Group items tagged

"The concern about sharing students' videos on YouTube that I hear most frequently is about privacy. Many teachers and school administrators don't want to put videos online that have students' faces in them. Yesterday, YouTube launched a new editing feature to address that issue. There is now a face blurring tool in the YouTube video editor. These are the steps for using the new face blurring tool: 1. upload your video to YouTube. 2. open the "enhancements" option for your video. 3. select "blur all faces" in the "quick fixes tab." See the slides below for screenshots of the process."

"Announcing a new way to use video to create customized lessons: the "Flip This Lesson" feature from TED-Ed, now in beta at ed.ted.com. With this feature, educators can use, tweak, or completely redo any video lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from scratch based on a TEDTalk or any video from YouTube. How? Just plug the video in and start writing questions, comments, even quizzes - then save the lesson as a private link and share with your students. The site allows you to see who's completed the lessons and track individual progress. It's still in beta, but we're so excited about this feature we had to share."

A digital tool that allows you to show videos to kids and embed questions in the video that students need to answer before moving on in the video. Answers can be tracked at the student level and videos can be assigned by class.

"There's a grand tradition of using students in videos to advocate for changes in learning, teaching, and educational technology. See, for example, A Vision of Students Today and No Future Left Behind and I Need My Teachers to Learn and You Can't Be My Teacher. Continuing the trend, here's a video from Pearson called A Serious Talk: Kids Demand Next-Generation Learning. Happy viewing!"

"Many schools say that too many people focus on "test scores", yet how often do we share (in engaging ways), the stats that are really important to many of our community. Wouldn't a video like this for a school year, or broken up into semesters and terms, share some REALLY important stats that many miss out on that goes beyond showing our kids as "test scores"? For example, how much has your school raised to serve others? How many hours of coaching and practice have happened? How many hour have been spent doing musicals or plays (in Canada, these are most often voluntary hours)? What is your school doing to lead in your community? The thing that I want to be careful of though is that schools aren't necessarily sharing stats like, "How many books we have read?" and then forcing kids to read for "numbers" as opposed to interest. But with that being said, wouldn't this be a cool project for schools to take on? I know that many schools share a lot of evidence through a large document, but I think that there is a certain appeal to creating a video."

"This web page is a toolkit of resources-video, documents, and links to other sites-for principals who want to use social media to connect with their school communities. At some CPS schools, staff members and parents are working together with their principal on using social media; these resources are for you, too! As part of this toolkit, we've highlighted creative and effective social media use by CPS schools in a "Social Media Trailblazer" video series. We hope these will inspire you and give you ideas for your own school. For questions or to share your ideas, contact Alex Soble (arsoble@cps.edu, @alexsoble, 3-1675) in the Office of Communications."

Instagram introduced the option to upload videos on Wednesday rather than force users to create them from scratch. The Gap was one of the brands that expressed excitement about the new feature, using it that same day.

"The video above first appeared in a Huffington Post article last week titled The Independent Project - High School Allows Teens To Decide Their Own Curriculum. The clip gives an overview of a progressive program at Monument Mountain High School in Great Barrington, MA that allows students to design their own course of studies. I can't help wondering how many of our students would jump at the opportunity to do something similar..."

"What's the only thing better than Flipboard? Flipboard 2.0! It's a major new edition, with treats for everyone from the casual reader to the power user. There's more content than ever to enjoy, including a new partnership with Etsy. When you search, we instantly create a magazine out of your results. It's faster, more visual, and easier to navigate. And, for the first time, you can collect and save articles, photos, audio and video by organizing them into beautiful magazines. These can be private, or if you want to connect with like-minded enthusiasts, you can make them public and share them on Flipboard and beyond. Now everyone can be a reader and an editor."

"Pick a pre-designed, pixel-perfect infographic template made with love by our best designers. Add charts, videos and maps. It only takes a few minutes to create an infographic. Now you're ready to embed it in your blog post or share."

"Are we helping children develop into respectful, caring, empathetic human beings who can resist the urge to use profanity and hateful speech when remarking on the work of others? (I wondered how many of the commenters, particularly those who attend the same school, would consider sharing their comments in a face-to-face conversation with the video creator. Is it easier to be disrespectful online?)"

A great video from a group of 2nd and 3rd grade students about how to leave good blog comments for other people.

"In an inquiry-based learning environment, this foundation is already there. In fact, consider how a few questions could fundamentally alter the way students use what they are learning: What can be done with what you're learning? How could this be used to improve the lives of others? How does this connect to your interests, passions, and other studies? How could this be used to enhance something you are doing or exploring elsewhere? Care. Happiness. Love. Passion. Respect. What an amazing opportunity we have every day to put these at the forefront of our mission. As the video above asks at the end, "Are [we] crazy enough?""

A great video demonstrating the "doing work that matters" thinking that I believe is so important for changing schools. Use in TiG courses to introduce what "doing work that matters" can look like.

"Looks like more and more cities are following the lead of NYC and embracing the use of social media in schools. Most recently the Chicago Public Schools has put together toolkit of resources-video, documents, and links to other sites-for principals and staff who want to use social media to connect with their school communities. "

"Search engines may make it easy to find information, but they don't necessarily do the same for learning it. That's why the founders of social test prep startup Grockit want to re-configure online content such as YouTube videos, Wikipedia entries and ebooks into ordered lesson plans. Their new product, Learnist, works a bit like a Pinterest for learning. Soon anyone (the capability is still invite-only at launch) will be able to compile content pieces onto a board or "learning." A nifty bookmarklet makes it easy to collect content from other sites. Unlike Pinterest, however, creators suggest a path in which to consume each content component. Users can check off each component as they go or "re-add" it to one of their own learnings. "

"On May 16th, Skype announced that it is joining forces with Penguin Group, New York Philharmonic, Science Museum London, Peace One Day, and Save the Children with a view towards giving teachers educational content and access to expert speakers via video calling. This collaboration represents Skype's latest attempt to reach its goal of connecting one million classrooms globally. Skype in the classroom will now feature each organization's content, projects, and available guest-speakers, with Penguin Young Readers Group connecting authors with students for discussions about books, reading, and writing. The New York Philharmonic will offer live interaction with musicians and educators. Save the Children and London's Science Museum will have individual projects on Skype in the classroom by the end of the year. Skyping is no longer a novelty - a once-in-awhile special event. It's becoming a routine part of being an effective 21st century teacher."

An iPad app that makes it possible for teachers to create Khan Academy-esque videos.

TED-Ed Clubs is a flexible, school-based program that supports students in discussing, pursuing and presenting their big ideas in the form of short TED-style talks. Watch the video or explore the stories below to learn more.