WSD eToolBox

iPads have exploded throughout schools and classrooms. Their flexibility, versatility, and mobility make them a phenomenal learning tool. As teachers seek ways to integrate these devices, we recommend focusing on specific learning goals that promote critical-thinking, creativity, collaboration, and the creation of student-centric learning environments. Below, you will find a list of objectives, each one connecting to recommended apps and tools.

GREAT List and summary of storybook creation tools

"Let's consider some activities that allow a student to show understanding of a book and that might be enjoyable. This selection of activities is also intended to meet the needs of different kinds of learners -- or to contribute to the development of skills beyond writing. I often allowed students choice in deciding how they wanted to respond to a book -- they could choose from a list like the one below."

Finding free quality images is a tedious task - mainly due to copyright issues, attribution requirements, or simply lack of quality. This inspired us to create Pixabay - a repository for outstanding public domain images. You can freely use any image from this website in digital and printed format, for personal and commercial use, without attribution requirement to the original author.

"Kodu lets kids create games on the PC and XBox via a simple visual programming language. Kodu can be used to teach creativity, problem solving, storytelling, as well as programming. Anyone can use Kodu to make a game, young children as well as adults with no design or programming skills."

"How can we best prepare children and adolescents to thrive in the 21st century? This question is at the heart of what every educator attempts to do on a daily basis. Apart from imparting content of knowledge and facts, however, it's becoming clear that the " noncognitive competencies " known as grit, perseverance , and tenacity are just as important, if not more so , in preparing kids to be self-sufficient and successful. To that end, the Department of Education's Office of Technology has released a report called Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance"

"If you want to create a newspaper for your class, you can do it through one of these templates. The procedure is very easy. Just download the template you are going to use, and once downloaded open the file and start customizing it the way you want. You can insert your text , images, change text colour and fonts, change headings and titles."

ePortfolios are still a key component to getting into the schools you want and getting hired for the jobs you desire. In fact, it's safe to say that they matter just as much now as they ever did, if not more. The reason we've stopped seeing as many articles about ePortfolios is because they've approached standard practice in the education and employment fields. It's taken for granted that today's students will know how to create one by the time they complete their college degrees and seek new employment opportunities, if they didn't already create one as they prepared to apply to colleges.

"Is there a right and a wrong way to teach social media in schools? Some administrators think so. Many schools across the country have banned the use of social networking platforms, but others are transitioning to a more proactive approach. Many experts and school officials say that abandoning the more reactionary responses to social media is the first step toward implanting a more effective digital literacy education."

"US Copyright laws may be years behind the fast-paced world of social media and blogs, but they still control how a copyrighted work can be used. And while there are aspects of Copyright law that have "gone digital," the Digital Millennium Copyright Act doesn't provide anything new when it comes to explaining how to properly use another person's photos or images online. And because most people won't read the law and even those who do may not understand exactly what it means, I offer you these to help you"

"Over the past few years I have read a fair collection of winners, a fair collection of losers and far too many mediocre education technology books. The aim here is to share the ones that have been so highly recommended they are considered must reads. Each of these has been a recommendation from someone within my PLN and so comes from very good authority and credibility. And of course, to continue learning from this PLN please do add your own suggestions and must-reads in the comments below."

Today, learning happens everywhere and all the time. Education must extend beyond our classrooms and school walls into the lives of every learner.

I strongly believe that technology is going to completely revolutionize the classroom. But when are we going to start addressing the negative aspects of the one-to-one classroom?

I have listed every blog post that has a video tutorial that shows how to create something related to online learning. So, if you're just getting started with building online learning courses (or new to the blog), now you have a handy resource with links to all sorts of rapid elearning tutorials.

We've built an education platform that is customizing the way students learn by offering more than 32,000 tutorials on a variety of academic topics taught by thousands of teachers. This vibrant, first-of-its-kind learning community helps teachers enrich their classrooms, empowers students to learn in their own way, and provides a pathway to an affordable college degree.

"Excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, not every teacher can access YouTube in his or her classroom. That's why a few years ago I compiled a big list of alternatives to YouTube. Over the years some of those sites have shut-down, started charging a fee, or have switched into another market. So this evening I went through and eliminated some sites from the list and added a few new ones. My favorite five alternatives to YouTube are listed below."

"By giving students the opportunity to view and playback lessons via video, you free up class time for more cognitively difficult tasks. At EdTechTeacher, we have worked with many educators on flipping their classes and have noticed some common issues that often thwart their initial forays."

"Google Forms are amazing tools, allowing you to do some really advanced tricks with forms as the front-end and spreadsheets at the heart. Once you get started you'll be amazed at just how much you can achieve with this basic premise. Today we'll look at how to create a self-grading quiz using Google Forms. From there, you'll no doubt find a lot more ways to use forms and spreadsheets."

"Digital citizenship education empowers students to make thoughtful decisions and develop a sound digital foundation for the rest of their lives. Cable in the Classroom brings you a series of free, standards-based lessons that teach key digital citizenship concepts. These lessons, for students in grades 4-8, are designed to engage students through inquiry-based activities, and collaborative and creative opportunities. Digital Citizenship is a holistic and positive approach to helping students learn how to be safe and secure, as well as smart and effective participants in a digital world. That means helping them understand their rights and responsibilities, recognize the benefits and risks, and realize the personal and ethical implications of their actions. Helping a student become a good digital citizen cuts across all curricular disciplines."