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jueves, 30 de abril de 2015

Kidblog Released A New Publishing Platform for K-12 Students

April 30, 2015
Kidblog, the popular publishing platform for K-12 students, has released today a ‘ newly redesigned student publishing platform” with some advanced features that enable students to share their voice with an authentic audience’. According to their press release, the new platform is based on three principles:


1) Safe and Simple
 Kidblog is elegantly simple and relevant for today’s digital learner, yet powerful enough to transform the writing experience for students of all ages. Flexible privacy settings meet the security demands of teachers, parents, and schools.

2) Student-Centered 
 Kidblog is designed to help students find their voice. Each author’s creation is unique, with its own purpose, tone, and audience.

3) Authentic Audience 
 Writing is meant to be read. Kidblog makes it easy for students to share posts with their teacher, their classmates, connected classes, and the world.

Here is a 3-minute video tour of the new platform


Why Educators Have to Blog

April 30, 2015
Educators are quick to tell students about the benefits of blogging, but slow to embrace them personally. Part of this is simply the immense work load educators take on these days but part of it is also the rut in which many educators find themselves in regards to approaching their work – and their students. Many educators understand that blogging can help nurture relationships with fellow education professionals and reach out to students academically but too many think the benefits stop there.


Blogging – Why It Matters to Educators?
Educators have always come together to exchange ideas, learn about new approaches in education and, of course, to simply vent their frustrations.  While this has traditionally been done through user groups, informal social networks and both online and print journals, blogging has added a new element as well as new responsibilities. 

First, blogging forces educators to return to their roots by organizing their thoughts in order to write and post their opinions, observations and findings.  Returning to the basics this way helps professionals organize their thoughts more effectively and puts them in a better position to help students who struggle with some of the same issues.  An educator who blogs regularly can help students more effectively when it comes to organizing their essay structure, finding reliable resources and simply making the time to sit down and write. 

Blogging has become the best and most effective way to share and discuss new approaches in education and how to meet the challenges of the 21st Century classroom.  For some students that means finding the ways to draw their attention back to education (and away from Angry Birds) while for others it means finding ways to integrate personal electronics, social media and memes into their curriculum.

Reaching Out to Students 
Students today are much more relaxed, confident and at home when sitting behind a keyboard.  The same student who never says a word in class can prove to be the voice of a generation once they get home and are settled in behind their laptop, keyboard or tablet.  Involving students in blogging not only encourages them to open up and respond to posts, it also gives them more insight into your own methods and the  world of education in general.  

Students who have a clearer idea of why teachers do the things they do are more likely 
to have mature and motivated attitude to the education. They get the opportunity to see the things from an entirely different perspective and helps them to understand why education is important for their skills development and future opportunities. Teachers thus turn from 'enemies' and 'punishers' into mature friends, advisors, people who have experience and can be referred to with questions. 

Finally, it reinforces the idea that education isn’t just a phase in someone’s life – it’s a lifelong journey. Once they see that educators and professionals from every industry turn to blogging in order to connect with each other and encourage innovation, they’ll see the skills you’re trying so hard to teach them really do have a place outside your classroom.

Best Practices of Education Blogging
Of course, finding the right blog is all about knowing your audience and so teachers wrangling little kids will have different needs from those trying to help university students.  But no matter where you fall on the academic spectrum, there’s a blog for you. 

With cute colors and bubbly graphics, it’s clear the Chalk Talk team is dedicated to their smaller students. But don’t let their cutie-pie approach throw you off – these teachers are serious about education and the content drives that home. Recent posts have focused on heavy topics like phonological awareness and how to encourage writing skills in preschool children.  

Essay Universe 
 a site on academic writing created by college university instructor Tracy Collins. The author aims to provide students with tips, hints and guides to help them hone their writing skills and fall in love with writing process. She researches different methods of teaching writing and plans to share them with her colleagues and students in interactive way. 

Elementary age students need the right foundation in order to excel as they get older and blogs such as 4 the Love of Teaching combine observation with research to tell other educators about new classroom techniques, age appropriate books and even products and tricks teachers can use to stretch their supplies and budget without going broke … or insane.

As kids approach middle school the challenges can increase with attention grabbing devices adding to the traditional mix of after-school activities and surging hormones making it difficult for kids to focus in class.  The 2 Peas and a Dog blog focuses on this crucial age to help educators find ways to cut through the noise and distractions and reach students.  It also offers a pretty comprehensive listing of related blogs for students from kindergarten through high school.

 Blogger Krystal Mills offers up plenty of help when it comes to technology and education.  While her focus is on middle school students, the issues she raises can easily translate to lower high school students, particularly freshman who often feel as though they have one foot in middle school and the other in high school.

If ever there was an academic phase that embraces insanity, it’s high school.  he students are more diverse and so are is the pressure on teachers.  Education is a central topic on this blog but the focus is also on arming students with skills they’ll need throughout their academic career and checking out new technologies that can help students and educators alike.

Run as a part of the Inside Higher Ed website, the University of Venus encompasses a wealth of ideas and theories when it comes to education.  It’s the perfect blog for teachers who want to expand their own techniques and find ways to deal with the politics of education within their curriculum.  It offers practical advice such as dealing with student assessments as well as serious issues that affect educators directly such as the recent adjunct crisis.

 The Thinking Stick offers a bit of everything and appeals to educators at every level.  If you’re teaching little kids, posts on clever ways to use Google Maps in the classroom can turn a simple geography lesson into something more engaging.  Teachers educating older students will find plenty of help with reading strategies in the digital age.  

Writer Lisa Nielsen covers everything from how to incorporate social media in the classroom to how best to set up a classroom in order to help students pay attention and learn more effectively.  Her approach is simple and clear-cut making her blog easy to read, search and put into practice. 

Following the best practice of educational blogging will help any teacher built stronger relations with their students and fellow educators and make valuable input into education development. Who knows – maybe soon we won't use any textbooks and blogging will be the only source of relevant information.

Author's Bio

Tracy Collins is a college writing instructor, the author of site on education and academic essay writing EssayUniverse.org


miércoles, 29 de abril de 2015

Experiential Learning Visually Explained for Teachers

April 29, 2015
Experiential learning was the first form of learning through which our ancient ancestors discovered and made sense of the wild world around them. The antiquity of the concept is captured eloquently in several ancient adages. Confucius once said ”tell me and I forget; show me and I may remember, and involve me and I will understand”. Similarly, the revered Greek philosopher Aristotle was quoted saying “for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them”.

The premise underlying experiential learning is that of learning by doing. One of the popular 20th century educationists who wrote prolifically on this concept is John Dewey. In both " Democracy and Education" and  "Experience and Education", Dewey mapped out the major precepts underlying experiential learning. He particularly focused on engaging students in what he called ‘educative experiences’. These are experiences through which students get to connect their past learning with their present situation to speculate scenarios  for future learning situations. According to Dewey, students learn best through hands-on activities and through direct engagement with the learning experience at hand.

Building on Dewey’s work , David Kolb conceptualized an experiential learning theory composed of four cyclical stages: activity and practice, review and reflections, theories and concepts, applications and case studies. Reality Works has this wonderful free visual with more insights on Kolb’s theory together with some interesting nuggets on what experiential learning is all about.

Check it out the full graphic from this page. Enjoy


3 Powerful Chrome Apps for Creating 3D Models

April 29, 2015
Here are three good Chrome apps for creating 3D models. The apps are easy to work on and students will definitely enjoy them. Some of the things they can do with these tools include: build models in pre-made shapes and templates, share and print 3D files, discover 3D models online, collaborate with others to create 3D sketches and many more. Each of these apps is accompanied by a video tutorial explaining how the app works.


1- 3DTin
3DTn is a 3D Modeller that allows you to design models by placing cubes of different colours on top of each other.You can create shapes from standard templates and save them in the cloud. You can also export the sketches in standard 3D file formats.Watch the video below to learn more about 3DTin


2- Design Something
This is an app that runs on both Chrome and Firefox and allows users to easily design 3D models using pre-defined shapes. For advanced users, the app provides a wide range of advanced modelling tools like extrude and sweep. Design Something can be accessed offline and supports direct sharing to the cloud . Watch the video below to learn more about Design Something.



3- 3DView
3DView allows viewing, quality inspection, measuring, fixing and sharing 3D files, working alone or with a remote team. It is great for checking models for 3D printing or discussing a project with a 3D modeling/printing vendor. Watch the video below to learn more about 3DView.


martes, 28 de abril de 2015

Top 4 Android Apps for Learning Vocabulary

April 29, 2015
Upon the request of several readers of our blog, we have done some sifting through the Android app store and curated the selection below. These are some of the most popular apps that you can use to teach your students and kids English vocabulary. Our selection is based on a variety of rating criteria such as number of installs, user reviews and content rating of the apps. We hope you find the titles below helpful and if you have other suggestions to add to the list, please share with us. Enjoy

1- Vocabulary Builder

This is a powerful vocabulary game that helps learners builder their vocabulary. The app enables users to quiz themselves everyday to learn over 1200 words picked by expert tutors. Words include definitions and are illustrated in sentences. There are also different levels of difficulty (e.g. advanced, intermediate, and advanced). Learners can also track their progress as they study.

2- PowerVocab Word Game


This mobile word game is a handy dictionary of challenging words. It also has a multiplayer mode where you play with other live user - have fun with social gaming for playing words with friends type of games! PowerVocab is specifically helpful for students of SAT, GRE, GMAT, and ASVAB, who are looking to substantially enhance their vocabulary into top tier. The key app features are Learn words, Challenge quiz, and Search words which is like a handy dictionary. The words contain detailed definitions, multiple example sentences, and phonetic pronunciation of words.

3- Johnny Grammar Word Challenge


Beat the clock and answer as many spelling, vocabulary and grammar questions as you can in this 60-second quiz! Johnny Grammar’s Word Challenge is a quiz for English learners to test common vocabulary, spelling and grammar that appears in everyday English.

4- uVocab- Vocabulary Builder


vVocab is the ultimate English vocabulary learning tool to prepare for competitive exams like SAT/GRE/GMAT or simply enhance your words repertoire. It puts a comprehensive set tools for vocubulary learning & training right at your finger-tips. With an intuitive & unified interface to explore & discover words, evaluate & monitor your vocabulary knowledge and review your learnings

Creating A Beautiful Classroom Infographic in A Matter of Minutes

April 28, 2015
Piktochart is one of our favourite web tools for creating posters and infographics. We have reviewed it here in EdTech and mLearning in several posts in the past.And since then, Piktochart has added some really cool features and functionalities that make it super easy for users to easily design and share visually appealing infographics.


The video we have for you today will walk you through the process of creating a beautiful infographic in less than two minutes.  You can also check this page for a selection of video tutorials on how to use the different features provided by Piktochart.

We are also sharing with you this excellent video from Secondary Solutions to show you how to use Piktochart in the classroom.


Other interesting web tools for creating educational infographics we recommend include: Easel.ly, Canva, and  Google Draw.

A Beautiful Visual On The Impact of Technology on Today's Classrooms

April 28, 2015
We just came across this beautiful visual on the impact of technology on classroom learning and teaching and wanted to pass along some important stats that stood out to us. Technology is radically transforming the education landscape and the stats below speak volumes to this transformation:


In a 2009 report released by the National Centre for Education  Statistics with the Department of Education:74% of Pre-K to 12th grade teachers said that technology has helped them reinforce and expand content and has also motivated students to learn. 73% of these teachers also reported that technology enables them to respond to a variety of learning styles and allows them to demonstrate things that could not demonstrated otherwise.

Impact of technology on student writing:
A larger majority of teachers attest to the positive influence of web technologies on students writing. For instance, 96% view that technology helped students share their work with a wider and more varied audience. Another 79% agree that digital technologies encourage wider collaboration among students and boost student creativity and personal expression.

Impact of technology on homework
Technology has also transformed the way students do their homework. For instance, 31% of students report using  a tablet to do their homework, another category that amounts to 65% say they use laptops for homework while 39% of 11 to 14  years olds use smartphones for homework.

Read on to learn more about how technology impacts education in areas such as flipped classroom, mobile learning and many more. Enjoy

productivity tips
Via University of Cincinnati
Courtesy of eLearning Infographics

An Excellent Google Drive Tool for Creating Interactive Presentations

April 28, 2015
Pear Deck is a nice app that allows you to plan and build interactive presentation decks directly from your Google Drive. One distinctive feature of Pear Deck is that it includes some amazing formative assessment tools that allows you to engage the entire class with a series of questions on the content of the presentation.


When you present through Pear Deck you are actually creating a live session that students can join from their own devices. As a teacher, you have full control of the flow of the presentation and using your tablet you can even easily move in the class while  going through the slides in your projector screen.Pear Deck has a variety of unique interactive features (e.g. draggable, drawing, text or number, multiple choice…etc) that enable students to actively participate in your presentation and respond to your questions. Students responses can be shared in realtime and  anonymously on classroom projector or interactive whiteboard.

Watch the video below to learn more about Pear Deck


lunes, 27 de abril de 2015

Great Tips on How to Effectively Search Gmail and Google Drive

April 28, 2015
In this wonderful video Google engineers Liu and Merrified share some interesting tips and insights on how to effectively search your Gmail and  Drive.The purpose is to enable you to tap into some hidden gems that will allow you to search for what you need in Gmail or Drive quickly and accurately.

All of the search tips Liu and Merrified talked about in this tutorial include search and Boolean operators. This document from Gmail Help features some of the most useful operators to use when conducting internal searches in your Gmail. You should definitely bookmark and keep it for reference.


Some of the tips we particularly like include:

1- has:attachment
This allows you to search for emails with an attachment example: Example: from:david has:attachment
Meaning: Messages from David that have an attachment.

2- After:/ Before:/ older:/ newer:
You can use these words to filter your search to include only messages that were sent or received during a particular period of time.
 Example: after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18
Meaning: Messages sent between April 16, 2004 and April 18, 2004.*

3- Use of Boolean operator OR
“ For example, to look for messages from username@gmail.com and messages that contain the subject line 'Meeting reminder', you can enter 'username@gmail.com OR meeting reminder' in your Gmail search box.”

Watch the video below to learn more about how to effectively search your Gmail and Drive. Enjoy


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200 Free Educational Documentaries for Teachers

April 28, 2015
Looking for some interesting free documentaries to use in your class or probably use for your own professional and intellectual growth? This list from Open Culture has you covered. It features around 200 free documentaries spanning a wide range of topics from history to arts and science. All of these documentaries are provided with a short description about their content together with a link to the page  where you can watch them and read more about the contextual information surrounding the topic they cover. It will take you awhile to sift through the entire list but we are pretty sure you will come out with some good documentaries to share with your class.


Here are some examples of documentaries that stood out to us from the list. Check out the full list from this page.

1- Einstein’s Brain – Free – A strange documentary that follows Japanese scholar Kenji Sugimoto’s quest to find Einstein’s brain. (1994)

2- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Man Of Peace In A Time Of War - Free – Documentary examining the life of MLK Jr. includes rarely seen footage.

3- The Distortion of Sound – Free – A documentary about the decline of sound quality and how technology has changed the way we listen to music. Features numerous musicians. (2014)

4- The Mystery of Picasso – Free – Pablo Picasso’s art emerges in front of our eyes in this remarkable film by the French master of suspense, Henri-Georges Clouzot. (1956)

5- The Story of the Guitar – Free – A three part documentary reveals how the guitar came to “dominate the soundtrack of our lives.” (2008)

6- What is Reality? – Free – Physicists give us a taste of reality in a world where nothing is as it appears. (2011)

7- Why We Fight – Free – A seven part series of WWII propaganda films directed by Frank Capra. (1943)

You can also check this page from Wikipedia where you can find more documentary films about education.
Image source: http://goo.gl/uSnhd

Tons of Free Online Philosophy Courses from Leading Universities

April 28, 2015
In today’s post we are sharing with you a terrific resource we uncovered through Open Culture.  This is especially useful for philosophy teachers and students but is also ideal for anyone interested in learning more about the ‘mother of all sciences”: philosophy. Open Culture has this extensive list of free courses provided by a wide variety of leading universities and covering everything related to philosophical thought from philosophy of mind to Kant’s epistemology. The courses come in different downloadable formats that includes: video, audio and iTunes audio. You can browse through the selection and download the courses you are interested in and watch or listen to them at the comforts of your own couch.


Below are 10 of our favourite courses from the list. Check out the full list from this page.

1- Critical Reasoning for Beginners - Free iTunes VideoFree iTunes AudioFree Online VideoFree Online Audio + VideoMarianne Talbot, Oxford

2- Darwin and the Evolution of Thought – Free iTunes iOS Course – Clarence Mark Philips, University of New Orleans

3- Hegel: The Philosophy of History – Free Online AudioLeo Strauss, U Chicago

4- Heidegger: Being and Time - RSS FeedWeb SiteSean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard

5- Introduction to Philosophy – Free iTunes iOS Course – Mark Clarence Philips, U. of New Orleans

6- Kant’s Critique of Judgment – Free Online Audio- JM Bernstein, New School

7- Philosophical Problems – Free iTunes Audio – Jack Reynolds – La Trobe University – Australia

8- Philosophy of Mind - Free iTunes AudioFree Online AudioJohn Searle, UC Berkeley

9- Philosophy of Religion – Free iTunes iOS Course – Clarence Mark Philips, U. of New Orleans

10- The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps - Free Course in Multiple FormatsPeter Adamson, King’s College London.

domingo, 26 de abril de 2015

Two Great Apps for Creating Educational Screencasts on Chrome

April 27, 2015
Following the post we shared a few days ago featuring some powerful Chrome apps for taking screenshots, today we are sharing with you two great tools you can use on your Chrome to record screencasts.These web based apps will provide you with an easy way to create educational tutorials and step by step  guides to share with your students.

1-  Screencastify
"Screencastify is a simple video screen capture software (aka. screencast recorder) for Chrome. It is able to record all screen activity inside a tab, including audio. Just press record and the content of your tab is recorded. So you can easily create a screencast for video tutorials, record presentations etc. It also supports desktop capturing, allowing you to record anything on your screen (not just tabs). Videos are recorded as webm/vp8 files with ogg vorbis audio and can be saved to disk or uploaded to Youtube or Google Drive with a single click. "

Watch this video to learn more about Screencastify



2- TechSmith Snagit
"With TechSmith Snagit for Google Chrome™ you can take screenshots or screen recordings of anything on your screen including your browser, desktop, and applications you have running. TechSmith Snagit for Google Chrome™ will share your screen, so you can share your ideas and insights with anyone you’d like."

Watch this video to learn more about TechSmith Snagit



Two Simple Ways to Create A Table of Content in Google Docs

April, 2015
There are actually two ways to add a table of contents to a document in Google Docs. Both of these ways require that you create headings and subheadings in your document. The first way is through using Google Docs' built-in feature which can be accessed by clicking on "insert" button then select "table of contents". Watch this excellent tutorial from Shannon Hermandez to learn more about how to create a table of content using Google Docs built-in functionality.


The second way is through using a third party add-on called 'Table of Contents'. This  is a powerful Google Docs add-on that allows you to easily create a table of content in the sidebar. The great thing about this feature besides providing readers with a quick overview of the main points covered in your document is that it makes it easier for them to instantly jump to any section in the document by simply clicking on any of the headings  listed in the table of contents.


More importantly, the table of contents is automatically created out of the headings in your document. And when you add another heading you simply hit the refresh button and it will be automatically added to the table of contents. However, be forewarned that in some cases where you have several headings or your document is really very long, the functionality of table of contents can be very slow.

sábado, 25 de abril de 2015

A Good Inventory To Identify Students Learning Styles

April 26, 2015
There is a lot of debate among scholars regarding the validity of the multiple learning style's  theory, for while one camp refute it on grounds of being non-scientific and lacks in scientific data to back it up , another camp views it as a rigorous conceptual framework  that helps in understanding how students learn. And if we avoid  dichotomous or dualist thinking, we would say that as a conceptual construct, the theory of multiple learning styles does definitely have an added value to the pedagogical discussions surrounding  learning strategies and instructional modes. The overarching premise here is that different learners use different modes to analyze and process input.  While some learners find it easier to comprehend and retain information visually coded, others learn best through verbalization and other auditory means.


If you want to better understand which learning style that would best characterize your learning, educator Brett Bixler has this excellent resource called 'learning styles inventory' composed of a number of questions whose answers will help categorize you within a given learning style. As Brett stated, this inventory has not been validated by any scientific studies and its main goal is to help you "think about yourself and to consider different learning alternatives {and} not to rigidly classify you". Here is how this inventory  works. For each of the 24 questions listed, you will have to click on one of the three buttons (seldom, sometimes, often) that best represent your  answer . When you are done answering all the 24 questions, click on “determine style” to see the learning style suggested for you. Give it a try and let us know what you think of it.

A Beautiful Graphic On Bad Digital Habits

April 26, 2015
In the midst of this digital hype and the ubiquity of technology, one should pause for an instant and reflect deeply on the implications of being constantly connected. More specifically, the implications of connectivity on our social, cultural, intellectual and emotional well-being. Important as it is but the question here is not about how much time we spend interacting with  technology but rather how are we using it and to what benefits? Asking questions such as these is supposed to trigger your critical awareness regarding the different ways you use your time and consequently enable you to make the best of your time.


In the process of our interaction with technology, we get to develop a set of habits that we keep doing almost every day (e.g checking emails, social media websites…etc); however some of these habits get so grounded in our daily practice that they become addictive.This is especially the case with those who spend tremendous amount of time playing online games or those who are obsessed with sharing with others on social media every bit of their lived experiences. The visual below from StudyWeb features some examples of bad digital habits created by Internet. Apart from number 5 which we think does not apply to us as educators and teachers, all of the other habits are really worth some serious meditation. We invite you to check them out and, as always, share with us what you think of them. Enjoy

productivity tips
Courtesy of Make Use Of.

viernes, 24 de abril de 2015

Some Good EdTech Tools to Use in Class

April 24, 2015
Sometimes the right tool can help augment your classroom or make a tedious chore a little bit easier. Here are some utilities that teachers have been talking about. Perhaps one of these may reduce some hassle from your day too.


1- Sway 
 A new online presentation creator from Microsoft that is getting attention from the education community.

2- appear.in 
Create video chats with colleagues and students easily, no account needed.

3- LearnCube 
 Set up virtual classrooms to teach languages online.
Helps nursery schools keep parents up-to-date on the progress of their children.

5- Permission Click 
Digital permission slips, payment, and data collection for K-12 schools (and daycares too!) 30 day free trial!

Want more? Check out these collections of tools .

Apps For the Classroom -
This is curated by educator Charissa Hoff.
This one is curated by educator Taylor Hansen.

Some Very Good Tutorials to Help Students Develop Online Search Skills

April 24, 2015
The key to unlocking the educational potential of the virtual world is through knowing how to effectively search it with the minimum time and efforts possible. Effective search in this sense refers to the ability to locate targeted information online using ‘informed search queries’. It does take time and practice to develop such an ability but it is worth every single second you spend learning it. Once you learn the skill, you will save so much time that would  be have been wasted tracing those search queries that render six figure number of responses.


We have been sharing several tutorials, tips, and graphics on how to help students develop effective search strategies which you can access from this page. Today we are adding another excellent resource from USC Beaufort Library. This is basically a tutorial made up of 20 well crafted lessons all geared towards helping learners build effective web search skills. The lessons are very short and feature only the basic things learners need to get started in the right direction. We have been browsing this collection of lessons and we found them a real treasure trove that teachers should definitely access and share with their students. Here is a round-up of the lessons covered by USCB Library’s Bare Bones Tutorial:

  • Lesson 1: Search Engines: a Definition
  • Lesson 2: Metasearchers: a Definition
  • Lesson 3: Subject Directories: a Definition
  • Lesson 4: Library Gateways and Specialized Databases: a Definition
  • Lesson 5: Evaluating Web Pages
  • Lesson 6: Creating a Search Strategy
  • Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips
  • Lesson 8: Searching with Boolean Logic and Proximity Operators
  • Lesson 9: Field Searching
  • Lesson 10: Troubleshooting
  • Lesson 11: Ask Search Engine: A Closer Look
  • Lesson 12: Clusty Search Engine: A Closer Look
  • Lesson 13: Dogpile Metasearcher: A Closer Look
  • Lesson 14: Gigablast Metasearcher: A Closer Look
  • Lesson 15: Google Search Engine: A Closer Look
  • Lesson 16: MSN Directory / Search Engine: A Closer Look
  • Lesson 17: Yahoo! Directory / Search Engine: A Closer Look
  • Lesson 18: Graveyard for Dead Search Engines
  • Lesson 19: Final Exam
  • Lesson 20: Beyond "Bare Bones" 

The Best 4 Chrome Apps for Taking Screenshots

April 24, 2015
When it comes to screenshot apps, the Chrome app store is teeming with all kinds of apps but only few do the job quite perfectly. We have been experimenting with a wide variety of these apps and ended up with the short list below. These are the apps we trust the most for doing the job they claim to do. Using these tools, you will be able to easily capture all or part of any web page, add annotations to your screen captures that include shapes, text, comments, blur sensitive parts, and many more. Some of these apps are also integrated with Google Drive. Enjoy

1- Lightshot

This is by far our favourite and the one we use the most for taking screenshots. Lightship lets you grab quick  screenshots of any page and share it with others. Besides  being able to edit your screenshots, you can also save them to your local disk or upload them to the cloud to access them anywhere.

2-Awesome Screenshot


This is another powerful Chrome app with over 2 million users. Since awhile ago, Awesome Screenshot made all of it premium features free for everyone. Some of the things you can do with this app include:capture screenshots of any web page, annotate images with rectangles, circles,arrows, lines and text, blur selected spots on a page or image. Awesome screenshot is integrated with Google Drive meaning you can easily save your screenshots to your Drive.

3- Fireshot


FireShot captures screenshots of Chrome web pages. You can edit and annotate your screenshots. The screenshots are instant and produce no traffic. No 3rd party websites and logins required!

4- TechSmith Snagit


"The Snagit for Google Chrome™ Application lets you take screencasts and screenshots, then edit, share, and collaborate around your screen captures. Plus, use the Snagit for Google Chrome™ library to view and manage your recordings and screen grabs anywhere."

jueves, 23 de abril de 2015

5 Ways to Build A Compelling Story Using Data

April 24, 2015
This is the second resource we uncovered through Visage. Yesterday we shared with you their excellent post on the 11 tips for creating beautiful presentation slides and today we are introducing you to this equally important resource on how to tell a story with data. The process consists of five major steps. It starts with the identification of your overarching question and ends up with adding well designed visuals to illustrate your data.


Crafting a compelling story is no easy thing especially when you have to deal with so much data that is at your disposal. Sourcing the data, selecting the best out of it, creating a narrative out it, and then searching for visuals that can enhance readers understanding of your story are all elements that you should carefully attend to in order to ace your story.

This beautiful visual from Visage sums up the 5 steps to creating a powerful and compelling story using data. Check it out from this page. Enjoy

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Some Very Good Tips for Designing Beautiful Presentation Slides

April 23, 2015
Visage is a web platform that helps users create beautiful visual representations of their content. The website is still under beta request access. However, the site has recently published some interesting resources   that we want to bring to your attention. The first resource is an article titled "11 design tips for beautiful presentations”. In this post, Katy shares some very simple yet powerful tips that we can use to create visually appealing slideshows and presentations.

Image source: http://goo.gl/ZDTChB
As a teacher, you can share these tips with students and show them how they can create well-designed presentation slides using some very simple strategies that include , for instance:Avoid using built-in slide themes, avoid packing slides with too much textual output, forget about bullet points and build your slides in such a way that they tell a story, be judicious with the use of colours and fonts, use evocative pictures   and many more. Check out the full article to lear more about other tips together with more illustrations on each of them. Enjoy

Courtesy of TechChef4U through whom we learned about this resource.

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Two Key Advantages of A Flipped Classroom

April 23, 2015
Flipped classroom is a learning and teaching trend that is gaining  so much in popularity due mainly to the raise of web technologies and the proliferation of web 2.0 tools that facilitate communication and collaboration on a larger scale. And while some teachers have already started experimenting with the new concept, others are still skeptical and wary about whether to make the move or not. For those of you who are still not sure about the potential of flipped learning and what benefits it has over traditional instruction, this page packed full of resources on flipped learning is a definitely a good place to start with.

Image source: User-generated Education

We are also sharing with you this wonderful video from Jon and Aaron showcasing some of the key advantages of integrating a flipped instructional paradigm in your teaching. We have summarized these advantages in the points below. For more details about these points we highly recommend reading this interesting post by Jon Bergmann titled” Flipped Learning Toolkit: 5 Steps for Formative Assessment”.

The two key advantages of a flipped classroom are:

1- More time for formative assessment
In a flipped classroom where instruction is done outside of the classroom through videos and tutorials, teachers get to have more in-class time to work  directly with students and assess them formatively so they know where they are at with their learning and help them achieve more. More formative assessment with students means more important feedback and insights on how the overall instructional process is performing. Such feedback is also a goldmine of data to inform teachers lesson planning and enhance their instructional strategies. Unlike summative assessment which takes place only once in a term or at the end of the year, formative assessment is on going and accompanies students learning growth and therefore provides more relevant information on the teaching/learning process.

2- Individualized and differentiated instruction
Individualized instruction is a means and not an aim of flipped classroom. It is a means towards enabling students to make the best of their learning experiences.Also, individualized instruction is a correlative with formative assessment for it is through the latter that we get to design the former. In a sense, formative assessment guides teachers efforts in providing more focused and targeted individualized help to those in need.And because the time that teachers would normally spend in class directly instructing their learners is done elsewhere and through other means (i.e. videos), teachers have more time to spend on one-on-one  differentiated instruction.

The short video below by Jon and Aaron elucidates these two points more clearly.


miércoles, 22 de abril de 2015

Here Is What Google's Free Online Conference Has in Store for You

April 23, 2015
Google’s conference “Education on Air” is  around the corner (May 8-9). The conference schedule is now out and you can register for free to attend virtually from  the comforts of your place. Some of the interesting panels and keynotes that stood out from the schedule include:


What are the skills of the future?
In this panel, the Economist Intelligence Unit “will share findings from their ‘Skills of the Future’ report where they surveyed business leaders, teachers and students to examine how skills taught in education systems around the world are changing and evolving”.

Inspiring learners with the power of storytelling
This is a keynote by actor, director and author Levar Burton in which he will “discuss the influence of storytelling on his personal life and explain how storytelling engages those around us and impacts learning”.

Making change happens
In this keynote, Lisa bell, founder and CEO of FutureThink, will “provide three practical, actionable suggestions you can try at school or any work place” to start an innovation revolution.

Transforming learning with technology
In this panel, several high-tech district leaders will get to share with you their approaches to improving teaching and learning using technology.

You can check the rest of the schedule from this page. Enjoy

Grab This Powerful PDF Annotating App-It's Free Today

April 22, 2015
Eu.Annotate is an iPad app that allows you to read and annotate PDFs. The app is available or free today and only for a limited period. We have just downloaded it and gave it a try and it seems pretty handy. Using Neu.Annotate, you will be able to add a wide range of annotations to your PDF documents such as drawings, highlighting text, adding text notes and photos. You can also add your own free-hand writing and fill-out and sign documents. "Annotated PDF files can be shared via email as well as exported to iTunes and Dropbox. Individual pages can also be shared in PNG and JPG formats, in addition to PDF."


"PDF files can be opened in neu.Annotate from any application that supports the "Open with..." menu command. This includes Mail, Safari, Box, Dropbox and many others. PDF files can also be imported using iTunes File Sharing, Dropbox, and WebDAV services". Other features from en.Annotate include: organizing documents using tags, inserting blank pages, searching documents, controlling feature restrictions, adding table of contents to docs, locking documents so they can not be modified, grouping annotations and many more.

5 Great Web Tools to Enhance Collaboration in Class

April 22, 2015
If anything, web technologies have redesigned the notion of collaboration and  rendered it an open construct independent of any conceivable spatio-temporal constraints. For instance, in our educational context,  possibilities for collaborative learning are bigger than ever before. Teachers and students have at their hands a variety of powerful softwares and web-based tools to help them engage in collaborative learning anytime, anywhere. From popular learning management  systems (LMS) such as Blackboard, Collaborate, and Moodle to social networking websites like Twitter and Google Plus, collaboration opportunities are limitless.

When we talk about collaborative tools we are basically referring to web tools that allow teachers and students to do the following: communicate either synchronously or asynchronously, collaborate in creative ways, engage in interactive discussions, easily share  and access learning resources (i.e documents, PDFs, files, calendars) and many more.To this end, we have curated this list to share with you what we think are some of the best web-based tools to enhance teachers-students collaboration and ultimately, boost students learning.

The first challenge we encountered when we started working on this post is the huge number of platforms that can be placed under category of collaboration. Blogging platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress, social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus, cloud storage tools such as Google Drive and Dropbox are all great tools to use for collaboration but since we have covered several of these titles in previous posts we are only concerned here with the ones that are probably less known among teachers.

1- Collaborize Classroom


Collaborize Classroom is a free online collaborative education platform for students and teachers. Collaborize Classroom is designed to complement classroom instruction and engage students in online activities, assignments and discussions that allow for deeper participation inside and outside the classroom.

2- Padlet

Padlet is a great platform for bookmarking and sharing digital content. Since in its launch a few years ago, Padlet (formerly Wallwisher) has undergone several great updates that make it an ideal tool to use with students in class. Here are some ways you can use Padlet in class:
  • Use it as a backchannel tool where students can post comments and feedback on what they are learning
  • Use is as a brainstorming tool. Create a Padlet wall for the whole class where they can collect and share ideas about a given topic.
  • Students can use it as portfolio where they display their best work.
  • You can use the classroom Padlet wall to post assignments and homework reminders to students.
  • Engage parents in the learning that is taking place in class by inviting them to visit the classroom Padlet wall
  • Aggregate links and other multimedia resources relevant for students learning and post them on the classroom wall for everybody to check
  • Use it as a book review page where students post reviews of the books they read
  • Create walls for major cultural events and holidays of the year and invite students to search for information relevant to each of these events and share them with the class.
  • Classroom Padlet wall can be used as an open space where students engage in group discussions and interactive exchange of ideas.
  • Students can use Padlet for sharing their reflections on what they have learned and what they need help with.
3- Edmodo

Edmodo is a web-based platform that provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. It is like Facebook but in a safe and controlled environment appropriate for school.

4- TodaysMeet
TodaysMeet is a great web tool for creating backchannels with your students. It is very easy and simple to use. You can use it in your class to engage students in sideline discussions and chats around a given topic. The process to set up a backchannel via TodaysMeet is very easy: first, create a room and given it a name and a duration then share the URL of that room with your students and start the chat.

4- Socrative

Engage, assess and personalize your class with Socrative! Educators can initiate formative assessments through quizzes, quick question polls, exit tickets and space races all with their Socrative Student app. Socrative will instantly grade, aggregate and provide visuals of results to help you identify opportunities for further instruction. Save time and visualize student understanding

5- MindMeister

This is a very good that students can use to create, share and collaboratively edit their mind maps. MindMeister is deeply integrated into Google Drive, allowing users to open and edit many mind map formats.

martes, 21 de abril de 2015

Excellent Tool to Teach Students about Digital Citizenship and Digital Literacy

April 22, 2015
Digital Compass is a new tool released by Common Sense Media to help kids learn the fundamentals of digital citizenship and digital literacy through playing interactive games designed specifically for grades 6-9. The games came in the form of a simulation of the digital world we live in  and provides kids with an informed understanding of the implications involved in creating  digital identities.



Digital Compass is available as a web-based tool to be played online, the iOS and Android app is expected to be released soon. The game starts with a short  introductory video about the game after which  kids are prompted to select a character and dive in with it in its digital world. While creating a story for the selected character, students will engage with a variety of thinking and conceptual skills. They have to think strategically about how to create a  good digital path for their character, the decisions to take to solve unexpected problems and how to anticipate potential risks. All of this takes place within an immersive game-based environment that students will definitely enjoy.

Watch this video to learn more about Digital Compass



Thanks to Tom D'Amico and Shannon Miller through whom we learned about this resource.