22 Simple Examples Of Social Media In The Classroom Social media in the classroom, while not perfect, has its benefits. Though many teachers are (perhaps wisely) forbidden to “friend” students on facebook, that doesn’t mean that facebook, pinterest, social media at large are without merit in education. #Hashtags for learning? #Hashtags for storytelling? Pinterest for sharing? The following infographic includes 22 simple examples of what social media in the classroom might look like, from socializing thinking and publishing student work, to connecting with communities and offering reminders for important academic events. 22 Simple Examples Of Social Media In The Classroom Infographic courtesy bestmastersineducation.com
Start the Year with a Project . . . or Wait? Over the summer, you've spent some time planning what you think will be a great project for the beginning of the school year. You're eager to launch it on Day Two, after you've introduced yourself to your students on Day One. Or should you wait until, say, Week Two, Three, or even later to start the project? The answer is: it depends. It may be just fine to start the year with a project if your students already know what it means to work PBL-style. But what if your students are not very experienced with PBL? If the answer to these questions is "no" or "I'm not sure," then it might be good to lay a foundation first, and build students' skills before beginning project work. Laying the Foundation You could approach the foundation-laying job in a variety of ways. Important Reminder: When you do these PBL skill-building lessons or mini-projects, make sure their focus is also on important content and academic skills drawn from your standards. Bringing in the "4C's" Critical Thinking:
Back to School with Google Docs Google Docs is truly one of my favorite tools for teaching and learning because of the features it offers to support research, writing and collaboration in the 24/7 classroom. Here are some things to try with Google Docs as you make plans to use a little more tech and embrace change this school year. Google Docs for Research Google Docs supports a full-featured integrated Research Tool that is conveniently located right on the page of any Google Document or Presentation. This powerful Research Tool provides students with convenient access to information in manageable chunks that are ready for use. Students can narrow search results to find images, quotations, definitions, and more. In addition to helping students efficiently find information, the Research Tool can help students engage in real world writing by streamlining the process of creating hyperlinks and appropriately formatting citations. Google Docs for Collaborative Writing According to Sharon J. Revision History Final Thoughts
Google Apps Experts: Getting Started with Google Presentations: Part I Google Hangouts make it simple for a group of people to communicate and collaborate, without the need to set up video conferencing equipment. Google Apps customers are just a few clicks away from connecting with colleagues across the office or across the globe in face-to-face video meetings. If Google+ premium features are activated for your organization, you can hold video meetings with up to 15 people. Plus, participants can share their screen, collaborate on Google Drive documents, chat, and much more within a video Hangout. In this blog post, we will highlight some tips and best practices in Hangouts that can improve and enhance your video meetings. Use Keyboard Shortcuts It's easy to take instantaneous actions in a video call right from your keyboard. Use Commands in Chat Chat is helpful when you want to share links and other information via instant message to other participants in the Hangouts video call. Use a Headset Mute Your Microphone Limit Bandwidth Usage Share your Screen
Ten Places to Find and Create Data Visualizations Following yesterday's post about ChartsBin I received a request from a reader for suggestions for other tools that students can use to create data visualizations. The reader that asked thought Charts Bin might be a little confusing for some of her students. Here is a list of other places that you and your students can browse for data visualizations and or create your own data visualizations. Some of my favorite ways to have students use these kinds of tools is to create visualizations for the purpose of comparing datasets and trying to draw correlations between physical geography information and human geography information. Map a List turns Google Spreadsheet information into Google Maps placemarks. Heat Map Tool is a tool for easily creating heat maps or incident maps from a CSV file. Spreadsheet Mapper 3 is a Google Spreadsheet script that will allow you to create KML files based on your spreadsheet data. MapStory is a free tool for creating mapped displays of data sets.
- Summer Learning Series-Putting The Internet To Work For You With IFTTT 0 Comments August 16, 2013 By: Steven W. Anderson Aug 15 Written by: 8/15/2013 5:22 PM ShareThis This is the ninth post in my Summer Learning Series. Let's face it. If This, Than That (or IFTTT) is a powerful website where you set up triggers and recipes to do tasks for you. It starts with the If This: Here, you decide if something happens. I am going to create one for the weather. Then you decide what should happen: Now you have several options, some of which make sense, like triggering an email or sending a text, while others don't make much sense like updating your Facebook status or sending an update via RSS. Once set up, you are good to go. I have several recipes I use. I use a bunch of these. One of the best parts of IFTTT is the sharing. So be like me. Do you use IFTT? cross posted at blog.web20classroom.org Steven W.
10 Teacher Resources For Global Learning - by Kristin Marino According to the Levin Institute at SUNY, globalization is …”a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.” Students of globalization can study how the process affects culture, political systems, the environment, economies, and humankind all over the world. The study of globalization is far-reaching, and many great teaching resources are available. Here we’ve compiled a list of 10 resources for teaching globalization, a list that includes videos, websites, lesson plans and much more. 10 Teacher Resources For Global Learning Comprehensive websites Globalization 101 is a project of the Levin Institute at SUNY that offers resources and tools on a wide variety of globalization topics and concerns, including culture, development, education, environment, health, human rights, law, technology, trade and women. Videos Lesson Plans
43+ Alternatives to YouTube Excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, not every teacher can access YouTube in his or her classroom. That's why a few years ago I compiled a big list of alternatives to YouTube. Over the years some of those sites have shut-down, started charging a fee, or have switched into another market. So this evening I went through and eliminated some sites from the list and added a few new ones. My favorite five alternatives to YouTube are listed below. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Who’s Who on a Movie Crew: An Animated Primer Next time the credits are rolling, stick around so you can educate your fellow audience members on what exactly a gaffer does. This is but one of the mysteries addressed in Who’s Who on a Movie Crew, a campy but undeniably informative primer on film set responsibilities and hierarchies. Some job details get glossed over – grips have far more to keep track of than can ever fit in a rhyming couplet – but it’s in keeping with the deliberately anachronistic animation style and equipment. Honey, are you sure you want to be a production assistant? More in-depth, non-rhyming explanations of the various roles can be found on Vimeo’s Video School. Related Content: The Film Before the Film: An Introduction to the History of Title Sequences in 10 Minutes Alfred Hitchcock on the Filmmaker’s Essential Tool: ‘The Kuleshov Effect’ Filmmaking Advice from Quentin Tarantino and Sam Raimi (NSFW) Spike Lee Shares His NYU Teaching List of 87 Essential Films Every Aspiring Director Should See
30 Simple Ways To Connect With Students Are you properly connecting with your students? As the new school year approaches, it’s important to figure out the most effective ways to connect and engage your students as they come off their long vacation. A lot of their minds will be wandering for many weeks after coming back, and we thought that it would be useful to share a few of the more effective ways to enhance learning in your classroom . Below you’ll find a list of nearly three dozen awesome and simple ways to connect with students. One of my favorite options below is the assignment of roles for the classroom. Just like this post, there’s also an idea to add visuals to everything you do. This is a useful visual aide and you can find several other awesome ones over at Mia MacMeekin’s blog .
Additional resource links for mobile learning. by dkherning Feb 3