Resources and Tools

I arrived back at home and I am glad to be here. I have already received a couple of emails from people that were in my sessions so today what I am going to do is post the tools we use at BD. These will be a combination of items that are accessible to teachers and students. Where possible I will also make sure they are linked so you can click them and get information.

Before I begin I would like to mention Miguel Guhlin who is linked on the main page and his topic which I read this morning titled "Intensity of Authenticity" where he mentions that in all of his blogging he has received few responses. I mentioned to him in my comment that sometimes I personally feel I am not worthy(?) to post due to not being at the level I perceive him to be. I do know that there have been many occasions where his post and musings have lead me to have discussions with other people however, be it in my building or with others in the Diocese.

That said, here we go. We are a Novell networked school, we have almost 230 Windows based machine on our network. Our current supplier is Daktech Computers for both laptops and desktops. We are able to purchase monitors from them as well and they supply us with digital/analog, flat View Sonic monitors of at least 19". We have also purchased laptop carts outfitted with a printer and a wireless hub from them to complete those packages. We use Edline Corporation for web based grades as well as class pages for parent - school communication.

Jackson Software for Grade Quick Web
Administrators Plus by Rediker Software along with the modules for Discipline, QSP for Cafeteria, SNAP for the nurse's office, Concourse for the Library and Admissions Plus.
Windows Operating Systems and Office 2003 & 2007. We currently run XP Pro on all machines.
Macromedia for web classes, graphics animation and graphic art classes. Macromedia has been purchased by Adobe and we are going through that licensing now.
Quia for online test making and taking.
Twotrees Technologies for web mail for all faculty and all students. Twotrees also does our content filtering, pix firewall and has done our webhosting.
ArcView software from ESRI for our GIS program.
SMART Interactive whiteboards. We also use Airliners From SMART, Synchronize
NEC Projectors for use with the SMART IWB's.
Geometer Sketchpad for Math
TI Smartview software for math with the SMART IWB's
Audacity, GCast and Photostory for podcast creation
Naviance with the Guidance offices
Discovery Channel School for United Streaming
SAS in Schools by Curriculum Pathways.
Turnitin.com for plagiarism checking.
Avid & iMovie for Broadcast Journalism classes

Our library has an extensive database that is subscribed to for the student so I will link you to the librarian's page and you can scroll down to see some of the tremendous work that she has done.

I welcome any input as to other alternatives to these items posted. This is a portion of the list of what we use at BD. I hope this helps.