Ed Tech Crew

No one who is part of this new movement believes all kids should grow up to be programmers. We believe it would be a beautiful outcome if all kids grew up knowing how to use computers to enhance their natural abilities, whatever those are, and grew up with the confidence to be "makers" instead of just consumers. Computer programming is ultimately about problem solving and creating. "Thinking like a computer scientist" really means understanding what problem you are facing and breaking down that problem into solvable chunks. The better you get at recognizing the problem the more efficient your solutions become."

"Podcast Generator (PG) is an open source Content Management System written in PHP and specifically designed for podcast publishing. It provides the user with the tools to easily manage all of the aspects related to the publication of a podcast, from the upload of episodes to its submission to the iTunes store"

Extension (Firefox/Chrome) and app for displaying Wikipedia pages in a much more visually appealing way. Provides ability to customise text, plus a helpful image gallery feature."

"STUNNING HTML5 ANIMATION - NO CODING REQUIRED! Create mobile-friendly animations, banners, and infographics."

"The main research aims of the Oxford Internet Surveys are: (1) to track the spread of the Internet in Britain (2) to provide an evidence base for policy-makers"

"One of the features of Wear Audio is the ability to adjust the recording quality settings. On Wear Audio you can adjust the audio gain, enable noise and echo suppression, and adjust the audio compression settings. If you're looking for an audio recording app that students can use without having to create and remember yet another password, Wear Audio might be the way to go. Students could use the app to record short reflections on what they learned during the week or perhaps start a podcast that they could even publish."

"NORIGINALS #POETASTR is an automated, rule-based poetry creation tool. Sourcing content from the twitter stream, it allows users to specify lyrical forms. Based on the criteria, poems are generated and streamed to the user as they are created."

PDF, DOC, PPT, eBook Search Engine. "pdftop.com is a search engine and online viewer for ebooks in pdf, ppt, xls, rtf, txt, doc file format. You can find and download the ebook but please respect the publisher and the author for their creations if their books copyrighted."

The resources identified and discussed here offer teachers a variety of ways to teach students the basics of coding and also offer tips on how to keep them interested as they go.

Interesting article from the Guardian. "The effect of banning mobiles was the equivalent of an extra week's schooling over the academic year, according to the research. It also found that the ban had a greater positive impact on students with special education needs and those eligible for free school meals."

"5 suggestions on some good Android coding apps. This list embeds some really great alternatives to iOS to use on Android. Using these apps students and kids will get to learn coding skills while engaging in funny and enjoyable games and activities."

"CamScanner is a document scanning and sharing app. It allows you to instantly scan any type of text or graphic and save or share them with others. Using your phone or tablet camera, you can take a photo and CamScanner will automatically enhance the scanned results so you can easily email, print, fax or share them in PDF or PNG format." The basic version is available for free

"Use our country comparison tool to compare living conditions in your own country to those of another."

"An all-in-one tool to manage registrations to a lot of events. Especially useful if you are organising trainings and want to let people register to the session they want."

You can use this to create some unique shows with animation and audio in real time. Iti s easy to pick out actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Movements and audio are recorded in real time for later playback. The free version is limited but the add-ons aren't too expensive if you are careful about your choices. I like the idea of being able to use people and things from my own photos.

"One middle-school teacher describes how he has mined the blockbuster game for equally popular classroom lessons."