National Education Association
I like to think of NEA as the “pulse of education”. They highlight legal issues and trends on a national scale. It inspires me to see states starting to utilize more technology in their schools with programs such as 1-to-1 Computing and High School Online. Sometimes I can feel alone in a digital divide where many teachers at my site are lucky enough to use their email program; never mind trying to incorporate some sort of technological wizardry. NEA helps me to see that I am not the only educator trying to integrate technology. I believe the NEA has it on straight when it comes to their stance regarding NCLB and merit-pay. Their daily news section informs me of the encroaching NCLB threat and The Obama Administration’s ever steady advancement into our education system. I am able to share many of these stories with my fellow teachers in the lunch room, and it always sparks a heated discussion. It sure beats the lunch room gossip. What is neat is that they can email you a daily digest. This goes straight into my Ipod touch, arming me for the battle every morning.
This site goes beyond the pages of the book we read in our TMD course. Presentation is something I do every day in the presence of at least 180 teenagers. This site not only reminds me of the elements of design I need to continue to improve upon, but it is also a resource into the ever changing landscape of the art and science of presentation. This site features new YouTube videos by designers and opens up the world to other designers and thinkers in the industry. This is not a web site. It’s a blog. This means the RSS feed continues to be fed, an ultimately, my presentations are better because of it. Presentation Zen is one of those books I need to place under my pillow at night, in hopes that I can wake up with a fresh look at how I’m impacting my students. “More emotion” “Less is more”…the mantras continue.
Referred by Presentation Zen, this site practically needs no introduction. Most of us know of its 5 million images, but what a lot of people don’t know is its library of stock videos, vector illustrations, and even tiny Flash animations. As a presentation designer for both my students and for my church, I need all the images I can get. However, one might question as to why I am putting iStockphoto into my RSS feed. I mean, wouldn’t a link do just fine? The answer is quite simple: free images. Like most educators, I don’t have some sort of corporate budget to buy licenses for these images. Instead, I can download their free weekly and monthly stock images. Over time, I might even have a respectful collection of free, high quality images. This is yet another reason why those 2 Terabyte hard drives will come in handy, at least until the 10 Terabyte ones come down in price.
Official Google Docs Blog
This is not only part of my Action Research Project, but it is also the platform with which I run my classrooms. The assortment of free programs available to me works well in an academic environment where budgets have run dry and technology has run aground in the craggy cliffs of 8-year old Dells and Windows XP. However, these products are still under constant change. It seems Google is never quite finished with these products. The RSS feed will keep me updated on the latest features and even programs as soon as they become available. I rely on these programs so much, I can certainly use every feature I can get my hands on. I can then pass this information on to my students, in hopes our Google Docs accounts become easier and more efficient. For example, did you know they have a brand new revision history feature? Did you know keyboard shortcuts just got added as of this writing? No? Then check it out and feed that RSS beast.
Edutopia
What educational technologist DOESN’T have Edutopia loaded in their Reader? I use to get this magazine for free, until they started charging. At that time, I lost all contact with the digital frontier. Then I started to hear more about their awesome website and I was able to get on their mailing list. I am now back in the loop. I appreciate Edutopia’s take on educational technology; that it’s not of the devil, and that proper implementation of it is so crucial. I can see where the monthly print magazine cannot even keep up anymore with the rapid advancement of educational technology. This RSS feed will make sure I stay on the front lines of this great endeavor.
This site goes beyond the pages of the book we read in our TMD course. Presentation is something I do every day in the presence of at least 180 teenagers. This site not only reminds me of the elements of design I need to continue to improve upon, but it is also a resource into the ever changing landscape of the art and science of presentation. This site features new YouTube videos by designers and opens up the world to other designers and thinkers in the industry. This is not a web site. It’s a blog. This means the RSS feed continues to be fed, an ultimately, my presentations are better because of it. Presentation Zen is one of those books I need to place under my pillow at night, in hopes that I can wake up with a fresh look at how I’m impacting my students. “More emotion” “Less is more”…the mantras continue.
