Online Smartboard Resources

Teachers Love Smartboards

Box of Tricks

Wikispaces eToolbox

Smarttech

Teacher Online Training

Getting Street Smart

Teacher LED

Smartboard Revolution

Software

Firefox

Still using Internet Explorer? It's time to move on. I would recommend Chrome for your personal browsing needs. But Chrome doesn't play nice with FAWeb. Firefox does, and does a lot of things better than IE.

Download: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/

Lastpass

Tired of trying to remember all your passwords? Or worse, do you use the exact same password for everything you do online? Give Lastpass a try to manage all your internet passwords. It installs as a plugin to Firefox (or Internet Explorer and Chrome if that's your style). It will manage all of your passwords and even generate passwords for new websites. When you're logged in to Lastpass and you go to one of your managed websites, it will give you the option to Auto-login. Lastpass has definitely sped up my internet browsing.

Download: https://lastpass.com/misc_download.php

Dropbox

Dropbox is a file syncing, sharing, and backup tool that is super easy to implement and use. Install dropbox and store your important files in it. The department will share a folder which means no more emailing attachments back and forth and wondering who has the latest version or whether it ever got shared to the server. And if your computer dies, you get a new one, install Dropbox and in minutes you have access to all your important files.

Download: http://db.tt/hNiK0km (I know that link looks weird and you could just go to dropbox.com, but if you use this one, then I get more free space)

Xobni

Xobni indexes your Outlook data and provides a quick and easy method for finding emails and attachments.

Download: www.xobni.com/download

Dropbox Gadget for Xobni

Now that you have Dropbox and Xobni, why not make them work together? With the Dropbox gadget, you can simply and easily find a file you want to share with coworkers. 

Download: http://www.xobni.com/gadgets/dropbox

Google Docs

Sure, you have Microsoft Office on your laptop. You've got Outlook working through Exchange for email. What do you need Google Docs for? Well, actually, you can use it for a lot. In fact, I plan to use Google Docs with Flubaroo for all my online assignments. Google Docs Forms are super simple to create and you can embed them on this very website so your students can get to them quickly and easily. To use Google Docs, you need to have a Google account. Don't have a Google account? Let me know and we'll set you up with a sweet Google Apps account where your user will be This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Download: Well, there's nothing to download here. Welcome to the future. Just sign up for a Google account (or get a cool valormath.com one from me) and follow the instructions for using Flubaroo.

Screenr

Thinking about trying a flipped classroom? Well, you're going to need some instructional content. There's tons of cool resources out there on the internet for you to use and we'll talk about that in a minute. But there might be that one lesson with that one topic that you can't find a good resource for and you want to create it yourself. Screenr is a fantastic little screencasting tool that will help you take care of that. Valor has been nice enough to give you (well, most of you) a neat little tablet computer with a fancy stylus. So, fire up Windows Journal then head over to Screenr.com. Now that you have a Google account, you can use it to login. Once you're logged in, click the Record button at the top and since it runs on Java, you may have to "allow" it to run. Once you've recorded your <5 minute screencast, it will give you options to share a link, embed the video, or even tweet about your video. 

Download: Again, no download. Just head over to Screenr.com and log in.

Camtasia Studio

Five minutes too short? If you need a longer video, you can use Camtasia Studio. Feel free to schedule a time to check out my laptop and webcam and I'll walk you through how to create a sweet video to embed on the website and share with your students.

Twitter

With the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and laptops, one of the best ways to keep in contact with students and parents is through Twitter. Parents and students can subscribe to follow your tweets and your tweets can be posted on your page on the website. In fact, Twitter can be a viable alternative to an email list. Sign up for an account and start tweeting 140 characters at a time.

Sign up: http://twitter.com/

Khan Academy

So, you've all read the Wired article, right? Use Khan Academy for supplemental material or for use in a flipped classroom. They have a fairly comprehensive collection of videos on high school math topics which you can embed on the website for your students to find quickly and easily. There are also review questions at Khan Academy that you can point your students to in order to test their understanding.

Explore: http://www.khanacademy.org/