Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Using Twitter to stay on top of education news

28 Education and Technology Keywords Or Hashtags To Follow on Twitter | Tech Academy
Tired of being the last to hear about education news? Try using Twitter to listen and learn!

Stories and Poems in mp3 format

Lit2Go: MP3 Stories and Poems

Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can:
  • Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go,
  • Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer,
  • View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen,
  • Print out the stories and poems to make your own book.

Great List of Hashtags For Educators

Supercool School: Great List of Hashtags For Educators
I just read a post on Karlana's World regarding #hashtags for education - it's a great article and I encourage everyone to read it who is an active educator on twitter. You'll learn how to use #hashtags and how to monitor the most useful #hashtags for edcucation and learning.

Questions about how technology is changing learning

Resources | Teaching With and About Technology - NYTimes.com
What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of using technology for learning? Are tech tools essentials, distractions or somewhere in between? How are other teachers using technology? What tech skills do today’s teachers need to use digital tools effectively?

We present a collection of Learning Network resources, Times multimedia and articles and useful outside links to help both digital immigrants and digital natives think through these questions.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Pens and Pencils should be banned from classrooms

10 Reasons to Ban Pens and Pencils in the Classroom | MindShift

10 Reasons to Ban Pens and Pencils in the Classroom
November 26, 2010 | 10:01 AM | By Katie Stansberry

photoAccording to a recent MSNBC article, 69% of high school currently ban cell phones. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a school anywhere that has enacted a blanket ban on pens and pencils. Here are 10 reasons to reconsider the widespread acceptance of these distracting and potentially dangerous implements.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Learning about how to blog - check out these great blogs

Online Degrees: 100 Best Blogs for the Classroom Teacher
Graduating college is just the first step in a teacher's education. From required continuing education units to the learning you want to do to keep your teaching fresh, you probably find yourself on a continual quest for new information. This list of blogs for the classroom teacher is just one more way to find that ever-important knowledge. Read these blogs to find ways to bolster your lessons, learn how you can use technology in your classroom, stay on top of current education news and policy, or get resources for a specific subject.

Web Pased presentation ideas

Hate PowerPoint? Here Are 5 Web-based Alternatives


powerpoint-logo.jpgWhether they're for clients, customers or colleagues, visual presentations are an unavoidable part of doing business. For years, Microsoft PowerPoint has been the standard bearer of slide presentation applications, but several Web-based alternatives have emerged.

For the most part, the alternatives offer similar functionality to PowerPoint, sometimes more, sometimes less. One obvious advantage to Web-based presentations is that they're stored in the cloud, eliminating the potential for nightmare scenarios involving lost or corrupted thumb drives.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Free Presentation Videos from Tech-Ed

Tech·Ed 2010 - Download the presentation videos free - Microsoft UK Schools blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
If you've ever been lucky enough to get to Tech·Ed, you'll know that some of the best technical presenters are there, presenting some of the most useful technical content for IT managers. Each year over 100 people from UK educational institutions travel out to it (this year, it was in Berlin), but I know that many, many more people want to attend, but simply can't get sign off for the costs.

A dropbox manual

The Complete Dropbox for Educators | Tech the Plunge
Dropbox is a very useful tool to store online files, sync your computers and mobile devices and share files. With all those capabilities it makes it a natural tool for educators!

Going Google

The Benefits of Google Apps for Education in Schools
Getting Google Apps accounts for your school is an increasingly attractive proposition. This free, online suite of tools offers schools the chance to centralize all their academic efforts under one school-managed online domain. It is highly interactive, and positively encourages collaboration. It has benefits for both staff and students and is instantly familiar and easy to learn. Here's what you can expect to get if your school signs up for this versatile online solution.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Videos and lectires - why leave home for school?

Mobile Learning - a hot topic

Survey: Mobile learning at a tipping point | Mobile and Handheld Technologies | eSchoolNews.com
According to a recent national survey, access to mobile technology in the classroom has more than tripled among high schools students in the past three years—and even more interesting, parents say they are more likely to purchase a mobile technology device for their child if it’s for classroom use.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Ten Top Technology Tools for Teachers

Ten Top Technology Tools for Teachers | Why did the Chickenman cross the road?
These tools are all free, easy to use, easy to access and can be used in any subject at any age to enhance the learning experience.

Monday, November 15, 2010

8 Awesome Utilities for Extending iCal | Mac.AppStorm

8 Awesome Utilities for Extending iCal | Mac.AppStorm
Planning ahead and scheduling events is a key step toward enhancing productivity, and ensuring you don’t miss appointments! That’s where calendar apps come to our rescue, to chart our day-to-day tasks and routines. For an app that comes bundled with your Mac, iCal does a remarkable job.

Social Learning Tools for the School Classroom (ages 5-18)

Social Learning Tools for the School Classroom
This is a new page of the Directory showing SOCIAL tools particularly targeted at (or very useful) for the primary, junior, middle and secondary school classrooms.

Friday, November 12, 2010

A Teachers Guide to Facebook

Every Teacher’s Must-Have Guide To Facebook | Edudemic
You can’t swing a stick in social media without hitting something on Facebook. Same goes for education. You can’t talk about how technology is revolutionizing education without mentioning Facebook. It’s a simple service to figure out but what about once you become a regular user?

Video Web Sites for Teachers

Top 40 Video Web Sites for Teachers
Learning can come from books, or it can come from streaming TV interviews about books and authors. Video produced by universities, major television networks and organizations all provide entertaining and enlightening shows, lectures and films that can enhance learning experiences for students of all ages. The following top 40 sources for open courseware videos (meaning they are no charge and educational) are categorized and listed in alphabetical order within those categories.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Mobile Tools for Teachers

100 Mobile Tools for Teachers | Cellphones.org
It is a common-known fact that teaching is a labor of love for most educators. They are overworked and under-appreciated and many of them spend their own money, time and energy to improve their students’ education. With all of the new mobile tools on the market today, teachers can more easily work from satellite locations, share educational resources and access school-related data directly from their cell phones. Here are 100 mobile tools for teachers that make the grade.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Xtranormal | Text-to-Movie

Xtranormal | Text-to-Movie
If you can type. you can make a movie.

Do Podcasts Help Students Learn?

Do Podcasts Help Students Learn?

Before George Washington University renewed its iTunes U contract, the administration wanted to know how the podcasts impacted student learning and engagement.

In fall 2009, the university's Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning studied a world history class of 262 students to find the answer.

But the answer isn't yes or no — the answer depends on the student's learning style, gender and motivation.

“If your goal is to find a magic bullet that makes all students better, this isn’t it," said Hugh Agnew, a professor from the Elliott School of International Affairs who taught the course. "But If your goal is to reach some students better that maybe you aren’t reaching so terribly well, then I think this is worth trying.”

6 Free Sites for Creating Your Own Comics

6 Free Sites for Creating Your Own Comics
In the days of cold, hard newsprint, only people who could draw were successful comic strip authors. In some cases, this resulted in comic strips that had very nice pictures, but weren’t all that funny (cough, Blondie). Thankfully, the Internet has taught us not to accept an inferior form of comic artistry, but a more flexible one

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Survey: Mobile learning at a tipping point | Mobile and Handheld Technologies | eSchoolNews.com

Survey: Mobile learning at a tipping point | Mobile and Handheld Technologies | eSchoolNews.com
According to a recent national survey, access to mobile technology in the classroom has more than tripled among high schools students in the past three years—and even more interesting, parents say they are more likely to purchase a mobile technology device for their child if it’s for classroom use.

12 videos to spark educators’ thinking | Dangerously Irrelevant

12 videos to spark educators’ thinking | Dangerously Irrelevant
If you’re like me, you have trouble keeping up with all of the great videos that are out there. I love it when others help me separate the wheat from the chaff.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Twiducate.com - Social Networking For Schools

Twiducate.com - Social Networking For Schools
twiducate.com is a free resource for educators. Developed in 2009, our goal is to create a medium for teachers and students to continue their learning outside the classroom. We attempt to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners in a social networking environment.

Blecko - a new search engine

 

http://blekko.com/

 

blekko is a better way to search the web by using slashtags. slashtags search only the sites you want and cut out the spam sites. use friends, experts, community or your own slashtags to slash in what you want and slash out what you don't.