Safari for Schools and ConnectEd tools for students, educators, and schools

Students, Educators, Parents, Caregivers of K-12 students in the United States

Check out Safari for Schools, part of the ConnectEd initiative.

If you are a parent of a US K-12 student, caregiver, or educator, and do not have an Edmodo account, create a free account.
If you currently have an Edmodo account, access Safari for Schools and log in with your Edmodo account. Then you can access every current book and video course from O'Reilly Media.

Edmodo Google Play
Edmodo iTunes

Parents, caregivers, and students, if your educator won't participate, elevate your concerns to someone who can resolve them. There is no reason anyone should deny the U.S K-12 students access to this valuable resource.

Taxpayers get involved there is no reason your local school districts that receive taxpayers funds aren't participating in this program. Check your local districts book budget, you may be surprised.

Check out the other resources available for schools, teachers, and students through the ConnectED resources.

Resources for students
Autodesk Autodesk is a world leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software for manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment.

edX Free Verified Certificates for Students in High-Need Schools Students in U.S. Title I and high-need schools interested in courses to prepare for AP* exams, will also be able to earn a free verified certificate from edX.

Esri Esri will provide free access to ArcGIS Online Organization accounts — the same GIS technology used by government and business — to every U.S. K-12 school in America. These allow users to map and analyze data, create and share content, and collaborate in the cloud — via computers, tablets, or smartphones, anytime, anywhere connected.

Safari books Online and O'Reilly Media pledged to share over $100m of ebooks and videos that will teach students vital technology skills like coding, web design, and more.

For Schools and Educators

If you’re a school administrator, teacher, or student, get more details below about these companies’ commitments — and find out how you can take advantage.

For Schools Adobe, Apple, AT&T, Autodesk, Esri, Microsoft, Prezi, Sprint, Verizon

For Teachers  Adobe, Autodesk, Coursera, edX, Esri, Microsoft, O'Reilly Media, Prezi, Verizon
These are private funding programs administered by the respective sponsors. These are not government grant programs. The availability and administration of these funding opportunities, including the selection of recipients and all other decisions of the funding program, are not endorsed by any federal agency or office. No federal funds are being used in or for the administration or awarding of these private funding opportunities.

DOD Computers for Learning

Updated links that changed due to the We Are DLA Initiative.

The DOD CFL program was created to provide useful IT equipment to schools and educational nonprofit organizations serving grades pre-K through 12. The DOD CFL program is designed to streamline the transfer of excess and surplus DOD IT equipment to schools.


The application process is simple, apply online and submit a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). In addition, Private/Parochial Schools and Non-Profit Educational Entities need to complete and submit an End Use Certificate (EUC) and be approved through the Trade Security Control (TSC) Office.


Registration for Public Schools
Registration for Private/Parochial Schools
Registration for Non-Profit educational entities serving K-12
Is your school/entity already approved?
Search by state or zip code
Search approved Non-profit educational entities
Executive Order 12999 Computers for Learning (signed 1996)

"In order to ensure that American children have the skills they need to succeed in the information- intensive 21st century, the Federal Government is committed to working with the private sector to promote 4 major developments in American education: making modern computer technology an integral part of every classroom; providing teachers with the professional development they need to use new technologies effectively; connecting classrooms to the National Information Infrastructure; and encouraging the creation of excellent educational software. This Executive Order streamlines the transfer of excess and surplus Federal computer equipment to our Nation's classrooms and encourages Federal employees to volunteer their time and expertise to assist teachers and to connect classrooms".


Sec. 1. Protection of Educationally Useful Federal Equipment
Sec. 2. Efficient Transfer of Educationally Useful Federal Equipment to Schools and Nonprofit Organizations.
Sec. 3. Assisting Teachers' Professional Development: Connecting Classrooms.
Sec. 4. Definitions For the purposes of this order:
Sec. 5. This order shall supersede Executive Order No. 12821 of November 16, 1992.
Sec. 6. Judicial Review

Do you Qurify? Are you using QR codes?

What are you doing with QR codes? What can you do with QR codes? What do you need to qurify? Have you seen a QR codes on name tags, in the windows of building, on business cards, blogs, tattoos, symbols on shirts?


QR Code News, Videos, and Forum. Multiple resources of information on who, what, where, why, when and how (5WH) of everything QR code information. Want to know if your phone is capable? Want to know who is doing what with QR codes?


QR Codes via Wikipedia. Where you can read about the standards, license, storage, variants, QR codes as artwork, standalone apps, and references.


Want a QR code for WordPress or Blogger? Check out: QR Code Plugin for WordPress and Blogger Gadget Display whatever QR Code you want and let your users qurify their messages into a QR Code as well. On your blog! Test the gadget here and install the free gadget on your blog.


Diigo lets users qurify the app and download it to your phone. Diigo Power Note for Android - Your memory booster on the go! Key features:  Add text notes, bookmarks, snapshots, pictures, text messages to your diigo library; Access recent items in your diigo library; Access your bookmarks marked as "Read later".


So what do you need?
A smart phone with an operational camera, a bar code reader, and depending on the bar code reader users have the option to directly visit the URL, send the information via email or SMS.
You can test your phone and bar code reader by accessing your bar code app on your phone, viewing the bar code on the right side of the blog (or through this link) and the bar code reader app should display the link to this blog. 


Depending on your device, the apps market for the device there are more than enough bar code readers to choose from. Let me know if you have a favorite, or if you have changed bar code reader apps, or ones we should avoid and why. How do you use QR codes? What is your favorite bar code reader or QR code generation site?

Vicki Davis aka Cool Cat Teacher posted this entry Hardlink to the Future: QR codes (June 2009)
Liz Kolb posted this entry on how to create QR codes for any subject and how QR codes can be integrated in the classroom (January 2009).
Mr. Robbo the PE Geek has some interesting posts about using QR codes in education (2009-2010).
Gerry McKiernan 's posts: QR codes and libraries and  QR codes in publications


Comments, recommendations, and links to your favorite QR codes are welcome. For those who have used QR codes at one time, are you still using them? your students? businesses? 

Learning another Language?

With so many Internet connected devices, the different reasons to learn another language, and the diverse resources available for those exploring learning opportunities about a foreign language what is one to do? What if you want to type in the foreign language? Convert existing documents? Read a current web page in another language? Contribute to wikis about other languages? For those who enjoy options, here are a few:


Google Translate - Translate text, webpages, and documents.
Google Translate Tools - Add Google Translator to your website and/or add Google Translate to your toolbar for 1 click translations.
Google Translator Toolkit  Allows human translators to work faster and more accurately, aided by technologies like Google Translate. How is this different from Google Translate?
Google Translated Search - Search other websites in a foreign language.
Google Translate for Chrome Translate any webpage with one click.


Typing Spanish Accents Information for users of Windows 3.11, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Using the U.S. - International Keyboard, and Mac Users to change the keyboard options or use the cryptic keys.


Typing in Spanish - A table summarizes some key combinations that are useful on various platforms. It also shows the codes for HTML and RSS files.  


Wikijunior Languages From Arabic to Urdu and options to contribute to other languages being developed from Albanian to Yiddish. 


SpanishPod Mobile for iPhones and Androids Learning on your mobile device.


Wikibooks - Languages - Languages are categorized by featured wikibooks and subsections.


Spanish Wikibook in English and Spanish

Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Resources - Resources include culture and area studies materials, country familiarization materials with language phrase books, and online reading and listening lessons for independent learners.

Global Language Online Support System (GLOSS) - more than 4,000 lessons, GLOSS is a valuable resource in maintaining and improving language ability of the learners.


Byki - Personalized language learning system from flash cards, ecards, iPhone Twitter app, and more for over 70 languages.


Transparent Language - Free Language Resources from word of the day, vocabulary, blogs to social media connections. 


Cybrary Man's Educational Web Sites for EFL, ELL, ESL, and Bilingual Ed


Many resources for learning a second language are available through the Internet. A countless number of programs, books, and learning opportunities are available for anyone seeking a second (or 3rd, 4th, or insert number here) language. So whether you are learning another language for career progression, education, vacation, tutoring, or you are curious some resources are listed in this post.  Your shared recommendations, links, and additional resources are always welcome.

Empowering students

Vicki Davis aka Cool Cat Teacher blogged about Empowering students...Is it wrong to let students try? Is empowering kids the WRONG thing to do?

Empowering students is a responsibility that adults have to our students, or anyone in a generational gap. Vicki's students have been working with Lively, blogging about their actions, what they have learned, mentoring elementary students, and now conducting a virtual protest to get Google to keep Lively alive. They are conducting themselves professionally along with providing solutions rather than posting complaints.

Vicki posted a simple request on Twitter requesting some comments to the Digiteen Dream Team blog to incorporate into the classroom discussion. Today she posted some responses from adults who only read one post or just skimmed the surface of the blog.

Check out her blog post where Vicki addresses some comments which I have heard mentioned by high school educators, administrators, and parents. These students also mentored elementary students, "Using Woogi world we taught fourth grade children the importance of safety, balance, and respect on the internet".

Regardless of how parents, teachers, and administrators feel about the Internet, they need to be involved, listening to their students, and learning something new every day.

I hear requests about incorporating teacher training...I am all for it but the educators need to be participative and partake in some independent learning. Even FBI agents have been "schooled" by teens when they were learning about chat room language and behavior (June 28, 2005). The FBI agents claimed they were stumped by the tests given by the teens.

I see too many students, teachers, and parents who are involved, learning independently, learning in virtual groups...while it is not the majority there are programs that work...but that is a topic for another post.

I support what Vicki is doing with her students and the Digiteen project as well as the Flat Classroom project and the many other projects she is involved in. She is an inspiration and many of us wonder how does she do it all....because she cares. When you care about something...when you are passionate about something...you work tirelessly to support our students.

I don't know her students personally, but out of the four states my daughter has attended school in...I can tell you she has not had the opportunity to be a digiteen with a school group. She has a mother who was technical in the Army (Telecommunications and Spectrum Management) and now back working with Network Managers. Rather than sitting on the sideline griping and complaining about the lack of opportunities I decided to do something about it. There has always been a computer in the home to today when gadgets are much a part of life that it is painful to revert to paper and pencil. Granted there is always room for paper and pencil...even during hurricane season. If I don't teach my daughter and her friends about empowerment....when do they learn?

When the students graduate...if they do graduate...they don't inherently become "real world" smart. We are all humans...we only know what we know...so why not challenge yourself and learn something new today...and for the rest of your life. Use the brain like you do your heart...the more you use it...the less likely you are to lose it. If you have a special skill to share and the school networks are filtered and blocked...check your nearest library.

For all of the critics of Vicki Davis' Digiteen Dream Team project, I have to defer to Abraham Lincoln's quote, "He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”

Just because you didn't grow up with the Internet in your school is not an acceptable excuse on restricting information to your children or students on becoming digital citizens.

You might want to start with reviewing your ISP's Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). How ready for the real world are they when they are using networks that restrict and block everything in the real world. Error management should be incorporated for all users, so computer users maintain a coolness under stress and realize everything can be overcome in the world of data.

For those of you who question what Vicki is doing, she is a passionate, caring teacher who states, "Yes - we talk about terms of service and have discussed it. I stand behind what we're doing and to them, this is important. I will certainly take any blame for problems that happen, however, putting kids in super sanitary environments teaches kids that things always go right and computers always work, and that certainly, isn't the real world of struggles and problems that I'm preparing them for.

Vicki...keep doing what you are doing and don't sweat the small stuff. Your students are incorporating ISTE standards where some students do not even know or have ever heard of ISTE and why they have standards. They understand the components of being a responsible digital citizen and will end up being the leaders in their fields, whatever field that maybe.

Continue to empower your students and encouraging them to try, they are the future leaders.

Online learning through cell phones

On 10/30 I blogged about Liz Kolb's book available through ISTE and Amazon, Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education. You can now register for her webinar scheduled for Tuesday, December 16, 2008 (1 pm Pac/2 pm Mtn/3 pm Cen/4 pm Eastern).

On November 12, 2008, Jordan Blum published an article, Classes to be offered via cell phone in 2theAdvocate.com. As an advocate for dL, not as a mandate but an option, I applaud Louisiana Community and Technical College System, or LCTCS for offering 21 general education and business courses for students using iPhones or Blackberries. Tuition for courses offered by LCTCS Online is $63 per credit hour, and financial aid is available for eligible students. There are no additional fees, and the tuition is the same for both in-state and out-of-state students.

I understand this is not the first choice for everyone, just as distance learning is not for everyone, but for those who wish to continue their education without sitting in a lecture hall, this is a great opportunity. I posted the link and article snippets in the high school newsgroup...I am trying to imagine myself as a teenager in an education system where cell phones are banned and then discovering an opportunity to earn college credit using the banned device. My daughter said she might try one course but she likes the social aspect of attending school even though she hates lectures.

But for my peers who are always doing something, from being deployed as a service member to trying to do 48 hours of activities in a 16 hour day, the smart phone courses would be the perfect fit. Again...I am somewhat biased...I love the online learning environment, I love facilitating in the online environment and I despise having someone read a presentation to me. Time is a valuable resource to me...I am still busy trying to make the most of the dash that will rest between my date of birth and death.

So Louisiana Community and Technical College System...you get a hat tip and a round of applause. I know many institutions will be watching as you employ the adage by John Burroughs, "Leap and the net will appear." Check out the courses here. Once there click on the Mobile Content to see the 21 courses offered from English Comp I and II, US History, Macro and Microeconomics.

Tuition for courses offered by LCTCS Online is $63 per credit hour, and financial aid is available for eligible students. There are no additional fees, and the tuition is the same for both in-state and out-of-state students. Registration for online courses begins 1/5/09 and classes begin 1/26/09.

This opportunity offered by LCTCS also demonstrates collaboration between the LA Board of Regents, AT&T, Pearson, and LCTCS.

David Warlick's Big Ideas - Bring Education back into Focus

David Warlick is collecting your ideas...so gather your thoughts, whittle the characters down to 140, and submit your action statements.

From the site: Big Ideas - Bring Education Back into Focus

The project features four phases.

Phase 1 (Starts 11/9/08)
Instructions - Think about the basic priority actions that might be taken by a new Department of Education that would promote shifts in education that are relevant to today´s students and their future.

Scroll down the page to see statements already posted.

Compose a statement that succinctly describes that action using no more than 140 characters. Be clear and to the point.

Type or paste your statement in the textbox to the left, no more than 140 characters. Type your name and click [Submit]

Spend about two-and-a-half days composing and posting clear and succinct (140 character limit) priority actions for a U.S. Ed Department aimed at promoting and empowering a system that better prepares today’s children for their future.

Phase 2
The Big Ideas web site will change, consisting of a list of the items that were posted. We, will collectively match up similar items into the basic foundation topics. Nothing will be deleted, only linked.

Phase 3
The basic topics that emerge will be listed, with associated items linked in, with a request that education bloggers and micro-bloggers post their insights about specific topics of interest.

Phase 4
Finally, the main topics will be listed, with links to an aggregation of associated blogs and micro-blogs. Educators will then be asked to visit the list and prioritize the list by order of importance and logical sequence.

Visit David Warlick's blog to pick up the badge and post it on your site. Spread the word.

Trust but verify

Three words that exist in my world for many reasons. Reagan used this phrase often and it is a quote from a Russian proverb. During some of my school assignments I check out technology plans, primarily from the schools that we attend (or have attended), on and off line. What do you do to encourage students to question the school’s technology plan while encouraging critical thinking and decision making skills?

Parents, students, teachers, media specialists, administrators, educational and instructional specialists…is your school’s technology plan up to date? Realistic? Was it created as a copy and paste job? Was the plan created by the administrators that report information, but have no idea about your boots on the ground experience with technology in a classroom, media center, or the school? Is the public information in the plan acceptable to all users? Believable? Accessible?

When is the last time you checked the technology plan for your school, school district, and state department of education? If you have questions about conflicting information, how do you resolve the issue? Do the links provided on the site work? What does one do when the link to report an issue does not work and the POC (point of contact) email is returned? Keep an audit trail.

Are the students aware of the Technology Plan? Do they have an opportunity to provide suggestions, make recommendations? Does your school district have a suggestion improvement plan that works?
Just because the plan is in writing…trust but verify. If your child is growing up with technology and takes issue with what works and does not work at school, it is OK to follow through. Don’t buy the media hype, get connected, get engaged…instead of enraged.

Chris Lehmann - We need more principals like him

Just the snippet you need after working in the digital divide! I survived the digital divide in the military, transitioning from analog to digital and digital to IP. I live in a miniscule digital divide with a parent and a child, one who discovered a love for technology later in life and one who continues to grow with technology. Both embrace technology, are willing to learn, try, ask questions, and share experiences. Lifelong learning is a part of everyday life in this household.

My mother encourages me to "Bloom where I am planted" when I become discouraged with the divide in the city that hosts the Masters Golf Tournament. The mayor has a Facebook page, yet we still have educators that do not check email and call a cell phone "just a cell phone".

Chris Lehmann's blog Practical Theory contains his blog entries as a principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadephia, PA. Mr. Lehmann's recent appearance at IgnitePhilly should be viewed by everyone, whether you are an educator, a parent, a community partner, a tax payer, students and saved as a favorite for anyone who works within the digital divide and has one of those days, weeks, or months, where you just want to run away and join the forward moving techies.

I also came across this shared presentation through Dr. Mcleod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant and Darren Draper's blog, Drape's Takes. Through my RSS reader, I am sure I will see more links as Mr. Lehmann's video and presentation goes viral.

Thanks Chris for sharing this snippet and thanks to everyone who continues to share through their blog posts. Your posts, shared knowledge, and experiences provide the light at the end of the tunnel when one thinks about throwing in the towel and just sticking with the forward thinking techies.

What if every teacher or parent incorporated one technology tool into an everyday event?



Is the price of gas to high for the traditional vacation? Take a virtual field trip using Google Earth or just Google virtual field trips and visit somewhere you wanted to visit like the Smithsonian, Musuem of Modern Art, MoMA, Guggenheim Musuem.