Write with a pen directly on your computer screen for less than $100. A good Tablet PC/iPad/IWB Solution.

As you probably know, I love to present my lessons using onenote. I write directly on my computer screen and it gets projected on to my whiteboard. I am faced with the prospect of losing my Toshiba Tablet PC supplied by my school at the end of next year. So, I need a solution.

A colleague recently alerted me to the DuoPen, which works in a similar way to the Epson Brightlink projectors. You attach a small receiver on the top of the laptop screen (connects to usb port) and then you can use the supplied pen to write on the screen and control it, as you would with a mouse. Some YouTube videos show that this is quite good quality (which is one problem that I had with the brightlink projectors)

For Mathematics Education, I think it is a must that we are able to digitize our work (including all the equations).

To get more information and to purchase you can visit edsoft, or I have seen them available on ebay for AUD$80 or AUD$100.

Other Solutions?

I have previously posted about the amazing Samsung Windows 8 tablet (still not yet available) and also how to create an interactive whiteboard (IWB) using an iPad, Griffin Stylus and the Epson Brightlink projectors and Wacom tablets.

 

 

A Whiteboard collaboration online tool - share with others, or save as a JPG image.

A Web Whiteboard is a nice collaboration tool to quickly draw equations and formulas right onto the screen. It allows different coloured pens, different thickness.

You can share a link and collaborate with other people. You can also save your whiteboard as a JPG image to keep for later.

Application

Use this with Skype to explain mathematical concepts to students live, or record a video, using screenr.com if you are helping a student outside hours.

Often my students collaborate with each other at home whilst doing their homework - I might show them this fantastic tool.

Bookmarking Tools - Delicious, Diigo and Google Bookmarks

Online Social Bookmarking lets you easily store bookmarks in one place (backed up), search them and share them with others.

I have used all three of these to try and collect my bookmarks.



Diigo allows for excellent groups to share, easy to add links. A great tool to quickly flick through them. Excellent for a mathematics department to share all their links with each other.

 



A little while back we were unsure whether delicious would continue, but it is and there is now some innovation! It could be a good option now. It provides very good rss feeds.

I am a fan of Google products! I do like the fact that you can write additional comments with the bookmarks. Although they are not quite as nice to share with other people.

Application

Store your links, so that you can find them again. Share links with colleagues (get your whole department on a group). Get your class to share links with each other

What is the integral of 3(ICE)^2?

URL Shorteners - make it easy to direct people to that long website.

Changes a long link into a short one. Example: http://tinyurl.com/jhsugarsync. My preference below is tinyurl because you have the option of choosing the last part of the link, so that rather than have 6-8 Captial and lowercase letters, you can choose a word, or something meaningful.

• http://bitly.com/


• http://tinyurl.com/


• http://goo.gl/

Application

You can write a very short url on the board to share it with students. Also great for sharing links on twitter.

 

 

 

Get your way around Windows 7 like a pro with these shortcuts.

• Show Desktop: WINKEY + D  


• Moving windows to the left, right or top


• Switch Programs: Alt-Tab OR WINKEY + Tab


• Filling in forms – tab to the next field (shift tab to go backwards)


• Lock computer WINKEY + L


• Windows Task Manager: Shift-Ctrl-Esc


• Select All: Ctrl-A 


• Search (Find) WINKEY + F


• Magnifier: WINKEY +/-


• Shake the toolbar of an application to make everything else hide!


• Use backspace to go ‘back’ on a website

Easily convert PDF Files to Word Documents - with images and equations in them!

By simply uploading to this website, they email you back an excellent Word Document from a PDF. It even handles images and equations!

http://www.pdftoword.com/

Randomly select things from a list... the easy way!

Create a random number or randomly order a list with this handy tool:

http://random.org/

Application

If students are doing presentations, randomly order them.

 

 

 

 

 

Re-Print.Me - Print some nice looking calendars

http://www.re-print.me/

The idea is to use recycling paper to print calendars on.

Application

Print one for each class and put it up on the wall. The teacher (or a student) can write the homework each day.

AIS Presentation on Technology in Mathematics Education: Flipping the classroom and Blogging in Maths

Technology in Mathematics

View more presentations from jharnwell.

Why do you never see a Mathematician at the beach?

What do you get when you integrate 1/cabin ?

Using comics in Maths class (I can't draw!)

Create a cartoon / comic strip. Drag and drop the speech bubbles, people and scenes.

http://www.bitstrips.com/

Create a cartoon yourself for a topic, or get students to present their work in cartoon form.

Tech Toolbox for Teachers Blog

Tech toolbox for teachers

View more presentations from jharnwell.

Backup your files! Don't risk losing everything! Cloud and local storage - Skydrive / Live Mesh / DropBox / SugarSync and more...

Local Backup

I keep a local backup of everything. I've tried a Western Digital Solution and despite the fact that I didn't like the interface or accessibility at all - one drive failed. Thankfully I could return it and get my money back.

I can strongly recommend the Seagate GoFlex Home. It links into my home network and automatically backs up my laptop when it is opened. The software doesn't slow down my computer and I can access the backup over the internet. 

http://www.crashplan.com/ provides free software for local backup - but you can also pay for offsite backup.

I use each of the following to back up different files. If you use the links provided below, I will get additional free storage (and you will get some additional for sugarsync). Each of these has the option of syncing files to multiple computers.

• Dropbox = 2 GB http://tinyurl.com/jhdropbox


• Sugarsync = 5 GB   http://tinyurl.com/jhsugarsync


• Windows Live Skydrive = 25 GB (max 50Mb files) / Windows Live Mesh also syncs files to all your computers.

Other options:

• Google Docs


• Picasaweb (additional storage)


• Google Drive coming soon!

Social Networks - Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and More!!!

How to use these three networks? I'd love you to share your thoughts in the comments below.

I use facebook for my friends.

I use twitter for professional links with other educators.

I am currently using Google+ for sharing things with my family (I'm a big picasa and youtube user). I have heaps of videos and pictures of my kids. Google+ has a lot of potential - but will enough people get on board?

 

I have dabbled in the past with using a facebook page and twitter to communicate with my students, but have since abandoned them. If you'd like to see what I've used it for, the archive is available at: http://www.twitter.com/mrharnwell/

Reading Lists - keep track of those websites that look fantastic, but you don't have time to read at the moment. Create a Someday/Maybe list.

Getting things done (GTD) promotes a "Someday/Maybe" list. That is a list of things that you would love to do someday if you had the time. Well, taking this idea to websites on the internet, the following will allow you to easily keep track of them.

• http://instapaper.com/


• http://readitlater.com/


• Apple’s iCloud Solution - I'm yet to try this, but think I will convert.

I use instapaper to keep track of the sites that I want to review later. Sometimes it takes a while before I get back to it, but that's okay!

Application

When looking through RSS feeds / Blogs / other links, if you don’t have time to assess the resources but think it may be useful, then ‘readitlater’

Flipping the Classroom, by creating your own videos (screencasting) - do better than khanacademy!

There has been much discussion over 'flipping' the classroom. That is the idea of getting students to watch videos (or read textbooks) at home to cover the 'lecture style' part of lessons and then using the in class time for more enriching, engaging activities.

Khan Academy has provided some excellent videos on some key concepts in Mathematics, linked very well to the American system.

But, if you want to genuinely flip your classroom, then you should create your own videos.

It's not that hard to create your own videos!

Here are three suggestions for screencasting:

Screenr.com uses a java applet to record your screen. Up to 5 minutes. You can also uplaod directly to Youtube (which I recommend after an alternate site shutdown immediately, with all videos lost).

Here are some examples that I recorded for Year 8 Coordinate Geometry: http://www.screenr.com/user/MathsNetAu

 

Software options:

Some staff at my school swear by Jing (although it costs)

I also like the idea of CamStudio as a free alternative.