How do you do it?

1. Go download the Tilt plugin for Firefox.
2. Navigate to the website you want to screenshot
3. Pull down Firefox’s Tools menu and invoke Tilt
4. Position your website in the most awesome way possible
5. Shoot and edit your screenshot with your favorite screen capture software like Jing, Skitch, or good ol’ Grab in OSX
6. Drop that screenshot into your presentation, document, or whatever creative piece you’re working on!

It’s really that simple! I’d love to see what you do with this tool– please leave links to your 3D presentations in the comments!

Related articles

• See Web Pages in 3D with Tilt, a Firefox Extension (labnol.org)
• Tilt: Visualize your Web page in 3D (hacks.mozilla.org)
• Quick-Tip An Awesome Browser Plug-in – Awesome Screenshot (compete.com)
• Review: Firefox 5 Web browser (macworld.com)
• Firefox Joy…stick that is (geektyrant.com)
• The Most Important Parts of HTML5 (n01se.net)
• Firefox Gets A Massive Speed Boost; I’m Still Sticking With Chrome. (thechromesource.com)
• Firefox To Get Better Third Party Add-On Security (ghacks.net)

Amazon.com‘s AStore Affiliate program pays charities if you search Amazon via a referrer link. In the spirit of giving, here’s how you can replace your Amazon Firefox Search Bar button with the AStore search link of your favorite cause. Amazon will donate to them every time you buy something!

What you’ll need:
1) Firefox
2) The Add to Search Bar extension
3) A favorite charity that has already set up an AStore. I wasn’t able to find many online, but my two favorites that I know of are Heifer.org (an organization that gives helps people in developing nations find sustainable food sources) or  DanCarlin.com (producer of the incredibly excellent podcast HardCore History).

Procedure:
1) Install the Add to Search Bar extension and restart Firefox. This extension allows you to put your cursor in any search bar on your favorite web pages and add that search functionality to your Firefox search bar.
2) Go to your favorite charity’s AStore. Find their AStore search bar, right click in it, and select “Add to Search Bar”.

3) Use this search bar every time you search Amazon, and they will donate to your worthy cause each time you shop!

I have spent my whole teaching career in small, high tech charter schools, and I have seen educational technology grow symbiotically alongside Web 2.0 advances. I have embraced blogs for their power to tackle a variety of classroom teachers’ challenges.

At our schools, there has always been the expectation that teachers will maintain an informative website so students can access homework, handouts, calendars, and other class information. My first school was using RapidWeaver, a desktop program where teachers designed websites whole and then uploaded them to the school servers. As the school year progressed, the upload times got longer and longer as teachers’ sites got more complex. As a result, busy teachers gradually fall off, leaving their websites as a wasteland of outdated and useless material.

I have discovered that blogs are the ideal way to provide information to your students. Why? Because:

• the most up to date information (like tonight’s homework or today’s assignment) is always at the top
• old posts are saved and can be organized in whatever ways you can imagine
• blogs are free and easy to operate
• teachers who don’t want the extra hassle of “updating a web page” can even post to blogs by email!
• Students can “follow” or “subscribe to” your blog posts so they never miss an assignment
• Blog feeds can be combined so, for example, assignments from all the school’s teachers can appear on the same page.
• Your blog feed can even be embedded in your school’s main web page.
• You can maintain various blogs for separate purposes. I even have a private blog that nobody can see that I use to  take notes on confidential student situations.

The beauty of them is that they are so flexible that you will continue to find new and interesting ways to use them. Blogs are a powerful technology that can be used in a variety of ways to make your classroom management more efficient.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Blogging As A Marketing Tool (smallbusinessbranding.com)
• Amazon’s Twitter Sharing Utility is Smart Business, but Is It Legal? [FTC Violations] (siliconangle.net)
• Upgrades to WordPress and the Thesis theme (nevillehobson.com)
• Writing for Social Change (socissues.wordpress.com)
• Six Ways to Expand Your 2.0 Sociability (nettiehartsock.com)
• Elixir offers Ultimate Bundle – Releases 3 New RapidWeaver Themes (themactrack.com)