Tuesday, December 11, 2012

TIES 2012 - 100 Great Tools For Transforming And Flipping Instruction


Learn about 100 great free and low-cost online tools, software and web sites that can get you started flipping your classroom instruction and extending your professional development training to help your students and teachers take learning beyond the classroom walls and raise achievement levels.






Monday, December 10, 2012

TIES 2012 - Making Learning Visible, Convenient, Mobile, and Possible

Looking for ways to provide professional development that fits your teachers' busy schedules and conveys that information that they need to upgrade their skills and knowledge? Come explore multiple ways to deliver just-in-time and archived PD that allows teachers to access technology-enhanced lessons on their own schedule.

TIES 2012 Conference Wiki - http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/TIES2012_Making+Learning+Visible%2C+Convenient%2C+Mobile+and+Possible



Saturday, September 15, 2012

Urban Planet Website Creation Video Tutorials

Does your school district use Urban Planet as your website creation tool?  Looking for some quick video tutorials?  Look no further.

Signing In

Editing A Webpage

Adding An Image

Viewing A Webpage

Creating A Subsection

Uploading Documents

Sorting Documents

Adding Items

Sorting Items

Uploading Video

Uploading Audio

Using The Text Editor

Creating An Image Gallery

Setting Up A Slideshow

Creating A Link

Removing A Link

Adding Web Media

Adding A Calendar

Creating A Hidden Section

Creating A Password Protected Section

Creating A Sidebar

Deleting A Section

Sorting Subsections

Administrator Actions

Creating Sections

Adding Admin Users

Removing Admin Users

Assigning Editing Rights To Sections

Resetting Passwords

Friday, June 22, 2012

ISTE 2012 San Diego Animation Presentation


Reanimating Student Learning With Student-Created Animations

Ways To Create Animations:


Use iMovie and iPhoto on a Mac (Windows-Photo folders and Windows Movie Maker)
This software is included with the operating system on Mac computers. (Windows Movie Maker is included on PC computers running Microsoft XP or Windows 7 software.)

You will need to take about ten times the amount of still photos as the number of seconds that you want your video to be. Example – 30 second video = about 300-350 photos with objects being incrementally moved
60 second video = about 550 to 600 photos

Sam Animation Software created through project at Tufts University.
Can download demo version first and try out software before purchasing.
Works great with external webcam so that you can easily take pictures of stop-motion stage.
Student examples

Account types and pricing

XtraNormal Initially get preset amount of XtraNormal Points (XP) to purchase assets – characters, settings, etc.  Can buy more points.
1,200xp -$10
5,000xp – $25
15,000xp – $50
40,000xp – $100
80,000xp – $150
Publishing a video costs 100 XP but can preview it for free.
Assets remain with your account for re-use after purchased.
Click on the Education tab to create cookie settings to take your browser to the education version page every time that you go to XtraNormals site so that you don’t see all of the videos posted.
Or you can watch the video on XtraNormal’s website if you have the video cued up and ready to play.

Free software for Mac, PC, and Linux.
Can teach animation history and techniques
Easiest to use if you have an interactive whiteboard or a tablet to make drawing easier than trying to use mouse or trackpad.

Blabberize Short tutorial video
Student example

Other Ways To Create Animations
ActivBoard
Free version of software available from Promethean Planet
You will need to create a free account first in order to download software.
Use video recorder feature to move objects around on the page to create an “animated” video.
Final product will be a video of objects moving.
Student will not be visible in video – only the screen movement.

PowerPoint or Keynote
Software available for purchase from Microsoft or Apple
Create slide and duplicate.
Incrementally move objects.
Duplicate.
Repeat process until all slides are finished.
Set timing of slides to advance automatically and adjust timing to 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, or 1 second.
Experiment to find the best-looking time settings.

PC only software available for purchase.
Similar concept to Blabberize but much more sophisticated-looking product.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

IRA Presentation - Creative Ways To Publish Student Writing

2012 International Reading Association Conference Presentation 

Giving Students A Global Voice And Connecting One Student To Another With Web 2.0 Tools: Creative and Collaborative Choices For Publishing Student Writing and Creating Authentic Online Reading Sources 

Creative and Collaborative Choices For Publishing Student Writing

Learn how classroom teachers can collaborate with online resources allowing students to share writing with partner schools, get feedback from online buddies, and create literacy materials for others while focusing on improving student writing and reading.
 

Wikis

Wikispaces classroom examples
PBWorks classroom examples
Wet Paint classroom examples

 

Book Publishing

RealeWriter

http://www.realewriter.com/

UDL Book Builder

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/

 

GarageBand Podcasts

Video Creation

xtranormal

http://www.xtranormal.com/

Ben Franklin
by: cturnbull

Google Apps

 

Blogs

 

Comic Life

http://plasq.com/products/comiclife/mac




 

Sunday, April 29, 2012

IRA Technology Institute 16

Today I'm very fortunate to be presenting as part of a team at the International Reading Association Conference in Chicago for the IRA Pre-Conference Technology Institute Fostering Literacy with Research-based Instructional Practices and Web 2.0 Technologies. 


As a result, I also get to soak in the knowledge of the other presenters, including Jerome Burg of Google Lit Trips fame!  Jerome talked about the inspiration that led to the creation of Google Lit Trips as part of a Google Teacher workshop.  He also showed how Google Lit Trips enhance reading novels through the 3D features of Google Earth

IRA Technology Institute 16 - Using Wikis In The Classroom



International Reading Association TILE SIG Technology Institute 2012

Institute 16: Fostering Literacy and Response with Research-Based Instructional Practices and Web 2.0 Technologies

Cool Tool Tips & Techniques Breakout Session on Wikis


Sandbox Wiki

What are Wikis?

Common Craft Video - Wikis In Plain English

Wiki Providers - All these have free education versions

Wikispaces
Wet Paint
PBWorks
Google Sites (Not really a wiki but similar)
Wikidot.com

Wikispaces Tutorial Videos

Useful Resources

Wiki Wiki Teaching- The art of using wiki pages to teach
Examples of Educational Wikis
Examples of Elementary Classroom Wikis

Saturday, March 3, 2012

CNN Student News


Looking for a great daily source of student-friendly, engaging news videos? Check out CNN Student News for free daily video broadcasts of current news designed to engage students.

What is CNN Student News?
CNN Student News is a free ten-minute daily news program produced for middle and high school students Monday through Friday.

How can you get the content automatically?
You can subscribe to CNN Student News through iTunes and download the daily podcast automatically each time that you open iTunes when connected to the internet by following the steps in the embedded video below.

Flipped Classroom

How can you maximize your classroom time with your students and provide resources that will help students prepare for class, review after a lesson, and revisit materials and recordings for support? Try "Flipping Your Classroom!"

What is the Flipped Classroom model?

Transforming your direct instruction/lecture into a format that students can watch/listen to it at home and then using class time for deeper discussions, working out problems, and project-based learning.
AND/OR
Recording portions of your class lecture/direct instruction and posting them to class website as a resource to be revisited by students later for support/review.

What does this look like?
Physical Science

Finding Vectors

Chemistry


What content area can you create Flipped resources for?
All content areas

What can you use to create the resources?

GarageBand - Mac
Audacity
3M Shoot N Share Cameras
Flip Cams
Digital cameras
iSight camera on Mac computers
SMARTBoard Notebook Recorder
Promethean Board Flipchart Screen Recorder
Screencast-o-mastic.com
Urban Planet

How can Flipping be accessed by students?

Viewed on your Urban Planet classroom website on computer
Accessed on your Urban Planet website on Smart Phones
On stand-alone computer in classroom

Creative Ways To Publish Student Writing

How can you take the writing that students are doing in their writers' notebooks and publish it in ways that will motivate students to keep writing and share their writing with the global community.

Webpage

Urban Planet
Google Sites


RealeWriter
Free mini book creation software
Can do page, text, and picture formatting
Program does page layout for you

Blabberize
Upload a photo, outline the mouth, and copy in text, and create an talking photo.

Creating Radio Shows
Have students write stories first and then create all the sound effects with common objects and record with GarageBand or Audacity.

Wikis

Free online webpages that allow you to set up who has viewing and editing rights

VoiceThread

Create slideshows that allow you and others to annotate photos and add audio comments
Explantion

SPPS Apps/Google Docs

Please click here and take a quick survey.

What is SPPS Apps (Google Docs)? Common Craft Explanation

What is available in SPPS Apps?
Docs
Spreadsheets
Forms
Presentation
Drawing
Mail
Sites
Calendar
Video
Contact List

Click here to create a staff account.

Click here to create a student account.

All secondary student accounts are already set up.
Google users need to be 13 to have an account, so if you teach elementary, you need to get parent permission to set up their accounts.

What is the advantage of SPPS Apps/Google Docs over a USB drive?
Collaboration
Knowing which is the latest copy
Always having access to your documents anywhere there is internet - Big Bang Theory Video
Easy distribution of assignments - paper-free
Allowing students to access work and assignments from any computer
Being able to collect work even if a student doesn't turn it in

Let's try editing a document together.