MakingConnections

Creative  Communicating -Pati King-DeBaun iPad app

The Application Evaluation Rubric provided below will assist schools to select applications appropriate to their context.

"Each Monday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your best freebie for all the world to see! It will be open for 1 day only each week. 2. Your freebie MUST be located in a blog post (no store link ups) and must be something that is free now and FOREVER with no strings attached (you may not ask people to follow you, like you, or anything else in order to grab the freebie)."

"The future success of our children will depend not only on how wisely they use technology, but also on how well they are capable of navigating ever changing forms of technology. This lens will introduce both educators and parents to basic apps and creative ways to use technology at home or in the early childhood classroom."

"CONNECT: The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge CONNECT is creating a series of web-based modules for national educational use by Early Childhood instructors and learners. "

"Tecla is a set of open software and hardware tools that facilitate switch access to electronic devices for people with mobility impairments."

"A growing research literature confirms educational technology has a major, positive impact on social-emotional, cognitive, language, and academic outcomes for young children. Supporting early learners means attention to good design, such as being success-based, offering a meaningful context for children, being developmentally appropriate through providing content needed for school success, and providing activities and approaches that match children's development and readiness levels. Whether they come to the technology with fewer skills due to less opportunity, with a language other than English, or as young special needs children; educational technology can support young learners' success in early schooling. In this webinar, you will learn about all these elements, with a special emphasis on how early literacy and mathematics learning can be supported with educational technology. We will then have a dialogue about where educational technology for early learners is currently in the context of 21st Century Classrooms and what you see as needed critical future directions."

"This report, Take a Giant Step, represents the Council's multi-sector action plan to enhance teacher education and a higher quality, 21st century approach to the learning and healthy development of children in preschool and the primary grades. The report sets forth several goals for the nation to meet by 2020, including advancing technology integration and infrastructure; a more robust professional training program for early education professionals; the expanded use of public media as cost-effective assets for teachers; and the establishment of a Digital Teacher Corps."

"Doodlecast is a unique drawing app that records your voice as you draw. Play back your drawing and export it to share with friends and family. Visit the Doodlecast for Kids support page to see the app in action. The Doodlecast For Kids App comes with more than 20 drawing prompts - simple questions designed to give kids a starting point. Kids can choose from one of the prompts or start a drawing from scratch. The app records the entire drawing process along with audio from the microphone to create videos up to three minutes long. The videos are as fun to watch as they are to create and Doodlecast makes it easy to share them with friends and families."

Price Drop for Apps for Kids Posted on November 12, 2011 Apps for kids that have recently dropped prices in the past few days.

"APPitic is an directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) to help you transform teaching and learning. These apps have been tested in a variety of different grade levels, instructional strategies and classroom settings"

For wikispaces Now that the school year is underway, we put together a quick 15-20 minute activity, designed to get students comfortable with using wikis. All you need is this PDF handout, a wiki of your own, and a few minutes of preparation:

60 minutes story on the iPad and kids with autism

"Welcome to the iPads for Learning website. This website is for educators, students and parents wanting to learn about using iPads in education. Here you will find information about the Victorian school iPads for Learning trial including the specially selected apps, classroom ideas and technical tips."

. Storybird is a great site that fosters creative student writing, and I have enjoyed great success when using it in class (click here for my tutorial on the site... click here or here to see some student work). During the conversation, Mr. Ury mentioned that the site had recently opened up a fundraising option. I was intrigued and decided almost immediately that I would make a Storybird fundraiser a priority going in to the 2011-12 school year.

"This site contains resources for: iPads in the Classroom - October 20, 21 iPad Multimedia Tools for Creativity, Collaboration, and Publication This seminar will cover some of the best audio, photography, and video apps for use in education."

Free and Price drops for kids iOS apps

Educational Apps For Kids: A Dad's quest to find the best educational apps for the iPad and iPhone

Scope's blog that they need to update

"Technology and Young Learners "Resources and stories of technology used with young learners" RSS"