6 Ways Students Can Collaborate With iPads The following post is written by Greg Kulowiec of EdTechTeacher . Join EdTechTeacher at the iPad Summit in Atlanta on April 10-12. The app store is loaded with options that allow students to create content on their iPads. From comic strip creators to mind maps, video editing and publishing, screencasting & digital books, the options for individual student creation are expanding. However, collaboration between students is often a critical component of any classroom activity or project and increasingly there are options available that allow for collaborative efforts across iPads. Below are six ways to support collaboration between student iPads that cover the spectrum of creation options that range from text to digital storytelling to video creation. Explain Everything ($2.99) A flexible and powerful screen casting option, students and teachers can collaborate on screencasts by exporting Explain Everything project files from an iPad. Google Drive (Free) BookCreator ($4.99) Subtext (free) Diigo
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: The 33 Digital Skills Every 21st Century Teacher should Have By EdTech Team Updated on march 2, 2015 : The original list that was created in 2011 comprised 33 skills , after reviewing it we decided to do some merging and finally ended up with the 20 skills below. The 21st century teacher should be able to : 1- Create and edit digital audio Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :Free Audio Tools for Teachers 2- Use Social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill : A List of Best Bookmarking Websites for Teachers 3- Use blogs and wikis to create online platforms for students Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill : Great Tools to Create Protected Blogs and Webpages for your Class 4- Exploit digital images for classroom use Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :Web Tools to Edit Pictures without Installing any softwareTools to Convert Photos into Cartoons
Four Free Assessment Apps for 1:1 Classrooms One-to-one technology can transform a classroom. When implemented correctly, students are engaged and excited to learn, and teachers can assess their progress in real-time. The amount of technology resources available for educators can be overwhelming. Whether your students regularly visit a computer lab, borrow a cart of laptops, or have access to a class set of iPads, there are a variety of assessment tools that are free and customizable. Here’s a list of free assessment tools that I love and use in my own classroom: Assessing Student Understanding: Create your own assessments using Socrative. Don’t worry about uploading class lists or creating individual accounts because students type in their names as the first question they answer. Assessing Student Work So much more than Facebook for your classroom, Edmodo is a fantastic tool for collecting student work and assigning quizzes. Even if you only use Edmodo in your classroom on a set of 1:1 technology -- like I do on my students’ iPads!
48 Free Educational Apps Rated And Sorted By Grade Level Free educational apps have been a boon to innovation in mobile learning. For free, teachers can try out new approaches to learning with iPads and Android devices. Anything from basic arithmetic and spelling practice all the way to space exploration and historical perspective are available through little bits of software. And for app developers, free apps can be beneficial as well. Using Cell Phones In Class: A Primer For Teachers Bringing a cell phone to class usually starts a debate between teacher and student. Most teachers completely ban them. They are often regarded as distractions from learning. There are several issues concerning mobile learning like social media, Internet filtering, safety laws, teaching techniques, school policies, etc. Looking at mobile devices in a positive light, they can facilitate student learning inside the four walls of the classroom. Many teachers believe that phones are not really important—not because they are useless, but because they are just tools that do not affect the lesson plan if they are not used. First Step Educators have to familiarize themselves with cell phones that can be used for education. What Can Teachers Do With Cell Phones? The first and foremost purpose of cell phones is, of course, communication. If messaging is not enough, teachers can use Twitter to share what they do in class. Teachers can also support the students even when at home. Takeaways
Edmodo – Where learning happens. | The free and safe social learning platform for education Creating a Visual Dictionary on the iPad Pic Collage (free), is one of my favorite apps to use on my iPad. It creates great looking Scrapbook pages of multiple images in no time. Today, as I was planning with our first grade Hebrew teacher, how to upgrade a traditionally taught vocabulary project (creating a dictionary of their weekly vocabulary words in Hebrew), we saw the opportunity to use PicCollage with students in the classroom. (My apologies in advance for the example below is in Spanish and not in Hebrew) Reminder: The idea of a visual dictionary should/is not be confined to the World Language classroom. The ideas was for the students to take photos, email photos from home or find photos online to represent their weekly Hebrew vocabulary words. Double tapping on the image, will bring the Photo editing menu, choose “Clip Photo” to clip the object out of the background. Just use your finger to draw around the outer edges of your object. Once the text is placed on the canvas, simply drag and drop the text into its location.
Resources for Using iPads in Grades 9-12 If you’re a high school teacher looking for iPad resources targeting your needs, you’ve come to the right place. Students in grades 9-12 will engage with technology in different ways than younger children. They can create content, interact with their peers, and explore a range of topics using an iPad. Whether you’re in a BYOD setting, in a one-to-one program, or simply looking to use one iPad effectively, this list has apps, activities, and ideas for your high school classroom. Favorite Apps 5 Apps for Making Movies on Mobile Devices (Edutopia, 2014) This article highlights five different apps that can be used to make movies with tablets. Back to Top Best Practices iTunes U (iPad in Education/Apple) If you’re working with high school students who have access to an iPad, then iTunes U is just what you’re looking for. Engaging Activities What are your favorite apps or lessons for using iPads with high school students?
44 Smart Ways to Use Smartphones in Class (Part 1) - Getting Smart by @JohnHardison1 - This week an online article grabbed my attention. Its title read “94 Percent of High School Students Using Cellphones in Class.” I immediately scoped out the heading and thought to myself, “Finally, teachers are beginning to embrace the powerful little gadgets.” However, it did not take me long to realize the researched article took quite a different slant. One quotation in particular caused serious professional introspection on my behalf. I understand the tougher task of using regular cell phones in class versus internet ready smartphones, however , I could not disagree more with the above quotation. A blessed trip to the ISTE 2011 conference in Philadelphia helped me devise a BYOD classroom management plan and opened my eyes to the infinite educational potential of smartphones in the classroom. However, one of my toughest baseball coaches once said, “Potential and a dollar will get you a Coke.” Use Smartphones to Collaborate Use Smartphones to Communicate Use Smartphones to Create
Evernote – an attempt at the definitive summary of teacher uses! Well it’s been just over 2 years since I tentatively pulled out my iPhone in class and trialled using the app ‘Evernote’ for the first time. If it wasn’t love at first use, it sure was close. Since then I’ve blogged about it, talked at numerous conferences about it, posted hundreds of tweets declaring my love for it, and watched countless other teachers who I’ve introduced Evernote to blog about it, tell others about it etc etc. There are many great blog posts about Evernote by teachers that explain ways that they use it (Miss Spink On Tech is a particular standout), but I’ve never quite found everything all in the one post. So this is it. I’m putting the effort in here because I honestly believe its the most powerful assessment tool that’s ever been made so freely available to teachers. What is it? Evernote’s iPad toolbar Uses Easily Capture and Store notes, photos, audio of student performance: You may then have that same student read for you later in the week. Create Checklists
Bloomin' Apps This page gathers all of the Bloomin' Apps projects in one place.Each image has clickable hotspots and includes suggestions for iPad, Android, Google and online tools and applications to support each of the levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.I have created a page to allow you to share your favorite online tool, iOS, or Android app with others. Cogs of the Cognitive Processes I began to think about the triangular shape of Bloom's Taxonomy and realized I thought of it a bit differently.Since the cognitive processes are meant to be used when necessary, and any learner goes in and out of the each level as they acquire new content and turn it into knowledge, I created a different type of image that showcased my thoughts about Bloom's more meaningfully.Here is my visual which showcases the interlocking nature of the cognitive processes or, simply, the "Cogs of the Cognitive Processes". IPAD APPS TO SUPPORT BLOOM'S REVISED TAXONOMYassembled by Kathy Schrock Bloom's and SAMR: My thoughts
4 Great Rubrics to Help you Select Educational Apps As iPads are increasingly infiltrating our educational systems the question of the pedagogical implications ensuing from the use of these mobile gadgets in the classroom come to the surface. Some do look at them as an added distraction and that learning can be more focused without students having access to them during the class. Traditionalists do advocate this view and are , in fact, against the " over-digitization " of education. To these people I say what John Dewy once said " If we teach today as we thought yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow ". I am strongly in favor of the use of mobile gadgetry for educational purposes. 1- BVLS iPad App Evaluation Form Click Here to download it. 2- iPad App Evaluation Guiding Question Click Here to download it. 3- Mobile Application Selection Rubric Click Here to download it. 4- Critical Evaluation of Content-based iPad/iPod App Click Here to download it.
Google Launches New Search Education Site with Lesson Plans Google has launched a new site called Search Education aimed at educators who want to teach online search strategies. The site includes lesson plans geared at different levels of expertise — beginner, intermediate and advanced– as well as training videos that walk through different strategies for subjects like using Creative Commons and Google maps. The lessons cover the following topics: Picking the right search termsUnderstanding search resultsSearching for evidence for research tasksNarrowing a search to get the best resultsEvaluating the credibility of sources For each topic, lessons for every level of searcher goes into deep detail, offering background explanations of how search works the way it does, specific examples of search words and their results, and numerous tips. The lessons are aligned with the Common Core Curriculum Standards and refer to the K-12 College and Career Readiness (CCR) Anchor Standards. Related
First Grade Workflow Fluency As first graders are learning about the butterfly life cycle, we wanted to stay away from usual activities such as coloring in a pre-printed coloring page. INSTEAD of such an activity (created by others) and a quiz about recalling the different stages of the life cycle as assessment, we decided to have students built on their knowledge and fluency of creating a collage and CREATING a visual of their learning. The digital visual was to become an artifact for their student portfolio. Our first graders are working weekly on a Hebrew visual dictionary on the iPad PicCollage app. we reviewed the stages of a butterflyshowed students a National Geographic video of the life cyclemodeled the creation of a PicCollage Butterfly poster by breaking down each stepembedded digital citizenship (images copyright issues)emphasized the workflow of : This activity was NOT about using the iPad app, it was about creating a visual of their learning. Like this: Like Loading...