Group items tagged

"Here is one of my private assumptions about education innovation that could use some public criticism: If [x] is going to change teaching practice at scale, then [x] needs to be easy, fun, and free for both the teacher and her students. [x] needs to be all three of those things at the same time. Realize that if you're a teacher and you're reading a blog post, you're automatically seeded in the top 10% of innovative educators. You'll try anything once. Let's also go with Jack Welch and assume that 10% of educators are hopelessly and/or willfully incompetent. Convince yourself, then, that 80% of teachers exist on a sliding scale of innovation and are basically up for grabs. Those who don't want to try [x] aren't necessarily bad educators. They may have made a rational calculation that [x] isn't easy enough, fun enough, or free enough to adopt. There are implications here, some obvious, some subtle: "

As written on the post topic, you can expect to find on this upcoming list, services that don't require registration, nor download from any kind in order to use them. Tools that are really easy-to-use (most of them are single-page sites), and basically web-applications that can help on your daily internet visit/work. To be honest, it is not so hard to create lists of web 2.0 services, especially if you own a blog or a directory that contains relevant content. BUT it is definitely not easy to isolate the most useful ones from hundreds of sites.

"Circuit Scribe is a rollerball pen that writes with conductive ink. Combined with magnetic components, it makes creating circuits as easy as doodling. The online editor makes it easy to create your own sketches and share it with the community."

EclipseCrossword is the fast, easy, free way to create crossword puzzles in minutes. It's never been simpler-just give EclipseCrossword a list of words and clues, and it does the rest. In seconds, you'll have a crossword puzzle with just the words you want. EclipseCrossword has been downloaded more than two million times by people just like you.

"What you can do here... · create your own animation · save it to your webspace · share and reuse artwork · collaborate with others · show your animation Follow your inspiration - it's fun and easy to use! Make an animation in a few simple steps and email it to a friend!"

"What you can do here... · create your own animation · save it to your webspace · share and reuse artwork · collaborate with others · show your animation Follow your inspiration - it's fun and easy to use! Make an animation in a few simple steps and email it to a friend!"

"Cloud storage of files is one of my favorite aspects of the modern Internet. Cloud storage services make it easy to access all of my important files from any computer and most mobile devices. And for students cloud storage eliminates the I forgot my flashdrive excuse for not having an assignment ready for class. The potential problem with cloud storage, and any other online service for that matter, is having your account compromised. One way to make it more difficult for your account to be compromised is to enable two-step authentication. Two-step authentication for a Google account requires entering a verification code that Google sends to your cell phone. Click here for directions or watch this video to learn more."

E is for EXPLORE is a one stop resource for teachers and parents. We develop unique learning activities, and search the internet and compile additional great ideas from other sources. Our index helps you find what you need quickly and easily. Where we have posted ideas from other sources we provide easy links to those websites. Please visit those as well to see what else they have to offer. All E is for Explore activities conform to state common core curriculum standards."

"Hopscotch allows kids to create their own games and animations. Kids unleash their creativity with this beautiful, easy-to-use visual programming language. Inspired by MIT's Scratch, the Hopscotch programming language works by dragging and dropping method blocks into scripts. When you're done with a script, press play to see your code in action! As you get more advanced, you can add more objects and use custom events, such as shaking and tilting the iPad, to run your code. Why coding? By the year 2020, there will be a projected 1.4 million computer jobs but only 400,000 CS students. Computer Science is among the highest paid college degrees and programming jobs are growing at 2x the national average. Many of the best coders fell in love with programming as kids at the age of 8, 10 and 12 years old. With Hopscotch, kids can build and perfect their own creations while while obtaining an understanding of the fundamentals of computer science. Learn more about us at http://www.gethopscotch.com and read our blog at http://blog.gethopscotch.com. "

"Digital Learning Day is a national campaign that celebrates teachers and shines a spotlight on successful instructional practice and effective use of technology in classrooms across the country. The inaugural Digital Learning Day boasted tens of thousands of teachers representing nearly 2 million students. The second annual Digital Learning Day is gaining momentum with ongoing activities, ideas, and collaboration opportunities leading up to February 6, 2013. Join the wave of education champions who seek to engage students, celebrate and empower teachers, and create a healthy learning environment, personalized for every child. Participation is free and easy. Are YOU ready to change Teaching & Learning? "

Make animations, Really easy

Screenleap makes it really easy to share your computer screen. You can share your screen with as many people as you like with no downloads, account setup, or cost required. Friends, family, and colleagues can view your computer from their laptops, desktops, or mobile devices without having to install anything.

"The American Heritage® Dictionary invites you to create a self-portrait using your words. The words that tell the world who you are. That make you, you. It's easy to do, whether you decide to link to places like Facebook for words you've already written or write something new specifically for your portrait. Either way, you'll create a unique image that can be shared and saved and will remind everyone that You Are Your Words. "

Jul 8 Page Navigation in Google forms Today, we're excited to announce that we've expanded our logic branching capabilities in Google forms. Previously, a form creator had to add an extensive amount of multiple choice questions to the form to ensure that respondents were directed to the correct pages of the form. Form creators can now use a simpler page navigation feature to direct respondents to relevant pages regardless of their answers. Instead of using "dummy" multiple choice questions, form creators can now use "Go to page based on answer" multiple choice questions in conjunction with the new page navigation capabilities to make a simple, easy-to-follow form.

A mini motherboard with an easy operating system aiming at teaching students about computer and software engineering. Or any project involving a small, efficient and cheap computer.

"Create an eBook from online content The world of educational resources and materials is shifting away from print stuff towards digital stuff. One of the reasons for this shift is the ease of creating and sharing digital stuff. ePUBS and tablets and apps like iBooks are merging into a mini-Perfect Storm event that supports and encourages the use of digital content. As social studies teachers, we need to take advantage of these sorts of tools. And I just ran across an incredibly easy to use online tool called Readlists that lets you create an ePUB book from resources that you find on the web. Imagine being able to create a digital book that has a variety of articles, data, and multimedia. Readlists is the latest project of the Arc90 people - the same people who created Readability."

"The app opens to a series of templates, which include basic, contemporary, modern type, classic, editorial, and craft. I'm assuming that you can also use custom created templates that have been downloaded from external sources as well. When a template is chosen, it switches into edit mode, which reminds me a lot of Keynote. There's a bar on the left that organizes all of your pages, and the window on the right displays the page currently being worked on. I chose to experiment with a picture book that also has some text. "

"Tech Tools Made Simple SuperTeacherTools.com is dedicated to providing technology tools for teaching that are quick and easy to download, learn, and start using in your classroom. In the site, you will find a variety of review games, classroom management software, and other miscellaneous tools for educators."

"When it comes to using web resources with our students, time plays a decisive role.It is next to impossible for a busy teacher restricted by curriculum constraints, day to day lesson preparations, assignment corrections, to mention but a few of his chores, to effectively search the web and find the adequate resources to share with his/ her students. Most people just do not have the time to learn all these technologies and some educators pick just one or two websites of interest and start exploring them."

" Convert videos and audios to meet all your needs here Video Converter for Mac provides an easy-and-quick way to convert a variety of video formats on Mac for playback on iPod, iPhone (iPhone 4S), iPad, Apple TV and other popular devices."