Make 3D Movies for Free

If you have ever wished you could make a 3D animation, check out Xtranormal.com. Xtranormal allows you to make a movie in minutes, share it with your friends, embed it on your website/blog/wiki, or upload it to YouTube. There are pre-made characters and backgrounds and the characters say whatever you type. There are also emotion and gesticulations you can add. Their tagline is "If you can type, you can make movies".

Visit http://www.xtranormal.com/

They also have a blog at http://www.xtranormal.com/blog

Woopid: Video Tutorials

Watch free video tutorials related to computers, software, and gadgets. There are videos for Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu. And, the videos cover just about everything from Microsoft Word to Google to configuring a router. This site is definitely worth a look technology novices and gurus alike.

Visit http://www.woopid.com/

Woopid also has a blog at http://blog.woopid.com/

YouTube Without Distractions

If you are showing YouTube videos to a class of students, chances are they don't even notice the comments and other links on the page. But just in case you find it to be a distraction to them, you can use a new tool called "quietube".

Visit http://quietube.com/

Drag the little button to your tool bar. Then, go to YouTube and click the button while a video is playing. The video will open in a window all by itself without any other distractions on the page.

This works on some other video websites as well.

Google Docs: New Drawing Feature

You can now add drawings within your documents on Google Docs. To start drawing, go to the "Insert" tab and choose "Drawing" from the drop-down menu. It is that simple.

YouTube EDU

Yesterday, YouTube launched YouTube EDU. YouTube EDU is a volunteer project designed to be an "educational hub" that provides access to lectures, student-made videos, and sporting events from different universities. So, you can go to http://www.youtube.com/edu and access lectures from MIT, Yale, Stanford, and Duke just to name a few. For more information you can visit YouTube's blog entry from yesterday.

Free Interactive Whiteboard Links

This site just came to me via my Twitter network. The Educational Technology Center, which is located at the National Science Center in George, has compiled a list of useful sites that can be used with Interactive White Boards (Promethean, SMART, Polyvision, etc.). The resources are provided for free to educators worldwide.

There are resources for the following disciplines: math, science, social studies, language arts, art, music, and physical education.

http://www.ettcnsc.org/Instructional_resources/other/interactive_whiteboard_links.htm

This site is definitely worth a look.

Something to see.

This was sent by some other technology teachers. Maybe you can see some educational use.

http://roxik.com/pictaps/