Group items tagged

"Google's Drawing program is the perfect platform to practice orthography- the skill of writing characters and symbols to create words- in language classrooms with non-Roman alphabets, such as Arabic or Chinese. Students of these languages need lots of practice handwriting the new alphabet or pictographic symbols, which is difficult to do in a digital environment. In traditional word processing programs, typing pictographic languages, such as Chinese, requires the student to change the keyboard language and then phonetically type the syllables. Characters will pop out fully formed, which is efficient and useful, but bypasses the important orthographic practice! Google Drawing presents teachers with an opportunity to digital collect and monitor their students' orthography without having to scan in and email worksheets. The Scribble Tool in Google Drawing allows the user to create free form lines and by extension hand-drawn language characters. Couple Google Drawing with a pen mouse and Chinese language students are fully prepared to complete short answer or extended writing assignments online." You could also use Google Drawing for students from pictographic language to practice handwirting English.

"Drawing and recording your voice is not an easy task. What I've discovered is that once you start drawing, and your focus shifts to the image, there are few barriers to speaking. "The tool I'd like to share today is EDUCREATIONS . I haven't explored it to its full potential but what I've seen so far is good enough. The free tool allows you use your mouse or your finger (ipad) to draw stick figures while you record your voice. You can also upload an image and draw and record your voice at the same time. Once finished, look at the right side below the twitter and facebook buttons for the URL and the embed code which allows you publish the recording."

"In the past I have shared Google Drawing templates for students to create drag-and-drop "magnetic" poetry with a winter-theme as well as for Valentine's Day. "This time I have updated the template for Springtime. Just like before, doing this activity with technology such as Google Drawings provides many benefits: " No limit on the quantity of words provided. Just copy and paste more of them as needed. Great tech skills practice with dragging and dropping and copying and pasting. Ability to edit the words provided if needed. Ability to add your own words. Easy collaboration with others. Easy to share or download your final creation. No pieces to get lost. It's free! "See below to get your free copy of the Springtime Magnetic Poetry template to use with your students (or yourself) however you want, as well as directions on how to use it." A template and instructions follow. T/h to Eric Curts blog, Control Alt Achieve

This is a fun 9 min. on how to draw animals rapidly and simply. Good for ESL/EFL to demonstrate a point, too.

"Groupboard is a free online whiteboard and chat app that can be easily embedded into your website. It works on any web browser including iPhone, iPad and Android with no downloads or plugins required." Has drawing tools. Would be great for tutoring or videoconferencing. Write, draw, type, upload documents.

"An Online Drawing Tool That Makes Everyone an Artist AutoDraw.com" t/h to Nick LaFave. AutoDraw turns sketches into more professional looking cartoons. By Google Creativity. Use to illustrate ideas about readings, or one's own storyline.

"Knowmia Teach is a new free lesson planning and recording tool for teachers. It helps you create short video lessons on any subject and publish them on Knowmia.com so your students and the public can find them. Knowmia Teach makes it easy to bring in visual aids from multiple sources, organize them in steps (like slides in a presentation) and use your own voice and fingers to bring your lesson to life. You can design each step in the lesson, record illustrations as you draw them, and create sophisticated animation sequences with a simple stroke of a finger. We also give you the ability to describe your lesson in a way that makes it simple for any student who is interested in the subject to find your video. " This seems to be a hany app that allows you to design and record and draw with one app. Available at the iTunes store. So far iPad only, but their site at knowmia.com also gives tips for creating lessons using other tools and storing them at their website.

"Knowmia Teach http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teach/id527216211?mt=8 Free; Designed specifically for teachers; Integrates directly into Knowmia.com (publish a lesson with the push of a single button); Organize lessons with steps/slides; Draw using shapes, multiple pens (with your finger), text tools, laser pointer and much more; Animate graphic elements on the screen by using two fingers (moving, scaling and rotating them); Integrate videos as part of a lesson (coming soon); The only iPad tool to allow face recording while capturing a lesson (coming soon); Imports images, drawings, and Adobe Acrobat files (coming soon); Integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.net and Gmail for transferring files (coming soon)" $2.99 Great tool for the iPad; see more info at the iTunes store.

"Mouse Mischief integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, letting you insert questions, polls, and drawing activity slides into your lessons. "Students can actively participate in these lessons by using their own mice to click, circle, cross out, or draw answers on the screen. " This sound like a great tool to make your presentations interactive, get students attention and help them learn as you teach.

This is a magic place where students can add to a drawing and write about it. One additional activity might be to explore some of the cultural assumptions expressed in the drawings. You will probably need Google Chrome to use all the parts of this wonderful creative site. See also http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Art%2C+Craft+%26+Design for similar creative art sites. Thanks to Martin Burrett at Diigo in Education.

This is such a cool tool that I have to include it, even though it is not free -- just .99 cents U.S. Create your screencast directly on an iPod and upload it as MP4 directly to YouTube. You can draw on the website with a marker, draw tool, or laser point in different colors and two different styles. Annotations scroll with the page. Will not record video content, however. Purchase in iTunes or Apple Store.

This looks like a fascinating game system that includes physics (Newton), drawing (Masterpiece), increasingly difficult puzzles (Tangram), and words and numbers for game practice. It uses both physical and digital elements -- e.g., drawing on paper, and moving letters and numbers around. I haven't had a chance to try it out, but it's one of "TIME's [popular news magazine] best inventions of 2014." The only catch is the $99 to buy the app. You will then need to spend a little more for some of the apps. For 9+.

This blog entry shows how to use the Google Drawing program to create a mind-map, brainstorm, and embed the map elsewhere, e.g., a blog or wiki, for instant updating. Includes a video tutorial as well.

"An intuitive online book creator - write, draw, add images and share. The site has a bank of backgrounds to choose from and a range of tools to draw items into the books."

Review of Digital Dante Website. "Great works continue to draw new specialists into the field and serve to bring the history of a language, its people, and their culture to life. Literary works serve as examples of the power and beauty of language at its best. Helping to make such texts more accessible to learners, the Web can make use of hypertext and multimedia to provide context that is so often lacking for those without the general background knowledge that a good reader is assumed to possess. "

"Create and share great video lessons with your iPad or browser." This is a great tool for getting students talking, or for creating a lively presentation. You can upload a picture, or draw from scratch, as on a blackboard or whiteboard. Easy to use, free download, and available from the App Store for smart phone or iPad.

These sites include RAS Animate with thought-provoking videos about education and other subjects; Problem Attic with a bank of 80,000 quetions from the NY Regents exams, review tests, quizzes, and flash card; Learners TV with thoughsands of video lectures, tests, and animations in various disciplines to support classroom instruction; Sketch Toy which lets you draw and share pictures; Daily Infographic, where you can search topics and subscribe; and Google Tutor, which gives you news, tips, and tutorials about Google. Thanks to M. Sheehan at Learning Never Stops for the info.

Easily create images, write on maps, place markers, draw shapes, share,and export to Google Earth. A great way to give student presentations some real backgrounds.

A great explanation of how and why to use screencasting, with many examples and video tutorials. From Modern Lessons. "The fundamental advantage of screencasting is that it allows educators to provide an easily created video resource for their students that essentially acts like a private tutor. It gives students a way to explain themselves through drawing, typing, voice narration, and video, allowing you, as the educator, to demonstrate a process, concept or skill. Through published screencasts, students can access content in and out of class in order to learn at their own pace. However, we also want to think about having our students act as creators of their own screencasts to demonstrate their problem solving, tell a story, explain a sequence, diagram a concept, or illustrate a concept."

5 neat apps -- there are probably comparable apps for Android and other mobile devices. Whether you have an artistic bent or prefer hand-written notes, one of these might suit you and could be linked into Evernote or OneNote, most likely. T/H to R Byrne.