Featured: 5-30-2013 The Teacher's Guides To Technology And Learning [Reference]

The Teacher's Guides To
Technology And Learning 

The Teacher's Guides To Technology And Learning by Edudemic are intended to offer teachers some of the best and most popular resources currently available.

In creating The Teacher's Guides To Technology And Learning, Edudemic has explored hundreds of resources in order to make their guides easy to read, use, and share.

The Teacher’s Guide To Flipped Classrooms

Because the flipped classroom is one of the most sought-after topics in terms of questions on social media, search queries, and more, Edudemic thought it would be useful to organize all of their many resources into one easy-to-use guide. It’s a curated list of many of the most useful flipped classroom resources.

The Teacher’s Guide To Copyright And Fair Use

Teaching students about copyright and fair use involves more than just telling them that they should be doing their own work, and not copying off the web. Plagiarism and copyright violations are significant issues in the classroom.

The Teacher’s Guide To The Library Of Congress

The Library of Congress is an incredible resource for teachers. The largest library in the world, it’s home to millions of books, recordings, photographs, and other materials, many of them original sources. This guide, written for teachers and education in general, promises to be an easy and solid resource to refer back to as needed.

 

The Teacher’s Guide To Choosing The Best Digital Content

Blended learning is becoming a noteworthy trend in education technology as teachers realize technology alone isn’t the 'magic bullet' of education. A blended learning environment means  mixing technology with standard teaching practices in order to enhance education.

Other available guides:

• The Teacher’s Guide To Twitter
• The Teacher’s Guide To Digital Scavenger Hunts
• The Teacher’s Guide To Pinterest In The Classroom
• The Teacher’s Guide To Keeping Students Safe Online
• The Teacher’s Guide To Badges In Education
• The Teacher’s Guide To Google Glass

The Teacher's Guides To Technology And Learning are always a work in progress. The current guides are always being updated and refreshed, and new guides are being developed.

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Featured: 5-29-2013 Mobile PDF Apps [Tools]

 

Investintech.com offers a number of tools for working with PDF documents including three free apps for iOS and Android mobile phones and tablets.

Able2Extract Mobile is a free, lightweight, easy-to-use app for creating and converting PDF documents. Users can create PDF documents from MS Office documents and convert PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

Able2Doc Mobile converts PDFs to Word documents. This uncomplicated app promises to deliver high quality conversions on the go from your smartphone or tablet.

Sonic PDF Creator Mobile easily converts MS Office documents attached to emails or stored on your device to PDFs, right on your Android or iOS device.

Investintech.com also offers a full range of desktop tools for managing PDF documents.

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The Periodic Table Set To Music

From AsapSCIENCE, comes "The NEW Periodic Table Song (In Order)" By by Mitchell Moffit based on the "Can-Can" music, by Offenbach.

 

 

You might also like the classic "The Elements", where Tom Lehrer sets the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance.

Electric Slide Adds Keynote Support

Electric Slide is a free iOS app that lets you wirelessly deliver your presentation slides, documents, and videos with just your iPhone or iPad. In March, when Electric Slide was first introduced in EDge21, it was promised that Keynote support would be a forthcoming feature.

That, as well as several other new features, is now available. Upload a Keynote document just as you would a PowerPoint or document file - either from the Upload Page or on your device, or try the new File Inbox feature. New Keynote support includes animations and transitions just like PowerPoint support, but note that not all Keynote effects are supported for performance reasons.

Other new Electric Slide features:

• Broadcast Zoom - Just pinch to zoom on your document or slides while presenting. Your audience (whether on the web or watching on a TV or projector) will see you zoom in real-time.
• File Inbox - Send your presentations, documents and videos to your special email address attachments. ElectricSlide will process those files and add them to your account automatically.
• Share Your Presentations on the Web - With the new web based content viewer you can instantly share a web friendly link to your document.

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Featured: 5-28-2013 Scratch [Programming]

Scratch, first noted on EDge21 in January 2010, is a simple programming language for kids that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art and share them on the web. 

Working with Scratch helps kids aged 8-16 learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively, essential 21st century skills.

MIT has just released a new version of Scratch that runs within a browser window with no downloads or installs required. Note: Scratch does require Flash.

Find out more about learning with Scratch by visiting the ScratchEd online community where Scratch educators share stories, exchange resources, and ask questions.

 Watch a video introduction to Scratch

Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. Scratch is provided free of charge and is available in more than 40 languages.

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Extra: Excel Surveys on Skydrive [Data]

Microsoft  Office Web Apps, available to those with a SkyDrive account, enables you to create surveys to collect data online. This feature is similar to Google Forms.

To easily collect everyone’s info using Excel surveys in SkyDrive, log into your SkyDrive account and click “Create -> Excel survey”.

Name your survey and the survey designer opens in the Excel Web App. The survey designer lets you add questions, set the type of question (text, multiple choice, date, etc), and move them around. You can also show a default answer or set a question so that a response is required before submitting the survey.

When you're finished building your survey, click “Share Survey”. You will get a link that can be shared by email or otherwise.  Clicking on the link sends users directly to survey, they don’t have to sign in.

Creating a survey in the Excel Web App automatically generates a spreadsheet to store all of the results. Under the Insert tab, “Recommended Charts” will recommend useful visualizations of your data.

Watch a video: Using the Excel Survey Web App on SkyDrive

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The Rearview Mirror 5-25-2013

For those of you who may have missed an EDge21 featured post or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

Monday

Drag-and-drop resources to create a dynamic EdCanvas that will help you effectively teach your lesson while increasing student engagement.

Tuesday

RealtimeBoard is an online tool for creating and implementing real-time visual presentation and collaboration.

Wednesday

Padlet is an online application that teachers and students can use to easily express and share their thoughts on a common topic.

Thursday

Planboard helps teachers simplify lesson planning with features like calendar sharing, schedule printing, coordinating lessons with your school schedule, and tracking standards alignment.

Featured: 5-23-2013 Planboard [Tools]

Planboard helps teachers simplify lesson planning with features like calendar sharing, schedule printing, coordinating lessons with your school schedule, and tracking standards alignment.

By allowing you to integrate and track Common Core and other standards, Planboard can help you ensure your students have the knowledge and skills they need to be successful.

Easily align Planboard with your school and classroom schedule. Select the number of periods and which days of the week you will be teaching. Planboard also supports day rotation, from A/B days to alternating weeks, and more.

Planboard can save you time by removing some of the repetition from your lesson planning process. Create a template that follows your day rotation. Automatically replicate your plans from the previous year.

Collaboration with teachers anywhere helps you create the best lesson plans. You can also find publicly shared lesson plans by searching for keywords or the standard codes that they need to meet. 

 Watch the video: Introduction to Planboard

Planboard is completely free including all features and 500MB of storage. The Pro version of Planboard provides 3GB of storage and costs $29.95(USD) per year.

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Extra: Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad [Hardware]

Logitech has just introduced the first wired keyboard for iPad designed specially for the classroom.

Available with either 30-pin or Lightning connectors, simply plug the keyboard connector cable into your iPad and you are ready to type.

This keyboard is built to be durable and easy to maintain with a spill-resistant design and a key lifespan of more than 5 million strokes. It comes with a 3 year limited hardware warranty.

Full-size keys provide a precise and comfortable typing experience. Losing the on screen keyboard will free more space for creative work. Quickly access iPad and iOS functions such as copy and paste with integrated shortcut keys.

Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad is listed for $59.99(USD) on the Logitech website.

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Featured: 5-22-2013 Padlet [Tools]

Padlet is an online application that teachers and students can use to easily express and share their thoughts on a common topic.

Padlet (formerly known as Wallwisher) describes itself as a multimedia friendly, free-form, real-time wiki.

A Padlet 'wall' is basically the web page where people actually post content. It works like an online sheet of paper where people can post almost any content, such as images, videos, documents, and text, anywhere on the page, collaborating with anyone, from any device.

To post on Padlet, double-click anywhere on the wall, then you can:

• Write some text.
• Add a link (YouTube, Wikipedia, image).
• Add a file (document, spreadsheet, pdf).
• Insert a webcam snapshot.

You can also drag-and-drop files from your desktop directly onto the page and it will get uploaded and displayed immediately.

 Watch a video intro to Padlet

By default, Padlet walls are private. When you create a new wall, its URL is known only to you and not published publicly. If you share the address with others, the wall becomes semi-private as people who have the link can access it as well. There are options that allow more control, as well.

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Featured: 5-21-2013 RealtimeBoard [Tools]

RealtimeBoard is an online tool for creating and implementing real-time visual presentation and collaboration.

RealtimeBoard online whiteboards can enrich your lessons:

• Use whiteboards to dynamically draw your lessons.
• Discuss the tasks with students either in or out of the classroom.
• Access boards any time from everywhere.
• Make a rich presentation to share with your class.

Create a new board from a template or from scratch. You can upload your own images or use images from the RealtimeBoard library of vector images. Add videos to your boards by pasting YouTube or Vimeo links. Use the mark-up tools to draw, create text, and make sticky notes.

RealtimeBoard works with Google Drive, too. Drag-and-drop files from Google Drive onto your boards. With a Chrome extension, grab images from websites and web searches right to the RealtimeBoard library.

 Watch a video demo of RealtimeBoard

Share your RealtimeBoard public boards, or keep boards private. Invite colleagues to share boards. Set access rights: editors can make changes to your boards, viewers cannot.

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Featured: 5-20-2013 EdCanvas [Tools]

Drag-and-drop resources to create a dynamic EdCanvas that will help you effectively teach your lesson while increasing student engagement.

EdCanvases are useful for organizing, presenting, and sharing online resources with your students and colleagues.

If you are implementing a flipped classroom, EdCanvas makes it possible to easily gather and annotate online resources, including rich multimedia, into lessons using just one link. EdCanvas is also a handy tool for Web quests, project-based learning, and class presentations.

Mix assessment with your content. Quickly create a quiz on any empty canvas tile by clicking “Add Quiz". They are instantly and automatically graded, providing you with a detailed and easy-to-use report.

With an invitation from you, students can create canvases, too. Create a class for your students, then invite them by entering their email addresses. Your students will receive an invitation to sign up for Edcanvas. You will be able to see all the canvases they create.

 Watch the video: Edcanvas Basics

EdCanvas for Schools offers reports and data to improve learning, real-time collaboration for students and teachers, a parent portal, shared resources pool for teachers, Common Core-aligned content and canvases, unlimited file storage and uploads, and more.

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The Rearview Mirror 5-18-2013

For those of you who may have missed an EDge21 featured post or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

Monday

TheWorld Digital Library makes significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world available on the Internet, free and in multiple languages.

Tuesday

Curriculum Corner is a site where teachers can go to find current, relevant, meaningful, and ready-to-use lessons and activities that fit their classroom structure and meet Common Core standards.

Wednesday

CoachMyVideo Mobile is a coaching tool that is powerful, portable, and easy-to-use Coaches and teachers can provide clear, effective instruction with greater ease and efficiency.

Thursday

Kikutext allows teachers to easily and effectively communicate with all of their students' parents, with the goal of helping students learn better.

Featured: 5-16-2013 Kikutext [Tools]

 

Kikutext allows teachers to easily and effectively communicate with all of their students' parents, with the goal of helping students learn better.

Using the Kikutext system, teachers are able to send quick individualized status updates directly to parents' cell phones as a text message. Parents can respond to these updates by simply replying to the messages from their phones. It's fast, easy, and free.

Kikutext works like this: Teachers add their class and create a "class code" which is shared with parents; parents text message the "class code" to the provided Kikutext phone number to start receiving their student's status updates on their cell phones; teachers can now send out quick, individualized status updates to parents, and parents can reply to the messages to communicate with teachers. And, with flexible recipient selection, teachers can message a single parent, a group of parents, or all parents.

Kikutext Features:

• Two-Way Communication
• Full Conversation History
• Email-Style Inbox
• Safe, Private, Professional
• Versatile Messaging
• Message Templates
• Message Scheduling
• Simple Parent Enrollment

 Watch a slideshow about Kikutext

Teachers only see names of parents, their numbers are hidden. Parents can only see the Kikutext phone number. No personal contact information is disclosed to either party.

 See earlier posts about three similar tools

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Featured: 5-15-2013 Coach My Video [Physical Education]

 

 

 

CoachMyVideo Mobile is a coaching tool that is powerful, portable, and easy-to-use Coaches and teachers can provide clear, effective instruction with greater ease and efficiency.

Coach My Video Mobile is designed to take advantage of the technology of the latest Apple devices and operating systems.

Athletes can receive clear, understandable, visual guidance for improved skill development. Video analysis can promote helpful interactions by focusing on visual and objectively understandable information.

Key features of Coach My Video Mobile:

• Slow-motion, frame-by-frame video playback, with zoom.
• Forward, reverse, pause, and 3-second instant-replay.
• Access videos & images directly from your camera roll.
• Capture and save full-resolution still image from any video frame.
• Email your video clips.

Coach My Video was founded in 2009, with a team of athletes, coaches, and technology specialists to help coaches, athletes, trainers, and instructors take advantage of of next-generation mobile devices for easier video-instruction.

 Watch an example of how Coach My Video has been used.

Coach My Video Mobile is a free app available on the iTunes App Store. It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iOS 5.0 or later.

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Featured: 5-14-2013 Curriculum Corner [Elementary]

 

Curriculum Corner is a site where teachers can go to find current, relevant, meaningful, and ready-to-use lessons and activities that fit their classroom structure and meet Common Core standards.

The ambition of Curriculum Corner is to provide a convenient place where teachers can go to find what they need for planning and day-to-day instruction, integrating the national Common Core standards and the identification of best practice. Content is categorized as reading, math, writing, classroom management, seasonal, and science/social studies.

The focus of Curriculum Corner is the primary grades with an emphasis on first and second grade. The introduction of an intermediate grades site is planned for the summer of this year.

Indiana classroom teachers, Jill McEldowney and Cathy Henry, are the founders of Curriculum Corner.

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Featured: 5-13-2013 World Digital Library [Reference]

The World Digital Library makes significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world available on the Internet, free and in multiple languages.

From this single site, the World Digital Library makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy unique cultural items from all over the world, in a variety of ways. Here can be found such diverse items as manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.

Many languages are represented in the books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.

The principal objectives of the World Digital Library are to:

• Promote international and intercultural understanding.
• Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet.
• Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences.
• Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide.

One of the most useful features of the World Digital Library is the description of each item. Written by curators and other experts, this information provides vital context for users and is designed to spark the curiosity of students and the general public to learn more.

Browse the World Digital Library by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or search in several languages. Navigation tools and content descriptions are provided in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Special features include interactive geographic clusters, a timeline, and advanced image-viewing.

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