Want a Diggiditto?

It's not a virtual hot dog or an antique ditto machine. It's a smart document camera with a very modern look. Created by Califone, the Diggiditto provides image recognition, along with integration of sound and the linking of multimedia files. This means that with the camera teachers can create single click multimedia tutorials. The camera is USB powered, includes a microphone for recording speech and music, has 2 megapixel resolution and autofocus, adjusts to different lighting conditions, has 3X optical zoom and image stop, and has annotation capabilities. Its split-screen viewing option allows teachers to use it for comparison of saved and live images. Tutorials and images can be sent through a computer to a television or electronic whiteboard. To read about why a smart document camera would be a valuable addition to a classroom, click on Ken Royal's "Give Teachers a Document Camera."

Back-to-School Streaming

From August 17^th through October 7^th, 2009 Discovery Education is offering online sessions featuring topics such as Virtual Field Trips with Discovery Education Media and Google Earth; Learning Through the Funnies: Mixing Discovery Education Content with Free Comic Tools, Discovery Education streaming Back to School Enhancements, The streaming Builders and Glogster, Easy Ways to Integrate Digital Media in Your Science Classroom ....  While some of the sessions feature science, others should be of interest to teachers of just about any subject. The sessions feature the use of content in Discovery's library of educational resources. For other news from Discovery, check out the overview of what 's new at Discovery Education, Student Adventures, Fuel Our Future, and the Young Scientist Challenge.

Container Store Offer for Teachers

Until September 7, 2009, the Container Store is offering an Organized Teacher Discount of 15%. You'll need to fill out the online form to take advantage of this offer. The Store will then send you your discount card that you can use in a store, online, or by phone. Think about tackling such problems as where to put all those books, videos, papers and supplies and how to keep student and teacher areas organized.

Make Your Own Free Glogs (Living, Interactive Posters)

The site is called Glogster and what you and your students create are called Glogs. There's a Glogster for 18 and older, but there's also one for us educators and the kids we work with. It's Glogster Edu. You'll need to explore it to discover all it can do, but you should know that it's free, it's a private online area for you and your students, and with it all sorts of poster-type projects can be created. These posters can contain text, images, video and audio and are very easy to make. It looks like they are for viewing online rather than printing, and they can be shared with your student gloggers or on SchoolTube. You can work with up to 200 students, either in groups or as individuals. Glogs can be used to enhance any course, such as this Grade 3 Language Arts project.
NOTE: Please put http://www.glogster.com/edu into your browser's address window, for we had no luck linking to it from the blog area.

Easy-to-Create Panoramas

Imatronics has created Panorama Express, a program that helps you create, manage, and publish spectacular virtual tours. The program, which costs $149.96 and up, depending upon the version selected, features a 1-Step Virtual Tour Wizard, smooth rendering, multiple hotspots and transition effects, background sound tracks, the ability to use different sound track for different scenes, multimedia popup windows, intuitive user interface, and much more. You can download a free trail Panorama Express to see if this is a program that would be useful for your classroom or school. Some ways to put it to use might be: a virtual tour of your school or your school building(s), student project tours involving photos taken for science and social studies projects, tours of science fair exhibits, and tours of photos from a physical education class in action.

Free eBooks from the Kindle Library

Hillel Italie(AP) in USA Today reports that publishing companies have a new strategy for introducing us to book authors. They are publishing the first book in a series free as an eBook so that readers will have the chance to read works from authors they haven't tried before. It's like motivation to get started in a book series and it seems to be catching on. These new free editions such as James Patterson's "The Angel Experiment" along with public domain free books like Pride and Prejudice, Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes, and Anna Karenina can be found in the Kindle download library. Not surprisingly, many of the free books are among Kindle's Best Sellers. If you use other eBook libraries, check for free or low cost first in a series books. Patterson's "The Angel Experiment" is $1 for download at Fictionwise.

Top Ten on School Video News

School Video News has listed its Top Ten Articles, which include framing shots for storytelling, newscast production, copyright issues, permission for filming people, raising money with school tech, TeacherTube, and cinematography tips. At School Video News you'll find areas for schools, teachers, and students. There are forums and categories relating to production and equipment. If you find these articles and areas at School Video News of interest, why not subscribe to the free monthly newsletter?

AutoDesk Grants

AutoDesk provides grants of from $1000 to $5000 to tax-exempt organizations. In 2008, 22% of the grants were given for education and technology. Product grants are also available. Grants are not awarded for film productions or athletic events and are not given to individuals or to political, religious, or sectarian groups. Grant submissions must be made online, with to ten weeks allowed for a response. Keep in mind if submitting a grant request to AutoDesk, that the goal of the organization is to respond to "community needs in the areas of health, education, arts, and the environment."

John Quincy Adams' Tweets

A high school student reports that John Quincy Adams, the 6^th President of the United States, would have been a master at Twitter. In fact, the Massachusetts Historical Society is now tweeting the words of Adams. Some of Adams' tweets go like this: "8/6/1809: Thick fog. Scanty Wind - On George’s Bank. Lat: 42-34. Read Massillon’s Carême Sermons 2 & 3. Ladies &c. Sick" and "Weather fine -- wind scanty. Lat: 44-13. Long: 53-40. This afternoon I found the Caboose on fire." Students don't often think of our forefathers writing in 140 characters or less, so this tweeting from Adams should stimulate interest among the online crowd.

BBC World News & Kids' Comments

The British Broadcasting Company in its World Service News for the radio featured a series of interviews with students about the world economic crisis. Students from the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Ghana, United Kingdom, South Korea, and Mexico were featured. You can listen to the broadcasts to hear what the students (mostly elementary and middle school levels) have to say. Students said that parent businesses were suffering, parents were not taking children on vacations, people are losing their jobs and some are turning to crime, many homes are for sale, and that everyone is saving money, not spending. Your students might enjoy listening to these kids from around the world and then compare what they say to their local economic situation.