DVD BurnAway

The DVD BurnAway is a multi-function, portable device which integrates a slim combo DVD/CD recordable disc drive, media player and USB 2.0 card reader. The BurnAway is ideal for transferring data from digital cameras, handheld PC's, and MP3 players.

The DVD BurnAway can be used as a stand alone back-up system to copy data from flash memory cards onto DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD-R and CD-RW discs with the push of a button. The DVD BurnAway easily connects to your television or projector via the included S-Video or RCA cables.

This Week In Space....

Ongoing weekly images of the last frontier....deep space.

This one is of the Auroral displays over Canada from the International Space Station.

Online Storage and Reminders

Access Your Data AnywhereTurns your webmail account into a hard drive with the free GMail Drive extension for Windows (www.viksoe.dk/code/GMail.htm) or GDisk for Macs (gdisk.sourceforge.net).

Free services like YouSendIt Lite (http://www.yousendit.com/) let you store files of up to a gig on their server. Your contacts are emailed a link they can use to retrieve them.

Ping Your Future SelfFutureMe (http://www.futureme.org/) and FutureMail (futuremail.bensinclair.com) send messages at a later time or date. For a recurring alert - "Hey, self, time to mark all those papers!" - try calendar apps from Yahoo or Google.

SchoolTool

An opensource solution that has been developed to help schools with an online administrative infrastructure.


Three different programs to look at: SchoolTool Calendar, SchoolBell, and SchoolTool2006.

Google Analytics

A free solution offered by Google to retrieve information about your website.
"Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site."

Cool iPod Tool

TuneTalk™ Stereo for iPod® with video

With two high-quality omnidirectional microphones, the new Belkin TuneTalk Stereo lets you record memos, lectures, interviews, or conversations in full stereo. You can then review your CD-quality audio notes by using your earbud headphones or computer.

I recently purchased this while I was in San Jose....works quite well. Many teachers (especially in Language or English programs) need to capture student audio for assesment....this is a great tool for that. Audio files automatically captured and saved to your iPod which can then be managed through your iTunes.

Competition for iTunes????

Watching the BBC news this morning at 3 a.m. revealed a new music download site that will be up and running very soon. Universal Music, the world's largest music company, will be the music supplier in this new venture.

A free music download site that will make money not by charging the user a fee to download the file but by charging the advertisers. Experts believe this will be attractive to the teen market and in fact will help decrease pirating music downloads. It should be ready for release by the end of the year.

Time will tell.

The Human Eye

A great resource for a science class. Another site designed by high school students for high school students. Includes flash animations, hand outs and video of a cow eye dissection.

The Human Heart

A learning package developed by high school kids for high school kids. Fully developed in Flash this site has some great animations on the various parts of the human heart. Hand outs for the teacher and a dissection video on a sheep heart.

Keep an eye on the news

Access at your finger tips to thousands of newspapers from around the world.

Gizmo Project

Gizmo Project is another free "phone for your computer" similar to Skype .

Parade of Games in PowerPoint

This website was created to give educators some ideas on different ways to expand their PowerPoint toolkit. Sample files are available to download.

Browster 2.0

A free download that allows you to preview the website BEFORE you click on it.

Browster places a little lightning bolt icon beside the links in Google. Just move the mouse over (mouse in) the icon and a popup preview window appears showing the user what the website is before they actually click on it to load it.

Simply "mouse out" and the preview box disappears.

EarthTrends

EarthTrends is a website based on environmental information from around the world. Searchable databases and published doucumentation to be used within social sciences and science programmes.

Food411

The developers of this website state that Food411.com is the ultimate resource for everything about food.

A great database and listing of recipes.

CutePDF

Create PDF documents for free.

HTTracker

This free software application allows you to download a web site to view offline. Also free of adware.

NVU - "N-View"

An open source Web Developer for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

Move easily between design and code modes along with an integrated FTP manager to easily upload your web content.

CreativeCommons

Every educator should have this site booked marked! This site has grown beyond general information on copyright in the digital age. There are lesson plans, audio resources, images, video and information on publishing your book, essays, and blogs.

Creative Commons helps you publish your work online while letting others know exactly what they can and can't do with your work.

Instructables

Instructables is a very cool site (not sure if I had it on previous BBytes....but worth mentioning again). People submitt to the site on how to build and make just about anything. Very inspirational.

How Does Google Work?

PCMagazine goes into the mysteries of Google.

Edutopia

Edutopia is the website for the
George Lucas Educational Foundation.

The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF) was founded in 1991 as a nonprofit operating foundation to celebrate and encourage innovation in schools.

This site has really matured and developed over the last few years. The Edutopia magazine is free for educators if you live in the US or Canada. Most of the articles are available on the website.

Glypho Preview

Remember the "grapevine" game that we played as kids. One person would start a sentence and it would get whispered into the ears of all those playing. The last person would repeat the sentence out loud and 99% of the time the story had changed.

glypho is a cool use of social software and an updated version of the grapevine game. A person inputs their story idea into glypho, users around the world add the characters and plot ideas. Then the 1st chapter is written. Users around the world can vote to select the best contribution.....and the story continues.

A very neat idea to add into the classroom. Bring this into English classes, pick a global topic for Social Studies....in fact, add this into any classroom. Get some global penpals from other schools and start the story.......