Group items tagged

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.

"We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It's very early days, but we've built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today's 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy-and that's part of the reason we're calling it Project Loon-but there's solid science behind it. "

"We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It's very early days, but we've built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today's 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy-and that's part of the reason we're calling it Project Loon-but there's solid science behind it. "

"We extracted the colors from 10 million Creative Commons images on Flickr. Search this collection by color. Addictive and very likely the best color search engine in the world"

via @wfryer

I'm a big, big fan of Diigo. I appreciate that I can save and share bookmarks, highlight and leave comments on webpages, annotate resources, host and participate in groups and forums on particular topics, message and interact with friends and colleagues, and much more. It's a very big component of my personal learning network (PLN). I'm also impressed and pleased that the Diigo founders and employees listened to its community of teacher-users and developed Diigo for Educators (More fondly referred to as EduDiigo). Here are some thoughts about about why teachers and learners might use Diigo.

"Not that long ago, there was only the television, which theoretically could be kept in the parents' bedroom or locked behind a cabinet. Now there are smartphones and iPads, which wash up in the domestic clutter alongside keys and gum and stray hair ties. "Mom, everyone has technology but me!" my 4-year-old son sometimes wails. And why shouldn't he feel entitled? In the same span of time it took him to learn how to say that sentence, thousands of kids' apps have been developed-the majority aimed at preschoolers like him. To us (his parents, I mean), American childhood has undergone a somewhat alarming transformation in a very short time. But to him, it has always been possible to do so many things with the swipe of a finger, to have hundreds of games packed into a gadget the same size as Goodnight Moon."

Hurry... very cheap Mac software. iStopmotion alone is worth the $10 purchase!

"Much attention has been paid to 3D Printing lately, with new companies developing cheaper and more efficient consumer models that have wowed the tech community. They herald 3D Printing as a revolutionary and disruptive technology, but how will these printers truly affect our society? Beyond an initial novelty, 3D Printing could have a game-changing impact on consumer culture, copyright and patent law, and even the very concept of scarcity on which our economy is based. From at-home repairs to new businesses, from medical to ecological developments, 3D Printing has an undeniably wide range of possibilities which could profoundly change our world."

You can also insert the term "Tablet" for iPad: the questions and arguments for thinking about the task before the technologies are still very valid and worth considering. 

"The initial process of linking a Google+ account and a YouTube account is very simple indeed. There are, however, quite a few things I have learned along the way. If you are a business looking to make the most of your Google+ experience, an individual looking to get all your 'ducks in a row and ready to quack', or a consultant who wants to guide people on their way, then this is for you!"

Some very useful tips for getting hte most out of Evernote

Earlier this year, the Federal Court of Australia made a decision on this very question when a senior public servant was sacked due to looking at legal pornography, using his own internet connection, in his own home. The only problem was that the employee viewed the material using the work laptop which was monitored by the employers.

A very well presented how-to video on making interactive learning (Literacy) tasks for Pre-School and Junior Primary students in Google Docs

"We extracted the colors from 10 million Creative Commons images on Flickr. Search this collection by color. Addictive and very likely the best color search engine in the world*!"

"Is it inappropriate to take the word 'dropout' from one context and stamp it upon another? ... Stopping during a MOOC is very different from dropping out school, an expensive long-term degree or a compulsory compliance course." - Donald Clark blogpost

"ThingLink is a web tool that allows users to tag images and add links, videos, text, notes and many more. The tagging is very simple and easy to use and best of all free of any charge."

"Since I started this Experiment to use Evernote in every aspect of my classroom, I wasn't really sure what I was going to discover. I was sure there would be some way that Evernote was not going to meet my needs and I would be forced to add another tool to my chest while I continue the experiment for the school year. One way I was weary of was lesson planning. I have used the the traditional planner book for years and it has always been very good to me. I could easily flip back and see what I what I did the year before as I planned the upcoming school year. I'm not a big fan of trying to fix things that are not broken, but I figured I needed to give it a try in the name of the Experiment. Needless to say, I was not disappointed."

"One of the very interesting aspects of Twitter is the ability to have online chats about specific subjects, usually lasting for an hour or so. These chats utilise a particular hashtag, and people who want to engage in the chat will keep an eye out for the particular tag, and will use it themselves if they want to become involved. There are hundreds of chats taking place on a regular basis and there's a useful community run document that lists many of them."

This looks to be a promising app for ome of the students i work with who have difficulties with text but very good auditory and thinking skills.