Group items tagged

Bubbl.us is a very simple brainstorming/mindmapping tool. In my workshop (Using Wikis in Education) I will use the graphic organizer as a pre-training tool to introduce the purposes for using a wiki in education. This will be a good tool for essential processing because the learners will be exposed to key concepts before the main learning event takes place. The learners will be given the key concepts in the primary nodes in the mindmap as the categories under which they will classify their new learning. Bubbl.us allows the learner to map out ideas and make connections. I liked this site because the mindmap was simple to create and it could be easily exported as a JPEG file. The only drawback is that I wish that it had the ability to import pictures/graphics and notes.

JayCut is a free online video editor that provides some basic video editing features, but is likely able to meet the needs of most educational technologists and instructional designers. The site is fairly straight forward but can interface with a variety of files and can combine audio, video, and text in an online editor. Files can be uploaded or they can be captured via microphone and/or webcam. The options included in this online application are rather impressive. The site could be used for presentations or pre-training. Students may benefit from the use of JayCut as it can facilitate the organization of materials to support essential and generative cognitive processing. By organizing text, images, and sound in a coherent manner and in a manner that upholds signaling, and spatial and temporal contiguity, students may be more inclined to organize in their own mind relationships between new material and that which is stored in working memory.

The page provides a variety of example rubrics for technology and Web topics, which is why I like the site over some others offering sample rubrics. Considering essential and generative learning, via the use of well-designed rubrics that mesh with the educational goals of the lesson, students can use the rubric during selection of memories that are relevant to the topics presented in the lesson and can also use the rubric to guide them during the organization and integration of old and new memories / domain knowledge.

Booksmarks for multimedia workshop

This is a categorized list of sites on the Internet which are useful for enhancing curriculum and teacher professional growth

This site allows the user to create online thinking tools such as visual ranking, seeing reason, and showing evidence. This site is useful, because it allows the user to show the relationships between key concepts of the workshop. The tools have tutorials, examples, and instructional strategies. This is a site that provides guidance and support for exploration with the tools.

iKnowthat.com has interactive, multimedia educational games and activities for kids in preschool through 6th grade in Math, Language Arts, Science, The Arts. and Social Studies. It also has thinking games and social learning. There is a progress tracker, activities are standards-based and it is a safe, social learning environment. The site is open to teacher, parents, and students. It is great visually and easy to navigate. The colors and graphics are bright, but no animated graphics. It is a free basic subscription and one can purchase a classroom subscription for $199 yearly. Parents can get an at home subscription for a monthly or yearly fee. Search can be done by grade level or subject.

This is an article on the author's rationale for creating Authentic Assessment as a standard of practice to improve learning outcomes and promote the philosophy that education is about students acquiring a certain body of knowledge and skills necessary to become productive citizens. It references and provides links to examples as well as excerpts to his Toolbox. This article goes into more detail as to the "why" Authentic Assessment is a preferred method to demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills, whereas the Toolbox focuses more the "how".

Virtual Dub http://www.virtualdub.org/ Virtual Dub is a free downloadable online movie editing software for PC users that allows the manipulation and revision of avi files, jpeg and bmp files, and mp3 files. It is a website that allows you to quickly and easily design short videos to present to students or to create personal slideshows set to music. Either way Virtual Dub provides an opportunity to educators to take presentations past PowerPoint and to the next level of engaging video presentations. For the students of today we know and understand the importance of presenting our learners with the fast paced and visually stimulating graphics that they have been raised with. I chose to incorporate Virtual Dub because it is a free resource that is very effective that produces high quality presentations with an easy to use format. Another feature of Virtual Dub that I really appreciate and use frequently is the batch operation feature. This feature allows me to upload many photos or files all at once. Virtual Dub also allows users to edit their photos with advanced filters such as blur reduction, sharpen, emboss and many other features giving the final presentation a more clean cut and professional look.

This site is an article that shows educators why technology should be incorporated into the classroom. It is very clear in detailing the following concepts: * Support thinking processes * Stimulate motivation and self esteem * Promote equity * Prepare students for the future * Support changes in school structure * Explore technology capabilities This is a great way to get their minds in the right place to embrace the use of technology and encourage them to explore and create their own.

Classroom 2.0 is a social network for educators who are interested in the use of Web 2.0 or collaborative technologies in the classroom. I will use it for them to review each feature of this website and to consider or brainstorm what things they would like to incorporate into their own. It is a great source of ideas and a great place to collaborate with teachers of all levels.

This website offers sophisticated content and multimedia resources for students, especially at the upper grades. It includes more than resources, offering students opportunities to get their work published. It fosters active learning by calling on students to participate in polls, surveys, respond to questionnaires and submit original work. Using the standards and resources of PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NewsHour Extra provides students and teachers with quality educational resources based on current issues and events. NewsHour Extra's mission is to help high school students understand world events and national issues and answer the question 'why should I care?' about the news.

The news and information destination for kids, TIME For Kids or TFK is favored by many educators because of its attractiveness in design and its learner centered approach. The connection between the website and the printed materials enriches student understanding and fosters the development of different modalities of literacy skills. The website offers quizzes, questions, writing prompts, reviews and other active learning opportunities.

This site from the University of Houston offers a very good guide to Digital Storytelling. Links to resources, tutorials, examples, articles and products make it a very complete resource collection and a must for any serious classroom producer.

This website provides an overview to digital storytelling as well as essential areas in include, was to create digital stories, was to evaluate them, examples, lists of possible software, and most importantly an extensive background in copyright.

Survey monkey can be used for more then just the occasional 'what do you think'. Use it for both pre and post testing in edtech.

Survey monkey is an online survey site that will allow for trainers and participants to determine where the current state of knowledge is on a given topic. Participants could be given the survey the week before the training which would allow the presenter to modify instruction and content if needed. I chose survey monkey over other online survey providers because of its always free basic package. Most other sites offered a limited free trial. http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Survey Monkey is a multimedia tool online that allows users to create custom surveys in minutes. Based on what you create, all the results of the survey participants will be delivered to you. Surveys can contain answer choices, open ended answers, or both. It is free to use and saves time on the creation of surveys. 

This video presents in accurate way, the evolution of technology in mobile devices and how they are affecting education in modern society