Adding students in ThingLink: The Nightmare Begins

Today was the third day of working with a 3rd grade class using ThingLink. The first two were a failure because I spent the entire time straightening out student logins. It wasn't until this third session that students could start working on their project and even then there were a few problems. The student management component of ThingLink needs to be rethought. At first blush, setting up student...

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Formative Assessment Toolbox: Socrative

Formative assessments are a vital tool for any teacher to give feedback to students and/or guide their instruction. They should not be used for grades. In the digital classroom there are many excellent choices, including Socrative. Socrative is a student response system that runs on tablets, smartphones and the web. Teachers can survey students, ask formative assessment questions, or facilitate...

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App Criteria: Choosing a good iPad app

As a Digital Learning Coach I've been working with several schools as they define what they want to do with iPads. Sadly, most of what I find on their iPads is what I consider to be junk, useless, and educationally inappropriate apps. It seems that previous tech folks, and in many cases, teachers, have simply installed the free app of the day or the latest "Top 20 Apps for Education" without really...

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Edmodo Part 16: Link Your Google Drive

This post is the next in a series of posts to help schools and teachers that I work with get started with Edmodo. If you use Google Drive you can link it to your Edmodo Library. With this method you can store and organize your files in Google Drive and then share them with your groups. This could save you a lot of time and keep all your resources in one location. Click the Library...

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Edmodo Part 15: Library

This post is the next in a series of posts to help schools and teachers that I work with get started with Edmodo. Your Edmodo Library is like having a Dropbox or Google Drive attached to your Edmodo account. You have unlimited file storage and can upload any type of file or link to any website. With items stored in your Library you can then attach them to any post or assignment...

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Educreations: adding students

I've talked about Educreations before and I love it for students to demonstrate their learning and understanding of pretty much any concept. Because students must narrate what is happening on screen, it's easy for the teacher to understand what they are thinking. One of the features I also love about Educreations is the classroom management. Teachers can create multiple classes with any number of...

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Awesome iPad App: ThingLink

ThingLink is a digital tool that provides users with the ability to turn any image into an interactive masterpiece. Create multiple hot spots on specific parts of the image that launch videos, text, audio, and links to websites. The website and iPad app versions have similar functionality. ThingLinks with full interactivity can be embedded on any web page. ThingLink is free, either on the web or...

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Edmodo Part 14: Personalize your avatar

One of the funnest things about having an online social presence is the avatar that goes with your account! Avatars tell a lot about someone's personality. It appears next to your name on every post and gives others a visual clue as to the author of that post. This post is the next in a series of posts to help schools and teachers that I work with get started with Edmodo. One of the funnest...

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Edmodo Part 13: Notifications and Filters

This post is the next in a series of posts to help schools and teachers that I work with get started with Edmodo. After posting assignments, quizzes and Snapshots to your Edmodo groups, it would be nice to have notifications letting you know about new posts or work that has been turned in. Edmodo has a helpful Notification icon that gives you a visual reminder of recent activity. A...

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Edmodo Part 12: Student Backpack

This post is the next in a series of posts to help schools and teachers that I work with get started with Edmodo. The Edmodo Backpack is a virtual storage space where students can store files and links. These resources can then be accessed from any web connected device. Students can add files and links from their Backpack to any note or assignment. Students have unlimited storage space,...

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Awesome iPad App: Explain Everything

In a previous post I mentioned an easy to use screen casting app called Educreations. Explain Everything takes that concept and adds some powerful tools and features. Explain Everything is powerful yet easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Create slides, draw in...

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Awesome iPad App: Creative Book Builder

Creative Book Builder is a powerful app that allows students to create books in epub format, which can then be exported to iBooks or other ebook readers. Students can embed images, audio files, video files, and text to make an interactive book. Books can also include quizzes, tables and QR codes.  CBB is a paid app through the iTunes app store. It costs $3.99 but is also available at a...

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Awesome iPad App: Popplet

Popplet allows users to visualize and organize ideas into graphic organizers, mind maps, timelines, diagrams and more. Add text, free writing, images, and color to your Popplet canvas. Help students think and learn visually by compiling facts and thoughts and create relationships between them. A popplet is the entire board that popples live on. A popple is an individual bubble that is part of the...

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Awesome iPad App: Educreations

Educreations is a unique interactive whiteboard and screencasting app. Students and teachers can annotate, animate, and narrate any type of content to teach a concept or demonstrate mastery. As you draw on the screen you record your voice to produce your own video lesson that can be shared with anyone. Educreations is available for free from the iTunes app store. It is also available as a web...

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Edmodo Part 11: Badges

Edmodo badges are easy ways to provide recognition to individual students for their achievements. Edmodo includes several pre-made badges such as Good Citizen, Hard Worker, and Participant among others. Teachers can create their own custom badges and use those as well. Badges are not graded. They are simply another way of recognizing students. Think of badges as a way to gamify student learning....

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Awesome iPad App: Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is a free presentation app for iPad that puts the fun back into presentations. Haiku Deck is highly visual, relying on high quality graphics for background images and limiting the amount of text displayed on a slide. That is one of the biggest reasons I like it - because of the limited text, students must really know their material when presenting their deck. Haiku Deck projects are...

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Awesome iPad App: Skitch

Skitch is an app for iPads or desktop that lets you quickly annotate pictures, maps, and webpages using arrows, text, and shapes. Using markup you can focus on what’s important. Annotated images can then be shared out to others or used in other apps. It's a free app available from iTunes or Google Play stores. It can also be downloaded as a desktop app from http://www.evernote.com/skitch Skitch...

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Awesome iPad App: Snapguide

Snapguide is a free iOS app that students and teachers can use to create and share step-by-step “how to guides” using photos, videos, and text. Once the guide is created they are posted on the Snapguide website, and can be embedded on class websites or easily shared with a link. Viewers are able to leave comments on each individual page or on the guides in general. Although Snapguide is primarily...

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Edmodo Part 10: Go Mobile!

This post is the next in a series of posts to help schools and teachers that I work with get started with Edmodo. Did you know you can access your Edmodo account from any mobile device? Edmodo's mobile app is a great way to stay on top all your Edmodo work while on the go. They have a version for iOS, Android, and Windows 8. This is great for 1:1 iPad classrooms or shared device environments. Although...

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