Fur.ly -URL Shortner

Fur.ly is a simple to use online url shortner. This site allows users to link to multiple websites with a single url. The site is easy to use and it eliminates the need for multiple windows and tabs.

Application in the Classroom: This site seems would be very useful when directing students to multiple site for a particular project or web search assignment. Check it out today: Fur.ly

Here’s How to use it from: Make Use

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Motuto-Live Mobile Tutoring

What is Motuto?

Motuto is an on-demand, real-time mobile tutoring app. When you have a problem or question you need help with you can just log on, connect with a tutor and get the help you need.

Motuto is a service aimed at students in grades 6-12 that provides mobile homework assistance where you want it and when. When you get stuck on a problem, or need help with a lesson, use your mobile device to connect to a live tutor who will explain the concept and walk you through the problem-solving process.

I wish I was a science or math teacher so I could use this live mobile tutoring app. If you are please check out Mututo

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SideVibe-Create an interesting online lesson

SideVibe is an interesting Web 2.0 tool that allows teachers to revolutionize the classroom buy putting content online and delivering it in a powerful method. SideVibe enables teachers to create learning activities on the screen in direct proximity to Web content without the problems of paper handouts or 3rd party Websites. Student thinking in context is captured providing for more focused attentive and productive responses. As well, teachers can easily gather, view, assess and respond to all student responses through their secure SideVibe Website, providing teachers with faster, more effective methods for online feedback.

There is how­ever, one small catch and that involves the free and “pre­mium” account dif­fer­ences. Free accounts are avail­able but they are lim­ited to 50, “one time” stu­dent accounts (once a stu­dent account is issued, it can’t be re-used or re-issued) for every one teacher account.

A “pre­mium” teacher account does away with this lim­i­ta­tion (a teacher can have unlim­ited free stu­dent accounts) as well as adding a cou­ple of extra fea­tures. The cost is about $6.00 a month.

As well, stu­dents will also need an email address when sign­ing up for a stu­dent account.

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Make any photo come to life with Blabberize

Blabberize is a very easy application that allows you to speak through a picture. Students can manipulate the picture to say what they want it to say.

Teachers have used this resource for quick projects such as having students retell a story, book reviews, explain a math or science process, create biographies. The ideas are endless.

Take a look at a few below and then follow the link

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Create a multimedia Story with Little Bird Tales

Little Bird Tales is a nice site for younger students to create digital stories. Little Bird Tales walks users through each step of creating a multimedia story.


Users can upload images, draw images, or record from their webcams. Stories can be written with text or narrated by students using microphones connected to their computers. Sample video

Very simple to use and create a story. Great literacy tool!

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Animoto-make a simple movie

Animoto is another simple program online to create simple videos from pictures, sound, text, and existing video clips try Animoto.  Animoto makes it possible to quickly create a video using still images, music, and text. In the last year Animoto has added the option to include video clips in your videos too.

If you can make a slideshow presentation, you can make a video using Animoto.

Animoto’s free service limits you to 30 second videos. You can create longer videos if you apply for an education account. I like to use Animoto early in the school year to introduce my new students to some of the basic skills that will be carried across to more complex video creation later in the year.

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Awesome Screenshot

I just discovered Awesome Screen Shot, which is a wonderful screen shot program. I am a huge fan of taking screen shots when demonstrating a particular lesson or difficult takl. This program allows anyone to take a photo of the desktop or internet and then annotate it. It’s easy to use and pretty simple with browser add on to make screen shots simple. Check it out today.

Awesome Screenshot - Capture, Annotate and Share 2011-06-25 22-43-26

Some of the Features:

  • Capture visible part
  • Capture any region
  • Capture the whole page
  • Crop any portion and show crop dimension
  • Annotate it with rectangles, circles, arrows, lines and text
  • Erase the sensitive information with blur tool
  • One-click Upload the screenshot to awesomescreenshot.com
    and get a sharable link
  • Hard to guess URL to allow private sharing
  • Share the link to twitter, facebook, email etc.
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WebDoc like Glogster

Today I was updating some of my lessons with new project ideas. I discovered a new program called WebDoc. It allows people to express themselves around particular topic with pictures, videos and music from all over the web, but also interactive applications like games, polls, slideshows or web services such as Google Maps and Twitter.

WebDoc reminds me of glogster but for an older crowd like middle school and high school. It seems simple to use and I can’t wait to try it next school year with my students.

For more information visit the What Every Social Media Marker Should Know about WebDoc, writtten by Neil Glassman:

Coolest feature

Drag-and-drop WYSIWYG interface for simple, intuitive and quick interactive postings.

Feature rundown

  • Mixed media — photos, videos, audio, etc. — can be used to attract and retain attention
  • Incorporate services  such as Google Maps, Twitter, SlideShare and others
  • webdoc can be posted to a Facebook Page, website and blog, as well as linked from Twitter or email
  • HTML5 is indexed by search engines and works on tablets like the iPad

screen

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Create an event and check your calendar with text messaging

Check your phone without a smart phone

Google Calendar’s SMS notification feature allows you to conveniently check your calendar when you’re on the go. Just send Google Calendar a quick text message, and you’ll get an SMS notification with the information you requested.
In order to use this service, you’ll need to register your cell phone number in Google Calendar. Just sign in, click the gear icon at the top of the page, select Calendar settings, and go to the Mobile Setup tab.
To receive a notification with your calendar information, send a text message containing one of the following commands to the shortcode ‘48368’ (GVENT):

  • ‘next’: request your next scheduled event
  • ‘day: request all of your scheduled events for the present day
  • ‘nday’: request your events scheduled for the following day

To create an event on your primary calendar via SMS

simply send a text message containing your event’s details to the shortcode “GVENT (48368).
For example, if you send a message with something like “Shopping with Sarah at Monterrey Market 5pm Saturday,” Google Calendar can figure out what you mean and pop the new event into your calendar.
Please keep in mind that this feature is only available in the US at this time.


For more information: Click Here
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40 Interesting Ways to Close a Lesson

CLOSURE – what the instructor does to facilitate wrap-up at the end of the lesson – it is a quick review, to remind students what it was that they have learned (or should have learned) and allows you to see where the students are to assist you in planning for the next lesson.

The intellectual work should be done by the students – not the instructor summarizing for the students and telling them what they learned. Closure allows students to summarize main ideas, evaluate class processes, answer questions posed at the beginning of the lesson, and link to both the past and the future.

Closure is an opportunity for formative assessment and helps the instructor decide:

1. if additional practice is needed
2. whether you need to re-teach
3. whether you can move on to the next part of the lesson

Closure comes in the form of information from students about what they learned during the class; for example, a restatement of the instructional purpose. This information then provides a knowledge of the results for the teacher, i.e., did you teach what you intended to teach and have the students learned what you intended to have them learn

Resources used

Assembled by Ann Sipe ∞ Grandview School District, Grandview WA

Kristine Lindeblad – Coach Extraordinaire
Terrific teachers at Grandview Middle and High Schools; Grandview, WA
OSPI Funded Math Coaches 2007-2009
About – Secondary Education Blog
www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Guide.shtml
Educators Reference Desk, How to write a lesson Plan
Winning Through Student Participation in Lesson Closure. Patricia Wolf and Viola Supon . EDRS (ERIC)

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Online-Converter

I am always looking for free and easy to use online converter programs to change the file formats of digital media. I have been using zamzar’s free account for a little over a year. Zamzar claims bring “order to your filesystem by offering you a one stop solution for all your file conversion needs. Like others we were fed up with having files in all sorts of formats, and no easy way of converting between them.” The paid subscription offers you many more features than the free version. I dislike the free version because you have to wait for the converted files to email and the files seem to take a long time to load.

online convert

online convert

I recently discovered another FREE online converter called Online Convert. The website claims, “This free online file converter lets you convert media easy and fast from one format to another. We support a lot of different source formats, just try. If you can’t find the conversion you need, please let us know and write us an e-mail. We probably can help you…”

This website is true to it’s claim. It’s very fast and simple to use. As compared to Zamzar, you no longer need to wait around your inbox for your converted files. They appear in your browser within a matter of seconds. It’s also easy to use with PDF converters, so you no longer need to wait an hour on a free website to convert a PDF to word.

Check it out today!

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Virtual Book Club: The Passion Driven Classroom

I have never been apart of a book club and when I saw a post written by  Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano about a virtual book club on the Langwiches blog I bought the book and started reading it right away. I think most teachers want to bring their classrooms more to life and make learning engaging. I am excited to read this book and have a discussion about passion in the classroom.

According to the Langwiches blog, “Don’t miss out on a virtual summer book club discussing Angela Maier’s and Amy Sandvold’s book “The Passion-Driven Classroom”.

According to the Langwiches blog, “I already have one quote from the first few chapters that has give me plenty to think about as I reflect on this past school year and wonder what makes the difference between an educator who doesn’t wait to be taught, but instead is willing to learn…”

  • Passion says, “I believe in this. I own this. I think about it even when I’m not on the clock. I know we can do this better than anyone else can.” This sense of ownership becomes a responsibility- the mission to pursue excellent work.”

According to the Langwiches blog,” In order to participate actively in the discussion, you will need to become a member of the Curriculum 21 Ning. Since membership is moderated, please register with a your school’s email or other identifiable education account.”

We’ll be launching the book study on June 14th, with questions and discussions about how being passionate can have a significant and positive impact on professional practice.  We’ll be posting discussion questions and interacting in our Ning environment!

If you don’t already have the book, you can purchase through Eye on Education’s website.  Use the discount code PASSION21 for 10% off!  The book is available in both print and electronic formats!

We hope that you’ll join us for a summer of e-learning about becoming passionate in your own practice!

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11+ Top Smartphone Apps to Improve Teaching, Research, and Your Life

I love finding articles entitled, 6 Top Smartphone Apps to Improve Teaching, Research, and Your Life written in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article written by Jeffery R. Young discusses the ways smartphones have revolutionized the classroom, particularly in higher education. The article mentions some interesting ways smartphones have begun to change the college environment such as by taking attendance, collecting data, researching, taking notes, using textbook tools, and mind mapping to plan a lecture.

How could this technology be brought into the secondary school environment?

I just discovered Android Academics, which has 4 free apps that will make your life as a teacher easier: Grade-book, Attendance, Grade Rubric, and Grade Ticker.Android Apps for Academics has some pretty nice apps and features. The following information is directly from the Android Academics website. I have personally used the grade ticker and I can’t wait to try the following academic apps.

Grade Book for Professors (with Google Docs Sync)

Edit your grade book directly from your phone!

  • No need to sync two separate grade books! Use one primary grade that is stored in the cloud on Google Spreadsheets.
  • Email a student their grades with the click of a button!
  • Pin-number to protect your grade books in case your phone is lost.
  • NEW: Email ALL students grade report with one click
  • NEW: Grade session feature and Assignment View allows for quick and easy grading of a single assignment.
  • Direct Market Linknote this link only works when browsing from an Android Phone
  • NEW FREE VERSION – does everything paid version does – it’s just ad supported

___________________________________________________

Attendance (with Google Docs Sync)

A simple and efficient way to take attendance with your Android device! All attendance results are saved to a Google Spreadsheet.

  • No need to enter student names into phone. Just get the student names into a Google Spreadsheet and the app handles the rest.
  • NEWCheck out our demo video
  • Direct Market Linknote this link only works when browsing from an Android Phone

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Grade Ticker

Simple tool to help professors and teachers make grade tallying more efficient

  • Integrates with Gradebook for Professors for easy grade entry
  • Direct Market Linknote this link only works when browsing from an Android Phone

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Grade Rubric

Simple tool grading tool for professors and teachers who use a grading rubric for assignments. Option to auto-generate an email with detailed grade report for student.

  • Custom rubric labels.
  • Choose letter rubrics and numbers rubrics
  • Integrates with Gradebook for Professors for easy grade entry
  • Direct Market Linknote this link only works when browsing from an Android Phone

___________________________________________________

I checked my Android Market for some useful apps mentioned in this article that could be brought into the secondary classroom. I found an app called Teacher Aide Lite. This app allows teachers to use the Android phone to take attendance and send texts to parents to notify about tardy/absent students. I think this will help organize my classroom and bring it into the 21st century.

Current Features
* supports 45 students/class, 8 periods/day
* supports 3 Marking Periods/semester and 2 semesters/year
* default values set to Present for fast attendance taking
* import student names via CSV file
* export data via CSV generated file and send via email
* 1-click text to students/parents for tardy/absent students
* 1-click Random student generator (no more Popsicle sticks)

Upcoming Features

* Simple Grading interface to allow recording of assignments turned in
* Texting and emailing feature to notify students/parents of missing work
*Additional Grading options – using points and categories

Other uses for Cell Phones in the Classroom: Please see a previous post.

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Online Exams- the new way to test

It is that special time of the year when teachers have the privilege of grading final exams. Grading is one of my least favorite parts of my job. I gave a few online tests during first semester. During my second semester, I was determined to not “hand grade” a single test.
I am proud to say that I did not give ONE paper test this semester. Most of my students have What do you think of online tests?commented that they enjoyed taking their tests online, like typing their responses, and getting instant feedback on multiple choice, true false, and matching questions. Short answer and essay take a little longer to grade because I have to go in and grade each section like you would on a paper test.

Some of the reasons I enjoy using online exams are:
  • Save time
  • Easily manage student performance
  • Offer students a better testing environment
  • Instant feedback
  • Correlation to state standards
    Comments from my students about online tests:
    • “I liked them because they showed you what you got right away so I know how my grade will be effected as soon as I’m done the test. I also liked how they were on the computer to because it  doesn’t use paper.”
    • “Taking online tests is great. It helps us save paper for other things, and is also more organized then paper tests. I would absolutely recommend it again.”
    • “It is faster to type and answer questions and students can go back to the question later on. the only downside is the fact that you can’t write on the computer like you could on paper.”
    • “I liked it a lot better. It was faster and easier than doing a test on paper, i thought it was a great idea and i think it should definitely be used again.”
    • “Yes i would suggest it again because you got your grade right after you were done. and it kept you more interested than staring at a piece of paper.”
    • “Well that’s what technology is coming to and its much easier for the teacher to grade and we get our results quickly”
    • “I didn’t overly enjoy taking tests online, i am more accustomed to taking it with pencil and paper. However i liked being able to see my grade right then and there and knowing roughly what my final grade would be on the test.”
Here are some online testing programs:
Quizstar– One of my personal favorites. Best of all it’s FREE and easy to use. Please refer to a previous blog post.
Google Docs– Here is a blog post, called Making Online Quizzes with Google Docs written by Quiz Creator. How to create a google form and online test with this blog post, called Google Forms: How to create a quiz or test that automatically grades itself with Google Docs written by Planet of the Web.
ClassMarker- Here is another online program for testing.
ExamGeneral– Teachers now have an easy to use online exam platform to make creating, administering, and grading exams an efficient and effective process through this website.
Zohowebsite makes creating tests and grading a paperless and simple affair
Proprofswebsite offers teachers more features than you might expect. Advanced options like security, scoring, time limits & more make this online quiz software perfect for corporations, educational institutions and just for fun.  If you are looking for a test generator, exam maker or a causal quiz creator,
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Current Events as Interactive Guides

From the E coli outbreak in Europe to the US presidential election 2012- Guardian News and Media takes the top current events from around the world and makes them into interactive colorful graphics complete with images, information, and links.

I particularly like the US Presidential Election, which comes with graphics and information on all the potential candidates.

The website says “No clear Republican challenger to Barack Obama has emerged for the presidential election on 6 November 2012. Click on the faces to see who is standing and who else may join the contest. Use the menu (top right) to see who is a serious contender, who has stood before and who has Tea Party links.”

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