Educational Technology

Great Resources to Teach Students about Plagiarism and Citation Styles

November 7, 2014
One of my favourite sources for information and guidelines regarding referencing and citation styles is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). I have heard several professors (in the humanities, at least) recommend it to graduate students. But there are also several other resources student researchers and academics can draw on to hone in their research writing skills. This page from Plagiarism.org features a plethora of excellent materials and citation sources that are all available online or in the form of PDF documents , free to download and use.

Here are some of the examples of the citation materials you will find there. These resources are arranged under three main categories: Humanities, Sciences, and Social sciences.

Writer's Handbook: Chicago Style Documentation
Writer's Handbook: Chicago Style Documentation
Writer's Handbook: MLA Style Documentation
Writer's Handbook: MLA Style Documentation
Writer's Handbook: APA Style Documentation
Writer's Handbook: APSA Documentation

There are also other sections in the page that provide some useful information on a variety of topics related to writing and plagiarism such as : how to paraphrase, how to quote materials, definition of a footnote and bibliography, tools to check for plagiarism, and many more.
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This Is Your Kid on Screens Infographic)

10:15 PM infographic

November 6, 2014
Technology has become an essential part of our kids lives. They depend on it to do almost everything from studying to gaming and now social networking. As such, technology takes so much of their waking time and exposes them to several mental and physical hazards. Being exposed to the screen light for a prolonged period of time each day can result in some severe eye and heart problems. . Worse than that, excessive use of technology is now associated with sleep disruption and short attention span.

The visual below from Huffington Post features 8 mind-blowing facts on the impact of screens on our kids and teens. The purpose of the visual is not to scare you away from technology but rather help you envision better ways for your kids to use technology with the minimum negative side effects possible. Some of these ways are featured under the visual which you can access from this link.

A Great Tool to Create 3D Timelines in Class

9:42 PM timelines creation tools

November 6, 2014
Tiki-Toki is a powerful web tool that allows you to create visually appealing and interactive multimedia timelines. This app is web-based and does not require any software installation. TikiToki timelines can include a wide variety of materials such as images, text, and videos (from YouTube and Vimeo or AVIS). What's more, TikiToki now supports 3D timelines which means that you can both create and view timelines in 3D. To activate the 3d view for your timeline, open the timeline for editing. Then choose the 'Settings' tab in the admin panel, and click on the '3d settings' button at the top centre. This will open a new pop-up with all the options available for customising the 3d view. Here is an example of a 3D timeline.

As a teacher you can use TikiToki for a variety of purposes. You can use it to illustrate historical events or figures or to chronicle the works of a famous author. You can also use it to help students craft a personal narrative or to sketch out character development in a literary work...etc. The great thing about TikiToki's timelines is the multiplicity of options it offers to its users. For instance, students can create a timeline around a historical figure and record their own voice to accompany it. They can also illustrate their points with videos from YouTube or Vimeo. The end creation can be easily shared with others or embedded in classroom website or blog ( embedding feature is only available for premium users).

The free account of TikiToki is limited for it allows you to create only one timeline. However there is a Teacher account (it is not free) which offers more features including : creating several timelines, embedding of timelines, and group editing.

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Over 40 Web Tools to Create Quizzes and Polls in Class

2:48 PM quiz tools

November, 2014
Today as I was browsing through my Google Plus feeds I came across this excellent list created by classroom aid. The list features a plethora of useful web tools that teachers can use in the classroom to create quizzes and run polls. Several of the tools mentioned in this list have already been featured in this blog in the past but some are new to us. I invite you to have a look and share with us what you think of them.

Teacher tools for creating quizzes or polls

View more lists from ClassroomAid

Google Released A New Interesting Google Drive Extension

2:36 PM

November 5, 2014
Today, Google released a new handy Chrome extension for both Mac and Windows users. This new add-on allows you to open files in your Google Drive directly into a compatible application that you have on your computer. Before, you had to download the file and then launch the appropriate app on your computer to open it and edit it and when you re done you had to save the edits and save it back to Google Drive. Now this process becomes pretty seamless using only a couple of clicks.

To start using this new extension, you will have to make sure that you have the latest version of the Drive app for Mac or PC and that you are using the new Google Drive. Next, head over to Chrome app store and install the extension. Once installed you can right click on any file and you will be able to see a list of the compatible applications on your computer that can open it.

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12 Good Research and Citation Tools for Students

9:42 PM research tools

November 5, 2014
"12 Helpful Tools for Research and Citations" is an excellent list created by Kira DeVaul and shared on Graphite. This list comprises a number of useful web tools that can help students during their research. As a process, research is made up of different interconnected stages: The first phase is the search for information, reading sources and taking notes, doing the write up and creating a bibliography for references. Kira's list provides web tools that students can draw on when working on each stage of the research process. Some tools such as PebbleGo are even kid-friendly and can be used by young learners to search databases on the web. I invite you to have a look at this collection of research and citation tools and share with us what you think of it.

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A Beautiful Classroom Poster on Essay Writing

9:16 PM educational posters

November 5, 2014
Essay writing is a tedious task that demands a lot of thinking and rethinking. It is also a skill that can be developed through stages the first of which is reading. It is a truism that reading is a key to good writing but not the sole key for there are other factors that impact one's writing style such as practice, grammatical and syntactical knowledge, genre to mention a few. Generally speaking, essays have a common stylistic pattern that consists of introduction, body and conclusion. The development of each of these sections is regulated by a set of standardized conventions. For instance, the introduction should be crafted in such a way that it sets the scene for what will be discussed in the main body of the essay. The body should contain multiple paragraphs cohesively related to each other. And the conclusion should sum up the core of the argument running through the essay.

A good and illustrative way to explain the steps to writing a good essay is through this analogy We Are Teachers made in this beautiful visual. The Bones of A Good Essay mimics essay components to body parts and provides some useful tips and pieces of advice on how to work on each part. I believe this could be a very good material to use with students in class especially that it is provided in a PDF format that you can download and print for free.

Click HERE to download the PDF format of this visual. Enjoy