A Good Way to Create and Save Mind Maps to Google Drive October 25, 2014 MindMup is an excellent web tool that allows you to create beautiful mind maps. Mindmup does not require registration and is very simple to use. It is also integrated with Google Drive so you can save your mind maps straight to your Drive account. MindMup also provide a set of good extensions to enhance your mind mapping. Some examples include: Realtime collaboration: This is a good feature to use with students in class. Progress Progress allows you to manage hierarchies of tasks faster by propagating statuses to parent nodes. Straight lines This extension converts funky curve connectors into straight lines, which makes it clearer to see what connects to what on large maps. When you are done working on your mind maps you can then save them to your Dropbox or Google Drive.
Special Issue: Community Informatics and Open Government Data | Vol 8, No 2 (2012) In many countries across the world, discussions, policies and developments are actively emerging around open access to government data. It is believed that opening up government data to citizens is critical for enforcing transparency and accountability within the government. Open data is also seen as holding the potential to bring about greater citizens' participation, empowering citizens to ask questions of their governments via not only the data that is made openly available but also through the interpretations that different stakeholders make of the open data. Besides advocacy for open data on grounds of democracy, it is also argued that opening government data can have significant economic potential, generating new industries and innovations. Some open government data initiatives are being led by governments.
Do Your Students Know How To Search? The Connected Student Series: There is a new digital divide on the horizon. It is not based around who has devices and who does not, but instead the new digital divide will be based around students who know how to effectively find and curate information and those who do not. Helene Blowers has come up with seven ideas about the new digital divide – four of them, the ones I felt related to searching, are listed below. The New Digital Divide: In an age of information abundance learning to effectively search is one of the most important skills most teachers are NOT teaching. Teachers – especially in the elementary grades -need to develop a shared vocabulary around the skill of searching. Here are some of the searching skills and vocabulary we should be teaching students : Quotation Marks: Students should always use quotes to search for an exact word or set of words. Example: “The Great Chicago Fire” Dashes (or minus sign): Example: Great Chicago Fire -soccer Two Periods: Site Search:
HSC : All My Own Work :: Home Harlot | A revealing look at the arts of persuasion Yesterday, my Spanish teacher and I were discussing Martín Fierro (1870s), a culturally significant epic poem in Argentina because of its depiction of gauchos. (If you’re not aware, gauchos are kind of like Argentine cowboys. At the time the poem was written, they were a sort of “sub-class” because they were multi-racial, being a mixture between the colonizing Europeans and the indigenous people. Traditionally, they weren’t land owners themselves, but worked with the cows and horses for other ranchers throughout the Pampas region of Argentina). So, when Martín runs off to Patagonia, the book describes this by saying that he goes to “el desierto.” So, this prompted my teacher to pull out a hundred-peso bill. La Conquista del Desierto The image itself depicts Roca and his men expanding and “uniting” Argentina, which pretty much meant killing or displacing the indigenous people living there and allowing more ancestral-Europeans to settle. Why am I telling you all of this?
How To 'App Smash' And Implement Digital Storytelling On The iPad App smashing, the process of using more than one apps in conjunction with one another to create a final product, is a concept that allows students to create engaging educational projects and illustrate their creativity in multifaceted ways. One of the most gratifying and effective ways to use app smashing in the classroom is to create digital storytelling projects. The concept of digital storytelling is emerging as a form of personal and collective expression of knowledge, ideas, and perceptions. Here is an iPad app smashing activity you can use in your classroom in order to create professionally looking digital storytelling projects. Getting Hands-On: The Project A typical app smashing activity has four steps: First, you start with the end product in mind. Objective To create a Digital Storytelling project that illustrates knowledge in effective and appropriate ways. Apps We Will Use Workflow Short Tutorials Here is a short video on how to use Tellagami Some Final Thoughts
Social Media for Teachers: Guides, Resources, and Ideas Although students are evermore connected to the social web, many of these networks remain out-of-class digital playgrounds where students congregate. In a 2014 survey of 1,000 teachers, just one in five said they use social media regularly with students. Of course, it can be a challenge to incorporate social media into lessons. More Great Reads From Edutopia In addition to those great guides, there is a lot of useful information right here on Edutopia. 13 Things to Remember When Life Gets Rough | By: LifeHack We’ve all gone through hard times. And we all get through them. However, some get through them better than others. So what is their secret? 1. Buddha’s famous saying tells us: “It is your resistance to ‘what is’ that causes your suffering.” 2. Many times, we are our own worst enemy. 3. Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. 4. You should just wipe the word “failure” right out of your vocabulary. 5. That’s hard to believe sometimes, I know. 6. This moment will never come again. 7. Most people live with “attached mind.” 8. Fear can be a great teacher. 9. Believe it or not, I know way too many people who don’t allow themselves to have fun. 10. But if you do compare yourself, compare yourself with people who have it worse than you. 11. You need to get out of your own way. 12. “And this too shall pass” is one of my favorite sayings. 13. Miracles happen every day. Last featured on Expanded Consciousness
Free Stuff - Big6 Select any item in the list below. Click to follow link or download item. Handouts Presentations Inquiry Learning Big6-Style: It All Starts with Asking Great Questions! Videos Inquiry Learning Big6-Style: It All Starts with Asking Great Questions ! Planners - Organizers Alex-Big6 Report Writing Resources Elementary - K - 6 Secondary - 7 - 12 Science Lab Report Writer [Word] Checklists Graphic Guides Know Your Major Information Sources (Good for Big6 #2 Information Seeking Strategies Grades 7-12) [GIF] Quizzes Know Your Information Sources QUIZ by Susan McMullen (Grades 7-12) [PDF] Games Kentucky Virtual Library - How to Do Research Posters Super3/Big6 posters by Franklin & Chow [PDF]
pat have calluses from patting one's own back and break one's arm patting oneself on the back Fig. to be a braggart. If you haven't heard about Bill's latest achievement, he'd be glad to tell you. pat someone or something on something to tap someone or something on a particular place with the open hand. pat someone on the back and give someone a pat on the back 1. 2. pat something down to tap something down with the open hand. pat answer a quick, easy answer; a simplified or evasive answer. stand pat (on something) to stick firmly to one's position or opinions. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. a pat on the back if you give someone a pat on the back, you praise them for something good that they have done (often + for ) She deserves a pat on the back for keeping things going while you were away. learn something off pat (British, American & Australian) also learn something down pat (American) Seelearn off pat have something down pat
40 maps that explain the internet The internet increasingly pervades our lives, delivering information to us no matter where we are. It takes a complex system of cables, servers, towers, and other infrastructure, developed over decades, to allow us to stay in touch with our friends and family so effortlessly. Here are 40 maps that will help you better understand the internet — where it came from, how it works, and how it's used by people around the world. How the internet was created Before the internet, there was the ARPANET Before the internet, there was the ARPANETARPANET, the precursor to the modern internet, was an academic research project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a branch of the military known for funding ambitious research projects without immediate commercial or military applications. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Level 3 The privatization of the internet backboneIn 1994, the Clinton Administration privatized the internet backbone. The internet around the world Threats to the internet
Five Ways to Strengthen Your Presentation Writing This post was written by Scott Schwertly Scott is the Founder and CEO of Ethos3. The writing process for a presentation begins when you greet that first blank slide on the screen or on the page. This is your time to bring your message to life to impress your audience with its flow, concision, and clarity. Whether you are creating a first draft or editing your tenth, here are five ways to strengthen your writing throughout a presentation. 1. The passive voice is a sin. 2. Presentations come through our door loaded with content, like travellers that have simply packed too much for their suitcases to hold. that says “my audience won’t understand if I don’t say this and this,” or “I need this content in here!” 3. Just like our namesake, we love the number three. 4. “Few and far between,” “in any way, shape, or form,” and “the fact of the matter” are all speech cliches. 5. The bulk of your best writing will be completed in the editing process, so don’t hesitate to try and try again.
Age of Distraction: Why It’s Crucial for Students to Learn to Focus Digital classroom tools like computers, tablets and smartphones offer exciting opportunities to deepen learning through creativity, collaboration and connection, but those very devices can also be distracting to students. Similarly, parents complain that when students are required to complete homework assignments online, it’s a challenge for students to remain on task. The ubiquity of digital technology in all realms of life isn’t going away, but if students don’t learn how to concentrate and shut out distractions, research shows they’ll have a much harder time succeeding in almost every area. “The real message is because attention is under siege more than it has ever been in human history, we have more distractions than ever before, we have to be more focused on cultivating the skills of attention,” said Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence and other books about social and emotional learning on KQED’s Forum program. Katrina Schwartz
"Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers" by feillet May 28