Meograph – 4 Dimensional Story Telling Web 2.0 Style What I love about Web 2.0 apps is the simplicity. Bloated desktop apps like Office and Photoshop, with their hundreds of menu items and toolbars, are powerful tools but become difficult for non techies to handle. Web 2.o tools, on the other hand, are focused on specific purposes, allowing them to be streamlined and simple enough for anyone to use. Meograph, a relatively new tool ( released in July, 2012 and still in Beta form) is one such simple to use but still powerful web app. It sells itself as a “4 Dimensional Story telling” app. ADD A MOMENT. That’s all there is to it. ( One more thing – it has share and embedding options so that you can add your Meograph to your own website/blog, as I have done, or post it directly to Twitter, Facebook and other popular Social Media sites like Pinterest, Google+ Delicious and StumblUpon.) While I have found Meograph to be a very useful and simple to use storytelling tool, there is room for improvement. The Timeline.
iMindMap Overview Here’s why our customers love iMindMap. Get started today to unlock your full potential. “Your Mind Mapping software has transformed our business & become a part of our cultural DNA.” Wheaton Wealth Partners, USA “iMindMap’s Mind Mapping software is the most creative piece of technology I’ve ever used.” Graham Cullen, Head Teacher, Porchester School, UK “It helps me immeasurably at work, and keeps me focused managing risks for the international space station.” Trent Keeble, International Space Station, USA “iMindMap is one of the most useful organisational tools that I use on a daily basis. Neil Quiogue, PopCap Games, Ireland “iMindMap gives a professional edge to a creative and fun process. Alison Jones, Accountancy Lecturer, UK “No other Mind Map software affords the ability to quickly gather thoughts, brainstorm, develop and flesh out new ideas. Tom McDermott, UCD Michael Smurfit Business School Here’s why our customers love iMindMap. Wheaton Wealth Partners, USA
MindMaps - Promise of Technology THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY and the PERILS OF TECHNOLOGY Pepperdine University's Online Masters of Educational Technology Program: written by Cadre 9 Table of Contents for Promises of Technology Technology promises to improve schools, educational environments, society and solve any problems that may arise. Such wide-ranging and profound changes should be examined, weighed, clarified and reflected upon as we seek to identify the best paths to take in this journey. What are the benefits that technology offers?
8 Excellent Rules to Improve your Writing Style From the same wonderful anthology of How to Use the Power of the Printed Word , I am sharing with you some great strategies to improve your writing style advocated by the popular writer Kurt Vonnegut and featured in Brainpickings. Everyone of us is a struggling writer no matter how skilled we are at writing. This is the case even with the well-known authors because writing is an " unfinished ongoing and developing craft ". I am not sure how much writing you do everyday but for me I am really writing a lot and probably the thing I do the most in my day is writing. I adore writing and I lose myself in it ( I don't like academic writing though). Related articles : For today's post ( not a smooth transition, I know ) , I am sharing with you the 8 rules for great writing as outlined by Kurt. 1- Find a Subject You Care About Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. 2-Do Not Ramble, Though I won’t ramble on about that. 3- Keep It Simple
5 Innovative Mind-Mapping Tools For Education What do you do when you have an elaborate project, assignment, or paper that needs to be quickly organized? Do you fire up Microsoft Word and whip up an outline? Do you pull out a pen and paper and start sketching? What if you could have the best of both options with a free online tool? XMind Definitely one of the easiest ways to embed a mind map into your blog or website. The biggest feature to me is the ‘Pro’ feature which lets you record what an audience (or your classroom) says directly into the mind map as an .mp3. MindMeister MindMeister is a powerful tool that is great for mind-mapping on the go. The software is now at version 6.0 which brought on the ability to ‘theme’ your mind maps so they look all the snazzier. The killer tool is far and away the ability to collaborate, though. iMindMap Sample From ThinkBuzan iMindMap Basic is a free Mind Mapping software which will get you Mind Mapping quickly and easily. SpiderScribe.net Click to enlarge! Google Docs Other Mind Mapping Tools
FrontPage "In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing,not running office automation tools." ---Nicholas Negroponte, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab Easily the greatest struggle that educators face in today's day and age is properly preparing students for a future that is poorly defined yet rapidly changing. Our kids’ futures will require them to be: Networked–They’ll need an “outboard brain.”More collaborative–They are going to need to work closely with people to co-create information.More globally aware–Those collaborators may be anywhere in the world.Less dependent on paper–Right now, we are still paper training our kids.More active–In just about every sense of the word. General Overview Handout Table of Contents Blogging
The Original Fantasy: Beginnings Part 1: Cast The Spell In The First Line Beginnings are important. They are your fishing lure, your bling, your spider’s web, your black hole from which there is no return until series end. It is what a new reader will judge you on, an editor will judge you on, an agent will judge you on. First lines seem like they wouldn’t be a problem, I mean you have to write at least 20,000 sentences when writing your novel. Riding back to the old neighbourhood felt like I had come a lot further than a few suburbs, maybe back in time. “But names are important!” The drought that gripped Ros’s family’s farm broke the year he started hearing voices.– The Changeling, Sean Williams. The magical activities of Britain have always been highly organized. For almost as long as she could remember, Maerad had been imprisoned behind walls. It was little more than three miles from the wall into the Old Kingdom, but that was enough. All of them start at a point of intrigue or in the middle of some turning point or important event.
About me , Ian Hall EPCOP learnspace My profile for EpCop MOOC I love e-learning.. I recently joined the E-portfolio Mooc. It is amazing to see how many resources and how much collaboration takes place. I strongly believe I am going to benefit a lot. I created web sites I have always had an emphasis on online training, teaching and learning. I am undertaking IT volunteer at The HUB in Eaglehawk – 8 computers (2 days a week) plus the Broadband for Seniors Internet kiosk. At Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services (LCMS) I do voluntary work for 2 days a week as Information technology trainer, training trainers for the Broadband for Seniors Internet Kiosk, Web Designer for www.lcms.org.au using FrontPage 2003 in design and assisting migrants with issues.Email: lcms2011@gmail.com Have undertaken Ellumination (now Blackboard/Collaboration) moderating sessions on Skype and an adventure for the kiosks across Australia.. Like this:
Classroom Technology - Apps for Education Android Apps Click Here Personally, Aerohive is the best wireless for schools! Easy, affordable, scalable, and great customer service. PA schools call 717-653-6641 and ask for a sales rep who deals with Aerohive. Honestly, I can't believe how easy this is. BYOD and Beyond WhitepaperSelecting the Best Apps for Teaching!! Pros and Cons of BYOD and School Supplied Mobile Devices - NEWEST LIST OF MATH APPS - 13 iPhone 5 apps to make higher ed easier - CLICK HERE Back to School Drivers 100+ Tablet Deployment - xplain Everything($2.99 on iTunes: inexpensive app records on-screen drawing, annotation, object movement and captures audio via the iPad microphone.
Writing Rules! Advice From The Times on Writing Well The Times has recently published a few features that we consider gifts to English teachers everywhere, including a summer “How To” section of the Sunday Book Review, and a new series, called “Draft,” on the art of writing, which features essays by grammarians, historians, linguists, journalists, novelists and others. Below, we collect some “rules” we’ve derived from these features and from other pieces on the Times site, along with links and related activities we hope writers at any stage will find fun or useful — or both. Before you go, please note Rule 10, in which we ask for your writing advice. Rule 1: Listen to the Voice Inside Your Head In a post for Draft, Verilyn Klinkenborg notes that he is often asked what his “writing process” is. “My answer is simple: I think patiently, trying out sentences in my head,” he writes. Mr. You almost surely have a voice inside your head. Try Mr. Rule 2: Learn From the Masters What are your favorite bits of advice? Rule 3: Read Like Writers Ms. Use Mr.
DRAFT - Opinionator John Wells and I have been together a very long time. If you haven’t heard of Wells, he’s a C.I.A. operative who plays the starring role in a series of espionage thrillers that I started writing a decade ago. Random House published the first, “The Faithful Spy,” in 2006. I planned to kill Wells off at its end, a la John le Carre’s Alec Leamas. But my editor told me I couldn’t end with a fade to black, that I’d have to have a funeral. Since then, Wells has proven too tough to die, or maybe too mean. Wells predates my wife, Jackie, and our daughter, Lucy. All of which is another way of saying that John Wells has markedly enriched my life — an impressive feat for a man who doesn’t exist.
5 Tools Students Can Use to Create Alternative Book Reports This afternoon someone emailed me asking for some suggestions for tools for creating book trailer videos. It has been two years since I last wrote about the topic so I created a new list of tools for creating book trailers. Book trailers are short videos designed to spark a viewer's interest in a book. Having students create book trailers is an excellent alternative to traditional book report projects. A great place to find examples of book trailers is Book Trailers for Readers . Animoto makes it possible to quickly create a video using still images, music, video clips, and text. WeVideo is a collaborative online video creation tool. Pixntell is an iPad app for quickly creating simple narrated photostories. Narrable is a neat service for creating short narrated slideshows.
Tristan Bancks | Australian Children's Author | Children's Books: Story Scrapbook Story Scrapbook is a transmedia story brainstorming tool. It lets you bring together images, video, music, text and web grabs, making creative writing interactive and fun. It is based on my own multimedia-fuelled writing process, bringing the writing process alive for people who think visually, interactively and aurally, as well as textually. Story Scrapbook lets you tell stories your way. I've been working with Ben Train – genius developer / programmer / designer guy – and he has done an amazing job in adapting the app version of the tool to the Web. Here's how to use it... 1. 2. 3. And I would LOVE you to share your feedback and links to your Scrapbook creations in comments below. Digital storytelling, multimedia scrapbooking, story 2.0, Digital story, transmedia, Multimedia, Pre-visualisation, vision boarding, vision board