Web research on the iPad using Evernote and Skitch (how-to)
By James Kendrick |
Summary: The iPad is a great tool for doing web research, especially when used with Evernote and Skitch. Here is how I do it on a daily basis.
My work involves frequent research on the web, and I am doing more of that on the iPad than ever before. This is mainly due to two apps that make capturing information as easy as tapping on the screen. The two apps, Evernote and Skitch, work well together since both of them are now produced by the Evernote Corp.
Read the full story, CLICK HERE
Express yourself with fewer words, emails and meetings…with Skitch for iPad! Use shapes, arrows, sketches and text annotation to get your point across fast. Mark up photos, screenshots, maps, and webpages then share them with anyone you like.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skitch-for-ipad/id490505997?mt=8
Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders–and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evernote/id281796108?mt=8
What is Zomobo?
In short: It’s a Real-time Encyclopedia, where you can enter a topic title and instantly get related digital contents from multiple sources (e.g. Wikipedia, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Books, Newspapers, Magazines) all at once.
A bit more explained: Zomobo is a web application structured thematically around topics, like in an encyclopedia, enhanced with a set of features and interactive functions. It integrates contents loaded from different online sources under one single interface, providing a wide spectrum of digital contents and up-to-the-minute data. For every valid topic, Zomobo presents a list of modules with content loaded in real-time from multiple web services, categorized by media type or data source. By jumping modules, you’ll find fresh data and digital media from Newspapers, Magazines, Blogs, Books, Wikipedia, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Social Answers and additional online resources
Why use Zomobo?
Zomobo aims to simplify the access to information and content stored in different sites, reducing the time it takes to find relevant and fresh information on the internet.
- Access the freshest information and multimedia content about almost any subject, person, place or event in one single place.
- Complete research tasks quickly and easily.
- Get a multi-perspective vision and real-time context for every topic.
- Eliminate the need to visit different online resurces separately.
- Obtain new information each day – even if you are looking at the same article.
- Visualize multimedia and social-media content related to every topic.
- Embrace a didactic, intuitive, holistic approach to learning.
- Discover new, relevant content about your favorite topics and interests.
- Zomobo offers a fun and engaging learning experience.
- Topics research is moving from being “stateless” to being very much in the here and now
What is NOT Zomobo?
Zomobo is not a Search Engine: Zomobo provides content only for specific topics such as concepts, subjects, personalities, events, places, companies, products, etc., but not for broader, unspecific searches.
Examples of valid topics (that are good for you to look for on Zomobo)
New Media | Cloud Computing | Sao Paulo | Mark Zuckerberg | Rafael Nadal | iPhone 5 | Greenpeace | World War II | William Shakespeare | Barenaked Ladies
Examples of broader searches (that you should better search for on Google, Bing, etc.)
‘coldplay lyrics’ | ‘apartments in chicago’ | ‘download iphone apps’ | ‘paris hotels prices’
Suppose someone showed you a novel gadget and told you, “Here’s how it works,” while demonstrating a single function, such as pushing a button. What would you do when they handed it to you?
You’d probably push the button. But what if the gadget had other functions? Would it occur to you to search for them, if your teacher hadn’t alluded to their existence?
Maybe, maybe not. It turns out that there is a “double-edged sword” to pedagogy: Explicit instruction makes children less likely to engage in spontaneous exploration and discovery. A study by MIT researchers and colleagues compared the behavior of children given a novel toy under four different conditions, finding that children expressly taught one of its functions played with the toy for less time and discovered fewer things to do with it than children in the other three scenarios.
READ the full story, CLICK HERE
Written by Jonathan D. Becker, J.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, with Cherise A. Hodge, M.Ed. and Mary W. Sepelyak, M.Ed. Dr. Becker is an expert researcher in achievement and equity effects of educational technology and curriculum development.
Special thanks to Sylvia Martinez for sharing this on her GenerationYES Blog.
Assessing Technology Literacy: The Case for an Authentic, Project-Based Learning Approach (PDF)
This whitepaper takes a comprehensive look at the research, policies, and practices of technology literacy in K-12 settings in the United States. It builds a research-based case for the central importance of “doing” as part of technology literacy, meaning more than just being able to answer canned questions on a test. It also explores the current approaches to develop meaningful assessment of student technology literacy at a national, state, and local level.
Where “doing” is central to students gaining technological literacy, traditional assessments will not work; technological literacy must be assessed in ways that are more authentic.
Building on this definition, the whitepaper connects project-based learning and constructivism, which both hold “doing” as central to learning, as the only authentic way to assess technology literacy.
True project-based assessment is the only way to properly assess technological literacy.
Finally, it examines our TechYES Student Technology Literacy Certification program in this light.
A review of existing technology literacy models and assessment shows that the TechYES technology certification program, developed and implemented by the Generation YES Corporation using research-based practices, is designed to provide educators a way to allow students to participate in authentic, project-based learning activities that reflect essential digital literacies. The TechYES program includes an excellent, authentic, project-based method for assessing student technology literacy and helps state and local education agencies satisfy the Title II, Part D expectations for technology literacy by the eighth grade.
This whitepaper can be linked to from our Generation YES Free Resources page, or downloaded as a PDF from this link.
Sylvia
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