Group items tagged

"Studio Pango produces a bunch of iPad apps that children (pre-K through grade 2) are sure to love. Some of the apps are free and some of the apps require purchase. To get a sense of what the paid apps offer, try the free apps first. This morning I tried two of the free apps. I tried Pango Book 1 and Pango Playground for Kids."

"For too many students, doing mathematics means just plugging numbers into a memorized formula to get an answer. And because they don't understand the formulas they're using, they often fail to use the right one. Take a look at Isaac's work below, for example. He is a fifth grade student who tried to find the surface area of a rectangular prism by incorrectly adapting a previously memorized formula for calculating perimeter. He calculated two times the length plus two times the width (2L + 2W) and tried to account for the height by multiplying it by 4, then adding it to the previous sum. Unfortunately, Isaac is not alone in this type of approach. Students who use formulas by rote may never come to see mathematics as sense-making and may never understand the formulas they use. And there are so many formulas to memorize! Teachers who prematurely introduce students to formulas risk denying them opportunities to develop the necessary conceptual foundations for mathematical understanding."

"Last week I wrote a post about AlfaTyping which is a good site for creating and managing online typing courses for your students. Since I published that post I have received a couple of requests for other online typing instruction and practice sites. Here are some of the others that I've tried over the years. I have tried to exclude Flash-based games from the list."

"What if a child's success in school were measured not in IQ but in strength of character? That's the question Paul Tough tries to answer in his book How Children Succeed-Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character."

"Children with dyslexia can have trouble with many aspects of literacy, including learning the alphabet, recognizing letters, following a sequence of directions and mastering the rules of spelling. Having a son with dyslexia, we tried many things to help him with his frustrations. We used a lot of compensatory techniques and one web-based program that is now an app. Below are six apps that aim to help kids and adults with dyslexia. "

"So you have tried many iPad educational games but still did not find the one that perfectly meets your students needs. Well you will never find a perfect one for your particular students because each group of learners have their own idiosyncrasies and only their teachers know them . That being said, using TinyTap you can now easily create your own games based on pictures of your choice. "

"I went to Edcamp Detroit last weekend and Erin Klein shared a free app that she has used in her classroom with a lot of success. The app is called Aurasma. The app allows individuals to create and publish their own augmented reality experiences they call "Auras." I'm sure you are thinking the same thing I was thinking when Erin was talking about this app, "Sounds cool, but what does it do?" Students and teachers can make lessons come alive with this platform. It is difficult to explain so I will explain it step by step, then show you what it looks like in action. "

"Loopster is a video editing tool that I first tried as a web app last fall. Recently, I learned that Loopster has a free iPad app. The free iPad app offers all of the same features that are available in the web version of the service. The Loopster iPad app provides a four track editor. There are tracks for video and images, transitions, sounds, and text. You can import images and videos from your iPad's camera roll or shoot a new video with the app and edit it. On the video editing track you can trim clips and combine clips. On the text track you can add speech bubbles and other text effects. Loopster has a slow motion effect that is available on the iPad app too."

"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."

"This is the 5 post in a series of articles geared towards helping teachers and educators better leverage the power of Google services in education. I know there are several tutorials out there but these ones I have for you are different . Different because they are created by a fellow teacher like you who knows your needs and therefore tries to attend to these needs. These guides are also illustrated by screenshots and explanatory text and in some cases video clips. Today's tutorial is on the use of Google forms. By the end of this guide you will be able to : "

"This new section features online apps which you may find useful in your teaching. Check that app! reviews are written by participants and tutors from our mLearning in Practice online training course, so the apps are tried and tested by real language teachers. Click on the links below to find out more about the app, and suggestions for ways to use it with your own students. We update this section regularly, so come back regularly - or subscribe to our social media channels and the updates will come to you!"

"The World Wildlife Fund's free iPad app called WWF Together is one of the most beautifully designed apps that I've tried over the last year."

"Recently, I tried to explain to a teacher from another school how we are trying to use iPads BEYOND apps. We have over 100 apps on our school iPads and introduce our students according to age level to a variety of them, but the focus of the use of the devices NEEDS to remain primarily as a tool for: exposing students to skills, characteristic of a "modern learner" critical thinking personal learning transformative learning workflow fluency anytime/anywhere/anyhow creating"

""If you're doing all that, who's doing your job?" "People only present because they think it looks good on their resume." "She's obviously all about herself, I mean, look at what she does." IMG_5438These three statements literally were shared with me this year, along with a couple others. Some to me, some with me…all about me. It's hard to hear statements like this and NOT feel as if they are attacking you personally, even though I doubt that was the intention. (er…I hope.) Last Monday at #ISTE13 I was able to go to George Couros's sesson on "Leading Innovative Change". I'm not sure what I thought this was going to be about, but I knew I wanted to see the Couros show, :) His intent was to share how his school division created a powerful vision for innovation and share the steps to guarantee success. What I heard was a defense for all that I believe in and have tried to convey as a teacher, as a technology facilitator, and as an assistant principal. What I heard was the reason I blog, tweet, and share."

"Last year I tried my hand at having my class make book trailers. They did a decent job given that I wasn't quite sure how to jump into this new medium. Well, this year we've learned from the past and I'm proud to say that the fifth graders are creating book trailers that are better than ever! "

"nce again, I am amazed every time I talk to groups and find out so many educators have not used word clouds to their fullest extent with their students. Word clouds also provide an easy way for teachers who are just getting started using web technology in the classroom. I have tried to include a multitude of subject areas. These ideas include practices shared with me, various readings, and a lot of my own brainstorming. I know this will be an article you wish to share with others. In order to better understand some of the advanced uses I suggest you may wish to read my past post entitled, 12 Valuable Wordle Tips You Must Read.  One example of an advanced feature includes putting multiple words  together in a word cloud. If using Wordle, just put a tilde (~) between them. (Example (ice~cream~cone). While I call it advanced, it is also necessary to know in order to get the most out of word clouds in the classroom..Also, keep in mind that Tagxedo and Tagul are great alternatives to Wordle. Keep in mind that word clouds are a Web 2.0 tool. Make sure your students practice proper digital citizenship and privacy. You should also check your district AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). By the way… do you have an idea I have not listed? Then just take a moment and leave a comment or email me at mjgormans@gmail.com . I thank you in advance. Now, let's explore those word clouds!"

" "I've tried to get into coding but my cleavage is just so distracting," quipped one young woman in this provocative YouTube video. "When I'm not menstruating, I'm ovulating, so there's no time to code at all," lamented another. If this all sounds entirely ludicrous, it's supposed to. Girls Who Code, a nonprofit dedicated to bridging the gender gap in tech, created this satirical clip to feature in a three-part series that explores the ridiculous gender stereotypes that exist in the world of computer science. "We wanted to try something different and use humor and satire to question the stereotypes that tell our girls that coding is not for them," said Reshma Saujani, the organization's founder and CEO, in a statement. "Our hope is these videos will spark a much-needed conversation about the messages we send our young women and what we can do to create a more inclusive, well-rounded image of a programmer.""

"The CSER Digital Technologies MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) are free online courses, designed to support Australian teachers with implementing the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies. These are free online courses that provide teachers with background knowledge about concepts and topics in the curriculum, as well as practical examples that can be tried in the classroom. We bring together existing resources, our own developed resources as well as existing teacher ideas."

"It's always a treat when a student can express themselves creatively in a way they're never tried before. With a tool they may not have used before, you can add discovery learning into the mix. The online creativity tools you've got here are great little resources that will develop creativity in all sorts of ways. Using these online creativity tools, students can add artistic personal touches to their work in many ways. They can: build fonts make themselves into a robot or a Picasso painting paint graffiti (without damaging public property) draw with fire (again, without damaging public property) turn pictures into words and textures These are fun online creativity tools to explore and engage your students with. Everyone can have fun with these. They're perfect for adding creative touches to projects of all sorts."

"I'm very privileged to be on the BETA testing team for the Green Screen app from DOINK. Today I tried forcing an interaction between my pre-recorded green screen footage and the drawn animation layered before a solid color field. Here are the pieces: Picture This app will allow you to combine live footage and drawn animations. I film before green screen and draw an animation in DOINK Below is a look at the interface of the new GREEN SCREEN app by DOINK."