Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Greplin

Greplin
a site that searches all your online data, in one place, really fast.

Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org: Free ePub solutions for Your Nook

Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org: Free ePub solutions for Your Nook
Do you know where you can find free ePub publications for your eReader, especially the Nook?
Earlier this week (or maybe it was last week), I shared eReader Indecision. I finally made a decision and ordered the Barnes and Noble Nook Wi-Fi. (Here's one of the reasons why I didn't get a Kindle...lack of format support, such as for ePub). I'm hoping I didn't totally make a mistake but only hands-on experience and time will tell. Also, I'm hoping that the Nook Wi-Fi will be something that will work well in a school environment where 3G access isn't necessarily encouraged.......

Teachers and Students in Control - 4 Media Creating Sites

Teachers and Students in Control - 4 Media Creating Sites
There are so many tools and resources that are available to the education world that let you and your students create tons of different applications. These sites are great for incorporating into class projects, lessons or just having fun with learning! These 4 sites will provide you with a quick variety of some of those great resources. Combining technology with learning is just another way of preparing students for the future while having fun.

Full List - 50 Best Websites 2010 - TIME

Full List - 50 Best Websites 2010 - TIME
From the helpful to the distracting, the big hitters to the unknowns, TIME offers a road map to the best of the Web

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Bittersweet News for Social Media in Education | Edutopia

Bittersweet News for Social Media in Education | Edutopia
We're purposely creating a disconnect with our youth and setting them up to fail in the digital space by simply hiding social media sites because we're too afraid of misuse. Whether we like it or not, our students are already using social media sites. Seventy-three percent of American teens now use social networking websites, according to new study by Pew Internet on Social Media and Young Adults. Are we going to stand aside and watch them engage in social media with their phones and at home? What about teaching our youth about digital footprints, citizenship, and etiquette in this quickly evolving space? As educators, I can't imagine a more important role to take on.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Mobile Trends, E-books, and the Web « The Xplanation

The following is an except from the web site - it makes for good reading
Mobile Trends, E-books, and the Web « The Xplanation
Welcome to this morning’s Daily Research Update. Today’s themes are social networking, rethinking learning, and for-profits. If you want more context for this research, take a look at our Education and Technology Trends for 2010. You may also be interested in our Weekly Research Index, or you can follow our live, daily research on our Current News page.
(Click here to see a simple listing of today’s suggested reading)
Let’s talk mobile for a bit, shall we? For starters, some are questioning the success of RIM’s latest BlackBerry — the Torch. “The WSJ cites analysts at RBC Capital Markets and Stifel Nicolaus, which both estimate that RIM sold about 150,000 of the device over the weekend. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs called the launch “underwhelming.” For comparison’s sake, the iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million devices in its opening weekend.”

Weblogg-ed » Unlearning Teaching

Weblogg-ed » Unlearning Teaching
Rather than teachers delivering an information product to be ‘consumed’ and fed back by the student, co-creating value would see the teacher and student mutually involved in assembling and dissembling cultural products. As co-creators, both would add value to the capacity building work being done through the invitation to ‘meddle’ and to make errors. The teacher is in there experimenting and learning from the instructive complications of her errors alongside her students, rather than moving from desk to desk or chat room to chat room, watching over her flock.

Langwitches Blog » 21st Century Learning

Langwitches Blog » 21st Century Learning
I found the following video in my Reader today from The Innovative Educator. I will be saving the video for future PD opportunities.
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Monday, August 16, 2010

iPad Quiz Maker

ProProfs is an advanced, free quiz maker offering more features than you might expect. Advanced options like security, scoring, time limits & more make this online quiz software perfect for corporations, educational institutions and just for fun. This free quiz maker is 100% safe for use in educational environment with Family-safe advertisements in the free version. If you are looking for a test generator, exam maker or a causal quiz creator, ProProfs fits the need. Make your own online quiz now with many options at your disposal.

Sonic Pics for iPod (and iPad)

Reviews and views on iPod Apps for Education
This app allows you to narrate over pictures in your photo gallery. It’s very simple to start a project, choose pictures then record the narration to accompany your pictures. You change between photos by swiping your finger across the screen.

What matters about 21st Century Learning

David Warlick does a superb job in describing why our mission is not about the tool but about the learning.

Technology for 21st Century Learning: Part 1 : 2¢ Worth
The only thing that is one to one that we should be concerned with is equitable access to rigorous, relevant, and irresistible learning experiences that reflect and harness the times, environment, and ultimate goals of the learning.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Schools making use of iPads

North Adams Public Schools making use of iPads - North Adams Transcript
Forget laptops. The North Adams Public Schools are hoping the latest form of innovative handheld technology -- the Apple iPad -- will entice at-risk students to improve their grades and graduate on time.

The school district is piloting a new program aimed at helping students earn credits for classes they’ve failed through learning modules specifically created for the iPad.

Access iPad and iPod documents when offline

Offline Access to Cloud Documents Comes to the iPhone and iPad
Cloud storage and collaboration platform Box.net has just updated its iPhone and iPad application with support for offline downloads and background processing in iOS 4.

Creating content with iPads

Creating Content with iPads – #edtech #elearning #ipad | School Technology Solutions
I am sick of people saying that the iPad is for consuming and not creating online digital content. There is no doubt that the iPad is a great device to browse the web, read an eBook and check email (consuming) but it can do so much more than that. You will see from my list below that the iPad is far superior to the laptop in a lot of different areas of digital content creation.

IPad Curriculum

iPad Curriculum
This site has ideas on how to use the iPad in schools - take a look.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Technology takes formative assessment to a whole new level

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/08/04/technology-takes-formative-assessment-to-a-whole-new-level/

handheld

Student response system (SRS) technology has caught on in classrooms nationwide as a tool for boosting class participation, as well as helping teachers ensure that students understand what’s being taught before they move on to another concept. But the current generation of the technology has its limitations.

 

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Anthologize

Anthologize is a free, open-source, plugin that transforms WordPress 3.0 into a platform for publishing electronic texts. Grab posts from your WordPress blog, import feeds from external sites, or create new content directly within Anthologize. Then outline, order, and edit your work, crafting it into a single volume for export in several formats, including—in this release—PDF, ePUB, TEI.

http://anthologize.org/

More iPad items for school

Monday, August 02, 2010

A wordle replacement

Tagxedo - Creator
Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.

Screencast

Screenr - Create screencasts and screen recordings the easy way
Now you can create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. Just click the record button and you’ll have your ready-to-tweet screencast in seconds.

Seven Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter

Twitter can be a great way to find resources and as a PLN - so....

Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter

More Web 2.0 Resources

» Resources
The list below is an ever expanding list of free resources, now over a 100 tools, that can be used in a classroom either by students or teachers. Each utility has a review and I provide a link to the site so that you can download the tool should you wish to use it. I will endeavour to keep the links up to date, but am not responsible for any site or service mentioned below. Please use them on an as you find it basis.

iPad Second Thoughts

That'SLife » Blog Archive » iPad – Second Thoughts
Well, at the moment it’s more a case of what am I not doing with it. Here’s the software I’m currently making most use of: