 And the Tolbie Goes to ...
By Ralph Tolbert, Educational Technology Consultant ()
'Tis the season for the People's Choice Awards, Grammy Awards, Oscars, Peabody Awards and now presenting the Tolbert Awards. Below you will find a Web URL with a brief description of sites that contain useful (I hope) information for teachers and classroom use.
The "I Will Survive" Award
If you're the tech teacher who has been given the opportunity (?) by the building principal to create and maintain the new school Web site (no extra time allotted of course -- just make it happen), walk though the steps necessary at PBS 45 & 49's offerings on Web Site Design at http://wneo.org/snwebdesign. For tips and help in building a Web site using Dreamweaver or FrontPage, go to http://builder.com.com and branch to the Web Development tab.
Best Tutorial on the Internet
For an excellent solution to finding basic how-to's in using a variety of computer applications, let your mouse wander over to http://www.d.umn.edu/~hrallis/guides where tutorials cover the following topics: guidelines related to Web page development; presentation media; PowerPoint; graphics; video; online discussions; and the use of computers to assist in teaching and learning.
Just as every awards show has sooo many sub-categories such as Best Documentary Filmed in the Dark Starring Insignificant Characters No One Cares About for filler material, so too does the Tolbert Awards. I'd like to commend some Cover-It-All Web sites.
The Diplomat's Award
While being somewhat PC-centric, http://www.computeredge.com always has a column called "Mac Madness" and many of the otherwise PC-centric articles do not ignore Macs. Heck for that matter they have a column called "I Don't Windows" that goes all over the computing map. Past issues are available in PDF form, which is great if you want to print an article for classroom use.
The Dear Abby Award
You will find great forums for posting Mac questions and solutions at http://www.macfixit.com.
The Empty Your Wallet Award
Price hardware and software for the Mac at http://shop.macconnection.com.
The Sheer Volume Award
The giant shareware site housed at MIT is number one based just on the sheer volume of the archives of Mac files: http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive.html.
Best Travel Site
Go to http://www.expedia.msn.com.
Best It's in There! Site
Best shareware and tech updates for PCs and Macs at http://www.zdnet.com.
Best Weather Site
Go to http://wwwa.accuweather.com.
Best New Gizmo
Newest technology for movie fans (PC only as of now) is http://www.movielink. com, where you can download a movie with the right to view it for 24 hours within a 30-day window. To find that special movie, search the site that cross references actors, actresses and directors at http://us.imdb.com. This is an an interactive site that allows visitor opinions (ratings).
The Elvis is Still in the Building Award
Music lovers can take an electronic trip to Cleveland's Rock Hall of Fame (and enjoy the quality of the Web site design) at http://www.rockhall.com.
A Tribute
And finally, as in all award shows, I must mention the demise of a piece of technical equipment that was near and dear to educators: The Kodak Slide Projector.
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