PlanbookEdu's EdTech Roundup for October 16th
Posted by on Mon, Oct 17 2011
Editor’s note: Guest contributor Nancy Barlow regularly blogs at The Teacher Geek. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
A Lesson On Skype From Third Graders
Have you wanted to try Skype to connect with other classrooms around the world, but are not sure what it would look like or how you would involve the whole class? Check out a neat post from the Classroom Blog of Mrs. Yollis. Her class, from a suburb of Los Angeles, recently Skyped with a classroom on Connecticut, and the event was documented in photos and descriptions by the students. Many of the students had different jobs leading up to, during, and after the Skype session. It is a wonderful post about the all of the learning opportunities that can come from this teacher-friendly tool.
Now You'll Know Your ABC's
There are over 200 Alphabet lessons listed in the Teachers.net Lesson Bank. The lessons aren't just for Preschool or Kindergarten, either. You'll find lessons for upper-elementary and ESL students also. If you need lessons for letter-sound work or word work, stop here first. Teachers.net is a huge resource for lessons and advice on everything in your classroom.
Digital Storytelling For Halloween
You may have your favorite digital storytelling sites, but many don't offer the right kind of seasonal images you might want to have in your stories. The InTec Insight Blog offers reviews and examples of FIVE different digital storytelling tools that will give your students' stories that spooky flavor you're looking for. Tools include Storybird, StoryJumper, ToonDoo, DomoAnimate, and Voki.
App of the Week: 3D Heart Pro
3D Heart Pro is a great way to visualize a full 3D working human heart. Great for students and teachers, it features a detailed 3D image of the heart that you can rotate while it's beating, and pumping blood flow information. Available for iPad and iPhone for $1.99 on the iTunes website.
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PlanbookEdu's EdTech Roundup for October 9th
Posted by on Mon, Oct 10 2011
Editor’s note: Guest contributor Nancy Barlow regularly blogs at The Teacher Geek. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Animoto Gets a Facelift
Animoto, the web-based service that lets users create professional-looking videos from their own photos, just got an upgrade. Jonathan Wylie of The Education Technology Blog writes about Animoto's recent makeover and its new features which include a cleaner interface and full-size previews of images. Educators can sign up for FREE.
The Class Book Redefined
What does digital storytelling look like in a real classroom? What apps do you need? What does the finished product look like? Take a look at a special project created by members of Mr. Mitchell's 5th grade class in North Pole, Alaska. Here, three student partnerships describe in detail how exactly they created stories on their iPads, and then turned them into eBooks. This post is wonderful for its detail and its authenticity. Having students explain their processes is one of the best ways for them to truly understand what they are learning.
20 Search Engines For Students
There's more out there than just Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Education-Portal.com has amassed a list of 20 Of the Best Search Engines For Students. It's a list that sorted by Academic Search Engines like iSEEK, Meta Search Engines like MetaCrawler, and Media Search Engines like Pixsy.
App Of the Week: PrepositionBuilder
Perfect for Special Education Teachers and Speech-Language Teachers, the Preposition Builder uses a friendly drag-and-drop interface to help users find the correct use of prepositions. Students look at a picture and have to decide, for example, if an object is "in", "on", or "under". If the student chooses wrong, the app will show the student how different prepositions will change the image. Currently available for the iPad only.
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PlanbookEdu's EdTech Roundup for October 2nd
Posted by on Sun, Oct 02 2011
Editor’s note: Guest contributor Nancy Barlow regularly blogs at The Teacher Geek. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Look To the Klowdz To Spark Creativity
The Book Chook Blog carries a helpful review of the free web-based drawing tool Klowdz. It's a nifty drawing tool, but with a twist. After starting, you're given a photo of clouds. Find different shapes in the clouds, then use the simple drawing tools to create your vision. You can easily change photos if you have trouble finding shapes to play with. It's interesting to see what two different students can see in a cloud! Use Klowdz to kick-start to a lesson, and get students thinking creatively.
Education Is the Best Prevention Of Cyberbullying
Many states in the U.S. in the past year have passed anti-bullying legislation, requiring more vigilance than ever from educators on the topic of bullying, and specifically cyberbullying. Many state statutes now say that educators must report and/or address cyberbullying even if it happens away from school, if it affects the learning climate of the classroom. Not sure where to start? Common Sense Media has put together an amazingly thorough, accessible and easy-to-use K-12 curriculum to address cyberbullying. Available to teachers for free is a Cyberbullying Toolkit for Educators. Help your students become leaders, not bullies, and help kids to stand-up, instead of standing by.
Did Old MacDonald Play These Games?
The Educational Technology Guy is reporting a fun new interactive game focusing on teaching students Agriculture, called My American Farm. This would fit nicely into a producer/consumer unit, a unit on food & nutrition, or of course, agricultural sciences. Sponsored by the American Farm Bureau, it contains 13 free games that correspond to math, science, or social studies standards.
App Of the Week: Merriam-Webster Dictionary
It's not your ordinary dictionary. This clever app can help your students edit writing projects with voice search, an integrated thesaurus, and sample sentences. This app also offers audio pronunciations and can keep track of all of the words you have looked up. All this, and it's FREE. Available for iPad, iPhone, iTouch and Android.
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PlanbookEdu's EdTech Roundup for September 25th
Posted by on Tue, Sep 27 2011
Editor’s note: Guest contributor Nancy Barlow regularly blogs at The Teacher Geek. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
3 Smart Sites For Teachers to Learn New Technologies
You don't have to wait for a school vacation to try out the latest educational technology trend. Richard Byrne at the Free Technology 4 Teachers blog writes about 3 useful website that teachers can use to hone their technology skills, practice new technologies, and gain confidence. Think Tutorial, Learn It In 5, and MakeUseOf all contain digital tutorials designed for busy teachers. Richard also has his own collection of helpful tutorials on Google Tools.
Remind101: A New Type of Alert Service For Teachers
Jonathan Wylie writes in his Education Technology Blog about Remind101, a new service that can connect students and parents with real-time updates generated by the teacher. It works outside of the internet realm, and allows teachers to send updates, alerts, and other one-way text messages to students and parents that have signed up with the free service using a unique code. If your district currently blocks Facebook and Twitter, or you're away from your school's email and you want to send an alert, Remind101 might be right for you. Currently, about 1500 teachers have signed up. Have you used this service? Let us know what you think!
World War II Unfolding on Twitter
The Next Web reports about a new Twitter account that World History teachers are going to want their students to follow. @RealTimeWWII is the Twitter handle for 24-year-old Alwyn Collinson, a former history student at Oxford University. His goal is for followers to have a "breaking news" experience about WWII, and aims to write from a journalistic, not a governmental point a view. A typical Tweet (the Tweets started August 31, 2011 as "Day One") was "SS Troops dressed as Poles are attacking radio transmitter in Gleiwitz, to provide pretext for Germany to attack Poland." It's making history relevant through a modern medium, and it's very powerful.
App of the Week: Flat Stanley
If you're a fan of the Flat Stanley children's book series, you'll want to download this *free* app from The Flat Stanley Project. Create your own Stanley, then take photos and send Stanley on his own adventures. Share with friends and family. It's COPAA compliant with safeguards for children under 13. It has a clean and simple interface, and is easy to use. Bon Voyage, Stanley! Currently for iPhone, iTouch, and iPad, but Blackberry and Android editions are in the works!
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PlanbookEdu's EdTech Roundup for September 18th
Posted by on Sun, Sep 18 2011
Editor’s note: Guest contributor Nancy Barlow regularly blogs at The Teacher Geek. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
School Libraries and Digital Media Resources
Students use mobile technology more than ever. Is your Library/Media Center equipped to service those students? The School Library Journal offers up suggestions for getting setup and ready to not only get your catalog online, but get students exploring mobile learning apps. If you are looking to bring your school library into the 21st Century to meet the needs of all learners, this is a good place to start.
Reading Rainbow Is Back, and Onto the iPad
The tech blog Geek.com is reporting that after PBS cancelled bringing-books-to-life children's show Reading Rainbow in 2006, the show's star, LeVar Burton, got to work making sure that RR can reach a new generation. His production company, RRKidz, has developed a subscription-based app for the iPad that showcases enhanced PDF eBooks, with voiceovers and other multimedia. Read the full article here, and try not to get the Reading Rainbow theme stuck in your head.
Be a Famous Writer!
Mrs. P (a.k.a. Kathy Kinney of Drew Carey Show fame) is an online librarian who engages students in finding books they love. She's having a "Be a Famous Writer" contest for kids aged 4-13. Two grad-prize winners will be selected to have their story read and videotaped by Mrs. P herself and posted on her website for all to enjoy. The deadline is October 15. While you're checking out the rules for the contest, be sure to explore Mrs. P's website. You'll find videos and audiobooks for many classic children's fairy tales and folk tales, such as Alice In Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel.
App Of the Week
Get the most insanely comprehensive astronomy app out there that also happens to be *free* until September 21, 2011 (after that it goes back to $2.99 - still a bargain), and the Macworld 'Best in Show' 2010 winner! SkySafari 3 will show you over 120,000 stars, galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. It can show you the night sky from any place on earth, and help you identify what's up there. If your phone is compass-enabled, you can use the app to help you identify what's in the night sky just by holding the gadget up to it. It also helps keep you updated on astronomy events like meteor showers. And that's just the basic version. Amazing!
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