Group items tagged

"After posting about iPad apps that teachers can use to create diagrams and charts, we went back into our archive and browsed through the posts we have previously published before looking for apps to use to create mind maps and to brainstorm ideas. We found some but were too old to feature now so we tried to look for new ones and we were surprised to find some really interesting ones. We have compiled a list below that contains some of the best mindmapping and brainstorming apps you could ever find online. We based our selection on the evaluation criteria we shared with you before. The best educational mindmapping tools can help you do a wide range of activities in your class. You can ask students to use them to brainstorm a topic with each one contributing an idea, they keep building up on them till they finally get a finished map of the main ideas about that topic.These tools can help your students develop creative ways of learning and enhance their critical thinking skills. Have a look at the list below and if you have suggestions, share them with us in the comment form below."

"Developer KidsAndBeyond have put out such a wonderful app with Map My Globe. Just this week I wrote a post for a lifestyle website that talked about the benefits and importance of teaching our kids about the world around them. This is the perfect addition to your educational library as it literally maps the globe. The first page opens up with pictures of the different continents with pictures of flags and famous landmarks in each region. If you push the blinking arrow it takes you to the next page where we can either have a young woman read to us or read it ourselves. The introduction asks us if we have ever wondered what continent Nambia was in or what currency the country of Ecuador uses. For any fun-facts loving kid (and adult) this app is filled with really interesting facts about the world!"

"The biggest and most oft-heard criticism of the iPad usually revolves around it not behaving like a desktop PC or laptop. The people making this complaint are simply missing the point. Apple aren't trying to make a laptop replacement, why would they? They make a couple of extremely good ones! The iPad is a new kind of device that asks you to think and work differently. The fact that it isn't a laptop, to me, is its greatest attribute:"

"A couple of weeks ago I wrote about using Little Story Maker to create your own short books on your iPad. After publishing that post a bunch of people asked me to review Book Creator too. Book Creator is not a free app ($4.99 as an individual and less with volume purchasing) but I think that it is well worth the money that I spent on it."

"Sentence Builder from Abitalk is a series of iPad apps designed to help elementary school students learn to construct sentences. The app asks students to build sentences about the pictures that they see in the app. "

"Whenever I hear talk of student engagement I wonder what the problem is. I doubt that it's the students, their role possibly - but not them personally. I don't buy into the idea that most of our students are lazy or incompetent. Instead, I think they're bored. Every student I've taught could learn, just often not the same thing, or in the same way. And when I've asked my students about it, I've always found they love to learn; they just don't like school."

"Here's a great idea… Take your students to a gallery and let them interact with the sculptures like never before. We took a group of Year 10s on a walk through a sculpture garden and asked them to use their iPads to photograph the work. Using their iPads they created abstract images by using apps in workflows to manipulate the photos on the spot. The results were amazing. Rather than producing one picture, most students created a very diverse folio of work."

"This afternoon I received an email in which I was asked how to write a hyperlink without relying on the visual editor in Word, Google Docs, or your favorite blogging platform. While the visual editing tools will usually do everything you need, at some point you might want to beyond the limitations of WYSIWYG. It's then that you'll want know how to write and edit HTML yourself. These are three resources that you can use to teach yourself HTML. The instructions in these resources are clear enough that middle school students can use them on their own too. "

"ArtSet was an impressive app that I was introduced to last week. I was presenting at a conference and one of the organisers asked if a number of the presenters could go through a workflow to illustrate how a series of apps might be able to be used to deepen student learning. The idea was the the product of one app would become the input for the next. The story of The Lion and the Mouse was suggested as an idea. Each presenter was given three minutes only. There was a cross section of both primary and secondary teachers in the group."

"As a general rule, I don't tend to blog too much about what I get up to at School, that's not really what my blog is about. That said however, some of you that also follow me on Twitter may have seen me tweeting recently about a student I teach who has developed an iPad App for the School. A few people, such as Pedagoo asked me to write about it and so here are some of the steps to how this happened, so that, if you wanted to try and replicate this yourself, you might be able to."

"Another question I am often asked is: What are the top apps to buy for [math, reading, writing, science, social science, etc...]? My response is always, no matter the content in question: Creation Apps."

"Earlier this week I shared five good feeds for mathematics teachers and five good feeds for history teachers. These lists were born out of a common request that I get and that is "can you recommend some good blogs for X?" So this week I'm going to publish a short list each day of the blogs that usually come to mind when someone asks me to make a recommendation for a blog related to teaching a particular subject area. Today, I have five good feeds for ELA and ELL teachers."

"For the past few days, I've been playing with a Chromebook. Though I have been an advocate of Google's myriad web products since the beta-test Gmail account that I was invited to open over 10 years ago, I had not previously put my hands on one of these devices. I may be in love. This may come as a shock since I have spent the past two years completely immersed in iPads. I love my iPad too, and my iPhone, and my mostly retired iPod Touch. However, as mobile devices go, I don't see the need for a monogamous relationship."

"For the last year, myself and four other members of the Cinnaminson School District staff worked relentlessly to start a pilot Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) program at Cinnaminson High School. We worked together to create an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and a FAQ sheet for students and parents. We researched how other school districts began their program. We asked for volunteers. I thought we took all the necessary steps to pilot this program. After meeting with Eric Sheninger and touring New Milford High School, I now recognize that we share similar goals for a successful technology program, but our steps have not overlapped to make the same progress."

"The drive to increase technology use in classrooms has many asking whether the investment is more fizzle than bang, and whether it's too early to tell how wisely the money is being spent. Education author Peg Tyre has investigated the use of iPads, one of the most popular classroom additions, in TakePart. She concludes that iPads may assist in some new classroom techniques, but by themselves, they may not be better than traditional, cheaper methods."

"So when I was asked to present to all of the administrators in our school district about the Supervision For Learning project created by the BC Principals and Vice Principals Association, I knew that I would have my work cut out for me. I knew that while I myself could find my presentation to be riveting, this might not necessarily be the case for my colleagues."

"The usual term is a digital native-students born into our digital, connected, and uber-social world who have always had Wikipedia to ask questions, and Google to bail them out."

"Since I posted How to Child-proof iPAD, I received so many questions asking how to lock the iPAD screen, so kids stay within the app you want them to play. Now we found the solution - Daisy Simpson, our new reviewer at iGameMom is going to share the trick with you."

"Pictures convey meaning in profound ways. I'll illustrate this using a free word cloud program called www.wordle.net. Below I have a series of favorite quotes on visualization, with references. Attached I have a word cloud of the quotes (minus the source). Please read the quotes and then look to the word cloud. I ask you: which is more powerful? Which gets the point across quicker, stronger, and faster? Which would your students prefer to read?"