Design Your Digital Self - Promoting Digital Literacy
An activity intended for all
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| My Digital Self - blogmaster |
Digital Literacy Badges
Set a Goal and Earn a Badge! It's simple.
In an attempt to promote digital literacy and contribute positively to implementation of the Common Core I am pleased to introduce Beye Badges.Class Badges for 1-1 Goal Setting
Class Badges is a free online tool designed to help teachers use digital badges as rewards for accomplishing learning goals. The badges can be a useful tool for teachers to keep track of individual student accomplishments as they help learners focus on making progress.
Teachers can request a free account to generate a class code for students. Just add your students and choose from the many available badges. If you are in need of a unique badge of your own you can work with the folks at Class Badges to have them create it for you.
A Google Docs Template for Multimedia Research
The Google Docs Presentation is well-suited for use as a starting point for short student driven research projects because of the availability of efficient integrated research tools right on the page. To introduce students and teachers to the built in features, I created a simple template to guide the learning and help everyone discover the usefulness of the tool.
An Updated Digital Differentiation Model
To access the most current resources, please click on the tab at the top of this blog:
Digital Differentiation - Current
A Guide to Facilitating an Interactive Learning Project
"With so much active student engagement, how do you manage a project like this?"
A Playlist: Avatars & Internet Safety
I just collected some of the resources I regularly use and created a MentorMob playlist for teaching students about Avatars and Internet Safety. If you want to use the playlist with your own students, just click the Share Playlist link at the bottom, then copy and paste the embed code into your own page.
My EduBlogs Nomination & Thank Yous
My blog is an essential part of my workflow and it is my most important tool. I would like to thank some amazing people who have kept me blogging.
Janet Barnstable
Thank you for encouraging me to blog and getting me started with my favorite and most useful tool. You always point me in the right direction and I am so thankful for you, your guidance and our friendship.
Edmodo & ThingLink: Extend the Walls of Your Classroom
Teachers and students can extend the learning by posting messages, holding online discussions, picking up work and turning it in. Edmodo supports a variety of multimedia to provide students with flexible learning paths including links, images, video and interactive graphics created with ThingLink.
An Interactive Tutorial: Google Presentation
Google Presentation is a great tool for helping students construct knowledge about a topic as they create. Here is an interactive tutorial designed to demonstrate how to use some of the handy built in features.
A ThingLink Toolkit for Teachers
I am excited to share a ThingLink Teacher Toolkit of Resources.
The toolkit is designed to provide teachers and students with all the resources needed to use ThingLink as an efficient and effective tool for teaching and learning.
Edublogs 2012 Nominations
Nominations for 2012 Edublog Awards are open.
The purpose of the Edublog Awards is to
"promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media."
The nomination process supports the goal of the contest because it requires nominations via a blog post with a follow up link to that post submitted to Edublogs. What a great way to share, discover and credit the folks whose work inspires us and contributes to our own success!
Research Tool Added to Google Presentation
Good news for Google Docs users! The powerful integrated research tool made available in the Google Document last spring has made it's way to the Google Presentation at last. The tool couldn't be easier to use. Just pull down the Tools menu, click on Research and search for information in the research pane that appears on the right side of the screen. Users never have to leave the page.
Digital Tools for Differentiating Vocabulary: K12Online
If you're looking for innovative ways to use free and user friendly digital tools to help students acquire vocabulary, please check out my session, Digital Tools for Differentiating Vocabulary Instruction at the K12OnlineConference. While you're there you are sure to discover more terrific 20 minute sessions, available for viewing at your convenience.
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Teaching vocabulary today? Get ideas to "Kick it Up a Notch" at #k12online12 conference. http://bit.ly/Shhp1i #DigLN #elearning #innovate
TeachEm: Create Guided YouTube Lessons
TeachEm is a free and user friendly digital tool that allows users to capture YouTube content, organize it, and add time stamped flashcards to guide the learning. It's simple, smart and efficient which makes it a good tool for busy teachers interested in implementing a Flipped Classroom instructional model.
Common Core Connections: Using Multimedia to Present Knowledge & Ideas
Technology can be a powerful tool to help us meet the Common Core Standards and move our students forward to prepare them for success in school and beyond. In general, the Common Core calls for the seamless integration of technology into the curriculum. There are also specific Common Core standards dedicated to using technology. The Speaking and Listening strand across all grade levels asks students to create presentations that are enhanced by a spiraling complexity of multimedia components.
327 Common Core Aligned Playlists from MentorMob & LearnZillion
Explore the Great Barrier Reef: Google Wonders Project
The Google Wonders Project is an interactive website that allows visitors to discover many of the wonders of the world. Virtual visitors can get off the beaten path and explore wonders from 6 continents up close through Google's amazing street view technology. Virtual visitors can find factual information, stunning images, 3-D models and YouTube videos right on the page, which makes the World Wonders Project an amazing teaching tool.
Spin Xpress: Search for Creative Commons Images
Common Core Connections: Unpacking Academic Vocabulary
Are you wondering where to begin to adopt the Common Core Vocabulary Standards? While there are many specific vocabulary standards clearly listed in the K-12 Language strand, it's helpful and important to look at Academic Vocabulary from the big picture view known as Shift 6. Let's unpack it.
Google Docs New Integrated Research Tool
Google Docs has many useful features for helping students develop writing skills. When I recently opened a Google Document to plan a teacher training on Using Google Docs to Facilitate a Writing Workshop I was pleasantly surprised to find a new and powerful integrated research feature which couldn't be easier to use. Just pull down the Tools menu, click on Research and search for information in the research pane that appears on the right side of the screen. Users never have to leave the page.
Back to School With Google Docs
Last year all of the students in our school district received Google Docs accounts and I was kept quite busy all year getting students up and running and then finding innovative ways to use the tools for learning. Upon reflection,if I got the opportunity to do it all over again there are three things I would make sure to do at the start of the year to kick off Google Docs.
ThingLink & Mentor Mob: Nice Integration Feature
Last week I learned that the folks at ThingLink and MentorMob had done some work together to integrate their tools, making it possible to embed a MentorMob playlist directly into a ThingLink graphic. After experimenting a bit I decided to remix some of the content I've been using for years to teach digital citizenship and the result is the creation of Avatar Adventure. For me, the exciting part about designing this learning activity was being able to create something that other people could understand and use. And yes, I certainly learned a lot as I was designing the activity.
Avatar Adventures: An Interactive Learning Opportunity
Many thanks to those who have already contributed content!
10 Minute Tech Tools on Pinterest
Top 10 Tech Tools: An Interactive Graphic
Explore the World - Google World Wonders Projects
If you can't visit the great wonders of the world in person, Google's new World Wonders Project can get you pretty close. The World Wonders Project is an interactive website that uses the same street view technology used in Google Maps to allow visitors to explore many of the wonders of the world. In order to allow virtual visitors to get off the beaten path, Google used tricycles with cameras to explore territory closer than cars can go. In addition to exploring the World through the amazing street view technology, Google provides factual information, stunning images, 3-D models and YouTube videos right on the page.21st Century Research & Information Fluency on Scoop.It
Wallwisher Senbazuru - A New and Improved Digital Wall
Wallwisher is a free and user friendly online tool that allows users to create a digital wall of multimedia sticky notes. In addition to text, the notes can include images, links and videos. Create a wall, then invite others to add stickies.A Day of Learning
An Interactive ThingLink Launcher Unveiled
Check out this fantastic interactive graphic created by the folks at ThingLink featuring contributions from real users. Keep creating and sharing!
InstaGrok - Visual Search Engine & Interactive Learning Tool
Thinglink in the Classroom
Wikispaces Features: An Interactive Graphic
A wiki is a website that allows members to easily edit and contribute content. Wikispaces is a teacher and student friendly tool that supports multimedia for collaborative learning.
- A wiki provides teachers with a platform to design learning experiences that provide students with flexible learning paths to meet unique learning styles
- Wiki's can support student-driven project based learning experiences to help students develop super skills for the 21st century: creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking.
- Wikis are a simple yet efficient online tool for the 24/7 classroom
Update: Wikispaces to Support the Common Core on GettingSmart.com
Google Docs: New Fonts & Templates
Google Search Education
Google recently announced the launch of Search Education. With it comes the promise of bringing educators the tools they need to help students become savvy searchers and independent learners. The site for educators includes lesson plans that are tied to A Google a Day, a daily puzzle designed to develop complex search skills. The lessons are aligned with NETS and Common Core Standards, connected to content area subjects and differentiated on 3 levels. In addition to lesson plans, Google offers live trainings and archived videos of past trainings to provided educators with the background knowledge
Cool Tools to Curate Content
Educators can use content curation tools to streamline instruction by providing students with easy online access to a variety of resources to meet the needs of diverse learners.
Digital Notes: Combine Readability & Google Docs
One of my favorite tools to share with students and teachers is Readability. This handy bookmarklet tool scrubs webpages clean of distractions by eliminating the ads and creating a more readable version of digital text. By itself, it's a really useful tool for students, but when combined with Google Docs, it can be part of an effective and efficient method for taking digital notes.SlideRocket Sample: Cool Tools for Vocabulary
As someone who creates and shares presentations frequently, I'm excited to add SlideRocket to my tech toolkit of cloud-based presentation tools. It's slick, collaborative and available for free with a Gmail or Google Apps for Educators account. A refreshing change from Google Presentation, SlideRocket is feature-rich and fast. Here are a few of my favorite features:
Promoting Visual Literacy
Mentor Mob Playlist Sample: Maximize Instructional Time
I understand the idea behind Menor Mob is to create mixes of web content, but I was in need of a new tool for organizing some of my own content so that is what I used to create my first playlist.
EasyBib: One Click Access to Google Docs & More
Great Ways to Use Google Docs - Presented Visually
These days a good way to capture the attention of an audience is to present information visually. For this reason, I created a glog of popular ways to use Google Docs for Learning to share with the teachers at our middle school. Just look at the glog, find something that interests you, and click on a link to see snippets of samples implemented by our teachers. Looking for more information or about any of these topics? View my Google Docs for Learning page on this blog.Use Glogster & Screencasts to Maximize Student Presentations
If you're a classroom teacher using technology to helps students uncover knowledge and create something original, you are certainly making good use of technology as a tool for learning. Unfortunately; however, you may be struggling with time management issues if you're still engaging students in traditional methods of presenting what they've learned by standing in front of the class. I'd like to suggest an alternate, more efficient presentation method to maximize instructional time and take advantage of an additional opportunity for engaged student learning.Design Your Digital Classroom
Here are the resources I put together for this day.
Digital Differentiation
Use GoogleDocs Self-Grading Quiz as an Exit Ticket
Update 3.3.13:
Try Flubaroo to automate and add functionality to the GoogleDocs Self-Grading Quiz.View new post on this blog
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The GoogleDocs Form is an efficient way for teachers to collect small pieces of information because it automatically displays the information in a spreadsheet. Teachers can add formulas to those spreadsheets to create multiple-choice quizzes that grade themselves. Since a form can be linked or embedded into a website, wiki or blog, students do not need email accounts to take a quiz. The form works well on any portable computing device or full-blown computer which makes it perfect for use as an Exit Ticket at the end of a lesson. One simple 3-5 question Exit Ticket Quiz has at least three great uses.Wikispaces Projects Feature - Manage Projects Efficiently
Oolone and More Search Engines for Students
Oolone is a new visual search engine that displays results as web previews instead of text, offering a nice option for efficient and intuitive searching. An oolone search displays the top four results in a grid that allows uses to scroll over the images to get a closer look at the site before actually
selecting it. Designed to be a quicker and more efficient way to search, it speaks to the idea that that sometimes an image is the best answer to a question.
Screencasts -Tech Support to Maximize Instructional Time
