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Try using Presi instead of PowerPoint the next time you need to present some information.

One of my student did his senior project presentation using Prezi and it was wonderful. He liked the tool so much he discussed it with his classmates. It was appropriate that his topic was "The Rapid Advancement of Technology: Is it Good or Bad?" His arguments were enlightening coming from an 18 year old heading off to college.

I have had a couple of students use Prezi for their presentations. They came out great. To me, their presenatations had a much better flow and were more visually pleasing than PowerPoint.

The author shares a new collaborative tool, Pen.io, which can be used by students to create a working portfolio and can be shared, published and owned. Although it is similar to google docs, the author likes it better for its simplicity, the ownership status it provides, its content-focused nature and the control it allows over who can edit it.

Great tool. And, yes it is easier to use than Google Docs. Of course "easier" means fewer features, but it also means more simplicity. Plus, with a few HTML basics there is more you can do than with G-Docs.

This is exactly what I am looking for to complement some of my online courses. Items such as safety contracts need signatures and require the tedious use of a scanner or fax machine. This Pen.io would be a great acessory to make these types of task very simple and personal. Unlike google docs it provides much more controls over many items.

You do not have to join to view some of the basic features of this site. However, if you do decide to join you gain access to lesson plans, illuminated texts, discussion groups and so on. All you need to do is participate in the site - if you add a lesson or make comments in discussion groups you accumulate points. I joined because I was very interested in making illuminated manuscripts with my students using either powerpoint or the adobe group materials. I was really impressed with Prezi for the power of that tool but sometimes I just want student work to stay within our classroom and not be shared on the web so I like the idea of the illuminated manuscripts.

This is a nice thing that someone put together. It categorizes today's web 2.0 websites into a Bloom's Taxonomy of thinking.

I really liked this and printed out to give me some ideas about the Web 2.0 Tools. I enjoyed the organization of this with the Blooms taxonomy.

Great site! So much information in one place.

the above url provides a link to a website called: http://edu.critiqueit.com/ Here you can post articles and invite people to read them and give input. sounds like a great resource for virtually any high school class.

This is an exciting article about a project that encourages young people into STEM careers through weekend and summer courses in computer game design. The program uses mentoring and collaboration to teach Game Design.

For STEM education, this is an exciting opportunity for students. I have had a couple student go after game design careers and have been successful. I was interested to read about the support that is built into the program (mentors) and the collaboration to help teach design. My former students have told me that is how they like to learn the design is through collaboration with fellow students in the class they are in.

Taking a risk means that failure is an option. Many students may see taking a risk as a negative. If we want students to take risks, we must not only create an environment that encourages students to take risks, but makes risk taking seem like the best option.

This article talks about how to encourage students to take risks in the classroom. These "risks" can range from just questioning to imagining to trying out something new. This is a very important higher order thinking skill that many students have trouble comprehending and acting on because they would rather stick with what they know (or what they think will get them the highest grade). I think the ideas in the article can be applied to high school classrooms as well as college classrooms.

A great article about helping students be more creative by incorporating risk-taking activities in the classroom. Create an environment where taking risks are rewarded. Also start with small risk-taking activities and build up into more complex ones.

This article discusses the importance of differentiation and especially the need for students to "redo" their assignments until they get them correct. By allowing students to "redo" they are improving their higher level thinking skills. Good and short article with practical reminders.

I love this article! Great reminders for all of us as educators to simply differentiate learning for our students. -vary the length or quantity of the assignment. -extend or curtail the duration of the assignment. -change the language of the assignment. -scaffold the learning activity from hard to medium to easy. -compact the activity and teach only what they don't know. -give them learning activities that let them perform the same learning objective with multiple mediums like summarizing a story they have read through narrative, drama, song, poetry, art, or design They also discussed the ability to redo assessments and I agree with this but somewhere in my teaching experience this has been engrained in my head only once. But I realize the feeling of success this allows a student.

In this blog, Ben Johnson reiterates the misconceptions in education about all students getting concepts in education at the same time. He goes on to discuss the importance of true differentiation in the classroom and that it is not creating an imbalance among students but a way for all students to succeed. He emphasizes the things teachers already do in the classroom to help students succeed and ends with a suggestion to allow students to redo their work in all areas (not just English and history).

I get fired up when I read articles like this...they validated my beliefs...especially when using technology in education. But, it is also refreshing to consider a more balanced view such as this comment to the article. "Education, at all levels, has two very different functions. The first is developing the capacity to ask new questions. The second is developing the capacity to answer questions already asked. Both capacities are equally necessary - a curious person with no technical knowledge of the tools with which he could satisfy his curiosity would be stymied in his goals, while an incurious technical expert would never know which goals to have unless instructed. The methods of developing each of the capacities is different. The latter needs to be more didactic, the former needs (progressively less) guided exploration."

This focus of this article is the Torrence Test which measure a persons creativity level. Scores show creativity levels in US students declining, most likely do to the lack of creative development in the schools and at home.

A simple little article but I really liked some of the ideas that were included. For example, to help with teaching purpose and tone there is a site for making greeting cards - while this could be aimed towards the lower grade levels I think it could also be incorporated into high school literature courses by having characters write greeting cards to other characters. I also think that some of the suggested sites could be utilized across departments.

I really enjoyed reading this article about making appealing and intriguing powerpoint slideshows using images that attract attention. The article is brief but they offer several sites to obtain images from and then they suggest some editing elements you can do to alter the originals and use them as talking points before during or after a presentation. The most impacting piece I got out of it was when they asked the question - would you sit through your own presentation? Yeah, no kidding, how many times have you sat through a dull presentation with nothing to keep your eyes and attention sharp and interested.

Some great tips - especially like the list of places to find images instead of the common google. Randy

Sophia uses Web 2.0 tools and methods to create a crowd-sourced platform where information is organized in "learning packets" - bite-sized tutorials tagged to specific academic subjects or topics, including standards-aligned objectives. The packets can be created by anyone, anywhere using text, images, presentations, video, audio and more. Packets are rated for quality and evaluated for academic soundness by users and experts within the community.

looked at the irregular area "learning packet. Looked like a great into lesson. Thanks

museums. All of that information in one place? It's amazing! Museum Box provides you with the tools to showcase descriptions of an event, person, historical period of time, or anything you can imagine into a virtual box!

Looks like this is a good tool for students to showcase information in any subject.

Some useful strategies for creating effective presentations.  While the audience this writer is addressing is creating presentations for adult professionals, there are many useful strategies that can be integrated by any teacher. This post covers not just how to create the presentation, but also strategies for delivery as well.  It could be useful for helping teachers learn how to overcome the "traditional" Powerpointless presentation.

I found the suggestions useful but also really liked the link to places to get photos to use in presentations. Much more professional then google images.

Like Pecha Kucha, but Ignite presenters get 20 slides and five minutes to make their point.