Useful Links

“Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by  rhondda.p 

Learning to Code: New Possibilities Through Collaboration at School | EdSurge News Discussion piece. “When you drill down to the(US) school level, only one in four schools in the United States teach computer science. For some school districts the resources are simply stretched too thin. And while there are websites that offer coding tutorials, many of which are free, some teachers may also be unaware that so many resources exist for their students. In other districts, the resources may be available but there is still a desire to find new opportunities for students to interact with technology professionals. One way to overcome these hurdles is for school districts to collaborate with outside organizations and companies, many of whom are thrilled to provide volunteers and support. This can be accomplished by looking to organizations and companies in your local community and/or best in industry, and reaching out to them to see if they would be interested in working with your school. Additionally, seek out and learn from colleagues in other school districts who have fostered these relationships, with a focus on best practices and collaborations that were particularly successful.”

Are Your Students Learning The Digital and Social Literacy Skills Needed to Succeed? | @LearningDotCom · TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting NetworkbyJeffrey Bradbury “Jeff Bradbury sits down with Risa Snethen from Learning.com to talk about the many resources offered to provide students the digital and core literacy skills needed to get them ahead in the classroom.”

Tech Tips for Teachers: 4 Ways to Use Google Forms | EdTech Magazine “The latest version of Google Forms, for instance, can not only simplify administrative tasks but also give teachers new outlets for connecting with parents and students. Jennifer Carey, the director of educational technology at the Ransom Everglades School in Miami, Fla., offers a glimpse of recently added features in a post on Daily Genius. She writes that Google Form users can now: View responses as they are submitted. Insert videos and images into survey questions. Create multiple choice grids that prevent respondents from selecting the same column twice. Publish Forms with pre-filled responses. Insert useful add-ons, such as formLimiter and Choice Eliminator 2. As educators begin to master these new capabilities, they can also explore a few of the tried-and-true ways teachers already use Google Forms in the classroom:”

Geo Map » Show What You Know with Media A Geo-Map media project can include text, hyperlinks, images, and videos connected to locations on virtual maps. Geo-Map projects can provide windows into events, concepts, places and stories which join disparate media elements into a cohesive digital narrative. Some great ideas about how to use this in the classroom.

The secret to successful use of technology in the classroom – ICTEvangelist “In order to get impact with technology in the classroom, for me it’s really quite simple and involves three easy to remember elements; technology for learning shouldn’t be about bells and whistles, it’s about what works”

The @DavidGeurin Blog: 7 Reasons To Use Social Media In Your School (INFOGRAPHIC) “Social media is here to stay. Never before have people been able to connect, share, and learn from one another as we do now. As a result, our students need skills to win at life in a digital world. The ability to use social media to support life goals and possibilities can be a game-changer. I know it has been very powerful for me in my professional life.” & reasons are discussed by the author.

4 Strategies to Bring History to Life For Students | Getting Smart “You can tansform students from passive to active learners through the power of archives. Timelines, textbooks, PowerPoint presentations and even Wikipedia articles have a role in learning about the past, but it is time to open the archives and unleash the power of primary sources to bring history to life. ” 4 strategies for educators explained.

15+ Ways of Teaching Every Student to Code (Even Without a Computer) | Edutopia “The resources discussed in this post will assist in teaching programming to every student and every age.”

How can school libraries use a makerspace to support learning? A set of presentation slides that explain an investigation of what a makerspace is and identify criteria for an effective makerspace. It examines how an effective model of a makerspace in a school library can support and develop digital literacy skills in the context of a connected learning framework.

When Tech Meets Project Based Learning | EdSurge News Paul Curtis, Director of Curriculum for the New Tech Network, is confident that project-based learning can happen without much technology. But use it right, he adds, and technology can change the “tone” of the classroom in powerful ways. “It asks teachers to give up ‘the script’ for the classroom,” he says. Curtis sees technology shaping project-based learning in multiple ways. First technology can fuel students’ curiosity and put them in charge of learning and exploration. Next: technology can provide teachers a construct or scaffolding for doing project-based work. A well-built learning management system, Curtis says, is an essential tool for helping teachers structure classroom time and manage work.”

An Introduction to Google Sites | TeacherCast University A good introduction to how to go about using Google sites in the classroom

The Best Online Resources for Coding Instruction “In this article they talk about fostering logical thinking through coding instruction for kids. They also have a look at some of the best online resources out there for coding instruction. Other than a possible career in computer sciences, what does coding knowledge have to offer students?”

What Are Your Ideas For Incorporating the “Maker Movement” In Teaching English Language Learners? | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… “The best way to activate your classroom is for your students to make something. This might an amazing high-tech invention or it might take the form of costumes for a historical reenactment, homemade math manipulatives, a new curtain for the local auditorium, toys, a pet habitat, a messy science experiment, or a zillion other things. Best of all, you don’t need expensive hardware, or to start by mastering a programming language. You can begin with found materials: buttons, bottle caps, string, clay, construction paper, broken toys, popsicle sticks, or tape (hint: Google “tapigami” or “duck tape projects”). What are you having your students “make” to help them learn English?”

How to create digital homework that students love | “Let’s redesign homework. When’s the last time your students got excited to do homework? Or said things like, “Wow…just WOW. It is amazing how much is out there that we just don’t know about”? What if every homework assignment could expand a student’s worldview while engaging a kid’s natural curiosity? One middle school teacher took on this challenge — so you don’t have to. For her TED-Ed Innovation Project, US History teacher Jennifer Hesseltine created a digital homework space that students love. Here are her step-by-step instructions on how you can do it too:”

Librarian Approved: 30 Ed-Tech Apps to Inspire Creativity and Creation | MindShift | KQED News “Tool discovery is often a challenge for teachers interested in finding ways to use technology that will change the way they and their students work. With so much going on in the classroom, many teachers don’t have the time to test out various apps and find the perfect tool to meet their needs. Luckily, several tech-savvy librarians have been curating the apps their colleagues find useful and sharing the all-stars with one another through personal learning communities (PLC) and edWeb webinars.”

‘Teacher training courses are still rolling out educators without even an appreciation of technology’ | News

Education – Culture Victoria – Linkis.com A great source of information about life in the state of Victorian

It’s 10 Years since ‘that’ TED Talk: 5 questions to think about #doschoolskillcreativity | anne knock

The Other 21st Century Skills: Educator Self-Assessment | User Generated Education Jackie Gerstein designed useful chart featuring 12 attributes and skills that teachers should tend to in their instruction. ” This post provides links and resources about these skills as well as an educator self-assessment. This assessment contains questions to assist the educator in evaluating if and how s/he is facilitating these skills and attributes in the learning environment.” It could be used as a self-assessment checklist to help evaluate teaching practice. Jackie’s set of attributes featured in this chart link in with Giroux’s view of education as a way of producing citizens who are ‘critical, self-reflective, knowledgeable and willing to make moral judgements and act in a socially responsible way.

5 Excellent Rubric Making Tools for Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning This is an annotated list of 5 useful applications. “Rubrics are helpful for both teachers and students: teachers can use them when designing lesson plans and grading assignments; students can use them to make sure they meet the learning expectations and requirements of an assignment or project work. Rubric making should not be a complicated task, it should only speak to the core requirements of a given task while channeling focus to the learning outcomes. There are  a wide variety of web tools and mobile apps teachers can use to create rubrics.”

How to Start a Blog – ReadWriteThink “No matter what kind of entries teens write, blogs give them a chance to communicate with their readers. Like any kind of writing, composing a blog entry gives teens practice in organizing and presenting their ideas effectively. Once a teen posts an entry, readers can ask questions, make comments, and provide encouragement. This process teaches teens the importance of paying attention to what readers say and think. Teens can later apply these skills to every other kind of writing that they do.”

Make a Mystery Puzzle – ReadWriteThink

Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use the New Version of Padlet Richard Byrne exlainshow teachers can make the best use of the 2016 version of Padlet. “Padlet introduced a revamped version of their online corkboard tool. The core functions of Padlet are still the same, but the user interface has changed a little bit. The primary changes are in the way that you customize your Padlet boards. In the video that is embedded in the posthe provides an overview of this version of Padlet”

[3934] 3 Things Every Teacher Must Know About Digital Citizenship An “Every classroom matters” program presented by Vicki Davis where Gord Holden discusses with her three important things about digital citizenship and young people.

Things Every Teacher Should Know About Digital Citizenship @coolcatteacher An “Every classroom matters” program presented by Vicki Davis where Gord Holden discusses with her three important things about digital citizenship and young people.

8 digital skills we must teach our children | World Economic Forum A short piece about how we can assist you people to better understand how to make the best use of the digital world. It looks at “Digital intelligence or “DQ” whixh is defined as the set of social, emotional and cognitive abilities that enable individuals to face the challenges and adapt to the demands of digital life. These abilities, that can broadly be broken down into eight interconnected areas are explained”

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

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Useful links

   by  Ken Whytock 

• Clarisketch Through the narration and illustration of photos, Clarisketch saves time and improves the quality of messaging using a combination of photographs and annotated commentary. Clarisketch enables you to quickly comment and draw on diagrams, map routes, photos etc and share it with friends/colleagues via email, Facebook, Google+, Twitter or other social networks.

• The World’s Easiest Video Calls – Gruveo This offers instant, secure and anonymous video calls. There are no downloads or registration required. It is a simple and useful tool that could get students using video communication.

• Readymag — Your own publishing platform “Readymag was founded in 2012 starting with the simple idea that everyone can be a publisher. Finding inspiration in the beauty of printing and functionalist design philosophy, we started to rethink digital interfaces to build the most elegant, powerful and easy-to-use online publishing tool. At Readymag, we’re passionate about thoughtful design and truly believe that better tools empower people to self-express and inspire to create a better content.” This looks like it could be a good tool to get students enthusiastic about publishing online magazines of their own. I a wondering if I can get some of our writers and reviewers to create a magazine for the library. You can do one for free or a basic package is $9/month (US)

• Clyp – Record and share audio, simply. This could be a useful tool for recording and sharing audio, either from a desktop computer or an iOS device. Although you can register, it is not mandatory to use the tool.

• Classcraft – Make learning an adventure “An online educational role-playing game that teachers and students play together in the classroom. Acting as a gamification layer around any existing curriculum, the game transforms the way a class.” This looks as though it could be a useful free tool this will help to gamify a classroom. It could help with to help to improve motivation and classroom behaviour.

• A Gold Mine of #EdTech Resources | Getting Smart An interesting annotated list that is organised by how each tool is used.

• What Do Schools Risk By Going ‘Full Google’? | MindShift

• 5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback | Edutopia

• What Are The Biggest Online Learning Trends And Challenges? | Edudemic “Online learning can take many different forms. It is interesting to look at some of the trends and challenges that moving from an in-person to a virtual environment can pose. The infographic in the post (developed by Education Dive), takes a gander at some of the trends in online learning (and a few fun statistics) and some of the challenges that online learning poses.”

• 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Collaborative Critical Thinking “The team-building games in this post are designed to promote cooperation and communication, help establish a positive classroom environment and (most importantly) provide a fun, much-needed reprieve from routine.”

• Curriculum & Leadership Journal | Skills for the 21st Century: teaching higher-order thinking

• A Teacher’s Guide to Keeping Up With Your Tech Savvy Students | EdSurge News “We live in a technology-driven society that provides us with quick and easy access to just about anything at anytime. Teachers can no longer use the, “I’m too old to learn tech” excuse, because technology is here to stay. As teachers, it is our job to protect our children from the dangers that exist, and help them develop healthy tech habits, and become responsible digital citizens.” This posy offer 4 simple tips to assist teachers prepare students for the digital world they live in.

• Bookless library opened by new US university | Books | theguardian.com “Florida’s Polytechnic University is entirely digital and has no print books at all. This enormous facility promises to make ‘many more books available for the students’ in digital form.”

• Flickr: Internet Archive Book Images’ Photostream The photos and drawings are sourced from more than 600 million library book pages scanned in by the Internet Archive organisation. These images have been difficult to access until now. Internet Archive Book Images Visitors to the site are free to copy and make use of the pictures without charge. Most of the images that are in the books are not in any of the art galleries of the world – the original copies have long ago been lost. The pictures range from 1500 to 1922, when copyright restrictions kick in. “

• National Cyber Security Awareness Month Cyber security from Google – images and quotes.

• A Little Help, Please! A Guide to Help-Seeking Behavior – Education Week “Offers a way of learning about the different types of help-seeking behaviors in students and what might work with each.”

• Craig Leager on Twitter: Things that students pay attention to… http://t.co/ZgGoqwByac

• Infographic: See The Daily Routines Of The World’s Most Famous Creative People | Co.Create | creativity + culture + commerce

• European Film and the First World War The virtual exhibition European Film and the First World War is particularly recommended as representing a unique European view of history through another set of eyes. Organised under the headings: At the front, *Film and propaganda, Science and technical innovation, Suffering in and after the war, Beyond the trenches, Neutral countries, Commemorating the war This site is ideally suited to senior students who have an understanding of the complexity of World War I and are seeking to gain an understanding from the Axis point of view in addition to the British Allies. It explains the purpose of film and propaganda for instance, and provides examples.

• What Twitter offers teachers: The evidence | EduResearch Matters This offers some research-based evidence about how Twitter can be useful to educators. “In order to convince teachers of the possible benefits of using a new technology, such as Twitter, we decided to look for evidence of its qualities. What in particular, does Twitter offer educators? Is it worth getting involved?” 30 leading educators (with an interest in educational technology) were identified. They were the ones who were currently using Twitter. The study analysed samples of their tweets in order to determine their purpose and the possible benefits of the tweets to their followers. Also examined were a sample of tweets from the twitter streams of two popular educational hashtags: #edchat and #edtech, in order to determine what ‘followers’ may gain.”

• Listen and learn | transformative LEARNING Post about how one educator makes the best use of his time to fit in listening to podcasts and curating the information his social media identifies.

• Research in Learning Technology “Research in Learning Technology is the journal of the Association for Learning Technology. It aims to raise the profile of research in learning technology, encouraging research that informs good practice and contributes to the development of policy. The journal publishes papers concerning the use of technology in learning and teaching in all sectors of education, as well as in industry.”

• Tim Bonello on Twitter: A poster showing teacher confidence in technology. Administrators – It is crucial staff get proper PD. #edtech http://t.co/8wERmGLW4a

• 3D Printing Projects for the Classroom from mathgrrl + DesignMakeTeach #BackToSchool #3DxEducation #3DThursday #3DPrinting « adafruit industries blog

• Quiz Yourself: How Good Are You at Teaching the Art of Learning? | MindShift Quickly done that reflect on your answers and the ones they suggest. Good discussion starter.

  A Defense of Deeper Learning: Watch What’s Working, Part 5 | Edutopia “Give kids the experience of a learning community, as well as the skills to create one, sets them up well for the future demands of college and career, and helps them develop the academic mindsets they need to succeed.”

• 12 great ways to start using Google Classroom now | Ditch That Textbook “Google Classroom is finally available to all Google Apps for Education teachers and students. The venture into the world of learning management systems seems to be a pretty solid one. First impressions: It looks and feels like a Google product and so is familiar to most. It’s clean and simple (which should make it easy to use) It provides a home base for everything you do in Drive” The author then briefly explains 12 ways she would use some of the features in a classroom situation. They offer ideas worth considering.

• New Minecraft Mod Teaches You Code as You Play | Enterprise | WIRED There is an add-on teaches kids to code their own modifications to the game. In this Wired article, Klint Finley explains how the creators of the add-on called LearnToMod hope their tool could be a gateway for students to discover a love of computer programming.

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

Useful sites

  by  César Poyatos 

• Curation, the musical! « NeverEndingSearch Joyce Valenza has done it again. “To explain our very new efforts in teaching curation. Usually game for anything Glee-ish, our singer/actors brilliantly and generously created an introduction I can use for instruction and in upcoming workshops”

• Using QR codes to create educational posters | Teacher Tech  

• List of Microsoft Office Online File Converters and Document Viewers | The Windows Club “With the help of these converters and viewers from Office Online, you can share your Microsoft Office files with people who have different versions of Office programs, or even with people who don’t have Office installed.”  

• Down For Everyone Or Just Me -> Check if your website is down or up? A tool that allows you to check whether a website is down for everyone or just your computer.  

• How to load ebooks on the Kindle 4 e-reader | Good E-Reader – ebook Reader and Tablet PC News   

• Glassboard. Private group sharing done right. Glassboard is an app for Android, Windows, and iOS phones that enables you to create and participate in private groups. Using the app you can create and participate in as many groups as you like. You can specify which groups can see the content you share and you can share notes, links, pictures, and videos. The content you share and the content others share with you is displayed in a news feed on your mobile device.

• SoapBox – Transform your lecture in real-time Soap Box is a service that enables teachers to gather instant feedback from students through their cell phones, tablets, or laptops. Soap Box offers nine useful functions for teachers and students.   

• Oops. This latest Google development provides the opportunity to explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.     

• commonsExplorer A new way of exploring the Flickr collections is commonsExplorer, from Creative Canberra. It is an experimental interactive browser for the Flickr Commons. It provides a “big picture” view of these collections – a rich, single screen interface that reveals structures and patterns and encourages exploration. It’s a quickly downloaded browsing interface that gives you, and students, a more visual view of the collections and the images. You can scroll through the list of all the participating institutions, then either search through the tag cloud or window shop through the pop-ups for images.  

• BurningWell.Org – Free Public Domain Images and Photos Allows you to browse or search a large collection (how large is not stated on the site) of images donated by photographers from around the world. All images are in the public domain, so you are allowed to use them freely for any purpose, commercial or private   

• Curation is the new search tool « NeverEndingSearch “The new curation tools present an exciting new genre of search tool, a tool for scanning the real-time environment, as well as opportunities for evaluating quality and relevance in emerging information landscapes.” . Students and teachers can also exploit the curation efforts already out there   

• Using Tech to Engage Library Users Sparks ITHAKA Conference  

• Welcome to The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick 

• Amazon’s Kindle to Make Library E-Books Available – NYTimes.com  

• Survey shows division over reform agenda – Education Review  “Principals would be more positive towards the national professional standard if it was managed and accredited by the profession, a new survey shows. Ruth Callaghan reports”  

• Which is the best format for ebooks? | Ask Jack | Technology | guardian.co.uk “An ebook format should offer a good reading experience, be an open standard format (or at least openly licensed), have the support of both publishers and hardware vendors, and be guaranteed to work for the foreseeable future, if not forever. Unfortunately, there isn’t one. Buying ebooks requires compromises and an act of faith. Always assume your ebooks will not last very long, so you won’t be disappointed if they don’t.” 

• Getting teacher evaluation right – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post  Briefing on the right way to evaluate teachers given by Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond and other leading education research experts to US policymakers 

• Which is the best format for ebooks? | Ask Jack | Technology | guardian.co.uk uk 

• The post-reading generation talks about the future of books Article that looks at a study that shows it is not al “doom and gloom” for books    

• Will · “We Prepare Children to Learn How to Learn” Post that discusses learning and standardized testing. Like the US we too are becoming very dependent on “the test” to tell us about our students and their learning. This may lead ti the situation that we know less and less about who they really are as individuals. philosophy  

• Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn: Scientific American New research makes the case for hard tests, and suggests an unusual technique that anyone can use to learn. Trying to figure out the answer to a question and getting it wrong, studying the material, then answering the question again teaches slightly better (about 10%) than just studying and answering. 

• Online Brainstorming and Voting. Amazingly Easy and Free | tricider Very simple to use, but very versatile polling tool. You just create a question and add some options then share it with the people you want answers from. The great thing is that they can add extra options and add various pros and cons of each option as well as voting on the ones they like. This makes the whole process of polling much more open, social and interactive. Here’s a quick video showing how it works  

• SimplyBox – Think Inside the Box This is a simple to use tool which uses boxes in place of folders and enables you to grab an image from the site as a link back to it, rather than a title. The other great advantage of this tool is that you can share boxes and work on them collaboratively and anyone accessing the box can leave notes on each of the tools. I introduced this tool about halfway through the course by putting links to all the tools we had used in one box, and using this as a revision task, I got the teachers to leave teaching suggestions and notes about how to use each tool and what its strengths were on each of the bookmarks.   

• Amazon Digital Content: a Library at Your Fingertips | Search Engine Journal An interesting debate on this topic esp. reading the comments     

• Why the idea of a Netflix for e-books makes sense – Tech News and Analysis A great list of things you can learn from Twitter, and reasons why you should be on Twitter yourself  

• Ebook Search Engine, Free Ebooks, Ebook Price Comparison | Inkmesh Ebook search engine to find free ebooks and compare ebook prices for the Kindle, iPhone, Nook, Sony Reader etc. 

• http://learningfundamentals.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Focus-mindmap-for-web.jpg A great mindmap that focuses on the age of distraction and shows how to deal with technology overload 

• 9 New Skills You Need To be a 21st Century Educator | Online Universities Some of these skills, are not new but have become more refined or essential as the times have changed. Education professionals still tout them as desirable and/or necessary as components in contemporary classrooms.  

• Teaching Media Literacy through Critical Thinking with “The Help” « Pop Goes the Classroom Two key concepts in media literacy are: that all media construct versions of reality and that media is interpreted through individual lenses. These concepts are at the core of the recent controversy over the new movie “The Help”. To be accurate, the controversy began with the release of the book but has been brought to the forefront with the release of the book. Critics claim the story is so “ahistoric” that is “inaccurate”. Use this to create discussion about the topic; The Civil Rights Movement. 

• http://langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Bloom-iPads-Apps.jpg Adapted from Kathy Schrock’s Blooming iPad @Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano    

• Four Ways QR Codes Could Revolutionize Education – Education – GOOD This article, from GOOD, talks about the potential of using Quick Response (QR) codes in the education. It discusses how they would be a great way for teachers to interact with students and with parents. They could also be used to help students get involved with their school.   

• Kidlit Book Trailers – Kids Books… in Action! This is a blog devoted to watching and discussing book trailers in every kidlit genre: picture books, non fiction, middle grades and young adults  

• Book Trailers – Movies for Literacy! This page represents the beginning of a website of short movies (generally 30 to 45 seconds) designed to increase student motivation to READ! Click for Late Elementary Book Trailers and Adolescent Book Trailers to see those listings.books  

• Bookscreening – Book Trailers The site has la lot of trailers, for all ages and interest levels, including children and young adult. They are available for viewing and embedding/sharing.    

• Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value – NYTimes.com A long article that discusses the benefits of using technology in the classroom. “In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning. Advocates for giving schools a major technological upgrade say digital devices let students learn at their own pace, teach skills needed in a modern economy and hold the attention of a generation weaned on gadgets. Some backers of this idea say standardized tests, the most widely used measure of student performance, don’t capture the breadth of skills that computers can help develop. But they also concede that for now there is no better way to gauge the educational value of expensive technology investments. “ 

• Kids read 64 million minutes in the 2011 Scholastic Summer Challenge. “Kids read 64,213,141 minutes in the 2011 Scholastic Summer Challenge. The summer reading program, which ended last night at midnight, gave kids a chance to read books they want to read, log their reading minutes, complete weekly reading challenges, and win all kinds of prizes like sample book chapters, audio chapters, and even virtual badges of their favorite book series.”  

• Teaching “Search” | Hack Education A researcher asked people about their search strategies, giving them a series of hypothetical scenarios in which they’d need to look something up and asked how they’d proceed with finding the right information. The results show a lack of skills   

• Response: Several Ways To Help Students Become Better Listeners – Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo – Education Week Teacher How to help students develop better listening skills  iLibrarian » 25+ Resources to Create Library Videos  Offers “How To’s”, tools, library videos, branding on YouTube etc.     

• Something to Shout About: New research shows that more librarians means higher reading scores A piece about how librarians and library programs do make an impact on reading scores.   

• The Anatomy Of An Infographic: 5 Steps To Create A Powerful Visual | SpyreStudios A good post about infographics. Information is very powerful but can also be presented in a way that is bland and unimaginative. Infographics impart information in a visually pleasing and sometimes a more understandable manner, making it more powerful. Infographics have now permeated all aspects of the modern information world.   

• 45+ Free Online Tools To Create Charts, Diagrams And Flowcharts | Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers A guide to online tools for helping with data visualization   

• Create unique websites without writing code | Muse (code name) This is an impressive free tool for developing unique websites. It’s quite intuitive to use with a very logical workflow and drag and drop design features. Great for developing your own unique site 

• Bundlr – Bundle and share web content easily A very handy tool for collecting together web content for study or presentations. Create collections of the best media you find on the web and share them with everyone. 

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

Useful Links (Weekly)

  by  mikefisher821 

• Ebook Search Engine, Free Ebooks, Ebook Price Comparison | Inkmesh Ebook search engine to find free ebooks and compare ebook prices for the Kindle, iPhone, Nook, Sony Reader etc.    

• http://learningfundamentals.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Focus-mindmap-for-web.jpg A great mindmap that focuses on the age of distraction and shows how to deal with technology overload    

• 9 New Skills You Need To be a 21st Century Educator | Online Universities Some of these skills, are not new but have become more refined or essential as the times have changed. Education professionals still tout them as desirable and/or necessary as components in contemporary classrooms.    

• Teaching Media Literacy through Critical Thinking with “The Help” « Pop Goes the Classroom Two key concepts in media literacy are: that all media construct versions of reality and that media is interpreted through individual lenses. These concepts are at the core of the recent controversy over the new movie “The Help”. To be accurate, the controversy began with the release of the book but has been brought to the forefront with the release of the book. Critics claim the story is so “ahistoric” that is “inaccurate”. Use this to create discussion about the topic; The Civil Rights Movement.   

• Blooming Orange: Bloom’s Taxonomy Helpful Verbs Poster From Tips, Tools and Technology for Educators blog. A nice Blooms poster in a different format – “Bloom’s Taxonomy Helpful Verbs Poster. “This poster to helps get you thinking about how you can apply Bloom’s higher-order thinking skills in your classroom. This poster shows the segments of an orange with each segment relating to a thinking skill and some helpful verbs to serve as prompts.”           

• http://langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Bloom-iPads-Apps.jpg Adapted from Kathy Schrock’s Blooming iPad @Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano    

• Four Ways QR Codes Could Revolutionize Education – Education – GOOD This article, from GOOD, talks about the potential of using Quick Response (QR) codes in the education. It discusses how they would be a great way for teachers to interact with students and with parents. They could also be used to help students get involved with their school.    

• Kidlit Book Trailers – Kids Books… in Action! This is a blog devoted to watching and discussing book trailers in every kidlit genre: picture books, non fiction, middle grades and young adult    

• Book Trailers – Movies for Literacy! This page represents the beginning of a website of short movies (generally 30 to 45 seconds) designed to increase student motivation to READ! Click for Late Elementary BookTrailers and Adolescent BookTrailers to see those listings. 

• Bookscreening – Book Trailers The site has has la lot of trailers, for all ages and interest levels, including children and young adult. They are available for viewing and embedding/sharing.

• Stella vs Miles: Women Writers and Literary Value in Australia · Meanjin Julieanne Lamond looks at Australian literary values and whether they place women as outsiders. 

• Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value – NYTimes.com A long article that discusses the benefits of using technology in the classroom. “In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning. Advocates for giving schools a major technological upgrade say digital devices let students learn at their own pace, teach skills needed in a modern economy and hold the attention of a generation weaned on gadgets. Some backers of this idea say standardized tests, the most widely used measure of student performance, don’t capture the breadth of skills that computers can help develop. But they also concede that for now there is no better way to gauge the educational value of expensive technology investments. “   

• Kids read 64 million minutes in the 2011 Scholastic Summer Challenge. “Kids read 64,213,141 minutes in the 2011 Scholastic Summer Challenge. The summer reading program, which ended last night at midnight, gave kids a chance to read books they want to read, log their reading minutes, complete weekly reading challenges, and win all kinds of prizes like sample book chapters, audio chapters, and even virtual badges of their favorite book series.”   

• Teaching “Search” | Hack Education A researcher asked people about their search strategies, giving them a series of hypothetical scenarios in which they’d need to look something up and asked how they’d proceed with finding the right information. The results show a lack of skills 

• Response: Several Ways To Help Students Become Better Listeners – Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo – Education Week Teacher How to help students develop better listening skills   

• iLibrarian » 25+ Resources to Create Library Videos Offers “How To’s”, tools, library videos, branding on YouTube etc.  

• Something to Shout About: New research shows that more librarians means higher reading scores A piece about how librarians and library programs do make an impact on reading scores.  

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

Some sites for learning about environmental issues

We are celebrating our environment next week and our year 8 students are one week into researching global issues in Geography. I was pleased to find and use these sites when helping prepare students for their research.

The site of the United Nations Environment Program has an interactive map that displays 100+ examples of environmental change from around the world. You can choose to use the side index to find sites under lists with headings such as country, theme, biodiversity and protected, deserts & drylands, pollution etc.

There are icons/placemarks on the map that offer close-up views of the land with a story about the environmental change at that location. It indicates the major theme and other related themes for the site.

An example using the map: By clicking on the placemark for Wyperfield National Park, Australia you went to a page that had two close-up images of the site and some brief but reasonably detailed information about the environmental changes taking place there. The major theme for Wyperfield was Ecosystems and the related themes were Biodiversity & Protected areas, Extreme Events and Grasslands. 

This would be a good place for students to start their research into an environmental issue as there is enough information to pique their interest and clues about where to go onto next.

Another good site is Global Warming Facts and Our Future from the National Academy of Sciences. It’s a very engaging and extensive site, and includes audio support for the text. This assists some of our international students as well as those who are need extra learning support as the vocabulary may be a bit challenging.

Finally from one of my favourites, National Geographic, there is the  Global Warming Effects Map.