LibraryThing is a very powerful tool for managing and sharing your collection of books.  Adding a book to your LibraryThing collection can be done in one of two ways.  The first is as simple as entering the title of your book.  LibraryThing searches the extensive Amazon.com database (or any of almost 700 other databases) for a match and displays the results.  You then add your book by clicking on the image of its cover.  LibraryThing lets you add detailed information to each book including tags, comments, summaries, ratings, acquisition dates, reading dates, and more.

The second method for adding a book is even easier, but requires a CueCat (make sure to get a USB one) or other barcode scanner.  The scanner is used to read the books’ ISBN barcodes which are then compared against the above-mentioned databases.  You can also use a scanner to create a text file containing many ISBN numbers to add several books at once.

Strengths

• Extensive databases contain information about most books  you may have (books not found in a database can be manually added)
• Support for ISBN numbers and scanners can ease the process of creating your collection
• Extensive features for sharing, rating, and receiving recommendations can greatly increase the usefulness of your collection

Weaknesses

• Free accounts are limited to 200 books
• No built-in method for handling circulation needs (many users use tags or comments for this purpose)
• LibraryThing uses ISBN-13 and ISBN-13+5.  Many older books may have ISBN-10.
• Lack of separate user and administrator accounts

LibraryThing offers several levels of service.  The free service allows you access to all features with a limit of 200 books.  You can upgrade to a paid account which removes that limit for $10/year or $25 for a lifetime membership.  You will need to create an account to use LibraryThing, but you are only required to provide them with an email address if you want the ability to retrieve lost usernames and passwords.

To use LibraryThing requires a computer with Internet access (dialup will work for this) and a modern web browser.  If you want to scan your books’ ISBN numbers, you will need a compatible barcode reader.

The Khan Academy is a collection of over 1400 YouTube videos covering topics such as basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology, finance, French history, and SAT and GMAT prep.  The videos have been prepared by Salman Khan, who holds a MBA from Harvard Business School. He also holds a Masters in electrical engineering and computer science, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and a BS in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Khan has released all of these videos under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license so you are free to make use of these videos in your class, share them, or even remix them to suit your needs provided you give Mr. Khan credit.

Khan Academy Overview:

This is a fantastic resource that exemplifies many of the ideals of OpenCourseWare, providing you with the means to provide quality enrichment, tutoring, or a quick refresher.  All you (or your students) will need to access it is a computer with broadband Internet access that can play YouTube videos.

So, what is “bandwidth”?  Bandwidth is a measurement of how much data can flow through a network connection each second.  One way to think about bandwidth is to compare it to water pipes.  If you look on almost any newer water fixture, you’ll see a number followed by GPM or maybe GPF).  This refers to gallons per minute (or per flush).  A faucet rated for 12.5 GPM can pass 12.5 gallons of water each minute while one rated for 5 GPM can pass only 5.  With water fixtures, more water isn’t always better.  In fact, many new fixtures are being designed to use less water as part of conservation efforts.  In this respect, bandwidth isn’t like water fixtures, because more is always better.

Bandwidth is generally measured in megabits or gigabits per second (Mbps or Gbps).  It’s important to note here that a megabit (Mb) and a megabyte (MB) are two different measurements.  It takes 8 bits to make one byte, so a 1.5 Mbps connection can transfer 0.1875 MB each second (or about 5 seconds to transfer one megabyte).  As Web 2.0 and “cloud computing” become more important in the classroom, the importance of a solid, fast Internet connection rises as well.

Let’s look at this another way, let’s say you want to use high-def streaming video in the classroom (we won’t get in to a discussion about whether or not streaming HD is truly HD).  Most online sources are saying that streaming HD needs about 6 Mbps of bandwidth.  6 Mbps is a LOT of bandwidth!  It might not seem like it at first, but consider the following.  For years, the “gold standard” Internet connection for schools was a T-1 line.  T-1 is an industry recognized term that describes a particular way of connecting to the Internet with a specific amount of bandwidth (1.5 Mbps in this case).  As few as 5-10 years ago, one T-1 line was considered adequate bandwidth for a school with about 100 workstations.  So, for you to stream HD video to one workstation would require the full output of 4 T-1 lines!  Ouch!  What about cable modems?  Cable internet speeds vary dramatically across the United States.  in some areas, bandwidth tops out around 3 Mbps, while, in others, speeds of 50 Mbps or more might be available.  Price also varies drastically in various regions.

Another important consideration is the amount of data that your connection can upload to the Internet.  So far, we’ve only been talking about downloading content, but if your school has embraced the notion of students as content creators, you’ll need the bandwidth to get that content to the world.  This is also a major factor to consider if your school is hosting any sort of web servers, because the upload bandwidth is the most important in that application.  Here’s where things get a little complicated.  For whatever reason, most Internet connections in the United States are asynchronous, i.e., the download and upload speeds differ.  T-1 lines (and their related cousins) are synchronous, so they provide a full 1.5 Mbps for upload and download (this is one reason why these connections are still relatively expensive).  Most ISPs advertise only the download speed and require you to do some digging to determine the upload speed.  A fast 20 Mbps cable connection might only have an upload speed of 1.5 Mbps.  Again, this is something that varies widely.  And you may not need the same speed up as you do down.  It is largely dependent on how you plan to use your connection.

So, how much bandwidth does your school need?  This largely depends on how your school makes use of the Internet.  The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SEDTA) in 2008 recommended for technology-rich learning environments to have at least 10 Mbps per 1,000 students/staff for the next 2-3 years (2008-2011) and 100 Mbps per 1,000 students/staff for the next 5-7 years.  In my opinion, SEDTA’s recommendation isn’t as helpful as it could be because it doesn’t take into account the number of workstations accessing the Internet at any given time.  There is a substantial difference between a school with 500 teachers and students that has a ratio of 1 computer to every 5 students and the same school with a 1:1 computer initiative.  I’ve seen other recommendations (about 3 years ago) which suggested a schools connection to the Internet should be equal to 1.5 Mbps multiplied by the number of workstations (or the equivalent of a full T-1 for each workstation).  Yikes!

As I’m sure you’re realizing, providing an adequate connection to the Internet for your school is a daunting (and expensive) task.  And the amount of bandwidth needed is only going to increase in the future.  What can you do, then?

Here are some simple suggestions.

• Meet with your staff to determine how they make use of the Internet in their classes both in terms of additions to lessons (streaming videos, etc.) and in terms of activities for their students.  Also, find out how they would like to use it in the future.
• Talk with students to see how they make use of the Internet both at school and at home.
• Make increasing available Internet bandwidth an ongoing part of your school’s technology plan and budget.  Set aside money each year towards increasing bandwidth.
• File for federal E-rate funding.  E-rate can bring schools substantial rate discounts for Internet and telephone service.  Filling out the paperwork can be a bit of a chore, but worth it in the long-run.
• Work with a telecommunications consultant to find the best price on voice and data service.  Telecommunications consultants work with many service providers to bring you the best possible price for your needs.  Many of these consultants will provide free assessments and charge only if you decide to make a change.  They can even help you if you are under a multi-year contract.
• Upgrade your internal network to 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps.  This may be expensive initially, but the network performance increase will be immediately noticeable.  Depending on your current network, this may be as easy as simply replacing your networking hardware.  Remember to include network infrastructure in your tech plans and budgets.

How is your school handling increased bandwidth demands?  Has lack of bandwidth prevented any initiatives at your school?  We’d love to hear your experiences, thoughts, and suggestions on this issue.  Please use the contact form on the right-hand side of the page, or leave us a comment below or at our forum.

Let’s take a look at YouTube.  YouTube has always been somewhat controversial in educational circles because some of the content hosted there is not suitable for minors.  Some teachers and administrators see no educational value to the site, while I know others who make very good use of YouTube to provide a multimedia component for their lessons.  The point of this article isn’t to argue the educational merits of YouTube, though.  What I want to do is take a look at YouTube’s Terms of Use.

First, let’s look at the mechanism by which users accept the Terms of Use

2. Accepting the Terms

2.1 In order to use the Service, you must firstly agree to the Terms. You may not use the Service if you do not accept the Terms.

2.2 You can accept the Terms by simply using the Service. You understand and agree that YouTube will treat your use of the Service as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.

In other words, using YouTube means you have accepted their Terms of Use and agree to be bound by them.  Such a provision is fairly standard for Web 2.0 services, so there really isn’t anything shocking about it.

What does YouTube have to say about restrictions it places on your use of the site? This section is a bit long, so I’m going to only focus on a few of the restrictions.  I encourage you to check out this section in its entirety at the link above.

5. General restrictions on use

5.1 YouTube hereby grants you permission to access and use the Service, subject to the following express conditions, and you agree that your failure to adhere to any of these conditions shall constitute a breach of these Terms on your part:

1. you agree not to distribute any part of or parts of the Website or the Service, including but not limited to any Content, in any medium without YouTube’s prior written authorisation, unless YouTube makes available the means for such distribution through functionality offered by the Service (such as the YouTube Player);

2. you agree not to alter or modify any part of the Website or any of the Service (including but not limited to the YouTube Player and its related technologies);

3. you agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Website itself, the YouTube Player, or such other means as YouTube may explicitly designate for this purpose;

4. you agree not to (or attempt to) circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with any security related features of the Service or features that (i) prevent or restrict use or copying of Content or (ii) enforce limitations on use of the Service or the content accessible via the Service;

12. you agree not to access Content or any reason other than your personal, non-commercial use solely as intended through and permitted by the normal functionality of the Service, and solely for Streaming. “Streaming” means a contemporaneous digital transmission of the material by YouTube via the Internet to a user operated Internet enabled device in such a manner that the data is intended for real-time viewing and not intended to be downloaded (either permanently or temporarily), copied, stored, or redistributed by the user.

13. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content.

There’s a great deal of information in this section that’s worth noting for the classroom.  The most import, in my opinion, is the absolute prohibition on downloading any content for non-real-time viewing.  Many teachers want to download YouTube videos so that they can have easy access to them later or so they can embed them in presentations.  Some may also have bandwidth issues that make it difficult to stream video content.

It’s actually very easy to download content from YouTube.  There are numerous sites and programs designed to do just that, but making use of them violates YouTube’s Terms of Use.

Some of you may be wondering why I’m making such a big deal about this.  You might also be thinking that no one really cares if you download videos from YouTube.  I feel this is an important issue because it show students (and the community at large) our trustworthiness.  YouTube’s Terms of Use are a legally binding contract between you and YouTube.  By using the site, you agree to uphold that contract.  The same can be said for software licensing agreements and (legal) music downloads.  Violating those agreements (beyond just the possibility of committing a criminal act) shows students two things.  First, that restrictions like those in YouTube’s Terms of Use are meaningless  and it’s okay to circumvent them.  Second, it creates an atmosphere of distrust in the classroom.  If the teacher is willing to break their agreements with major companies, why wouldn’t they do the same with their students?

We are called upon to hold ourselves to the highest of standards.  In Philippians 2:14-16a (ESV), Paul writes

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…

Part of “shining as lights in the world” is setting an example for our communities about what it means to be a child of God.  Upholding terms of service agreements is just one way we can do that.

So, what can you do to make use of YouTube videos in presentations without violating their Terms of Use?  There are two ways to do just that.  The simplest solution is to just place an active hyperlink to the desired YouTube video in your presentation.  Clicking on the hyperlink will launch your computer’s default web browser and display the video.  This method may run afoul of security restrictions on your system, so be sure to try it out first.  The other solution is to make use of YouTube’s playlist feature to create a playlist of videos you want to share with your class.  (You may need a YouTube account to access this feature.)  Then, you’ll just need to use a web browser to open your playlist and select the desired video.

Bible Geocoding (a project of OpenBible.info) provides Google Earth data for every identifiable location in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.  Additionally, the site provides map data for the rivers and other bodies of water from Scripture.  The location data is provided as a combined file, including all sites, or in several packages that allow you to display sites only from individual books or chapters of the Bible.  This level of fine control over what locations are shown makes this data very convenient for helping students see geographical patterns in the Scripture.  The utility of this information becomes even more evident when combined with Google Earth’s built-in tools to create custom map overlays and 3D tours.

One final, and very cool, feature is a collection of various maps of Jerusalem in Google Earth map overlay format.  You are able to place these overlays on the city of Jerusalem, and, with some tinkering with layer transparency, easily compare the ancient city to the modern one.  This is even more powerful when used to show students the 3D terrain of the city.

Making use of this data is as easy as downloading the files from OpenBible.info and opening them in Google Earth.

Strengths:

• Enormous amount of data provided in many formats
• Ease of use within Google Earth
• Map overlays provide an excellent tool for exploring Jerusalem

Weaknesses:

• No prepared information about Paul’s missionary journeys or the spread of the early Church
• Learning curve for Google Earth
• Google Earth requires fairly good hardware for best performance

The Bible Geocoding data is provided free for use under a Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning you are free to use it in any fashion provided you credit OpenBible.info.  To make use of it, you will need to download the latest release of Google Earth (5.2 at the time of writing) along with the selected data files from OpenBible.info.  I provided a link above to the official Google Earth system requirements, but it’s been my experience that running Google Earth on even machines matching the “recommended” hardware configurations can be painfully slow.  Processor speed plays a part in that, but I’ve found video memory and internet connection speed to be crucial.  Google Earth downloads information for the various layers you’ve selected on the fly as you navigate the map and change your apparent altitude.  Selecting all the available layers and going to a low altitude can bog down even a very fast internet connection.  Google Earth is officially supported under Windows, OS X, and some versions of Linux.

Google Earth also has a bit of a learning curve.  If you are not familiar with it, especially the newest version, allow yourself at least an hour to familiarize yourself with the various controls.  If you are new to Google Earth, be warned that it is very easy to spend hours just playing around with the various features and looking up interesting locations.

In addition to a computer and Internet connection, you will need some sort of large display connected to your computer to allow your students to easily see Google Earth.  This might be  a television, digital projector, or an interactive whiteboard.  If you have access to an interactive whiteboard, I strongly recommend it for use with Google Earth as you will be able to control the program from the whiteboard as well as annotate the display.

I often wondered what it would have been like to run a backchannel during one of my physics classes, but by this time, I had already left the classroom and, frankly, the tools to easily do such a thing just didn’t exist.  The explosion of Web 2.0 tools and microblogging has really changed that in the last year or so.  It would be possible to run a backchannel discussion completely in Twitter, for example.  Twitter is a great tool, but it does lack certain features that would be handy for a backchannel discussion.

One tool that does have these features is CoveritLive.  CoveritLive is an extremely robust and scalable live blogging app that you may have seen used by bloggers to cover live events such as Apple’s keynotes.  I’ve been in CoveritLive sessions already with hundreds of other users and experienced no difficulties.  CoveritLive can easily scale down, as well, making it a handy way to create a backchannel in the classroom.  The basic version of CoveritLive has a plethora of features, is free, and doesn’t have any embedded ads.  If you need the premium feature set, you have the option to use a free version with advertising or pay for a subscription to remove the ads.  In most cases, though, the basic version should have everything you need.

Some of the top features include embedding of YouTube and Google videos (also ustream, livestream, and qik), a media library to easily add static images, audio, and text, and even a way to quickly create and publish polls (student response system on the fly!).  It’s also extremely easy to embed the CoveritLive session in a classroom blog post or Web page, which makes it very easy for students to access it.  The presenter has the option of moderating user comments or allowing users to post comments immediately to the live blog.  The presenter can also respond privately to a user.  After the live session ends, the embedded CoveritLive display on your site goes into “Instant Replay” mode, providing a record of the discussion.

Strengths:

• Rich feature set provides plenty of options for powerful backchannel discussions
• Ease of sharing multimedia content
• Free, with no ads
• Quick Poll system makes a great student response system substitute
• CoveritLive sessions can be easily embedded in a class blog or website

Weaknesses:

• The large number of features and options means you will need to spend some time to familiarize yourself with the system
• No reader authentication methods in Basic version
• No information available on how long past sessions are kept

Overall, CoveritLive is a very powerful application for providing a classroom backchannel.  The ease of use for both teacher and student makes this a very attractive tool for classroom use.  The only concern I have is how long recorded sessions remain available for access.  I wasn’t able to locate anything that explicitly mentioned that on the CoveritLive website.

CoveritLive is available in several versions: free Basic service with no ads, free Premium service with ads, paid Premium service without ads.  Pricing information can be obtained by contacting CoveritLive sales directly.  The system requirements aren’t too demanding.  They recommend a computer with broadband internet access, a recent major browser (it’s noted that even IE 6 works fine), and 2 GB of memory.  Presenters will need to create a free account to create the live event session.

<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=6bf498dda9″ mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;altcast_code=6bf498dda9″ >CoveritLive Test</a>

Your PasswordCard is a very handy tool.  It creates a wallet-sized card of random symbols, numbers, and letters that you can cut out and put in your wallet or purse.  The beauty of the card, though, is that even if someone else were to obtain it, they still wouldn’t know your passwords.  Across the top of the card is a row of symbols not normal usable in passwords.  Underneath that are rows of letters and numbers (normal symbols can optionally be included).  Each of these rows has an unique color.  To create a password you first pick a length (8 characters is the recommendation).  Then, you choose a symbol from the top row and a color.  You then go to the character in the row of your chosen color beneath the symbol you selected, and choose a direction.  It could be up, down, left, right, or even diagonal.  Follow that direction for your chosen length, and you have your password.  Even if someone else has your card, they will not be able to recreate your password without knowing your symbol, color, length, and direction.

The site creates a random card with each visit, but it does provide you with a string of characters that is the “seed” of your card.  If you enter that seed on the site, it will recreate your card.  My suggestion is that you print two copies of the card and put one in a safe place as a backup.  This is the easiest tool I’ve seen to create strong passwords.

Your PasswordCard is free to use (the creators do take donations, though).  You will need a computer or smartphone with an Internet connection to access the site.  An app for Android phones is also available.

The TMP website is an incredible resource for anyone teaching about ancient Egypt or archaeology or for students who are interested in those topics.  The list of features is nothing short of amazing.

• Bibliography of Theban West Bank Archaeological Sites: 5,000 references to descriptions of tombs, temples, shrines, and the like
• Photo database: over 8,000 zoomable photos of tombs and other sites
• Collection of articles about the Valley of the Kings, complete with illustrations
• Timeline of ancient Egypt
• Detailed information about becoming an Egyptologist
• Atlas of the Valley of the Kings
• Atlas of the Theban Necropolis

The entire TMP website is well worth exploration, but one feature (other than the amazing collection of photographs) really stands out: the Atlas of the Valley of the Kings.  This interactive atlas shows the locations and layout of each of the known tombs in the Valley of the Kings.  Clicking on a tomb allows the user to access a top and side view diagram of the tomb (complete with measuring tools).  Additionally, there are 65 narrated video tours, 2,000 images, and a 3D recreation/tour of the interior of tomb KV14.  The videos are very well done and text transcripts are provided for each.  Detailed annotated 3D models are provided for several of the tombs in the description tab.

Strengths

• Wealth of useful content
• Provides an insight into cutting-edge archaeological tools
• Excellent use of multimedia
• Helpful User Guides

Weaknesses

• Very complex website requiring some time to explore
• Work in progress with new content being added as time allows

The TMP website represents over two decades of work by dedicated experts and scholars working to document and conserve some of Egypt’s most important historical sites.  Because this is a work in progress, the site provides a useful insight into the archaeological process of discovery, study, documentation, presentation, and conservation.  The site is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in this period of history, but it will require at least several hours to gain an overview of all the features.

The project has made the website freely available to anyone.  Access will require an internet-connected computer (broadband access is highly recommended) and the latest Flash player.

The SEN Teacher site provides a number of free resources for teachers with special needs students, as well as many that are useful for all teachers.  The Quick Certificate Printer, and its companion tool, Landscape Certificates, are just two of these tools.  The Quick Certificate Printer allows the user to select from a wide variety of borders, fonts, and images to create custom certificates in as little as 30 seconds.

Strengths:

• Extreme ease of use
• Can upload your own images in a wide array of formats for use in the certificate
• High quality of finished product

Weaknesses:

• Lack of built-in means to save finished certificate
• Type size for each font is fixed
• Layout cannot be altered from the basic design

There are only a few disadvantages to using the Quick Certificate Printer instead of a stand-alone award creation program and these “disadvantages”, for the most part, make sense in making the online tool quick and easy to use.  Because the ability to alter the basic layout of the certificate is limited, a user isn’t forced to spend time making decisions about the design of their certificates; they can immediately go to work entering the necessary information and choosing graphics.  The only real limitation to this tool is the lack of a built-in means to save the finished product instead of immediately printing the certificates.  Thankfully, there is a workaround for this.  Most PDF creation programs also install “virtual” printers that create PDF files instead of physical output, but still appear to the computer as an actual printer.  Using one of these programs allows the user to immediately create a PDF version of the certificate that can be emailed to the recipient or saved for later printing.

Quick Certificate Printer is free for educational or home use and requires no registration.  A computer with Internet access and Flash Player 7 or newer is required.