Useful links Weekly

• Free stock photos · Pexels “The some good free stock photos & videos shared by talented creators.”

• Visual to text coding- Index page | Digital Technologies Hub “This lesson sequence provides a bridge between visual coding (eg. Scratch) and General Purpose Programming languages (eg. Python or JavaScript). Each video builds a simple program in all three ways: Scratch, Python and JavaScript. This resource is most suitable if: you have never done General Purpose Programming, you benefit from slow-paced, step-by-step video tutorials.”

• Developing digital citizenship | Services to Schools Education 2020. With our time spent #remotelearning online, good digital citizenship & literacy skills are more important than ever. This guide includes many tips & resources to help you & your students. Developing digital citizenship with the understanding that Digital citizenship encompasses skills, values, and behaviours that include appropriate and effective ways we interact with people and information through media and technology.

• Dylan Wiliam: The nine things every teacher should know | Tes News A list of the nine things created by an experienced teacher with point he wished he had known when he started teaching. “

• factitious It you are teaching digital literacy skills this is a fun way to reinforce your points. A free game that tests your ability to spot FALSE or MISLEADING News. Offers different levels (6) depending on educational level of students

• Everything You Need to Know About Building a Great Screencast Video | Cult of Pedagogy “One of the most effective ways to move instruction online is to build screencast videos. Screencast videos are unique because they are actual recordings of your computer screen or tablet as opposed to a video of an in-person lecture. They are a powerful way to deliver instruction, but they do require a fair amount of time and planning, which I have learned through a lot of trial and error. Building effective screencasts continues to be the barrier that stops educators from making a smooth transition to distance learning, so I have put together the following tips to help guide you through the process.”

• Andrew Fuller: Remote learning tips and ideas for teachers – The Parents’ Website “Remote learning is a major opportunity for schools to refine their lesson planning and delivery. The efforts of teachers to adapt classes to online platforms has been nothing less than heroic. Now we have the chance to incorporate the ingredients that create effective remote learning, accelerate expertise and enhance the experience of our students. The rapid shift to remote learning has been unprecedented and we are all learning as we go through this. At its worst, remote learning can be disorienting and disconnecting. We all need to be innovative in creating learning that is engaging and involving for our students. The ideas in this paper are derived from the author’s research and work with schools of the air and distance education as well as his work with students who have been unable to attend school due to mental health issues.  “

• Free Online Language Learning Resources for Kids | The New York Public Library A compilation (annotated) of useful resources for students learning

• Join NYPL’s #BookCoverDouble Challenge! | The New York Public Library  New twist on an old idea. Recreate book cover images

• Women’s Prize for Fiction Announcing the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist – Women’s Prize for Fiction This is the 2020 Womens Prize for Fiction shortlist. Information on the six shortlisted authors and their books is available here.

• Support resources to share with parents | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF “The Covid-19 crisis has meant that schools are having to maintain communications with parents and families in very challenges circumstances. Here are some EEF resources to help schools communicate with parents/carers, as well as resources schools can share with families to support home routines and valuable learning opportunities, such as shared reading.”

• Free Online Language Learning Resources for Kids | The New York Public Library  A compilation (annotated) of useful resources for students learning

• National Standards for Quality Online Learning | From Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance (VLLA) and Quality Matters (QM) Although a US site it still has useful information for anyone trying remoteteaching. “Below are links to view or download the most current versions of each of the standards sets. National Standards for Quality Online Courses is currently being revised. Below are links to download the past versions of the standards from iNACOL.”

• Free Technology for Teachers: Quick Tip – Apply Custom Colors to Google Slides “Regular users of Google Slides are probably familiar with the process of adding images to the backgrounds of their slides and changing the background color. There is one little background color option that is easily overlooked. That option is applying a custom color that isn’t listed in the default colour menu in Google Slides.”

• Your local Bookshop An list of Australian bookshops has been compiled here so you can see which Australian bookshops offering home delivery, book drops and drive through pickups.

• How to set personal boundaries with remote learning : Innovative Education in VT “Many teachers are are struggling to make a distinction between home and work. This change in working conditions may feel overwhelming.The shift to remote teaching and learning is fraught with challenges. One of the biggest is how to make this type of work sustainable for teachers. In this situation, many are working for hours without breaks, forgetting about their own needs. This is not healthy or sustainable. This article offers some advice bbout how to set up some boundaries.”

• Women’s Prize for Fiction Announcing the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist – Women’s Prize for Fiction This is the 2020 Womens Prize for Fiction shortlist. Information on the six shortlisted authors and their books is available here.

• Getting Started With Project-Based Learning (Hint: Don’t Go Crazy) | Edutopia A handful of tips to help teachers ease into #PBL without getting overwhelmed.

• Becoming a More Connected Educator #digicon15 – Read Write Respond

• Celebrate Science: Where Should We Shelve Informational Fiction? Blog post discussing this literature “For the most part, the authors fully realized that these books should be classified as fiction, and they liked the term “informational fiction” because it acknowledged all the research they’d done and that the books were mostly faithful to the facts. But the Library of Congress labelled these books “juvenile literature” (the term they use for nonfiction). And in most cases, publishers and reviewers called the books narrative nonfiction.”

• Student Leadership Through a Student-Led Podcast @coolcatteacher

• Research Confirms Value of School Librarians | School Library Journal

• Sensory Products AU | Sensory Toys Australia | Sensory Oasis For Kids “Sensory Products for Special Kids with Special Needs. Australian owned & operated, Sensory Oasis for Kids is a Melbourne-based online & retail store run by a mum of three amazing Autistic boys”

• On The Move Visual Kit | Sensory Oasis For Kids

• 7 Good Lesson Plans Sources for Teachers and Educators | Educational Technology and Mobile Learning Some good sites mentioned here. ReadWriteThink and TedEx have a lot lot of ideas but from the descriptions of some of the others, there are a few other useful places to go for ideas.

• Create Interactive Online Presentations & free Infographic software. HTML5 Animations, download & Publish | Visme.  A digital tool that allows your create interesting visual stories (Infographics, presentations, etc.). You are allowed to create 5 free resources before you need to pay. My students have found very easy to use and creates some nice looking timelines for their assessment task.

• Jen Robinson’s Book Page: The Third Grade Cliff: My Response to a Finding from the @Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report “The 7th edition of the Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report was released last October. Scholastic presents the results of a survey, managed by YouGov, of 2758 adults and children. This biannual report is, I think, one of the best windows into what families are doing and thinking when it comes to kids’ reading. I’m in the process of going through the material and there are certainly causes for optimism overall. However, one of the major  findings hit me hard: The Decline by Nine”. Author discusses some results and how she intends to overcome them.

• 10 Elements Of A Quality Blog Post: Tips For Teaching Students (Poster and Examples) “Students have been learning about the elements of quality blog posts and comments. When high standards are set for publishing online, students tend to yield the greatest results. They can meet academic outcomes while learning how to be a safe and positive digital citizen. This post goes through 10 elements of a quality blog post. You are free to share these tips with students and they might be useful for adult bloggers.”

• Collage Maker | BeFunky: Create Photo Collages Useful to generate interesting images.

• Top 5 Unbiased World News Sources Free From Censorship “Every journalist is aware of the nine principles of journalism. The first says that a journalist’s first obligation is to the truth.
  “This ‘journalistic truth’ is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable account of their meaning, valid for now, subject to further investigation.”
  The ability to set aside one’s own prejudices in order to be “neutral” is not a part of those principles. However, “the source of their credibility is still their accuracy, intellectual fairness, and ability to inform.” When journalists let personal biases hinder their objectivity, it puts the entire media organization at risk. Thankfully there are still enough media outlets left that uphold these principles.”

• Stock photos that don’t suck “An ongoing list of the best stock photo sites the author has come across.”

• A Universe of Podcasts: A Summer Listening Guide for Elementary, Middle, and High School Students | School Library Journal  “The 2019 Collaborative Summer Library Program reading theme, A Universe of Stories, offered unlimited opportunities to connect with students and to build community. This summer is also the 50th anniversary of the July 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. As you include related fiction and nonfiction titles on your summer reading lists, consider adding a listening guide that explores the theme and anniversary through podcasts. New research provides compelling reasons to recommend them, and our curated lists will get you, your students, and their families started.” Lots of ideas that could be repurposed.

• School Sends Kids To Meditation Instead Of Detention, With Amazing Results One elementary school has changed the approach to disruptive children. Instead of detention and punishment, the children take part in a “Mindful Moment Program” with some amazing results.

• Three Powerful Google Docs Add-ons for Creating Diagrams and Flowcharts | Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “Google Docs add-ons that enable you to create a wide variety of charts and diagrams. Of course there are numerous other tools you can use for this purpose but these  three are conidered by the authors to be the best. “

• How to Engage Digitally Distracted Students – The Tech Edvocate While it is clear that digital technology is distracting students, the technology is here to stay. For example, while most teachers agree the best way to turn digital distraction is to not allow mobile devices in the classroom, these same teachers agree this is ineffective in the long run. Instead, educators must be proactive and teach proper digital device usage in the classroom. Therefore, teachers must find ways to engage digitally distracted students.”

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Useful links

“Designing Learning Experiences” (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) by  superkimbo 

Your Online Presence is a Digital Tattoo, Not a Footprint | The Golden Age of Education Some nice infographics that explain why why we must model and demonstrate how to actively create digital tattoos instead of passively leaving digital footprints.

DERN: Digital Educatioonal Research Network (DERN) “Free Research Reviews – published fortnightly. The latest 2 research reviews are FREE.”

IFLA School Library Guidelines, 2nd edition This is the new edition of the School Library Guidelines, approved by the IFLA Professional Committee in June 2015.
These guidelines constitute the second edition of the IFLA ‘School Library Guidelines’. The first edition of the school library guidelines was developed in 2002. They have been developed to assist school library professionals and educational decision-makers in their efforts to ensure that all students and teachers have access to effective school library programs and services, delivered by qualified school library personnel.

TLT | Australian Teaching and Learning Toolkit What impacts most on student learning. Teaching and Learning toolkit

Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner | MacArthur Foundation – YouTube A thought provoking video about critical and creative thinking from John Seely Brown

Visual book notes: Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 ways to Out-Innovate the Competition–Stephen M. Shapiro – sacha chua :: living an awesome life  “A graphic based on Stephen M. Shapiro’s 2011 book “

Melbourne Declaration on educational goals for young Australian http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf

Sway – Online professional development from mircrsoft

Microsoft Touch Develop – create apps everywhere, on all your devices!

Bebras Australia | Digital Careers Computational Thinking Challenge For Students “Bebras is an international student challenge whose goal is to promote computational thinking for teachers and students (ages 8-17 / school years 3-12). Bebras is aligned with and supports information and communication technology curricula across Australia. Bebras Australia is run by NICTA under the Digital Careers program, funded by the Australian Government. It’s a great way to get students interested and participating in information and communication technology (ICT) which could lead to an interest in pursuing a career in the exciting ICT industry!”

ISTE | 9 resources for teaching digital citizenship “In classrooms where digital citizenship is taught effectively, the teachers often share two things in common: They model ethical technology use for their students on a daily basis, and they naturally incorporate conversations about it whenever technology is part of their lesson plan. In other words, they weave digital citizenship seamlessly throughout their curriculum.” There are some resources here to help you ion your task

8 Apps for Testing Student-Created Curriculum Many teachers still create their own lesson plans, activities, and assessments based on curriculum standards and scope and sequences provided by their various educational guiding bodies. Technology can give students more opportunities whilst still allowing teachers to maintain a guiding hand.

Personalized Learning: What It Really Is and Why It Really Matters | EDUCAUSE

Mean What You Say: Defining and Integrating Personalized, Blended and Competency Education – iNACOL “This paper provides a scan of the literature to expand the knowledge base for the field of online, blended, and competency-based education. Authors seek to integrate the core ideas of personalized learning, blended learning, competency education, and standards. The goal of the paper is to explain the nuances of key terms used across the field of K-12 education related to personalized, blended and competency education, and how the ideas integrate in order to create new learning models.”

The right conditions for creativity — The Learner’s Way “Creativity is best served by a culture that values it. Ultimately the sum total of our beliefs, attitudes and behaviours will define our cultural valuing of creativity. Encouraging creativity begins with what we say and what we do to support it but the ultimate success of our endeavours will be measured by the degree to which creativity becomes a part of the culture of a school.”

Nik’s QuickShout: 10 Lesson Plans to Develop Digital Literacies

A Handy Chart Featuring Some of The Best Tools and Apps for Creating Educational Screencasts ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “A screencast is a great way for teachers to create and share instructional videos and explanatory step-by-step tutorials with students. The quality of the video screen captures can sometimes impede the communicative intent of the message. Therefore, knowing what tools to use to create educational screencasts is as important as the content of the screencasts themselves. To assist teachers this curated collection of some of the best screen casting tools was put together. They are divided into four major categories: Web tools, Chromebook apps, iPad apps, and Android apps.”

Stop doing too much: The “minimum effective dose” for educators | Ditch That Textbook

Understanding the Complexities of Fair Use, Creatively and In the Classroom — Emerging Education Technologies

Using Twitter In The Classroom – From The Perspective Of Students | The Edvocate At the end of the year students were asked to reflect on their classroom highlights. Using twitter in the classroom was one of those. The are some interesting comments

Stories Teachers Share | Free listening on SoundCloud  Katrina Schwartz and Ki Sung at MindShift started a podcast titled “Stories Teachers Share”. It highlightst the many varied and interesting work teachers do daily. It gives teachers the opportunity to help the larger community better understand what it really means to be a teacher.

Letting Students Lead the Learning | An effective way to have students learn about a topic. “Instead of giving them access to that Google Document full of information and instructions, I asked students to investigate RSA animation to find out what it is and how they are created. Then groups worked together to write a project proposal explaining how they were going to execute this project. It required them to think through the purpose, strategy, and process before beginning their work. It asked them to do the work that most teachers do for them.”

Portal 2 Puzzle Maker – Valve Developer Community “The Puzzle Maker (also known as Puzzle Creator or Editor) is an in-game puzzle editor that allows the creation, testing, and publishing (to Steam Workshop) of custom single-player and co-op test chambers. The Editor also adds new lines from Cave Johnson which, altogether, adds a story to downloaded test chambers. The DLC introduces the player to “The Multiverse” which contains an infinite number of Earths, an infinite number of Apertures, and therefore, an infinite number of test chambers.

Puzzle Maker is not intended as a replacement of Hammer, which while more powerful and generalized in nature, is significantly more difficult and time consuming to use. It is possible to export a VMF from Puzzle Maker and open it in Hammer; many mappers do this to add polish or features that are not currently possible using the Puzzle Maker. Some mappers use the Puzzle Maker to quickly iterate through (and test) puzzle designs before building a chamber from scratch with Hammer. It is not possible to load a Hammer VMF file in Puzzle Maker.”

Kids Start Coding Their Vocab | Teacher Tech An interesting approach that teaches coding and gives students a reason to do it. The idea is to practice coding using Google Docs. Links to more how-tos and extra options also in the piece

10+ Tips for Using Brain Based Methods to Redesign Your Classroom | EdSurge News Interesting article. If are you looking to redesign your learning environment, this piece offers some ideas about where you might start.

10 Things Every Teacher Should be able to do on Google Docs | Indiana Jen Google Docs is a powerful word processing tool that many schools are now using. Most of its features are intuitive to use and it can function like of a traditional word processor, it also provides more capabilities that offer teachers many valuable options.

http://csunplugged.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/unplugged-01-binary_numbers.pdf Binary coding activities

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

Useful links

   by  Ken Whytock 

• Where Reference Fits in the Modern Library “The library today is still a trusted institution, but the public is coming to us with different expectations. Clinging to an outdated reference mission has left many libraries struggling to meet these new expectations.”

• Games, apps and social networking | Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner A guide to games, apps and social networking from eSafety @eSafetyOffice

• Excellent Resources to Help You Integrate Mindfulness in Your Instruction ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “The purpose of this post is to provide you with some very good resources to help you learn more about mindfulness and explore the different ways you can use it both in your own instruction and in your life in general.”

• Digital Technologies – Rationale and Aims – Victorian Curriculum “The curriculum has been designed to provide practical opportunities for students to explore the capacity of information systems to systematically and innovatively transform data into digital solutions through the application of computational, design and systems thinking. The curriculum also encourages students to be discerning decision makers by considering different ways of managing the interactions between digital systems, people, data and processes (information systems) and weighing up the possible benefits and potential risks for society and the environment.”

• Uses For Old Books | POPSUGAR Australia Smart Living A lot of ideas for using old books to create some interesting/artisitc/lovely items

• ISTE | 5 myths of online student privacy

• How Annotation Reshapes Student Reading

• 6 Things to Consider Before Starting Your Makerspace | EdSurge News “One educator’s advice after installing makerspaces in several dozen schools. He has developed a process that helps you think through your makerspace and how it fits into the culture and curriculum of your school. Skipping this process, or one like it, will almost certainly result in tension, missed teaching opportunities, and overspending.”

• Growing Learning Communities Through School Libraries and Makerspaces-Creating, Constructing, Collaborating, Contributing | The Unquiet Librarian “The slides in this post are from a 2014 presentation (given by the Unquiet Librarian) about the possibilities for makerspaces and school libraries. All the links referenced in the session are live and accessible via the SlideShare post.”

• The Daring Librarian: Makerspace Starter Kit A post on the The Daring Librarian Blog that offers all sorts of advice about creating a space in the library for creating/making. It ranges from ideas about the what has worked, to the how to get started and resources that can be bought/onbtained.

• Writing Worksheet Wednesday: Fighting | e.a. deverell: creative writing blog “CONFLICT is great for the plot in general, but nothing’s better than a good fight scene to increase tension and provide the perfect opportunity for a TRY/FAIL CYCLE. This worksheet will help you brainstorm some ideas for your fight scene, whether it’s verbal, physical or something in between.”

• Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher | Edutopia Student-centered classrooms include students in planning, implementation, and assessments. Involving the learners in these decisions will place more work on them, which can be a good thing. Teachers must become comfortable with changing their leadership style from directive to consultative — from “Do as I say” to “Based on your needs, let’s co-develop and implement a plan of action.” This first of three posts on student-centered classrooms starts with the educator. As the authority, teachers decide if they will “share” power by empowering learners”

• Teachers Find Many Reasons to Use Picture Books with Middle and High School Students | School Library Journal A good argument of using picture books with all ages. “A big part of this is awareness and knowing how a picture book might connect to the bigger picture we want students to get.” “Picture books are the first format we abandon as early readers moving into chapter books for a variety of reasons, the most tragic reason of all being that someone would tell us that picture books are inappropriate for us to be reading at some point in our lives.”

• Whole-School Marking: What? Why? How? | @TeacherToolkit One teacher discusses marking and feed back at their school. “At present and on a whole-school level, marking is our current focus for the term ahead. Last week, we launched part one of a three-part Learning Policy that we are introducing to all teachers across the school.” Some good infographics and links. The learning policy was also interesting to read.

• Digital vs Digitized Learning | BYOT Network “As teachers begin to shift toward greater personalized learning experiences for students, their initial steps build upon what they already know from face-to-face instruction. However, the greatest potential of learning with technology tools is that teachers and students can transform the traditional learning environment, processes, and products. Just providing teachers with an organizational tool, such as an LMS, will not lead to transformative practices. Teachers need on-going support if they are to truly transform their classrooms into ecosystems for digital age learning”

• Social Media FOR Schools: Developing Shareable Content for Schools | Langwitches Blog An astute post by Sylvia Rosenthal Tolisano (langwitches) “While social media in schools deals primarily with policies around how to use (or not use) social media in the classroom with students, social media for schools is about storytelling and getting their stakeholders (teachers, students, administrators, parents, community) to spread these stories.”

• Change Our Approach to Teaching Technology: Lives May Depend on It | EdCircuit

• Oh! The places you’ll go Motion Graphic – YouTube “Uploaded on 20 Oct 2011. Short video offers a great way to expeprience “Oh! The Places You’ll Go” story by Dr Seuss.”

• Three Ways To Reframe A Problem To Find An Innovative Solution | Fast Company | Business + Innovation Reframing a problem helps you see it as an opportunity, and Tina Seelig offers three techniques for finding innovative solutions.

• Global Digital Citizenship—in 15 Minutes! (Solution Fluency) “By focusing on Global Digital Citizenship every day for 15 minutes, you can instil in your students a strong basis for Internet-savvy skills for the 21st Century. This is the first in a series of templates for lesson plans on the 21st Century Fluencies. You take this lesson in parts; one part each day. You can spread this out over a couple of weeks time or however you wish. The premise for our 15 minutes comes in the form of flipped videos or material that students will examine at home, or at the very least to be highlighted and watched in class for 15 minutes or less. So it all begins with your PBL plan. We here at the Global Digital Citizen Foundation believe that PBL is one of the best ways to get students engaged in their own learning. PBL is the name—Solution Fluency is the game.”

• eSafety Homepage | Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner “Enhancing online safety site is managed by the Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner. This department seeks to protect Australian children when they experience cyberbullying by administering a complaints scheme and deals with complaints about prohibited online content.”

• 15 Essential Apps For The Organized Teacher “There is no single way to effectively organize a classroom. The big idea behind organization is systematic accessibility. When there is a clear system that allows the parts of that system to be accessible to those who need it, that’s organization. Organization is a subjective idea, what works for one teacher may not work for another. The variety of apps here allow teachers to store files, manage class rosters, share student work, and consolidate everything into a single, synced calendar for all parents.”

• How To Prepare Students For 21st Century Survival The post discusses 7 survival skills for the 21st century and how they might be purposefully applied in a classroom. They are: 1. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. 2. Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence. 3. Agility and Adaptability. 4. Initiative and Entrepreneurship. 5. Effective Oral and Written Communication. 6. Accessing and Analysing Information. 7. Curiosity and Imagination

• Coding for All Means Coding for Girls, Too | EdTech Magazine Although written about getting girls to take on coding it also offers me ides about getting some of the reluctant boys (preconcieved idea based around – I can’t do maths – so therefore i can’s understand coding)

• Forget GarageBand, SoundTrap is a music app for everyone “Soundtrap is a browser-based music creation program that harnesses the same simple but powerful approach and combines it with an HTML5 interface and video features that make it easy to collaborate with other musicians wherever they are. It is a competitor for GarageBand. It continues Sweden’s track record for music startups – Spotify, SoundCloud and Tidal all started life there – the company is based in Stockholm. ” There is a free plan that gives you access to 480 loops and allows you to create up to 5 projects with 125 instruments. There’s also a 30-day free trial of the paid plans.

• 3 Classroom Tools to Measure Student Learning | Edutopia “Formative assessment is vital to teachers in any classroom environment. Teachers have been formatively assessing students for years, because they need to know what students know in order to help them understand what they do not know. Many classrooms are moving to 21st century with technology initiatives. Suggested here are three tech tools will help teachers engage students while simultaneously gauging their understanding of concepts: Kahoot!, Formative and Padlet”

• Research: Early School Start Times Hurt Students, Hinder Performance — THE Journal An analysis of some recent research. “Compared to other efforts to improve the health and learning of students, such as running smaller classrooms, changing the start time is a comparatively cost-effective approach, the researchers asserted. “The synchronization of education to adolescent biology enables immediate advances in educational attainment and can be achieved with a relatively simple step that does not require new teaching methods, new testing or large additional expenditure.The research was published in the latest issue of Learning, Media and Technology.”

• Is Plagiarism Down? Depends on How You Define and Measure It | EdSurge News An interesting discussion about what may be going on today. “Does the Internet encourage plagiarism? It’s certainly not a stretch to imagine a harried student copying and pasting from Wikipedia, Quora or any one of the countless number of information resources and term paper databases. But a study published in the Journal of Academic Ethics suggests otherwise, finding that instances of academic plagiarism actually decreased. Plagiarism may indeed be on the decline. But without a shared understanding of its definition, it can be hard to ascertain the validity of studies like Ison’s. In the absence of clear expectations, students may be writing their own honor codes. “

• Digiteen – Digitween – Flat Connections “Digiteen and Digitween Global Projects. Students take action while connecting and collaborating. The Digiteen Project, and Digitween Project are an exciting, challenging and unique experience that allow young people (and their teachers) to study and explore digital citizenship and how to be a responsible and reliable online learner. They are global hands-on projects for upper elementary, middle and high school students, (typically Grade 4-12, 8-18 year old). These projects study digital citizenship and promote effective and responsible online choices as well as immersing students into an online educational community for learning and collaborating.

• Embracing the 9 Themes of Digital Citizenship | EdTech Magazine

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

Sharing our makerspace ideas

We had a successful meeting the other night where teacher librarians got together to talk about how they are creating maker spaces in their libraries. The ideas and approaches vary widely but they all share the same goal of allowing the students to express their creative side and learn at the same time as enjoying what they are doing.

We were going to run it like a teach meet with very short presentations but a few people had to pull out due to illness so each presentation went a little longer. We also had the opportunity to try out some of the activities spoken about.

The best part of these meetings is the sharing that happens with everyone talking about the approaches they take in their schools. Even when using the same materials, the approaches and resulting student creations can be very different.

My part of the evening included the presentation below.

Pinterest boards:

• Bookfaces
• Our bookfaces
• Book spine poetry
• Maker ideas for school libraries

There are many posts and articles written about makerspaces and (school) libraries. Below in one presentation I like.

Useful links

   by  Kackpr 

• [Infographic] Characteristics of a Good Digital Citizen – EdTechReview™ (ETR) “When technology is used in education, it is important to teach kids about digital ethics, to help them to become responsible digital citizens.  Digital citizenship includes digital etiquette, literacy, culture, norms, ethics, online safety, rights, and much more. Knowing the traits of a good digital citizen is important in this technological era.  This infographic sets out the characteristics of a good digital citizen.”

• Summer Reading Tips From Librarians | Scholastic.com Ideas from public librarians (USA) who shared information about summer reading programs that work for them and what tcan be done to keep young people reading during holidays

• Snapchat and 7 More Iffy Messaging Apps Teens Love | Common Sense Media “The best way to approach these apps with your kids? Talk to them about their online reputations — not in terms of “getting caught” by teachers, college-admissions officers, or future employers but as a matter of being true to themselves. Acknowledge that, chances are, they’ll come across extreme, inappropriate, or hurtful content online … and that it’s OK for them to ask you about it, especially if it upsets them. These kinds of conversations will be far from fleeting — the benefits will last a lifetime.”

• Why is Digital Citizenship Important? Even for Youngest Kids – EdTechReview™ (ETR) “In all your classes make your student understand that web is a place to learn and gain things. Keep their focus only on good place over the web where they can learn good things. Today, the engagement of students with technology is more in this digital world, and most of them do not make right choice, in fact they don’t really know what they are doing and what is its affect. Therefore, digital citizenship lessons are mandatory to teach”

• 3 Ways Teachers Are Using Social Media to Engage Students – Brilliant or Insane “Post that makes the case for including social media into learning in schools. Taking advantage of social media as a learning platform is an idea that has been met with some great success. There are three ways described here about how teachers are using social media to engage their students.”

• Digital Citizenship and Internet Safety – EdTechReview™ (ETR)

• Quozio – Make Beautiful Quotes “Quozio turns meaningful words into beautiful images in seconds. Then share ’em on Facebook, Pinterest, email and more!”

• Fastest Quote Maker – QuotesCover.com “… turns any ordinary quotes texts into beautiful quotes picture for Facebook, Twitter header, Google Plus, E-Cards, Wallpapers, Pinterest, Posters and other print design.”

• PixTeller – Image Maker PixTeller offers a simple way to design and create visually stimulating images and then share them with others. All you need is your imagination to create targeted image quotes to stimulate interest/learning.

• Top Tech Tools for Formative Assessment “Formative assessment is useful tool assist teachers assess the learning needs of their students. Such knowledge allows teachers to modify their teaching to meet the needs of their students. The digital formative assessment tools listed here offer a range of approaches to help teachers undertake this task. “

• EDUCATIONAL MAKERSPACES | Teacher Librarian “This article, reprinted from the June 2014 issue of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals, is a thoughtful and insightful  examination of the philosophy and pedagogical underpinnings of the maker movement.  The authors’ analysis and argument are strong, and the benefits they tout are inspiring.”

• EDUCATIONAL MAKERSPACES | Teacher Librarian “This article, reprinted from the October 2014 issue of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals, is the second in a series of three articles which provides a thoughtful and insightful examination of the philosophy and pedagogical underpinnings of the maker movement, as well as expert guidance on how to establish a program. The third article in the series will be published in the December edition of TL and on this website. In this second installment, we will explore the look and feel of the environment and the selection of tools to inspire and equip makers to tinker, create, and invent. Innovation is fundamentally an inspired activity, and the right environment has the potential to inspire new thoughts and creative endeavors.”

• Educational Makerspaces | Teacher Librarian “This final part of the series exposes a real-life case study of a makerspace in an average school in an average district, with results that are anything but average.”

• NEA – Minecraft: Make Learning a Blast “One middle-school teacher describes how he has mined the blockbuster game for equally popular classroom lessons.”

• Year of the Learning Commons Google site set up to share: Celebrating the Transformation of School Libraries and Computer Labs into a Learning Commons. April, 2015 ~ May 2016. Celebrate, initiate, advocate and create opportunities all year. Celebrate, initiate, advocate and create opportunities all year.”

• Puppet Pals HD App Review You can use this to create some unique shows with animation and audio in real time. Iti s easy to pick out actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Movements and audio are recorded in real time for later playback. The free version is limited but the add-ons aren’t too expensive if you are careful about your choices. I like the idea of being able to use people and things from my own photos.

• Resources for Teaching Students HOW TO LEARN — Emerging Education Technologies “Schools are so caught up in teaching fundamentals like reading, writing, and good old “‘rithmatic”, as and knowledge required to pass standardized tests, but how often are they actually teaching students how to learn?” Includes links to resources that explain more about how to learn rather than what to learn.

• Why I Started Teaching With Minecraft | a blog by JasonWilmot

• CamScanner- A Great App for Scanning, Editing and Sharing Docs ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “CamScanner is a document scanning and sharing app. It allows you to instantly scan any type of text or graphic and save or share them with others. Using your phone or tablet camera, you can take a photo and CamScanner will automatically enhance the scanned results so you can easily email, print, fax or share them in PDF or PNG format.” The basic version is available for free.

• TinyTap- A Great App for Creating Educational Games on Android ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

• Top 5 Android Apps for Teaching Kids Coding Skills ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “5 suggestions on some good Android coding apps. This list embeds some really great alternatives to iOS to use on Android. Using these apps students and kids will get to learn coding skills while engaging in funny and enjoyable games and activities.”

• Game: The Sequel to I Hunt Killers (Trailer) – YouTube Game: (#2 or the sequel to I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga) (Book Trailer) – YouTube

• Blood of My Blood trailer – YouTube Book trailer for Blood of my Blood (#3 of I hunt killers by Barry Lyga)e

• I HUNT KILLERS by Barry Lyga (Book Trailer) – YouTube

• After the Ball Official Trailer 1 (2015) – Chris Noth Comedy HD – YouTube “Published on 13 Aug 2014 The book trailer for Blood of my Blood, the final book in the I HUNT KILLERS trilogy by Barry Lyga”

• How do You Choose Good Online Sources? | An Ethical Island This is a great visual to back up teaching students about evaluating their sources of information. You know some” get it” but others are still struggle with evaluating something even if they agree to the why. This is clean and concise.

• Jonathan Stroud – Fan Questions – YouTube Jonathan Stroud, author of the Lockwood & Co. book series – answers Fan Questions – YouTube Published on 14 Nov 2014

• Simon Mayo introduces his book, Itch Rocks – YouTube “Published on 1 Mar 2013. Itch Rocks is the second book in the explosive ‘Itch’ series, in which life is finally getting back to normal for young element hunter, Itchingham Lofte – at least, as normal as it can be when you have a round-the-clock detail of government security guards watching your every move.”

• Library To Learning Commons: 7 Reasons Why Your School Should Make The Shift — Learning 21 – Linkis.com

• Free Technology for Teachers: Dozens of Story Starters in One Free eBook A lot of good ideas for writing.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Google Safety Center – Good Tips for Parents

• Connected Leaders: Engaging School Communities Through Social Media | maelstrom

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