How to Create Your Own Textbook — With or Without Apple By Dolores Gende Apple’s iBooks2 and authoring app has created big waves in education circles. But smart educators don’t necessarily need Apple’s slick devices and software to create their own books. How educators think of content curation in the classroom is enough to change their reliance on print textbooks. As the open education movement continues to grow and become an even more rich trove of resources, teachers can use the content to make their own interactive textbooks. It might seem daunting, but the availability of quality materials online and the power of tapping into personal learning networks should make it easier. Here’s how to create a digital textbook and strategies for involving the students in its development in three steps. 1. Teachers can work with colleagues within their subject area departments and beyond the walls of the classroom to aggregate resources through social bookmarking. 2. One of the most user-friendly tools to post resources for your course is LiveBinders.
Science Leadership Academy Protecting Reputations Online In the past, doing something embarrassing wasn't a big deal. It happened, and then people moved on. But now that things can be shared on the Web immediately, those embarrassing moments can last forever and impact your reputation and those of your friends. Let's talk about what happens on the Web. Search engines are constantly scanning it. Their goal is to take a snapshot of every word, picture and video on the web and save it for search results. Think about it this way. It starts with what you choose to put on websites. Luckily, you don't have to share everything publicly. Another step is asking your friends to think about what they share on the Web. Of course, you can't control everything on the Web. Sharing your life online can be fun and productive, but it can also mean losing some control.
Taking Next-Gen Classrooms Beyond the Pilot Smart Classroom Design | Features Taking Next-Gen Classrooms Beyond the Pilot How the University of Minnesota moved its Active Learning Classroom concept to prime time. By Jennifer Demski05/25/11 In early 2008, after piloting two Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) for only one full semester, the University of Minnesota had a decision to make: Should the new classroom format be incorporated into the design of its new Science Teaching and Student Services (STSS) building? Since faculty, students, and researchers all agreed that the ALC format was making a difference in teaching and learning, the answer was an unqualified yes. But the new classrooms would not simply duplicate the piloted setup. Technology-Enabled Classroom Design, Version 1 The ALC pilot rooms put the university at the forefront of next-generation classroom design.
Museum Box Homepage 5 Ways You Can Use Wikis Today I had the privilege to participate in Discovery's Beyond the Textbook forum. One of my take-aways from the day's conversation is that most of the technologies that we want to use to make textbooks interactive and meaningful for students already exist, we just need to organize and utilize them in a way that makes sense for teachers and students. I've combined that take-away with a recent request from a reader to delineate some ways that teachers can use Wikispaces to create this list of ideas for using wikis in classrooms. Please feel free to add your suggestions, with links if possible, in the comments below (please note, I'll be on planes for the next 18 hours so there will be a delay between your comment submission and its appearance on the blog). 1. As a digital portfolio of student-created videos. 2. 3. 4. 5. How are you using wikis in your classroom?
PowerDirector 10 - the world’s fastest video editing software 5-times PC MAG Editors’ Choice Winner – The Best Video Editing Software of the Year PowerDirector has received multiple world-class awards since it’s introduction in September 2013, including the 5th PC Magazine Editors’ choice, CES 2014 CES innovation award. And is selected by PC Magazine as the Best Video Editing Software in 2013. Learn More Take Video Creation to a Whole New Level Intuitive Editing Environment Stunning Effects World’s Fastest Video Editing Pro Quality Video Production Take Video Creation to a Whole New Level You are passionate about video creation, it's time to elevate your video creations to a whole new level! MultiCam Designer NEW Import, sync and edit videos from 4 cameras The NEW MultiCam Designer allows you to simulate live camera switching from 4 cameras by selecting and editing the best camera angle and sequence from an event that you have simultaneously captured with your camcorder, DSLR, digital camera and Smartphone. Theme DesignerNEW Film Strip Wallet of Media Edit
Here’s Some Background Information for Your Next E-Learning Course During the year I conduct dozens of elearning workshops. I dedicate a large part of the workshop to graphic design because based on what I see, it’s an area that challenges many elearning developers. Most of the people I meet have a training background. They may have some graphic design skills, but they usually find their roots in training. Elearning courses are mostly a visual medium which means that graphic design is a key part of building effective elearning courses. What will the course look like? Regardless of how you approach your course design, the course has to look like something. In today’s post I want to offer a simple trick to help you get past the standard PowerPoint design or that template-screen look. Change Your Background Image It’s amazing what a nice background can do for the look of your screen. Many rapid elearning developers will use the application’s default background or a pre-built template. Find the Right Background Below is another example. Tidbits
ChronoZoom ChronoZoom is an educational tool for teachers and students who want to put historical events in perspective. A great many resources have been created already in ChronoZoom for your enjoyment and enlightenment. Start Exploring Use ChronoZoom to get a perspective of the extensive scale of time and historical events relative to what happened around the world. New Teacher Resources RT @MSFTResearch: See how #Chronozoom helps students “think historically” & travel though time with 3 newly created curriculum modules http… #chronozoom is a valuable tool for illustrating Climate Change: @metanexus Anyone can author their small or Big History on the 14 Billion year timeline at - an open source project. @BillGates Congratulations to the Big History Project. RT @BillGates: Big History is my favorite course ever. You don't have any favorite timelines yet.
12 Tech Tools That Will Transform The Way You Teach! In a Simple K12 blog post titled “17 Signs Your Classroom is Behind the Times” they provide a list of things that characterize a classroom that has fallen behind. Number 16 lists a variety of technology tools that every educator should know about. As I read the list, I realized that although many teachers are interested in and excited about technology integration, they are too busy to explore all the new technology tools available online. This blog post is dedicated to all of the overworked teachers who just don’t have the time to seek out this information. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. [Note: StoryJumper is another online digital storybook maker worth checking out!] 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
20 Technology Skills that Every Educator Should Have By Laura Turner In 2005 I wrote a similar article and have had requests to write an update. Technology has changed a great deal in the last 5-6 years. Although, realistically, you would not use all of these technologies, you should be knowledgeable in what each of the following technology is and how it could be/might be used in a classroom. 1. Here is some detailed information about the first 5 technology skills. 1. Google for Educators Google supports teachers in their efforts to empower students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. (6-12) Create an interactive online poster using images, text background audio and video. Google Get email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Google iGooglewww.google.com/ig Personalize your Google page. 2.
About the "Building Better Courses" Tutorials This series of tutorials will take you through the basics of building a rapid elearning course. We’ll start with a simple PowerPoint file and publish it. Then we’ll look at what it takes to assemble a good course including some visual design ideas and how to add interactivity. The tutorials include demo videos and none of them are over 5 minutes long. We also include all of the practice files you need to follow along and do at your own pace. We've assembled some of the links below, but you can always access any of the tutorials using the menu on the right hand side of the screen. Introduction: What to Expect Part 1: How Do I Create My First Course Downloads for Part 1 Part 2: How Do I Get the Right Look & Feel Downloads for Part 2 Part 3: How Do I Make This Course More Interactive Downloads for Part 3 95% of people found this useful Did you find this useful? Sign in to rate this tutorial. Thank you for voting!