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May 23, 2008

Picasa Web Albums

Picasa has become a better product as a result of a recent release and a new web addition that have given this free application more juice. First of all I’d like to say that if you’ve used Picasa before and you enjoyed its easy UI and its ability to process images and then load them onto your favorite store to have them printed, you more than likely were satisfied with what you could do. I enjoyed the external printing options because it has always been more economical to have them sent out for printing by a commercial entity than to print them myself.

Recently Picasa released version 2.7 that fixed webcam capture errors, and with this release Picasa Web Albums was also released under a separate download. What Web Albums gives you is a plug in that allows you to upload pictures using your browser onto your Picassa Web Album site. The site can either be public or private—the setting is easy to set up.
Picture 2.png
(This is an image of all the applications for your cell phone from google)

What I like most about Web Albums is not just that it is extremely easy to use, but it also is easy to share with others who have Google user accounts. Once you set up a Google account for lets say, Google Docs, you will use this same account to log into Picasa Web Albums. Another great feature of Web Albums is if you are a Blogger and use any of the different blogging engines out there on the net, you can click on (embed) in Picasa Web Albums and it will generate the HTML code for you to cut and paste into your blog. If you’d like to enjoy Picasa Web Albums on your phone you can upload to your Web Album or view your Web Album as well. Picasa Web Albums can be downloaded in PC and MAC format.
Picture 4.png
(The above image is how a cell phone would see Web Albums)

For a complete list of Google tools for your phone follow this link http://www.google.com/mobile/gmm/index.html. For the Picasa Web Album download follow this link: http://picasa.google.com/

May 10, 2008

Challenging ~ Engaging ~ Authentic


Join leaders in K-12 videoconferencing to learn structures and templates for student projects and collaborations. This class is team taught with VC colleagues in California, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and across Texas. Guest speakers each day will share additional engaging uses of videoconferencing. Team up with another teacher to create a VC project for next year. Along the way, learn about and use other collaborative technologies such as blogs, wikis, Flickr, Google Docs, and Skype.

Details
Dates: June 16th-20th
Time: 8:00 am-3:00 pm
Cost: FREE-EduTech is waving the $280 fee per participant!
Location: Devils Lake School for Deaf in Devils Lake, ND
GT Credit: 2 Hours of Graduate Credit will be available through NDSU ($65 per credit)

Outline
Monday: What is videoconferencing? Introduction to the technology. Meet your VC colleagues. Learn about VC project possibilities. Exchange Projects (Read Across America, Monster Exchange)

Tuesday: Academic Challenges. Math Marvels. Testimonials from teachers who have used VC. Group project time.

Wednesday: MysteryQuest. Problem solving multi-point videoconferences. Racial dialogues. Group project time. Author visit. Create-your-own-content. Global videoconferencing.

Thursday: Literature based videoconferences such as ASK (Author Specialist Knowledge). VC Etiquette. Group project time.

Friday: Group project time. Group presentations.

Want more information? Visit www.123vc.net.

Registration
Space is limited and we want to fill this workshop. So register ASAP!

Register or receive more information by contacting Tabitha Lang at tabitha.lang@sendit.nodak.edu

May 8, 2008

North Dakota Teacher Favorites Survey



This online survey will help EduTech gain valuable feedback for videoconference programs used by K-12 schools during the 2007–2008 school year. Responses given will provide useful information about the various types of programming and content providers schools across the state are using and to improve planning and implementation.

To complete the online survey visit http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB227RRV9WVRD. Completion deadline is Wednesday, May 14th.

Survey results will be shared through EduTech's website and the various North Dakota education e-mail lists mid May.