http://mashable.com/2013/08/18/social-media-teachers/#JN9JwZ.iiZq5
Terry's Teaching Tidbits: Social Media in the Classroom I’m in my 9th year of teaching and one thing that I’ve learned each year is just how much each year is absolutely nothing like the last. There’s no such thing as taking out “last year’s plans”, changing the date and coasting through the year. Education evolves constantly and I find it imperative for teachers to try and evolve with it. Twitter in the Classroom - The Brown Bag Teacher As a teacher, watching other teachers in action is the most valuable Professional Development I can have. I love seeing other professionals in their happy place and learn from their classrooms. Realistically, guest teachers are expensive, our schedules are too important, and sub plans take TOO long to write. So, as teachers, we turn to alternative methods to build our professional networks - blogs, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. Today I'm sharing about how and why I use Twitter in my 1st grade classroom!
Beyond Minecraft: Games That Inspire Building and Exploration By Tanner Higgin, Graphite The success and popularity of Minecraft in and out of classrooms is no surprise. It’s one of the best examples of the potential of learning with games because it embraces exploration, discovery, creation, collaboration, and problem-solving while allowing teachers to shepherd play toward any subject area. But Minecraft is not the only game of this kind. Take a look at some of these. 1.
Instagram in the Classroom - Madly Learning I joined Instagram awhile ago but personally, or professionally didn't quite know what to do with it. I posted a few pictures of my kids but wasn't really sure how to use it. Fast forward and a few other blogger friends talked me into opening up a Madly Learning Instagram account. I have found it to be a great way to connect with other bloggers and to see what others are doing in their classrooms. I also noticed that Instagram was what my 4/5 students were using as their chosen social media platform. So all of this got me thinking.
4 Free Websites Where You Can Learn The Basics Of Game Development Over a decade ago, I taught myself the basics of game programming and game development through the limited tutorial resources I could find on the Internet. Since then, the landscape of game development has changed drastically, and anyone can start creating their own games within weeks with a few Google searches. But let’s say you want to start developing your own games but don’t know where to start. Where do you go? In the world of programming, they say that once you learn one coding language, you pretty much know them all. It’s a little more nuanced than that, but the sentiment is more accurate than you think. How I Use Snapchat for Language Learning (+ free downloadable guide!) - Lindsay Does Languages After a week focused on goal setting, this week we’re turning our attention to social media and how to make the most of it for language learning. In this post, I’m sharing how I use Snapchat for language learning. Time to get snappy. One thing that’s great about the Internet is what it’s done for language learners. We’re connected. We can share ideas, motivation, and progress with the aim of encouraging each other to keep going.
6 Online Tools That Will Help The Writing Process Writing can be a difficult task for many students. Some have trouble getting started, others have trouble staying on task, and many struggle with both. Staying focused when you’re sitting at your computer and somewhat uninspired can be a disaster waiting to happen – there’s a lot of stuff to waste time with on The Interwebs! The Internet can be a huge distraction, but it can also be the tool that helps to make you a more efficient and better writer.
Laura Randazzo – Solutions for the Secondary Classroom Looking to bridge the gap between my students’ obsession with love of social media and my obsession with appreciation of literature, I built an Instagram Challenge for my Quarter Trio groups last week. (Facebook, my teens tell me, is so five years ago; Instagram and Snapchat are where it’s at, apparently.) Here’s what the assignment looked like (click on the image to enlarge): And here are some of the best results (click on the image to enlarge), slightly modified to remove identifying info and to make viewing the work easier (in the original posts, you’d have to scroll down to see the captions on a phone): The 4 Apps Needed To Run A One iPad Classroom If you don’t have the luxury of a 1:1 classroom or even a 10:1 classroom then you might want to sit down. I have some seriously shocking news that you might not be adequately ready to hear. Ready?
Five Good Online Tools for Creating Infographics In my previous post shared some advice from Randy Krum, author of Cool Infographics, about creating infographics. In his book Randy devotes a chapter to design tools. Many of the tools used by professional designers cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. But you don't have to spend anything if you want your students to try their hands at creating a data visualization in the form of an infographic. Here are five free tools that your students can use to create infographics.
Top 200 Special Education Apps As a reader of this blog, you might have noticed that Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has a particular focus on the use of iPad in education other than any other tablet in the market.We do in fact love other tablets especially Motorolla Xoom, Samsung GalaxyTab 10.1, and LG Optimus tablet and we do believe they have a promising potential in education as well but for now it seems that iPad is leading the mobile learning revolution. This is probably due to the kind of investment Apple is having in education. The folks in Apple have taken the issue seriously and they are intent on monopolizing the educational market. From iBook Author to iPad Mini, their success is just unbelievable to the point that some school boards in the States and Canada have already started adopting iPad as learning tools in the classrooms and some in the form of 1:1 environments. Check it out and share with us your suggestions
14 Free Apps for Higher Order Thinking Apps for higher order thinking can be a great push for your students to explain their thinking and create their own digital portfolio items. Apps that focus on higher order thinking can help your students start using focused thought processes to address new questions, investigations, and basic HOTS skills. Each of these apps can be used to complement and execute Bloom’s Higher Order of Thinking framework, focusing on analyzing, evaluating, and creating. With these high order thinking apps, you can focus your students on: raising questions vital to discussiongathering and assessing information systematicallytesting conclusions against criteriathinking with an open mind about alternative theories and solutionscommunicating complex ideas effectively Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', ' 'discussion by Sidelines.')
How to Design an Online Course Infographic e-Learning Infographics The How to Design an Online Course Infographic outlines some of the key components to creating an online course. Naturally, not every item is an absolute necessary (many of which will depend on your needs), but they all do provide value for your online courses. More than ever, it is important that you encourage online interaction and feedback mechanisms for the students in the online courses. The Best Free Education Web Tools Of 2013 There’s a wealth of education related web tools out there that can make your life easier and turn your computer, phone, and/or tablet into a teaching and learning powerhouse. But because there are SO many tools out there, selecting the best ones can turn into a full time job. Downloading a ton of apps, researching, and testing different web tools can take hours – hours that you probably don’t have if you’re busy teaching and having a life. Thankfully, the folks over at Edublogs have put together this great List.ly that is filled to the brim with the best education tools, and the best part is that they’re all free! So you can feel free to try any or all of them out without a huge financial commitment.
This article was geared more towards college students, but I thought the examples were great and elementary teachers could learn and adapt for their own students. I thought the Twitter request of asking students to showcase their work was a great idea. Instead of collecting 50+ pieces of paper, students can take a picture and post it online for submission. It also allows students to see each others work. by courtneycalhoun11 Jul 14