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.

Useful links

“Creation and Consumption” (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) by gcouros

• The Inquiry Process | Trevor MacKenzie The graphic is titled the Inquiry Process and offers a visual representation (a map) of the inquiry journey together. “At its essence, inquiry takes learners on personalized learning pathways that are often unique in their details as well as when they meet particular benchmarks phases.  This map allows learners to visualize where we will go and understand that although our individual journeys may be unique, we are all in a similar landscape that provides connections across topics and questions in the processes we all follow.”

• Fantastic, Fast Formative Assessment Tools | Edutopia Good formative assessment removes the embarrassment of public hand raising and gives teachers feedback that impacts how they’re teaching at that moment. Instant feedback. This post explains how we can do this in a way that suits our classes best. Tools are listed and discussed. Direct links to them are provided.

• 15+ Ways of Teaching Every Student to Code (Even Without a Computer) | Edutopia  “Every student in every school at every level should be taught how to code. They need this skill not because they’ll all go into it as a career but because it impacts on every career in the 21st-century world. Any country recognizing that will benefit in the long term.” There is an annotated list of resources that can be used to teach programming to every student at any age.

• Stop telling people to love libraries – Library AF – Medium  4 ways to flip advocacy on its head. it’s about doing not talking.

• Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum | Edutopia “Bringing computational thinking into your classroom is simple, and can only help your students achieve the learning objectives you’ve already identified. Think about these skills and attitudes when planning lessons, and use this language throughout the year. Introduce some ambiguity in your projects, link lessons to real-world examples and evidence, and dream big—over time, your students may surprise you with the connections they make and their confidence in diving into new challenges.” Links to classroom lessons as well.

• 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.

• 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.”

• 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.

• Learning Blog: 5 Subject-Specific Ideas For Using Google Forms  Google Forms is a useful tool to collect student responses.You can add images quickly and easily. There are 5 options discussed here.

• Learning Blog: 10 Tools For Student Voice Welcome! – Computational Thinking Curriculum at Excel Some of the lessons and projects undertaken at the Excel Public Charter School.

• Finding Age Appropriate Books for Gifted Readers Some ideas about where to find age-appropriate reading materials for gifted children.

• 8 Good Android Science Apps for Elementary Students ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning  This is a list of useful tools if you are using Android devices with students in class. It is a collection of science apps curated specifically for elementary students. When using these apps, young learners will get to explore and learn about different science topics in fun, engaging and challenging ways.

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

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.

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.

Useful links

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.”

Turn Students into Fact-Finding Web Detectives | Common Sense Education Show students where to look for credible information on the web. Explain that professional fact-checkers may already have done this important work for us. Use the resources in this post as references for finding vetted and fact-checked information.

Strategies for Students With Scattered Minds | Edutopia Teachers can help students strengthen their brain’s executive function with “workouts” in which they practice pausing, prioritizing, improving their working memory, and mapping their options.

Cognitive flexibility is a form of higher-order thinking that students can apply in creative problem solving and in weighing the pros and cons of multiple alternatives. Students with ADD may grab on to the first idea or answer that comes to mind. You can teach students to map their options with a graphic organizer that places the problem or question in the middle and encourages them to surround it with two or more solutions — and the more the merrier. Option mapping reinforces that there is often more than one way to solve a problem or think about a concept.

Quotable | 9 Ways to Spot Bogus Data |Some ideas from Geoffrey James’ “9 Ways to Spot Bogus Data” in Inc., subtitled “Decision-making is hard enough without basing it on data that’s just plain bad. Here are a few questions to ask. If you don’t know what some of these questions are asking there will nbe more articles to follow

“Information Literacy in the Age of Fake News” Kicks off SLJ ISTE Webcast Series | School Library Journal The first in the season of SLJ’s webcast series in conjunction with ISTE starts this month with “Information Literacy in the Age of Fake News.” It is an hour-long program on March 16 and will feature four experts who will weigh in with their perspective and provide resources and tips to address this critical topic.

The program will cover how to vet information, consider point of view and bias, establish best practices for students, and manage the digital fire hose of information.

Fake News Triangle – The Association For Media Literacy As part of its continuing efforts to support media literacy and the critical thinking that drives it, The Association for Media Literacy invites you to use the questions in this triangle to assess the news you encounter and formulate your responses to it

5 Great Online Tools for Creating Infographics – Blog About Infographics and Data Visualization – Cool Infographics Some good advice to assist in choosing an infographic tool

Free Technology for Teachers: Thunkable – Design and Publish Your Own Apps “Applications for Education. A service like Thunkable and MIT App Inventor could help your students become the next great app inventor. Both services let students test, develop, and publish their own apps. Your students might make an app that helps them study better like George Burgess who developed Gojimo did.”

10 ways to electrify class with Kahoot! | Ditch That Textbook Ideas that use Kahoot! in the classroom and various places in the school. There are 10 ideas suggested here that could easily be adapted for most classrooms.

Have You Provided Students Enough Feedback for Growth? – Work in Progress – Education Week Teacher Ongoing communication about learning is essential, not just for students and parents, but for teachers too. This thoughtful exchange allows for teachers to norm what is being said and meaningfully adjust and modify lessons to appropriately address the needs of all students

Shut the Front Door! Digital Differentiation With Google Forms  A teacher discusses how they use Google Forms. One of their favorite features allowsyous to differentiate a form for students, meaning you can send students to different questions and pages of information based on how they answer each question

Coding in the Classroom | Edutopia Ideas for teaching students to create and make with code? Explore and share resources and strategies, including activities, games, and apps, for teaching kids programming skills and computer science concepts

Spreadsheets come alive | Digital Technologies Hub Using the ‘Odds and evens’ problem as a springboard, students construct interactive spreadsheets designed to address particular needs. This lesson also demonstrates an approach to programming known as rapid application development (RAD Yr 9-10)

The Enigma Machine Explained – YouTube Science journalist and author Simon Singh demonstrates the German enigma machine, a typewriter-like device used to encrypt communications. He demonstrates not only its operation, but both the strength and fatal flaws in its method.

2017-02-16 – OneNote – An Introduction to the Best Product You’re Not Using – YouTube Video explaining how to use OneNote

Home › PrimaryPad This is a web-based word processor that is designed for use by schools. It allows pupils and teachers to coordinate and work together on a real-time basis. For what is primary pad useful?: “Getting ideas, collaborating, sharing and quickly posting pieces of information when working in a group or collaborative environment. Improving important typing and English skills as well as critical thinking.” This web-app has an initial three month trial period.

Online Word Processor | Create & Edit Documents Online – Zoho Writer This is a feature packed, cloud based, collaborative word processor. It is designed to make collaboration easy with a better final document as the likely result. The interface on this app is appealing and very intuitive. It is easy to share and track collaboration as the document goes from draft to review to distribution

Word Search Maker | Highly Customizable | Free and NO Registration Required! Simple to use

Games@NOAA NOAA’s Games Planet Arcade offers twenty-six educational games for young students. The games are intended to help students learn about oceans, wildlife, and weather. Twenty of the games address topics related to marine life.

While the games are not terribly complex or fancy, they do offer some solid information for young students. For example, the Humpback Whale Migration game isn’t much more than a board game that provides students with information about Humpback whales. As students move across the board they are stopped at spaces offering facts about the annual migrations of Humpback whales.

3 Fast, Free Lesson Plans to Fight Fake News @coolcatteacher This blog post is part of the CM Rubin World Global Search for Education which poses a question each month to leading educators for reflection and sharing. This month’s question is “how do we fight the fake news epidemic?”

ICT and Digital Technologies Good explanation of the differences between digitech and iCT skills

9 Key Things to Know Before You Buy a New Computer Useful article for students to read for Digitech class

40+ Coding Classes, Websites, Games, and Apps for Kids | Imagination Soup A lot of ideas here that cover all levels

Rewordify.com | Understand what you read Rewordify allows you to dump in text and hit ‘parts of speech’ and it colour codes the parts of speech you have used in your writing. Link is below. You can also only highlight the parts of speech that you would like to focus on. Are you using enough adjectives in your writing?etc.

Assessment – Digital Technologies Hub This page provides links to advice for secondary teachers about how to assess student progress against key elements of the Digital Technologies curriculum. Links to some useful rubrics in the lesson ideas featured in the Secondary ‘Getting started’ sections of the site. Also refer to the formative and summative assessment advice in the effective teaching section.

ASCII – What is It and Why Should I Care? ASCII, pronounced “ask-ee” is the acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It’s a set of characters which, unlike the characters in word processing documents, allow no special formatting like different fonts, bold, underlined or italic text. All the characters used in email messages are ASCII characters and so are all the characters used in HTML documents. (Web browsers read the ASCII characters between angle brackets, “<” and “>”, to interpret how to format and display HTML documents.)

The first programmable system Programmable systems are by no means a modern invention. In fact, many regard the first to be Ktesibios’s water clock, which was invented approximately 2250 years ago. In this activity, students apply what they know to state inputs, processes and outputs of unfamiliar programmable systems.

Doc bot game You can try out the Faratron Space Mission Control game to see how you can help save the world! Part of the” communication over distance” educational tools

Workshop: Simulate computer – Children and Technology by Misha Leder Draw a computer and look at computer components. Use children to simulate mouse, IO controller and a processor on the example of Calculator program. Before simulating the whole system, let kids get a feel of each individual component. For younger students

BBC Bitesize – KS3 ICT – ICT systems Class Clips Short Video clips on a range of topics

Applications of programmable systems Activity info, teachers’ notes and curriculum links

An engaging activity in which students work in teams to research details about one programmable system from the past. They then present their findings and work as a class to build up a timeline. Students can then work independently using this timeline, plus other key inventions, to describe and explain patterns in the development of programmable systems.
The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Analysing the Game This resource explores the use of Opta Sports data – the technology behind football match analysis.

Opta Sports Data uses leading edge technology to compile team and player performance data for a range of sports and has quickly become a staple for a variety of organisations. These range from broadcasters using the data to develop innovative television graphics solutions, to coaches using the information to monitor and compare team and player performances from week to week.
Every touch of the ball can be monitored live from over 2,000 games of football a year resulting in over 4,000,000 individual events. Opta provides the full analysis from the English Premier League, Italy’s Series A, the German Bundesliga, France’s Ligue One and the UEFA Champions League.

Plotting a Plan to Improve Writing: Using Plot Scaffolds – ReadWriteThink To facilitate students’ thinking and problem-solving skills, this lesson tasks students with turning a plot scaffold into a written narrative. Students learn kinesthetically by acting out the scaffold “script” while collaborating with others to determine character motivations and dialogue. Students transition from actors to writers by having mental conversations with the characters they have created and letting their characters dictate how the story will evolve. Students are also prompted to insert imagery and use proper grammar in their written narrative.

Computational Thinking: Number Hive Puzzles | Teaching London Computing: A RESOURCE HUB from CAS LONDON Computational Thinking: Cut Hive Logic Puzzles is a booklet on computational thinking based on logic puzzles. Try and solve some simple logic puzzles while learning about computational thinking and especially logical thinking. The booklet is written by Paul Curzon of Queen Mary University of London.

CodeCombat – Learn how to code by playing a game Encourages you to practice the hollistic abilities you need as a programmer – Problem solving, creative and critical thinking and patience.

When you sign up, you get to create your own profile and set your own character up for play. I love a bit of personalisation. This is important to get players engaged. Code Combat is excellent at this. The beginning levels are well scaffolded with examples in the code and a bank of “spells” – or Java that I can use. As the levels get harder the scaffolds for skills we’ve already practised start to disappear and you find yourself just doing it on your own. You even get tempted to start experimenting.

Student Competitions & Challenges – Aussie Educator Throughout each year academic and other competitions and challenges are available for students and schools. These cover all curriculum areas from Language to The Arts. Some are run by subject organisations, some by governments, some by private organisations, some by international groups.

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

Useful links

“2016-10-29_08-01-36” (CC BY 2.0) by William M Ferriter

How to Teach Coding Like a Granny – Joel Speranza“The digital technologies curriculum is here and everyone is trying to figure out how to teach the thing. Particularly the coding bit, that’s the steepest learning curve for most teachers and with good reason. As students we experienced math, science, english, humanities, PE. But coding is different. Most of us are simply too old to have experience with coding in a school setting. We haven’t seen teachers teach it before and suddenly we’re being asked to teach it ourselves?”

code-it | Junior Computer Science “This site offers computing resources produced by Phil Bagge. You can click on the CS Planning link for a selection of computer science and information technology resources suitable for primary pupils.”

What makes an excellent programming curriculum? | code-it “Programming projects should reflect a wide range of different programming genres, those that arise for example from mathematical, literacy, music or gaming backgrounds. Variety helps a broad spectrum of students to realise that programming can be relevant to their lives.”

Ideas for Using Minecraft in the Classroom | Edutopia “Minecraft is no longer a new tool in the field of game-based learning. Because Minecraft has such open possibilities and potential, teachers have been experimenting with different ways to use it in the classroom for a while now. Some teachers use it to teach math concepts like ratios and proportions, while others use it to support student creativity and collaboration. (Minecraft Education Edition, which launched on November 1, 2016, has additional features for collaboration.) There are some ideas here about some of the ways you can use Minecraft in the classroom:”

Designing Quality Infographics: Tips, Resources and Inspiration “Infographics are graphic visual representations of data and information. They can assist in explaining complex information, numbers or data quickly and effectively. There are some tips for designing quality infographics as well links to some resources and ideas for inspiration.”

88 Assistive Technology Tools for Struggling Learners. Learning Specialist and Teacher Materials – Good Sensory Learning: 88 Assistive Technology Tools for Struggling Learners This post talks about 15 different types of assistive technology that can benefit struggling learners with links to the authors favourite tools. There are links to a more comprehensive discussion of these technologies as well.

Tony Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills – Tony Wagner These skills are familair to thise in educations, Each of the seven are defined by business leaders in their own words. They are: Critical thinking and problem-solving. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence. Agility and adaptability. Initiative and entrepreneurship. Effective and written communication. Accessing and analysing information. Curiosity and imagination.

A Great Visual To Help You Integrate Visible Thinking Routines in Your Class ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning One way to create a thinking cuture in class is to use “Visible Thinking, as a learning approach. This makes extensive use of thinking routines in class.These routines are simple structures( eg a set of questions or a short sequence of steps, that can be used across various grade levels and content. The way they become routines, versus merely strategies, is to use them constantly in the classroom so that they become part of the fabric of classroom culture. The routines become the way students go about the process of learning.” Included here is a great infographic created by Langwitches.

eSafety Homepage | Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner Australian Govt site: “Enhancing online safety for children” The Cybersmart Schools Gateway is a great resource for teacher planning and houses a wide range of cybersafety information and teaching resources for primary and secondary schools. These accessible and engaging materials are designed to help schools develop and implement a holistic approach to cybersafety. Includes the popular Cybersmart Outreach program to book professional presentations to teachers, parents and students on cybersafety. Administered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Word Search Generator :: Create your own printable word find worksheets @ A to Z Teacher Stuff Simple to use this enables you to create your own custom word search worksheets. There are a variety of options available including font size, font style, lowercase or uppercase letters, grid shape, word placement, and more to customise you creation.

Puzzle Choice – Crosswords, online and printable puzzles and games “PUZZLE CHOICE offers online and printable puzzles and games. Choose from many different types of printable and online CROSSWORDS. There is also a daily US style crossword. You can play WORD SEARCH puzzles or see the WORDPLAY section for anagrams, offers brainteasers and other printable word games. The ONLINE GAMES section has jigsaws, mazes, memory games and a choice selection of classic puzzles and games. Kids young and old can visit the KIDS’ CHOICE section for a variety of puzzles and games for all ages.”

Lawstuff Australia – Know Your Rights – – Topics – Sexting This page explains the legal implications for sexting in Victoria. For example – If under 18, you will not be put on a sex offenders register in Victoria unless you are already on a sex offenders register in another state. Not all states have the same law. In NSW you will be put onto a register even if under 18 years.

Lawstuff Australia – Know Your Rights – – Topics – Photos & Videos on Your Phone “This page explains the laws that apply when you use the photo or recording functions on your phone. It also explains what you can do to stay out of trouble and your options if someone has an inappropriate photo or video of you.”

Digital Literacy and Learning in the United States | Pew Research Center “In this report, we use newly released Pew Research Center survey findings to address a related issue: digital readiness. The new analysis explores the attitudes and behaviors that underpin people’s preparedness and comfort in using digital tools for learning as we measured it in a survey about people’s activities for personal learning.”

8 digital life skills all children need – and a plan for teaching them | World Economic Forum Today digital skills are an essential part of a comprehensive education framework. The challenge for educators is to move beyond thinking of IT as a tool, or “IT-enabled education platforms”. Instead, they need to think about how to nurture students’ ability and confidence to excel both online and offline in a world where digital media is ubiquitous. Like IQ or EQ – which we use to measure someone’s general and emotional intelligence – an individual’s facility and command of digital media is a competence that can be measured. We call it DQ: digital intelligence. And the good news is that DQ is an intelligence that is highly adaptive. DQ can broadly be broken down into three levels: Digital citizenship. Digital creativity. Digital Entreneurship”

Diigo – Budd:e Cybersecurity Education – Secondary Teacher Resources The secodary tschool teacher page that discusses how to use Budd:e site. Created for Australian students the Budd:e Cyber Security education package comprises a series of media-rich and interactive learning activitie. The package comprises two learning modules – one for primary students and one for secondary students. These can be used to assist students adopt safe and secure online practices.

Budd:e Cybersecurity Education – Secondary Created for Australian students the Budd:e Cyber Security education package comprises a series of media-rich and interactive learning activitie. The package comprises two learning modules – one for primary students and one for secondary students. These can be used to assist students adopt safe and secure online practices.

Bullying. No Way! Bullying No Way! is an educational website for Australian school communities and the general public. As well as providing information for individuals, the website provides online curriculum and other resources to support the bullying prevention work of schools. Cybersafety resources and information aimed at children, parents and teachers are provided on the website.

eSmart Schools | National Centre Against Bullying “Developed for Australian schools, eSmart is an easy-to-use, evidence based and tested system to help schools manage cybersafety and deal with cyberbullying and bullying. The eSmart system provides a framework for schools to implement whole-school culture and behaviour change relevant to the smart, safe and responsible use of digital technologies. eSmart is an initiative of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation.”

What We Do Offers a cybersafety module for middle primary students delivered in schools by Life Education. bCyberwise has been developed in partnership with McAfee to educate children on how to stay safe online and develop positive online communication skills. bCyberwise includes online resources to support teachers in the classroom.

Student Wellbeing Hub – Home This is a one-stop shop for information and resources underpinned by the National Safe Schools Framework. The Hub assists school communities to nurture student responsibility and resilience, build a positive school culture, foster respectful relationships and support students who are impacted by anti-social behaviour, including bullying and cyberbullying.

Top 10 Tools for Creating Digital Quizzes ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning An annotated list that is a “collection of some of the most popular quizzing tools that have covered in this blog. Be it a flipped, blended, virtual or even traditional classroom, the tools  below will enable you to easily create interactive quizzes, questionnaires and polls to share with students in class. “

Useful links

“The uncreative mind can spot wrong answe” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by rhondda.p

The EdTech Eleven: This Month’s Must-Know Tools | Common Sense Education ” From coomonSenseEducaion – for teachers who find it difficult to keep up with the chnges in Ed Tech. They created the EdTech Eleven: a monthly list of noteworthy tools generating buzz in the edtech world. While these aren’t recommendations or ratings (you have to check out our Top Picks for that), what you’ll find on the EdTech Eleven is a quick and current list of trending tools you might want to check out.”

The Trends and Challenges Shaping Technology Adoption In Schools | MindShift | KQED News “Trends affecting the adoption of technology in schools. (NMC/CoSN Horizons Report: K-12 Edition)”

Does Minecraft Help Students Become Better Readers? – Wise Guys “As student engage in various literacy activities centered around Minecraft, there is no doubt that increased fluency and comprehension will occur. As long as the game stays popular with kids, it will also be a popular way for teachers and parents to promote the enrichment of reading skills too.”

Coding: Developing Rigorous Thinkers An interesting article about why one teacher believes that it is important to teach coding in schools. “Coding challenges teachers and students to think abstractly. There is plenty of research suggesting a strong spatial sense yields future success in mathematics. Being able to write simple coding instructions and accounting for different variables is like playing chess and visualizing different scenarios. Playing hockey is no different. Goaltenders are constantly assessing the play, changing variables and predicting different outcomes in order to make saves. Computer Science is about moving towards real world applications like design thinking that tie in other subject areas. This form of self expression becomes a medium for storytelling and creativity and less about a math exercise.”

Why the 21st century teacher needs to understand research Tom Bennet’s short presentation for researchED Scotland on the importance of being research literate.

Minecraft: Education Edition – Don’t Teach Minecraft. Teach! – LearningBlocksEdu

The Power Of I Don’t Know Questioning is an important tool. It is the catalyst for inquiry and useful for an assessment strategy. The best questions drive units of instruction when they become the essential question. Questions transcend content, the bridge between students and their context. I don’t know isn’t just a starting point for finding an answer, or a ready-made template for some academic essential question. Rather, it returns the learning to the student, and restores the scale of understanding to a universe of knowledge.”

104 Photo Editing Tools You Should Know About A long list of briefly described tools that are grouped under the following headings: Photo enhancers (1-3); Online editors (4-21); Free desktop editors (22-26); Paid desktop editors (27-40); HDR photo editors (41-53); Cross-platform image editors (54-57); Photo filters (58-66); Photo editing mobile apps (67-85); RAW processors (86-96); Photo viewers and managers (97-99); Other (100-104)

Why Technology in Classrooms Doesn’t Always Boost Scores An interesting look at how technology should be used in the classroon for it to be effective. “HAVING technology means nothing. You have to: 1. Have technology in the classroom, 2. Students must have access, and 3. Teachers must know how to teach with tech. A number of different ideas for “using Technology in Ways that Improve Classroom Learning” are then explained

Free Technology for Teachers: Streamline Your Feedback Process in Google Docs “JoeZoo Express doesn’t limit you to using just feedback phrases that they have listed. You can create your own feedback phrases and explanations. Teachers who want to use rubrics to give feedback and grades can do so within JoeZoo Express. JoeZoo offers a free rubric builder tool. You can customize the rubric to meet your specific needs. The rubrics that you create can be saved and inserted into students’ documents when you are grading their work.”

The 5Ds framework for integrating technology in the classroom – Book Creator app 5 Ds Framework for a meaningful and purposeful integration of technology in the classroom

Free Technology for Teachers: Try My Simpleshow for Creating Explanatory Videos A tutorial by Richard Byrne about how to best use this free tool. “Students have to write a script on My Simpleshow before they can begin to use the video editing tools. This tool enables you to create Common Craft style explanatory videos. The best aspect of My Simpleshow is the emphasis that the developers have placed on storyline planing and development.”

GoConqr – Create Flashcards With Images on Your Android Device | Android 4 Schools This is a service that offers tools for creating flashcards and mind maps. The GoConqr Flashcard app for Android allows students to develop sets of flashcards on their mobile devices. Students can create flashcards that are solely text-based or they can choose to incorporate pictures into their flashcards. Within the app students can create as many sets of flashcards as they like. The app does not require students to be connected to the Internet in order to review their flashcards.

Great way for students to reflect on their learning and create revision tools whilst building up a set of their own revision cards.

Buncee | Create, Present and Share Engaging Multimedia Lessons Buncee is a good tool for creating visual stories. You need to sign up but it is free for an individual to use. Schools can buy a licence for their staff and students. It is easy to use and products look good.

mysimpleshow – create your own explainer video in minutesThis is a free tool for creating simple explanatory videos (in the style of Common Craft videos). In My Simpleshow the emphasisis on storyline planning and development. This would make students focus on their message not the “bells and Whistles”. If the video developers work on that aspect the rest falls into place.