Teach1-1: Web-Tools

Showing posts with label Web-Tools. Show all posts

Friday, 17 October 2014

33 Digital Tools that all teachers should know

Sourced from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html

Every single teacher is concerned about his/ her teaching practices and the skills involved in this process. How many times have you wondered about a better way to teach the same lesson you have delivered to an earlier class? How often have you used technology to engage your students and improve their learning ? These are some recurring questions we keep regurgitating each time our teaching skills are put to the test.

It is amazing how technology has changed the whole world giving rise to new forms of education we never thought of. Our students are more digitally focused than any time before. They spend more time interacting with their mobile devices than they do with their parents or close relatives. Admittedly, this digital boom has both positive and negative impact on our students. Lack of concentration, short attention span, distraction, visual stimulus overload, identity theft, lack of real world socializing, privacy issues, depression, and many more are but a direct result of the growing exposure to this technology. Studies have even proved that multitasking, which some educational technology experts brag about in relation to the use of today's technology, reduces the power of our concentration to the half. We should not, However, only look at the empty side of the cup, the other side is way bigger.

There are actually several pluses for the use of technology in education and to try and list them all here is way beyond the scope of this short post. Generally speaking, no two argue over the fact that technology advantages in education ( and in our life at large ) way outnumber its downsides. It is thanks to technology that you are now reading this post and will probably share it with your colleagues.

There is no blinking the fact that the type of students we teach today are completely different from last century's. We , definitely, need to look at some of the skills we, as teachers, need to equip ourselves with to better live up to the challenge. Among all the challenges we would have in education, there is not as daunting a challenge as catching students focus and getting them engaged in the learning process. For this particular reason, and in addition to the skills I initially mentioned in 21st Century Teaching Skills article, I would like to provide you with another list of some equally important digital skills that you, as a teacher, need to seriously consider if you want to pave the way for the 21st century teaching. I have added a list of web tools under each skill for teachers to better exploit it.

Please, remember that I have spent many laborious hours working on this post and all I ask is a credit back to Educational Technology and Mobile Learning when re-using this content somewhere else.

The 21st century teacher should be able to :

1- Create and edit digital audio

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Audio Tools for Teachers

2- Use Social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Best Bookmarking Websites for Teachers

3- Use blogs and wikis to create online platforms for students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Great Tools to Create Protected Blogs and Webpages for your Class

4- Exploit digital images for classroom use

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

5- Use video content to engage students
Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

6- Use infographics to visually stimulate students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

7- Use Social networking sites to connect with colleagues and grow professionally

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

8- Create and deliver asynchronous presentations and training sessions

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of The Best Presentation Tools for Teachers

9- Compile a digital e-portfolio for their own development

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Tools to Create Digital Portfolios

10- Have a knowledge about online security

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

11- be able to detect plagiarized works in students assignments

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Plagiarism Detector Tools fr Teachers and Educators

12- Create screen capture videos and tutorials

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Five Great Screen Capture Tools for Teachers

13- Curate web content for classroom learning

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
10 Must have Bookmarklets for Teachers

14- Use and provide students with task management tools to organize their work and plan their learning

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Great Task Management Tools for Educators

15- Use polling software to create a real-time survey in class

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
15 Free and Easy Poll/ Survey Tools for Teachers

16- Understand issues related to copyright and fair use of online materials

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

17- Exploit computer games for pedagogical purposes

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

18- Use digital assessment tools to create quizzes

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Tools to Create and Administer Quizzes

19- Use of collaborative tools for text construction and editing

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Great Free Collaborative Tools for Educators

20- Find and evaluate authentic web based content

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
The Three Effective Ways Teachers Should Know about

21- Use of mobile devices like tablets

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

22- Identify online resources that are safe for students browsing

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Awesome Kids-safe Websites

23- Use digital tools for time management purposes

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

24- Learn about the different ways to use YouTube in your classroom

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

25- Use note taking tools to share interesting content with your students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

26- Annotate web pages and highlight parts of text to share with your class

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
13 Free Web Annotation Tools for Teachers to Draw, Add notes, and highlight interesting parts in webpages

27- Use of online graphic organizers and printables

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Free Graphic Organizers for Educators

28- Use of online sticky notes to capture interesting ideas

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
13 Free Sticky Notes Tools for Teachers and Students

29- Use of screen casting tools to create and share tutorials

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of The Best Free Screen Casting Tools for Teachers to Record and Share Tutorials

30- Exploit group text messaging tools for collaborative project work

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
9 Free Group Text Messaging for Educators

31- Conduct an effective search query with the minimum time possible

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
The Entire Google Search Guide for Teachers

32- Conduct A Research Paper Using Digital Tools

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

33- Use file sharing tools to share docs and files with students online

A List of The Best File Sharing Tools for Teachers

Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Twelve Good Tools for Building End-of-year Review Activities

Free Technology Tools for Teachers is a Blog written and updated by Richard Byrne.
This article was posted on the 12 May 2014.

The end of the school year will soon be upon us. This is the time of year that we think about activities that we can do to help students review the school year. At this time of the year I start to get a lot of requests for suggestions for tools to create review activities. Here are twelve good options.

Video-based review activities
Games-based review activities

Blubbr - click here to try a game about the human heart

Old, reliable flashcard activities
Quiz-based activities

Read on >>>>

Wednesday, 14 May 2014

Flipping the classroom

Flipping the classroom is the new buzz word in education but I prefer rather to use a combination of electronic material to create a blended approach that maximizes the value of teacher contact time. In this way we use technology to support the learning and teaching process. We try to articulate the course content in a uniform way so that pupils have a one stop shop - web pages that clearly lay out the content to be covered, the activities they will be engaged in, all rubric, instructions and supporting resources.

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

8 Classroom Apps to Use - from The Edtech Roundup - written by Michael Karlin

http://www.edtechroundup.org/1/post/2013/08/8-classroom-apps-to-try-this-fall.html

EduClipper - Clip Everything, Share Anything

EduClipper, also known as the "pinterest for education," is an absolutely awesome tool for collecting, sharing, and organizing digital information. It's great for students and teachers and it can be used to create a digital bulletin board of useful links, articles, pages, and you can even upload your own documents to share. It's incredibly easy to use and to top it all off, it's free!

[ The Complete Roundup Review of EduClipper ]

Class Dojo - Digital Classroom Management

Class Dojo is a free classroom management app that can be used on the web, iOS, and Android devices. Within the app, you can store all of your student information and with the click of a mouse, you can easily award students negative or positive points for their behavior in class. The app records and tracks all that behavior data so that you can view, graph, and analyze it whenever you want!

[ The Complete Roundup Review of Class Dojo ]

TouchCast - The Web Inside a Video

TouchCast is an awesome new iPad app that allows you to create videos with interactive web content inside of the video. Within the videos you can integrate maps, images, links, polls, questions, and even live Twitter feeds. Plus, it's free, fun, and incredibly simple to use. If you've got iPads you can use in your classroom, definitely give it a try!

[ The Complete Roundup Review of TouchCast ]

Metta - Flip Web Content into Video Lessons

Metta (formerly Soo Meta) is a web-based tool for creating flipped video lessons. Teachers can use the tool to take images, audio, and video from their computers (or the web) and easily mix it all into a video lesson that can be sent out to students. You even have the option to create interactive polls and questions that students can answer while they're watching the lesson!

[ The Complete Roundup Review of Metta ]

Brickflow - Hashtag Based Slideshows

Brickflow is a web-based tool that instantly builds slideshows based on hashtags (#). You can easily integrate content from YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter to create a slideshow in seconds. And if you need to, you can also upload your own content as well, so you don't have to be connected to the social media sites. It's a great, free tool that I think students will enjoy using!

[ The Complete Roundup Review of Brickflow ]

Moby Max - Online Math & Language Curriculum

The only reason Moby Max isn't at the top of this list is because I don't teach English anymore, so I won't be able to use this app this fall. But, for the Language and Math instructors out there, you should absolutely check out the site. Moby Max is a completely free, standards-based, online curriculum that even determines exactly what indicators your students have trouble with. It's awesome.

[ The Complete Roundup Review of Moby Max ]

EduCade - Find, Create, and Share Lesson Plans

Despite being a relatively new resource, EduCade has a ton of free, standards-based, lesson plans to try out. You can easily search by grade-level or subject-area to find any lesson you might need. All the lessons come with the resources you need, a step-by-step lesson plan, and even reviews from other teachers who have tried it out.

[ The Complete Roundup Review of Educade ]

Answer Pad - The Free Student Response System

And last, but certainly not least, The Answer Pad a free web, iOS and Android app that is perfect for the BYOD environment. Remember "clickers," where a question would appear on the board and then the students would press their answer on a remote? The Answer Pad takes that idea and improves on it a million times over. If you have a BYOD policy at your school, definitely check it out.

[ The Complete Roundup Review of The Answer Pad ]

Tuesday, 13 August 2013

A picture speaks a thousand words - the power of Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of ideas, concepts and data. Representing data in a visual way has the power of changing one's perspective. One can often get clarity or an answer to a simple question very quickly.

Infographics can be simple or complex, but it allows kids to demonstrate deeper meaning while teaching aspects of design thinking at the same time. It helps reinforce the idea that facts are fine, but placing them in context creates meaning and learning.

WHAT IS AN INFOGRAPHIC?

1. It's a visual explanation that helps you more easily understand, find or do something.
2. It's visual, and when necessary, integrates words and pictures in a fluid, dynamic way.
3. It stands alone and is completely self-explanatory.
4. It reveals information that was formerly hidden or submerged.
5. It makes possible faster, more consistent understanding.
6. It's universally understandable.

http://communicationnation.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-is-infographic.html

http://ivancash.com/

Learning, Visualized
By DIANA LAUFENBERG

"It feels like we’re all suffering from information overload or data glut. And the good news is there might be an easy solution to that, and that’s using our eyes more. So, visualizing information, so that we can see the patterns and connections that matter and then designing that information so it makes more sense, or it tells a story, or allows us to focus only on the information that’s important. Failing that, visualized information can just look really cool."

The Beauty of Data Visualisation

Watch this TD talk video by David McCandless on The Beauty of Data Visualisation

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/david-mccandless-the-beauty-of-data-visualization

10 Tips for designing Infographics by Randy Krum

http://digitalnewsgathering.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/10-tips-for-designing-infographics/

20 Must-Have Educational Resources For All Teachers

Here is an extract from a blog post by Heather Eddick posted on 6th February 2012.

http://www.edudemic.com/2012/02/20-ed-resources/

I divided my resources into categories, based on my interests as a teacher. These are not all Internet-based resources, but all of them take advantage of the information available via that medium.
Devices

iPad – The iPad provides access to e-texts and incredible educational apps. Attach a Bluetooth keyboard, and students can easily create documents with this device.
Kindle – In a recent conversation with the Principal of my son’s school, I learned that she wants all of her students to receive a Kindle so they will have access to their texts without having to break their back carrying them all home.
Nook – The Nook is a good alternative to the Kindle. Some people prefer it to the Kindle, but, personally, I think they might be about even at this point.
Android Tablets – I like the Android tablets, but I found them to be a bit slow.

Resources for Lesson Planning

TeacherVision offers many resources for teachers: lesson plans, printables, an event calendar, graphic organizers, tips for classroom management, and more. I love this site and visit it often. *Note: This site requires you to pay for membership after a free trial.
EdHelper is another site that offers printables and ideas for teachers, but it also allows teachers to create their own printables – even printable books. For elementary or middle school teachers who like to give morning work or bell ringers, this site is great. *Note: This site requires you to pay for membership.
Readwritethink offers classroom, professional development, and parent resources by grade level and learning objective.
PBS Teachers offers teachers numerous videos to use in the classroom, professional development resources, lesson plans, and interactive activities. The topics are timely and help students find relevance by connecting concepts to their lives.
Education World is a great alternative to sites that require members to pay a fee. It offers many of the same things as the members-only sites and has a section for administrators as well.

Classroom Resources

Audible.com – Although this site is fee-based, I have been a member for many years and recommend it highly for high-quality recordings of texts many teachers use in the classroom. For free audio files, check out http://librivox.org/.
Animoto.com – My cooperating teacher introduced me to this site. She asked her students to do a project using this site to create a video capturing the character of Holden Caulfield. The results were pretty amazing. Students can create 30 second videos for free.
Wordle.net – I love this site! I used it first when I wanted to start a poetry for social justice unit, to activate students’ background knowledge on poetry and social justice. I asked the students, “What comes to your mind when you hear…?” Then, I typed the keywords into the text box, clicked the Create button, and we watched a beautiful word cloud appear. The kids enjoyed it. This site is also free.
Michael Cummings Study Guides – Need a study guide for a great work of literature? Michael’s site probably has it. If not, try enotes.com or shmoop.com. They all have free resources for students; teachers have to pay for things like lesson plans on enotes and shmoop.
Project Gutenberg – This site offers access to works in the public domain in a variety of formats, including Kindle and ePUB. Project Gutenberg volunteers diligently proofread each work they digitize. They also contribute recordings to librivox.org.

Learning Management Systems

Schoology is a site I reviewed recently after the Palo Alto SD decided change to its platform. For more information on Schoology, click here.
LearnBoost.com is another amazing LMS and its free features are quite attractive. What I liked best was the ability to create lesson plans within the site AND reference Common Core standards in the lesson plan. This site also offers a grade book, a teacher-student-parent communication platform, and the ability to integrate with Google Apps.
Edmodo is similar to Schoology, but Schoology allows you to create courses and Edmodo only allows you to create groups. Still, it’s free, robust, harnesses the power of social media, and makes classroom management a lot easier.

Cloud Resources

Google Docs – Enough said, I think.
Evernote - I just started using this and think it’s a great way to store things to read later.
Diigo - I like the social aspect of diigo, a resource for storing bookmarks and then sharing them with those in your network.

What about you? What resources do you love? Since I am an English teacher, many of my resources are skewed toward that subject, so I would love to hear from other subject-area teachers.

Thursday, 23 May 2013

5 Great Tools for Creating your own Educational Infographics

Infographics is a way of communicating visually with your students. Many students tend to be more visual learners and this is an effective way to explain and communicate complex concepts in a graphical way.

Here are 5 useful on-line tools that teachers can use to create their own infographic and transform the learning process for their students.
Emerging Edtech Article on Inforgraphics Tools

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

The 100 Best Video Sites For Educators

There are some useful links on this page.

Monday, 11 March 2013

33 Digital Skills every 21st Century teacher should have

Med Karbach published this post on the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning Blog, which is a resource of educational tools and resources for teachers and educators in June 2012.

We are so fortunate to have these wonderful people out there who are prepared to spend the time and effort compiling and collecting useful on-line resources in this way and to share them with other educators.

Every single teacher is concerned about his/ her teaching practices and the skills involved in this process. How many times have you wondered about a better way to teach the same lesson you have delivered to an eariler class? How often have you used technology to engage your students and improve their learning ? These are some recurring questions we keep regurgitating each time our teaching skills are put to the test.

digital skills for 21st century teachers

There is no blinking the fact that the type of students we teach today are completely different from last century's. We , definitely, need to look at some of the skills we, as teachers, need to equip ourselves with to better live up to the challenge. Among all the challenges we would have in education, there is not as daunting a challenge as catching students focus and getting them engaged in the learning process. For this particular reason, and in addition to the skills I initially mentioned in 21st Century Teaching Skills article, I would like to provide you with another list of some equally important digital skills that you, as a teacher, need to seriously consider if you want to pave the way for the 21st century teaching. I have added a list of web tools under each skill for teachers to better exploit it.

Please, remember that I have spent many laborious hours working on this post and all I ask is a credit back toEducational Technology and Mobile Learning when re-using this content somewhere else.

The 21st century teacher should be able to :

1- Create and edit digital audio

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Free Audio Tools for Teachers

2- Use Social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of Best Bookmarking Websites for Teachers

3- Use blogs and wikis to create online platforms for students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
Great Tools to Create Protected Blogs and Webpages for your Class

4- Exploit digital images for classroom use

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

5- Use video content to engage students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

6- Use infographics to visually stimulate students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

7- Use Social networking sites to connect with colleagues and grow professionally

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

17- Exploit computer games for pedagogical purposes

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

24- Learn about the different ways to use YouTube in your classroom

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

25- Use note taking tools to share interesting content with your students

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

13 Free Sticky Notes Tools for Teachers and Students

29- Use of screen casting tools to create and share tutorials

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
A List of The Best Free Screen Casting Tools for Teachers to Record and Share Tutorials

30- Exploit group text messaging tools for collaborative project work

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
9 Free Group Text Messaging for Educators

31- Conduct an effective search query with the minimum time possible

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :
The Entire Google Search Guide for Teachers

32- Conduct A Research Paper Using Digital Tools

Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :

33- Use file sharing tools to share docs and files with students online

A List of The Best File Sharing Tools for Teachers

Med Karbach

My Twitter is @medkh9

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html