A Little Visitor Named Irene

Well, aside from the downed branches in my back yard, I made it through Hurricane Irene.  I was also one of the few fortunate ones that never lost my power or cable.  Our schools were supposed to open for students tomorrow, but there are still numerous schools with no power.

As I sat watching the television coverage of Irene, I thought a lot about the technology we had that could help us stay informed.

Certainly there are sites like the Weather Channel and your local tv news station.  But I also thought about the Hurricane Tracker app on my iPad.  So here are some other sites and apps to keep you informed during a weather crisis.

Stormpulse a website that also has a companion iPad app allows you to view radar and satellite maps for your area.  There are several options for labeling.

The National Hurricane Center is part of the National Weather Service and has a wealth of information covering the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific.

Google Crisis Response  offers Google mapping with storm overlays.

NASA's Earth Observatory has satellite images of many interesting subjects regularly including storms such as Irene.

Ready.gov will help you in planning BEFORE a storm hits.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research offers RAP - Real-time Weather data.

Although we are prepared and able to receive minute-to-minute news and information, we still are not any match for Mother Nature!

Jing Went the Strings of My....

Oops, wrong words and a poor attempt at humor.  But Jing is no humorous tool!  In fact it's a very powerful FREE tool.  TechSmith is probably most well known for SnagIt and Camtasia, both wonderful tools to do screen captures and screencasts and so much more.  But they offer Jing which allows you to do screen captures and screencasts.  And it's free!  Download the free software to your computer and you get the Jing Sun Launcher.

It rests at the top of your screen.  When you hover over the 'sun' it grows the three little appendages.  The one on the left gives you a cross hair so you can select which part of your screen you want to capture.

Once you've selected the area, the control panel above floats at the bottom of your screen. The far left button is a snapshot and the second from the left is the video.  This allows you to record your screen and movements. 

The recording time is five minutes and you can save the video to your hard drive, or share it using TechSmith's Screencast site.  You simply share the link to the website.  There is also an option to embed the video.

If you want to go Pro, the cost is $14.95 per year and this gives you the ability to save the video as an mp4, remove the Jing ads, and do a direct upload to YouTube.

As far as uses, I can think of lots right off the top of my head!  I used it to do a tutorial for an inservice course I was teaching.  I am currently making a series of tutorials for my staff as over the summer we were rolled over to Windows 7.  I can also see posting these for students to use when you aren't around.  Posting on a wiki, on an Edline page, or on the school webpage allows students, parents and staff 24/7 access to help.

Check it out!