I had no idea that there was such a day until I saw this Common Craft post in my Google Reader today. In honor of the day, here are some helpful resources:
Apparently, May 1st is RSS Awareness Day! I had no idea such a day existed, but it has it’s own site at RSSday.org . Thanks to the nice folks at dailyblogtips.com for making our RSS in Plain English video part of the site - and day for that matter.
I agree that RSS is one of those special technologies. It has the potential to positively impact virtually every Internet user at no cost. A big problem is awareness - it’s hard for people to see how it could impact them until they give it a try. Hopefully we’ve been able to turn some people on - but there are still about 94% of Internet users that haven’t seen the light. The challenge continues.
Here’s the improved version of the original video from the Common Craft Store:
Blackle is the energy-saving search engine powered by Google.
How does Blackle save energy? Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. “Image displayed is primarily a function of the user’s color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.” Roberson et al, 2002
Check it out and consider making Blackle your homepage.
Blackle.com - Saving energy one search at a time
I will be presenting this summer at the Summer Institute in Olympia, WA. During my session, Math & Technology in Today’s Classroom, I’ll show how I use technology such as the electronic whiteboard, student response systems, software, mathcasts and video projects to promote student learning and achievement and for assessment (both formative and summative).
At InterMath: Constructionary, users can obtain a list of constructions in Geometer’s Sketchpad. Clicking on a letter of the alphabet gives a list of constructions for that letter. When you chose a construction, clicking on the numbers shows the steps for that construction. Clicking on “Notes” at each step will give a brief description, and I do mean brief, so newbies may need additional help. This is not a stand-alone tutorial but definitely makes a great resource.
I have just posted two Camtasia Studio screencast tutorials for my students.
The first shows how to add markers within a Camtasia project.
The second movie shows how to produce your Camtasia project as a Flash movie with a table of contents.
These tutorials can be found at Mathematics with Mrs. O’Flynn on our Mathcasts page under Technology.
For those who want to learn more about mathcasts, I’m pleased to announce that Tim Fahlberg along with a wonderful team of partners (including yours truly 
) will be conducting a session at NECC entitled Mathcast Spaces: Thinking, Doing, and Sharing Mathematics Out Loud.
Tagging, Tumbling, and Mathcasting posted by Paul Allison is a jam-packed thirty-nine minutes that explores the power of tagging, teachers using tumblogs, mathcasts, VoiceThreads in health, speech, history, math, music, technology, and EFL classes. This session includes an interview with my friend, Tim Fahlberg, on mathcasts. What’s a mathcast, you ask? Well, mathcasts are screencasts (screen movies) of writing with voice that focus on mathematics, and Tim is the pioneer in this field who got me and my students started 3 years ago.
Click here to learn more about mathcasts and to view mathcasts created by me and my students. You can also learn more about mathcasts by visiting Tim’s mathcast wiki at http://math247.pbwiki.com/.
If you’d like to begin creating mathcasts and you use a Windows PC, then FreeScreenCast can make screencasting simple for you.
Just install the screencast recorder, select the part of the screen you want to record, record it, upload your screencast, and then share it. Give it a try!
from http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/freescreencast/
Students were randomly placed in groups using the “pick a student” feature in CPS and were then given a problem having to do with polynomials from an ExamView problem bank. Each group or pair then created a mathcast of their solution and their reasoning. Some groups still have to finish up tomorrow but several are now posted at Mathematics with Mrs. O’Flynn: Mathcasts under Periods 1 and 6, Ch 6 Polynomials. Their next task is to evaluate their own movie using this checklist and feedback form and to get at least one other person (adult or student who is not a group member) to give them feedback.
My students would appreciate your feedback! Please send feedback to 
I’m at the OSPI winter conference in Spokane, attending a class that I thought would help me learn more about designing my own online course that I’ll be teaching next year but am disappointed that it is really a sales pitch for THEIR online course offerings. Not what I had in mind. It wasn’t a total loss though since I did pick up a few resources in the process. Here they are, in no particular order:
- www.iacademy.org/waslmath/ is a site that students, teachers and parents can use in preparation for our state-mandated testing in WA state.
- www.gomath.com - love this site! It’s a great math resource.
- http://mathnexus.wwu.edu by the Whatcom and Skagit Math Partnership here in WA state provides resources to increase the effectiveness of secondary school mathematics teachers.
