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A mini-movie is a simple (most involve only a click of the mouse), interactive animation that teachers can download and add to their galleries. From there, the movies can be inserted into their SMARTBoard Notebook presentations. Each mini-movie is a dynamic Flash file, similar to the same files that are already included in Notebook's resources.

"Educreations is an exciting app that transforms your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. It records your voice, handwriting and also allows you to insert pictures to produce your own personal video lessons that you and your students can share online. Your lessons are stored online and can be accessed by students on any computer or iPad. "

"Most of us know you should read something out loud when proofreading, but we may miss critical errors. We insert words we think are there, but aren't, because we wrote it. Using the text-to-speech function on your device will help prevent your internal autocorrect from missing errors. Over at TUAW, they suggest using the Mac's and iOS's built-in text to speech function. Windows, Android and Chrome have text-to-speech too, though, so this tip works anywhere. You'll hear words that are missing and punctuation that's off when the text doesn't sound right. It's no replacement for a human, but can help in a pinch."

"Evernote is a helpful productivity tool when used effectively on iPad and can play a significant role in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Whether being used in a Math, English, Foreign Language or Art class, by combining the capacity to type, insert images, annotate, and record audio, students can integrate their iPad with Evernote in a number of unique ways. Below are six approaches to using Evernote in the classroom to improve organization, promote reflection, and help students capture their process and thinking."

If you're setting up a worksheet only for yourself, you can simply leave an empty cell for this purpose. To check it, just type in an x or any other character. Then use a formula with the =isblank() function to make the contents of that cell affect the rest of the spreadsheet. But you might want something more mouse-friendly--especially if you're designing a spreadsheet for other people. I've tested the technique below on Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. I'm not sure about earlier versions. You can insert checkboxes on Excel's Developer tab. Unfortunately, that tab is hidden by default. To make it visible in Excel 2010 or 2013, click the File tab and select Options. ClickCustomize Ribbon. You'll see two lists. Make sure that the one on the right is titled Main Tabs. Check Developer.

"A couple of months ago when Brad Gustafson (principal/lead learner at Greenwood Elementary School in Plymouth Minnesota), asked me if I wanted to help him create a "book talk" play-off podcast, of course I jumped at the chance. Since then, we've been plotting, scheming, designing, collaborating (mostly over Voxer) and collecting video book talks from some of the finest educators on the planet, so that we can bring you (insert drum roll here) ...  The #30secondbooktalk Podcast Challenge!!!!  "

"I've had the honor and privilege of sharing with hundreds of librarians and educators about our makerspace. Unfortunately, I see many educators hold back on starting a makerspace because of funds.  I'm always hearing excuses like: "I'd love to do (insert cool Maker activity) at my school, but we don't have a budget for that." "We can't really afford a 3D printer right now." "I don't see how we can get started with making in our school when our computers are dinosaurs." What many people don't realize is that the idea that you need a lot of money to start a Makerspace is a myth. All you need is to have vision, ingenuity, and resourcefulness. A lack of funds is no excuse for keeping your students from experiencing the empowerment that comes with bringing the Maker Education Movement into your program.  It may take more effort and elbow grease, but you can start a makerspace even with a zero balance in your budget."

"The word "deepfakes" refers to using deep learning, a type of machine learning, to add anyone's face and voice to video. It has been mostly found on the internet's dark corners, where some people have used it to insert ex-girlfriends and celebrities into pornography. But BuzzFeed provided a glimpse of a possible future in April when it created a video that supposedly showed Obama mocking Trump, but in reality, Obama's face was superimposed onto footage of Hollywood filmmaker Jordan Peele using deepfake technology. Deepfakes could pose a greater threat than the fake news and Photoshopped memes that littered the 2016 presidential election because they can be hard to spot and because people are -- for now -- inclined to believe that video is real. But it's not just about individual videos that will spread misinformation: it's also the possibility that videos like these will convince people that they simply can't trust anything they read, hear or see unless it supports the opinions they already hold. Experts say fake videos that will be all but impossible to identify as such are as little as 12 months away."

"Computer science education is not a new field. Much of what we know about the pedagogy and content for elementary students comes from Seymour Papert's research on teaching elementary students to code back in the 1970's and 80's. But, as we shift from labs and one-off classrooms to a broad expansion for all students in every classroom K-12, we are seeing changes to how computer science is taught. This means we are working in a rapidly evolving field (insert metaphor of building a plane while flying it). Over time, we have gone from a focus on coding (often in isolation) to a more broad idea of computer science as a whole, and now to the refined idea of computational thinking as a foundational understanding for all students. Pause. You may be asking, "But wait, what's computational thinking again?" In her book Coding as a Playground, Marina Umaschi Bers explained: "The notion of computational thinking encompasses a broad set of analytic and problem-solving skills, dispositions, habits, and approaches most often used in computer science, but that can serve everyone." More simply, you can think of computational thinking as the thought processes involved in using algorithms to solve problems. Sheena Vaidyanathan writes some good articles explaining the differences between computer science, coding, and computational thinking here and here."

"FEBRUARY 22, 2018 -From the instant replay that decides a game to the bodycam footage that clinches a conviction, people tend to trust video evidence as an arbiter of truth. But that faith could soon become quaint, as machine learning is enabling ordinary users to create fabricated videos of just about anyone doing just about anything. Earlier this month, the popular online forum Reddit shut down r/deepfakes, a subreddit discussion board devoted to using open-source machine-learning tools to insert famous faces into pornographic videos. Observers say this episode represents just one of the many ways that the this technology could fuel social problems, particularly in an age of political polarization. Combating the negative effects of fabricated video will require a shift among both news outlets and news consumers, say experts.  "Misinformation has been prevalent in our politics historically," says Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., who specializes in political misperceptions. "But it is true that technology can facilitate new forms of rumors and other kinds of misinformation and help them spread more rapidly than ever before." So-called fake news has been around long before Macedonian teenagers began enriching themselves by feeding false stories to social media users. In 1782, Benjamin Franklin printed a falsified supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle maligning Seneca Indians in an attempt to influence public opinion during peace negotiations with Britain."

"No matter what you call it - chroma key, green screen or blue screen - it's the film and video technique that gives your local TV weatherperson something in common with the Avengers movies: artificial backgrounds inserted behind the action. You simply record your subject in front of a solid green or blue screen, and then add a touch of software magic to change the background. Dozens of free or inexpensive apps allow you to use the technique on your own clips. It's a great way to jazz up your presentations and other videos - or to keep children busy with a weekend project filming their own toys in action scenes. Here's how to get started."

"GE Teach Tour is a free tool that you and your students can use to create tours to play in the new web version of Google Earth. To get started head to geteach.com/tour/ then enter a title for your tour. The next step is to give your first placemark a title and to enter a description of the location you're featuring with that placemark. To place your placemarks in your tour you can either manually enter latitude and longitude coordinates or you can click on the map to insert your placemarks. Finally, to add images to your placemarks you will have to link to publicly available images that are in your Google Drive account or on another image hosting service like Flickr (by the way, linking to images found on sites that prevent hotlinking won't work)."

"Update: Apple has updated its Clips app, bringing along a suite of new digital assets from the company itself to make your videos and photos a little more lively. New overlays, backgrounds and animated text are just a few of the new features available in the update. Additionally, entertainment giant Disney has chipped in some content and the implementation seems fun. You'll basically be able to overlay your favorite Disney characters on your photos and even better, you can insert an animated character into your videos."

Get a transcript of any YouTube video by simply inserting the video link. From the active transcript you can jump to any point in the video