Useful links 06/09/2017 (p.m.)

“Technology is just a tool” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by rhondda.p

• Beautiful and easy to use newsletters | Smore Smore allows users to create digital flyers that can be easily shared and accessed by anyone interested. The most useful thing about Smore is that it allows admin/teachers to embed photos and videos right in the flyer to easily share what is going on in the school.

• EDpuzzle Edpuzzle is a site that lets users select videos from YouTube to edit and customize for your students. Once you have the video you want for your class, add text and images to the video to for enrichment opportunities and add questions to assess your students’ knowledge.

• Duolingo: Learn Spanish, French and other languages for free This is a good enrichment tool, one that could be used when students finish an activity early or as a way to start off class each day. Most of the lessons are short and they are all interactive and engaging. Users complete written exercises to match words and phrases, plus Duolingo has a speaking component that has users speak the new language they’re learning.

• Recap Recap is an online tool that teachers can use to post questions that students have to answer through a video response.
  English language learners could practice their skills if they had to post daily/weekly question on Recap that they have to answer in English.
  A feature about this tool is that it keeps your prior videos, so students can visually see their growth.

• Newsela | Warriors look unstoppable going into Game 4 of the NBA Finals Newsela posts current, high-interest articles on their website daily. It is a US site but still has articles that could be used with Aust. students.This site is good for English language learners because it can alter a text’s Lexile with a simple click of a button. Through this site, students with lower English skills can participate in class by reading the same text as other students but at a lower Lexile.

• Learning, made joyful – Memrise Memrise can assist learners to learn a language through games, quizzes, and repetition.
  You can use competition with the students as Memrise includes a leader board and points system to get them to continue learning outside of the classroom.

• Quizalize Quizzes are a long-standing tools for assessment. Quizalize is a tool that aims to make quizzes into friendly online competitions. Teachers can create quizzes that test subject knowledge or can pick from a selection of a large number of ready-made quizzes. Students can be grouped into teams, play as individuals at home, or sit down to a formal test offered through this ed tech tool. Quizalize works on most mobile devices.

• 5 Myths About Teaching Kids to Code – The Edvocate Learning to code in the early years can help children to develop problem-solving skills, improve creativity and boost their attention. There are still myths that survive when it comes to teaching students to code in the early ages. This article discusses the validity of the most common five of them.

• Do students lose depth in digital reading? – The Tech Edvocate  An interesting article comparing the ways in which we read in print and onscreen. The author discusses the results he gathered between 2013 and 201. He obtained data from 429 university students drawn from five countries (the U.S., Japan, Germany, Slovenia and India).The students in the study reported that print was aesthetically more enjoyable, saying things such as “I like the smell of paper” or that reading in print is “real reading.” What’s more, print gave them a sense of where they were in the book – they could “see” and “feel” where they were in the text.

• Formative Homepage  Formative wants to encourage students to learn from feedback and corrections. teachers can watch in real time as students answer questions and can go in to give assistance.This allows students to feel that they are receiving one-to-one attention. It also offers way for teachers to provide personalized comments outside the classroom. The tool with Maths and Science focused subjects.. Free for students and teachers.

• Tristan Bancks | Australian Children’s & Teen Author | Kids’ & YA Books: Story Scrapbook Story Scrapbook is a transmedia story brainstorming tool. It lets you bring together images, video, music, text and web grabs, making creative writing interactive and fun. “It is based on my own multimedia-fuelled writing process, bringing the writing process alive for people who think visually, interactively and aurally, as well as textually.”

• Goodreads | Tristan Bancks’s Blog – Vision Boarding for Writers – June 08, 2017 05:57

• Python – teachwithict  A collection of free Python lessons Lessons include: Shakespearean Insult Generator, Magic 8 ball, Sorting hat, Mad Libs, Chat bot and Coding Golf

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

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Useful links

“Always walk through life as if you have” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by rhondda.p

• 32 Great Educational Websites for Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning This infographic features a number of key websites and online resources arranged into different learning area categories. Not all areas are covered. The purpose is to provide teachers with a repository of EdTech websites that can potentially help them with the teaching their classes.
• The Ultimate EdTech Chart for Teachers and Educators ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning This list features a number of key websites and online resources arranged into different learning area categories. Not all areas are covered. The purpose is to provide teachers with a repository of EdTech websites that can potentially help them with the teaching their classes.
• Fun STEM Lessons to Teach Robotics and More to Kids Some great ideas to use well known characters to explore ideas
• Why Effective Practice Is Just As Important As the Hours of Practice | MindShift | KQED News “Researchers believe that practice helps build up the protective layer of myelin, the fatty substance that protects axons in the brain. Axons move electrical signals from the brain to our muscles and when they are better protected by thick myelin they move more efficiently, creating an “information superhighway” between the brain and muscles.”
• ‘The most loudest library ever’: Booklover goes the way of shushing staff as community hubs take hold – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Article that discusses how libraries continue to change from the traditional stereotype
• Control Alt Achieve: 30 Free Google Drawings Graphic Organizers You have been able to create graphic organizers with Google Drawings. for a while. Graphic organizers are a great tool to share information, explain a concept, or illustrate a relationship using elements including images, shapes, text, colours, and connecting lines. They are useful in education over a wide range of year levels and learning areas. There are many useful tools for creating graphic organizers and teachers should investigate them to see which ones best fit their needs.
  This post explains how to use Google Drawings, with directions on how to create graphic organizers using this tool. It includes a help guide and a recorded webinar as well as 30 free sample graphic organizers that you can copy, use, and modify as needed.
• 18 Fun and Simple Creative Writing Activities There are some great techniques/activities that offer a range of ways to stimulate the minds of students and fire up their imagination to help them with their creative writing.
• 20 Creative Bloom’s Taxonomy Infographics Everybody Loves Using There are many Bloom’s Taxonomy infographics online. Almost one to suit any teacher. They range from Bloom’s Verbs poster to the great resources that can be found on Andrew Churches’ Edorigami. There is a taxonomy tool for every purpose. (Andrew also created a very helpful chart for checking your lesson components against Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy—you can get it here.) This is a list of 20 of the author’s favourites from all the best Bloom’s Taxonomy infographics available
• Is mindfulness meditation good for kids? Here’s what the science actually says. – Vox A good discussion about the benefits (or not) of mindfulness in schools
• Don’t teach your kids coding, teach them how to live online
• How (and Why) to Write a Great Game Design Document “Every game developer or team has asked themselves how best to manage the development process. Is it obligatory to use detailed documentation, such as the legendary game design document (GDD)? What are the most common mistakes, and how can they be avoided?” The author shares his team’s experience of creating our GDD.
• 4 resources for fighting fake news – Innovation: Education A post that discusses some resources that will help you teach your students to find accurate information, manage their social media feeds and make good choices about what to share
• [infographic] Fake news or real news? 10 tips to getting the facts for yourself – Stone Soup Creative This useful infographic is based on the article and a link provided to a google doc, False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources, prepared by Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication and media at Merrimack College.
• How To Start a Podcast Students hare voting with their fingers and are increasingly using podcasts to learn. Here are some useful tips about creating your own podcasts
• Great Debates: Tips for Generating Healthy Classroom Discussions “Healthy classroom discussions are about harmony and understanding. The question is how do we do this in our own classrooms in the best way for our learners? Here are some quick and dirty tips on how you can make it happen easily.”
• 7 Actively Engaging Ways of Developing Critical Thinking Skills “Thinking critically is the pinnacle of the accumulation of knowledge and experience. How can we start developing our learners’ critical thinking skills rather than teaching to the test? There are some useful strategies suggested here that can be used to bring out the critical thinkers inside all our learners.
• Secret Teacher: we’re not reading – so why do we assume children will? | Teacher Network | The Guardian English teachers are too bogged down by workload to take pleasure in what often brought us into our job – a love of literature. But if we aren’t reading, how can we encourage our students to?
• 10 Podcasts That Promote Reading – The Tech Edvocate “These iPod-based audio broadcasts encompass a wide variety of subjects, such as entrepreneurship, politics, history, to entertaining series on serial killers. These downloadable series can be subscribed to, so you automatically get the next installment. However, podcasts can be utilized in the classroom, especially to promote literacy.
• By using podcasts in conjunction with their transcripts, or by finding engaging podcasts that discuss books benefit students’ different learning styles. Podcasts bring together reading, writing, analysis, listening, language and many other ELA Common Core Standards (source). Here is a list of 10 podcasts that promote reading.”
• Infographic: Teen reading habits | Online publication for school educators | ACER
• Types of Visual Content to Improve Learner Engagement Infographic – e-Learning Infographics

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

Learning and games

I like the way this infographic explains the difference between game-based learning and gamification. We use both to create inreresting learning experiences in our school.

An Ethical Island

Here’s a brief- very brief- overview of different types of game-learning.

This work by Mia MacMeekin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Useful links

“Failure is Overrated” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by William M Ferriter

How To Create Templates in Google Slides – YouTube Video that shows you how to create templates in Google Slides. Google Slides is a presentation tool that allows you to create and share presentations for free online.

“If you don’t want to create your own template from scratch, there are tools out there that can help you out. Slides Carnival offers free basic templates for Google Slides and Powerpoint. They have different template categories to browse through like Simple, Creative, Inspirational, and Formal.”

Resources | Project Based Learning | BIE Online resources, recommended for educators, that can support Project Based Learning. The site includes background reading, research, recorded webinars, planning documents, online tools

Random Name / Random Item / Person selector / Generator fruit machine This is simple to use and could be a useful classroom tool.

Why Makerspaces Are the Key to Innovation – The Tech Edvocate This is an interesting article about how we can foster creativity, communication and thinking skills. Libraries can play an important role libraries in creating these areas.

The little black book of scams | ACCC  The best way to protect yourself is through awareness and education. The Little Black Book of Scams is recognised internationally as an important tool for consumers and small businesses to learn about scams including: the most common scams to watch out for; the different ways scammers can contact you; the tools scammers use to trick you
the warning signs; how to protect yourself, and  where you can find help.

Cassini: The Grand Finale The latest news, images and videos from the Cassini mission, exploring Saturn and its moons since 2004.

25 Years On, Melina Marchetta Talks ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ This year Marchetta is appearing as an ambassador at the Emerging Writers’ Festival She says “I felt very nurtured in the early days by writers such as John Marsden and Isobelle Carmody and I’ve always found it important to follow their example”. This interview takes her back to the original novel and focuses on celebrating the 25th anniversary of “Looking For Alibrandi.”

Teaching CyberSecurity to Empower Students and Schools to Be Safe @coolcatteacher David Raymond @dnomyard is part of equipping Virginia high school students to defend themselves from cyber attacks. With knowledge in digital forensics and current technology, the Virginia Cyber Range is working to lead the world in educating its students on cyber security. Learn how in this wide-ranging conversation about modern security.

4 Digital Tools That Help Students Practice Integrity | MindShift | KQED News There are 4 tools discussed here, that offer students a platform to demonstrate their honesty, courage, and integrity in the classroom.

Digital Storytelling Wheel for Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning A digital storytelling wheel that features quite a few interesting resources that your students could use in class to create and share digital stories.  They have been organized into 3 types: iPad apps , Android apps, and Web tools for digital storytelling.

Quizalize – Pinpoint classroom progress in real-time You can pinpoint classroom progress in real-time with this formative assessment tool which allows teachers to turn classroom quizzes into exciting multi-player games. Students can participate in activities during class or they can be used for interactive homework assignments. Educators can create customized quizzes or select from 20,000+ premade options.

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

Useful links

“One Step at a Time” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by William M Ferriter

Illuminations: Welcome to Illuminations Illuminations provides a library of 102 online activities that help to make maths come alive in the classroom or at home. Includes a Graph Creator and Isometric Drawing Tool.

Are You Giving Effective Feedback? | Ms. Houser | Bloglovin’

https://dltv.vic.edu.au/resources/Pictures/Robots_in_the_2016_Australian_Classroom.pdf  The article offers guidance to anyone interested in using this technology in a classroom situation

(123) Vsauce – YouTube This is a YouTube channel that features videos relating to various scientific, mathematical and philosophical topics. It also covers topics such as gaming, technology, culture, and other topics of general interest. Many would be good for use with classes.

Teaching Why Facts Still Matter | Edutopia Article discusses “how we can motivate students for the noble pursuit of truth and help them see why it still matters.

Cool Cat Teacher Blog – Be a Better Teacher. Live a Meaningful Life. David Raymond @dnomyard is part of equipping Virginia high school students to defend themselves from cyber attacks. With knowledge in digital forensics and current technology, the Virginia Cyber Range is working to lead the world in educating its students on cyber security. Learn how in this wide-ranging conversation about modern security.

(123) What Is Search Engine Optimization / SEO – YouTube “Don’t know what search engine optimization is? Know someone who needs easy to understand overview of SEO? That’s what this video provides, in three minutes. It’s part of the many resources provided by Search Engine Land’s “What Is SEO” video was created with Common Craft.

(123) Net Neutrality – Explained by Common Craft – YouTube The debate on Net Neutrality is about the future of the Internet and the outcomes of this debate could impact every US internet user. This video explains what net neutrality is and why it matters, by focusing first on the idea of neutrality.

Five Apps That Make Learning to Code Fun – The Tech Edvocate Coding can be relatively easy once you learn the basics but finding the time and tools that will help you may make progress can be quite difficult. The need for programmers continues to outpace the number of available programmers so now is a great time to start learning the basics. This post offers the following are five free apps that will teach you to code (without making it too tedious.).

Scratch – Imagine, Program, Share PDFs that offer printable cards that offer some easy ways to learn about using Scratch

Stephanie Busari: How fake news does real harm | TED Talk | TED.com On April 14, 2014, the terrorist organization Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, Nigeria. Around the world, the crime became epitomized by the slogan #BringBackOurGirls — but in Nigeria, government officials called the crime a hoax, confusing and delaying efforts to rescue the girls. In this powerful talk, journalist Stephanie Busari points to the Chibok tragedy to explain the deadly danger of fake news and what we can do to stop it.

360 Video Education Spotlight: BBC on YouTube – Class Tech Tips “There are lots of ways to incorporate video into the classroom. From capturing students’ attention as you kick off a lesson, to providing context for a new learning experience, teachers use videos in lots of different ways. Whether you are looking for a clip to send home to students via Google Classroom or want to connect a video link for a QR code scavenger hunt, educational 360 videos are worth exploring.
360 video gives students the power to explore a space from every angle. YouTube hosts a range of 360 video content and one of my favorites is from the BBC. On the BBC’s YouTube channel you’ll find different types of video options for a virtual visit to places around the world. As you search through their content you’ll see that they’ve tagged their videos as 360 to make it especially easy to find.”

Two Good Apps for Creating Stop-motion Videos on Android Phones | Android 4 Schools Stop-motion video apps can provide students with a good way to bring their stories to to life. Through stop-motion your students can create fun, non-fiction stories to animate in Gumby-like fashion. Your students can also use stop-motion to create a timelapse of a process or event. The following two apps offer good platforms for making stop-motion videos on Android devices.

Free Technology for Teachers: Desmos Now Offers an Online Geometry Tool Desmos Geometry is designed to help students understand geometry concepts through the use of drawing and diagram manipulation tools. Your students can use Desmos Geometry or you can use to create demonstrations.

Learning Blog: 15 Google Classroom Features You Will Love Google Classroom can help you to do many useful things.This is a short annotated list of what has made one teacher’s job a little easier after using it for two and and a half years.

An interview with Michael Geist: copyright reform in Canada and beyond – Creative Commons “The issue of supporting and expanding copyright exceptions for education is on the table now within the context of the reassessment of the EU copyright rules, the international agenda at WIPO, and other national level copyright reforms”

Diigo – HyperDocs and the teacher librarian — @joycevalenza NeverEndingSearch HyperDocs are perfect opportunities to grow teacher librarian/ classroom teacher partnerships.
A true extension of what TLs do or should be doing in a hyperlinked information landscape, HyperDocs are all about curation and collaboration, instruction based on engaged inquiry, as well as our mission to inspire learning communities to think, create, share and grow.

Make your own Word Search with Discovery Education’s Puzzlemaker! Simple word search creator

Laura Candler’s Cooperative Learning Resources “Cooperative learning is a powerful teaching strategy that’s more than just a passing fad. Research has shown that when implemented properly, students in cooperative learning classrooms out perform their peers in traditional classrooms. The key is knowing how to implement the strategies to foster interaction while making sure all students are held accountable.”

Ideas for Teachers: Please Help Us with Your Experiences and Expertise  A useful website with many ideas for teaching in the classrroom

How Search Works – The Story – Inside Search – Google A great way to explain how a search using Google works

Why self-editing is hard for kids … and how to make it easier! * WriteShop Kids have a hard time identifying errors in their own writing. Self-editing, like any other process, must be developed. In this piece they explain a few tips and tricks you can try to help your students develop their editing skills.

The best 2016 infographics about books, libraries, and reading “In 2016 the single topic with the biggest number of visualizations was reading. The benefits of reading books, reading around the world, how reading affects the brain and body. You’ll see a couple of examples in the list below. Just click on each infographic to open it in full resolution”

Over 30 Good Infographics for Language Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “30 visuals which cover a wide variety of topics including: top 10 grammar errors, how to write better emails, British vs American English, 5 basic rules of American writing, 44 overused words and phrases to be aware of, visual guide to English prepositions and many more.”

4 Terrific Tips for Teachers New to Coding – Class Tech Tips Useful tips about teaching coding to students and an endorsment of Pythonroom.

pythonroom Pythonroom have created a special online platform for teachers new to coding. Although experienced computer science teachers will definitely love this site, teachers who are just getting started with coding will appreciate how Pythonroom sets them up for success. Pythonroom was designed for teachers with no prior coding experience and it’s easy to get started.

A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet: Can Your Students Spot Fake News? Here are 70 Links to Help A list of on-line resources that can to aid teachers and their students with the task of spotting fake news. The articles, guides, lesson plans and videos deal with the importance of evaluating websites.

Home – Fake News – LibGuides at Indiana University East  Libguide that offers advice on how to identify Fake News. The ability to tell accurate news from fake news is an important skill that you’ll use for the rest of your life.  This LibGuide will give you valuable insight in telling fact from fiction online, plus a chance to exercise your newfound skills.

How to Create an eBook with Google Slides | Shake Up Learning Google Slides have made the process of creating an eBook so much easier than doing it using Google Docs. Google Slides allows you to manipulate and edit images in ways that you cannot in Google Docs. With Slides, you can add backgrounds, borders, and layer text boxes, graphics, and shapes. If you have ever been frustrated with trying to get an image in the exact spot you want in Google Docs, you may want to try it in Google Slides. Since you can easily convert your slides to PDF, the most universally accepted file format, your eBook can be read on practically any device.

Learning to Think Like a Computer – The New York Times

Five Apps That Make Learning to Code Fun – The Tech Edvocate Coding can be relatively easy once you learn the basics but finding the time and tools that will help you may make progress can be quite difficult. The need for programmers continues to outpace the number of available programmers so now is a great time to start learning the basics. This post offers the following are five free apps that will teach you to code (without making it too tedious.).

4 Digital Tools That Help Students Practice Integrity | MindShift | KQED News There are 4 tools discussed here, that offer students a platform to demonstrate their honesty, courage, and integrity in the classroom.

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