Elizabeth Shepherd's List: Instructional Technology

Being a first year teacher can be overwhelming to say the least. There is new curriculum to learn, unfamiliar school policies, classroom management challenges, and new teammates. Technology can help to ease some of these first year growing pains.

8 Free and Easy Tools Innovative Educators Can Start Using Today
The following tools are all free and simple to use. This means there’s no cost, nothing to download, no CDs, no manuals and no training. The best of these also do not require users to have email, registration or log ins.

Tool used in our final group project for 5625

Listed below are 23 Things (or activities) for you to do on the web to explore and expand your knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0 tools.

Secondary blog created for my IT Masters Degree.

Blog I created as part of my Instructional Technology Masters Degree.

In today's climate, paying for technology isn't prudent, and for some students, it isn't even an option. Fortunately, there are plenty of freebies on the web that can help with document creation, research, writing, storage, collaboration, studying and more. Here are 25 free web apps and software programs that may be useful to students.

If you consider yourself a geek, or aspire to the honor of geekhood, here's an essential checklist of must-have geek skills.

Here are a few Firefox hacks to get you pumping with this awesome browser.

These are instructions on how to use the iMovie '09 green screen feature to change the background of your video clip.

Portable Document Format (PDF) is the de facto standard for the secure and reliable distribution and exchange of electronic documents and forms around the world. CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial PDF creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer subsystem". This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents - with just a push of a button!

The real question is, can maintenance tools really help in getting your system speedy, healthy, and less prone to crashes? The answer is a subjective yes. As a unix system, Mac OS X runs certain maintenance scripts of its own, without the user being aware of them. These scripts run at a certain time daily, weekly, and monthly. However there are other tasks like clearing caches, repairing permissions, and checking the disks which the system does not do on its own. These may or may not optimise your system in a tangible way, but they will definitely be a precautionary measure to make sure nothing is broken.

Youth has been notoriously quick to adopt new technologies. Teens text as naturally as they breathe while parents struggle to keep pace. Despite their tech savvy, modern American students trail in education standards among industrialized nations. Rather than use powerful tools to spread gossip among friends, these sites get students to spend time on their homework instead of Facebook.

Lesson plan ideas on students managing their digital footprint.