Teaching with Technology

Теасhіng wіth tесhnоlоgу hеlрs tо ехраnd studеnt lеаrnіng bу аssіstаnt іnstruсtіоnаl оbјесtіvеs that are easy to implement. Ноwеvеr, іt саn bе thоught-рrоvоkіng tо sеlесt thе bеst tесhnоlоgу tооls whіlе nоt lоsіng sіght оf thе gоаl fоr studеnt lеаrnіng. Аn ехреrt саn fіnd сrеаtіvе аnd соnstruсtіvе wауs tо іntеgrаtе tесhnоlоgу іntо оur сlаss.

Whаt dо wе mеаn bу tесhnоlоgу?

Тhе tеrm tесhnоlоgу rеfеrs tо thе dеvеlорmеnt оf thе tесhnіquеs аnd tооls wе usе tо sоlvе рrоblеms оr асhіеvе gоаls. Тесhnоlоgу саn еnсоmраss аll kіnds оf tооls frоm lоw-tесh реnсіls, рареr, а сhаlkbоаrd tо thе usе оf рrеsеntаtіоn sоftwаrе, оr hіgh-tесh tаblеts, оnlіnе соllаbоrаtіоn аnd соnfеrеnсе tооls аnd mоrе. thе nеwеst tесhnоlоgіеs аllоw us tо trу thіngs іn рhуsісаl аnd vіrtuаl сlаssrооms thаt wеrе nоt роssіblе bеfоrе.

Ноw саn tесhnоlоgу hеlр studеnts?

Тесhnоlоgу саn hеlр а studеnt thrоugh thе fоllоwіng wауs:

1. Оnlіnе соllаbоrаtіоn tооls: Тесhnоlоgу hаs hеlреd thе studеnts & іnstruсtоrs tо shаrе dосumеnt оnlіnе, еdіtіng оf thе dосumеnt іn rеаl tіmе аnd рrојесt thеm оn а sсrееn. Тhіs gіvеs thе studеnts а соllаbоrаtіvе рlаtfоrm іn whісh tо brаіnstоrm іdеаs аnd dосumеnt thеіr wоrk usіng tехt аnd рісturеs.

2. Рrеsеntаtіоn sоftwаrе: Тhіs еnаblеs thе іnstruсtоr tо еmbеd hіgh-rеsоlutіоn рhоtоgrарhs, dіаgrаms, vіdеоs аnd sоund fіlеs tо аugmеnt thе tехt аnd vеrbаl lесturе соntеnt.

3. Таblеt: Неrе, tаblеts саn bе lіnkеd tо соmрutеrs, рrојесtоrs, аnd сlоud sо thаt studеnts аnd іnstruсtоrs саn соmmunісаtе thrоugh tехt, drаwіngs, аnd dіаgrаms.

4. Соursе mаnаgеmеnt tооls: Тhіs аllоws іnstruсtоrs tо оrgаnіzе аll thе rеsоurсеs studеnts’ nееds fоr thе сlаss. thе sуllаbus, аssіgnmеnts, rеаdіngs, оnlіnе quіzzеs.

5. Ѕmаrtрhоnе: Тhеsе аrе а quісk аnd еаsу wау tо survеу studеnts durіng сlаss. Іt іs а grеаt іnstаnt роllіng whісh саn quісklу ассеss studеnts undеrstаndіng аnd hеlр іnstruсtоrs tо аdјust расе аnd соntеnt

6. Lесturе сарturе tооls: Тhе lесturе сарturе tооls аllоw іnstruсtоrs tо rесоrd lесturеs dіrесtlу frоm thеіr соmрutеr wіthоut еlаbоrаtе оr аddіtіоnаl сlаssrооm еquірmеnt. Тhе rесоrd lесturеs аt thеіr оwn расе.

Rewriting Best Posts

After blogging for a few months or years a blogger usually writes a lot of posts. Some of them are obviously more valuable then others and it would be a shame if they were very hard to find. One solution to make sure that people will read what you wrote in the past is to actually rewrite your old posts. In order to do this you should use up-to-date information and publish them again. I have seen this done on the top blogs in the blogosphere and if your older posts are able to stand the test of time, there is no reason why you would not want to do it. Very often there is a lot of valuable information in older posts and rewriting them might be a very good idea.
Another approach would be to link to your best posts from the sidebar, but on the other hand rewriting posts might be more beneficial, as it would update them with more recent data. If you do not plan to rewrite your older posts, then you may at least want to link to your best posts on your sidebar. If you visit many blogs, then you will notice that many other bloggers link to their posts from their sidebar.

Encouraging Comments on Your Blog

Most bloggers would prefer to have more comments on their blog and there is generally an agreement that blogs benefit from comments. That is because not only many comments indicate that your blog is popular, but also make your visitors more involved with your blog. Various visitors often contribute interesting thoughts of their own, which in turn makes them more loyal readers and in general improves the overall quality of your blog. Improving the quality of your blog in turn attracts more visitors. So the question is not whether you should encourage comments, but rather how to do it. This post is going to give advice on this subject. Before we start, if you are a WordPress Blogger, just make sure you have Akismet plug-in activated to fight with spam. Without further adieu, here is the list:

1. Have a top commentators widget on your sidebar. This greatly motivates people to leave comments, as they will feel appreciated for the fact of contributing to the discussion. I am using the Show Top Commentators widget which is compatible with the latest WordPress release and can be found here: www.pfadvice.com/wordpress-plugins/show-top-commentators.

2. Reward your top commentators with a short review of their sites or even some money. Some bloggers have done this and it served them well as it encouraged leaving comments on their blogs.

3. Have a recent comments widget on your sidebar. This encourages visitors to leave comments, especially on older posts, because new comments are very easy to find. I am using the default Recent Comments widget from WordPress. Blogs hosted on Blogger.com may use Recent Comments for Blogger found on storago.com/free_tools.

Setting Goals for Your Website

One of the ways to keep yourself accountable is to set some goals for your website. This is an excellent way to measure your achievements, but remember that your goals should be time-sensitive and specific. Here are some examples, which should help you get started:

Obtain a Page Rank4 within a year. It can be any other number, as this is only an example. You can easily check your Page Rank so this also means that you can easily check on your progress.

Obtain an Alexa rank of 100,000 within 2 months. While it might require a lot of work, you will have a lot of satisfaction if you achieve such a goal.

Have an affiliate program revenue of $100 per month within three months. Take into account that affiliate revenue can fluctuate a lot. Nonetheless, it is possible to add up all of your affiliate income and see how you are progressing.

As you see in the examples above those are quite specific goals, and you will be easily able to say if you indeed achieved your goal or not, which is very important. You can also measure to what degree you accomplished some goal in percentages. Some people even set goals for themselves every month and say that it keeps them motivated. My personal advice is not to set goals to high, so that you will not get disappointed. Of course, realizing hard to achieve goals can be a very rewarding experience so it might be worth a try.

Meeting People

I am sure that most people enjoy meeting others. It is simply fun and there is no reason not to like it. It is possible to chat with various people online, but it might make the most sense to chat with people in your area. Those who live in New York might be interested in meeting people from New York, while those who live in other cities may be interested in personals from their own city. If you meet someone online who lives in your area, then it will not be a problem to meet such a person. I am sure it sounds exciting, does it not?

Protecting Your Computer

Protecting your computer form viruses, trojans, and other malicious infections is an important thing to do in order to keep your computer safe. There are many different antivirus programs available, as well as a wide choice of firewalls. Often you will find both antivirus and firewall features available in one program, usually called a security suite. While it is debatable which firewall/antivirus are the best to use, I would like to make some recommendations based on personal experience. First of all, I would not use a security suite, because the best antivirus and firewall is not available in any security suite. I recommend using a program like NOD32 as an antivirus, as it offers the best active protection. I also recommend using a firewall like Comodo Firewall because it protects as well as any paid firewall, but it is completely free.

Email Tips

Would you like to hear some email tips? You have probably seen BCC before many times, and were wondering what this abbreviation stands for. By using BCC, you can send your email to many people without them knowing who the other recipients are. Whereas CC stands for Carbon Copy, BCC is a abbreviation for Blind Carbon Copy. As using CC enables other people to see who else received a message, there are many advantages of using BCC over CC:

� You might not want the others to know what the email addresses of your recipients are. Since we live in a world where many people consider it a full time job to obtain email addresses of others for commercial purposes, it might be a lot safer thing to do.
� For some reason you might not want to reveal to how many people you are sending an email.
� Your recipients might not be happy that you shared their email address with others. They have the right to, and I am sure that they would appreciate that you respect their wishes.
� If you are a company, sending emails using BCC looks more professional, as you should not reveal information about your customers.
Overall, Blind Carbon Copy ensures privacy of your recipients, so in many situations this will be the biggest advantage of using it.

Bookmarks

Every internet user that connect to the Internet on a regular basis has probably bookmarked some websites. This way he can access his favorite sites very fast and he will not need to remember the full URL of the site. When it comes to bookmarks, every person will have to decide at some points which sites are worth bookmarking. There are many websites suggesting to bookmark their page, but if you are going to be bookmarking any website that you visit from time to time, then pretty soon your list of bookmarks is going to be a mess. You may want to use folders in your bookmark list, as it will help you keep your list organized. I also suggest that you only bookmark such pages that you really visit on a regular basis. There is no point bookmarking all of the pages on the Web that you might like for one reason or another.

Print Your Own Envelopes

Earlier on this blog I was writing how you can print mailing and returning addresses on envelopes and labels in MS Word. However, you can do more than that with them. You can add the graphics of your choice for example to your mailing or returning address. To do this, follow these few steps:
1. First, select your mailing or returning address to which you would like to add the graphics.
2. Go to Tools menu and open Envelopes and Labels window.
3. Click on Add to Document or Change Document.
4. In the Status bar click on the Page Layout view icon.
5. Now it is time to insert the graphics of your choice into the document.
6. Print the new envelope.

You never know when this might come in handy and having vast knowledge about Word will make your work with this text editor a lot more pleasant.

Projectors

Installing a home theater is one of the best things you can do for yourself or your family. I am sure that many of you have your own home theater; however, are you sure that you own one of the best projectors available on the market? The choice of projectors is very wide. Taking time to choose the right one might be worthwhile. After all, the performance of your home theater depends on it. Depending on what type of a projector you own, the performance of movies you watch is better or worse. You want to have a quality projector to get the best experience possible while watching your favorite movies.

Of course, many businesses also use projectors. That is because they can be used for presentations and due to that they are very useful. There are even some projector rentals available for businesses. I am sure that many businesses can benefit from using projectors as the efficiency of the company might increase this way.

When you choose a projector the most important factors are price and the overall quality. You need to find the right balance, depending on your needs. If you only intend to use a projector for showing slideshows, then you may not need a very expensive projector.