Video resources on the 'Net

We have all heard about YouTube... but did you know there is a TeacherTube?

Using video to illustrate a particular point, or to make some subject more entertaining is a great tool. Both sites mentioned above have many tutorials and teaching videos; it takes some time to go in and explore, but it is worth it.

URLs for the sites are www.youtube.com and www.teachertube.com

Online tests

There are some great websites out there to apply online tests - students log in to the website, take the test and get their result immediately. Here are two of them:

• www.thatquiz.org - this is a FREE site, with a great database of tests already created; it started as a math-related site so it has lots of math exercises and tests, but now it has tests on all sorts of subjects.
  
• www.classmarker.com - this site has very complete FREE services, and it also provides expanded (premium) services for a fee. (Thx to Mrs. Sylvia for finding this one!)
  

Both sites allow you to create your own tests or use the ones shared in the databank, and in both cases the site keeps the records per class/student and allows you to DOWNLOAD the grades in formats compatible with Microsoft Excel.

Obviously, for these sites to be used for all subjects we would have to have computers available on all classrooms... Not practical at the moment, but how about using them for Math Labs? Or special assignments? Providing extra practice exercises for students to do at home?

Some more info about posting PowerPoint presentations

Some more things about uploading PowerPoint presentations into Google Docs to be used in a blog post:

• When uploading a presentation (.ppt) into Google Docs the maximum size is 10MB.
• When converting a 2007 presentation (.pptx) into 2003 format, the size increases DRAMATICALLY.
• I haven't figured out how to upload larger than 10MB presentations - only thing I can think of at this time is to split the file into smaller ones and upload one by one, then put it back together in Docs (by copy-paste whole slides).

Adding PowerPoint presentations

When adding PowerPoint presentations by uploading them to Google Docs and then embedding, we need to make sure they are PowerPoint 2003 format (.ppt) - the new format is not listed as acceptable (I haven't tested it yet though).

Another Test - can I post a picture directly?

So this test is about posting a picture.

In Google Groups, the only way to add an image to a Discussion post is by sending your post via e-mail - there is no option for adding images.

In Blogs we do have an option to add an image to a post, but I was wondering if it would also work through e-mail.

(Edit: a few minutes later)

It worked - I don't like the picture, it's huge. This is the original size, so if I want to post pictures I have to be careful about checking the size before adding them to an e-mail post.

(Edit 2: 12/09/08)

I manually changed the picture for a smaller one... much better.