Group items tagged

EXCELLENT SITE!

Lists of apps for k-6, teachers and parents

Using Twitter is a brilliant way for teachers to connect to their students, classroom parents, and the global community. If you are a teacher, you can use Twitter in a variety of ways, from staying updated on new trends in education to encouraging idea sharing in the classroom. The following list of tips can help you get the most out of your Twitter experience.

I recently had a teacher declare that Twitter was "a waste of time" during one of our meetings. It's good to see resources that will help our teachers understand the value of tools like Twitter.

Excellent perspective on "The 'W' Word" - use it wisely for what it is - high school and college kids shouldn't be citing any general knowledge encyclopedias for serious research - but that doesn't mean there aren't some excellent uses for it.

Steve Wheeler's blog. He gives a list of ideas for effective Twitter use in the classroom. 

From Steve Wheeler: Ever since I first began to use Twitter I have been thinking about how to harness the potential of microblogging for the benefits of my own students, and have tried out several ideas to exploit it already. Below are my 10 top uses of Twitter for education

Twitter Chat list and calendar

We got so many additions and updates to our 2011 list we thought it was time to bring you the most up-to-date list for 2012. So, without further ado, here's the 2012 A-Z list of educational Twitter hashtags.

I wonder why they don't do this as a Google Doc so it can be continuously updated...

"After three months of nominating, the definitive list of educators to follow on Twitter is here, as chosen by you"

"List of Enterprise Microblogging Tools"

subtitled: Tips for Twitter Trainers

Laura Hilliger blog zythepsary.com here discusses the mozilla Teach the web" MOOC to start may 2. content to include: Introduction to Webmaker is all about community, openness and collaboration. Remix and Contextualize is all about putting web literacy skills into other types of learning plans. Do and Share is about experimenting with collaborative, participatory learning spaces and using the online community to improve your practice. Within each topic are 3 subtopics - Those are the themes we'll be focusing on weekly. 9 themes, 9 week MOOC - nice how that worked out, don't cha think? For each theme, we'll be MAKING things to explore ideas because, you know, you learn lots when you make. We'll have a chance to look at each other's makes, give feedback, and hack on ideas throughout the 9 weeks. There will be several ways to follow along. Here's what we're thinking for communication channels: Sign up to the webmaker.org/teach list to participate Keep your eye on hivenyc.org/teachtheweb Submit your blog for aggregation Join G+ Webmaker Community Use #teachtheweb on Twitter Bookmark the Big Blue Button link for May 2nd, 23rd, and June 13th, 4pm UTC Check the calendar for Twitter chats and Big Blue Button sessions

Great resource for using Twitter including video and list of education related hash tags

Who knew there were so many educational chats on Twitter?

Lists and links to educational chats on Twitter

A great, and fun twitter bot account provides items which can be used as a writing prompt.

A Twitter bot that will respond to a message with a list of things you are carrying - great writing prompt tool

Wonderful list of all the education topics on twitter. Great Blog post.

twitter list of australian educators

I've started creating a table of important skills, some derived from the Padagogy Wheel, and actions, some derived from iPad As… What I am planning to highlight is that there are many apps that can be use for many purposes and for developing many skills. For example, I have already added "Explain Everything" to 9 categories as I see it as a multifunctional app and one worth its price because of the educational benefits it provides. Over the coming months I plan to add text descriptions to each category to explain how the apps listed address the skill or action they have been linked to and may also link them to other online sources that show them in action. I'll also provide direct links to the App Store, as I always do on this blog when I mention apps so you can check them out yourself if you want. Now this sounds like a big task and it is. So I do need some help. What do I want from you? Anything you can give. Just add them to the comments of this post. Examples of apps that help to develop specific skills Additional skills I haven't listed here Examples of apps that are multifunctional. Explanations of good pedagogical practice with apps. Don't worry, all credit will go to you when I include your suggestions. Links to blog posts, websites, Youtube tutorials, open wikis, nings etc that promote good practice that I can link to from here. Examples on add ons like bookmarklets for curation sites, websites that work well with iPads ( Flash-free) that can still be categorised under these headings for iPad use. Spread the word regularly through Twitter, Facebook, Curation sites like Pinterest and Scoop-It to keep educators coming back.

"Conversation is key . Sawyer succinctly explains this principle: "Conversation leads to flow, and flow leads to creativity." When having students work in groups, consider what will spark rich conversation. The original researcher on flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, found that rich conversation precedes and ignites flow more than any other activity.1 Tasks that require (or force) interaction lead to richer collaborative conceptualization. Set a clear but open-ended goal . Groups produce the richest ideas when they have a goal that will focus their interaction but also has fluid enough boundaries to allow for creativity. This is a challenge we often overlook. As teachers, we often have an idea of what a group's final product should look like (or sound like, or…). If we put students into groups to produce a predetermined outcome, we prevent creative thinking from finding an entry point. Try not announcing time limits. As teachers we often use a time limit as a "motivator" that we hope will keep group work focused. In reality, this may be a major detractor from quality group work. Deadlines, according to Sawyer, tend to impede flow and produce lower quality results. Groups produce their best work in low-pressure situations. Without a need to "keep one eye on the clock," the group's focus can be fully given to the task. Do not appoint a group "leader." In research studies, supervisors, or group leaders, tend to subvert flow unless they participate as an equal, listening and allowing the group's thoughts and decisions to guide the interaction. Keep it small. Groups with the minimum number of members that are needed to accomplish a task are more efficient and effective. Consider weaving together individual and group work. For additive tasks-tasks in whicha group is expectedtoproduce a list, adding one idea to another-research suggests that better results develop