Useful links

“Educational Quotation: ”We cannot hope” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by Ken Whytock

• ASCD EDge – Reimagining Learning Spaces with Design Thinking #HackingPBL This article offers a look at the phases my students would follow to establish their learning space, while calling upon the LAUNCH Cycle, a design thinking process created by A.J. Juliani (@ajjuliani) and John Spencer (@spencerideas). (LAUNCH is an acronym for the different phases.)

• The Beginner’s Guide to Design Thinking in the Classroom – A.J. JULIANI  In this article, the author takes you on a tour of design thinking. It’s the process that they have used countless times as a teacher, curriculum leader, technology coach, author, and entrepreneur. Here’s what will be covered: 1. What is Design Thinking (and the LAUNCH Cycle)? 2. How is design thinking used around the world? 3. How can I use design thinking in (and out of) my classroom?

• Design Thinking: Lessons for the Classroom | Edutopia   “Design thinking, which is a dynamic, creative and collaborative approach to problem solving, presents a unique model for educators who wish to facilitate from within the class, rather than impart knowledge to it.”

• How Teachers Use Design Thinking in Reimagining Learning Spaces “As education continues to evolve in countless ways, educators of all levels strive to always be engaging and inspiring to their diverse global learners. From making shifts in teaching practice to experimenting with student-driven learning frameworks that foster responsibility and independent thinking, the profession of teaching and learning is witnessing some incredible innovation. Another great example of this is how teachers are applying design thinking techniques in completely re-imagining learning spaces.”

• Design the learning space | Futures Learning “Whilst the actual design of a new space is exciting and it is tempting to ‘get it done’ quickly, it is important that the space is developed in a considered way. The process outlined in this toolkit has hopefully led you through some of these steps. Even now, however, it is important that you plan, prototype and test the space carefully before investing heavily in a ‘final’ product”

• A Principal’s Reflections: Research-Influenced Learning Spaces ” Educators utilize research for interventions to support individual academic and behavioral needs why not learning spaces? “The research indicated that intentionally designing spaces provides for more effective teaching and learning.” We are intentional, let’s hope, with lesson design, questioning, Socratic seminars and personalized learning – creating learning spaces to meet the needs of the learner should be step one when preparing for the school year. Most students can clearly articulate what their environment needs for their engagement. This moves student engagement to a higher level of student empowerment. “

• Digital Citizenship for Middle and High School – Lessons by Sandy “Several options for middle school posters.  The teacher has created both a chalkboard and white board version.  Both sets have a main poster (with all 6 reminders), individual posters of each of the 6 reminders, and double sided bookmarks that you can send home with students.  She also created a black and white version of everything in case you don’t want to waste your color ink and would rather have your kids color them instead.”

• A Place for Learning: The Physical Environment of Classrooms | Edutopia Why change from the traditional. One teacher’s journey. “There are at least two lessons from this story. The physical structure of a classroom is a critical variable in affecting student morale and learning. Students’ involvement in the process of creating their environment can empower them, develop community and increase motivation.”

• Design Thinking and the Deskless Classroom | Edutopia – Linkis.com Design thinking and working through making your own learning space is difficult but it can be a greag change to the classroom dynamics. “Why Design Thinking? Increasing student engagement by taking the leap into a deskless classroom required an introduction to design thinking and the support of my admin. Creating a learning space through design thinking is about fostering student agency from the outset. Students are more engaged in this space. More than an interior design project, rethinking a learning space is about remaking not only the space, but also the learning that happens there. Design thinking is about finding a real-world solution to a real-world problem.”

• Infographic: Cyberbullying and other digital dangers – Teacher Simple infographic about cyber bullying. The statistics come from a 2016 national survey released by the Office of Children’s eSafety (Australia)

• 8 Must-Try Coding Websites & Apps for Students – Class Tech Tips  “Coding websites and apps place valuable resources in the hands of students. With mobile and web-browser based tools, students of all ages can explore computer science. As you think about your goals for the school year, how can you incorporate coding into your instruction? Maybe you’ve decided to carve out a part of the school day or school week for coding. Perhaps you’re starting an after school program. If you are ready to bring coding into your classroom these coding websites and apps are worth checking out. On this list you’ll find a wide range of tools. Some are perfect for younger students and others will work best in classrooms where teachers have lots of experience with computer science.”

• Six reasons why you should use polling in virtual classroom – The WizIQ Blog “Polls can by an efficient way to assess overall student understanding on a given topic. Students more likely to admit they don’t know something if they are operating within a group context, which helps to make polls highly effective.”

• ISTE | Top 10 sites to help students check their facts “A good fact-checking site uses neutral wording, provides unbiased sources to support its claims and reliable links, says Frank Baker, author of Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom and creator of the Media Literacy Clearinghouse. He adds, “Readers should apply the same critical thinking/questioning to fact-check sites.” This post offers an annotated list of 10 fact and bias-checking sites that can be shared with students. There is a rundown of 10 of the top fact- and bias-checking sites to share with your students.”

• 3 Ways to Use Data You Are Already Collecting | EdTech Magazine “Administrators and educators alike have access to data that can improve business practices and learning outcomes.”

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

Useful links.

“Metacognition” (CC BY 2.0) by mrsdkrebs

• Note Taking With Technology | Edutopia “Today’s students require strategies that support their acquisition of knowledge, allow them to save their notes across devices, permit them to search through vast quantities of information, and share their learning with the rest of their community. Before blaming a device—either the pen or the laptop—we need to identify what is best for individual students by considering what I call the four S’s of note taking. Does the system students are using: 1. adequately support the students’ learning needs? 2. allow students to save their notes to multiple locations? 3. let students search for salient points? 4. permit students to share with peers and teachers?”

• Sketchnoting: I Just Don’t Know How To Start • Heck Awesome If you like the idea but don’t know where to start here are “some ideas to keep in mind,  tips for thinking about it and ideas for how to start using it in your teaching and student’s learning”

• ISTE | 9 ways real students use social media for good “Students around the globe are tapping into social media to get involved with world-changing projects and share their passions. The 9 approaches here explain some of the ways they are using these tools for good.”

• A Reading List for Differentiated Instruction | Edutopia  Annotated list of resources on the topic.

• How to Teach Students to OWN that Speech | Teacher Off Duty “A lesson plan that offers practical advice and can also be adapted to plan for any sort of performance-based activity: speeches, poetry slams, presentations, or interviews. “

• Slam Poem Videos Appropriate for Middle School (and others) – Teacher Powers One teacher’s thoughts about SLAM poems and ides for how to use them. You are also given his introduction to slam poetry lesson plan. The lesson could be appropriate for all ages.

• A Great Hands-on Approach to Programming – STEM Activities for Kids  One teacher’s explanation about the Let’s Start Coding kit? The basic kit comes with some useful pieces and component and coding cards. “There are projects included on the website, as well as educator guides you can download. The projects have the kids modify both the hardware and software components. By changing various components, the board and program will respond in different ways.” One way to approach learning coding.

• A Beginner’s Guide to Bringing Coding Into the Classroom | EdSurge News  There are many free resources, lesson plans, tutorials and events that can bring the power of coding into the K-12 classroom. This post discusses nine of the authors favorite options for anyone of any age to learn computer science skills. There is allso a link to a much fuller list of coding resources as well.

• The Edvocate’s List of 88 Amazing Edtech Tools, Apps, and Websites – The Edvocate “A list of 88 amazing edtech tools, apps, and websites that has been created to assist educators to understand what is available to them.”

• 10 Questions to Ask Before Installing a New Educational App | EdTech Magazine “This checklist has been compiled to assist teachers to select apps that can not only improve learning outcomes but also align with school and district technology goals.

• News for Padlet fans and newbies — @joycevalenza NeverEndingSearch  Joyce Valenza has written a post to explain about some useful new features added to Padlet that make it an even better space for classes for learning and sharing.

• Canva Font Combinations: How to Create Pinterest Friendly Graphics Discussion about designing graphics using canva fonts.

• Type Connection This is a typographic dating game site called typeconnection. It can be fun and helpful as you learn different strategies for combining and matching fonts.

• Fontspring Matcherator :: Find Fonts From An Image This is a tools that takes an image with type and finds the fonts that match. One user talked about using different maps and wanted to find a font that would be perfect for the writing on them, Font Matcherator was helpful.

• Font Pair – Helps designers pair Google Fonts together. Beautiful Google Font combinations and pairs. This is a tool that assists designers pair Google Fonts together

• Why Digital Learning is Reshaping Education – The Edvocate “Technology has changed just about every field, including education. Digital learning is reshaping education in unprecedented ways. The ways in which students learn are changing rapidly thanks to technology, and both students and teachers will benefit from it.
  There are several specific changes that we can expect to see as digital learning takes over education. For one, the way teachers present information and how students work with that information has changed. Students are asked to be more hands-on and collaborative than ever before. There are also new skills that students must learn, such as digital literacy.”

• 9 Tips for Teaching Coding in the Classroom – The Edvocate There are some very good suggestions discussed here. They are logical and really show commonsense and offer practical ideas.

• Choose The Best Search For Your Information Need – Laptop Study Useful list. Nicely organised with brief annotations.

• The Complete List of 200 Most Useful Websites for College Students – Laptop Study A useful annotated list, with like tools grouped together under appropriate headings.

• 15 Games To Teach Kids About Social Issues – EasyBib Blog An annotated list of social impact games that can be used with students to educate students about different social issues.

• John Grisham’s Do’s and Don’ts for Writing Popular Fiction – The New York Times

• How to Teach Students about Internet Privacy – SafeSmartSocial Nothing new but some simple and logical commonsense points that it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of. “3 experts to share their best tactics, tips, and talking points parents can use to help teach students about social media and internet privacy.”

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.

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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.

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