Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 11/16/2011
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Nominations Open – The 2011 Edublog Awards are on! | The Edublog Awards
2011 Edublog awards are open. Yes, I think these are important. It helped me a lot in knowing that what I said mattered when I've been nominated, been a finalist, and won as well. Join in the nominations.
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A sticky note account. I may use this for my pkflow method that uses stickys. This website lets you have a page with online stickys and notes. Cool tool that reminds me of corkulous on the ipad.
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Knol - a unit of knowledge: share what you know, publish your expertise.
A website where people share knowledge. This was listed as an important website for learning. I haven't explored it yet, but hope that some of you will share what you're doing in the comments.
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This open source mathematics software includes graphics, algebra, and spreadsheet capabilities and is increasing in use. This is one of those "must loads" on your school or university websites.
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Here is the list of Winners and losers from Jane Hart's list. Some new entries: Google+ (debuting the highest at 26), Ted Talks (at 30), and for math teachers - Geogebra.
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» 2011 Top 100 Tools List and Presentation finalised Learning in the Social Workplace
Jane Hart's list of Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2011. (Hat tip Stephen Downes) This is from a survey - not just one person's opinion. Topping the list (again): Twitter. I also LOVE how this list shows the previous rankings from the prior 4 years.
Youtube is #2 although still blocked in SOOOOO many places followed by Google Docs, Skype, Wordpress, Dropbox, Prezi (something I haven't gotten into yet), Moodle, Slideshare, and Glogster EDU. Take a look at the entire list on her blog post. -
50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For
Great post from Lifehacker of their 50 apps they are most thankful for with the links to the posts they've written about them. This is my kind of very functional list. I love it!
One note. I totally agree about Dropbox, ccCleaner, Audacity, and Paint.net. My students LOVE paint.net. -
iTunes Match Review – Does iTunes Match Live up to the Hype? | PadGadget
iTunes match is an eagerly awaited cloud playing app touted to people who love music and don't have a lot of space for music. The price is around $2.00 a month and this is one of the first reviews I've read of the service.
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Amazon Kindle Fire could Burn Up iPad's Lead | ITProPortal.com
This survey shows that iPad with the $199 price tag is a 'serious" contender for the ipad. I had someone ask me about Kindle fire vs. iPad. Definitely people are comparing it.
One of the top complaints about Droids has been the somewhat loosely managed droid store but the Kindle fire will use Amazon's app store not droid.I also had some people on Google plus point out to me as we talked about this that the droid OS on tablet device has a much better response to touch than do the smaller devices. This is one of those wait and see type things, I think. -
Teaching All Students: Cheap, DIY options for iPad Stands #iPadEd #mlearning #edtech #assistivetech
Interesting blog post on DIY "cheap" ipad stands for students (with youtube videos.)
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5 Reasons Why i Want Ipad2 in My Classroom Ppt Presentation
This is a great presentation to view for two reasons:
1) This author shares why she wants ipad 2's in her classroom and the reasons are pretty unique.
2) She uses Author stream which boasts it can "do more with powerpoint" - is this an alternative to slideshare? Interesting tool. -
Professor tries improving lectures by removing them from class | Inside Higher Ed
This case study in Inside Higher Ed about Professor Mike Garver (Central Michigan University - Marketing) shows how this professor is giving lectures by no longer giving lectures. Interestingly, he talks about how Bloom's Taxonomy impacted his change in style. This article ALSO includes a video and I totally applaud the journal of higher ed for including a video. There are so many articles talking about a "great teacher" doing this or "great professor" doing that - SHOW ME. This article did just that. Applause to Inside higher ed and Steve Kolowich - give us more articles like this.
If you're in higher ed or a teacher in high school - this is a great read.
“It’s a good way to, in his words, ‘Put a movie in your mind,’ -
Social Games: 5 Growing Threats to Watch - IndustryGamers
Interesting analysis on why some social games (Zynga in this case study) are having problems online. I think the "friend spam" approach is something for many of us to learn as we join spaces. This is an interesting article for FlatClassroom students to read as they analyze game based activities.
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Secondary Maths resources collections - Resources - TES
A monstrous list of math links including some cool math bingo and other math collections. This UK collection has a ton of resources for those who are always looking for math things.
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Year Long Technology Project (US Grade 9) - Resources - TES
I uploaded my "Freshman Project" to the @Tesconnect website. This is a very large network of teachers that I'm using now as it links with English speaking classrooms outside the US. This is the assignment that begins the year long project in my class as students design their own project. This is based upon the senior project I first saw this summer in Evansville, Indiana. Yes, you need to join TES to download the resource. I am promoting this site as part of some work I'm doing for them (as I disclosed two weeks a go) but it is a great site and I like the work they are doing very much! So join in, share, and download.
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Kodu and English - Resources - TES
Some guides for using Kodu game lab in the classroom. I've used this in my classroom. Kodu is a free game creation software from Microsoft. Cool tool.
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Fifth Graders Go Global with Holiday Card Exchange | Edutopia
Donna Roman is such a great teacher. Here in her Edutopia article she shares how her classroom is going global. Just a great example for elementary teachers to follow.
