It’s verifying that an actual person is searching and not a computer bot.

I saw a student watching a video and I asked why she wasn’t working on her assignment.  She said I’m trying to research information, but Google doesn’t work.  I said, “So What?  You gave up ?”  She smiled and said yes.  It’s funny, but some students really have no clue that there are alternatives to Google to finding information on the web.  I guess Google works so well and never has problems that students never even have to try anything else.  I recommended she go to Bing.com and told her to realize there is more in the world than Google.

1. Websites appear too small on my laptop screen.

Keywords: internet explorer zoom level keep it on permanently.

Internet Explorer allows you to change the zoom level and in the Advanced options, there is check mark where you can make it keep that zoom level every time you open IE.

2. Every time I open Word 2007, it asks me about Office Live, even if I check Do not show again.

Keywords: word 2007 office live opens every time

There is a bug in Office 2007, where it opens even if check the mark.  You have to go into the Options and remote the plug in to make it go away.

3. The website where I’m supposed to download the practice files for this book on Office 2010 doesn’t work.

Keywords: practice files

I tried the website and it showed a dead link with a search page.  I just searched for Practice Files and found a forum post with the same link in it and a complaint that it doesn’t exist and response with the correct link.

4. I want to keep a budget, but don’t really know Microsoft Excel very well.

Youtube Search: budget

Found a simple template for budgeting for Excel and a video tutorial.

5. My laptop with Windows 7 takes forever to log off.

Keywords: windows 7 takes forever to log off

I found a post that you have to uncheck a setting in Internet Explorer to clear the Temporary Files when you close the browser.

In conclusion, I don’t know where we would be if it wasn’t for an Internet search.  I wouldn’t look quite as smart.  I think anyone can solve their own problems if they learn the keywords to answer their own questions.

Martin Luther King Jr.
King Center:
King Institute Home:
Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech:
Martin Luther King Jr. Online
Teaching With Documents: Court Documents Related to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers

Presidents’ Day

American Rhetoric:
Lincoln Memorial Interactive
Gettysburg Address Revisited
Studying the U.S. Constitution through Documents
Who Wants to be President? Infographic
9 Resources about Learning about U.S. Presidents
Get a free American Presidents Poster

Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year: Moon Phases and Zodiac
Chinese New Year Lessons Plans: Science Heroes
Chinese Dragon Puppets

Jackie Robinson Day

Jackie Robinson’s Official Website
Teaching with Documents – Beyond the Playing Field with Jackie Robinson

Other sites worth exploring:
DocsTeach – Use documents to teach history
Vote Easy – Great website on voting and politics
Picturing America – Exploring the connection between the arts and history

Lynda.com. I had the opportunity to try out Lynda.com recently due to a promotion through Adobe for a 30 day free trial.  Lynda has tutorials in all software applications and technologies (CSS, programming languages).  With any large selection, there is a mix of quality in the tutorials.  I wasn’t disappointed by the quality of the tutorials, but each trainer had a different approach, and it requires finding your preference of training.  The monthly subscription to view all content is $25.  The cost is clearly worth the price if you are determined to learn the content.

Adobe TV devotes its training to Adobe products, but it’s free and very good.  I have been going through the Flex in a Week series.  The training is high quality, though the videos don’t seem to be organized correctly–the next video is often not the one mentioned at the end of the previous video.  Also, it seems the trainers in Adobe videos, when accessing external data, always connect to a ColdFusion server, which always annoys me.  I have no idea how to use ColdFusion and would benefit from a server solution like PHP/MySQL.  I did locate some additional tutorials on using PHP and Flex.

**I initially viewed these tutorials in Adobe Media Player, but though the Media Player has potential.  It’s clunky and not the best UI for viewing a series of videos.  I became so frustrated with the Media Player, I searched for Adobe videos and found Adobe TV.

I initially saw its power when I was seeking answers to a number of CAHSEE questions (that I didn’t remember how to solve and didn’t want to spend time figuring out).  I basically copied and pasted the formulas into the Wolfram-Alpha machine, and had the correct answers instantly.  It didn’t just give me the answers, but offered additional information useful in figuring out how I might solve the problems had I wanted to.

I recommend you try the following queries and see its power for yourself.

1. 25 miles = feet

2. 5x + 12 = 27

3. 45% of 123.50

4. slope = 5, y-intercept = 1

5. population of china 2005

6. California Florida

7. 2x^2 + 12 = 72

8. | x^2 |+ 7 > 15

9. World War II vs. World War I

10. 4,9,13,77,123,852

11. SNE APPL

12. sagittarius vs scorpio

13. facetious

14. life expectancy 20 year old united states

15. probability of 6 dice

Bonus: And of course, What is the speed of a swallow? (Monty Python reference)

Makes me think about how schools cannot function today without Internet. Many teachers and students depend on Internet for their lesson plans and school work, and it becomes important in today’s climate, and with poor designed school networks, for teachers to always have an emergency Internet plan. The more we build our lesson plans around the need for the Internet, the more we need to create a lesson plan for those days when the Internet goes out unexpectantly: call it an Emergency Internet Plan. For those rare days when we are unplugged.