Mason+Tech+Day

Welcome!
This day will be a day of technology-related skill building, exploration of materials and resources, and sharing ideas and products you create.


 * Sharing**. As you share today, think about the following questions:
 * What have you discovered?
 * What have you created?
 * How will you use it and why?
 * What will you do next?

And speaking of sharing - you are invited to add your ideas and resources! We are going to do that through an open Google Doc.

A. Getting Started

 * How do your children learn?
 * When do you see sparks of learning and excitement in them?
 * What would YOU like to be able to do that you currently cannot do?

B. Productivity with Images

 * Locating and saving copyright-available images (creative commons licensed works)
 * flickr advanced search
 * google advanced search
 * Clipart
 * Classroom Clipart
 * Discovery Education Clipart

What products do you create that use images and/or clip art? How do you insert graphics? How do you resize graphics?

C. Creating products in various authoring environments
Use one of the environments below to create a product that you can use with the children, or, perhaps one that can serve as a model for the children to create.
 * image editing and special effects (example, adding words and letters to images - literacy)
 * Aviary education is a web-based editing environment for photos, audio, graphics
 * befunkyhas basic editing and photo effects, text, speech bubbles, etc.
 * fd's Flickr Toys Big Huge Labs to add special effects to the photos you have stored at Flickr or ones you upload directly (requires users to create an account to upload own media)
 * Dumpr to turn photos into coloring book images, make them look old, turn them into globes, cubes, etc
 * Picnikis a web-based photo editor


 * talking images and avatars
 * fotobabble
 * blabberize - blabberize a photo or even kids' original turkey artwork. Even more examples.
 * voki - talking avatars that can record your own voice or text to speech - elementary student simple machines


 * storytelling
 * animoto - make videos from images and text - music and transitions provided. Explore examples and document student projects.
 * KerPoof
 * Photostory 3 (if installed on the computer)
 * Primary Access
 * storyjumper
 * storybird - easy to make books - 1st graders or stories for kids
 * voicethread - Great Depression Project
 * Zimmer Twins

D. Discovery: Exploring websites for educators and students
Do you just send students to a site to explore, or, do you have a purpose in mind? Did you know? You can add a shortcut to the computer desktop that will take students to a specific webpage - making it easier to use web-based activities.
 * Of interest to teachers
 * Myths and Legendsfrom around the world plus create your own
 * International Children's Digital Library
 * Mixbookallows you to create stories and produce hard-copy books, cards, etc.
 * Sites for Kids is a wikipage with links to many kid-focused websites to explore.
 * Thinkfinity- search interactives by grade level and content area as well as the After School resources
 * Zunal - discover and make webquests for students


 * Of interest to students
 * funschool
 * nick jr
 * PEEP and the big wide world
 * PBSkids.org
 * Poisson Rouge
 * Smories
 * Starfall


 * Want to do more and learn more about technology?**
 * Check out the 21 Things for 21st Century Educators professional development sequence.**