Choose from a Kit | Scroll Kit Blank Use Kit Intro Use Kit Basic Profile Page Use Kit flavor tripping party invite Use Kit confetti birthday card Use Kit counterfeit obama website Use Kit Facebook kit Use Kit Tips Ebooks are actually not books—schools among first to realizing this fact This is Part 1 in a series on e-book distribution to schools. See Part 2 here. Digital books are triggering tectonic shifts in education. One of the most fundamental, yet seemingly invisible, shifts is happening in the back rooms of district offices—not in the classrooms, not among teachers and students, and definitely not in the board rooms of most big-name publishers and textbook companies. If ebooks are not actually books, what are they? School purchasing departments know. This profound, significant change is happening first in school district business offices, IT departments, and cubicles among staff members who work behind the scenes to acquire materials for today’s students. What exactly is this shift? It’s the revelation of the idea that ebooks are not books at all. That’s right, ebooks are not books. If ebooks are not books, what are they? Ebooks are actually software. Here’s the view of the situation from the district back room. Books are objects Books are objects. Ebooks are software
Modern Lessons Welcome to the new online learning platform for the Global Education Database! It’s a free, simple, and quick way to learn new skills, find new education resources, and figure out how to do just about anything a modern teacher or student needs. Take as many courses as you like – they’re free and all you need to do is sign up to get started. Register To Start Learning Free View More Courses Make Story a Priority | Seven Story Learning The privileged status of story. Our minds prefer to prioritize stories more highly than they do communication in other forms of information, like lists and figures. University of Virginia Psychologist Daniel T. Willingham has referred to stories as “psychologically privileged.” He writes, “Research from the last 30 years shows that stories are indeed special. Stories are easy to comprehend and easy to remember, and that’s true not just because people pay close attention to stories; there is something inherent in the story format that makes them easy to understand and remember.” Effective Stories Pique Our Curiosity Research shows that there is a “Goldilocks” aspect regarding the level of causality that makes a story grab our attention. Our Brains Index Memories as Stories In a 1994 study by Dr. We don’t fully understand why stories are easier to remember than lists, but Roger Schank explains that our brains index every bit of information and every experience we have in story format. Sources:
StoryToolz : Resources for Authors Beyond the Book Report: Ten Alternatives In my last post I described 10 ways to cultivate a love of reading in kids. I want to expand on that theme by suggesting 10 alternatives to the book report. I'm not a fan of book reports; I don't think they are an effective way for a student to demonstrate understanding of a book and I don't think they help students enjoy or appreciate reading. Let's consider some activities that allow a student to show understanding of a book and that might be enjoyable. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. This is by no means an exhaustive list of alternatives to book reports, but I hope it's spurred some thinking about how to get students to respond to books they read. What alternatives to book reports have you offered students?
27 Simple Ways To Get Students Excited About Innovation Recently, our neighbors introduced us to a couple of their friends who are from Spain. They are both professors here and have a kid who will be entering college in the US this fall. We were chatting about where we’ve lived and where we’d like to, and the topic of taxes came up. One of the things that was mentioned is that in Spain (and in Europe more generally) things like healthcare are offered free of cost and higher education is much much cheaper there than in the US due to the differences in our tax systems. But one of the reasons they thought it was better that their daughter was going to go to school in the US is that they felt that the opportunities for innovation are much bigger here. That got me thinking: what makes a particular teacher innovative doesn’t necessarily help their students to be innovative. Learn more about the failures Take risks Find out what inspires you Share your ideas with others and work together Reach beyond your own abilities
The Joy of Data Driven Storytelling Yahoo acquires multimedia storytelling app Qwiki Yahoo announced Tuesday that it has acquired Qwiki, a storytelling app that integrates photos and videos. The company wrote in a blog post that Qwiki would be joining Yahoo’s New York offices and that it would continue to support the Qwiki app. AllThingsD reported that the purchase price was about $50 million. Yahoo has been on an acquisition tear recently under CEO Marissa Mayer’s leadership, from the $1 billion Tumblr acquisition to smaller purchases like the social recommendation startup Jybe, to the news summarization app Summly. While it’s not totally clear what Yahoo will do with Qwiki, it’s clearly interested in acquiring companies in the mobile media space. In a blog post, Yahoo explained the acquisition: “We’re excited to announce that Yahoo!
How to Create a “Culture of Reading” | AASL 2013 What makes a culture of reading? How do you get tweens and teens to be interested (and stay interested) in reading? These were two of the questions that Toni Vahlsing, director of libraries at Abington Friends School outside Philadelphia, posed to the audience during “Here’s a Challenge: Get Teens and Tweens to Read for Pleasure!” a session held during the 2013 American Association of School Librarians (AASL) 16th National Conference in Hartford, CT. After a presentation where the sprightly Vahlsing covered how students choose books—peer recommendation is the number one way—and why allowing kids to select their reading is crucial, she invited members of the audience to share their tips for getting children to read. Below are some of the suggestions that Vahlsing and session attendees shared. Ideas and Tips Newspapers, magazines, and websites are reading.Know what’s new even if you can’t buy it.Covers matter.
3 Student Tech Trends Teachers Should Know About If you’re just settling into what will hopefully be a nice, long, and relaxing summer break, then congratulations. You deserve it. I’ll just sit here waiting for you to … okay, done relaxing? Let’s talk about some of the biggest student tech trends that students will be talking about when you head back to class in the fall. It’s important to know not just what connected teachers are looking at and tinkering with in terms of technology. Note: The following trends are based simply on what I’ve seen and heard online and while talking with students. Trend #1: Facebook Isn’t Cool (But It’s Useful) No matter what you might think, Facebook isn’t cool . While Facebook has fallen somewhat out of favor with teens and your typical K-12 students, it doesn’t mean to ignore it. But it is useful . Trend #2: Less About Phone, More About App The next biggest trend I’m seeing is the amount of importance placed on smartphones and tablets . It would seem that students are quite savvy trend-watchers.
5 Brilliant Tools for Student Storytelling Once upon a time, there was a class full of students. They needed to learn to tell vibrant, engaging, complex stories for a myriad of educational benefits. Storytelling would help them learn to express themselves clearly, to structure their thoughts and hone their descriptive skills. But the students were cursed with boredom – with only a pen and paper to create their masterpieces they were bored and limited and the results were distinctly lackluster. Then, one day, their teacher discovered a myriad of exciting online tools to sprinkle their stories with magic and excitement once again! 1. This great iPhone or iPad app enables kids to create stories quickly and easily by combining writing with audio and visual tools. 2. This clever tool essentially turns the student’s device into a recordable whiteboard complete with digital ink, voice recording, text and pictures. 3. 4. Allows students to make short, art-inspired stories they can share on any device. 5.
Amazon launches Storyteller to turn scripts into storyboards — automagically NOTE: GrowthBeat -- VentureBeat's provocative new marketing-tech event -- is a week away! We've gathered the best and brightest to explore the data, apps, and science of successful marketing. Get the full scoop here, and grab your tickets while they last. Upload your script, choose some backgrounds, and magically create a professional-looking storyboard of your movie. Amazon Studios released Storyteller today to allow writers and filmmakers to quickly, easily, and cheaply storyboard their scripts. And it can be used for much, much more than just scripts. “We’ve found that many writers want to see their story up on its feet in visual form but find it harder than it should be to create a storyboard,” Roy Price, Amazon’s director of Studios said in a statement. You start by uploading a script to Amazon Studios — or by playing with one that’s already there. Above: You can choose shot framing Image Credit: John Koetsier You need a visual story? Who knows — perhaps your script will too.
How The Best Web Tools Fit Into Bloom's Digital Taxonomy There are some very popular tools and apps out there. We showcase a boatload of them here on Edudemic. But there’s been a growing trend of figuring out how to actually integrate all these together and how to effectively use the best web tools to enhance learning in the classroom. One of the most powerful visualizations to date has been the fabulous Padagogical Wheel (with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘e’) that shows how to integrate iPads into just about everything like SAMR and beyond. Now there’s a new visual guide that you should check out. It’s a pyramid that I spotted on Pinterest here . Creation I really like how you can easily tell which tools and apps work best on each level. Evaluating Next level down is evaluating which showcases one of my favorite learning resources: YouTube. Analyzing In the analyzing level, we see the Google Earth icon. Applying In the applying level, you can’t go wrong trying out Evernote in the classroom . Understanding Remembering