Group items tagged

"This week's pick is Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal HD - which I'm going to shorten to Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker for most of the remainder of this post. The opening lines on its App Store page create some very high expectations:"

"This week's pick is Songza - an excellent music streaming app that promises to bring you 'the right music at the right time'. Here are a few of its key features:"

"This week's pick is Storehouse, an app that claims to be 'the easiest way to create and discover beautiful stories' and does a great job of living up to that promise. I've seen a large number of iPad apps with similar purposes, but Storehouse stands out right away due to the spectacular photography in the stories and the app's wonderful, gesture-based interface. "

"Here at Mashable we use Skype on a daily basis. It's part of a suite of essential online tools that keep us connected to our friends, families and colleagues. As regular users, we've picked up a few handy tips and tricks we thought we'd share with you. From customizing Skype sounds to setting up a called ID, we think you'll find our selection useful. "

"Recently, my school adopted a new approach to Educational Technology Integration. We're following an unconference model, and this has meant that we meet weekly, for no more than 1/2 an hour, in small, constantly-changing groups. Before these meetings, staff announce (via the school intranet) what sessions they might be running. For example, they might run a session called, 'Using Evernote in Ancient History' or 'How I Used Scripts to Automate my Classroom'. Staff can then pick a session that suits their fancy - or their professional needs - and these small groups are constantly revolving as people share their new skills with each other. It's been revolutionary - a huge success, so this discussion is aimed at sharing ways to ensure that your school is getting the most from professional learning. Here are my 5 tips:"

"Looking for some powerful apps to help your kids and students type fast? The selection below features some of the most popular typing apps in Chrome app store. As usual I only picked what I think are relevant for an educational context such as the classroom. Have a look and share with your colleagues:"

"Fizzy's Lunch Lab Fresh Pick is a free iPad app from PBS Kids. The app is based on the popular PBS web series Fizzy's Lunch Lab. The purpose of the app is to challenge students' math and problem solving skills. The app contains eight challenges for students to try. Students can go through the challenges in any order that they like. The eight challenges for students are Buying Groceries, Grocery Mapping, Neighborhood Mapping, Pantry Hunt, Fizzy's Invention, Customer Change, Find Freddy, and Food Matcher."

"Apps should make you more productive. Not make you feel guilty. Not distract you. They should help you do more than you would have done if you didn't have it. I've picked my most epic productivity apps and given you tips for how these apps truly make me more productive"

"I just came across this graphic on Twitter and it straightforward picked my interest. I was contemplating the deep meaning it communicates and could not agree more. The message is clear: technology is a means and not an end."

"I would've written this earlier, but I was busy picking pieces of my mind up off the floor. I get to write about cool stuff all day, but this… this is incredible. colAR is the coloring book of the future. By mashing up traditional coloring books with some good ol' augmented reality voodoo, colAR brings your kid's drawings to life in full, animated 3d."

"The consistency a language-teaching iPad app offers can help nonverbal children with autism pick up new words, according to a study funded by Autism Speaks. "

"My criteria for picking these tools was pretty straightforward, and will not be unfamiliar to a lot of you who may have a similar criteria of your own: It had to be free, or at least offer enough free services to be useful in the classroom It had to be engaging, interactive, and/or instantly appealing to students. It had to be a multi-platform tool that was accessible on as many devices as possible. The slides from the session are below. If you see something you like feel free to share it with someone else who might benefit from using some of these great web tools in their classroom!"

"When you need a quick pick-me-up, how much bang for your buck will you get at Starbucks? Chances are you probably order one of a handful of drinks and stick to that group on a regular basis. However, this in-depth chart from Thrillist might help you try something new if you're looking to juice up on the cheap."

"As a 21st century teacher, you probably need to share stuff, and have stuff shared with. "Stuff" like pdfs, various word processing documents, video files, and other digital fare. The traditional way to do this has been email, but limits here-including speed, file size, and the relative clunkiness of sharing with large groups-make sharing files through email less than "best practice." We started to create a chart that listed the nuance details of each platform, from storage and sharing limits, FTPing ability, the need to sign up to use, and password-protecting to flexible expiration dates for rights to files-but then we found that Wikipedia had already done this (and then some). So we instead picked our favorite dozen, and then ranked them in terms of their flexibility and integration that education technology demands. Though most of the tools below can share most files (mp3s, .movs, .mp4s, exe, .zip, .doc and .docx files, .pdfs, etc.), we focused more on documents, images, folders and software integration than incredibly detailed features that may make it overkill for your classrooms."

"I took piano lessons as a kid, but it's hard lugging a piano around when you want to take your tune-playing on the road.  I tried teaching myself some chords on the guitar, but it turns out that you need big, strong hands to press down on the strings hard enough to make music. My hands are neither big, nor are they strong. So instead I picked up the ukulele, and, using YouTube, taught myself how to play.  The problem is, I've run out of songs to play that are remedial enough for me to learn. That's where Riffstation Play comes in."

"It's that time where schools are deciding what apps students should have on their devices. While many schools stick with just free apps, others know that paid apps have a lot to offer. Paid apps are usually 50% off when purchased through Apple's Volume Purchase Program for Education, so outfitting an entire class with a paid app might not break the bank. I thought I'd share my top paid app picks for students' iPads. These apps are all open-ended and empower students to create something with their learning."

"We believe in a future where every child leaves school knowing how to code. It's not realistic to expect educators to achieve this on their own, developers and the wider community must help. The amazing thing is that many developers believe in our cause and want work with educators to make this happen- someone just needs to bring them together. That's where we step in. We provide a platform where educators can post code-related projects, request a custom project or pick from our growing base of pre-defined projects. Developers can browse projects in their local area and connect with the educators to take discussions further and bring authentic learning opportunities to the classroom. So, we're currently looking for our founding partners to get the ball rolling. If you know anyone or would like to become a founding partner, please get in touch with us (team@codefuture.org)!"

"Excited shouts of "left, left, left", "knock down that tree" or "pick up that stone" can only mean one thing: your students have discovered the virtual world of Minecraft. Since its launch in 2011, children and adults worldwide have spent hours creating unique environments. The video game generates a blank landscape of different terrains that players explore. They construct buildings, mine for useful materials and, depending on what mode you're in, may have to defend yourself from attacks or stave off hunger"

"Making the ordinary extraordinary… This picture was one I picked up a couple of years ago on Twitter and it sparked a creative note. Having experimented with the approach to place value and reading numbers in this way it has very good effect. Especially when the students make the tool themselves. Younger students can get to grips with the position of numbers and the zeros prompt them to say the correct magnitude if they are a little unsure. You could write the words too underneath the numbers if necessary. Its a lovely class project for year 3 and 4 and it's cheap too. It is also great for intervention at a later stage, with older students."