Group items tagged

"In 2009, we shared our favorite tools for teachers on Twitter, with 100 resources for managing feeds, finding followers, and tackling classroom groups on the social media site. Since then, many tools have been revamped, replaced, or simply aren't available anymore. Clearly, an update is in order, so we're proud to present a new list for 2012, featuring the very best tools available to Twittering teachers today."

Straw Poll is a quick and easy polling tool that doesn't require registration, but has only four voting options, blocks multiple voting, can be embedded and records answers in a pie chart

Straw Poll just does one thing - it lets you create a poll and use it right away. In fact, it's so well designed, you could actually create the poll displaying the work on the class data projector live and then just use it.

"The infographic provides a definition of a solar eclipse as well as information on the Australia 2012 eclipse. It offers an insight into past solar eclipses, noting duration of totality and effects on local tourism."

... and it comes with its own embed code. (commercial content though!)

"The handy flowchart will help you decide whether or not you can use a particular image on your website. Assuming that you have identified the original source and that they have given you the necessary permission to use the picture, the poster also suggests ways on how you can properly credit the photographer."

"Popular efforts to improve education are focusing on the wrong problem. Millions of dollars and hours of innovation are being spent on improving how we deliver content in an era when content matters less and how we interact with it matters more."

"Unlike similar tools, such as Skype and Go-To-Webinar that require a bunch of steps to get started, Google+ Hangouts is already part of our online social ecosystem. With little more than a Google account and a web cam, you can start a Hangout from within Gmail, Google+, or on your mobile device using the Google+ app.  Additionally, its purpose is to facilitate conversation among participants, rather than serve as merely a presentation platform. Oh, and it's free. If you're trying to determine if Google+ Hangouts can meet your own professional development needs, below are a few things to know based on Pacansky-Brock's experience."

"Around 60 students and staff from four DSNN schools took part in the first Deakin Media Day at the Burwood campus on Nov 23rd 2012. Many thanks to everyone from Brauer College, Keysborough Secondary College, North Geelong Secondary College and Newcomb Secondary College for your enthusiasm and hard work to make the day such a success. Activities included a 'hands-on' work presenting a live news bulletin in Deakin's TV studio, Journalism video and interviewing exercises and a tour of the Deakin campus. Many thanks to Subway for providing lunch, too! We will be running more Deakin Media Days in June and November, 2013, so watch out for more news about these."

"Would any of my students turn down a 1:1 MacBook Pro? Of course not. Still, I believe there is great value in the limitations of resources. When we engage in Device Wars on twitter and the blogosphere, we all seem to exercise significant bias in equating the best classroom tool with the one that we find most productive in our personal or professional lives (I touched upon that in disagreeing with folks who contend that the iPad is not a creation tool). Do I have a vision of what technology I'd like in my class in the perfect scenario? Sure I do. Do my students and I really need that state of shiny utopia, especially when it is (in my view) impossible to achieve in an equitable fashion? I don't think so."

"The news of Google shutting down iGoogle (November, 2013 for existing users) has left people scrambling to find alternative start page services on the web. One alternative to iGoogle that I tried last fall is MyLinkCloud. MyLinkCloud just added a couple of important features that are attractive to longtime iGoogle users."

"BYOD isn't a recommendation, it's a realty. Everyone's bought one and everyone uses one and everyone carries it around with them. When we organise a meeting or conference, we don't send people an email telling them what device to bring, neither do we buy or lease a whole load of computers and hand them out." via @DonaldClark

"Google Reader doesn't bring in the eyeballs on adverts, so it's got to go. It really IS that simple. So, what are the alternatives? There are surprisingly a fair number of them, but it depends on the platform that you use."

"Don't feel overwhelmed by passwords, or simply use the same one on every site just so you'll remember them: design your own password management strategy. MakeUseOf's Password Management Guide, from author Mohammed Al-Marhoon, outlines tips and tricks you need to know to stay both secure and sane."

Have you ever been struggling to take notes while watching videos? Not anymore! VideoNotes, developed by UniShared (www.unishared.com), currently supports Youtube and Coursera videos and works best for the last versions of Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari. It enables you to: - Watch videos and take notes at the same time, on the same screen - Keep the same shortcuts to play/pause your video while writing notes - Automatically synchronize your notes and video. Just click on a line of your notes to jump to the related part of the video. Everything is automatically stored in your Google Drive, to access them everywhere.

"After all of the hand-wringing over the announced shuttering of Google Reader on July 1st, is there still hope for the beleaguered content aggregator? If you look between the lines of Google's movements as of late, you might notice that we aren't really witnessing a slow, painful, public funeral. Perhaps what we're being asked to attend is a digital reincarnation. Like other social networks, Google's still new-shiny social network Plus is an RSS feed creator and reader, all in one. "

conjunction with Explain Everything, students now have the ability to publish blog posts through their existing Evernote account that can include customized images, graphics or posters. One of my favorite uses for Explain Everything is to create graphics by using the cropping image & text feature. Once the graphic is created, it can either be exported to the camera roll or uploaded directly to Evernote. Once the image is included in the Evernote note that is tagged with "published", the blog post will appear on the Postach.io blog with the custom image. (If publishing directly from Explain Everything to Evernote, remember to go into the note and add the "published" tag word).

"Everyone's now aware of 3D printing - they've read about it in the papers, on blogs or seen it on TV. The mentality now seems to be that, in the future, we'll be able to download our products or make them ourselves with CAD programs, apps and 3D scanners, then just print them out, either at home, or in localised print shops. Which in turn will supposedly decentralize manufacturing, bringing it back to the West. But like the cupcake, Daft Punk's latest album, or goji berries, 3D printing is severely overhyped - and I should know, because it's what I do for a living."

"T. Mills Kelly encourages his students to deceive thousands of people on the Web. This has angered many, but the experiment helps reveal the shifting nature of the truth on the Internet. "

Written from a business point of view but interesting take on content curation with  a few curation tools discussed that are different from the ones discussed in my education learning networks. 

"With the release of GeoSettr you can now create your own GeoGuessr game based on your favorite locations and Street Views. Using GeoSettr you can create your own GeoGusser game of five questions. All you have to do is choose five locations on a Google Map and then you then get a unique link to your game that you can share with your friends."

"Since its inception back in 2003, WordPress has grown from a humble blogging platform into one of the world's most popular content management systems (CMS). Now, the much-loved website and blogging platforms has celebrated a special miletsone - its 10th birthday. In today's blog, I'll be taking a look back at the history of WordPress, how it has changed, and is one of the most important tools for companies and marketers today."