Group items tagged

"In today's post we are sharing with you some very good iPad apps students can use to help them navigate the world in an easier and faster way. Using these apps will enable them to save time planning for trips, get the fastest routes to specific locations, avoid traffic disruptions, navigate the urban transit system  effectively, access offline transit maps and many more. We tried to include apps that work worldwide"

" Charts&Tides is the first and best full resolution, seamless charting iPad app for marine navigation with full compatibility for the iPhone."

"A Rubric to Navigate the EdTech Swamp?"

"Educators and parents have something in common when it comes to the kids in their care: They are both navigating the treacherous waters of media, devices and children. Parents worry their children overuse screens, yet, they also fear that without the devices, their kids may fall behind socially, academically or be unsafe. Educators are aware that parents like the quick access to their children, and they also know smartphones offer opportunities for learning. Yet the devices can also be distracting in school. Many parents look to school leaders for guidance. They want recommendations for purchasing phones, using apps, keeping children safe and establishing screen time guidelines. Yet, schools tend to shy away from doling out this kind of advice.   Schools should reconsider this aversion. After all, the average age for getting a cell phones is now 10, which makes middle school the ideal time to share advice and recommendations for parents. Creating student smartphone guidelines presents an opportunity for educators to partner with parents and children about the use of devices and digital mental health."

"Zeen (@zeen_com on Twitter) is a free, online platform in beta for creating digital magazines. The website lets you quickly pull photos from Flickr, Instagram, Facebook, as well as videos from YouTube and integrate them into slick, multi-page online magazines. Today I created a travelog magazine about our family's recent fall break adventures titled, "Boston & Maine: Fall Break 2012 Highlights & Memories." The screenshot below doesn't do the platform justice: Visit the actual website to scroll down pages and use the navigational table of contents links on the left and right sidebars to move within the document."

"Today is about Google Maps, though. The company has spent the past seven years refining its offering, making its internal systems run quickly to keep up with as many detours, traffic conditions and new apartment complexes that it can. All of that hard work paid off with this app. It's absolutely gorgeous, runs as smooth as a videogame and is a complete user experience overhaul from any Google Maps experience you've ever had."

"Most of us use iPad only as a peripheral device to our computers and this is probably understood because of the nature and interface of computers that allow for much more freedom and space in handling our browsing and online navigation. For instance, I personally can not do certain things on iPad and I prefer to perform them on my laptop as is the case with writing this post and all my blog posts.That being said, there are now several apps out there that can improve the workflow of your day using iPad. These apps are designed specifically to work hand in hand with your computer and they will allow you to connect, share, and control your computer using your iPad. Thank you Greg for the list."

"Fostering digital literacy skills is one of the most difficult tasks for educators. Evaluating and analyzing online resources for accuracy is something that many adults struggle with - we've all been bamboozled before, haven't we? But digital literacy is more than just determining if something is true or false - it's intelligently and responsibly navigating online, it's putting countless pieces together to form a puzzle, it's determining what's important and evaluating bias, etc - the list goes on. So, as an educator, how do we reinforce these crucial skills in our classrooms?"

"Recently I've been spending more time in Carrie Both's 1:1 iPad kindergarten classroom. I was so excited to observe how easily these students were able to navigate around an iPad. Not only were they able to easily find, pick up and turn on their device (using a numeration system and strategic placement around the classroom), but they also could do everything from create screencasts to use the AppleTV to mirror their work to a projection via AirPlay. "

"The links to the assessment and collaboration apps and the hardware and utilities discussed during the presentation will be found on their respective pages within this site. Use the navigation area on the left to get to that information. This page will include links to the additional items discussed in the presentation "iPads for Teaching and Learning" as well as the slides from a recent presentation "All You Need to Know about iPads in the Classroom"."

"Ask a student what the capital of Burkina Faso is and most will give you a blank stare. Most would be lucky to even tell you the continent the country is a part of. With these 8 must-have apps for geography, not only will students learn the capital of Burkina Faso (it's Ouagadougou by the way), but they will learn a lot of geographical facts, as well as information that will help them navigate and better understand the world."

"Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students with special needs or any sort of learning challenge. In particular the Chrome web browser allows users to install a wide variety of web extensions that provide tools that can help all learners, regardless of ability level. In this blog post we will take a look at 21 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories: Text to Speech Readability Reading Comprehension Focus Navigation Some of the tools fit into more than one topic, but each is only listed once. Certainly this list does not cover all of the useful web extensions available for struggling learners, but it is a great place to begin. In addition to the list of extension, I have also linked in the video and help guide from a webinar I did a while back on "Google Tools for Special Needs"."

"Back in February, an EdWeek Market brief reported that Amazon Education was starting to beta-test a new platform with educators, helping teachers navigate the jungles of open educational resources (or OERs, for short). Well, that platform-Amazon Inspire-has officially launched today in tandem with the ISTE conference in Denver, Colorado. A free, mostly-OER platform (see below for why it's "mostly OER"), Amazon Inspire works like a search engine for educational videos, lesson plans and games. Users can search by criteria like topics (say, "fractions" or "the Constitution"), standards, grade level, and time to complete, as shown below; additionally, they can rate materials with 1 to 5 stars."