23 Things to Do Over the Summer

Whether it began because of Michael Jordan's jersey, someone special's birthday date or just a convenient number, the number 23 has caught on recently as the ideal number of "things to learn" in technology. This spring our library staff guided a group of teachers through the K12 Learning's "23 Things About Web 2.0" program where they learned about things such as podcasts, wikis, and social bookmarking; PC World published "23 Things to do with a Thumb Drive" and the Design for Learning blog has a post entitled "23 Things about Classroom Computers"

With vacation approaching quickly, the tech department is proud to present "23 Things to Do Over the Summer" - a list of technology based activities for both you and your child. We hope you will find these activities both interesting and enjoyable!

At this time we bid farewell to Steve Roberts, tech coordinator and Kim Eggerton, tech team member. We will miss you both tremendously and wish you all the best in your new locations.

Have a safe, fun vacation!
The WBAIS Tech Team

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23 Things to Do Over the Summer

1. Purchase a new family laptop. As part of our one-to-one laptop program in 2009-2010 ALL high school students will be REQUIRED to bring a laptop to school. If you have not yet purchased a laptop for your child to use in school, this summer is the time to do it! Talk to your child about his/her computer use and do research together to find the machine that best meets your budget along with these needs, then go buy your new computer and start using it!
2. Organize and clean up your email. Delete messages that you no longer need, including those in your "Sent Mail" and "Trash" folders. Organize the remaining messages with a folder or tagging system and leave your "Inbox" for new incoming messages only.
3. Create a family blog about your summer travels. You can easily do this by signing up to use Google's blogger tool (http://www.blogger.com) or any other free blogging program.
4. Learn more about the features of your family's digital camera. Read the manual or simply play with the different buttons! Many camera companies also include online instruction on how to use your camera, so be sure to check out the site of your camera's manufacturer for more ideas.
5. Make an online photo album of your family's summer activities and share it with others. There are a number of free online tools to do this, including PicasaWeb (http://picasaweb.com), Photobucket (http://photobucket.com), Flickr (http://www.flickr.com), Kodak Gallery (http://kodakgallery.com) and others.
6. Create a book of your travel photos. Many photo storage sites (like those listed above) include this feature. If you are a Hebrew speaker, you may also be interested in the Lupa program (http://lupa.co.il) for creating photo books and t-shirts.
7. Use Google Docs (http://docs.google.com)to write a collaborative story about your summer, along with your children and others who share in your travels.
8. Ask your child to show you the social networking sites that s/he uses (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Ning, etc.). If you don't already have one, open up an account of your own and get in touch with some old friends in a new way!
9. Find a game you played as a child that now has an online version and teach your child how to play, like Scrabble, Monopoly, Risk, Gin Rummy, Go Fish, etc.
10. Practice keyboarding skills! Use the program we teach with in school, UltraKey, by purchasing it or downloading its trial version (http://bytesoflearning.com/english/view/807), take some online typing lessons at a site such as "Typing Lessons" (http://www.typing-lessons.org), or play some typing games at a site such as "Free Typing Games" (http://www.freetypinggame.net)
11. Go to the Atomic Learning (http://atomiclearning.com) website, log in with our school's community log in and password (available through our library site) and learn something new about various software and programs. Lessons in Atomic Learning range start at less than a minute long so you can easily split your studying into short or long sessions depending on your time.
12. Check out the WBAIS Library's blog for parents (http://aisparents.blogspot.com or click on "Library Buzz - Parents" from the library home page). Their most recent post is about Summer Reading but you will also find past articles full of interesting information.
13. Take apart an old computer and explore its contents, visiting a site such as How Stuff Works (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/pc.htm) to learn more about what you see.
14. Create a podcast about your favorite hobby. If you do not have software to do this on your home computer, you can download Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) program for free. If you do use Audacity and want to create mp3 files of your podcasts, be sure to download the "lame" file as well at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows.
15. Organize your music files on iTunes or a similar program for storing music.
16. Have your child teach you how to play a game that s/he likes to play on the computer.
17. Send your favorite WBAIS photo to our tech team for posting on the school's web site.
18. Have your child go to the WBAIS Library's blog for students (http://libbuzzstudent.blogspot.com or or click on "Library Buzz - Students" from the library home page).
19. Plan a road trip using GoogleMaps (http://maps.google.com)
20. Make a podcast where you read a book to your child, then have him/her listen to it while following along in the book Your older children can do this for their siblings as well! If you do not have software to do this on your home computer, you can download Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) program for free. If you do use Audacity and want to create mp3 files of your podcasts, be sure to download the "lame" file as well at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows.
21. Download the program Jing (free at http://www.jingproject.com) and create a video to teach others how to do something you're good at doing on your computer.
22. Read and comment on posts in the WBAIS TechTalk blog (http://wbaistech.blogspot.com)
23. Think of your own, original technology based project. Share your idea with others by clicking on the "comments" button below this post in the WBAIS TechTalk blog (http://wbaistech.blogspot.com)!