Educreations: Create and Share Video Lessons

I learned about Educreations,  from Infinite Think Machine; which is a free application for the ipad or a laptop that allows users to create virtual whiteboard lessons. Educreations has a clear audio voiceover, graphics, and the ability to post the interactive whiteboard to any social media website or blog.  This application can be used by students to help a classmate with a difficult math problem or historical time period.

Teachers can create a flipped lesson or assign educreations as a project with any unit of study. As a history teacher, I could see educreations as a useful resource. I think this would be an interesting way to introduce key vocabulary or review for the Regent’s exam. You could pair students together, assign them a vocabulary word, and have them create an interactive whiteboard video about the vocabulary word. You can then embed the videos online to view for homework, a video for class, or a review tool. The ideas are endless.

Here are a few examples:

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myHomework Keeps Student’s Organized

Organization is the key to success in any career. If a child learns and maintains organization in secondary school, they will find it easier to remain organized for the rest of their life.  An organized student will be less frustrated because they won’t waste time searching for handouts or redoing assignments. As educators it is our duty to foster and encourage organization with daily assignments and homework planning.

 

I recently discovered an application called myHomework for both Android and iPhone. MyHomework is a FREE application that can help students stay organized and keep up with homework, assignments, and assessments. There are multiple features such as a calendar display including block scheduling and different classes. The paid version of myHomework is 1.99, which can sync homework with any device, be accessed anywhere with the web feature, homework notifications, and even a Facebook sign-in option. It’s a wonderful application that can encourage organization for ANY student.

For More Information Visit myHomework.

 

 

 

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Great Study Guides for Any Subject

Here is another great resource from Ken Halla author of US History Teachers Blog. Ken gave his class the following outline found here for studying U.S. history created by the Sol Pass of Virginia.  While they are for VA tests, they are a great review for any subject. Here are other history resources for world history or Geography. Thanks for sharing this great resource Ken!

Citation: Sol Pass website 

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GoSoapBox: Hear what your students are thinking!

I recently discovered GoSoapBox from David Andrade who is the author of the Educational Technology Guy blog. Students and teachers can use GoSoapBox from any device their smartphones, tablets, or laptop to interact during class. It can encourage your class to participate and interact like they never have before. GoSoapBox allows teachers to quickly assess student comprehension, and address common problem areas.

With GoSoapBox you can:

1. Audience Questions: This feature allows students to ask and respond to student questions. Students even vote about questions in class, which can allow the most pressing questions to be addressed first by the teacher.

2. Discussions: This can be similar to open ended questions that teachers can ask and have their students state their opinions or answer.

3. Confusion Barometer: This can allow students to indicate if they are confused about the material or pace of instruction.

4. Polls or Quizes: Polls are multiple choice questions that can be created for the purpose of formative or daily assessment. The results are updated in real time and displayed graphically.

 

Citation: GoSoapBox website 

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Help your students study and encourage collaboration with ThinkBinder

As a teacher I rarely hear “that was so cool,” “my mom loved seeing me study,” “I wish we could study online with every test.” The night before my class took the World War I test I offered an interesting opportunity  my students to study together with a program called ThinkBinder, which is truly revolutionizing the way our student’s study.

I called the session “office hours” and from 6-8 PM 35 of my students optionally logged into  Think Binder to collaboratively study. 63% of my students said ThinkBinder was “Pretty Cool” and 36% said it was “Amazing.” Students answered each other’s questions and truly studied together in a controlled environment. I was there to be a moderator and I was actually able to step back and watch students study together online.

Here is a previous blog post about ThinkBinder

Here are some examples:

 

 

 


 

 

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Create an Online Study Group with ThinkBinder

I was in a Panera the other day and I saw four students studying for a high school exam. Students had their notes, books, computers, and food all over the table. I thought to myself what a great group of students who decided to study together and take ownership of their own learning. Unfortunately, students can not always study together and that’s where technology comes in.

ThinkBinder is a revolutionary way to change the way our student’s study. The new study group is focused around an idea to help students work more efficiently and collaboratively. ThinkBinder provides students with an opportunity for group discussions, shared notes, and real time interactions online. Students can discuss any topic they are studying, share videos or websites or other resources that would be useful. ThinkBinder also has a built in text or video chat feature as well as an collaborative Whiteboard to work on problems together. Check it today!

Meet ThinkBinder from ThinkBinder on Vimeo.

 

 

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Record with QuickVoice

QuickVoice is a useful recording application that is easy to implement into your daily life.  You can record new ideas, voice memos, shopping lists  meetings, classes, interviews, teacher evaluation, or even an entire class period. This can be used in the professional, educational, and/or personal setting. It could even help students with studying such as recording useful information for a test or a classroom lecture.

QuickVoice can be used in multiple capacities in the classroom or in your own daily lives. This application is easy to use and implement.  According to QuickVoice it is “the most popular, full-featured iPhone/iPad/iPod voice recorder available.” Check it out today!

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Highlight and Share Websites with Marker.to

When I bring my students to the library, they print countless articles that waster not only paper but also their time. In a truly digital world students should be able to save the articles in the cloud and then highlight/annotate directly on the file.

Thanks to Richard Bryne’s blog Free Technology for Teachers I learned about Marker.to.  Marker.to will allow any user to highlight and then share the highlighted article. First you need to install a browser extension, then simply click on the icon to highlight any text on a website. 

Annotating articles or webpages can highlight any important information and help students to better comprehend new materials. Another benefit to using Marker.to is that once you highlight an article you can share the page, which can beneficial on group assignments. Check out Marker.to today!

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Quick Screen Share

I am constantly helping my mother (over the phone) with her computer, iPhone, and basically anything on the Internet. I usually use Awesome Screen Shot  to email her animated and descriptive how to guides and walk her through the “complicated process” of using her computer. I have also used remote desktop programs such as Team Viewer before.

I just discovered Quick Screen Share. QuickScreenShare.com is one of the simplest way to share screens with anybody. Some benefits include: No registration required, it’s free, and nothing to install on your computer. It is particularly useful for user support and collaboration.


 

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Tinychat is a free chatroom that’s easy to use

Tinychat provides dead simple, free to use, video chat rooms that just work! Enjoy chatting with your friends or making new ones, just create a chat room or join one. Share up to twelve broadcasts simultaneously! With text, video, and audio chat, you and your friends can connect and talk from anywhere in the world. This would be a great tool if students were doing a collaborative project or back-channeling in the classroom.

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Quizlet- the new “paper” flashcards

Quizlet is the largest flash cards and study games website with over 6 million free sets of flashcards covering every possible subject. It’s the best place to play educational games, memorize vocabulary and study online.

Make or Find Flashcards

Create flashcard sets with your own terms and definitions

  • Or choose from millions of flashcard sets created by other users

Use Powerful Study Tools

  • Flashcard Mode lets you familiarize yourself with the material.
  • Learn Mode is the most powerful study mode, keeping track of your scores, and retesting incorrect answers.
  • Test Mode generates customizable tests with short-answer, matching, multiple choice and true/false options.

Share & Study with Your Friends

  • Create a group to share or discuss flashcards with your friends or classmates.
  • Edit and improve sets created by other group members.

Play Competitive Study Games

  • Scatter is a fun matching game which lets you drag and drop questions and answers with your mouse while racing against the clock.
  • Space Race is the ultimate video game study simulation. Racing the clock, you type in answers to questions flying overhead before they evade your grasp.

Study on the Go

 

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The PocketMod- Easy Paper Study Tool

The PocketMod is a new way to keep yourself organized. Lets face it, PDAs are too expensive and cumbersome, and organizers are bulky and hard to carry around. Nothing beats a folded up piece of paper. That is until now. With the PocketMod, you can carry around the days notes, keep them organized in any way you wish, then easily transfer the notes to your PDA, spreadsheet, or planner. 

The PocketMod is a small book with guides on each page. These guides or templates, combined with a unique folding style, enable a normal piece of paper to become the ultimate note card. It is hard to describe just how incredibly useful the PocketMod is. It’s best that you just dive in and create one. Build a PocketMod now!

 


 

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Jeopardy Labs- Make Learning Fun!

Jeopardylabs is a wonderful FREE website that allows you to create jeopardy games without the use of powerpoint. Jeopardylabs allows users to create a customized jeopardy template. The games you make can be played online from anywhere in the world. Building your own jeopardy template is a piece of cake. Just use our simple editor to get your game up and running.

Not interested in building your own jeopardy templates? Well that’s cool too. You can browse other jeopardy templates created by other people. It doesn’t get any better than this!

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Today’s Meet- backchannel in your classroom

Todays Meet helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in realtime.

Encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs.

Students can have a discussion about class, ask questions, and be engaged in the classroom with the use of Today’s Meet. Check it out Today!


What is the back-channel?

The backchannel is everything going on in the room that isn’t coming from the presenter. The backchannel is where people ask each other questions, pass notes, get distracted, and give you the most immediate feedback you’ll ever get. Instead of ignoring the backchannel, Todays Meet helps you leverage its power.

Tapping into the backchannel lets you tailor and direct your presentation to the audience in front of you, and unifying the backchannel means the audience can share insights, questions and answers like never before.


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Digital History Website

When I do a US history project or I am looking for an interesting way to teach a particular concept my first website I go to is the Digital History Website. It is extremely user friendly because you can search by topic or a specific era in American history. This website is packed with information from alternative textbook readings to primary sources to media and even teaching ideas. It is truly a “one stop shop” to find out more information about any U.S. history topic. It is a wonderful resource and it makes my life just a little bit easier.

Digital History 2011-06-30 23-23-12

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