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"Top 10 Apps for Digital Storytelling Feb 15 Written by: 2/15/2012 8:47 PM A while back I did a post on top sites for Digital Storytelling. This has been a skill that is being taught in school districts all around the world, and is a key for developing technology literacy. With the recent wave of mobile devices and technologies, a giant step has been taken in how students develop these skills (via touch screen) in a brand new way . Toontastic - A wonderful free iPad that allows children to create animated cartoon stories. They can choose from stock characters or draw their own while animating them and recording their voice for narration. Also, Toontastic's built-in story arc takes students step-by-step on how to create a story. i Tell a Story - A excellent free iPad that works very similarly to how Garageband creates a podcast. A user uploads a photo and then can record their voice for narration while adding stock sound effects. Voice Thread App - A great free iPad/iPhone app that compliments the Voice Thread very nicely for storytelling. A user can manage their Voice Thread account as well as make digital stories by uploading photos and drawing/recording their voice. Story Patch - An iPad app ($2.99) that is ideal for digital storytelling. A person can create a story from scratch or use one of their well-designed templates to complete all the parts of a story. Sock Puppets - A free iPad/iPhone app that is a lot of fun for kids to create animated stories. This is done by selecting your sock, background, and props and then recording your voice as the socks talk. Art Maker - A wonderful free iPad app that allows children to create a digital story from scratch. A user selects their background, characters, and props and then moves them around the screen while recording. Puppet Pals - A excellent free iPad app that lets users create a

Shakespeare's Life and Times introduces you to the world Shakespeare lived and worked in. This section of the Internet Shakespeare Editions is like a shelf of books, each of which is listed in the navigational bar beneath the page header. Each book, in turn, is divided into chapters dealing with related topics. *There is a detailed biography of his life (and we actually know quite a lot about him). *There is a book about the stage Shakespeare wrote for. *And one that explores the society of the time, showing how it differs from our own. *Further books discuss the history and politics of Elizabethan England, *And look at the way people of the time thought and argued about religion and the physical makeup of the universe. *You can learn about the kinds of plays and literature Shakespeare read, *See samples of paintings of the time, and listen to Renaissance music. *There is a book that shows how different parts of this rich library of resources help you understand the plays, *And there is an extensive reference volume that gives chronologies, maps, and bibliographies for further reading.

Lifelong learning is essential for effective educators and should be modeled for our students. With so many changes occurring in the fields of educational technology, curriculum, pedagogy, and law, it is imperative that educators receive opportunities for growth in their school and beyond. One powerful way to grow is through developing a personal learning network (PLN). PLNs enable educators to learn in accordance with their diverse interests and passions. During a conversation with teacher leaders last year about improving how meaningful professional development is offered, a model from the business world was suggested;Training and other professional growth activities would be embedded within the school day. the light bulb went on for me. I quickly realized that the current school schedule presented the perfect solution to offering meaningful professional development during the day in the form of noninstructional duties, which are otherwise often a waste of time. The plan that my administrative team and I have developed drastically reduces the amount of noninstructional duties the teachers have, such as lunch, hall, or in-school suspension duty. It also reduces the pe

"A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps. Another word for a tessellation is a tiling. Read more here: What is a Tiling? A dictionary* will tell you that the word "tessellate" means to form or arrange small squares in a checkered or mosaic pattern. The word "tessellate" is derived from the Ionic version of the Greek word "tesseres," which in English means "four." The first tilings were made from square tiles. A regular polygon has 3 or 4 or 5 or more sides and angles, all equal. A regular tessellation means a tessellation made up of congruent regular polygons. [Remember: Regular means that the sides and angles of the polygon are all equivalent (i.e., the polygon is both equiangular and equilateral). Congruent means that the polygons that you put together are all the same size and shape.] Only three regular polygons tessellate in the Euclidean plane: triangles, squares or hexagons. We can't show the entire plane, but imagine that these are pieces taken from planes that have been tiled. "

Fair use is one of the exceptions in copyright which allows use of copyrighted materials without obtaining permission as long as the use can be considered fair. There is a four-factor analysis which must be applied to each use to determine whether the use is fair. Each factor is given equal weight. The goal is to achieve a balance between the rights of the copyright holder with the rights of the public. Fair use is also technologically neutral so the same analysis may be applied to any medium.

"About FreeRice FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. Our partner is the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. FreeRice has two goals: 1. Provide education to everyone for free. 2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. This is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on this site. Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your education can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself. Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you."

"Welcome to Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys. Our mission is to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers. Research shows that boys are having trouble reading, and that boys are getting worse at reading. No one is quite sure why. Some of the reasons are biological. Some of the reasons are sociological. But the good news is that research also shows that boys will read - if they are given reading that interests them. So the biggest part of this site is the collection of book titles below. These are books that guys have told us they like. Our idea is to help guys become readers by helping them find texts they want to read. Get in there and start looking around. There is a little something for everyone. And please help guys out by recommending more of your guy-favorites."

"Here's a handy tutorial for using Microsoft's free Photo Story 3 to create "Book Trailers" - and other projects using photos to tell a story, with. Photos are a great tool for teaching in the classroom, but with moving pictures, narration and music, they are even better! Photo Story 3 is a free download from Microsoft that lets you easily create narrated "mini-movies" using photographs. It also has a built in music generator that allows you to put your story to music, copyright free! Think of Ken Burns's many wonderful documentaries. This program will allow anyone with a computer running Windows XP to do something similar. 1 The program gives students the ability to make their own 'Book Trailers' to help other students get interested in books they have read. Students can scan, draw or take pictures related to the book, import the pictures into Photo Story 3, arrange the pictures, add narration to the pictures, and choose the type of music used when the trailer plays. Photo Story 3 then generates a stand-alone movie based on all of the above. One of the ways I have used Photo Story 3 is with my "Integrating Technology into the Classroom" course at Dakota State University is by inviting a local fifth-grade class to visit our lab, then helping students build their own book trailer. Over the course of the hour, we help students scan or take digital pictures, import their pictures to Photo Story 3, add narration, motion and music. They take their movies back to show on morning announcements, to their friends, and to their parents. For example, one student, Brian, made a Photo Story of Sammy the Seal. It shows enough information to get other students interested in the book, but not so much that the ending is given away. Another example is "Zack's Alligator goes to School", a story of the (mis)adventures of a pet alligator named Bridgett. Making a Book Trailer is fairly simple. Just follow these steps: Quick Start Guide"

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), a 501(c)(3) organization, is a unique federation of voluntary health organizations dedicated to helping people with rare "orphan" diseases and assisting the organizations that serve them. NORD is committed to the identification, treatment, and cure of rare disorders through programs of education, advocacy, research, and service. What is A Rare Disorder?: Any disease affecting fewer than 200,000 Americans is considered rare. There are nearly 7,000 such diseases affecting nearly 30 million Americans. NORD is here to represent all patients and families in the U.S. affected by rare diseases.

What is Dipity? Dipity is a free digital timeline website. Our mission is to organize the web's content by date and time. Users can create, share, embed and collaborate on interactive, visually engaging timelines that integrate video, audio, images, text, links, social media, location and timestamps. Who is Dipity for? Dipity timelines are for anyone who uses the Internet. Newspapers, journalists, celebrities, government organizations, politicians, financial institutions, community managers, museums, universities, teachers, students, non-profits and bloggers all use Dipity to create timelines. Why use Dipity? Dipity allows users to create free timelines online. Digital timelines are a great way to increase traffic and user engagement on your website. Dipity is the fastest and easiest way to bring history to life with stunning multimedia timelines."

"Education Links - Elementary and Secondary Education Adult Education Alternative Education Early Childhood Elementary and Secondary Financial Aid Fun Stuff Organization and Associations Post Secondary Special Needs Student Resources Study Abroad Resources Government Resources Department of Education - This award-winning site is designed to help pursue the President's initiatives, including No Child Left Behind, and advance our mission as a Department-to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence for all Americans. Education News Parents Can Use - To help parents understand the No Child Left Behind Act and all the important changes it will bring, the U.S. Department of Education launched a new monthly television series entitled Education News Parents Can Use. What is different about Education News is its focus on information and resources of value to parents and families. The program features brief segments, including one-on-one interviews, "how-to" demonstrations, more video and graphics, and brief conversations with parents, educators, community, business and religious leaders, and education experts. Estuaries.gov - The primary function of this Web site is to educate the public on the importance of estuaries and the need to protect them. FCIC's Educator Page - Here are four activities to help you teach young citizens how to be proactive consumers and learn about the government. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) - Part of the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences, this is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. NOAA Education Website - This site has been designed to help students, teachers, librarians and the general public access the many educational activities, publications, and booklets that have been produced. Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) - OESE promotes academic excellence, enhances educational opportunities a

"We've already learned that the main difference between drawing and sculpture is one of dimension. While you can draw a picture so that objects appear to look three-dimensional, the surface on which you work is flat. Sculpture, however, has depth as well as length and width. The two kinds of sculpture are relief and in the round. Details project or stick out from a background in a relief sculpture, so they can be seen only from the front and sides. Figures on architecture, such as those found on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, are good examples of this type. An in the round sculpture is free-standing, however, so it can be viewed from all sides. Henry Moore's Large Arch, which is located here in Columbus, is an example of an in the round sculpture."

"Reconsider the Use of the SAMR Model December 4, 2017 - Leave a comment The four-stage Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) model introduced by Rueben Puentedura back in mid-2000 has not only grown in popularity there are people building upon this its unsubstantiated foundation. The SAMR model was initially intended to help K-12 teachers move the up the ladder of technology use by using tech for the creation of new tasks, tech for a significant redesign, tech as a direct substitute with functional improvement, and tech as a direct substitute, with no functional change. SAMR not only looks like an innocuous model of using technology it also seems to appeal to the way many people tend to approach the use of technology. If we look closely at the fundamental presupposition of its use then we will see that there are serious issues in how the model can enhance learning. The first time I was introduced to the SAMR model was over a decade ago and I recall thinking that this model has a fundamental flaw that many people will tend to overlook. While using technology to simply make an activity or task more efficient or to explore ways to enhance or even redefine that activity or task may seem innocuous or even worthwhile the problem that we run into with this sort of thinking is that we are ignoring the validity of the original task that SAMR is being applied to. For example if you use SAMR to move your paper-based fill in the black worksheet to a digital model (substitution) and then add some branching questions in a google form (augmentation) and then add enabled voice responses (modification) and finally allow your class to create a video to answer the questions (redefinition) the problem is you are still asking your students to regurgitate content regardless how sophisticated the regurgitation becomes. I have also noticed in my time working with hundreds of teachers and faculty that there is a tendency for most people to NOT move beyond t

"A book club, also referred to as a reading group, is a collection of readers who participate in the regular discussion of books. Traditionally, a book club consists of several members who meet in person each month to talk about a specific work. A Book Club is also... In addition to discussion-oriented book clubs described here, a book club can also be a place to purchase books. These discount book clubs offer great deals for readers who wish to purchase several books each year. Many of these are available online, where readers can use the book club's website to choose their books. However, the advent of web forums and email has made it possible for book clubs to exist online. While both traditional and online book clubs offer readers the opportunity to participate in spirited discussions, each type has its own set of advantages. Traditional book clubs offer the benefit of having all members in the same room, which makes for a much more personal and intimate experience. Since most traditional book clubs are somewhat small in size, each member typically has more control over what books are selected to read (often members will vote on a list of suggested titles that have been submitted or take turns selecting). At the same time, it is often difficult to organize and maintain a book club that meets regularly. In addition to the challenge of recruiting quality members for a book club, a regular meeting time and place may be difficult to establish, especially if members have busy schedules. Also, the small size of the traditional book club typically limits the diversity of views and perspectives that enter into the discussion. Online book clubs offer several advantages over the traditional reading group model. Due to the vastness of the web and the variety of book clubs available, readers who turn to the Internet to find a book club enjoy a much wider selection of clubs, including many dedicated to a specialized interest or genre. In addition, online book clubs

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to introduce a group of high school teachers to the free Socrative student response system. The response from the teachers was overwhelmingly positive to the point that one math teacher stayed with me for an extra twenty minutes just to brainstorm more ways to use Socrative in her classroom. Socrative is a free service that allows teachers to post questions to students during a class and gather feedback through responses submitted from cell phones, tablets, and laptops. Socrative gives teachers a virtual room in which they gather responses from students. Students sign into a teacher's virtual room by simply visiting the Socrative website and entering the room number distributed by the teacher. There are a variety of ways in which teachers can pose questions to students and gather their responses. The simplest way to pose a question is to simply ask verbally or post it on a whiteboard and then telling students to submit their answers. Teachers can also create quizzes ahead of time, store those quizzes in their Socrative accounts, and then make the quiz go "live" in the virtual room when they want students to take the quiz. Teachers can activate an instant feedback option so that students know when they have answered a question correctly or not. A fun way to use Socrative is to host a team "space race." A space race is a competitive format for quizzes. Space race can be played as a team or individual activity. Each correct answer moves a rocket ship across the screen. The first person or team to get their rocket across the screen wins. I've included below, a video of space race being used in a classroom.

"This project is both very large and fairly old in Internet terms. At the time it was instigated (1996), it was not clear that web sites [and the documents made available there] would often turn out to be transient. As a result there is a process called "link rot" - which means that a "broken link" is a result of someone having taken down a web page. In some cases some websites have simply reorganized sub-directories without creating forwarding links. Since 2000, very few links to external sites have been made. An effort is under way to remove bad links."

"PiNation.com is inspired by the mathematical constant - π - the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. π is commonly used in mathematics, physics and engineering. For several thousand years, much effort has been put into understanding and calculating π. At PiNation you can just enjoy Pi. Leave the math aside. Don't even think about the circumference of a circle. Start by clicking on the [ Pi-Art Tool ]. You will be rewarded with unique pieces of Pi, each time you use it. Is it art? Is it science? Does it matter? You decide. If you like PiNation.com, tell your friends, so they can have a go. "

"i-SAFE's education component provides students with dynamic, interactive, up-to-date e-Safety curriculum in the classroom, online and in the community. These prevention-oriented lessons employ peer-to-peer communication and cooperative learning activities to help students retain this valuable information. The Outreach component facilitates the extension of students' newly acquired e-Safety knowledge beyond the classrooms and introduces the entire community about the need to be safe online. Youth empowerment is the link. Students are encouraged to become student i-MENTORs who communicate the e-Safety message via peer-to-peer contact and exciting community-wide activities, events and rallies. Certification is not required to teach the lessons. However, an i-SAFE Professional Development Program (PDP) - face-to-face or online through the i-LEARN video modules - is recommended to update educators on the specific topics covered in the curriculum. Attending a PDP or completing i-LEARN online is required for an educator to train others as an i-SAFE Certified Trainer."

"Forget about that image of librarians as a mousy bookworms. More and more of today's librarians must be clever interrogators, helping the patron to reframe their question more usefully. Librarians then become high-tech information sleuths, helping patrons plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records, often starting with a clever Google search but frequently going well beyond. Click here to find out more! Librarianship is an underrated career. Most librarians love helping patrons solve their problems and, in the process, learning new things. Librarians may also go on shopping sprees, deciding which books and online resources to buy. They may even get to put on performances, like children's puppet shows, and run other programs, like book discussion groups for elders. On top of it all, librarians' work environment is usually pleasant and the work hours reasonable, although you may have to work nights and/or weekends The job market for special librarians (see below) is good but is sluggish for public and school librarians. Nevertheless, persistent sleuthing-that key attribute of librarians-should enable good candidates to prevail. That effort to land a job will be well worth it if you're well suited to the profession: love the idea of helping people dig up information, are committed to being objective-helping people gain multiple perspectives on issues-and will remain inspired by the awareness that librarians are among our society's most empowering people."

"Welcome to BookCrossing, where 857,675 people in over 130 countries come to share their passion for books with the world. Where books take on a life of their own. How? It's easy. Simply click on the link below and sign up for free in less than 1 minute-- that's it! BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure. Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym -- anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel. Track the book's journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person. Join hundreds of thousands of active BookCrossers daily in our many forums to discuss your favorite authors, characters and books in every genre throughout history right up through current releases."