Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012: The Battle to Open Textbooks Part 6 of my Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012 series Digital Textbooks When I looked at the most significant trends in educational technology last year, I opted to write about the “Digital Library” in lieu of digital textbooks. In May, the Book Industry Study Group released the results of “a first ever survey of college faculty perceptions toward classroom materials” that found that most professors (88%) still prefer (and assign) the printed versions of textbooks and other class materials. Digital textbook provider Coursesmart issued a press release the same month with (not surprisingly) a sunnier view on adoption and usage. But that didn’t stop publishing companies, tech companies, governmental agencies, and non-profits from pushing digital textbooks this year. As I wrote at the time, I was a little dismayed by the PDF and by the oft-touted argument that the main reason we’d “go digital” are to make our kids’ backpacks lighter: (Answer: it's Apple.) Open Textbooks Pearson’s Project Blue Sky.
60 Ways To Use Twitter In The Classroom By Category Social media offers some great opportunities for learning in the classroom, bringing together the ability to collaborate, access worldwide resources, and find new and interesting ways to communicate in one easily accessible place. Teachers around the world have found innovative ways to use Twitter as a teaching tool (including TeachThought’s favorite), and we’ve shared many of these great ideas here with you. Read on, and we’ll explore 60 inspiring ways that teachers and students can put Twitter to work in the classroom. Communication Twitter makes staying in touch and sharing announcements super simple and even fun. Organization Twitter’s hashtags and other tools share a great way to organize information for your classroom. Resources Use these ideas to take advantage of the vast resources that Twitter has to offer. Writing Skills
The 55 Best Free Education Apps For iPad Finding apps isn’t difficult. Finding education apps is only a bit more challenging. Finding free education apps is also possible. Finding free education apps worth downloading is a different story entirely. The following is our list for the 55 best apps for learning we can find. A few notes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The 55 Best Free Education Apps For iPad 1. Developer Description: View 360-degree panoramas of places around the globe with Street View; View high resolution satellite imagery of locations around the world. 2. Developer Description: “…explore more than 750 Science, Math, Social Studies, English, Engineering & Tech, Arts & Music, and Health subjects right on their mobile devices. 3. Developer Description: “This app is a fun way for parents, teachers, librarians, and readers to get more information about top rated books at the fifth and sixth grade level. 4. 5. Developer Description: “A growing library of over 80 hands-on Science lessons that are great for home and the classroom. 6. 7.
Chris McWilliam's ICT Subject Leader blog: Blog 17: Ideas for introducing game making Through recent discussions with ICT guys in my LEA, there was a lot of confusion as to how to introduce game making into the curriculum, and what it looks like at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.I've been trialling a few things and also picked up a few things from colleagues on Twitter. These include: @KS1 and KS2 Tiny Tap- Free iPad app You use this app to turn photos or 'moments' into games. For example, photograph a sentences and ask the pupils to identify various features. @KS1 and KS2 2DIY- PC based software This 2Simple software program allows users to create a variety of quizzes and games. @KS2 Scratch- PC Based Software Scratch allows you to create and share your own interactive games, music, stories and art. @KS2 Zondle Zondle contains many quizzes to support learning, and allows users to create their own quizzes. @KS2 Sploder Sploder is an online game creator. What do you use for game creation?
Top 35 Must-Have Educational iPhone and iPad Apps Used by Real Teachers in the Classroom - iPhone app article - Shara Karasic For the 2012-2013 school year, teachers with access to mobile technology are teaching kids with these great education apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Educators use apps to let their students do everything from practicing their math equations, to determining a leaf’s parent tree, to joining Paul Revere on his ride. Lots of educators (including Apple Distinguished Educators) on Appolicious share their lists of the best education apps for elementary, middle school, junior high, and high school. These are the education apps recommended by educators on Appolicious. Art/Creativity Art (iPhone and iPad, $0.99) Recommended by LaurieFowler: “I love the paintings on this app and they have a quiz mode to test your knowledge, too.” Grade: 5-12 Listed by: justatitch, LaurieFowler, uwcsea. Pinnacle Studio (iPad, $9.99) Recommended by educator kathyschrock: “Pinnacle Studio is a really easy to use, powerful video editing app for the iPad. Grade: 3-12 Grade: 3-12 Listed by: dmiktuk Classroom Tools
The 33 Best Educational Technology Blogs for 2012 EduBlog Awards were announced a few days ago and unfortunately Educational Technology and Mobile Learning did not win but was among the finalists. I must admit that I did not even know my blog was among the finalists till today or else I would have been promoting my nomination just like what the other finalists and winners did.This month has been the busiest month in my entire life, everything just got piled up on me , my Master exams, work, working on my blog template, preparing ebooks to publish here later on and the list goes on. One of the things I like about this Edublog Award nominations is that they feature great blogs you might not even have heard of before . This is a good opportunity for you get to know new blogs and follow or subscribe to them. At least in Ed Tech category, I personally know every single blog listed there and I always subscribe to the new ones added to that list.
keynotetweet - A simple Applescript Application for automatically sending tweets from Apple Keynote during a presentation This simple piece provides the capacity for speaker or presenter to to participate in the backchannel of a talk or conference session by integrating live 'tweets' into an Apple Keynote presentation. Simply add text inside the tags [twitter] and [/twitter] in the presenter notes section of a slide and when that slide comes up in the presentation the script will grab that text and send it to Twitter on your behalf. Here are the details: The software works with Keynote (on a Mac) but not with Powerpoint. 10 Great Resources for iPad Apps for Kids Searching for apps to use with your kids can be a daunting job because there are tons of websites out there recommending apps that are not kids appropriate. The thing is some websites sell lies to their visitors and you find them featuring apps under bright and eye catching titles while in fact they are paid to feature that content. These sites are more revenue oriented and have no sense of ethics at all. Please be aware of such practices. Always look for the authority of the website, see the author's background , for me I prefer teacher and educators blogs and websites because I found them more trustworthy. Check out this Guide to learn how to assess the the content you find online. That being said, and upon requests from some of my readers , I have selected for you some great resources where you can look for and find apps for your kids. 1- Smart Apps for Kids As its name indicates, this website offers great apps designed specifically for kids. 2- Teachers with apps 3- The iMums
iPad As.... iPads have exploded throughout schools and classrooms. Their flexibility, versatility, and mobility make them a phenomenal learning tool. As teachers seek ways to integrate these devices, we recommend focusing on specific learning goals that promote critical-thinking, creativity, collaboration, and the creation of student-centric learning environments. In other words, begin with..... Canada) - Education - Apps