Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Android 4 Schools

- Android 4 Schools - great new site with info and resources for Android in education
Android 4 Schools is a new site from Richard Byrne, author of Free Technology for Teachers. In this site, Richard and his guest authors will be sharing resources and reviews of apps (mostly free) that can be used in K-12 schools, along with ways that those apps can be used in the educational setting by teachers, students, and administrators.

The site is off to a great start with quite a few apps reviewed already. The site will also have information about Android tablets for K-12, books about Android, and tutorials.

If you use Android as an educator, administrator, or student, or your school is looking at using them, you should check out this site.

Skitch for iPad: Annotation using an iPad made easy

Skitch for iPad: Annotation using an iPad made easy : The Edublogger
Being able to quickly annotate screenshots and images is an essential part of my work.

So it’s exciting to see Skitch, the service that allows you to quickly annotate, edit and share screenshots and images, release their Skitch for iPad app today.

This is an invaluable app, for those like me, looking for fast ways to annotate images on their iPad.

Key features are:

  • Similar to the Mac version, Skitch for iPad includes an arrow tool, text tool, drawing tool, shapes tool, crop tool and a cursor tool.
  • Ability to import an image, take a photo, create your own drawing, browser a web page and take a screenshot and annotate a map using the inbuilt Google Maps interface.
  • Extensive share options including share by mail, Twitter, save to camera role and full integration with Evernote.
  • It’s free to download. Read more about Skitch for iPad here.

Skitch has been available for Android users since August and if you’re an Android user you can read more here.

Monday, December 26, 2011

A List of Apps to Install on Your New iPad

A List of Apps to Install on Your New iPad
We can imagine that a fair share of iPads got unwrapped this morning, and the first thing you’re going to want to do is switch it on and get a few awesome apps on there. Last year, we gave you a long list of apps that will help you get started with all of the popular essentials.

This year, we’ve decided to do the same thing, adding a ton of great apps to the list that you’ll want to get on to your iPad straight away. The list includes apps to handle your photos and videos, music apps, productivity apps, a few essentials to meet all of your social media needs, and of course a few games to keep you entertained......

Monday, December 19, 2011

83 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed Treasure Chest–December 18, 2011 | Tech the Plunge

83 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed Treasure Chest–December 18, 2011 | Tech the Plunge
TreasureChestPic11a83 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed Treasure Chest–December 18, 2011

The Top 20 iPhone And iPad Apps of 2011 | TechCrunch

The Top 20 iPhone And iPad Apps of 2011 | TechCrunch
iPhone Apps
It’s telling that Apple chose an app that debuted more than 14 months ago, Instagram, as its “iPhone App of the Year” for 2011. This should not imply that there was a shortage of quality and groundbreaking apps released this year. Far from it.

From social magazines to music discovery apps to console-quality games that players can hold in the palms of their hands, there are hundreds of new titles in the iTunes App Store that will inform, organize, and entertain virtually anyone who owns an iOS device. As more choices become available to different kinds of consumers, however, it’s difficult to identify the undisputed champions of the app world.......

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Create your own iPad keyboard for less than $10! - iPads in Education

Create

your own iPad keyboard for less than $10! - iPads in Education
One of the more common complaints among iPad users is that the keyboard is awkward to use. Apple offers a wireless keyboard solution at the prohibitive price of about $70 plus shipping but you can actually create your own simple iPad keyboard for less then $10.

Friday, December 16, 2011

15 Killer Google Chrome Features You Might Not Know About

15 Killer Google Chrome Features You Might Not Know About
chrome logoGoogle Chrome has been steadily gaining in the browser market share since its launch 2 years ago. It’s not without its flaws but it definitely falls in the “kinda cool” category. Its simplicity and minimalistic, yet feature-rich, interface caused a lot of users to ditch their old and trusted browser in favor of this new tool.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Education Week Teacher: Using Twitter in High School Classrooms

Education Week Teacher: Using Twitter in High School Classrooms
Not long ago, I met a super-motivated team of teachers from Westfield High School (Westfield, Ind.) at my Teaching the iGeneration workshop in Cincinnati. They were particularly interested in the different ways that Twitter can be used in schools. To help, I turned to the teachers in my own Twitter network for ideas—and while the examples shared were as diverse as the digital peers that I learn from, they seemed to fall into three broad categories:......

Thursday, December 08, 2011

15 Schools Using Flipped Classrooms Right Now

15 Schools Using Flipped Classrooms Right Now | Edudemic
Modern technology has spurred on a new trend in education: flipped classrooms. In a flipped classroom, students watch lectures and supplemental materials for their classes at home, usually pre-recorded by their instructors and uploaded to the web.

Classroom time is then used for answering student questions, helping with homework, and other activities that help students apply what they’ve learned.

While there are some obvious drawbacks to this method, more and more teachers are trying it out. Many have found it to be quite successful in improving student grades and comprehension, though many caution it’s not right for every teacher or every classroom.

Whether you love the idea or think it’s crazy, it’s definitely worth learning more about. Check out these stories of schools, from elementary to college, who have given flipped classrooms a go, often with amazing results. It may motivate you to try it yourself or might open your mind to the new possibilities tech offers educators.


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Monday, December 05, 2011

A complete guide to web, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus privacy and security!

A complete guide to web, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus privacy and security! : The Edublogger
The digital landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years. The Web 2.0 revolution brought with it the ability for everyone to create content on the web at rates I can’t imagine anyone ever thought possible.....

12 Things You Didn’t Know Facebook Could Do

12 Things You Didn’t Know Facebook Could Do - NYTimes.com
The designers and engineers who build Facebook are anything but complacent about their success. They face a constant threat from the career-centric LinkedIn, specialized upstarts like Instagram’s mobile photo network and now Google’s fast-growing Google+, an attempt to improve on Facebook’s core design that has picked up tens of millions of users in its first few weeks.


So Facebook has been adding features to make the reigning social network more useful and convenient.

As the number of features grows, though, so does a corresponding problem: Most of Facebook’s 750 million users don’t know these features exist. Some don’t know how to find them, some don’t go hunting for them in Facebook’s ever-growing interface of controls and many don’t even think of them in the first place. A few minutes of exploration can uncover functions that make Facebook not just an addiction but a pleasure to use......




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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Teacher Experience Exchange - 5 awesome alternatives to a traditional classroom blog

Teacher Experience Exchange - 5 awesome alternatives to a traditional classroom blog
Blogging is still an excellent educational activity for your students. It provides opportunities for them to develop writing skills as well as an outlet for creative thinking. However, if the "traditional blog" is losing its appeal but you still want your students to focus on writing, we've got a few alternatives to the classroom blog for you.

Let's start with the most "blog-like" site and explore the similarities and differences. Tumblr is becoming a very important social media tool and is gaining popularity in the educational setting. It's not nearly as big as Facebook or Twitter but it is growing fast and teachers are jumping on board.

So, what is Tumblr? Basically, it's a blogging platform for posts larger than Twitter and smaller than a traditional blog. Posts are usually rich with a combination of text and multimedia. A unique feature is the ability to "tumble" blog posts. This takes a post of a friend and posts it on your page. If you use Twitter, this is similar to retweeting.

Tumblr is a nice tool for teachers and older students but everyone will need accounts. Create an account for your class and have your students create accounts as well. Then, follow your students' accounts and vice-versa. Now you are all connected and can interact in numerous ways. Your students have an excellent vehicle for all manner of writing and multimedia projects.




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Using VoiceThread to communicate and collaborate

Using VoiceThread to communicate and collaborate
One of the best free Web 2.0 tools available to teachers and students is VoiceThread. Initially defined as a “group audio blog,” VoiceThread allows users to have ongoing digital conversations built from text, audio, and/or video comments added by small groups of participants around any content imaginable. Some teachers upload PowerPoint presentations filled with quotes, charts, graphs, and statistics for their students to study. Others upload Word documents, provocative images, and/or short video clips. Regardless of the kinds of content choices that you make, VoiceThread has the potential to engage your students and — if you’re willing to find professional partners to play with — to connect your class with students across counties, countries, or continents.

VoiceThread has three distinct advantages for teachers interested in making digital communication a part of their professional practice:....

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

100+ iPad Apps Perfect For High School

100+ iPad Apps Perfect For High School | Edudemic
If you’re a student, teacher, or administrator at a high school looking into adopting iPads for educational purposes, it’s important to know that the iPad is more than just an easy way to browse the web or visit the app store.

There are actually thousands of educational apps hiding in the bowels of the app store.But how do you find them? Unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, it is usually pretty tough to find the best apps. Heck, once you may come across an app it may prove to not be worth the time it took to download!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Share your sounds - SoundCloud

SoundCloud - Share Your Sounds
Capture a voice, moment or music in seconds or upload audio you’ve already created.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

1:1 Computing is a challange

Survey of School Administrators Explores Digital Classrooms, Major Challenges -- THE Journal
Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of school administrators who responded to a recent survey said 1:1 computing classrooms where teachers act as a coach for students are the future of education, in a poll that looked at some of the changes, opportunities, and challenges that lie ahead for schools.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Flipping your classroom

How the Flipped Classroom Is Radically Transforming Learning - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

..... we began to record our live lessons using screen capture software.  We posted our lectures online so our students could access them.  When we did this YouTube was just getting started and the world of online video was just in its infancy.
 
Flipping the classroom has transformed our teaching practice.  We no longer stand in front of our students and talk at them for thirty to sixty minutes at a time.  This radical change has allowed us to take on a different role with our students. ....

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Using Apps in the classroom

APPitic - 1,300+ EDUapps

APPitic is a directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) to help you transform teaching and learning. These apps have been tested in a variety of different grade levels, instructional strategies and classroom settings.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

21 things that will become obsolete in education by 2020

21 things that will become obsolete in education by 2020 - Education - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

It’s nearly two years since Shelly Blake-Plock wrote “21 things that will become obsolete in education by 2020” on his TeachPaperless blog. I’d highly recommend it for a mid-week read - and perhaps use it to stimulate some thinking on where you can help your own organisation as you move into the future - whether you work in an education institution, or you’re a Microsoft partner working with education customers.

Monday, November 07, 2011

25 Tips for taking great photographs

25 Tips for Taking Great Photographs | Prudent Baby

25 Tips for Taking Great Photos This list starts with some general thoughts on photography and gets into the nitty gritty. Stick with it and you will learn something.

Why Johnny Can't Search - a Response

Why Johnny Can't Search - a Response

We're often told that young people tend to be the most tech savvy among us. But just how savvy are they? A group of researchers led by College of Charleston business professor Bing Pan tried to find out. Specifically, Pan wanted to know how skillful young folks are at online search. His team gathered a group of college students and asked them to look up the answers to a handful of questions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the students generally relied on the webpages at the top of Google's results list. But Pan pulled a trick: he changed the order of the results for some students. More often than not, those kids went for the bait and also used the (falsely) top-ranked pages. Pan grimly concluded that students aren't assessing information sources on their own merit - they're putting too much trust in machine. Other studies have found the same thing: high school and college students may be “digital natives” but they're wretched at searching. In a recent experiment at Northwestern, when 102 undergraduates were asked to do some research online, none went to the trouble of checking the author's credentials. In 1955, we wondered why Johnny can't read. Today the question is why can't Johnny search?

Best 107 Websites

Best Websites

Here you go, the best 107 websites for all your needs. We’ve taken the effort to categorize the websites and picked only those we believe to be the best ones and which will most likely be useful to you. Spread the word!

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Tools for learning: Mobile phones and authentic learning tasks | edtalks.org

Tools for learning: Mobile phones and authentic learning tasks | edtalks.org

Thursday, September 08, 2011

How to Use Evernote to Organize Your Homeschool

How to Use Evernote to Organize Your Homeschool | Suite101.com
Evernote is a free downloadable program designed to help you remember and organize everything. Jot quick notes. Capture text and images from the Web. Organize "notes" by subject. Find everything in the same place, always available, synced across all devices (PC, Mac, mobile).

The basics: In simplest terms, Evernote is a desktop note-taking, image capture application that can sync your "notes" across all your devices via the Internet. A "note" is any stored item (text, email, captured or scanned image, etc.). A "notebook" is a container for related notes. A note might contain text, i.e., a note you write yourself, an email you received, a photo or image, or some captured content from a webpage.

Slide Six - Easily Add Narration to Slide Shows

Slide Six is a slide show hosting service that offers you the ability to add your voice narrations without having to create, upload, and sync a separate audio file. Slide Six does this by allowing you to record your narration directly through the Slide Six site. To use the feature just upload your slide show and then record your voice as you go through your slide deck. Slide Six also allows you to upload attachments to complement your presentations. YouTube and Vimeo videos are supported within Slide Six.

TubeChop - Chop YouTube Videos

TubeChop allows you to easily chop a funny or interesting section from any YouTube video and share it.

Sunday, September 04, 2011

In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores

Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value - NYTimes.com
In this technology-centric classroom, students are bent over laptops, some blogging or building Facebook pages from the perspective of Shakespeare’s characters. One student compiles a song list from the Internet, picking a tune by the rapper Kanye West to express the emotions of Shakespeare’s lovelorn Silvius.

The class, and the Kyrene School District as a whole, offer what some see as a utopian vision of education’s future. Classrooms are decked out with laptops, big interactive screens and software that drills students on every basic subject. Under a ballot initiative approved in 2005, the district has invested roughly $33 million in such technologies.

The Seven Steps to Becoming a 21st Century School or District

The Seven Steps to Becoming a 21st Century School or District | Edutopia
Last summer, as I was winding down my eight years as president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I went around the country and met with 30 superintendents, asking them, "What can I do to support your efforts to implement 21st century education in your district?" Together we came up with the idea of creating a professional learning community (PLC) of education leaders committed to 21st century education. A team of us liked the idea so much that earlier this year we launched EdLeader21, a community of education leaders committed to building critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity into their educational system.

Mom This is How Twitter Works

Mom This is How Twitter Works

Twitter is an online social networking tool in which users post 140 character updates of what is going on in their lives along with links to things they think are interesting, funny, or useful to their followers (“following” being essentially what “friending” is on other sites). People use twitter in many ways, some as a newsfeed by following prominent people or networks, some as a pseudo-chatroom by limiting their followers and whom they follow to close friends and family, and some as a microblog for updating people about the work they are doing and their personal lives.

Free Technology for Teachers: Draw It Live - A Simple, Free, Collaborative Whiteboard

Free Technology for Teachers: Draw It Live - A Simple, Free, Collaborative Whiteboard
Draw It Live is a nice little website that I discovered this morning while exploring the Chrome Web Store. Draw It Live offers a free space for you to instantly create a collaborative whiteboard to use with anyone you like.

Thursday, September 01, 2011

Google Sites Adds Page-Level Permissions: First Look

Google Sites Adds Page-Level Permissions: First Look - The BrainYard - InformationWeek
Google has added a much-needed security feature to Google Sites for Apps business customers, giving businesses the ability to enable page-level permissions within the service. The new feature will make it easier for admins to control who can find and edit any given Site page without having to alter site-wide permissions.

Using Gmail, Calendar and Docs without an internet connection

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Using Gmail, Calendar and Docs without an internet connection
The great thing about web apps is that you can access all of your information on the go, and we’ve introduced ways to use Google Apps on a variety of devices like mobile phones and tablets. But it’s inevitable that you’ll occasionally find yourself in situations when you don’t have an internet connection, like planes, trains and carpools. When we announced Chromebooks at Google I/O 2011, we talked about bringing offline access to our web apps, and now we’re taking our first steps in that direction. Gmail offline will be available today, and offline for Google Calendar and Google Docs will be rolling out over the next week, starting today.