Group items tagged

"Closed Captioning places written text at the bottom of video content, allowing for anyone to read along with the video rather than listen to the audio. This is an essential feature for certain accessibility purposes and for individuals who are hard of hearing, but it's also just a useful feature to enable if you want to watch a movie silently and read subtitles. "

"When it comes to online learning, there's a new old kid in town. iTunes U is getting a killer feature that has been sorely lacking: social. Like relatively new start-ups Codecademy and Udacity, most iTunes U will finally let you learn alongside others, ask questions, and work on things in a more collaborative environment."

"Make Beliefs Comix is a free multilingual comic strip creation tool that I've featured many times over the years on Free Technology for Teachers. Recently, Make Beliefs Comix released an updated iPad app for creating comic strips. The best feature of the app is that it supports the creation of comics in seven languages; English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Latin."

"I just came across this handy graphic on creativity and want you to have a look as well. The visual features a variety of ways and techniques that can inspire your creativity and drive you to act creatively.These ideas seem simple and common sensical but are often overlooked. You can share them with your students and try them with your kids, just remember whatever method you use, you need to be consistent and repeat it everyday. Habituation is a key element in the creative process."

"Throughout my different experiences working with teachers integrating technology in their classrooms I noticed that several of them still do not know about the powerful features that YouTube has. The fad that YouTube is a mere video hosting platform is still pervasive among many while, in fact, most if not all of the features provided by premium video websites are also found in YouTube and for free."

"Evernote is one of the apps I use on everyday basis. I have already featured it in my "top 10 web tools as a teacher ". I know there are several other tools that can do the same and I have reviewed some of them here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, but the powerful features Evernote exhibits together with its ease of use make out of this app one of the must have for every teacher and student."

"One of the distinctive features that sets Google Drive apart from the other competing cloud storage tools such as Dropbox is its ability to integrate third party apps and extensions. Google has made it possible for developers to create apps that would integrate with Google Drive to render its productivity more powerful. Chrome Drive store features a wide variety of such apps. However, today I am sharing with you 5 great apps that, I believe, are important for you to connect to your Google Drive. Check them out below and share with your colleagues. "

"Learning how to evaluate online content is an essential step in the process of developing digitally literate students. I have already featured several materials on strategies and skills for students to evaluate web content and today I am adding a great resource from Lisa Hartman. The presentation below features the 5 elements ( CRAAP ) students should look for when evaluating online content. These elements according to Lisa are : Currency Relevance Authority Accuracy Purpose Watch this short introduction to CRAAP:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDGKsT7QHNs#t=24

"Google Books is one of the wonderful research tools I use when searching for books. Google Books provides some important features for conducting accurate book searches and allows users to do a lot of things with the books they find. They can for instance search for key words and phrases from within the book, clip a portion of the text and share it, and download the book in different formats : PDF, EPUB, and in plain text. These and several other features render Google Books a great search platform that our students can draw on to help them with their research projects. Here is a visual guide I created to help you learn more about the different things you can with Google Books. Check out the presentation version of this visual at the end of this post."

"I spent the whole day today catching up with the piles of emails I have in my inbox and I still did not reach inbox zero. However, while working on my Gmail, it dawned on me to share with you some useful tips I am using on my Gmail and which can make your emailing experience way better.These tips are features provided by Gmail team. All of features can be accessed from the setting button on the top right side :"

"It's almost fall again, and so Apple has released the next generation of software that powers its mobile lineup: iOS 8. As always, this is a free update, and it packs new features and enhancements, both obvious and subtle. "

"iPads, iPods and other tablets are becoming more commonplace in the classroom, and schools are filling their devices with lots of Apps. By doing this, teachers could be missing valuable opportunities to truly embed the use of technology into their curriculum. If teachers were offered just one device that was a camera and video recorder, had access to the internet, was a calculator and had a note-taking feature, how delighted would they be? It's astounding how much the inbuilt functionality is overlooked as schools become pre-occupied with downloading Apps. From experience, the overloading of Apps and games can de-value the device, from a pupil's perspective, as an educational tool. Here is a brief overview of some of the features, giving an insight of the scope in which the device can be used with a few basic Apps."

"Apple announced some great new features in iOS8 last week. iCloud Drive will be an excellent addition to file structure implentation for iPads. Users will be able to take advantage of these features in the fall. Until then, this new tip will come in very handy if you are still using Microsoft office on other computers. Currently, iCloud storage of files has somewhat been "hit and miss" for consumers in terms of reliability and ease of use."

"Here is a chart I have been working on over the last couple of days. The chart features some of the best iPad apps for digital storytelling. This selection is created in such a way that teachers can find in it apps for any grade they teach. Also the chart features the most updated versions of apps. If you want to download and print this chart, use this Google Docs link. Enjoy"

"On the surface, Apple's new mobile operating system iOS 8 looks strikingly similar to iOS 7, but beneath the surface, it's brimming with new features to vastly improve the mobile experience (iOS 8 is hardly perfect, though; as with any new software, there are certainly kinks)."

"I love these witty quips that ASCD intermittently share with the education community in the form of visually appealing infographics. The recent visual they shared in this regard relates to the topic of issue number two of Education Leadership magazine. Instruction That Sticks is a beautiful visual that features 6 quotations from leading thinkers and educationists. The quotes , different as they are in their scope, each speak to one of the essential areas in teaching methodology. Think of them as tips to help you better conceptualize your teaching strategy to meet the learning needs of your students."

" Reflector2 is a wireless streaming product that works with iOS, Android and even Chromebooks that allows teachers and students to share their iPads, Android tablets and Chromebooks to the big screen wirelessly, from anywhere in the room. Recording with voice-over lets teachers record their lessons for future use, while multiple security features keep the classroom safe. With even more innovative features, Reflector 2 is an extremely cost-effective alternative to an Apple TV, utilizing the devices already found in most classrooms. It also works with Mac and PC. You can share your mobile device screens to a computer connected to a projector for a powerful presentation tool."

"Tiki-Toki is an excellent web tool for creating beautiful timelines to use in your class. We have already featured this tool in several posts in the past but today we are revisiting it again as it has a very good feature added to it which allow you to view your timelines in 3D. With this new update, teachers will be able to create timelines that can be viewed in 3D format."

"If you've purchased any or all of iLife/iWork apps for iOS at some point in the past, now is the time to update your productivity suite and take advantage of the new features Apple introduced just yesterday at their event in San Francisco. It was quite a big day for the likes of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Not only did Apple unleash a host of new features, they've also baked in deep compatibility for these apps-utilizing iCloud, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and iOS 7. Read on for some of the highlights you'll find in the updated apps."

"The iPad is well-known as an amazing creation tool, but with Google Drive's "Open-In" feature on the iOS platform - the iPad has quickly become a collaboration device extraordinaire. Google Drive is best known for apps like Docs and Slides, and these are great platforms for students to work collaboratively on documents and presentations. However, Google Drive has one under-used feature that offers a secret collaborative power . This hidden power of Google Drive sits in the layers of the "i" button."