This Is The New Learnist. Learnist is one of the relatively new but noteworthy educational social networks. We write about it a lot. We have a couple Grockit (the folks who built Learnist) folks write stories on Edudemic on a regular basis. We’re fans. So that’s why we were pretty psyched to speak to Farbood Nivi, the founder of Grockit, who unveiled the new look of Learnist. The New Learnist Design First off, here’s the new homepage layout of the site alongside the prior version: As you can see, the new layout is cleaned up and looking less like a Pinterest clone. You can now browse an icon-free menu (hooray!) The Funding News Farbood shared some wild news about a now-official investment. “As Discovery focuses its digital strategy around strengthening its position in video as the #1 nonfiction media company across all screens, we also see strategic growth opportunities in select investments in the next generation knowledge space,” said JB Perrette, Chief Digital Officer, Discovery Communications. About Learnist
Teaching with Instagram The proliferation of smart phones has led to the development of innumerable educational apps for all subjects and grade levels. The problem is that students may not necessarily be interested in apps with high scholastic value, so it’s up to teachers to find didactive opportunities in the apps that students are interested in. image from iStock Facebook recently bought Instagram, the incredibly popular mobile photo sharing app, for nearly one billion dollars. It had a user base of 30 million before it even released to Android™ in early April, so odds are good that your students know, love, and use Instagram on a regular basis. So how can you use it in the classroom? Art and photography classes have the most obvious applications—composition, lighting, subject matter. Do you have any ideas for using Instagram in the classroom? Have you written a blog post about Instagram in education?
Five Ways to Use Online Portfolios in the Classroom Our digital world is transforming the way we learn, and today's teachers are tasked with the challenging job of sifting through the deluge of educational technologies and creating a meaningful learning experience for students. In my 15 years in education, I've seen firsthand how opportunities and a little guidance can positively impact a person's future and change the life path they're following. In fact, as a result of serving on the San Francisco School Board, where I learned about the obstacles to education, I've seen how creating learning opportunities can impact a long-term digital identity. Next-generation education portfolio platforms -- such as Digication, Pathbrite, Taskstream and Epsilen -- are one way for teachers to start early and educate students about how they can manage their own academic and professional accomplishments. 1. Build in Opportunities for Peer-to-Peer Learning 2. Sifting through the endless hoards of information on the Internet is becoming a necessary skill.
35 Digital Tools That Work With Bloom's Taxonomy Integrating technology in the classroom and engaging students in higher order thinking creates the ultimate learning experience for students. Bloom’s Taxonomy and digital tools creates an innovative learning environment where students are engaged in their assignments. The following is a list of digital tools as it relates to Bloom’s Taxonomy. 1. Creating – In creating, students create projects that involve video editing, storytelling, video casting, podcasting, and animating. For a sample lesson using digital tools with the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy visit my post at: .
Adobe Acquires Online Portfolio Site Behance Adobe just doubled down on design (say the ten times fast) with a new acquisition that’s official as of this publication. You probably already know about Adobe and it’s array of design software, social analytics and other products. But you may not know Behance . Basically, it’s an online portfolio site where graphic designers, web designers, and really anyone can create their own space online. The community is quite active and the site itself is filled with inspirational design and ideas. I encourage you to check out Behance if you haven’t yet! See Also: Everything You Should Know About The New Adobe CS6 So what will Adobe do with Behance? Acquisition Enables Millions of Creative Cloud and Behance Members to Create, Share, Showcase and Publish Their Work SAN JOSE, Calif. — Dec. 20, 2012 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that it has acquired privately held Behance, a leading online social media platform that enables creatives to showcase and share their work.
Using Instagram in an Educational Context If you are active on social websites, or have young tech users in your life, then you’ve probably come across Instagram. This application works in hand-in-hand with Facebook and has grown to be one of the most apps on the Internet. What is Instagram? Instagram is an online photo sharing and social networking service. How can Instagram deliver educational benefits? Here are some of the ways in which the use of a tool like Instagram can benefit the educational process: Instagram & Spatial IntelligenceSpatial intelligence is a mental process through which the brain attempts to interpret certain types of incoming information. I wish we had interesting tools like Instagram when I was in school. Are you using Instagram in an educational context? Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):How Teachers are Using Tumblr in the ClassroomCan Social Media Play A Role in Improving Retention in Higher Education? About Jason Phillips Print This Post
Digital Tools for the Common Core by Michael Fisher In the next few weeks, Janet Hale and I will have our newest book published by ASCD, Upgrade Your Curriculum: Practical Ways to Transform Units and Engage Students. We will very soon be launching a new ASCD Edge Group and Discussion Board around the book to discuss improvements in instructional practice and design. We also want to hear the awesome ideas of all the educators who would like to engage in a dynamic multi-media conversation! In the book, we discuss different lenses and considerations through which you can view your current curriculum for a particular upgrade. This blog post is honing in on two upgrades: technology integration and Common Core alignment. The Common Core alignment relates to a pair of anchor standards for reading: #1 that asks students to read closely, and #10, that asks that students read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts. It’s always worth reminding ourselves that it’s the task that matters, not the tool. Smore Piktochart
The 100 Best Learning Tools Of 2012 As Chosen By You Word Cloud of this list of learning tools! It’s a magical time of year. The time when we start seeing some of the best roundups of web tools and apps being used to enhance learning around the world. We’ll be doing our darnedest to bring you the most useful lists and guides created by the many amazing edtech enthusiasts to ensure you don’t miss a thing. In case you missed the first in our series, check out The 30 Best Web 2.0 Tools For Teachers (2012 Edition) . The next in our lineup of useful presentations comes from the always fabulous Jane Hart . More than 500 learning professionals took part in voting for their favorite tools, apps, and learning resources. Be sure to check out the full voting records and a look at how each resource is being used (personal, professional, enterprise) at Jane’s terrific site, C4LPT.
Prezi Unveils Secret New Feature In Guide To Mayan Apocalypse Prezi Unveils Massive Makeover 2.87K Views 0 Likes Popular slideshow and presentation tool, Prezi, has just taken the wrapper off of a substantial redesign of their website. Sweet! You Can Now Embed Learnist Boards Into Your Blog 993 Views 0 Likes We're big fans of Learnist, the 'Pinterest for Education' and have an exclusive update you should know about. New Presentation Tool Lets You Easily Keep Students Engaged 10.67K Views 0 Likes From Prezi to Google Docs to PowerPoint, there's no shortage of ways for teachers to put together a dynamic presentation. The 200 Best Special Education Apps
Instagram in Education | thinktanK12 Blog Do you use Instagram? This free photo-sharing app is one of the fastest growing social networks, with 100 million users, and it’s easy to see why. With its retro square format and lo-fi filters, the app makes shooting, editing, and sharing photos easy and fun. And now you can follow K12 on Instagram! Check out photos from community events at our partner schools around the country, peek behind the scenes at K12 for a preview of what we’re working on, and share your online schooling photos with us by tagging us @k12learn. Instagram is fun and social, but lately I’ve been wondering if there are also potential learning opportunities for users. One of the benefits to using social media in school is that students may be more engaged in their work when they feel they have an authentic audience- that someone other than their teachers will see it. In order to sign up for an account, users do need to be 13 – just like with Facebook.
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: Top 20 LiveBinders you should not Miss Digital bookmarking is a pivotal learning skill. It does not only allow you to organize your information into one single platform accessible from anywhere with an internet connection but can also help you in your professional growth. Web2.0 technologies have made it way easier for us to control and curate the content we come across online. I definitely believe that without the power of bookmarking we would never be able to manage the huge influx of information Internet provides. I have already talked in a previous post about the benefits of bookmarking for us as teachers and learner and I said that bookmarking web tools: I am also recommending the following bookmarking tools for you : LiveBinder is one the best bookmarking web tools out there.
50 Little-Known Ways Google Docs Can Help In Education 5 Ways To Be A Better Public Speaker 7.16K Views 0 Likes If you've been asked to speak at a conference or host a seminar, you may be shaking in your boots. My 10 Favorite Learnist Boards Of The Year 2.66K Views 0 Likes I wanted to take a moment and share my favorite Learnist boards from the past year. Activate ED Wants To Find The Next Leaders In Education Four of the big names in education want to fix education from the inside out. Activate ED is a new consortium (announced just moments ago) that hopes to pair the best of the best educators with the schools and other organizations that need them most. Whether you’re a teacher, administrator, student, or simply someone who wants to help improve education, check out Activate ED. You might want to get started by taking the quiz here to see how you fit in. What Is Activate ED? It’s a partnership between The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, Education Pioneers and the Strategic Data Project. Activate ED has just launched a new website over at activate-ed.org and says it’ll be recruiting about 1,500 new members by April 2014. Press Release Below The three organizations have already achieved strong results, placing a total of over 2,000 leaders to date, and are combining forces in part because all have a presence in 15 regions and cities across the nation.
The Educator’s Guide to Instagram and Other Photo Apps I’m not the most dedicated Instagrammer (need to get out more) or the best photographer (wish I was) but like many other educators, I enjoy sharing my photos on Instagram. Why? It’s fun! Easy! Here’s my advice to help you get started or get more out of using Instagram.Click on a link below to quickly go to the section you want to read: Back to Top What is Instagram? Launched in 2010, Instagram is one of the fastest growing mobile media phenoms; with just over 15 million users at the start of 2012 it now has over 50 million users. Instagram is a free photo sharing app for android and iOS devices that lets users take a photo, apply photo filters and share through a variety of social networking services including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and on Instagram. Instagram is sort of like Twitter – except instead of connecting with others using 140 characters or less, you’re sharing photos. Instagram is popular because: It make sharing photos using mobile devices quick, easy and a lot of fun! Back to Top