6 Great Videos on Teaching Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a skill that we can teach to our students through exercise and practice. It is particularly a skill that contains a plethora of other skills inside it. Critical thinking in its basic definition refers" to a diverse range of intellectual skills and activities concerned with evaluating information as well as evaluating our thought in a disciplined way ". All of our students think in a way or another but the question is , do they really think critically ? are they able to evaluate the information they come across ? are they capable of going beyond the surface thinking layer ?
10 Great Free Google Forms Every Teacher Should Be Using
Google Forms is a great free service by Google and that has a huge potential in education. Google Forms is very easy to use and does not require any advanced technology skills to run it. It is automatically built in Google Docs meaning it is completely web-based and does not require any software download. Anyway you can check this simple guide if you are not yet familiar with Google Docs . Today's post, however, is about a great work that has been done by our colleague Tom Barret.
10 Great Flashcard Making Tools for Educators
1- FauxFlash FauxFlash is a great online application that takes the hassle out of flash cards and lets you easily get right to studying. 2- Flashcard DB FlashcardDB is another cool web tool that allows users to make , study and share flashcards online.
5 Gmail Tips Everyone Should Know
Last week the Internet was buzzing with news of Gmail's incredibly useful "undo send" feature. Sorry to break it to you, but that "new" feature has been around since at least 2010. The reaction was so positive though, it occurred to me there are probably lots more goodies Gmail has hidden away you may not be aware of.
Google Tools To Check Out
Most folks are familiar with the most common Google tools. Search, Hangouts, Docs, Mail, Drive all are used by countless folks around the world. In fact this blog is written with Google Blogger. I use Google and live there most days.
Ten Terrific Mind Mapping and Brainstorming Tools
Today, I am running a workshop about using mind mapping and brainstorming tools to help students meet some of the Common Core standards in English Language Arts. Below are some of the tools that we will be using today. On a related note, if you're interested in having me come to your school or facilitate a virtual workshop, please click here for more information. Popplet is a great service that combines the best of online sticky note services like Wallwisher with collaborative mind mapping functions. Popplet allows you to create a wall of multimedia sticky notes that you can share with others. Your stickies can include videos and images that you pull from other online services.
Google Released An Excellent New Service Called Handwrite
Handwrite for mobile is a new service Google launched yesterday. This adds to the variety of other services that Google designed before to increase both user satisfaction and interaction with its search engine such as Google Instant search, Google voice, and Google image search to mention but a few. Handwrite for mobile allows you " to search by just writing letters with your finger most anywhere on your device's screen, there is no keyboard that covers half of the screen and no need for hunt-and-peck typing." To get started using this new feature, all you have to do is head over to Google homepage in your mobile device and tap on "settings" at the bottom of the screen and enable " Handwrite".
Looking Back At Year One of 1:1 (With iPads) - Part One
As I look to unplug a bit during the first week of summer vacation, I am continuing to repost my top posts from last year. Below is #6 from last June. As I reflect on our first year as a 1:1 school, I am overwhelmed by the insights that we gained after distributing over 1,000 mobile devices to our students in grades 9-12. As I look at the data from an end-of-the-year survey completed by students, I am reminded of an excerpt from Milton Chen's book Education Nation - Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools. Chapter 3 of the book is titled The Technology Edge: Putting Modern Tools in Young Hands.There is a great excerpt from the Abilene, Kansas High School Dialogue Buzz Website that sums up what we will do for students when we create a 1:1 environment for our studentsHere's the excerpt:
