Adults are obsessed with the new iPad, but have you ever thought about sharing your new toy with your kids? Just like online educationgames provide kids with fun outlets for learning, iPad apps help your kids review basic skills, improve critical thinking and decision-making skills, and even learn to read. Hand over your iPad this summer, and take a look at these 40 amazinglyeducational and fun iPad apps for kids.
To read the full story and see the list, CLICK HERE
But, will they break it?
Three-year-old Zane is a bit of a chatterbox, but he stops talking the moment he’s handed an iPad, shiny and new. He’s silent. Focused. Fifteen seconds in, he carefully taps an icon of an orange cat. On his first try, he has found a colouring game
Your pencil can reach the world.. from Kevin Honeycutt’s blog Triadigital Learning
This morning I had a fun conversation with Kevin Honeycutt via Skype, I was home in my comfy chair, looking a mess because I had just returned from exercising. I mean a mess!! So, if you watch the podcast, be prepared!.
Kevin was stranded in the airport in Minneapolis waiting for a flight. We had our normal catching up conversation about what we are doing and then we always share resources. Needless to say, that is always the rich part for me.
First we did a little podcast promoting the Celebrate Kansas Voices workshop in August. I am sure he will get it uploaded to his Driving Questions Podcast when he gets home, or maybe to his YouTube site.
What is CKV?
Celebrate Kansas Voices presented by Story Chasers, Inc. (a nonprofit) and other partner organizations. CKV is a statewide digital storytelling project empowering learners to become digital witnesses, archiving local oral history and sharing that history safely on the global stage of the Internet. Our project is starting in 2010, based on the successful Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project which started in 2006. They have trained over 500 teacher in Oklahoma and have 16+ workshops this summer. Out goal is the same, train all the teachers in Kansas.
Join our Ning site and keep updated on developments or register to attend the firs of many workshop in August. Apply online to participate in the August 4-6, 2010 “Celebrate Kansas Voices” workshop at Kansas State University in Manhattan! More info is available.
By the way, if you are from another state and what to attend, please come!! We would love to have you.
After our CKV conversation for his podcast, he stopped recording and he told me about his Art Snacks YouTube phone call. Actually, it was more about his amazement that YouTube called him about his Shark Drawing video. ArtSnacks Great White Shark: This an many other lessons on ArtSnacks.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uToNXv0Gik0
10 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Summer
It’s time for you! Time for you to take some time to relax, reflect, and unwind. Whether your summer plans call for heading off on an adventure or reading a good book, you’ll find resource-packed ideas in Edutopia’s Summer Rejuvenation Guide: 10 Tips to Help You Relax, Reflect, and Recharge for the Coming School Year.
Take the time you deserve to learn about digital storytelling or join a site for bookworms and, most importantly, enjoy your summer!
Enter now to download your free Summer Rejuvenation Guide.
Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 32,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device.
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Our books are free in the United States because their copyright has expired. They may not be free in other countries. Readers outside of the United States must check the copyright laws of their countries before downloading or redistributing our ebooks.
http://macmost.com/10ipadapps.html; Take a look at 10 iPad apps that do things you may or may not have known the iPad could do.
See http://macmost.com/10ipadapps.html for links.
Grammarly is your personal proofreader and grammar coach. Check your writing for grammar, punctuation, style and more.
150+ Grammar Checks: Check your text for use of grammar rules you never knew existed. Get accurate error explanations.
Plagiarism Detection: Find borrowed text before it gets you into trouble. Automatically generate references.
Vocabulary Enhancement: Use words that make an impact. Liven up your sentences and improve readability with context-optimized word choice suggestions.
Contextual Spell Check: Spot correctly spelled words used in the wrong context. No more embarrassing typos like then-than, to-two-too, lose-loose.
PaperRater
PaperRater.com is a free resource, used by schools and universities in over 46 countries to help students improve their writing.
PaperRater.com combines the power of natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, information retrieval (IR), computational linguistics, data mining, and advanced pattern matching (APM). We offer the most powerful writing tool available on the internet today.
Before we could offer PaperRater.com we had to overcome large challenges related to computational linguistic design and development, handling transliteration variation; ethnolinguistic identification; document classification and entity extraction; name parsing and regularization; duplicate document recognition, plagiarism detection, clustering, and prioritization; automatic entity extraction and entity resolution.
As part of the development process, we put together a team of computational linguists and subject matter experts to develop a core Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine using statistical and rules-based NLP to extract language evidence from essays and term papers and robustly translate that evidence into accurate codes. We hope to showcase some of our technology at a later date.
Vocabulary Builder
Besides our flagship product, we also offer a premiere Vocabulary Builder tool designed to help students learn proper usage of more sophisticated words. Learning a new word with just a definition was always a frustrating experience when growing up, so we solve this problem by integrating example sentences to show the correct usage of each word in a real context.
This is an excellent series. Certainly it is worth your time to read and much of it should be passed on to administrators, teachers, parents, school board members and absolutely pass it on to IT & Tech directors. Koodos to Michael!!
by Michael Zimmer from the blog: The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness
1. Technology integration is THE ANSWER to improving test scores.
2. New teachers have a better understanding of how to integrate technology integration in schools.
3. Current teachers have no desire to learn how to integrate technology in their classrooms.
4. Integrating technology is too expensive for my school to afford.
5. I don’t have time to learn how to integrate technology in the classroom.
6. There can’t possibly be any technology to integrate in the subject matter that I teach.
7. I have to know EVERYTHING about the technology before I can integrate it.
8. My students have a better understanding of the technology, and that is embarrassing.
A growing dependence on technological tools can turn even basic academic skills such as arithmetic and spelling into technology-assisted endeavors, special-education teacher Michael Hildebrandt writes in this opinion article. But an increased focus on technology training can help teachers educate and empower students to use the latest tools to enhance and improve — rather than replace — their academic skills. eSchool News
Date: Sat., June 19 2010
Time: 9:00am PST/10:00am MST/11:00am CST/12:00pm EST
Location: http://tinyurl.com/cr20live (http://tinyurl.com/cr20live)
This Saturday, June 19th, Kim Caise, Lorna Costantini and Peggy George will be hosting another Classroom 2.0 LIVE show. As an extension to the Classroom 2.0 Ning community, Classroom 2.0 “LIVE” shows are opportunities to gather with other educators in real-time events, complete with audio, chat and desktop sharing. A Google calendar of upcoming shows is available at http://live.classroom20.com/calendar.html. If you haven’t used Elluminate before, we encourage you to view this tutorial to prepare for the Elluminate session: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2009-06-25.1027.M.3A8024183F2D7473CFAF69B116B230.vcr.
The topic this Saturday will be, “Using Social Media with Students, Parents and Faculty“, with special guests , Stuart Oakley, T.J. Goertz, Manny Da Luz, Chris Spence, and Aveline Ristuccia. Members of the Toronto District School Board will share how they use social media with district students, parents and staff members. More information and session details are at http://live.classroom20.com.
If you’ve never participated in a live webinar, don’t be afraid to come and observe. “Dip your toes in” the conversations until you feel comfortable enough to “jump into the conversations with both feet”! More information and session details are at http://live.classroom20.com. If you’re new to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! show you might want to spend a few minutes viewing the screencast on the homepage to learn how we use Elluminate and navigate the site to find the archives of previous shows and resources. Each show begins at 12pm Eastern and may be accessed in Elluminate directly using the following link: http://tinyurl.com/cr20live.
Visit Classroom 2.0 at: http://www.classroom20.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
Twitter for Teachers – a professional development tool
“Twitter is one of the most powerful social media tools to help teachers with their professional development. The video below explains why.”
This is the best explanation and detail of how to make Twitter a valuable tool for teachers. If you have had a tough time figuring out why you should be using Twitter as a teacher, this just might help.
I will be using Paul’s video when I introduce Twitter in my pre-service teachers Technology for Teaching and Learning class this next semester.
Designing Place-Based Mobile Learning Experiences
Please join us for our next MacLearning.org
June 23, 2010
10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern
With the widespread, grassroots adoption of location-sensitive mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad, many educators are interested in designing learning experiences that leverage place. This presentation provides a brief background on emerging applications of place-based learning in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and provides a hands-on demonstration of ARIS, a free, open-source platform for developing place-based learning activities that is available in the App Store.
As always, you can ask questions of the presenters live.
Presenters:
Kurt Squire, Associate Professor and David Gagnon, University of Wisconsin-Madison
To view the webcast:
Go to http://salesguide.apple.com/webcast/
Webcast ID: MacLearning
Passcode: 581037
Learn more about Apple’s free iTunes U at http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u
If you don’t know who Jeff Utecht is, you really should. I feel as though I know hm, although I have never met him in person. I follow and talk with him via Twitter and other Social Networking. He is one of the hosts of ED Tech Weekly Podcast show on Sunday evenings (6:00 central time, 7:00 Eastern) . I subscribe to the show via iTunes Podcasts, but, I try to participate in the live show on Sunday’s as often as possible. It is so much fun to be in the chat room with a group of educators. The conversations are rich and sharing is amazing!! Worth your time for sure.
Jeff recently had an open course of which I sorta, kinda participated. Actually, I would have to say I was a lurker!! But I learned a ton!!
I downloaded the book and at first glance, I plan to purchase it too. Only $9.99 from Lulu. I can already see I want a printed copy and 102 pages on my printer would work, but the $9.99 is probably a cheaper way to print and he does deserve to make a bit of money on this project. Don’t you agree!!
Download your free copy of Reach via The Thinking Stick
Thank you for being part of my blog community. Whether you’ve been a reader for years or just a day. This is my way of saying thank you for all your support and help in understanding this new digital world we work and teach in.
If you have the password from The Thinking Stick you can click on the link below, enter the password and download the complete book in a DRM free PDF format.
If you would like you can also buy the book from here.
http://www.thethinkingstick.com/free-book-download
http://www.jeffutecht.com/reach/download-your-free-copy-of-reach-via-the-thinking-stick/
Kevin Jarrett (NCS-Tech; Blog) posted an entry about a TWEET by David Kapuler. It’s called Fuzzwich and it’s a free website that makes it easy to create short (20 second) animated movie clips that can be customized with uploaded faces, customized text, music, movement and more.
It is pretty darn simple, only three steps. I love things that are only three steps like Voicethread and Animoto, so this is sure to be a hit. When you are done, you have a link to your movie or you can grab the embed code and add to your website or blog or wiki.
WARNING: when looking at some of the samples, I did notice a couple with inappropriate words!
I think this could be useful, especially for PC folks trying to use Windows Movie Maker or for folks that don’t have other options. It does appear to be rather limited, but would probably do the trick in a pinch. And it FREE, I always like free and find it worth consideration.
According to Mashable/Video:
The new service enables you to edit together separate clips, as well as add or change the background music using YouTube’s commercial AudioSwap library of licensed songs. As of right now, the service and its features are pretty basic, but could prove valuable for users that either want to create longer montages or playlists, or do basic editing jobs.
And CNET News says:
YouTube adds cloud-based video editor
In a significant philosophical shift, Google has added a basic video-editing system to YouTube, giving a new creative aspect to the video-sharing site.
The YouTube editor isn’t going to put Apple’s Final Cut Pro or Adobe Systems’ Premiere Pro out of business anytime soon, but the tool is useful. With it, you can trim videos and combine multiple videos into a single composite.
Google is arguably the biggest advocate of cloud computing, one variety of which shifts tasks that once were done on personal computers to Internet servers reached with a Web browser. With Google Docs, Google’s acquisition of online photo editor Picnik, and now editing YouTube videos, it’s clear Google’s vision for cloud computing extends well beyond consuming content but to creating it as well.
For all the details about this new YouTube Video Editing Tool, CLICK HERE
Statement by Apple on iPhone 4 Pre-Orders
Yesterday Apple and its carrier partners took pre-orders for more than 600,000 of Apple’s new iPhone 4. It was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions. Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.
AT&T suspends iPhone 4 pre-orders altogether, says they were ten times 3GS’ numbers
So, no more Pre-Orders at this point!!
I guess I am glad I am not in the group that could do the upgrade and am more or less forced to wait. My own persona budget is of course the issue. Such is Life! However, I will be jealous of all you who do get the iPhone 4 right away, but, I am sure I will survive.
Google Earth already had an iPhone App, but now there is an iPad App for Google Earth. YIPEE!!
Description
Hold the world in the palm of your hand. With Google Earth for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, you can fly to far corners of the planet with just the swipe of a finger. Explore the same global satellite and aerial imagery available in the desktop version of Google Earth, including high-resolution imagery for over half of the world’s population and a third of the world’s land mass.
With Google Earth, you can:
• Navigate the world with a swipe of your finger
• Swipe with two fingers to adjust your view to see mountainous terrain
• Show the Panoramio layer and browse the millions of geo-located photos from around the world
• View geo-located Wikipedia articles
• Use the Location feature to fly to your current location
• Search for cities, places, and business around the globe with Google Local Search
What’s New in Version 3.0.0:
Native support for iPad, including full resolution imagery and an iPad-specific look and feel.
Road layer added for iPad and iPhone 3GS.
Additional Resources
Google Earth Arrives on the iPad [PICS] from Mashable Tech
Google Earth on iPad…Wow! for Read Write Web
Google Earth on iPad from the Google Earth Blog
Google Earth: iPad Version Released – Best App Yet? from PR Product News
Google Earth 5.2 Offers Embedded Browser, iPad Support from eWeek
Genneration YES Blog; Thoughts About Empowering Students with Technology by Sylvia Martinez has an short post on her blog that makes a really good point. It will get you to thinking for sure.
From Op-Ed Contributor Mind Over Mass Media, New York Times
CLICK HERE to read the full story.
“NEW forms of media have always caused moral panics: the printing press, newspapers, paperbacks and television were all once denounced as threats to their consumers’ brainpower and moral fiber.
So too with electronic technologies. PowerPoint, we’re told, is reducing discourse to bullet points. Search engines lower our intelligence, encouraging us to skim on the surface of knowledge rather than dive to its depths. Twitter is shrinking our attention spans.
But such panics often fail basic reality checks. When comic books were accused of turning juveniles into delinquents in the 1950s, crime was falling to record lows, just as the denunciations of video games in the 1990s coincided with the great American crime decline. The decades of television, transistor radios and rock videos were also decades in which I.Q. scores rose continuously.”
Sylvia Martinez is president of Generation YES. She has a varied background in both educational and consumer software and games, with expertise along the way in design and development of online environments that encourage learning and communication. Full bio. Follow Sylvia on Twitter, Diigo, del.icio.us, or Google Reader Shared Items.
Kindergarten students with special needs at one Connecticut elementary school will have access to literacy software on iPad devices in the classroom next year, thanks to a $500 mini-grant from the Southington Education Foundation. The iPad was chosen for its large screen and display projector, teacher Patrice Clynes said. The Bristol Press (Conn.) CLICK HERE to read the full story
