Add Text to PDF documents

Not much activity lately as I've been busy with end of term work, but here is an interesting post by way of Lifehacker.

If you need to put text onto PDF documents, especially forms or worksheets, this program may be the one for you. As Lifehacker writes, "PDF-XChange Viewer's killer feature is the Typewriter editing mode, which lets you overlay text anywhere on a PDF—a feature that's invaluable for filling out forms that aren't actually made to work as PDF forms (we've all been there). Add to that thumbnail previews, a nice tabbed interface, bookmarks, and sticky notes, and PDF-XChange Viewer is a formidable PDF tool." I tried it out recently and the add text feature works well and is intuitive in how it works.

Available here.

The link came to Lifehacker from a handy site named Softwaregenius that has lots of free and useful software.

Resource for Math Teachers

Here is a link to the PBS Teachers:Math, a site that allows teachers to search for resources and resources by grade level and topic.

Educational Links from L&L

A recent issue of Learning & Leading with Technology had a good article by Glen Bull providing links and overviews of websites providing free educational videos and support resources.

Annenburg Video provides a site with many streamed videos and educational support material for the videos.

NextVista is a new and growing site that provides short educational videos for students and educators and is now accepting the work of contributors. Not a lot of content yet, but it may become better with more contributions. Link to NextVista.

There is also the PBS site which provides and teacher support material. I have used this site in the past and I have found it to be useful.

Blogs in Education

I have posted about blogs in education, but I just found an excellent site that has links to blogs about education and blogging as well as a list of blogs illustrating how blogging may be used in education.

Eszter's Weblog provides some questions to consider before a teacher jumps into blogging and I would add my own concern regarding the monitoring of comments on student authored blogs written as part of a class activity - the new privacy features with Blogger coupled to the options to moderate comments minimize this concern for teacher authored blogs.

My current class and school blogs are found at Room A207 and IB History in A207.

Gadwin's Free Print Screen Utility

Here is the link to a free print screen utility from Gadwin courtesy of Lifehacker, the productivity and software guide. I have only had it up and running for a couple of days, but it seems easy to use and it gives more selection options than the usual print screen key.

Center for Teaching History with Technology

This is a site that provides links to websites, software, and examples of using technology to teach history. I have only visited a few of the links, but what I have found looks good. In particular the British site has a nice web based revision software for making web diagrams or maps of content.

Physics and Chem Simulation Software - free

Here is a screenshot of the start page for the free sim software available from crocodile clips. The list of fully functional demo sims includes: waves, distance-time graphs, and exothermic and endothermic reactions, you may click the image for the full list. The website for crocodile clips provides a variety of modeling and simulation software for education. The full list of sims and packages available for purchase is extensive.