Make your own Digital fashcards

Flashcards is a Silverlight web application where you can create, share, and study online flashcards.  Find a deck in the community, or create your own.  Decks can have up to 300 cards, and each card can have any combination of text, image, and sound on the front and the back.  Start with Review mode if you don't know the content at all.  Otherwise, skip ahead to Study or Type It In modes.  Study mode is based on the honor system, and Type It In checks the correct answer with what you typed in.  Want a challenge?  Try swapping fronts and backs then studying again.  Click here to access it.

Math Worksheet Generator

Do you spend a lot of time searching for worksheets with practice problems to give your students? Now you can easily create your own in just a few seconds with the Math Worksheet Generator. This is a tool that generates multiple math problems based on a sample, and then creates a worksheet that you can distribute. By analyzing the math problem you provide, or one of the built-in samples, the generator determines the structure of the expression and provides similar problems. We tack on an answer sheet too.

Click here to access the Maths Worksheet Generator

Is this the replacement for the Interactive Whiteboard?

Yesterday, Microsoft released the development kit for Kinect on Windows.  For the uninitiated Kinect is a bodily controlled gaming platform that has been around on the X-box for around a year now.  As a gaming tool Kinect is innovative but not entirely brilliant attempt to revolutionize gaming.

If you look at the video below you will see Kinect running on Windows and get an idea of the possibilities that lay ahead of us.  Surely this would supersede the potential of what current IWB's offer us.

I'd Love to hear what you think after you have had a look.

Microsoft overhauls it's Education & Teacher Resources

Microsoft has finally put a bit of effort into it's Education section and has some great guides and resources to complement many of their software packages such as office and the ever increasing Windows Live suite.  I must say that this is greatly improved over their older attempts to lure teachers to their site and their downloadable teaching guides are aimed at student engagement which is great. 

Anyhow take a look for yourself here.

Top 5 Computer Self Help Sites

Sometimes things just go wrong with your computer and you might face a lengthy or expensive wait to get a supposed 'expert' to find the source of the problem.  Fortunately there are a few sites on the web that will help you out of your problems whether it be a an annoying niggle or a complete meltdown.

Computerhope is a great starting point to actually find out what your problem is and then go most of the way to fixing it if your problem is simple.  This is a Windows on only site covering all Microsoft O/S's from Windows 95 through to Windows 7.

Yes Apple Computers do break down too believe it or not and luckily Apple have a comprehensive help site available here to find a solution to your problem.

Many problems are simply annoyances rather than major issues then you need to visit annoyances.org to get fast answers to your problems via forums.

To actually watch someone fix common PC problems then you need to visit the eHowTech channel at Youtube.  This also has a range of tweaking videos to improve performance.

Last but not least and in my opinion the best is just good old Google - just be specific about your problem when you type it in the search box and your solution is never far away.  I have never found a computer problem yet that no one else has actually suffered and written something about.

Remember also that a computer problem is not a problem until you have rebooted and it still persists.

Do you suck at PowerPoint?

If you are a teacher or student for that matter then I am sure you have had to face death by PowerPoint at some point sitting through hours of utter drivel both verbally and visually.  Fortunately if you do suck at PowerPoint then here is help.  I'd start with this little sideshow below that clearly does not suck.

YOU SUCK AT POWERPOINT!

View more presentations from @JESSEDEE.

Don't waste your time becoming a Microsoft Live@Edu Master Teacher

Just a quick note to advise anyone thinking of looking at the Microsoft Live@Edu Master Teacher program.  Don't bother it is crap and just a shameless heap of advertising about their live products dressed up as training.  You will not gain anything from doing this except wasting 30 minutes of your life.

Lesson Plan: How to Use (and Avoid Misusing) PowerPoint

I have discussed this in the past in my article "Death by PowerPoint" as Microsoft's Presentation tool would have to be one of the most used and abused applications both in the classroom and the staff room for meetings and speaking and listening tasks.

I cant stand dodgy PowerPoints in which the presenter simply reads the same boring drivel that we can already see on the screen behind them.  So I jumped at this lesson plan outlining how to get the most and avoid the worst from PowerPoint from the New York Times Learning Network.

In this lesson, students examine perspectives on effective and ineffective uses of PowerPoint, then develop a set of rules for effective use of this tool for their class projects and presentations. They then create PowerPoint slides and a prose narrative on the same subject and compare the impact of each on the intended audience.

There is something here for both teachers and students and I would recommend this for year 5 students upwards through high school.  Check it out here.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/point-counter-point-how-to-use-and-avoid-misusing-powerpoint/?nl=learning&emc=a1