Useful sites (weekly)

  by  Ron Houtman 

• Assessment for Learning: Home | Assessment for LearningWelcome to the Assessment for Learning website. This site has been developed by Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the education departments of the States, Territories and Commonwealth of Australia.   

• 41 Websites for Teachers to Integrate Tech into Your Classroom « Ask a Tech Teacher A variety of approaches that could help kick-start any effort to put technology into lesson plans.   

• Diagramly – Draw Diagrams Online Diagrammly provides an easy drag and drop interface for creating visuals or diagrams. Create workflow, BPM, org charts, UML, ER, network diagrams. No sign up required.  

• Wolfram Alpha Turns 2: ‘People Just Need What We Are Doing’ | Epicenter | Wired.com  

• Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers | Teaching Degree.org By Kelsey Allen. “Gone are the days of children sneaking comics past diligent parents and teachers watching out for sub-par literature. The comics of today not only have plenty to offer, they are gaining well-deserved recognition and awards. Take advantage of the natural affinity children have for comics and use them as a powerful teaching tool in your classroom. The post contains links to tips, tools, and resources.    

• for the love of learning: More on how I use Angry Birds in the classroom From the blog “for the love of learning” One teacher’s post about how he uses Angry Birds in the classroom  

• Red Tape – That famous space shuttle photo: When is sharing stealing? @Copyright News “In a world where social media users, bloggers and even some professional journalists are increasingly comfortable simply copying the work of others and republishing it, can intellectual property rights survive? Can original content survive? “   

• Dvolver Moviemaker. Make digital movies online. Formerly Dfilm. Home a tool to create your mini animations by pointing and clicking. You can choose the setting, characters, music at the background and how the chosen characters interact in your animation. You write what you want your characters to say and it shows up in bubbles in your animation. Children can watch a video and write an ending for it or they can summarize a story.   

• Technology Integration Matrix The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells as illustrated.  

• Domo Animate – Make your own Domo Animations and Slideshows with GoAnimate’s super easy to use tools. A tool to create animations. You can animate the characters, change the background, movement, sound effects and emotions; you can add speech bubbles, interactive elements and music to your animation as well. You can resize things, delete, and move or change their places. Children can create their animated books that talk or they can write their own screenplays and turn them into animation.  

• Keeping It Real | edSocialMedia A post about one teacher’s experience. “At the beginning of the school year, I thought that the social media class that I do with tenth graders would help me write a constant stream of edSocialMedia articles through the year. It didn’t quite work out that way, but the class has given me a lot to think through”   

• 5 Surprising Perspectives About Online Schools | MindShift ”Most people think of online learning as a quiet, solitary experience. But over the past few months, after interviewing students, parents, and educators, a different sort of picture has emerged. We’ve learned about who teaches and learns online, and why, what works and what doesn’t, and perhaps most importantly, whether online learning affords the same quality of education as that of traditional schools.”   

• e-Learning Stuff » Blog Archive » Ten ways to use QR Codes A list of 10 things you can do with QR codes. The idea is that once you know what you can do with QR Codes then you can build learning activities round those functions.

• TeachersFirst: Wiki Walk-Through Teachers First have put together Wiki Walk-Through to help teachers who are wanting to know about wikis and how to use them in their classrooms. The ‘Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels’ is great for people who know the basics and want to know how to integrate wikis into their classroom teaching and student learning. The site gives some fantastic classroom ideas for maths, science, social studies, language arts, and other subjects. Even if you are an advanced wiki user, this site can give you some new ideas for using the tool in the classroom. 

• !00 things kids will miss if Teacher librarians go : Outstanding School Libraries AASL President Nancy Everhart released a list of 100 things students would miss if there were no school libraries in their buildings.  

• Tell me, what do you teach? « NeverEndingSearch A post that draws a picture of what TLs teach and what threy can do for the learning community. @Joyce Valenza ” it is time for us to seriously consider our full impact on those around us. Perhaps, it is time to explain our role”   

• Librarians are Teachers, Too: Why Schools Need Librarians Now More than Ever | Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning  

• Mobile Learning: A Quick SWOT Analysis | Upside Learning Blog SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis for mobile learning “For over two years now, we have not only just been hearing about mobile learning but also actively understanding and working on it. From trying to explain five myths of mobile learning to assisting customer new to mobile learning, getting started with mobile learning has been an exciting journey through which we have seen mobile learning seeing increasing adoption. This has been possible due to a variety of factors – better, faster, cheaper smartphones, the advent of tablet computers, and an increasing awareness of the benefits and applicability of mobile learning.”  

• EdTech Toolbox: Free Icon Sets List of sites for royalty free images and icons   

• Lizzie Wilcock | author Author Lizzie Wilcock’s blog. Books include Extinction series, Losing It and grIEVE

• A Principal’s Reflections: Banning is the Easy Way Out A post of New Milford High School Principal Eric Sheninger explaining how to move from banning to embracing technology and social media.  

• SearchTeam – real-time collaborative search engine SearchTeam is a collaborative search engine. You start your research by creating a SearchSpace on a topic of interest. What makes SearchTeam unique and valuable is that you can do your searches collaboratively with others you trust, such as friends, colleagues and family members. You can invite any set of people you trust to search with you from within a SearchSpace   

• Reading Comprehension: Identifying Confusion « Shifting Phases  

• immersive elearning | e-learning NOT as usual  

• 4 Keys To World-Class eLearning   

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.