So cool, you have to try it to believe it!

Have you ever not known the name of a song, or who recorded it, even though you can remember how to sing or hum even a small part of it? Well then, you'll have to try out a new search engine called midomi.

Here's a brief description from their website:

midomi is the ultimate music search tool because it is powered by your voice. Sing, hum, or whistle to instantly find your favorite music and connect with a community that shares your musical interests. Give it a try. It's truly amazing!

I was skeptical until I tried it. I plugged in my microphone and sang a couple of bars of "Happy Birthday", and sure enough, midomi figured it out and provided links to recordings of other midomi users singing the song, and to professional recordings available for purchase.

Then I sang the first phrase of the "Star Spangeled Banner", and BINGO! Another match! My hummed rendition of "Na na, hey hey, kiss him goodbye" didn't yield a correct match, but remarkably, my WHISTLED version of "Billie Jean" brought up a link to the Michael Jackson original, cued up to the phrase I had just whistled!

It really is amazing! Give it a try.

Check out what you can do at ImageShack

Thanks to Lucy Gray at A Teacher's Life for pointing out this cool website: http://imageshack.us/slideshow



Go to ImageShack® to Create your own Slideshow

Don't let this happen to you or your students!

UPDATE: Check out this blog post from Mr. Herbert Horner, a computer forensics expert who testified in defense of Julie Amero.

Two recent articles are making me think it's time to teach my "Viruses, Spyware, and Spoofs, Oh My!" workshop again.

Julie Amero, a 40 year old substitute teacher, was recently convicted of counts of risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child. While substituting at a school in 2004, Amero's computer would not stop displaying adult images on the screen. An endless cycle of popup windows kept appearing, despite her best efforts to close them. A computer expert testifying in her defense confirmed that there was spyware on the computer. According to some reports, the school's filter was not working because the license had expired. Here's the complete article from the Norwich Bulletin.

An Arizona teenager faced child pornography charges after his home was raided and computer confiscated by authorities. Computer forensic expert Tammi Loehrs discovered over 200 infected files on the family computer, opening up "back doors" for hackers to control their computer remotely. The young man's story was featured on ABC's 20/20 and you may view a video and transcript of the story here. The family has also started a website called Justice for Matt-- http://www.justice4matt.com/

Two very scary stories that could have been prevented. Too often we put our trust in Internet filters, but some bad stuff still makes it through (i.e. Google images). We require students to sign AUPs every year, but I wonder how often someone takes the time to explain the potential risks, and to teach students how to protect themselves and their computers AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. The students in turn could teach their parents. There are so many free anti virus and spyware tools available, there's no reason this should have ever happened in the first place.

We don't allow students to drive without driver's education, and they can't go hunting until they take a gun safety class. We would never think of sending an elementary or middle school student off alone into a big city, but as long as they sign their AUP they can get on the Internet. I think it's time to require some sort of classroom instruction in Internet safety for all students (and their parents and teachers too). Many schools are already doing this using free resources like NetSmartz or iSafe, but the two stories I cited are evidence that we're not doing enough yet.

Quntura for Kids

Wow! Check out this new search engine for kids at: http://kids.quintura.com

Here's a short description from the website:

Designed specifically for kids, this new experience demonstrates Quintura’s continued commitment to change the way people search and find information on the Web. Based on the same cutting edge Neural Network technology used on Quintura.com, Quintura for Kids utilizes the Quintura cloud, which allows kids to find what they are looking for faster and easier than ever before

For instance, if I click on the word "animal" the Quintura cloud changes to include descriptors such as species, territory, habitat... and my search results change as I continue to click on the ever-changing cloud.

It's powered by Yahoo! Kids. Very cool. So helpful for kids who may not be able to spell "big" words.

Thanks to the SVSD Classroom Technology blog for the tip.

More wisdom from Robert Fulghum

"One pleasure of being alive in the 21st century is the infinity of available tools. You don’t need them all – just the ones that work for you. "

I think it's important for teachers to be aware of all of the technology tools, and to maybe even kick the tires and take them for a test drive. And just like buying a car, you pick the one(s) that works best for you. So while a minivan is great for a growing family, a two-seater just wouldn't be practical. Same with all the Web 2.0 tools. Depending on your grade level, and subject area, certain tools make more sense than others.

Robert Fulghum's website

I stumbled across Robert Fulghum's website while creating a previous post, and I'm glad I did! I've added him to my Bloglines account thanks to the RSS feed available from the website. Here's a short quote from a recent post that resonates with me as Mr. Fulghum talks about his recent purchase of a 200 disk CD player:

Sometimes I think there must be a Random Button in my head that I unwittingly punch sometime between bed and breakfast. Whatever order I had in mind for the day gets over-ridden, and I come to the end of the day having done nothing I set out to do or think about.

I can relate! How about you?

Compose an online newsletter with LetterPop

From the K12 Hotlinks blog via the SVSD Classroom Technology blog I learned about LetterPop. You can create your own online newsletter that you can email to up to 100 addresses. OR... you can publish your newsletter to its own unique URL like this sample Christmas newsletter that I created in about 10 minutes.

Lots of fun! Check it out! What an easy way for teachers to create newsletters, or photo pages.