"In line with its more rapid release schedule, Firefox 5 was released just three months after Firefox 4, which had arrived earlier this year. According to the Mozilla Security Leader, Daniel Veditz, it also means that Firefox 4 will no longer be receiving any more updates, including any for potential security issues."
# New Email for Kids with Art/eCard attachments
# New Time Lock for limiting a childs time on the computer.
# New updated browser navigation (thumbnail GUI) and graphics.
# New Kidrocket.org websites. (Public & KidSafe)
# New online games and puzzles.
# Now Vista compatible. (Windows 98, 2000, XP, MCE, Vista)
# Updated kidsafe website list. view approved websites
# Now provides vocal prompts and confirmations, for alerts and various security related operations. - It Talks!
Collaborate & Publish
Everyone works on a document at the same time. Collaborators get your changes immediately, or only when you save-your choice!
Share your flow charts as a web page, PDF, or image.
Publish an always-updated image of your work.
Thinkfinity content providers are as follows:
* ArtsEdge, a program of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, provides art education resources.
* EconEdLink, developed by the Council for Economic Education, offers economic and personal finance lesson materials for K-12 teachers and students.
* EdSitement, from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Trust for the Humanities, includes information in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies.
* Illuminations, created by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), provides resources for teaching mathematics.
* Literacy Network, a program of the National Center for Family Literacy and ProLiteracy, offers resources for literacy instruction and lifelong learning for adults and family literacy programs.
* ReadWriteThink, from the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), includes resources for reading and language arts instruction.
* Science NetLinks, developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), provides standards-based science resources including downloadable 60-second science updates.
* Smithsonian's History Explorer, created by the National Museum of American History, features resources and artifacts from the museum's collections.
* Xpeditions, from National Geographic, offers geography resources including printable maps and an interactive atlas.
Professional Development
Thinkfinity provides a number of professional development opportunities. Many Virginia educators have become Thinkfinity field trainers through online training classes and have become certified trainers.
Resources
A special Educator section highlights the newest available resources.
Correlations between the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) and Thinkfinity resources are available in the following Excel spreadsheets
Here are five ideas that will help you begin building your own personal learning network.
1. Read blogs related to your passion. Search out topics of interest at http://blogsearch.google.com and see who shares those interests.
2. Participate. If you find bloggers out there who are writing interesting and relevant posts, share your reflections and experiences by commenting on their posts.
3. Use your real name. It's a requisite step to be Googled well. Be prudent, of course, about divulging any personal information that puts you at risk, and guide students in how they can do the same.
4. Start a Facebook page. Educators need to understand the potential of social networking for themselves.
5. Explore Twitter (http://twitter.com), a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to exchange short updates of 140 characters or fewer. It may not look like much at first glance, but with Twitter, the network can be at your fingertips.
Apptism is the only iPhone app activity aggregator. We track the activity of every app in the App Store. With anywhere from 50 to 100 iPhone apps being added and updated on the App Store daily, it is nearly impossible to keep up. Using apptism, you'll be able to monitor all app activity and find the app you're looking for quickly. App content is also aggregated from many sources to keep you informed on the latest and greatest. Our searching, sorting, and filtering options are nearly endless.
via Teachakidd
1. Beware of "Posting Meetings"
If you leave a meeting without action steps, then question the value of the meeting (especially if it is recurring). A meeting to "share updates" should actually be an e-mail.
The TechMatrix is a powerful tool for finding educational and assistive technology products for students with special needs.
Learn what questions to ask and how to make informed ed tech decisions with our updated Guides.
Via Kevin Jarrett
We've heard many ingenious ways that teachers have used Google Docs in the classroom. Here are just a few:
* Promote group collaboration and creativity by having your students record their group projects together in a single doc.
* Keep track of grades, attendance, or any other data you can think of using an easily accessible, always available spreadsheet.
* Facilitate writing as a process by encouraging students to write in a document shared with you. You can check up on their work at any time, provide insight and help using the comments feature, and understand better each students strengths.
* Create quizzes and tests using spreadsheets forms, your students' timestamped answers will arrive neatly ordered in a spreadsheet.
* Encourage collaborative presentation skills by asking your students to work together on a shared presentation, then present it to the class.
* Collaborate on a document with fellow teachers to help you all track the status and success of students you share.
* Maintain, update and share lesson plans over time in a single document.
* Track and organize cumulative project data in a single spreadsheet, accessible to any collaborator at any time.
notify.me delivers notifications that interest you in near real time. It eliminates the need for you to constantly check on classified listings, blogs or social networking sites. Notifications are pushed to your destinations of choice such as instant messenger, mobile phone, email, desktop or web application.
The question has to be raised that are there things in this list that APS is not doing properly?
"She lists eight ways to keep your networks safe:
* Don't assume a link is "safe" because it's from a friend.
* Don't assume Twitter links are safe because Twitter is now scanning for malware.
* Don't Assume Bit.ly Links are safe.
* Use an up-to-date web browser.
* Keep Windows up-to-date.
* Keep Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash up-to-date.
* Don't assume you're safe because you use a Mac.
* Be wary of email messages from social networks (because email addresses can be "spoofed" by hackers). "