Welcome to I.D.E.A.S.

IDEAS applications have helped teachers integrate technology into their classrooms for the last five years.

All of our programs have been created at the suggestion of teachers, and are constantly modified according to teacher requests for new features and capabilities. The acronym I.D.E.A.S. stands for Instructional Development of Educational Applications Service and that is just what we do. We create applications for students and teachers to use in instructional settings.

Toolbox Pro, our latest and greatest product, is the culmination of all of our efforts combining the tools that teachers have asked for into a single integrated interface. With Toolbox Pro you can create a class website, create online quizzes, tests, and activities, upload files and documents you want your students to access, communicate with parents and other teachers, and even post podcasts. Visit http://www.toolboxpro.org

For more information about IDEAS or about any of our programs, email us at IDEAS@gstboces.org.

Today, March 29th, 2011, IDEAS is helping to sponsor the Horseheads Middle School World War II Teach-In. The Teach-In Event brings middle school students together with seniors from the community to talk about what it was like living through World War II. You can follow the event live on the web.

Visit http://www.horseheadsdistrict.com/ms/ww2/

The web site hosts two live video streams (provided by GST BOCES New Visions Communications students), links to a live wiki where students will be publishing reports throughout the day, and a live up-to-the-minute feed from Twitter.

Clips from the video feeds

Each speaker is able to share their story and show artifacts from the WWII period as they are interviewed by groups of students. The first hand accounts of this time really makes history come alive for the students.

Another image showing the simultaneous livecasts side by side.

I am always on the lookout for free software that can be used by students and teachers. I was delighted when I found out that Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com) was allowing downloads of the latest version of Microsoft Mathematics for free. Microsoft reports that they have had over 250,000 downloads of the software since they released it in January of 2011.

Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 provides a set of mathematical tools that can help students get their schoolwork done. It helps students learn how to solve equations in a step by step manner while gaining a better understanding of concepts in pre-algebra, algebra, trigonometry, physics, chemistry, and calculus. The program contains a functional online calculator that looks just like a handheld device. Equations can be plotted in both 2D and 3D graphs.

Microsoft Mathematics Teacher Website

Direct Download Page for Microsoft Mathematics Software

The Teacher Website above includes a simple Teacher's Guide to get you quickly started working with the software as well as a detailed Microsoft Word document containing step-by-step procedures. A three and a half minute starter video is also available on the site.

Download the software, try it out with your students and let us know how it works for you. Leave us a comment here, or email IDEAS@gstboces.org.

Whether you are a parent, and educator, or a student, you will be sure to find some valuable information about Internet Safety at http://iKeepSafe.org.

IKeepSafe.org has a great deal of dynamic content and visual impact while providing very usable information that is appropriate for young people of all ages. Some of topics addressed on the site range from Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Social Networking to Identity Theft and Cyberbullying. Content is also provided in many different formats including PDF, PowerPoint, Video and Interactive Flash content.

Faux Paw is a technology-savvy cat who goes through several scenarios while he learns how to stay safe with technology and the Internet. Targeting younger students, the episodes of this cartoon are presented in video format and downloadable PowerPoint presentations, which can be just in conjunction with the lesson plans and curriculum resources.

This image shows the interface of a Flash piece dealing with Social Networking Basics. Each of the sections contains several engaging videos about sub-topics. This content was developed with a partnership from MySpace.

(Click on the image above to go directly to the Social Networking Flash Piece.
It is worth taking a few minutes to go through this short training.)

More interactive content is provided in the Fun Zone.

iKeepSafe.org has a great variety of resources for teaching students of all ages. Take a few minutes to peruse the information here and it will be well worth your while. Some of the material on the site was created in collaboration with commercial partners but much of it is totally ad-free.

http://iKeepSafe.org

How do I rename a file?
Where do my files go when I save them?
Can I group files together?
I don't know what to do.
Please Help Me!

If you are like most educators that use the Internet you will find that you accumulate a lot of files. I find that I am always downloading resources from one site or another. Sometimes the files are articles that I don't have time to read right now but that I know I will want to read later. Sometimes they are instructions on how to do something in one program or another, and sometimes they are great images that I know I will want to edit and use in a presentation at some point. At any rate, I end up with tons of files on my desktop or in my downloads folders and I need a system to organize them.

William Giancoli, an Instructional Technology Specialist at GST BOCES, developed a site called "File Fitness" to help teachers learn strategies and techniques for dealing with the pile of documents, images, and other stuff that they have acquired. The site was created as a PBWorks Wiki and is located at http://filefitness.pbworks.com/w/page/31707947/File-Fitness.

The File Fitness site discusses how files are named, what the file extensions mean, and different ways of viewing your files. How to rename files, create folders, and to move files from one place to another are all described and illustrated with images demonstrating each concept and technique. It is well worth your while to spend a few minutes reading the pages and viewing the video on organizing your files. If your desktop and your hard drive are a clutter of all types of various files you owe it to yourself to try a little "file fitness". You won't regret it.

While you are on this great self-help trek, take a minute to visit the GST TechKnow Site (http://techknow.gstboces.org). This site is maintained by the Computer Services Help Desk Team and the Instructional Technology Specialists as a one-stop shop for finding out information about your computer and how it works with the GST Computer Network.

The TechKnow site is a great resource with links to other sites (Like Will's File Fitness site), and documents that you can download. In many cases, it can help troubleshoot problems that you are having with your computer, so that you don't have to spend time on the phone with the help desk. In addition to saving you time, this can help reduce the help desk cost for your district.

The IDEAS team recommends that you check out the File Fitness and TechKnow web sites.

I always like to share cool programs that find with others, and this week I came across a dictionary that I thought was pretty neat. I was actually looking for information on a totally different topic when I stumbled on mention of this program in a blog post. There are many dictionaries sites on the web, but I thought this dictionary had a fresh look and some nice features.

The site is called Wordnik and it is located at http://www.wordnik.com.

The interface for Wordnik is clean and uncluttered. After you look up a word from the search box, you are presented with a page that features the defined word in large text at the top of the page. Definitions from a few page different web dictionaries are displayed with links to even more sites.

Here, a lookup on the word, miniaturist, shows definitions from Century Dictionary, Wiktionary, GNU Webster's, and WordNet. The defined word is also shown in context in several examples drawn from a variety of sources.

A single click accesses the Wordnik Thesaurus, and audio pronunciations (if any have been recorded for the given word). Links are provided to Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr, and users are invited to create their own accounts where they can create lists of their favorite words, and tag definitions with keywords, and record their own audio pronunciations. Links at the bottom of the screen provide access to recent lookups, recent favorites, and recent pronunciations.

The clean, easy to use interface and the social network features make Wordnik a fresh alternative for an online dictionary. Try it out and let us know what you think about it!