Webinar on Demand: Changing Role of Teachers

Tech & Learning, together with Edgenuity, offers the Webinar on Demand, The Power of Technology and the Changing Role of the Teacher. You can enjoy the webinar at your convenience. It features ways technology empowers teachers such as how digital devices can be used for routine tasks and how they can be used to allow teachers time to “mentor, coach, and build student relationships.” Also, covered in the webinar is how to use data to create personalized learning experiences for all students.

Keeping Up with Technology

Barry Saide, Inservice Guest Blogger, ASCD, likens learning about technology to training for a 5K race. Teachers and administrators worry that they don’t know what they need to know and, as advances in technology move forward, their worries escalate. According to Saide, getting attuned to technology you use in the classroom is like preparing for a marathon. Taking on the challenge of learning what you need to know can be divided into small steps. Keep in mind that you don’t need to learn everything at once, that the digital world doesn’t always work, and that you can ask for help. Saide suggests that you give in to becoming a student, learn from your mistakes, and be creative about how you take on your learning.

Edudemic: Connection Education & Technology

Looking for loads of great information that will help you and your students? Try Edudemic. It’s filled with teachers’ guides, the best in educational technology, and information for both teachers and students. Educators who are migrating to eBooks for their courses and want to publish their own text should check the article “How to Publish a Class E-Book Using iTunes”.  Some of the October 2013 articles you may want to browse include: “How to Gamify Your Classroom”, “5 Fabulous Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom”, and “7 Signs Your School Needs a Technology Makeover.” You’ll also enjoy the “best math chart ever” and learning about innovative ways students are using technologies. Nice site.

Some of the Most Unique Classroom Timers You’ve Ever Seen

Online-stopwatch.com offers fun timers for classrooms, faculty meetings, or wherever you may need them. You’ll find an egg timer, a rocket timer, a candle timer, racing timers, clocks, bombs, and more. The timers are quite easy to use, and the children will love them. The rocket, for example goes off when the time is up, flies around the screen, and ends with fireworks.

Classroom Timer Apps

If you are looking for a classroom timer that will work with the iPhone, iPad, or iPad Touch, the Classroom Timer Pro ($1.99), by Walsall Academy, is easy-to-use and good for timing classroom activities. There is a free version of this product, but the Pro version had better reviews. Glen Storey offers Silent Light—Classroom Timer and Decibel Meter ($3.99) for the iPhone and iPad. It uses the microphones on iPhones and iPads to monitor noise; you can share its screen through projectors and Apple TV.   Designed to help students with management and productivity, ClassTimer by Ventura Educational Systems ($.99) requires iOS4.2 and is compatible with iPads.

Free High Quality Flipped Video Tool

Bridget McCrea’s article in t|h|e Journal tells how teacher Natasha Rausch struggled with finding the right app for her lessons. When introduced to Knowmia Teach, she not only embraced the tool, but also made suggestions for improvement to its developers. She wanted to “incorporate a camera and video recording option so that teachers could record themselves over the slides...” FaceTime was added and other changes were made to make the product even better. Rausch says that the app helps her not only with homework videos, but also with materials to help students review content, lessons for use when she must be absent, and much more.

Projects: Photos Editing on the iPad

As students look more and more to report creation on mobile devices, a photo-editing tool has become a must. SnapSeed is a photo editing app that comes highly rated and at the right price—free. It has a simple interface and options such as crop, size, rotate, fill and stroke, text, wrap, gradient, fade, lens flare, and camera fill. Although, it is not a full-featured photo-editing tool, it’s said to be able to create wonderful images. SnapSeed was named the best mobile photo app of 2012 and the iPad App of the Year. If you are looking for photo-editing apps that have more options, take a look at Photogene ($2.99) and Adobe Photoshop Touch ($9.99). These and other photo apps were recommended by John Paul Titlow at Readwrite.com.

 

For additional recommendations for photo-editing apps, search the App Store for Fun with Filters.

Make a Difference

Teachers, administrators, and technology specialists and coordinators can enter Tech & Learning’s 2013 Leader of the Year Program. If you use technology in innovative ways to help teachers teach and students learn, make sure to share your ideas on the Tech & Learning site. Entries are due by October 31, 2013. Award winners and prizes will be announced in the December issue of the magazine.

ALA Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2013

The American Library Association, always a trusted source for recommendations, provides a list of apps that it considers “of exceptional value to inquiry-based learning . . .”  These are apps that encourage students to be innovative and creative as they engage in collaboration with others. Categories on the list include: Books, STEM, Organization & Management, Social Sciences, and Content Creation. A few of the apps on the ALA Best App List are: Shakespeare in Bits, Got to Have Music, Operation Math, SimplePhysics, Tinkerbox, Dropbox, Evernote, Socrative, News-O-Matic: Daily for Kids, GarageBand, and Educreations. There are links to all the apps on the list.

Digital Classrooms for Teachers

John Wiley & Sons publishers, together with the American Graphics Institute, offer an e-learning system that, at this time, includes more than 3000 videos, learning tutorials, and over 50 digital books. It’s a comprehensive online learning resource that offers a blended learning experience. The Classroom helps teachers, parents, and students learn about apps, operating systems, Web design, and graphic design techniques. For individuals, the cost is $20 a month or $10 a month with a year’s subscription. Group rates are available.