Education 2.0 & 3.0

There are loads of AI image generators available but which are the best free ones to use and how accurate are they?

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework allows us to understand the importance of utilizing web 2.0 in teaching and learning. Social annotation tools such as Hypothes.is allow teachers to fulfil the three essential UDL components: engagement, representation, and action & expression through thoughtful use of the platform.

Social annotation tools such as Hypothesis and Voice Thread, when used well, boost student engagement, enhance critical thinking, expand reading comprehension, and increase student interaction. Of the several social annotation tools currently available, our institution uses Hypothesis. Hypothesis’ motto—“Making reading active, visible and social”—sums up why we think social annotation is so valuable for our students: it engages students and invites them to read and think together as a group by sharing real-time annotations of websites or PDFs (Hypothesis, 2021). The richly multimodal, interactive nature of Hypothesis offers instructors a platform through which they can employ the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to improve engagement and accessibility for all learners.

"Many students look at online learning courses as a respite from the rigors of brick-and-mortar learning, but that’s only true if educators and administrators choose not to maximize the digital learning environment to challenge their student populace.  While digital learning has its limitations and flaws, it can also be used as a powerful tool to stimulate critical thinking in students. In fact, there are plenty of ways to induce such propensities for critical thought without a student even being aware of it!"

This is a guest post written for students by students Matty Trueman, Kai Ackroyd, Curtis Alexis-Jones and Gagan Warinch to highlight the free collaboration tools available and how they can support remote learning. We are final year students at Sheffield Hallam University.

Our blog post will look at how you as a student can: plan tasks, share work online, schedule and run online meetings whilst staying digitally connected through messaging services. In addition, tools to help with managing time and staying motivated during times of difficulty will also be shared.

Do your students love a good infographic? Kids in the middle grades are frequently drawn to infographics because of their visual appeal and because information is presented in small bites. An infographic may be just one graphic, like a diagram, chart, or map, or it may be a compilation of graphics like the NASA infographic below.

Below is a chart we have been working on during the last few weeks. It features a number of key websites and online resources arranged into different categories.  We did not cover all school subjects but we will be adding more resources to the list in the future.  Our purpose is to provide teachers and educators (and students) with a repository of EdTech websites that can potentially help them with the teaching of their content areas. The great thing about this work is that it is curated by teachers for teachers. 

It’s been fun Google, but it’s time to say goodbye.

Have you noticed?

Google’s entire business model is based on you surrendering to their corporate surveillance. That’s it. All they do is repackage mass corporate surveillance into convenient, free, trendy applications that suck up all your data. Your private data helps Google dominate the online advertising market.

You are the product.

The other key issue to consider here is that Google is tracking and recording your activity in order to build a user profile, which can be used for various purposes.

If you follow my blog, you know I curate a lot of resources for teachers. This post brings together a suggested list, a curated list if you will, of 16 curation tools for teachers and students from the Shake Up Learning community. Choosing how to curate and what tools to use can be a very personal decision depending on your own needs and preferences. That’s what’s so great about the world wide web of tools! There is no shortage of tools.


Curation is absolutely necessary in the information age! As Gayle Allen says in her book, The New Pillars of Modern Teaching, “We’re assembling resources in a way that represents the ongoing story of our learning. We are the curators.”

wordclouds.com

To define annotation it is when you add notes, comments or opinions about a piece of writing,  or a drawing, photo, or diagram. Often these are critical explanations to add extra insight about something. These explanations can be necessary to understanding writings in which the language might be difficult to make sense of without clarification.

Free resource of educational web tools, 21st century skills, tips and tutorials on how teachers and students integrate technology into education

21 Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs
Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students with special needs or any sort of learning challenge. In particular the Chrome web browser allows users to install a wide variety of web extensions that provide tools that can help all learners, regardless of ability level.

In this blog post we will take a look at 21 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories:
Text to Speech
Readability
Reading Comprehension
Focus
Navigation

Here’s a round-up of full-featured and reasonably priced eLearning tools that will kick start your creativity and help you design compelling course content.

The Top Tools for Learning 2020 was compiled by Jane Hart from the results of the 14th Annual Learning Tools Survey, and released on 1 September 2020. For general information about the survey and this website, visit the About page. For observations and infographics of this year’s list, see Analysis 2020.

First, I want to acknowledge what an uncertain time this is. As many of our jobs are shifting to virtual settings, I want to share tools that may be useful as you create online resources to provide information and work virtually with colleagues.

All of these resources have free options.

The Rice University-based publisher OpenStax announced Thursday that it will provide free teaching resources through the end of the spring semester to support faculty transitioning to online course delivery in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Give families edtech suggestions that kids are sure to love. Explore this Tech Tools for Learning at Home Top Picks list of 46 tools curated by Common Sense Education editors to find relevant and engaging edtech solutions for your classroom.

A collection of emerging tools just right for humanizing your online course.

Peruse the buffet, click on the links, and sample what looks intriguing and helpful to you!

Webinars are frequently named as a top tactic for lead generation, and we’re not going to argue here at streamGo. But once you’ve decided that webinars are right for you, there’s some work to do to decide the topic, title, date, design and to drive registrations (that’s a shortened list).

In previous roles I’ve been involved with every stage of running a webinar program and now I’m working at streamGo I see how our clients get the most from their online events on a daily basis. So I thought I’d share some of the best free tools I've used and seen to help you plan, create and promote your webinar (or webcast).

Students of today are much more technologically savvy than previous generations. Whatever age they are, once they step into the classroom, they will probably be Internet literate and technologically knowledgeable, at least at some extent. Presenting technology to students gives the teacher more ways to connect with them and this is one of the most important parts of a rewarding teacher-student relationship. Once you find something in common with the student, you are on the right way. Here is a list of websites that specialize in education technology and will give you inspiration and practical ideas for your lessons:

Sitting down to map out your thoughts can be a great way to get yourself organized before embarking on a big writing project. It's als

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