The 8 Components of A Digital Learning Environment

November 1, 2014Another great read but this time from BYOT Network. In this paper entitled " The Components of a Digital Age Learning Ecosystem", Dr Tim Clark suggests 8 elements as being constitutive of a digital learning environment. And though I have some remarks on the use of the term ecosystem as being too complex a term for capturing the learning intricacies that take place in a learning environment I would rather disregard this comment and...

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New Bloom's Taxonomy Sheet with Over 80 Web Tools to Try Out

November 1, 2014I am not sure if you have seen it before or not but this is absolutely among the best works I have seen on Bloom's Taxonomy. Since the time Bloom's Digital Taxonomy was released, several versions of this new taxonomy have seen the light with each one slightly different from the other in terms of the tools or apps it integrates with each thinking level. The Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel is something to remember here but the present resource...

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A Handy Search Tip Students Should Know About

October 31, 2014Here is a pretty basic but very important search tip I want to bring to your attention today. Some of you might already be using it but I want you to share it with your students and help them search for information more efficiently. Using this search hack, students will be able to quickly find anything on a document, email or a webpage. This search tip involves the use of two keyboard buttons to bring up a small search box that will...

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iPad Library of Educational Videos to Spark Kids Imagination

October 31, 2014A few days ago I shared here PBS Kids Video app that provides a wide variety of educational videos for kids. Today I am adding another wonderful iPad app in this direction. Brainfeed is one of the top ranked apps in the iTunes store. Designed to inform, entertain and inspire, Brainfeed provides children 7+, tweens, teens and even inquisitive adults with a safe corner of the web to explore a universe of educational videos.Each video...

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6 Good Chromebook Apps for Recording and Editing Audio

October 30, 2014Awhile back I received couple of emails from some teachers asking about some app recommendations to record and edit audio on Chromebooks. Below are some of the good tools I would suggest for this purpose. Please have a look and share with us what you think of them.1- SoundCloudThis is one of my favourite web tools for audio recording. Soundcloud is very easy to use and with once click you can start recording your own track. You...

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Beautiful Visual Featuring 7 Ways to Do Formative Assessments in Class

October 30, 2014Below is an excellent visual that features some handy ideas on how to carry on formative assessments in your class. Squareheadteachers took this original chart and remade it into a more reader friendly format which is also available for free download from this link.Related: Formative Vs Summative assessmentAs  refresher on formative assessment. This kind of assessment is usually referred to as assessment  for learning which...

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3 Great Search Engines Designed Specifically for Students

October 29, 2014Being able to conduct efficient searches using different search engines is one of the essential component of the digital literacy we talked about earlier.Together with this, students are also required to develop necessary skills that will enable them to evaluate and assess the authenticity and reliability of web resources they are drawing on in their research. The net is teeming with all kinds of content and some of it is nothing...

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Two Handy Web Tools to Develop Students Reading Comprehension Skills

October, 2014A few weeks ago I posted here in Edtech and Mobile Learning a list of useful web tools to enhance students reading comprehension. Today, I am adding two other tools to the list. Check them out below:1- ReadWorksReadWorks is an excellent platform that provides effective free resources to enhance students reading comprehension. It also gives teachers a bunch of research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement...

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The 5 Main Fluencies of The 21st Century Learning

October 29, 2014Today I want to share with you this awesome read I came across in Global Citizen Education. The article is entitled " 21st Century Fluencies" and is basically based on Crockett et al.'s book Literacy is Not Enough. The main argument in this paper is that 21st century fluencies are process skills that students need in order to thrive in a rapidly changing world. These process skills include things such critical thinking, problem solving,...

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Two Excellent iPad Apps to Help Students with Math Homework

October 29, 2014Here are two excellent iPad apps for providing Math homework help for students. In fact, these apps should be used only after students have tried all their best to solve their math problems. Both of these apps offer automatic solutions to mathematical expressions. The difference between the the two apps is that PhotoMath supports only printed math expressions while MyScript Calculator supports handwritten math formulae. PhotoMath...

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Great iPap Apps for Students to Show What They Have Learned

October 28, 2014Here is a list of some good iPad apps I have compiled over the last weekend. This list is specifically curated to include apps that will enable students to exhibit their learning in  multimodal ways. Students can use them to create tutorials, explanatory guides, record videos, or for digital storytelling purposes. Most of these apps have been featured in previous lists and in different contexts here in EdTech and Mlearning and...

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Great Resources and Lesson Plans for Teaching Kids about Ebola

October, 2014Since the time World Health Organization (WHO) declared it an epidemic, Ebola virus has been making the news all over the world. As a deadly virus, Ebola has killed hundreds of people all of them in west Africa ( barring the one who died a few weeks ago in the States) and more specifically Liberia where the outbreak was first detected. As Ebola continues to make the front page news, it becomes imperative that teachers should be well-informed...

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Awesome Poster On Digital Literacy

October 28, 2014Since the uptake of digital media and the boon in internet technologies, digital literacy becomes at the centre of literacy discussion. Digital literacy is not an aim in and of itself but a means to achieving a general goal: enhancing students learning in a digitally focused context.  In other words, by being digitally literate, students will be able to capitalize on the diverse resources provided by the net to create optimal...

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Excellent Timeline Printables and Graphic Organizers for Your Class

October 26, 2014A few days ago, I shared with you here in EdTech and Mlearning a great source of graphic organizers where teachers can access and download printables to use in their class. Today, I am sharing with you these excellent free Timeline graphic organizers and sequence charts to help you teach your kids sequencing and organizing ideas and events  chronologically.It's Your Turn to Sequence Sequencing skills are practiced in this...

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Great Tools and Apps for Teacher-Parent Communication

October 26, 2014Students with parents who are up-to-date on their child(ren)'s lives tend to perform better in school. Fortunately, technology offers a variety of ways that can save teachers time as well as keep parents engaged. Here are some notable tools used by teachers and parents.ParentSquare Gives teachers a host of ways to collaborate with parents, like newsletters, calendars, fundraisers, and volunteer requests.Kaymbu Automatically...

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Helpful Resources for Using iPad in Education

October 25, 2014Looking for innovative ideas and tips for using iPad in your class? Apple's iPad in Education website is a good place to start with. The website offers a wide range of resources and materials to help teachers make the best use of iPad in education. It provides a ideas and tips on how to make your lessons more engaging, relevant and fun for students through the use of iPad apps.Content in iPad in Education is arranged into four main...

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New- Portfoliogen Allows You to Create and Download Your Portfolios in PDF Format

October, 2014Portfoliogen is a great web tool  for teachers. It  allows teachers to create their own customized portfolio webpage. This means that you have a user friendly platform designed specifically to host and organize all your materials into one place. You can also share your portfolio with your colleagues and peers using the generated URL.Some of features of PortfoliogenHere is a list of the main features that Portfoliogen offers...

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A Good Way to Create and Save Mind Maps to Google Drive

October 25, 2014MindMup is an excellent web tool that allows you to create beautiful mind maps. Mindmup does not require registration and is very simple to use. It is also integrated with Google Drive so you can save your mind maps straight to your Drive account. MindMup also provide a set of good extensions to enhance your mind mapping. Some examples include:Realtime collaboration:This is a good feature to use with students in class. Realtime collaboration...

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The Best Dr Seuss Reading Apps for Your Kids

October, 2014Theodor Seuss Geisel  ( known by his pen names Dr.Seuss and Theo LeSieg  ) was one of the authors who had profusely contributed to the advancement of kid's literature. During his lifetime ( 1904- 1991 ) Dr Seuss published 46 children's books the most popular among which include : Green Eggs and Ham ,  The Cat in the Hat,  One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish ,  Horton Hatches the...

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PBS Kids Video App Provides Tons of Educational Videos for Your Kids

October 25, 2014PBS Kids Video is one the best free iPad apps where kids can have access to educational videos and TV shows designed specifically for a young audience.The app provides a safe, child-friendly viewing experience for all ages. Kids can easily browse and watch videos. What's more, every week, the app will introduce your child to a new “Weekly Pick,” a set of fun educational videos that will engage him or her in reading, science, math...

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A Treasure Trove of Free Printable Graphic Organizers to Use in Class

October, 2014Here is a good resource of free printable graphic organizers I uncovered today from my bookmarks. This page from the popular website TeacherVision features a plethora of graphic organizers designed to help students and young learners develop analytical thinking, classify ideas and communicate more effectively. These graphic organizers cover different topic areas and grade levels from PreK to grade 12.There are also specific graphic organizers...

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A Great Free Tool for Creating Venn Diagrams

October 24, 2014Venn Diagram is an excellent free interactive tool  from the popular Read Write Think that students can use to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles. This tool is also available for both iOS and Android. The iPad app is particularly designed for use in the school setting providing students with a simple profile system where multiple users can create their own Venn diagrams on the same device.Students...

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TED-Ed New Interactive Periodic Table With Video Lessons for Every Element

October, 2014Today, TED-Ed launched a clickable periodic table with videos on every element. This work is a fruit of a partnership between TED-Ed and Brady Haran, the creator of the popular YouTube channel Numberphile. The purpose behind this period table is to provide students with both a refresher and a study aid to help them better understand the different chemical elements and their properties.This periodic videos contains facts on almost all...

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