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Jim Lerman
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A safe way for teachers to text message students and keep in touch with parents. Description by Christine Garland of Remind 101 "Remind101 is a free, safe messaging service for teachers to communicate with students and parents via text or email. Teachers sign up for an account, create classes or groups, gather subscribers, and start messaging. This is all done without ever sharing their personal cell phone number, or collecting phone numbers from their students or parents. "Teachers are now using the service for all sorts of reminders from, “Don’t forget to bring $20 and your signed field trip form tomorrow,” to “Biology test Fri. Study chapter 9 extra hard!” to “I’m so proud of how hard you’ve all been working! Keep it up,” the uses are endless, and the more they use it, the more they seeresults. "Parents love it too. Between classroom websites, calendars, emails and newsletters…they’ve got a lot to keep up with. And all this is between their day-to-jobs, familial obligations, chores, dinner, etc. With Remind101 parents get a quick snapshot of what their kids are learning and how they can help keep them on track…straight to the one tool they always have on them, their cell phone. "Remind101 was built to make it ridiculously simple for teachers to navigate the ever increasing technology adoption (and sometimes distraction), and communicate with students and parents. Remind101 makes staying connected as simple as sending a text!"
For those who might be new to the term, formative assessments are ongoing practices that help both the teacher and student evaluate and reflect on how they are both doing, and what changes either or both might need to make to become a more effective teacher and learner (I’d love it if someone left a comment with a better definition). I use a lot of these in my classroom, ranging from regular cloze (fill-in-the-blank) and reading fluency assessments, to “show me with thumbs,” to observations. I feel that I use them pretty effectively, but also feel that I could do a better job applying what I learn from them in the classroom.
Via Dennis T OConnor
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Jim Lerman
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By Sue Waters "Google did a great job. Google Reader’s service was so popular that it practically pushed all alternative RSS readers out of the market and as a result, we’re now seeing a mad rush of companies trying to fill the void left by Google. "Here is the key points you’ll need to consider when selecting your Google reader replacement."
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Jim Lerman
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By Laura Minnigerode An examination of specific digital games and apps that can be used to advance learners' development of grit, perseverence, and tenacity. Nice overview with good links. -JL
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Jim Lerman
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By Danny Stieben "For most people, the note-taking application of choice is Evernote. And Evernote users have good reasons for choosing the service for their note-taking needs — it’s very functional, highly accessible, and has add-on features that can take you beyond the default Evernote experience. "If you’re not already convinced, read why you should be using Evernote as your go-to place for remembering everything. In fact, there are a number of apps, plugins, and even pieces of hardware which can take advantage of Evernote, making the service even more beneficial for you. "Here are seven tools that hopefully will make you tap into the potential of this widely popular note-taking application."
"Streamified is stream reader / aggregator / publishing platform which allows you to aggregate, filter and read news stories coming from all your selected social channels and RSS feeds. Not only. You can also easily edit and cross-post to any number of social accounts simultaneously or, at a later time. ... Key additional features include: - Scheduled posting; - Brand alerts; - Team collaboration; - Advanced Analytics and Reports. Free version available."
[Read full Robin Good's insight below] More info: https://streamified.me and here: http://streamified.com
Via Robin Good, Giuseppe Mauriello
"By definition, a screencast is a recording of your computer screen accompanied by audio narration.In the past, screencasting tools used to cost a fortune and only tech savvy people were able to use them but thanks to web 2.0 technologies, there are now dozens of easy to use and simple platforms to record your screencast. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has already featured several of these tools in previous posts. Today, however, I am going to share with you some of the best iPad apps to create screencasts and tutorials. Check them out below and let us know what you think of them. Enjoy"
Via John Evans
This short video shares the basic steps to animating Common Craft Cut-outs using PowerPoint. It is part of series focused on helping you make Common Craft Style videos and presentations using common tools.
Via Baiba Svenca
Emaze vision – to change the way people create presentations through a simple, fully automated process that generate powerful and engaging showcases.
Via Baiba Svenca
123ContactForm may not sound like the kind of tool that would be of interest to educators, but as I discovered when they asked me to review their online form creation tool, they offer quite a range of features that can solve many of the problems we have as 21st century teachers.
Via Nik Peachey
The investigation shows that almost all objectives, teaching tasks and concepts of thecurriculum can be promoted with the aid of tablet computers. Nevertheless, a lot ofprerequisites in terms of hardware and software are required for a successful integration of tablets. In addition, there are some drawbacks, such as the lack of teacher training and slower text production.
Via Nik Peachey
by Julie Dirksen "So this session is about pulling some of the specific strategies that fiction writers use to into learning scenarios. There are a lot of other interesting ways to explore storytelling in terms of meta-structures, psychology and cultural constructs. This isn’t that presentation (though I’ll probably do that one too, one of these days). "This presentation is focused on specific strategies for making learning stories more interesting."
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
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Text To Speech Reader App for iPhone and iPad “I use Voice Dream Reader to catch up on my reading. I’m an auditory person, so I assimilate information better by listening than by reading. Quite simply, this app makes me a lot more productive. For an app that’s been out for a short while, it’s surprisingly stable, feature rich, and mature. Highly recommended.” “I have a learning disability affecting my ability to read and write, and have thus been using TTS for many years. This app is one of the best I have found (the best for the iPad). There are five reasons I think so. First, It can easily import multiple formats. Second, it integrates seamlessly with Dropbox. Third, it plays in the background. Fourth, the developer’s customer service is outstanding. And fifth, the computer voices the app uses are some of the best you can buy.” “This app is so awesome!! I’m in college and this helps me get through my textbook chapters quicker and easier! The voices are conversational and easy to understand. Other readers sound too much like a computer but the voices on this app are more human. I wish I found this sooner!! Love it and absolutely recommend it.” “Voice Dream Reader is hailed by many as the best mobile text-to-speech (TTS) app. It has potential uses by those with physical and learning challenges as well as those without. Any student, for example, who struggles with comprehension and retention of written information could benefit."
By Elisha Hartwig "We found some of the best apps and websites to help simplify the meeting planning process. Read on to learn about some valuable, time-saving tools. Because your time is better spent preparing for the meeting than setting it all up, right?"
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
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By James Bruce "You’re looking for a small computer to power a laser turret that can shoot multi-coloured balloons – it’s a common situation we all find ourselves in at one point or another – and you’ve heard good things about both Arduino and Raspberry Pi. But you can’t decide – which the best mini-computer for your project? Which is going to prevail as the most useful once you’ve disassembled the turret thanks to that incident with the neighbour’s cat? Which could you play movies on? Don’t worry, James is here to explain all!"
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Jim Lerman
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By Emily A. Moore "From Web-enhanced face-to-face courses to MOOCs, flipped, blended, and fully online courses, videos are an integral component of today's educational landscape—from kindergarten all the way through higher education.
"To help increase the educational effectiveness of an online course video, consider applying one or more of the following active learning strategies."
"The genres of photography, image editing, styling and sharing, being among the most popular on the iOS App Store (after platformers and games in general, of course), are becoming increasingly saturated, which makes it quite hard for both new users and seasoned iPhoneographers to pick out the good ones. Seeing this as another opportunity to help our readers out, we’ve compiled a list of fifteen of the best free apps from the aforementioned genres."
Via John Evans
Slide Effect is a presentation software to create advanced shows in a few minutes. Easy to use, spectacular effects and transitions. Download the free trial!
Via Baiba Svenca
Games, in contrast, depend on failure to teach. They literally push players to the edge of their ability and knowledge; then the best games change or adapt when a level is reached to push players further. In order to succeed, players must encounter and overcome obstacles both large and small along the way. These disappointments teach students to persevere and foster creativity and adaptability – invaluable skills in our hyper-connected, fast-paced, global economy. Here is a look at some of the ways failure helps students and how games support this valuable learning opportunity.
Via Nik Peachey
There’s just one thing about Santiago Swallow that you won’t easily find online: I made him up. Everything above is true. He really does have a Twitter feed with tens of thousands of followers, he really does have a Wikipedia biography, and he really does have an official web site.
Via Nik Peachey
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Jim Lerman
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By Med Kharbach "Since Google officially changed Google Docs name to Google Drive and a number of updates have been introduced to improve its overall performance. One very recent update is an increase of cloud storage capacity to 15GB usable across Gmail, Drive, and Google Plus. It is quite obvious that Google is trying to outsmart its immediate competitor Dropbox and I think Google is successful in its strategy so far.
"To make Google Drive stand out from the crowd, Google opened it to apps developers and allowed users to select from a wide variety of web apps to integrate into their Google Drive accounts. With the integration of these apps, users can now handle their files and documents ways not affordable by any other cloud storage tool out there.
"I have curated for you some interesting apps that are integrated into Google Drive and which you can install right from your Google Drive interface."
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Quite an interesting and well-written article...and it certainly feels, from personal experience, to be quite accurate.