Group items tagged

Field trips generally venture only as far afield as the local heritage village, where you're likely to catch pilgrim 'Ezekial' behind the butter churning hut sneaking a modern-day cigarette. Google wants to offer a more far-reaching experience, with a new Connected Classrooms initiative that lets classes take "virtual field trips" using Google+ Hangouts. So instead of learning about pioneer times from a local drama student who has to keep the goat stables clean in addition to infotaining the kids, you'll check out the Seattle Aquarium, Minnesota Zoo or the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Google says that teachers already employ its social network in classrooms, but the Connected Classrooms program is designed to make it easier for more of them to do so. It offers not only those virtual excursions mentioned above (along with a number of other destinations), but also provides teachers a chance to work together on class plans and learning experiences for use both in the classroom and out.

"Frequently this conversation focuses on the most effective hardware for teaching and learning. While this is an important decision to make, it should not be the focus. In fact, the best devices a school can employ are great teachers."

"Some of you are still probably not sure about the difference between what constitutes a copyright infringement and fair use. Well the post I have for you today might help illuminate the key differences between the two concepts. This post is based on  a two days work reading a wide variety of resources pertaining to copyright and . Please check the references below to learn more about my sources."

"The ultimate goal of teaching is understanding. But sometimes it's easier to talk than to teach, as we all know, especially when we need to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. We hope students will understand, if not now then before test time, and we keep our fingers crossed that their results will indicate we've done our job. The problem is, we often rely on these tests to measure understanding and then we move on. There isn't always time to address weaknesses and misunderstandings after the tests have been graded, and by that time it's too late for students to be interested."

"After years of experimentation and reflection, here's my current take on smart-and not-so-smart-ways to use technology in the classroom."

"The beauty of Drop It To Me is that you can easily receive files from students, colleagues, parents, or the public. The sender does not need an account, email address, or app. You give them the link to your Drop It To Me web page. After inputting the page's password, they are provided with an upload button. Any file type can be submitted, and that file is sent right into a dropititme folder in your Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. "

Bunkr is an online presentation tool which not only enables you to create your presentations (a la powerpoint) in your web browser but also to collect and store content (image, video, quote, text) from the internet which you can use later in your slides.

"Otus is an easy-to-use, yet powerful classroom tool that brings the best iPad and Chromebook education features together into one secure environment, and uses a single login." Not only for the iPad...works well with our PLDs. Has easy interface and is easier to use than Moodle and more features than Google Classroom.

"There are some things-certain methods, activities, and tools-we still assume can be enhanced with a little computational flair, when really, if we stopped to question ourselves, we'd find them best delivered the old-fashioned way."

"Piktochart is a great web app that allows students to create products that other students will actually WANT to read. It lets students combine visuals, text and interactive web elements into a dynamic, eye-catching presentation. It's free (of course!). It's powerful. It has tons of options. And the products created by it can be shared in many formats. So why not jump in and give it a shot? Here are 20 ways Piktochart can be incorporated into the classroom."

"Turn online videos into interactive learning experiences that engage students and deepen understanding. This is similar to EdPuzzle but has some other features that EdPuzzle does not have."

"Indeed, a host of national and regional surveys suggest that teachers are far more likely to use technology to make their own jobs easier and to supplement traditional instructional strategies than to put students in control of their own learning. Case study after case study describe a common pattern inside schools: A handful of "early adopters" embrace innovative uses of new technology, while their colleagues make incremental or no changes to what they already do."

"Teachers know their students best. CommonLit is not a scripted curriculum - we provide high-quality materials, selected by teachers, to help professionals teach at the highest level. CommonLit is compatible with any curriculum or standards. Our goal is to challenge students to think deeply and answer important questions. We help teachers meet reading standards in every state. Engaged students learn more, do better on standardized tests, and become life-long readers. We help teachers get kids excited about the themes that run through life and literature."

"Google Docs is a powerful word processing program with many unique features including voice typing, the Explore tool, Version History, web fonts, and much more. However, Google knows that even with all of those features, Docs may not be able to do everything you want it to do. So Google Docs allows you to install Add-ons to extend the capabilities of the program."

"Teaching students to navigate the databases is not the hardest part of my job, though. The most difficult part is convincing students that they are worth exploring."

"You have probably used Forms to create a survey or give a quiz, but that's not all Forms can do! Here are 25 different ways you can use Google Forms in your Classroom - with an example for each!"

"Explore the World with Geography Map Games" It's so important to know the world we live in. But it's so huge! There are so many countries, cities, flags, rivers, seas and more than 7 billions of people. Do everyone know all countries of the world? Probably not :) Some people even don't know neighboring countries. And I understand why. Sometimes learning is too complicated or a geography teacher is too boring at school :) But let's change it, let's make geography interesting. That's why playGeography.com was created. We're a group of enthusiasts who wants to help you discover the world. It's so interesting, there're so many places you'll want to visit, there're so many countries probably you even didn't hear of. At the time of writing, there were 195 countries. How many can you name?

"Our Mission Our main goal is to inspire, educate and empower teachers of mathematics, transforming the latest research on math into accessible and practical forms. We know from research how to teach math well and how to bring about high levels of student engagement and achievement but research has not previously been made accessible to teachers."

"In a world filled with ever-more-complex technological, sociological, ecological, political & economic systems... a tool to make interactive simulations may not be that much help. But it can certainly try."

"The editors had to ponder what would make a technology easier to avoid than try to implement, and came up with a list of broad technologies and technology trends that either A) caused, rather than eased, more problems and concerns in the classroom, and/or B) were not evolved enough to make an actual difference in teaching or learning."