QR Codes: It’s Not Just for Geeks!!

Have you seen these black and white bar codes?

They are beginning to appear everywhere. You may have seen them on magazine ads, cereal boxes or even movie posters. QR stands for “quick response” and they’re used in marketing, entertainment, and commercial tracking.

Anyone with a smart phone can download a FREE QR code reader (I like i-nigma) and scan the code. QR codes typically contain web addresses, emails, or other contact information. (And by the way, Angie, you can scan QR codes in print or on the screen!) Try it and find out where this code takes you.  

How can you use QR codes in your classroom?

·   Create QR codes to link to book trailers and paste the QR codes inside the book jacket. Students can use their phones to browse for a good book.

·   Generate QR Codes that link to video tutorials for Math problems, Science labs, etc.

For more ideas view this presentation: http://tinyurl.com/2b4224k

To create a QR Code, visit: http://www.qrstuff.com/

Web Site of the Week:
Flisti is a free online polling site. No registration required.

http://flisti.com/

Tip of the Week:
In PowerPoint 2010, you can “nudge” an object one pixel at a time by selecting ctrl+ any arrow key.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Have you ever taken a photo that needs to be cropped, re-sized, or brightened up a bit? Do red-eyes make you see red? There's a great photo editing program already installed on any computer with Microsoft Office . Here's the catch. If you don't already know about this program, your photos are probably opening in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer which is great for viewing or rotating images but not much else.

It's really easy to change the default image editing program so that your photos always open up in Microsoft Office 2010 (also known as Microsoft Office Picture Manager if you are still using Office 2003 at home).

1. Right-click on any image you have already saved to your computer or an external drive.
2. Choose 'open with'.
3. Drop down to the 'choose program' at the bottom of the list.
4. Choose Microsoft Office 2010 (or Microsoft Office Picture Manager)
5. Make sure the box next to "always use the selected program to open this type of file" is checked.
6. Click OK

You will now be able to crop, rotate, re-size, adjust brightness and contrast, remove red eyes and much more. Click here for an introduction to Microsoft Office Picture Manager

Website of the Week

Bitly.com

Bitly isn't just another URL shortener. Not only can you shorten and share your links, but with Bitly, you can customize the links and track them as well. And as a bonus, Bitly lets you bundle several sites together. Here's my bundle of 16 online photo editors *, just in case you want to be more creative than Microsoft Office Picture Manager allows. Try Bitly today. Signup is free and quick.
*Even though none of these 16 sites are blocked in the district, teachers should evaluate them before recommending to students.

Tip of the Week

Keyboard shortcuts can save you time and frustration. Here are a few for ActivInspire:

Ctrl + U will bring up the Edit Profiles window where you can quickly add tools to you main tool bar.

Ctrl + B will open and close the browsers.

F11 will bring up the dashboard.

Look for other keyboard shortcuts for almost any program by clicking on the file menu, and hovering over the other menus. When a shortcut is available, it will be listed to the right of an option.

No YouTube? No Problem!

You've scoured the internet for an instructional video, and you have found one that's perfect! Unfortunately, the video is on YouTube, which cannot be accessed from the classroom. You could always convert the YouTube video using a site such as Zamzar, but all you really want to be able to do is click and play! Explore these free alternatives to YouTube which provide safe, classroom friendly,  instant access to the video lessons you desire.

School Tube was created specifically for teachers and students to upload, view and share videos. Teachers and students can also create their own classroom channel, too!  Most educational YouTube videos can usually be found on School Tube with a simple search. If the YouTube video isn't on School Tube, no worries! As long as you have the YouTube URL, you can import it into SchoolTube.

 By the end of the year, WatchKnowLearn will have over 50,000 educational videos.The search directory is categorized by title, description, subject and age level, all teacher-guided.

Explore features over 250 original films and 30,000 photo slide shows from around the world with accompanying lesson plans which are written for use in the K – 12 classroom and are connected to grade level national standards. The films and lessons profile the following: environment, education, human rights, public health, philosophy, animal welfare, and also documents world leaders and individuals who have devoted their lives to extraordinary causes. This site is similiar to Discovery Streaming. Teachers can share, embed, and download these videos.

For a complete list of 47 additional YouTube alternatives, click here.

Website of the Week

 Symbaloo is one of  my favorite social bookmarking sites! It allows teachers to create a page of resources, all in one place, for instant access. Student's don't have to copy mulitple URL's. But wait! There's more! Symbaloo is social. There are Twitter, Facebook and YouTube widgets available which allow you to not only post to those sites, but connect with your friends and students to see what links they are recommending! Check out my symbaloo page for Rockin' Technology!

Tip of the Week

Save any file as a PDF file in Office 2010 by going to File, Save As, then in the Save as Type drop down choose PDF.