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For 9th Grade students at Perry Junior High, health class has become a collaborative creation. Students enrolled in the course are divided into sections taught by Mr. Brian LaLonde or Miss Kimberly Patricia but thanks to presentation sharing through Spartan Apps, the two teachers have been able to work on creating a collective set of presentations together they can each access and use at anytime from separate locations. Ms. Patricia, pictured here working on one of the presentations, can work in her classroom, often the Large Group Instruction Room at Perry, while Lalonde could access the same slide decks in his classroom in the 8th grade hall. This allows both teachers to benefit from contributions to lesson presentations, as well as share ideas and activities for lesson procedures remotely. A student favorite of the Spartan Apps prepared presentations is the ready-to-play YouTube videos that teachers have inserted directly into presentations. “They are always excited to talk to classmates in other sections about attention-grabbing videos from class. Very rarely do my afternoon students arrive without a ‘heads-up’ from their peers during lunch about what’s to come during the lesson. That shows me they are enthusiastic about what we’re doing in class,” says Patricia. Before using Spartan Apps, it was nearly impossible to show quick yet powerful commercials against tobacco use or drunk driving. Videos were limited to hard copy disks or USB files, which are highly inconvenient to transport between multiple teachers and multiple classrooms. Now, both teachers are able to use these clips to start a discussion or bring the class to a close simply by one click of the mouse! In addition, there is consistency between the sections of 9th Grade Health so that all students are granted equal exposure to the topics as well as audio/visual materials covered in class. Moving forward, the health department hopes to further the use of presentations on Spartan Apps by sharing the slidedecks directly with students on they can be accessed on computers at home or practically anywhere on a mobile devices using the Google Drive app. LaLonde and Patricia agree, when teachers have the opportunity to work collaboratively, students are able to reap the benefits. If you would like to learn how to convert your presentations into collaborative slide decks among grade levels or a common course as the health teachers have done, just contact the Tech Department. They would be happy to assist you in the developing a collaborative process so you can prepare the files over the summer for use next school year.
 

If you ever wanted to match perfectly color of a photo for your presentation or a website, you know that it can be a challenge to find just the right shade. Sometimes you can get pretty close by guessing but as you can imagine, there is a tool on your Mac that will help you get a perfect match every time. To find this tool, start inside your Applications folder and then look for the subfolder called Utilities. This folder, which is available on every Mac, is rarely opened by most users, contains some very helpful tools for technical needs. The tool that you looking for in this case is called DigitalColor Meter, (see its icon pictured to the right.)

The DigitalColor Meter is a simple application that’s easy to use. Its sole use is to isolate a color on your screen and provide the numerical values of that color. Once selected, the color's numerical value can then be used by another program to match it. For example, if you see a color in a photo and watch to match it perfectly with a slide background in a Spartan Apps Presentation, you would find its Hexadecimal value, or web friendly equivalent, using the DigitalColor Meter. This bit of code can then be “understood" within the Custom... color options found within the Spartan Apps color palette to give you an exact match.

To use the Digital Color Meter, open the program and a single window will appear. As you move your mouse around the screen, the Aperture will show you any color you are currently hovering over. Notice that you can adjust the Aperture size using the the slider below the preview window. To the right of the Aperture, you can see the color value of the swatch that you’re hovering over. To view the color swatch as a web color, pull the menu down and choose RGB as Hex Value, 8-bit (see circled area in the screenshot below.)


Next, to hold this sample onscreen, choose Shift + Command + H on our school computers running older versions of Mac OS (or Command + L on newer versions of Mac OS X). The Aperture will capture the color and then display the color and its code onscreen. This code can now be copied using Shift + Command + C or manually entered into the Color Picker of another tool such as the Custom... color area of the Spartan Apps color palette to match the color precisely!


When the situation requires it, the DigitalColor Meter is a great tool for matching colors for graphics on websites, presentations, and even matching colors within videos! Hopefully, now that you know about it, you and your students can put this handy tool to good use in the near future.
 
   
Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers
  
iTunes U Content for Your Classroom

Are you looking for a simple way to record audio on your computer? Do you wish you could have an online audio recorder embedded right on your website? If so, Vocaroo is the perfect tool for the job.
 
Vocaroo is a free service that allows users to create audio recordings using nothing more than the web browser on their computer. Using a simple one button interface, it lets you record an audio file and then either embed it elsewhere on the web via the Vocaroo site or just download it as an audio file you that can share with others. Being such simple tool for a simple job, Vocaroo has countless uses in the classroom. Check it out to see how!
Visit Vocaroo
   
 
Writing for Strategic Communication
La Trobe University

This iTunes U course is part of a college course aimed at developing written communication skills that be used can be used irrespective of your job role. From tweeting to speechwriting, it provides an overview of various forms of professional writing including writing for traditional media as well as writing for web and social media. A perfect set of resources to develop writing skills for everyone anywhere, anytime using iTunes U!
Visit on iTunes
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