Virtual
Teacher Newsletter No. 54 July 27th 2002 – GRACIOUSNESS
THE
FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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Newsletter
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CONTENTS
1.
Welcome
2.
Mind Candy
3.
WWWinfo
4.
New Printables - Egyptian Treasure
Hunt
5.
Technical Stuff - Jaguar
6. Web
Site Focus – Commonwealth Games
7. Word
Picture Edit Tool
8.
Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10
Next Issue
11.
Code of 'Netizens'
12.
Tips
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1.
WELCOME EVERYONE. During the holidays my children
were
bitten by the golfing bug. It was
fantastic fun, I seemed
to be
regaling them constantly with a litany of instructions:-
be
patient, be considerate, wait your turn, the usual list. I found
myself
thinking about the one word that covered the lot, applies to golf,
and a
lot of other things as well - Graciousness. Something that
has
perhaps been lost or at least misplaced in this current-RUSH to
do as
many things as possible in the shortest possible time,
world
we live in. Graciousness - even to
say the word, forces you
to
take it more slowly. It is going
to be my new word for term 3.
I
love it - be gracious, covers everything really. And if the students
get
really good at it - Why then it will be - Good Graciousness.
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2.
MIND CANDY
Dale
Spender Computer Strategy
"The
raw material of today's global community is intellectuality
and
creativity, which is why everyone needs a computer, an ISP,
a
national information infrastructure, and a support system.
The
government who buys every member of society a computer
is
sure to get a great deal, and an excellent customer service
agreement.
Not to mention a head start in the global economy."
CREATE
WEALTH; CONNECT THE COMMUNITY!
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Time
is elusive, lunchtime doubly so.
Douglas
Adams – Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
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It is
not enough to learn what is already known.
In
fact, these students have been made aware that to survive in
the
new knowledge economy, they must know how to make knowledge
products.
For in order to sell your knowledge – your Intellectual Property
- you
need to come up with new ideas, solutions and know-how.
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To
err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so.
Robert Orben
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"We must
welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be
the past, and we
must respect the past, remembering trial once it
was all that was
humanly possible."
Philosopher
Santayana
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Never trust a
computer you can't throw out a window.
Steve Wozniak
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I do not fear
computers. I fear the lack of them.
Isaac Asimov
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Computers are
magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams,
but no machine
can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion,
love, and
understanding.
Louis Gerstner
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3.
WWWinfo
Free
online Translators
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
http://www.freetranslation.com/
http://www.translate-free.com/
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4.
NEW PRINTABLES - Treasure Hunt
Can
you do it can you take on this challenge and complete the
questions
in 1 hour, less than an hour, how web savvy are you?
Time
yourself and see how swift you really are.
Join
the Egyptian Treasure Hunt. Answer
the questions, work
in
groups, practice typing in URLS or use them live from a word document.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/questions.doc
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5.
TECHNICAL STUFF
SAY
HELLO TO JAGUAR
Mac
OS 10.2
No OS
is an island. Or, at least, shouldn’t be.
As a result
of our persistent adherence to industry standards,
Mac
OS X v10.2 lets you share files easily with Windows and
UNIX
colleagues; browse Windows file servers, right from the
Finder;
and remotely connect to the corporate network via the
PPPT-based
VPN client in Mac OS X v10.2. What’s more,
thanks
to Personal File Services in Mac OS X v10.2, Windows users can
connect
to, and share files with, computers running Jaguar as easily
as
they can with other computers running Windows.
Maybe
even more easily. Check it out at:-
http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/compatibility.html
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Buying
a new computer, Grays online is an interesting site with
loads
of new/used computers
http://www.graysonline.com.au/
You
can certainly get a deal here especially when there is quantity
for
sale.
Cathy's
Tips
1.
Check new prices and place a bid in for one third to one half
the
listed new price - if you you get lucky your a winner.
2.
Some really cheap things can be picked up just before an
auction
closes -if you have the time bid in the last 10mins of an
auction,
and you could get even luckier.
3.
WATCH Out for excessive delivery charges which will be added
on to
your buy price(see number 1.) these are ususally listed.
4.
Remember a buyer's premium is added to all auction prices, at
Grays
this is 11%, so don't forget to factor.
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Not
really related to education, but quite interesting . 'free' Internet TV
http://www.gotrek.com.au/gotrek/index.shtml
GoTrek
Internet TV Goes Live with 8 Content Channels 12-Jul
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The
New E-Mac from Mac looks wonderful.
I had a play with
one
at the adobe seminars on Wednesday. They're just fantastic value.
17"
screen
G4
700Mhz
40
gig hardrive
DVD/CD
player CDRW as well
And
amazingly only $2,300
If
ever you wanted to upgrade - this is the computer to choose.
Check
it out at http://www.apple.com/emac/
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Great
online instruction resources on using the internet from Sofweb
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/internet/publish.htm#multimedia
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Seminars
and Conferences from The SchoolDaily
http://www.theschooldaily.com/index.asp
9th
National Conference of the Australian Association for the
Education
of the Gifted and Talented
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=229
Date
: Sunday, 20 October 2002
Venue
: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
15th
Biennial World Conference for Gifted Education
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=216
Date
: Friday, 01 August 2003
Venue
: Convention Centre, Adelaide,
Australia
VETnetwork
Australia National Conference 2002 –
'Enterprising
People and Partnerships: vocational education
and
careers for a changing world'
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=243
Date
: Wednesday, 23 October 2002
Venue
: Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia
Our
Children of the Future 3
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=383
Date
: Thursday, 01 May 2003
Venue
: Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, Australia
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6.
WEBSITE FOCUS – Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth
Games Webquest - webquest for term 3 prepared
by Greg
from Brighton Public school
Check
out his other webquests as well
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~partridge/
Also:
http://www.ausport.gov.au/acga/
http://www.ausport.gov.au/info/commonwealth.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/2002/index.shtml
http://www.commonwealthgames-fed.org/home.asp
http://www.uk.emb.gov.au/CARRIERS/cwealth_games.html
http://www.commonwealthgames.com/Home/
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/m2002/
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7.
USING THE PICTURE EDIT TOOL
in word helps work flow.
1.
Insert a picture from file.
2.
Goto ‘view’ menu, got ‘toolbars’, select
‘picture’.
3.
Select picture in word document.
4.
Using the picture menu you can:
All
these options are available from the Picture edit palette.
This
means you don’t need to use a different program to edit your
pictures. Saves a great deal of time, and
simplifies the procedure
especially
for children or beginners.
Happy
editing.
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8.
GREAT SITES
HOTEST
OF THE HOT
How
cool is this site. Fantastic. The
instruments actually play.
Each
instrument from each orchestral group is represented. This is
The
next best thing to froguts.
San Francisco
Symphony Kids' Site
http://www.sfskids.org/templates/splash.asp
Visit
this website for a refresher course on The Instruments of the
Orchestra
and or an introduction to reading music in Meet the Notes.
Early
Childhood, Elementary, Middle School
-------------------------------------------
Great
Buildings.com -
gigafloppingly brilliant
http://www.greatbuildings.com/
Great
Buildings is a huge database of information about architects and
their
buildings. 800+ Buildings are featured from 40 countries. There
aren't
images of every building, but many buildings shown have multiple
views.
Virtual Reality (VR) versions of some building are available,
although
you need to download a free software package for viewing VR.
Middle
School, High School, College, Adult/Professional
-------------------------------------------
Braillebug - another corker
http://www.afb.org/braillebug/
The
American Foundation for the Blind created an age appropriate site
for
students to learn out braille. Under games, students can see what
their
name looks like in braille, or figure out words with a braille
alphabet
close by. Students can also change the colors on this website
to
make it easier to read (have students who are designing their own
pages
learn about accessibility).
Early
Childhood, Elementary, Middle School, High School,
-------------------------------------------
Renaissance
Secrets
http://www.open2.net/renaissance2/doing/doing.html
A
joint offering of the BBC and Open University, this website explores
four
mysteries from a historian's point of view. Although built to
support
a television series on the BBC, teachers can use this site to
explore
conspiracy, medicine and inventions in Renaissance Europe. Use
this
site to trigger a discussion of overlooked careers and standards in
historical
research.
-------------------------------------------
Ideas
for creating webpages
Check
out Teacherweb, ideas and samples.
---------------------------------------
Your
Genes, Your Health: A Multimedia Guide to Genetic Disorders
http://yourgenesyourhealth.org/
This
site has a wonderful animated explanation of the causes of Sickle
Cell
Disease. For other disorders, such as Cystic Fibrosis, Hemophelia,
Neurofibromatosis,
and Huntington Disease, there are areas where
patients
talk about the consequences of having the disorder, treatments
and
tests.
Middle
School, High School, College, Adult/Professional
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here’s
a good site for environment theme info
http://www.epa.gov/teachers/curriculum_resources.htm
==============================================
9.
READERS COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Cathy
Re:Help:
I am a first year teacher who needs to teach a unit of work
on
Rainforest to grade 5 students. As
I am also the grade computer
teacher,
I would like to integrate the Rainforest theme into my computer
lessons
as well as teaching it as a HSIE
lessons.
Can anybody help???
Thanks
Wade
Here
is another highly recommended HSIE website for Stage 3
Rainforests.
http://www.midcoast.com.au/~ttc/rainforest.html
It's
part of a great site. Check it out if you have time!
http://www.midcoast.com.au/~ttc/worksheet1.html
Regards
Terrie
Love
your site. Look forward to it every month. Spend hours
checking
it out. Thanks!!
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Dear
Cathy,
I
found your last newsletter particularly useful although I already knew
about
froguts. I was able to add many links to my own site.
I
also downloaded your Microsoft Word Instructions PDF as I am also doing a
PDF
doc on that very topic, but damn, I had just deleted Acrobat 3 in order
to
install Acrobat 4 full version and haven't finished doing that yet.
Will
read this one with interest when I have a reader again.
Thanks.
Jenny
Campbell
Teacher
librarian/
web
page designer
http://www.knowledgecollegetutors.com
------------------------------------------
Hi
Cathy
I
wanted to bring to your attention our Australian software product,
Max's
Sandbox, which is designed to allow children in the 3-8 year
age
range to be able to use Microsoft Office effectively. Max's
Sandbox
is a childhood interface to three Microsoft Office products,
PowerPoint,
Word and Excel.
Max's
Sandbox provides:
MaxWrite - the interface to Word
MaxShow - the interface to PowerPoint
MaxCount - the interface to Excel
Currently,
Max's Sandbox is being used South Australian Government
primary
schools and kindergartens, as well as in Scotland and several
schools
in the US.
I see
quite some affinity between the Virtual Teacher & Max's Sandbox,
and
would like to make some suggestions about 'working together':
Online
Games
Our
own website www.maxssandbox.com has some online games that
your
teachers are more than welcome to use
Naughts
& cross games
'Create-a-scene'
- a simple drag & drop illustration tool
An
online quiz
'Match
the states' - a simple drag & drop exercise to match Australian
state
boundaries, floral emblems & capital name
Free
Downloads
Teacher
can download a 30 day free fully functional evaluation of
Max's
Sandbox
Teacher
Resources
Shortly
we will have lesson plans & activities for teachers to
download
& use with Max's Sandbox including -
Maxophone - Turn PowerPoint/MaxShow into a
musical instrument
Getting
to school - Use PowerPoint/MaxShow as an adventure map
We are
also very interested in receiving other lesson plans and
ideas
for our development team to add into Max's Sandbox
I'd
love to hear from you, to see how we might be able to
work
together
Cheers
Peter Cornish
peter.cornish@eword.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am
a teacher in Australia. I am wondering if you
could
be able to give me site for curriculum and term
planners.
Thankyou.
There
are some templates on my sites at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/teachtool.html
ciao cathy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear
Cathy
Thanks
so much for the site - the information about sites has been
really
valuable in this my 1st year in teaching.
Now I need even
more
sites as I have to develop a geography scheme of work for
my
primary school. Has anyone got any
great websites they can
share? Thanks again
Denise
Hi
Denise,
I have
just addded 2 excellent sites to my geography link page –
they
are fantastic.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/geog.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi
Cathy, I've been receiving your newsletter for some time
now
and I must say 'congratulations'... it's fabulous.
Regards,
Lana
Read
==============================================
10. NEXT ISSUE I will look at Letter writing tips, and maths Circus 3.
Anyone
with any great ideas send them along, love them
Ciao
Cathy
- - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.
Code of the 'Netizens'
This
Newsletter is not free, despite the misleading advertising
above.
The Fee is now due. Each week you must help one
colleague
on the Internet who has less knowledge than you.
Help
that person even if you have to visit their classroom or
do a
little research and get back to them. Trust me, this will
help
a lot of people get their computer classrooms running better.
OK
I'm trusting you!!!
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12.
TIPS
1.
Double click on highlighted URLS to open in browser.
2.
Send in your Questions, Questions will be published with
Answers,
send in your Answers, if you have expertise to share.
3.
Nominate a brilliant site for review and inclusion in this
newsletter.
4.
Nominate a fantastic school site for review and inclusion in
this
newsletter.
5.
Make contact with other schools using fantastic programs.
6.
Prepare and innovative article for this newsletter.
7.
Tell 2 colleagues about this newsletter.
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The
opinions expressed here are purely those of the editor,
Cathy
Brown. All other small print clauses apply. Such as:
Use
at your own risk. Nothing in life
is guaranteed. If it doesn't
work
for you send me an email.
Editor:
cathy brown mailto:cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
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==============================================
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cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
==============================================