Do you know how to tie your shoes? Are you sure?

This is a great little TED talk by Terry Moore a few years ago that offers a bit of insight that might be able to help a lot of us... especially those that have children suffering from CUS (Chronic Untied Shoelaces).

It turns out it is not their fault that their laces are coming untied, it is the fault of the system that has been teaching them to tie their shoelaces incorrectly!

In this talk Mr. Moore describes how a shoe store owner turned the lace typing paradigm that had been a part of his life for so many years, was flawed and causing his new shoes to constantly come untied. The store owner taught him about the weak and strong from of the classic shoe knot, and how most of us use the weaker form which is far more likely to come undone. By merely reversing the direction you wrap your lace around the loop (or send the rabbit around the tree) you can make a stronger knot.

Mr. Moore's goal for his short talk was not just to give us this bit of information can help all of us avoid those Gordian monstrosities that seem to end up on kids' laces when they start stacking double knots on top of each other, but to point out that there are always little things out there that we can still learn to improve our lives.

The Science of Stage Fright

When I cam across Richard Byrne's: Free Tech4Teachers post this morning, I saw he had included a great TED video on what stage fright is and why we feel it. It goes into the biology of what happens in our body when we feel this type of fear and offers some solutions to help you adapt to it so you can be more relaxed when you speak in public.

The video has great visuals and explanations for how our body's fight or flight reflex can be triggered to cause this type of fear and what can be done to counter it.

I know many students, and some adults too, feel this when they are about to make a presentation, so this video might help some people overcome their fear and become better public speakers.

The science of stage fright (and how to overcome it) - Mikael Cho

Having trouble breaking things off with MS Office?

I know that the MS Office suite of tools has been the standard for many computer users over the years. Word helped us with our writing, Excel with organizing and processing numeric data, PowerPoint with presentations, and Publisher allowed us to easily create brochures and other print materials. (I am going to skip over Access... I still have mental scars from using it.)

Over the last few years, the use of the Google Apps suite of tools has become the main tool being used in many schools and businesses. This has left some Office users in a tough spot when they no longer have Office to use, but still have many files still in that format.

If you are one of the people that has not made the switch to Google yet, or are dealing with files sent from someone who hasn't yet... here are some tools to help you out.

Quickoffice is an app that used to cost about $20, but Google has bought it and made it free! This app can be downloaded to your Android or Apple decide and will allow you to open and edit your MS Office files. It is only available on portable devices, but there are rumors out there that this will become a                                                           feature in Google Drive which will hopefully allow you to access

                                                      and edit files in Drive. 

Chrome Office Viewer is another tool that you can use to view and print MS Office files. It is a Google Chrome Extension that does not allow editing at this point, but will help you at least see your documents.

Libre Office is a free tool that you can download to your computer which will allow you to open, edit, and save MS Office files. It is an installed application though, and does not offer the availability some of the web based tools offer.

If you need to convert a file, Google Drive still allows you to do so. From there documents can be editing and saved. You can even download it as an Office file if you need to later on.

Breaking up with MS Office is tough, so I hope some of these resources can help you. When you are ready to let Office go, just remember... it is not you, it is them. ;-)

YouTube Options Extension

The YouTube Options extension for Google Chrome is a great tool I discovered when I was trying to find a way to get rid of the comments on certain YouTube videos my kids were watching. Often times they would look up a harmless video on something that they were interested in, usually Skylanders or the Plants vs. Zombies game, and there would be a bunch of comments that contained language that would make a pirate blush! 

Definitely not what I want my sons reading.

Not only does the extension remove the suggested videos that usually appear to the right, but the description and any comments are automatically filtered as well. Here are a few of the features it offers:

* Hides comments and video description. (You can click below the video to see the description)
* Disables Ads on the video page.
* Disables the video scroll of suggested videos on the right.
* Disables Ads at the beginning of videos.
* Disables Ads in the video as well as annotations and auto play.

When you install the YouTube Options extension, you will see an immediate difference in your viewing experience on YouTube. You can customize the extensions settings to further improve your viewing experience.

Here are a few screenshots from one of my favorite YouTube channels... Crash Course Chemistry:

Before...

After!

Your Shot: National Geographic's Photo Sharing Platform and Contest

National Geographic has been in the business of publishing pictures that capture the eye, and show us some of the amazing sights in the world around us. I still remember a number of these cover images I have seen over the years... an not just because my office also doubles as library storage for schools collection of Nat Geo's that dates back to 1955!

National Geographic has been famous for it talented photographers, but in recent years we have seen them offering opportunities to amateur photographers around the world with their annual photo contest they have sponsored  for people to capture images from their travels. Take a look at the link below to see some of the winners from the past:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2013/entries/gallery/winners-winners/

To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the magazine has launched a new photography community and contest. The contest is to capture images to "Explore our Changing World," and its deadline is October 22. The photo sharing platform, called Your Shot, has already attracted 300,000 members in it first month according to David Strege's Into the Wild Blog.

To enter the contest, join the community, or just explore pictures visit the Your Shot page of the National Geographic site. Your Shot offers tips from veteran photographers, as well as an incredible library of photos you can explore.

Here is one of the covers I still remember seeing in my school library way back in 1985. I was 9 when I first saw it, and it still comes to mind when I think of this magazine.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Sharbat_Gula_on_National_Geographic_cover.jpg

Lucidpress... A MS Publisher Alternative

Throughout the process of converting from using MS Office to Google Apps, we have noticed there was an issue with the fact that there was not a tool that could be used to replace MS Publisher. 

Well... now there is! It is called LucidPress. It is a web-based tool that can be used to create all sorts of projects Publisher used to help us with. It also allows us to create some that the version of Publisher we had did not allow us to create.

LucidPress is made by the same people that created LucidChart (A graphic organizing tool), and they both can be used on the Chromebooks with our Google accounts. Once the App has been installed, you can create a new LucidPress file just as easily as you create a Google Doc. 

The files are then saved to your Google Drive account and can be edited and shared through Drive as well.

Here is the link to the LucidPress website. There is a quick intro video you can watch to see more.

https://www.lucidpress.com/

I also made a quick video tutorial to guide you through adding the App to your Drive account and exploring the basics of LucidPress.

Enjoy!

Getting Started with LucidPress Video

Connecting Apps to Google Drive Video

Malala Yousafzai Interview on the Daily Show

I came across this the other day and thought it was a pretty powerful story. Especially when we think about how things are here in the US compared to the life lived by Malala.

If you do not remember, Malala was the 14 year old girl that was threatened and later shot by the Taliban because she refused to stop going to school. The Taliban had forbidden girls from attending school, and she valued education so much she risked retribution to continue her education.

Now at 16 she is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her continued efforts to seek peace and to fight for the rights of women everywhere to be educated. She also is deeply committed to the idea, that the best way to fight terrorism in the world through the education of children everywhere.

I think it is especially powerful to see this young woman and all she has gone through, just to go to school! In our country today we often take for granted the fact that everyone has the chance for an education, and the only fight American students usually have is to get up in the morning. I think Malala's story is an eye opening look into how things are for children in other places in the world, and reminder of how great we have it here.

Here are the links to the videos:

Malala Yousafzai Daily Show Interview Part 1

Malala Yousafzai Daily Show Interview Part 2

Malala Yousafzai Daily Show Interview Part 3