Pace Recorder Helps Students Pace Speeches

PaceRecorder is a simple Android app that records your voice and gives you instant feedback about the pace with which you are speaking. The feedback comes in the form of three simple symbols; a turtle, a rabbit, and a thumbs-up. If the turtle appears while you're speaking it indicates that you're relaxed or perhaps a bit too slow. The rabbit indicates excitement and perhaps that you're speaking a bit too quickly. And, of course, the thumbs-up means you're right on track.

Here is a demo of PaceRecorder.



Applications for Education
One of the nervous habits that most people have when they speak to a large audience is to speak too quickly. This is especially true for students who are giving presentations to a group for the first time. PaceRecorder is a free Android app that aims to help people better pace their speeches.

10 Awesome Android Uses and Apps for Education

This morning I gave a short presentation on Android apps for education. The slides for that presentation are embedded below.

10 awesome android uses and apps

View more presentations from Richard Byrne.

iNaturalist - Record and Share Observations of Nature

iNaturalist is a community website for sharing pictures and observations of plants and animals. To enable easy sharing of observations, iNaturalist offers a free Android app and a free iOS app. Using the apps you can take a picture, geo-locate it, write your observations, and upload to the iNaturalist community. If your observation is incomplete, for example if you're not sure of a scientific name, you can ask the community to add comments to improve the recording of your observation.

If you don't want to join the iNaturalist community, you can simply explore members' observations through the iNaturalist Google Map.

Applications for Education
I learned about iNaturalist through an excellent post on the Google Lat Long Blog that outlined the efforts of a group to compile a large collection of observations about the Pepperwood Preserve in California. Pick a woodlot or nature preserve in your area and have your school build a record of observations about that area.

Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

My assistant tells me to write faster.

Good morning from Maine. Despite the outcome of the SuperBowl, everyone at the Free Technology for Teachers World Headquarters had a good week and I hope that the same is true for all of you. As I do every week, I've written a short list of the week's most popular posts. If your RSS reader or email inbox got too full this week, this list provides a good way for you to quickly discover some of the week's ed tech highlights.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. Three Browser Extensions Every Teacher Should Try
2. Stocks, Dividends, and Inflation Explained in Under Two Minutes
3. 30 Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers
4. 15 Resources for Safer Internet Day
5. 7 Tools Students Can Use to Manage Group Projects
6. ThinkB4U - Web Safety Tutorials from Google
7. Gooru - Great Collections of Math and Science Resources

Would you like to contribute to the Fifth Anniversary Classroom 2.0 Book? If so, we're still accepting contributions. Contributing to the Classroom 2.0 Fifth Anniversary Book could be an excellent way to have your ideas read by a large audience.

Please visit the official advertisers and marketing partners that help keep this blog going.
LearnBoost provides a free online gradebook service for teachers.
MasteryConnect provides a network for teachers to share and discover Common Core assessments.
The Worth Ave Group offers insurance plans for school technology.
Fifty Sneakers offers a great service for creating multimedia online quizzes.
ABCya.com is a provider of free educational games for K-5.
Lesley University offers quality online graduate programs for teachers.
The University of Maryland Baltimore County offers graduate programs for teachers. In February I will be holding a free public webinar through UMBC.
Ed Tech Teacher offers professional development services for schools. I will be speaking at their winter conference on March 3.

How to Subscribe to Free Technology for Teachers. 
If you aren't subscribed you can do so via these links.
Subscribe via RSS. Subscribe via Email.
Like Free Technology for Teachers on  Facebook.
Find me on Twitter or on Google+

Are you looking for a keynote speaker or workshop facilitator?

Click here for information about what I can do for you.

Some of my upcoming presentations that are open to the public are:

A public webinar on February 20th  for the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

The EdTech Teacher 2012 Winter Conference on March 3. 

NCTIES March 7-9, you won't want to miss the Best of the Web Smackdown I'm doing with Steven Anderson. 

My other blog, Android 4 Schools is gaining subscribers every week. If you're an Android user, please check out Android 4 Schools and let me know what you think.

Try Yahoo to Find Your Next iPad or Android App

For a lot of us Yahoo is kind of the forgotten search engine. I honestly can't tell you when the last time I used it was until today when I learned through Android Central that Yahoo has an app search setting.

At Apps.Search.Yahoo.com you can search for Android and iOS apps. You can filter results according to OS, price, and category. I gave it a try and I have to say that the search results page is quite a bit nicer than that of the search results page in the Android Market. The look doesn't affect the effectiveness of the search tool, but it is a nice aspect of Yahoo App Search. Give Yahoo App Search a try the next time you're looking for a new app for your Android or iOS device.

Cross posted on Android4Schools.com

29 Days of Android Apps for Teachers and Students

As you may know, in December I started a blog about Android apps for schools. Today, because it is February 1st I decided to put together a list of 29 of my favorite apps that I think educators and students should try over the next month. The list is embedded below as a Google Docs presentation.

Week in Review - The New Desk Edition

Good morning from Maine where I'm using the new workspace that I set up this week. The "some assembly required" aspect of the new desk confirmed that although I enjoy watching This Old House, I will never be mistaken for Norm Abram. I do, however, find my posture while typing to be much improved now that I'm not working from a coffee table, my kitchen table, or my lap. Perhaps my improved posture will increase my blogging productivity too.

As I do every Saturday morning, I've compiled a list of the week's most-read posts. Before I jump to the list I just want to say thank you for your continued support of Free Technology for Teachers. Because of all of the sharing of the content here that so many of you do, Free Technology for Teachers now has nearly 43,000 subscribers.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. Video - Create a Collaborative Digital Writing Portfolio
2. A Pearltree of Free Technology for Teachers
3. Free Download - Ten Digital Storytelling Projects
4. Get Out the Crayons! It's Time to Doodle for Google Again
5. gText - Free Group Text Messaging
6. Videos - Primary Elections and Gerrymandering Explained
7. Five Tools to Help You Schedule Meetings


Please visit the official advertisers and marketing partners that help keep this blog going.
LearnBoost provides a free online gradebook service for teachers.
MasteryConnect provides a network for teachers to share and discover Common Core assessments.
The Worth Ave Group offers insurance plans for school technology.
Edublogs provides blog hosting for teachers and students.
ABCya.com is a provider of free educational games for K-5.
Lesley University offers quality online graduate programs for teachers.
The University of Maryland Baltimore County offers graduate programs for teachers. In February I will be holding a free public webinar through UMBC.
Ed Tech Teacher offers professional development services for schools. I will be speaking at their winter conference on March 3.

How to Subscribe to Free Technology for Teachers. 
If you aren't subscribed you can do so via these links.
Subscribe via RSS. Subscribe via Email.
Like Free Technology for Teachers on  Facebook.
Find me on Twitter or on Google+

My other blog, started in December, Android 4 Schools is gaining subscribers every week. If you're an Android user, please check out Android 4 Schools and let me know what you think.

Are you looking for a keynote speaker or workshop facilitator?

Click here for information about what I can do for you.