30+ Cool Content Curation Tools for Personal & Professional Use As the web becomes more and more inundated with blogs, videos, tweets, status updates, news, articles, and countless other forms of content, “information overload” is something we all seem to suffer. It is becoming more difficult to weed through all the “stuff” out there and pluck out the best, most share-worthy tidbits of information, especially if your topic is niche. Let’s face it, Google definitely has its shortcomings when it comes to content curation and the more it tries to cater to all audiences, the less useful it becomes. The demand for timely, relevant content that is specific to our unique interests and perspectives has given rise to a new generation of tools that aim to help individuals and companies curate content from the web and deliver it in a meaningful way. These new tools range from simple, application-specific types such as social media aggregators and discovery engines, to more complex, full-blown publishing solutions for organizations. Comments(65)
TodaysMeet Just ASK Publications and Professional Development - Just for the ASKing! January 2013 Volume X Issue I Just for the ASKing! is a monthly e-newsletter that addresses the needs of all those who strive to be instructional leaders. This month's issue is the second in a periodic series on the use of technology as a teaching and learning tool. It features recommendations from educators who are seeing the impact of technology on student achievement. The use of technology continues to take a front row seat in schools and districts across the country. A number of technology enthusiasts graciously agreed to provide insights into their work. What technological tools and applicationshave you used or seen used that have made the greatest impacton student learning in rigorous and relevant ways? RM Pellant, Principal of the International School of Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, writes that “Without a doubt, web 2.0 apps and cloud storage have had the greatest impact on me as an educator, integrator, and administrator.”
Write Mathematics into the Story Writing and mathematics go hand in hand, mathematicians all over the world use writing to express their ideas and proofs. Your students can learn to enjoy writing in mathematics by a few different activities you can do with them. These activities are meant to engage and motivate students to write and to learn, while they write. Write Their Own Novel I believe projects are great ways of showing knowledge and using this knowledge in a creative forum is great for students to get accustomed to when they start for college and the real world. Math journals are a great way to begin class. Fan-Fiction Math BooksOne activity I have come up with over the break is for students to write fan-fiction math books. Write a Vocabulary Paragraph—Assign a list of math vocabulary words to your students, then have them write a paragraph that incorporates all of the words on the list. Have students write fictitious advice columns, as one might find in a newspaper, except these are math advice columns.
Teachers Can Use Social Media to Enhance Learning Social media use has expanded to include even the world’s academic fraternity. College professors are suddenly using social media, mainly to connect with colleagues, to access news and appear in the buzz around it. What many don’t appreciate about social media is the fact that it can be used within a classroom situation to create more value to learning. This article gives you tips on how professors and teachers can use social media to improve their work and students' academic performance and success. Help them create blogs. Blogs were weblogs in the past. Create virtual offices. Let’s face it, not many students love to come to your offices for consultation or advice. Create Facebook Pages for your class. Facebook is the world’s largest social media platforms out there and if things were as they are, it’s here to stay. Teach them to network. Social media has become the mouth communication of today. Connect: Authored by: Sandra Miller See complete profile
9 Outstanding Tools for Teachers It no longer takes advanced technology knowledge to label someone a tech geek. You can now in a simple an easy process set up your site or blog in few minutes without knowing anything about HTML or PHP or any other scripting code. The interactive feature and ease of use the emerging web 2.0 tools provided for users made internet a better world for creative minds. As teachers and educators, we need to capitalize on this fact and make the best of it in our teaching. In this post, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has brought to you a bunch of great web tools to help you easily publish students works, provide a collaborative writing platform for them, and share their media and text with others. 1- JustPaste.it This is a cool web tool that lets you easily post text and pictures online . 2- Peg Peg is a tool that lets you create text based website . 3- Phile Phile is another tool to consider when creating a topic based blog for your classroom. 4- Weebly 5-Disposable Page 6- My Page
Personalized Learning Resources for Mobile Educators I have a 45-minute commute to Knapp Elementary School each morning. Aside from sipping on my coffee, I'll tune into Philly sports radio, some Mumford & Sons or maybe even some local news. However, in December, my commute took a more reflective turn when I discovered an edu-podcast called #EdChat Radio that is now helping me think deeper in a quiet space away from the presence of students, teachers, parents and community members. As an educator and learner, making time to reflect on where your learning community is hitting or missing the mark is invaluable. At the time of this post, there are nine 10-to-15-minute #EdChat Radio posted on the BAM Radio Network's site, the hub of these and other podcast channels produced especially for parents, educators and leaders. For me, I'm really enjoying the #EdChat Radio Podcast because I have a connection with and great respect for many of the voices I hear as part of my Twitter PLN. Recent #EdChat Radio Topics Other Recommended Edu-Podcasts
Five Reasons I Love Using QR Codes in My Classroom There are so many tools that educators can use to get students interested and engaged in their work. Like most teachers today, I integrate technology into my instruction everyday. I'm lucky to work in a school with one-to-one technology and use iPads with my students throughout every school day. That makes it easy to use QR codes in my classroom -- and there are many reasons I love using QR codes! What is a QR Code? A Quick Response Code is a digital image that can be scanned without the beam of light needed to scan barcodes at the supermarket. What does this marketing tool have to do with education? How QR Codes Can Make a Difference in the Classroom 1. Instead of asking students to type in a long web address where they could easily make mistakes, a QR code will take them straight to a website. 2. We all want to avoid using search engines that might bring our students to the wrong website. 3. 4. Websites like Qurify.com allow you to generate your own QR code for free. 5.
Dazzle your data handling class with an infographic project Infographics are: fun, informative, inspiring, thought-provoking, knowledge-enhancing, stimulating and above all, engaging. If you don’t know what an infographic is, it’s the fusion of graphic design, with data handling. An infographic takes some data and turns it into an attractive poster which uses a variety of data representation techniques to communicate the message that emerges from the data. A nice example is the infographic below that compares the size of historic volcanic eruptions with the number of fatalities caused. Click on the image to see it full-size. For a rich resource of infographics visit the good.is website by clicking here. I believe the use of infographics within teaching maths to be a great way to approach a data handling topic. I’ve blogged in a previous post about this fantastic Facebook infographic that looks at users’ habits. Enjoy!
How Teachers are Using Tumblr in the Classroom Tumblr is a web based social media platform that was designed to make it easier for people to share digital media with each other. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, where conversation is a common mode of communication, Tumblr is more about sharing content. It is a great resource and tool for people and professionals of every stripe. Teachers are finding it useful too. Here’s some of the ways they’re using it. As a Course Web Site Here’s an example of a Creative Writing teacher who uses Tumblr as a course web site: writerblockparty.tumblr.com. Sharing (and Locating) Resources Tumblr doesn’t just make it easier for teachers to educate their students, it can be used as a resource sharing tool. As a Lesson in Content Credibility Tumblr can also be used as a lesson on using the Internet for research. Make a Pitch for Classroom Supplies Teachers are often responsible for funding some or all of their own classroom materials. There are lots of reasons to use Tumblr as a teacher. Print This Post