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Why I Like Prezi In my life, I have given a *lot* of presentations. In high school, they were presentations on group projects. In university, they were presentations on research projects. At Google, they're presentations on how to use our APIs. When I first started giving presentations, I used Powerpoint, like everyone else. But I kept thinking there must be a better way, and I experimented with other options - flash interfaces, interactive Javascript apps. Then I discovered Prezi, and it has become my presentation tool of choice. Prezi is an online tool for creating presentations - but it's not just a Powerpoint clone, like the Zoho or Google offering. When you first create a Prezi, you're greeted with a blank canvas and a small toolbox. You can write text, insert images, and draw arrows. You can draw frames (visible or hidden) around bits of content, and then you can define a path from one frame to the next frame. That path is your presentation. It's like being able to draw your thoughts on a whiteboard, and then instructing a camera where to go and what to zoom into. It's a simple idea, but I love it. Here's why: It forces me to "shape" my presentation. A slide deck is always linear in form, with no obvious structure of ideas inside of it. Each of my Prezis has a structure, and each structure is different. The structure is visual, but it supports a conceptual structure. One structure might be 3 main ideas, with rows of ideas for each one. Another might be 1 main idea, with a circular branching of subideas. Having a structure helps me to have more of a point to my presentations, and to realize the core ideas of them. It makes it easy to go from brainstorming stage to presentation stage, all in the same tool. I can write a bunch of thoughts, insert some images, and easily move them around, cluster them, re-order them, etc. I can figure out the structure of my presentation by looking at what I have laid out, and seeing how they fit together. Some people do this

Themes, creator of tools to help users create awesome websites, has an amazing opportunity for Educators. The good people at ithemes offers an iThemes Education Program designed to assist Educators, Schools and Students to quality web design tools and training.

The mechanics of elearning is easy. Quality elearning isn't. Includes infographic 

These are high quality and specific at this stage. They include: * Carbon Footprint Toolkit * Free Road Safety Programme * Engineering resource * Give and let live - organ donation * How Science Works  and others...

Considers how quality writing/thinking in the digital age could be threatened by "feedback loops" that don't allow for "slower thoughts."  Related to Steve Johnson's work (Emergence) and the democratization of information/ideas. 

Sign up for YouTube for Schools to bring the power of video to your classrooms for free. Access thousands of free high quality educational videos on YouTube in a controlled environment.

As 21st century educators, we don't have to be tethered to technology to reap the benefits. By using digital tools such as Evernote and Post-Its to support quality instruction, instead of the other way around, we can stay focused on the learner and their needs.

"Share your powerpoint presentations, eLearning content, business presentations and tutorials as engaging talking videos, by using high-quality and multilingual text-to-speech technology, with no need for expensive and time-consuming voice recordings. "

Shared in a quality visual literacy workshop at The iPad Summit at the American Embassy School in Delhi, India.

THE READING-WRITING CONNECTION: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN READING ABILITY AND WRITING QUALITY ACROSS MULTIPLE GRADES AND THREE WRITING DISCOURSE MODES (dissertation)

This is a "field-book of tools and processes to help readers in all fields develop as researchers, writers, and agents of change." For more details and how to purchase: http://bit.ly/TYS2012. (Printing and distribution in Australia and Europe begins end of March.) Comments on the influence of this book's approach "I was able to get engaged in a project that I was able to actually use in work, which was extremely satisfying. The whole process encouraged me, and I felt very empowered as a change agent, which could be an exhilarating feeling." a healthcare professional and story-teller "I really had not been used to thinking about my own thinking, so learning to do that also helped me to slow down and start to look away from the career path that I had been taking for granted." a biologist-turned-web designer "I found that the experience helped me to accept feedback from other professionals. I am more comfortable with listening to why my own ideas might not work or need further evaluation. This even happens to the point where I find reasons now to seek out this kind of feedback." a teacher "I had viewed research as a process of collecting information into a sort of database and reviewing it effectively. I have now revised my notions to include a more broad understanding of interconnectedness between people and ideas. An important part of research is to keep relationships going." an adult educator "One of the most useful ideas was the use of dialogue, which helps to slow down the procedures used by the company. There's a tension between management's need to make quick decisions and desire to have real dialogue around proposed changes-changes to the internal company operational procedures as well as to evaluating the quality of what the company is doing with its publications." a teacher, currently working in publishing "I was asked to pay attention to what I actually could do instead of what I could not. This enabled me to (1) step back and let go of a huge technic

"Activities for Differentiated Instruction Addressing All Levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and Eight Multiple Intelligences." This title, by Audrey C. Rule and Linda Hurley Lord sounds too good to be true. This document is an 83-page gold mine. In the first eight pages, the introduction reviews the basics of both Bloom's and Gardner's work. Then it explains the qualities of differentiated instruction, referring to Tomlinson, as well as making the connections to Bloom and Gardner.

"Want to make exemplary rubrics in a short amount of time? Try RubiStar out! Registered users can save and edit rubrics online. You can access them from home, school, or on the road. Registration and use of this tool is free, so click the Register link in the login area to the right to get started now."

rubric creating and sharing database

Create rubrics for any activity

...benefits of using trade books is increasing student engagement. High quality trade books are written as to spark interest and create a desire to read. Many contain colorful, interesting illustrations, photographs, and diagrams, all of which draw students into the text and improve comprehension.

New research report from Isto Huvila of Sweden from user survey seeing to explain the different kinds of Wikipedia users and the quality of their contributions. References to other Wikipedia research are included and summarized to show the scholarly community's growing consensus about its reliability and validity. Refers also to new uses of Wikipedia, e.g., scholary journal requiring authors to post their summaries in Wikipedia.

Visual supports for auditory information UDL

visual communication and synthesis tools. Critical thinking development ideas. Nice site for teachers designing quality instruction. RSA Animate's site.

Annotated links describing various online resources related to the writing process. A strong site for teachers looking for quality resources.