Group items tagged

Mini video scenarios you can watch on your smart phone or touch-screen tablet. When you speak aloud on your half of the conversation you get immediate feedback on your performances using speech-recognition technology. Each session is about 2 min. long. Reported in USA Today.

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.

R. Byrne suggests some ways to help students practice speaking in front of their class: "I answered some questions from teachers worried about students discovering more about technology than they could discover. The solution that I proposed is to have your students practice their presentation skills by showing off a "hidden feature" of their iPads, laptops, Chromebooks, or Android devices."

The ways include Google Drive, Padlet, Dropbox/DropItToMe, AirDrop (for iPads), and Next Vista Learning. These would be good ways to get around the YouTube restrictions in some countries. T/H R. Byrne

"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.

"his is a truly amazing iPad app which replaces a whole TV crew and studio. Capture your video and audio use like adjusting the sound levels, an in-build teleprompter and green screen effects to make spectacular footage. Edit your video directly in the app and add images, websites and Twitter feed as cutaways sections of the screen."

Some interesting ideas for setting up a studio in the classroom at very low cost. Use for student projects and special effects in student videos.

Prezi is a flashy presentation program, but once you master the intricacies, creates very beautiful and visual compelling presentations. One advantage over the old PowerPoint is the ability to show how ideas relate to one another visually -- like visual Venn diagrams that swirl in and out, that grow as their significance increases. Worth a try. And available from the cloud, desktop, iPhone, and iPad.

"Classcraft, the first online educational role-playing game that teachers and students play together for free, recently announced the launch of a fully-updated version of their product for the new academic year. This revised version boasts new features such as free iOS apps for iPhone and iPad, interactive forums, student analytics and customisable characters, all of which will be useful for both teachers and students. Also included are French, Chinese, Dutch, German, and Spanish translations, which has made the game even more accessible to classrooms worldwide. To date, more than 30,000 students in 50 countries around the world are playing the game. "In order to keep students engaged, the Quebec-based team of education professionals are keen to inject the mechanisms of popular social games into learning. Playing in teams, students can become mages, warriors and healers, each with unique powers. The more a student excels, the more they gain points and real powers, like the ability to take notes into an exam. Teams can lose points by disrupting the classroom or submitting homework late; consequences can include detention and and less time to finish assignments."

A number of children's and young adult free books for your tablets. A good way to increase your school library with little expense. The online tool also lets your write, edit and publish books for free, and convert any doc to a book format.

These apps help transform the process of sharing and demonstrating knowledge. R. Byrne: "Digital storytelling is a powerful tool in the classroom. It is engaging for students and teachers of all grade levels and can be used across the curriculum. Most of all, digital storytelling gives students a voice and a way of communicating information in an authentic manner. One of the great things about digital stories is that there are no "cookie cutter" answers."

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+.

Conversation English is an iPhone/iTunes app where people can view a short video of a dialogue and do exercises. If your students are crazy about their smart phones, this would be a good way to get them to practice.

"Thinking Blocks is a nice site for elementary and middle school mathematics teachers. Thinking Blocks provides interactive templates in which students use brightly colored blocks to model and solve problems. As students work through the problems they are provided with feedback as to whether or not they are using the correct sequence to solve each problem. There are templates and problems for addition, multiplication, fractions, and ratios. You can also develop your own problems using the modeling tool." T/H to R. Byrne