Featured 5-8-2014: Booktrack Classroom

 

 

Used in the teaching of English and Language Arts, Booktrack Classroom is a new, free technology that enables students to read stories and texts accompanied by a movie-style soundtrack.

 

Integrated with Common Core standards, the easy-to-use Booktrack Classroom technology can improve student reading and writing abilities. New York University and The University of Auckland have conducted studies which show that Booktrack increases reading comprehension scores and student engagement.

 

Booktrack can be used on both an individual basis as well as in group learning exercises. Here are some examples of ways it can be used:

• Narrative Writing – Students can add music and audio to their original stories.
• Informative and Explanatory Writing – Students write essays and articles selecting suitable audio to clarify their text.
• Literature Study – Students can gain insight and increased understanding of the text by creating their own soundtracks for novels, stories, and plays.
• Read-Alouds – Teacher and student led read-alouds are enhanced through the addition of sound and music to the chapter or act being presented.

Booktrack Classroom can foster digital literacy and creative thinking among students while developing multiple learning objectives. 

 

 

 View a short intro to Booktrack Classroom

 

Booktrack Classroom also hosts a library of free lesson plans for K-12 students, covering a variety of subjects and learning outcomes. All lesson plans have been created by professional teachers.

 

 There are free Booktrack mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices.

  

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Extra 4-11-2014: ReferenceMe

ReferenceME is a free mobile app that makes managing and organizing research simple.

 

Use the ReferenceME app to scan book or journal barcodes to create and manage references for your essay or research report. You can alternatively enter the ISBN, ISSN, DOI, or website URL into the ReferenceME search field and the reference will be created.

 

ReferenceME creates references in Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, MHRA, MLA, Oxford, APA, and Turabian formats. You can request custom styles at the online platform.

 

 

ReferenceME syncs with the ReferenceME web platform or you can save your references to Evernote to organise your research.

 

ReferenceME for iOS is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and requires iOS 7.0 or later. The Android app requires Android 4.0 and up.

 

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Featured: 7-11-2013 WISE

WISE (Wireless Interactive Scanning Examinations) is an iOS application that grades and stores multiple-choice quizzes, tests, and exams, on your device.

WISE puts a mass of information and processing technology into your hand. Originally, WISE was the idea of two colorado public high school teachers, it has been created and tested by teachers for teachers.

Teachers can print bubble sheets directly from the app straight to a supported printer and be ready to go. Use a pencil or blue/black ink. As long as the bubbles are filled in the WISE app can recognize it.

WISE is fast and accurate. Scan quizzes, tests, and exams of up to 100 questions with 99% accuracy in seconds. Results are automatically organized by course, class, and student.

Other key features of WISE:

• Immediate Feedback: Teachers can instantly grade assessments and provide feedback to students.
• Mobile: Grade at any time from any location. Keys and scores are securely stored on your mobile device to be accessed from anywhere.
• Data Analysis: Data is immediately analyzed through score reporting.

 View the WISE App Video

WISE is free to download and use for up to 100 scans. After that, it is available on a monthly subscription basis at $1.99 (USD) or $19.99 for a year of service.

WISE is compatible with iPhone 3GS or newer, iPod touch (3rd generation or newer), and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

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Featured: 6-25-2013 Voxy

Voxy is an English language learning system based on research in second language acquisition, mobile technology, and cognitive science.

Voxy delivers authentic content that actual native English speakers use in real-life activities, providing opportunity to practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening, with feedback from English-speaking tutors.

Technology-mediated learning offers personalized and individualized instruction to give learners access to content, just-in-time feedback, and progress updates to enhance the learning process.

Adult learners have opportunities to engage with genuine language content, practice using the target language to accomplish real-world tasks, and receive feedback on errors.

Distributed regular practice will help to sharpen the learner's skills and provide frequent opportunities to improve. Whether using a computer, tablet, or smartphone, learning and practice is always accessible.

 Watch a video overview of Voxy

Voxy guides learners through a sequence of lessons, tracking performance and adapting lessons accordingly. Voxy works for beginners to advanced learners.

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Featured: 4-30-2013 InfuseLearning [Student Response]

InfuseLearning provides a platform by which teachers can easily engage every student in real-time on almost any device.

Teachers can make informed decisions in the classroom with live, right now, student feedback using the InfuseLearning free virtual learner response system.

You can start using InfuseLearning right away with little to no training or installation. InfuseLearning has dedicated itself to developing powerful educational tools that are that are simple and easy to use.

Create many types of questions including True/False, Multiple choice, Open ended text, Numeric, Likert scale, even Drawn responses. Share questions with students using a unique room ID number.

Students anywhere can participate at the same time from any location through the Internet.

Watch: Infuse Learning Student Response System

The InfuseLearning Professional Learning Series offers on-site workshops and presentations, blended cohort sessions, technology infusion series, and keynotes and conference presentations.

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Featured: 4-15-2013 Presefy [Presenting]

Presefy is a just-out-of-beta web service which allows you to store and control your presentations anywhere you are. All your presentations are available and can be controlled via an Internet connection. 

You can broadcast and control your presentation using any web-capable mobile device. Presefy lets you use a smartphone or a tablet to stay in charge of the presentation, jump to any slide with ease, and more. Your audience can follow your presentation in their own browser, or a computer connected to a projector can serve to broadcast the presentation.

Store and share presentations securely in the Presefy cloud.  Presentations are ready to be presented anytime, anywhere. The basic plan limits you to having two presentations stored at any one time.

At the moment Presefy supports PPT, PPTx, and PDF. Presefy is designed with HTML5 so it is compatible with all platforms without any setup. There is nothing to download or install.

 Watch the video: Presefy - Go Mobile with your Presentations

The basic version of Presefy is free.  A Pro plan that will allow the storage of up to 20 presentations and other additional features is under development. 

Recently I posted here about a similar service, ElectricSlide, which is iOS app-based, whereas Presefy is browser-based and platform independent.

Note: I my trials of Presefy, I found that slides are presented in their entirety without support for builds and transitions. Also, there seemed to be an issue with images being cropped.

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Stuff I Like: Forecast

Forecast is a new global, full-featured weather service that includes 7-day forecasts that cover the whole world, beautiful weather visualizations, and a time machine for exploring the weather in the past and far future.

The smooth radar animations in Forecast allow you to scrub up to a week into the future to see how storm systems will develop and evolve world-wide. Dragging the pin around explores different locations on the map.

Get up-to-the-minute forecasts that can predict rain or snow down to the minute at any location where Forecast can access radar coverage (currently the United States, the UK, Ireland, parts of Canada, and Puerto Rico). hourly and daily forecasts cover the entire globe.

Hour-by-hour observations gathered from tens of thousands of ground stations world-wide, sometimes going back a hundred years, power a sort of “time machine” that lets you explore the past weather at any given location. This data has also been used to develop statistical forecasts for any day in the future.

Forecast tries to bridge the gap between too much and too little information by keeping the interface as simple as possible, but also providing links to additional detailed information.

Watch a video: CNET How To -- Forecast.io is a beautiful weather app for any Web device

You can access Forecast from all of your devices, your desktop/laptop, iPhone, Android phone, or tablet. There’s a mobile web version for your phone or tablet. It’s completely free.

 

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Featured: 3/27/2013 Easygenerator [eCourse Authoring]

Online eLearning course authoring with easygenerator allows designing flexible courses that meet learners' needs by facilitating the development process.

Workflow assignments, course development version control, content reuse, and the ability to reformat eLearning for mobile delivery are some of the features of easygenerator's SaaS eLearning authoring tool.

eLearning authoring with easygenerator starts with a design process that includes:

1. Determination of the learning objectives.

2. Planning how to assess learner comprehension.

3. Identifying content needed so the learner can meet objectives.

Easygenerator supports collaboration between instructional designers, developers, and subject matter experts through its workflow and role assignment system. Because of its approach in using learning objectives, easygenerator can help you create better, more effective eLearning courses.

Watch a video demo of easygenerator

Elearning authoring with easygenerator is available through a free option or a subscription option. The free authoring software has all the functionality you need to create adaptive eLearning courses, that you can publish on the web, in any LMS, and on mobile devices.

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COD - 10/18/2012 - Superflashcard [Flashcards]

Superflashcard is a web app to create, study, and review flashcards using the theory of spaced repetition for long-term memory management.

 

 

The Superflashcard memory management system utilizes repetition with an optimal interval to help you avoid forgetting what you've learned and retain information faster and longer.

 

Create flashcards for what you want to memorize. Review your flashcards anywhere using a Superflashcard mobile app with an optimal schedule based on your own "forgetting" curve.

 

The community database enables you to discover new flashcards created by other Superflashcard users. Share your flashcards with others as well.

 

 

Superflashcard is available at Android Market, Apple Store, and Amazon App Store. Apps for Windows phones and Blackberry phones are being developed.

 

A basic Superflashcard account is free and allows an unlimited number of flashcards, spaced repetition, import/export, and printing. The premium account (free for educators) adds more image capacity and personalization.

 

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COD - 4/17/2012 - Crescerance [Services]

Crescerance provides a customized mobile application built specifically for your school and provides an easy-to-use portal to manage your mobile application.

The app created by Crescerance for your school will work on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry phones. Crescerance promises to provide frequent updates and new features to enhance the quality and usefulness of your school's application.

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COD - 3/14/2012 - ClassPager [Tools]

Use ClassPager to instantly message every student's phone and to run real-time classroom polls.

Add your class name to the ClassPager system. A free ClassPager code for your classroom is generated. Share this unique code with students and parents. Anyone who texts ClassPager with this unique code will be "enrolled" in the class.

Any messages that you send from ClassPager will go to everyone who has enrolled. Replies can start an individual conversation. As a teacher, you only see the name and never the phone number.

Some things you can do with ClassPager:

• Broadcast updates to parents and students.
• Engage any student on any device both in and out of school.
• Ask and answer questions, individually or with groups of students.
• Assess everyone's understanding.
• Incorporate modern technology in your teaching safely and easily.

A free ClassPager account allows unlimited texting with up to 25 students in one class. Paid accounts that allow more classrooms and more students start at $10 (US) per month.

ClassPager protects everyone's phone numbers while you manage everything from the web. Students will never see your phone number.

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COD - 2/28/2012 - Mentimeter [Tools]

Mentimeter is a free tool that helps you interact with your students by providing a web-based tool that enables you to create questions, collect answers, and show the result in real time.

To use Mentimeter, go to the site's start page, type your question, and click a button. Your question is created. Add the possible reposes and pick a theme. Instruct  your audience to vote using their cell phones and a Vote ID you provide them.

Present the result which is automatically updated when new votes are received. You may hide the results when the class is voting. If you want to control the time when the vote is open, you can turn the question off at any point.

There is no limit to the number of questions you can create. Mentimeter saves your questions forever. To ensure access to your question you should copy and save the URL.  Future plans include making it possible to save questions with an account.

Mentimeter can be a low cost alternative to expensive classroom response systems and clicker keypads.

Mentimeter's goal is "to make presentations more interactive, engaging and fun."

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COD - 2/27/2012 - Piazza [Community]

 

Piazza, which means plaza in Italian, is a virtual public square online where students can come together to ask and answer questions and explore under the guidance of their instructors.

Piazza makes it possible for instructors to easily answer questions, edit content, and track student participation.

With Piazza, manage out-of-class student questions and answers. Students can post questions on the class dashboard. Then, in the manner of a wiki, students can collaboratively answer the questions subject to instructor moderation and editing. Students can also post private questions that can only be seen by the class instructor.

Instructors retain full ownership and rights to anything they submit or post. Piazza is FERPA-compliant and protects the privacy of students.

Piazza can be used anywhere with free iOS and Android apps available.

You can use Piazza free with no commitment needed and nothing to install.

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COD - 2/9/2012 - Remind101 [Communication]

Remind101 provides a free, safe way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents.

Instantly send a message to every student or parent in an entire class. They will receive it by text or email. Remind101 even lets you schedule a message to be automatically sent at some future time.

Features of Remind101:

• You can instantly message a class of students or their parents from your computer.
• You never see students' phone numbers. They never see yours.
• Students and parents enroll by sending a text message from their phone or by email.
• Your history keeps a record of when and to whom messages were sent.
• You can manage up to 10 classes.

Learn more about how Remind101 works in this video

Several similar services have been the subjects of previous posts. See them here.

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