Free School digital signage

Digital Signage - You may have seen it in a shopping centre or airport. It's the LCD screens theatre in public spaces, that show information and advertising. Many schools are also starting to use digital signage - from the front desk at administration for parents to see or in other areas like staff rooms and common rooms.

The issue is that the systems and software that run these screens is usually fairly expensive and are not easy to use.

Recently I cam across this company - MediaSignage.com - They have developed a cloud based solution so you can update your signage from anywhere and set up your screens anywhere there is an Internet connection and power.

So why am I blogging about this on an educational technology blog? We for starters it means that you can turn your interactive whiteboard over to live streaming news and information of your choosing - with tickers and RSS feeds coming in live. It is also free so you can do a school project setting a system up with your students - it's like making your own "hotel" style information channels. Grab some old computers and old TVs and screens and start creating a digital signage network for peanuts.

600 science questions with researched distractors

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has just completed a 10 year study with 150 000 students. They developed a range of 600 science questions that test the fundamental understanding of key science topics. Each question has been researched with each distractor designed to identify misconceptions, and also includes statistics collected through their study.

Put these questions into TurningPoint2008 you can quickly and effortlessly diagnose your class misconceptions and helping you to differentiate your instruction.

You will need to register but for the effort you get a great reward.

AAAS Science Assessment

Awesome Oresome - free resources on well... resources.

I've been busy for a while so I haven't had a chance to update my blog - this came to an embarrassing head today as I directed people to my blog after doing a training session with them and realised it had been almost 2 months since I updated it or added something new.

A friend of mine sent me this one - useful to those here in WA who are dealing with one of the biggest mining booms in this state.

Oresome - a website of resources for the minerals and energy industries. With a range of interactives and printable resources this could be a great base for a unit on the mining and resources sector.