Great News

At last! A file converter at Zamzar that will let you download videos from online sites, convert them to common formats like .avi (QuickTime) or .mov (Windows Video Player) and play them directly from your computer. Or put them on a CD and bring them to your school computer. Why the excitement? Many schools are blocking the most common video sites, including YouTube, dispite the vast number of excellent, educational videos available on those sites. With this excellent, free service, the problem is solved. (Unfortunately, when you embed the videos into your blog or wiki, they actually link back to the original site...doesn't look that way, but that's how it works.) To check this out, try this how-to video on the Zamzar site.

Zamzar will also enable you to convert other files to new formats. Among the most useful is its ability to convert .pdf files to other formats, including to .doc (Word document). Once a .pdf is converted to .doc, you can edit it. Whew...the big drawback of .pdf is now much less of a drawback. Sometimes the formatting is a little wacky, but it's usually manageable. Thanks, Zamzar!

The Invisible Web and a Principal's Blog and Copyright Fun

There is so much more on the Internet than most of us ever find. And often, what we don't see is vastly better information than what we do see. Robert Lackie has posted an excellent list of tips and resources for exploring the "Invisible Web". It's well worth the time it takes to check out some of these tools.

Now for a real treat...take a look at Dr. Williams' (the Principal of Hewitt-Trussville Middle School located somewhere in Alabama) blog entitled The Principal's Blog. More to the point, look at the comments to his blog entries. Wow....kids are creating a dialogue with their Principal. What a treat.

Finally, it's hard, sometimes, to make Copyright Law interesting. But it is always important. We educators hang our copyright hats on the hook of "Fair Use". Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University provides this humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms.

WikiMindMap and Quintura for Kids

WikiMindMap is interesting...and fun. This site creates a mind map for you from information in Wikipedia. All you do is enter the subject you are interested in, then choose the appropriate Wiki. The English speaking world would choose en.wikipedia.org from the list of possibilities. Ta daaa....the mind map appears. From the map, you can link to the articles or websites cited in the Wikipedia article. The only drawback here is that you cannot capture the mindmap for other uses. (You can do a screen print, but that's not very useful.) Take a look at this site. For writers who are stumped, it's an instant brainstorm!

For the youngest Internet searchers, Quintura for Kids is an excellent portal. In my opinion, it is a much better choice than Yahooligans. You'll need to play with it for a couple of minutes to get used to its interface. But once you do, I think you'll find that it is very friendly indeed. Let me know what you think.

Nifty Freebie

Answers.com has a free download for both PC's and Mac's. The download and installation take less than 5 minutes. Once the program is installed, you can point to any word in any program (or at least in all programs I've tried), hold the Alt key down and click on the word. When you release the Alt key, a little window pops up with the definition and/or additional information about the word. For example, I clicked on "Oneida" and was given information about the town of Oneida, including its current weather. When I clicked on the "More" button, I was shown information from a variety of encyclopedias covering the Oneida Community and the Oneida Indians. In addition, there is always a sound icon that allows you to check pronounciation.

Think of the uses you and your students might make of this. I can imagine all kinds of "lists" a teacher might make for students, with the pronounciation and basic info available through Answers. In any case, give it a try. You can certainly uninstall this gizzmo easily, but 'til you test it you can't really envision it!

While you're at it, explore the answers.com home page. I haven't spent much time there, but it seems intriguing.