Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2015

Create icons in PowerPoint - Presentitude - a presentation and content design agency - Using icons is a great way to add visuals to your presentation. There are many ways to get icons online, some are even free. But if you need a specific icon that you can’t find or if you want a special spin to your icon (color, shadow etc) – you can use PowerPoint’s great (and somewhat hidden) “Merge Shapes” commands to create your own icons. 8 digital skills we must teach our children The social and economic impact of technology is widespread and accelerating. The speed and volume of information have increased exponentially. Experts are predicting that 90% of the entire population will be connected to the internet within 10 years. With the internet of things, the digital and physical worlds will soon be merged.

Google AdWords 101 for Online Retailers Google AdWords is the uncontested King of the Pay-per-Click (PPC) market as it currently stands. This is for good reason — more than 67 percent of people use Google for their search queries. This is, in fact, one of many reasons why AdWords is so popular. 10 of the Best Places to Find Free Icons and Image Assets Online Like many creative types, I tend to get a bit giddy when I find art that inspires and captivates. However, as a web designer, I jump for joy when I stumble across websites and graphic design images that have been masterfully crafted (I’m a geek like that *wink*). No matter what type of designer you are, you will probably agree with me when I say that for as much as we love designing, there are days when you just don’t have the time to create certain elements from scratch.

Digital Citizenship Week: 6 Resources for Educators Considering how ubiquitous smartphones and tablets have become, especially in high school and middle school, questions about managing use and educating students about digital etiquette are on a lot of educators' minds. This October, Common Sense Media is sponsoring Digital Citizenship Week from October 16 to October 22. And we wanted to pull together some of the best resources to help educators talk about digital responsibility and safety online. Here, you'll find resources that cover today's digital landscape, ideas for student activities, and strategies for engaging parents. There are plenty of valuable resources for educators and parents to share, but here are six of my favorites: Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum for K-12: Common Sense Media’s interactive curriculum offers something for every grade level.

Eight Free Photo Sites That Require No Attribution I'm a strong proponent of respecting copyright. I think artists deserve to be paid for the work that they do. I'm also a fan of using Creative Commons photography in my blog, on my visual writing ideas, and in my presentations. In general, I use the Creative Commons Photo Search to search through Flickr (though sometimes Photopin works great, too). However, I have also found that there are times when I want to use attribution-free photography. Typically, these are in moments when I want to know that I have complete permission to use the work in a commercial way (such as a keynote).

Teacher's Guide to Digital Citizenship The horror stories of young people not grasping the reach and influence of the content they put online are familiar to all of us. From the loss of job opportunities due to unprofessional pictures or comments on social media, to the more serious threats of abduction, and even the self-harm inspired by cyber bullying, the stakes are high. While students may often seem clueless to these dangers, some are starting to understand the risks. In a recent Rasmussen study on digital literacy, details of which you can see in the infographic below, 37% of millennials aged 18 – 34 said they consider the internet scary, which is more than any other demographic.

27 Presentation Software & Powerpoint Alternatives For 2015 At CustomShow, we like to think that everyone can use our presentation software to create better looking presentations, thus serving as a great powerpoint alternative to people. But that won’t always be the case. We cater to businesses greater than 10 employees and organizations that need an all-in-one presentation program. We also don’t usually promote our competitors. Shout out to Clearslide on that one. But at the end of the day, we want you to have a pick from the full list of presentation tools that are on the market and that could fit your needs.

Using Instructional Design to Implement Constructivist E-Learning - Learning Theory and Educational Technology Heather Smith Boise State University Abstract Constructivist learning activities help create a sense of community necessary to student engagement in an e-learning environment. Course developers can use the principles of instructional design to systematically and consciously embed constructivist learning projects in a web-based course. 14 Tools to Create Engaging Infographics and Images for Social Media Posts  It's no secret that images are increasingly important for social media success. It wasn't long ago that Twitter added inline image previews to its official apps, and it's including even more image focus in the latest redesign. At Buffer, we've done tests on our own Twitter account previously that showed images make a huge difference to engagement: In a recent research study we conducted, we found that images can increase retweet rate by up to 150%: Images aren't just useful for Twitter, either.