moodle introduction

Our district is just starting to introduce Moodle. In looking at some of its features, I came across a presentation that explains what Moodle is using Lego.

free tax software

I've been meaning to mention this, even though it isn't related to education technology unless you are a business education teacher. StudioTax is a free NETFILE certified tax preparation program. I haven't used it yet, but I've been NETFILEing for a number of years with paid programs, but this year I intend to use StudioTax.

some software recommendations

Some free (and/or open source) software that I recommend:

Paint.NET image and photo editing
GIMP image and photo editing
IrfanView image viewer
Picasa photo organization and editing
CutePDF pdf writer
Foxit pdf reader
ZoomIt for drawing on the screen

Firefox web browser
Thunderbird email client
Pidgin for IM (MSN, AIM, etc)
Skype internet phone

VLC video/music player
iTunes for music libraries and podcasts
YamiPod an iTunes alternatve for iPod management.
Miro for video podcasts and RSS, etc.
MovieMaker 2 video editing
PhotoStory for making slideshows easily
Audacity audio recording/editing

CD BurnerXP for burning CDs and DVDs
InfraRecorder for burning CDs and DVDs
Avast antivirus
Spybot S&D AntiSpyware
Ad-Aware AntiSpyware
uTorrent for downloading torrents
TightVNC remote admin
XP PowerToys
7-zip file archiving/unarchiving

PD Session - Technology Gadgets

The PowerPoint file from the January 30th, 2009 PD session on Technology Gadgets can be found here.

making a password protected website with Google sites

If you find that you need to have information available on the Internet to a limited number of people, perhaps your students, you can create a website using Google Sites. Google Sites can be used with a regular Google (Gmail) account, or with a Google Apps account (as I've discussed before.

When creating your site, you can specify if you want it viewable by the whole world, anyone from your domain, or specific users. You can also invite users to be collaborators, meaning that they can edit the pages on the site.

One thing to be careful of, however, is that it seems the option "Anyone at may viewedit this site." is not the default option. If you don't want your students to edit your site, you'll want to change that.

The Importance of backups

I was reminded today, again, that it is a good idea to have copies of any important digital documents in at least two locations. Those little USB flash drives occasionally stop working or get misplaced, so I wouldn’t recommend keeping your only copy of a file on there.

Likely your school-provided network storage location is backed up automatically, so that’s the best place to store things. I’ve also written previously about online (Internet) storage options for your files.

That reminds me, I need to backup my photos at home.

antivirus

I'm often asked about antivirus for home PCs, and I always recommend Avast Home Edition.  It is a free program with free updates, but it requires (free) registration.

It works as well or better than other paid products, which is why I recommend it.

I also only recommend free software.