every activity as a newsfeed - who updated a document in Google Docs, created a note in Evernote or uploaded a file to Dropbox. Hojoki connects even to Google Calendar to view class events. Everyone in the classroom workspace can comment immediately and discuss issues. Hojoki saves time by making it easy and keeps everything in one place, so over time you get a fully searchable knowledge base on top of your tools.

Supervision
Workspaces also work great to provide supervision on writing and student projects which utilize more than one cloud app. Teachers can keep informed on the progress of either one student or a group of students. Students get instant feedback and guidance from their teachers and that extra boost in motivation. ;)



Hojoki www.hojoki.com is free, so give it a try!  http://hojoki.com/  









Saturday, March 24, 2012

Most popular posts on Ed Tech Guy this past week





The last week has had wonderful weather here in Connecticut, with temperatures hitting 70, with a beautiful breeze. It's going to get chilly again next week, but it was a nice break to have the great weather.

State testing is also done (yeah! now we can get back to learning).

Here are the most read posts from the past week: (and don't forget to check out the posts from Friday. They don't usually have time to get to most read status.)

Have a great weekend!

1. Real World Math - ideas for using Google Earth in math class

2. TED Launches TED-Ed "education lessons worth sharing"

3. Knovio - turn PowerPoint presentation into multimedia video

4. Ahead - create zooming multimedia presentations

5. Free Animated Tutorials for Science Classes

6. Interactive Biology - free videos, quizzes and study guides on Biology

7. Why I'm a Teacher and what I like and dislike about it

8. Edcamp - teacher run, awesome, free educational conferences

9. Free Project Based Learning resource available

10. Jog the Web - create webquest-like guides to web pages




Don't forget to check out the permanent pages at the top of the site too!





I am also available to speak at your school or conference and to run professional development sessions. 


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Friday, March 23, 2012

Pearltree - Ben's Guide to US Government - great resource for K12



Pearltrees is a great, free site I wrote about in January that lets you organize web content in a visual pattern. There is a Chrome browser extension that makes it easy to add sites to your tree. Trees can be shared and even worked on collaboratively.

A member of my PLN (sorry, can't remember who now and I forgot to make a note of it) just shared a great Pearltree: "Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government for Kids."

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids


The resources are sorted by grades: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 and there is a page about Ben and a Parent and Educator section. Each section has information, links and resources about the US Government. This is a great resource for anyone teaching, or learning, about the US Government and how it works. 

Here's the main page for 9-12:



This is a great example of how a tool like Pearltrees can be used to create educational resources for students (or even have students create them as a project)








Guest Post - Using Pinterest in the Classroom


 

This Guest Post is by Samantha Peters, who runs theeducationupdate.com and enjoys writing about new ways for teachers can use Pinterest and other social media platforms to enhance learning in the classroom.

Pinterest is the newest member to arrive on to the social media scene, and it has taken social media users by storm – quickly becoming one of the most popular social media platforms today. However, this site is not solely to be seen by educators as yet another classroom distraction. Pinterest can actually be highly beneficial for a number of reasons:



Lesson Supplements
Students learn in a wide variety of ways, and many learn best when the lesson is interactive. When covering certain topics, whether it be World History or Trigonometry, use Pinterest to post lesson supplements. If you find articles, stories, or YouTube videos that will help students further grasp lessons, Pin them to that lesson's Board so that they have access to tools that will help them supplement their education.
Current Events
Several large news and information sites, including the Wall Street Journal and National Geographic, are members of Pinterest, and have active boards. Simply by choosing to follow them, you can keep your class easily up to date on the most recent breaking stories and finds. These stories can then be used to prompt further classroom discussions or debates, and even lead in to larger projects.
If you are teaching higher level courses, such as those for college students, you can post Pins and have students comment below to create an online discussion board.
Project Ideas
If your students are struggling with project ideas, Pinterest is a great place to go. Create a board on Pinterest exclusively for classroom projects with several Pins of different project ideas. Your students will be able to actually see previous projects, and get a better understanding of what you are looking for and what they can do to create a successful project.
Accountability
If you are wondering whether or not students are staying on top of their individual or group projects, don't ask for the generic written report. Instead, have each group create a Pinterest account and then post research that they have found, as well as any pictures and project ideas, to their Boards so that you can actually watch their progress, offer criticism when necessary, and make sure that they are using credible sources.
The aforementioned are just a few of the numerous ways an educator, whether they teach 8th grade at a Los Angeles junior high or 19th Century History at a Miami community college, can use Pinterest to further engage their students in the classroom. The highly iconic nature of the site sets it aside from other social media platforms, and makes it a pleasure for students to use. So if you are looking for another way to refocus your students, consider bringing Pinterest into the classroom.



Related:


Social Media in Education - connect, share, learn, communicate and more

Popplet - online presentation, mindmapping, and bulletin board

Water Planet Challenge - classroom resources for teaching about water and the environment



Yesterday was World Water Day and I posted about that and some resources for teaching about water in the classroom/

Water Planet Challenge is another great resource for teaching about water and water conservation and how to improve the health of the environment. The site has information and resources to help teachers inspire and encourage students to care about our water planet. The materials are geared towards middle and high school students.

The site teaches about water conservation and the environment and has action steps that students can do to not only learn about these topics, but actually start to help conserve water and clean up the environment. 

There are great teacher resources and lesson and activity ideas and guides and there are also grants available to help teachers implement the lessons. Lesson resources include videos and links to other resources. 





Sponsors of the site include Toyota USA Foundation, the NEA Foundation, and Discovery Education

PhET - excellent, free, virtual labs and simulations for science - new materials available





PhET is an awesome resource from the University of Colorado at Boulder. The site has interactive simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math that teachers and students can use.

The simulations can be run on the site or downloaded. The simulations are accurate and real and can help students learn concepts in more depth. They are easy and fun to use, and really do demonstrate the concepts well. In the physics ones I use, a big benefit is that students can quickly and easily change variables and conditions and then see what happens. This is very hard and time consuming in many hands on labs. Students can also visualize things that are hard to see in a hands-on lab, such as magnetic field lines, and electron flow.

The simulations are also a great alternative to live labs if you don't have the resources available. Some of the simulations are better than any hands on lab because the students can truly see and understand what is happening.

You can search by topic, grade level, or just see the newest ones added. There are teacher resources for many of the simulations. Teachers who use the simulations post lesson plans and resources to the site for others to use also. These teacher created lesson plans and lab sheets are excellent and free for all to use.

I use the Physics simulations in my classroom and they work great. This is one of those sites that every science and math teacher needs to check out.

Here's a list of some of the new simulations they have and there are more simulations, and resources, being added all the time.







Panoramic Views of 7 Wonders of the World - great education resource



Panoramic Views of 7 Wonders of the World is a great resource for sharing these great places with students. The panoramic views are wonderful and very easy to use on your computer. You can change your view just by moving your cursor around.

Each image only takes about 30 sec to load and then you are ready to go.

This is a great way to show students some wonderful things in the world without having to go through airport security (or take out a 2nd mortgage for the trip).


Thursday, March 22, 2012

Jonathan Bird's Blue World - award winning educational program on oceans updated





Jonathan Bird's Blue World is an Emmy award winning educational program that explores the wonders of the world's oceans.

The program airs on public television, but the website also has webisodes on the site for you to view. They also have an educators' section with study guides for each episode, sea stories and web links. You can even book him to come to your school and do a presentation (for a fee). He is very dynamic and you can see an example of one of his presentations.

They have updated their website and added new science curriculum-based episodes, advanced search, and new functionality for teachers using Blue World in the classroom. 

New segment: Humpback Whales!
Every year, Humpback whales in the North Atlantic make a long migration down to the Caribbean to have their calves in warm, calm water. Many of these whales go to one particular area called the Silver Banks near the Dominican Republic. Jonathan spends a week in the Silver Banks filming whales underwater, and you won't believe how close he gets to the whales, and the exceptional behaviors he observes! Watch now!

Jonathan swims with a Humpback Whale


On a side note, I actually went to college with Jonathan at WPI. He was two years ahead of me, but was in a band with a friend of mine. He's a great guy and it's great to see another engineer doing educational work.



Related:

Explore the Blue - lessons about water for all subjects - from Discovery Education (free resource).

USGS Education Resources - free resources for teachers - including resources about water

Great Earth Day Resources for Educators

NASA Eyes on the Earth - vital signs of the planet










  

Adobe announces Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta free download


Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta 


Today, Adobe announced Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta, a preview of the highly anticipated upcoming version of the industry-leading digital imaging tool. Please help us spread the news by posting about the availability & encouraging downloads. Additionally, we'd love for you to play around with it & share your thoughts on these new features & enhancements.

The beta includes several new features and enhancements that will be shipped as part of the final release slated for the first half of 2012, including:

· An updated, darker UI that makes images pop
· Increased performance, powered by the new Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine, that accelerates results from popular editing tools including Liquify, Puppet Warp, Transform and Lighting Effects
· Content-Aware Patch, which allows greater control by letting users select and duplicate an area of an image to fill in or “patch” another
· Content-Aware Move, which lets users select and magically move an object to a new place in the image

Over the past couple of months, Adobe's been giving out occasional sneaks of new features coming in Adobe Photoshop CS6 and they've made them available in one convenient place: http://blogs.adobe.com/creativelayer/2012/03/16/photoshop-sneak-peeks/#more

“As an educator, enhancements in Adobe Photoshop CS6 including the Mercury Graphics Engine and new Crop Tool make it possible to save valuable classroom time editing so that we can quickly move on to the next project,” said DanArmstrong, graphic arts teacher, Lake City High School. “With Adobe Photoshop CS6, we have moved from usability to enjoyability and I love it!”

Photoshop CS6 Beta is available immediately as a free download on Adobe Labs for Mac OS and Windows – in English and Japanese. At installation, users will be required to provide an Adobe ID to complete a one-time login and online product activation. Beta users can submit feedback via the Photoshop CS6 beta forum.

The Adobe Press Release can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201203/032212AdobePhotoshopCS6Beta.html




Free Animated Tutorials for Science Classes


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Sumanas has some great, free animations for science classes. As you can see from the home page shot above, the categories are wide ranging and include Biology, Chemistry, and even some math. I have used many of them and found them to be very good and nicely designed animations that explain topics well. Some of the topics are pretty advanced and may only be relevant to AP or college courses.

This can be used by the teacher in the classroom or students can be directed here on their own as a study resource.





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