PicMonkey: A Free Way To Edit And ‘Instagram’ Your Images Online Instagram is all kinds of hot right now. You can’t swing a digital camera without hitting a photo filter. But up until now, most filters were embedded in either mobile apps or somewhat bulky software. Until now. Best of all, the editing is all done with a slick and intuitive interface. You can currently access ‘premium’ filters for free (limited time) but there’s plenty of tools that are going to be free forever. H/T to my amazing wife for finding this fun tool! Share Your Images! Send us your PicMonkey pictures! Samples I (Poorly) Made Screenshot of PicMonkey Layout 3 Free (But Powerful) Presentation Tools For Teachers Teachers are presenters. Let’s be frank. They get up in front of a room of people and present. They then encourage the students to work together and continue the presentation through other methods. in other words, teachers need to know how to present and create slideshows. Here are three of our recommended tools for teachers, admins, students, and just about anyone looking to show up to class with a kick-butt set of informative slides. 1. Animoto has shown up on a number of ’awesome tools’ lists that we’ve done in the past, and it is because it’s one of the best free tools out there for slideshow creation. When your slideshow is done, you can share your video on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, email, or even download it to a DVD. 2. Knovio is an easy-to-use web-based tool that allows you to make an exisiting powerpoint presentation much more dynamic. 3. How To Use These In Your Classroom
The 30 Best Web 2.0 Tools For Teachers (2012 Edition) Looking for the best cloud computing software for your school? What about a way to remotely store homework and other assignments? It’s time to figure out which web 2.0 tool is right for you! The following presentation contains dozens of the most popular tools being used in classrooms right now. See Also: The 100 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You Each slide in the below presentation by Rafael Scapin contains the name, description, link, and screenshot of what each tool looks like and does. Edudemic’s Recommendations If you’re looking to try out some of these tools, here are the top 5 tools we recommend you try out (if you haven’t already). Slideshare - Get the credit and audience you deserve for your presentations! Scoop.it - A stellar social bookmarking service that is being used by a ton of teachers right now. PlanBoard - It’s an online lesson planner made for teachers. Evernote - Featured in Edudemic Magazine numerous times, we love all things Evernote.
15 Lesson Plans For Making Students Better Online Researchers Google is usually one of the first places students turn to when tasked with an assignment. Whether it’s for research, real-time results, or just a little digital exploration … it’s important they know how to properly Google. Lucky for teachers (and students, of course), Google has a handy set of lesson plans that are just waiting to be unleashed upon the leaders of tomorrow. While I understand there’s a LOT more to research than just Googling, it’s important to note that this is where nearly all students start their research. Therefore, it’s a critical skill if they’re going to start down the right paths. Below are 15 lesson plans courtesy of Google designed to make students better online researchers. Check out the useful Lesson Plan Map too to see how all these lessons fit together and what skills they teach. Beginner Level Pick the best words to use in academic searching, whether students are beginning with a full question or a topic of just a few words. Intermediate Level Advanced Level
50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Know About Technology and education are pretty intertwined these days and nearly every teacher has a few favorite tech tools that make doing his or her job and connecting with students a little bit easier and more fun for all involved. Yet as with anything related to technology, new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education, which can make it hard to keep up with the newest and most useful tools even for the most tech-savvy teachers. Here, we’ve compiled a list of some of the tech tools, including some that are becoming increasingly popular and widely used, that should be part of any teacher’s tech tool arsenal this year, whether for their own personal use or as educational aids in the classroom. Social Learning These tools use the power of social media to help students learn and teachers connect. Learning Lesson Planning and Tools Useful Tools
Mind42.com - Collaborative mind mapping in your browser Mind Mapping Software - Create Mind Maps online Google Drive and Docs 2012