THIS IS UNBELIEVABLY COOL!

This is a very brief recording I made on my cell phone to demonstrate the new FREE Audioblogger service now available at http://www.audioblogger.com/

After setting up your account, you'll get an email that contains the phone number you'll call to record an audio post from your cell phone. You'll be prompted to enter the cell phone number you used to set up your account, and your PIN.

After that, you're recording, much like you would leave a voicemail. You can review or re-record your post, and create multiple audio posts in the same phone call.

The audio post was added to my Blogger blog IMMEDIATELY! By the time I hung up the phone and typed in my URL, the post was already there! Then you can go in to add text, links, etc. just like any other blog post.

WAY COOL! Check it out!

FREE Music Software from Sony

Garage Band is outstanding music creation software for Apple users. Windows PC users like me wish there was something similar for us. Well, there's something close, and best of all there's a FREE version available from Sony's website.

ACID® XPress 5.0 allows you to create loop based music, similar to Garage Band. The software includes several "show me how" tutorials to get you up and composing in no time. You'll also find many free sample mixes and loops to download from Sony's ACIDPlanet.

In my brief experience with the software, the only limitations I've noticed are a limit of 10 tracks, and 20 renders to mp3. This would be an excellent opportunity for students to create their own music to accompany a digital video, PowerPoint, or other project.

An upgrade to the full Academic version of the software costs about $45.

Bloglines Tip of the Day

While reading Will Richardson's blog I came across this excellent tip from Steve Dembo's Teach42 blog:

If you go into Bloglines, click on My Feeds and scroll down to the bottom of the left hand frame, you’ll see a link called “Tell a friend”. Clicking on it allows you to enter in a list of email addresses and to pick among blogs you currently subscribe to. It will send out an email with a link to bloglines that will allow someone to register a new account at bloglines prepopulated with your chosen blogs!

WOW! Had I only known about this about 12 hours ago!!! But it's still not too late! If you attended the Technology Summit and you haven't yet set up a Bloglines account, I can send you an email that will enable you to start your very own account with all of my RSS feeds. Just send ME an email and I'll get going on this ASAP.

OR you can do the same thing for a friend or colleague to tell THEM about this cool new technology.

Technology Summit

My thanks to the 25 or so elementary teachers who attended today's Technology Summit at the Monroe County ISD.

I hope you will find the time to create your own blog (Blogger), and that you find and subscribe to many worthwhile RSS feeds in Bloglines.

Please share your comments with me in the EdTech Update blog, and allow me to post links to your blogs on this one.

Here are links to the interactive websites and RSS and blogging sites we explored today. Let me know of other interesting websites that you have discovered so that I may share them.

Remember, all of us are better than any of us. Let's not reinvent the wheel!

The First Thanksgiving

Discover what REALLY happened at the first Thanksgiving by going to Plimoth Plantation's you are the Historian website.

This highly interactive site offers students a chance to play history detective by examining evidence including the text from a letter written by Edward Winslow in 1621, the only eyewitness account still in existence.

By exploring this site you can learn what foods were served, how many people attended, and many of the myths that are still assumed to be true nearly 400 years later.

There's also a printable glossary, and an EXCELLENT teacher's guide with several blackline masters.

Google Earth tips

While reading the Google Earth Community bulletin board I came across a post that recommended this website: http://explorer.altopix.com/

The Earth Explorer website has posted pictures of hundreds of locations from around the world. Even better, you can then open the site in Google Earth, Google Maps, MSN VirtualEarth, TerraServer, or NASA World Wind by clicking the appropriate hyperlink.

A "KML" file loads the selected site in Google Earth (GE). What a time saver! It can be very difficult to find what you're looking for in GE, kind of like the proverbial needle in a haystack!

Here's a GE picture of one of my favorite places in Detroit...Comerica Park.

Sudoku is addictive!

Have you discovered Sudoku? I first saw these puzzles in the newspaper about a month ago. They require no math skills, only logic to place the numbers 1 to 9 in each row, column, and 3X3 grid only once. I think these would be a great brain teaser for any classroom. They really are addictive!

There's a great website, The Daily SuDoku, with a new printable puzzle every day. You can also print out the archived puzzles. They even have a Sudoku for kids page with easier puzzles, and downloadable blank grids in PDF.

You can have puzzles emailed to you each day, or subscribe to the RSS feed. Or you can check back here each day, because I've embedded the HTML code that will display their daily puzzle right here on the EdTech Update (with their permission of course!)

But wait! There's more!!! If you would like to try Sudoku on your Palm handheld computer, there is a freeware version (although the developer is accepting donations) available from Andrew Gregory's website.

An online Sudoku Flash tutorial is available at: http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/1/index-e.htm

[print version]

Visit http://www.dailysudoku.com/ for more puzzles, solutions, hints, books and other resources.