Academic Referencing of Material

I just discovered a free software tool that plugs into the browser and helps students collect, manage, and cite research sources.

For those of you who aren't parents or who haven't yet gone through the chaos of having little Johnny or Jane in agony over their research papers and their sources, this tool is sure to be a necessity.

It is called Zotero. It is a download that plugs into the browser and it was developed by George Mason University.

Beautiful. See the video tour here.

Use Twitter for School Communications

The following Twitter tutorial introduces Twitter and explains how it works. Watch it with this consideration in mind;

Assume that your school's administrators and teachers all signed up for twitter using a prescribed naming convention. Our school is EO Smith so let's say my Twitter id is eos_frank so that it is different from any personal Twitter identities. If all teachers and administrators at the school signed up for Twitter and selectively subscribed to each other then a powerful social tool is suddenly available in the school.

A principal for example would immediately know from a twitter feed what's going on between periods, who has a hall pass, who's sick or fighting and so on. Secretarial staff at the Superintendent's office would see issues from the principal's staff, and so on.

This kind of thing could catch on!

Merry Christmas! Free AVG Professional 7.5 Anti-virus Link

A British magazine called Computer Active is giving away free downloads of AVG Professional 7.5 anti-virus software. Carefully read the directions if you choose to participate in the promotion.

AVG is a product I highly recommend and a very nice seasonal promotion on the part of the sponsors.

Free Software: Zone Alarm

Protecting PCs from the bad guys is a non-trivial exercise. Spam, malwares, and dozens of viruses and whatnot are all widely circulated thanks to our teenagers engaging in indiscriminate web-surfing activities. It certainly happens in my household and I'm sure other parents and interested parties will know what I speak of.

Zone Alarm is a highly reviewed [though not infallible] tool that can help prtect you. Use it with one of my recommended anti-virus packages [search 'free' on this blog].

Desciption from CNET site:

ZoneAlarm is designed to protect your DSL- or cable-connected PC from hackers. This program includes four interlocking security services: a firewall, an application control, an Internet lock, and Zones. The firewall controls the door to your computer and allows only traffic you understand and initiate. The application control allows you to decide which applications can and cannot use the Internet. The Internet lock blocks Internet traffic while your computer is unattended or while you're not using the Internet, and it can be activated automatically with your computer's screensaver or after a set period of inactivity. Zones monitor all activity on your computer and alert you when a new application attempts to access the Internet. Version 6.5.722 removes McAfee installation gate and fixes an update problem with LastWriteTime.

Note:ZoneAlarm is free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use (excluding governmental entities and educational institutions).

Free Software: A Graphical Math Calculator, Ump

From the site:

Ump is a graphical, easy to use math program, which works with complex numbers, matrices, functions and much more.
Ump is released under the terms of Gnu GPL.

Project Gutenburg - 18,000 Free eBooks

For schools who operate on razor thin budgets and in poor communities where household incomes are also tight, the books offered here for the reading are a treasure.

The fact that people read web pages 25% slower than paper print may also incrrease a child's ability to grasp context and content - an experiement worth measuring by any educational specialists looking for a graduate thesis.

More Free School Tools: Google Calendar

You'll notice a new Region 19 Calendar on the left panel that will hold region 19 Committee dates, agendas and notes. The calendar will never be comprehensive but this is a vast improvement over the closed software solutions schools usually pay for expensively.

You'll notice that meeting places are mapped directly to Google Maps providing driving directions and so on.

By using Google Calendars, you can compare multiple calendars against each other listing as many events as you want to prioritise.

Meanwhile CABE is promoting a State of Connecticut boondoggle that can't do half as much and is costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands. Oh well, it's only money to burn.

Try the Googgle Calendar out. It will import your existing school Outlook calendar in a snap making it available to everyone in the community not just those on a local network.

Oh, and you can examine these calendars from your cell phone.

Free Software Preview: Google Spreadsheets

Click on the link to test drive Google's collaborative Spreadsheet.

This is where I want the Region 19 budget details to live, in a publicly readable spreadsheet that anyone can take a look at.

Also this is nice for math, science, and lots of other school projects and club accounting activities.