Links, Etc.
SimpleAssessment — Simple yet powerful tool that takes the hassle out of assessing student technology proficiency.

SimpleTechLearning — Simple, cost-effective tool to help teachers and students achieve basic technology literacy.

InfoSource Learning — Streamline your training program with our interactive. online, just-in-time training solutions.

Subscribe Free!
Are you subscribed? Why not, it's free! Easily have every weekly issue sent directly to your email inbox. Just fill out the form below and click Submit right now!

Let's Get Creative
Foreword
As an early Gen X-er, my formal education happened before the public Internet. Of course I missed out on a lot, but no hard feelings... it's not like I didn't have access to a wealth of resources already offered through the school system, public libraries and bookstores, etc. So, I don't feel too bad about hitting the scene just a bit too early...

... except for these absolutely amazing multimedia development tools everybody has access to today, and for free. These would have really blown my mind back then. Heck, these would blow me away now if I were a kid. They're that good, simple and easy.

Spend a bit of time playing around with these. I'd be amazed if you didn't get any ideas on how to use these in your classrooms.
 

ArtPad
http://artpad.art.com/gallery
You've likely already seen and/or played around with this kind of "paint" application before, offline and on. I remember when I first saw this kind of app, way back when the very first Apple Mac hit the market. It was fascinating and engrossing then (and back then, the Macs were black-and-white!), and you betcha they're just as fun today!

Or even more so. ArtPad's interface is quite simple and intuitive, and deceptively so since its creative features are impressively powerful!

But the "feature" that I find will serve very well to help educate budding artists is its "replay painting" command — it replays stroke-by-stroke, layer-by-layer, start-to-finish every little "action" performed to create the finished product. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find something better to vividly illustrate exactly what goes into a finished painting.

Go to ArtPad
 

GoAnimate
http://goanimate.com
My immediate impression upon playing with GoAnimate for only a few minutes: This has got to be the best and easiest animation tool I've ever played with that produces really professional-looking results! How's that for a review?

You'll have at your disposal a whole arsenal of animation components to build with: cartoon characters, scenery, dialogue balloons, soundtracks, props, special effects... just throw in your story and direction, and you've got yourself an animated movie!

Besides being able to use this to help easily create compelling educational material (particularly for the younger kids), I don't see why GoAnimate can't be used for student projects.

TIP: For your first few attempts, start out with their "Thought Starters" templates. They not only make it easy for you to build something quickly, while using them you can't help but learn how their animations get pieced together. Here's one I created in short order with one of their templates.

Go to GoAnimate