Logitech intros wired iPad keyboard especially for education market As anyone who has read TUAW over the past few weeks can tell there's no shortage of iPad keyboards on the market these days. All of them tend to use Bluetooth to connect to the iPad, which is fine -- except when you're a school teacher or IT person who needs to figure out which keyboard is paired with a particular iPad. So that students can simply grab a keyboard, plug it in and start typing away, Logitech has announced the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad (US$59.99, available later this year). The keyboard will come in two flavors; a Lightning-equipped model that will be shipping in August, and a 30-pin connector version that is expected in October. Since it's designed to be used by students of all ages, the Wired Keyboard has a spill-resistant design and is expected to put up with the pounding of over 5 million keystrokes. There are shortcut keys for the regular iPad functions, such as Siri, app switching and copy and paste. Apple iPad Air 2 Key specs Prices Discussions
Wonderopolis | Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease Dropr - Create Multimedia Portfolios Dropr is a free service for creating portfolios of your images, videos, and audio files. Within your Dropr account you can have multiple portfolio pages. If you wanted to have a page for images that you took in the fall and a page for images that you took in the spring, you can do that in Dropr. To create a Dropr portfolio start by signing up with a social media profile or with your email address. Then start your first project by uploading a cover image. Applications for EducationDropr could be a good tool for having students create digital portfolios for the media that they produce.
Create Digital Magazines With Glossi Glossi is a new service for creating digital magazines. Glossi magazines can include images, videos, audio files, and links to external sources of information. The magazines that you create are displayed with page-turning effects. Your magazines can be embedded into your blog. Learn more about Glossi in the video below. Applications for EducationGlossi is still in a closed beta so you will have to request an invitation before you can start creating your own magazines.
12 Advanced iPad Tips All Educators Should Learn Mobile Learning | Feature 12 Advanced iPad Tips All Educators Should Learn By Luis Pérez 04/23/13 It's no secret that the iPad has become a big hit with educators, due in part to its ease of use and the more than 20,000 educational apps available in the App Store to meet a wide range of learner needs. But are you and your students really getting the most out of its use? At FETC 2013 , Jennifer Hart and I presented a session where we shared a number of advanced tips to make finding, sorting, consuming, and creating content on the iPad easier and more efficient. Since I work in the field of special education, many of these tips mention the built-in accessibility features of the iPad. 1. 2. 3. 4. Tap and hold the keyboard key (lower right corner of the keyboard) and choose the option to split the keyboard (you can also undock it to move it out of the way if you need to see the bottom of the screen while the keyboard is visible).
Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources | USM Libraries | University of Southern Maine Is the Web a good research tool? This question is dependent on the researcher's objective. As in traditional print resources one must use a method of critical analysis to determine its value. Here is a checklist for evaluating web resources to help in that determination. Authority: Is the information reliable? Check the author's credentials and affiliation. Does the resource have a reputable organization or expert behind it? Are the sources of information stated? Can the author be contacted for clarification? Check for organizational or author biases. Scope: Is the material at this site useful, unique, accurate or is it derivative, repetitious, or doubtful? Is the information available in other formats? Is the purpose of the resource clearly stated? What items are included in the resource? Is the information factual or opinion? Does the site contain original information or simply links? How frequently is the resource updated? Does the site have clear and obvious pointers to new content? Other Tips:
Scrapbook is not a verb: How to Use Evernote for Student Portfolios « Miss Night's Marbles So, the thing is… this is NOT a “how-to” blog. I’ve never really been comfortable with the idea of using my blog to explain my tools, tips, routines, rituals, in great detail. It always somehow feels like bragging. Don’t ask me how TWEETING about some new trick (something I do all. the. time.) doesn’t feel like bragging, but it just doesn’t. Maybe because Twitter is a conversation, so sharing something there feels more like TALKING? Ok, great, I am not even up to the how-to part, and I have already probably offended half of you. Back-story: This School has portfolio-based assessment as part of our 3-year strategic plan, and we decided that this year was The Year that every teacher at every grade level would include portfolios in our assessment strategy. More back-story: Up until now, the kindergarten teachers at my school have always done scrapbooks for the students, containing art projects, work samples and photos. The leap from there to student portfolios was a short one.
8 Exam-Prep Activities Students Actually Like After Christmas break students will return to school for 8 days of review prior to taking their End of Course Exams. I can give my students a review packet with hundreds of problems, but that would only lead to them giving up, sleeping, and not even trying. So below are 8 fun activities I created to motivate and engage my students in their final exam reviews. 1. Vocabulary Gallery Walk – Each student will be given a word to define and provide an example for. Students will use Sock Puppet or Go Animate to create a mini skit to define and example their word. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. These are 8 fun review games that is sure to get students motivated to review for their final exams! Visit my blog for printables, instructions, and examples!
iPad Apps Classified by SAMR model The SAMR model helps teachers and educators understand and better integrate technology into their teaching and learning. This model was created by Dr Robin Puentudura with the explicit aim of helping teachers in designing, developing and integrating digital media to increase students overall academic achievements. The four levels of this model are : Substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition. Have a look at the image below to learn more about these four levels. The image is taken from Summer Tech Institute. If you want to go deeper into SAMR , I would recommend this PDF from Dr Ruben himself. Let me now share with you a great poster created by Swanson in which he features a myriad of iPad apps according to the four levels of SAMR.
The 5 Elements Students Should Look For When Evaluating Web Content March , 2014 In a section in her wonderful book "Understanding The Social Lives of Networked Teens" Danah Boyd talked extensively about the concept of digital natives and argued that this nomenclature does not really capture the essence of what a digitally savvy teenager really means. Dana argued that the mere fact of being comfortable with a social media tool does not prove that the user has a digital fluency to allow them to better use it for educational purposes : Just because teens are comfortable using social media to hang out does not mean that they’re fluent in or with technology. Learning how to evaluate online content is an essential step in the process of developing digitally literate students. Watch this short introduction to CRAAP Currency: Is the information too old.
How to Create a Portfolio with Evernote (Education Series) Bio Rob is a teacher at Trillium Charter School in Portland, where he primarily instructs students aged 8-11. He has been working to develop online portfolios with students for the past six years and has taught in private schools, traditional public schools and public charter schools for the past 15 years. I use Evernote, Everywhere: iPhoneiPod TouchiPadMacWindows E-Portfolios: a student’s project warehouse and progress tracker I started teaching 15 years ago and that is when I first came across this concept of a ‘portfolio.’ Initially, I had my students create paper portfolios. We had a bin where we’d put these documents and at the end of the year, they’d have 10-20 pieces that they’d take with them into the next school year. After spending years with paper portfolios, I’ve transitioned this concept into digital form, and have started to implement Evernote as the primarily system for creating portfolios in my classroom. Evernote as an portfolio system Parent/Teacher conferences and Evernote