Group items tagged

Student blogging is not a project, but a process. We are continuously striving to refine, improve and re-evaluate. As I am meeting with teachers individually, I can't stress enough the importance of READING other blogs (professional, student, blogs about your hobby, blogs about other interests you have etc.). I am trying to filter and funnel quality blogs in education, their grade level and  areas of interest to them as I come across them, so they can build a quality RSS Reader. BUT.. we need their help in having a basic understanding of blogs, its pedagogical uses, as a platform of a new writing genre (digital writing) and how our blogfolios fit into your curriculum and the BIG PICTURE of LEARNING. The blogfolios are not a platform to use only for a particular subject, but should give evidence of learning for each student.

"I've just been browsing a report recently published by Ofcom titled "Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report." [PDF]. Much of my work in schools and with teachers involves discussions about the sorts of skills and dispositions young people need to be considered 'literate' in an increasingly digital world. The research carried out by Ofcom reveals some useful data to help inform how schools think about a response, including…"

"..what about when students need some advice in figuring out proper social media usage in general? This useful infographic from Online Degrees is jam-packed with insight and tips on when to (and when not to) use social media"

"3D printing has slowly started to get popular in use in the industry, by the hobbyists and ordinary individuals in their homes. If you can design it, the 3D printer can build it. However, we are still in the early stage of owning and using 3D printer. So, what is the length of time before it will become mainstream like the PC? The infographic will show when will every American own a 3D printer and how it affects the profit of those who are selling consumer objects and more."

" The ability for classrooms to beam in authors, subject experts, and fellow students from around the world has been one of the great advantages afforded by Skype. Commonly used by librarians and other K-12 educators to provide real-time engagement for their students, the service just got better. As of today, existing members of Skype in the classroom or new registrants can use Skype's Group Video Calling free of charge."

"The participatory research methods used in the project can provide rich contextual understanding of the everyday, everywhere presence of mobile technologies in young lives needed to devise effective strategies for dealing with mobile or smart phone use in and out of the classroom and supports efforts to give young people a greater voice in the decisions affecting their engagements mobile technologies."

"Over the last few days I've featured a couple of free tools for adding interactive elements to your videos. In the last year I've reviewed a few other services and methods for doing the same thing. This is a round-up of the ways that you can add interactive elements to your videos. The first four tools could be used by students to create a series of choose your own adventure videos. These tools could be used by teachers to enhance the short videos that they create for flipped lessons."

Some interesting apps here to support the teaching of Mathematics. I have used Dragonbox+ its awesome for teaching Algebra. Great for high flying grade 6's to year 8's Developers have introduced a greater range of apps across all areas of the Maths curriculum that can be used to enhance the Maths teaching and learning in your classroom. Here's a selection of 20 apps that cover Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability ( these are the Content strands (CS) Australia's Mathematics curriculum has been categorized under ). They also cover the proficiency strands (PS) of Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving and Reasoning. I'm sure other countries' curricula are similar in many regards and you will be able to make the connections.

"If you're not already convinced, read why you should be using Evernote as your go-to place for remembering everything. In fact, there are a number of apps, plugins, and even pieces of hardware which can take advantage of Evernote, making the service even more beneficial for you. Here are seven tools that hopefully will make you tap into the potential of this widely popular note-taking application."

Tynker is a new computing platform designed specifically to teach children computational learning and programming skills in a fun and imaginative way. Tynker is inspired by Scratch from MIT. It is a completely browser-based implementation written using Open Web standards such as Javascript, HTML5, CSS3 and does not use Flash.

Animate drawings,create music, build ages, craft ebooks. Browser-based programming designed to teach computational thinking.  Use for science, maths etc.  Lesson plans available.

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).

"The most time-consuming part of evaluating web tools for educational use has got to be looking at the Terms of Service (also know as Terms of Use or Terms and Conditions). They can go on for pages, and are so often wrapped up in so much legalese that even if you manage to read to the end, there is no guarantee you will be any wiser. And yet we can't just ignore them; it is our duty as educators and as digital citizens to protect rights and understand responsibilities online."

"iOS 7 brings a significant user interface overhaul to Apple's mobile devices, and though it's best to be experienced and used first hand, screen shots can do a fair job of demonstrating the differences. If you're not a developer and can't use the beta releases yourself, then comparing iOS 7 to iOS 6 side-by-side can give an appreciation for the changes ahead, so we rounded up a few comparisons of the home screens, common apps and app interfaces like Notifications, Siri, Messages, Mail, multitasking, and Weather, and also a large side-by-side chart showing the differences between icons in both iOS versions. Take a look."

"We're very happy to announce the latest version of Gliffy Online-now completely rebuilt around an HTML5 editor with ultrafast response rates and an impressively improved feature set. The next time you use Gliffy Online you'll notice the dramatic difference. HTML5 offers you stable, secure access to built-in features unavailable using a plugin like Flash. "

The list of interesting ways you can use pinterest in the classroom and/or for personal learning is growing. There are some great ideas here and most are very easy to implement.

"This badge designer makes use of the exciting new features in HTML5 to allow you to combine different visual elements, colours and text to create an attractive Open Badge graphic. You can then use this graphic in your Open Badge issuing systems when creating your rewards."

"If you used home computers at various times from the 1970s through to the 1990s, you have a problem. The problem may be irrelevant, or not a huge problem, but it's a problem nonetheless. The problem is that the vast majority of home computers used 5.25″ floppy disks.. "

"Register below to join us for the first annual  Google in Education Melbourne Summit to be held at the Yarra Valley Grammar School on October 3 and 4, 201. This high intensity two day event focuses on deploying, integrating and using Google Apps for Education to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education. Th e program features Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, practicing administrators, solution providers, Google engineers, and representatives from the Google Apps for Education team. "

"The web today is a growing universe of interlinked web pages and web apps, teeming with videos, photos, and interactive content. What the average user doesn't see is the interplay of web technologies and browsers that makes all this possible. Over time web technologies have evolved to give web developers the ability to create new generations of useful and immersive web experiences. Today's web is a result of the ongoing efforts of an open web community that helps define these web technologies, like HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL and ensure that they're supported in all web browsers. The color bands in this visualization represent the interaction between web technologies and browsers, which brings to life the many powerful web apps that we use daily."

"An attempt to explain Moodle to our staff or anyone else by using an analogy with modular Lego bricks. " Youtube vid presentation by Tomaz Lasic

How have I missed this excellent intro to Moodle from @lasic ?

We have one teacher in our district who uses this with our gifted program students. Students use it a lot, but no one else in our district is there yet.