Group items tagged

"Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams has an ambitious new plan: to shift our daily reading habits away from consuming incremental news bites and towards engaging with enlightened ideas curated by an intelligent algorithm. Ordinarily, such a goal would seem utopian, were it not for the fact that Williams is among a handful of Internet pioneers who have disrupted the media industry multiple times.

A great outline of where to start in regards to texts and resources associated with digital literacies.

"There are days I just hate technology. Just when I think I'm ahead of my kids, up pops another ridiculously stupid app like Yik Yak. The latest app to make news, Yik Yak allows users to comment anonymously-because you know, who needs to take responsibility for their words, right? I've read a couple of blogs about it, too-great takes from Portrait of an Adoption,  Baby Sideburns and Tween Us. And then there's the schools, at least locally, trying to get the app disabled. Good luck with that. Because here's the thing. The app developers only care about one thing-and it's not your kid."

"Found this fantastic infographic touting the success of infographics. Reading it ( or more correctly, viewing it) immediately focused my thoughts on the use of visual texts in classrooms today. Click on the screenshot above to view the animated, interactive info graphic that presents  13 reasons why we should use infographics ( or visual texts in general). Unlike other infographics I link to on Mr G Online, I'm not going to discuss the specific points presented - that would be contradictory to the message of the infographic. I'll let you get your own meaning from it. However, I am going to reflect on how it made me consider the use of visual texts in education."

Personal writing prompts, exercises and examples. By Susan Nash. Free to read on Scrrbd.com. Inspiration and creativity.

"We might not worry concerning identity theft the maximum amount as property theft as a result of it isn't as shivery and face to face as an actual theft, however it's a digital theft, fraud may be life damaging. I even have an exponent whose family had been saving up for years to travel to film producer World. This perceived to have all of the correct precautions required to avoid fraud or hackers. However somehow a hole was found and $6,000 was taken out of their savings. No film producer World for his or her family. However perhaps the hacker had a pleasant trip instead? We will solely hope. Read Where You'll Get Hacked Infographic "

List of web and reading resources on design and problem solving.

"From Reading to Interacting. Turn your vision into reality by creating your own version of an existing PDF or textbook. Give it a dynamic touch, jot down notes, add video/audio clips, and discuss materials with your readers within your interactive content. Use Active Textbook to learn, teach or simply share your documents online - it's easy! "

"Tobii's eye-tracking technology can make using a PC slightly more "natural," reading your eye movements to, say, scroll without needing to move a mouse. But for the disabled, it can be revelatory, allowing people with disabilities to use virtually all the abilities of a computer without ever touching it. The Tobii EyeMobile brings complete eye control to Windows tablets. It's an oblong-shaped sensor called the PCEye Go that attaches underneath the tablet via a bracket. Once it's in place and the eye-tracking software is installed, all the user needs to do is calibrate the sensor (which takes about a minute) and it's eyeball-ready."

"Wikipedia can be a nightmare for a teacher, or it can be their best friend. For those teachers that have papers handed to them by students that are clearly copied from another source, Wikipedia tends to turn up early in the search and show that the students have indeed, been checking out what Wikipedia has to say. It's no wonder that teachers often have questions about what is good about the tool and how it might benefit their students. Today, we're taking a look at some more general facts and figures about one of the world's largest free, collaboratively written encyclopedia. Which is a pretty awesome concept, if you ask us. The handy infographic below will let you in on some interesting facts that you probably weren't privy to - and some of the numbers are pretty staggering! Keep reading to learn more!"

Waterlife is an interactive story about the water cycle in the Great Lakes. Waterlife is a twenty part story through which students can learn about the role of water in our lives. Through the story students learn about things like fishing, pollution, invasive species, wetlands, and the politics of water conservation. When students select a part of the Waterlife story they will be able to hear narration, see visuals, and read the text of the story. Some parts of the story also contain links to external resources that student can explore.

"Wickr is a free app that provides: ·military-grade encryption of text, picture, audio and video messages ·sender-based control over who can read messages, where and for how long ·best available privacy, anonymity and secure file shredding features ·security that is simple to use"

"Five decades of Met publications on art history, available to read, download and/or search for free"

via @rmbyrne

"The progression of where online learning started and how it has grown is really quite staggering, especially since it has only become a discussion staple for most of us pretty recently. The handy infographic below gives us an interesting timeline of digital learning, shows some of the different categories that digital learning comprises, and offers up some interesting statistics on the number of people participating in online learning and the growth that it has seen over the years. Keep reading to learn more."

"I was asked by a colleague in another school the other day if I could give her a snapshot into what I actually do, and what the role of an ICT Integrator actually looks like (from my perspective anyway). Apparently she wants to talk to her school leaders about having an integrator on their staff and was trying to get an idea of what the role would entail from someone who does it..." A great read from Chris Betcher continuing on with the theme of what does an ICT and an e-Learning coordinator do.

PISA, the OECD's triennial international assessment of 15 year olds in math, reading, and science, has become one of the most destructive forces in education today. It creates illusory models of excellence, romanticizes misery, glorifies educational authoritarianism, and most serious, directs the world's attention to the past instead of pointing to the future. In the coming weeks, I will publish five blog posts detailing each of my "charges," adapted from parts of my book Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China has the Best (and Worst) Education.

"Social media offers some great opportunities for learning in the classroom, bringing together the ability to collaborate, access worldwide resources, and find new and interesting ways to communicate in one easily accessible place. Teachers around the world have found innovative ways to use Twitter as a teaching tool, and we've shared many of these great ideas here with you. Read on, and we'll explore 60 inspiring ways that teachers and students can put Twitter to work in the classroom."

An interesting read from Doug Belshaw on how to take back ownership of your own email data by hosting it yourself.

"Have you read The Paperless Classroom with Google Docs by Eric Curts? If not, you should. It is a great way for Google schools to harness the power of Google for sharing documents, and establishing a workflow for students to turn in work for teachers to grade and return in a paperless environment. I love it. In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to pay homage to it with a version that is dedicated to doing the very same thing on the iPad using just the Google Drive app."