Saturday, October 29, 2011

ThingLink - Image Linking Tool

This is a fantatsic Web 2 tool that allows you to create links within your website or blog using your images. It turns you images into an interactive wall or a single image into an interactive image full of tagged information. Roll your cursor over the button and up pops the info, video or sound. I can see so many uses for this in a classroom - and it could be so much fun.

This is well worth a look from an educational point of view. Not only could teachers make some amazing resources but the students could present their own information in a pretty cool way. Check out the ThingLink site and watch the video to see how it works.


Friday, October 21, 2011

Small Group Types

The Centre for Teaching Excellence is about fostering teaching and learning of the highest quality. This is an excellent discussion on the different types of group work with students. There is a very good explanation of the different types of group work and then a series of instructions for setting up and getting the most out of it.



Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Differentiator

I love this tool! This is a great tool for teachers to be continually asking themselves how they are differentiating the tasks that they set their students. Developed by Ian Byrdseed at Byrdseed Gifted it is an exceptionally simple idea executed beautifully. It is just so easy to use. Even if you do not use this all the time it is a reminder that we should be using all of Bloom's Taxonomies and not just the few that we are comfortable with. Make sure that you visit Byrdseed Gifted where you will also find lots of resources, tools and ideas for teaching in a gifted classroom or with gifted students. Enjoy!



Sunday, October 9, 2011

ASLA Conference Resources Roundup

I was lucky enough to be invited to present a session at the ASLA Conference last week at Riverview. I was amazed at the energy and enthusiasm around both professional development and the notion of integrating technology in education. 
Because of other commitments I was unable to attend the full conference however I was an eager follower on twitter for those sessions I missed and I wanted to make sure I missed nothing of the online resources being discussed. 
Tweeter of the Conference - Gold Star goes to @stacyt for 154 tweets, and who I was lucky enough to have sit in on my session and a close second goes to @craftylibrarian for a plucky 108 tweets. Congratulations to all who attended and to those on the committee - this is a conference all educators would benefit from. So after 1171 tweets from 146 different twitters who tweeted a total of 70 separate hashtags and 286 urls here is the breakdown.

Presentations:
http://deangroom.wordpress.com/ - gaming in education

Blogs:
Judith Way Are you game?
Carmel Galvin Librarycurrants
Tania Sheko Brave new world Her other blogs are listed from this site
Marita Thomson Developing readers one of various blogs
Karen Powers Big Bookcase
Leanne Windsor Learning to learn
Judith Way The Way forward previously the power behind SLAV's Bright ideas
Audrey Nay Teacher Talk  and other blogs

Tech Blogs:
Greg Swanson - Appsineducation
Silvia Tolisano - Langwitches
Andrew Churches Edorigami
Greg Swanson - Edtechtoolbox
Greg Swanson - Artygames

Australian k-12 LibGuides:
These TLs are curating content and providing lessons for their students via LibGuides. You can see their sites here.
Leanne Windsor, Petra Pollum and Alison Rout at the Illawarra Grammar School
Cathy Oxley and colleagues at Brisbane Grammar School
Tania Sheko and colleagues at Melbourne High School
Stacey Taylor and Jenny Uther at Monte Sant' Angelo
as well as my valued colleague at Trinity Grammar School, Alison Klein at our site The Arthur Holt Library.

iPad:
Osfoora - rss reader for iPad
Aurasma - Augmented Reality for iPad - http://www.aurasma.com/

Resources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXCuGvsThEw - People stuck on an elevator
Web2 Tools:
academic.research.microsoft.com/
Articles:

Website Builders:

Interesting Websites:
http://aso.gov.au/education/  - screen australia with teachers notes

Student Built Resources:

Gaming for Learning:

Books for Gaming in Education
Reality is Broken
Grand Theft Childhood
Don’t bother me Mum, I’m learning.
Please add to these by emailing to me names of resources for all those sessions I did not see. Alternatively, direct people to a more comprehensive list of resources for the ASLA Conference in the comments section. Enjoy

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

100+ Google Tricks for Teachers

Thanks to Amber Johnson a contributor over at TeachHUB for putting this list together. Be sure to check out their site as it is a great place for news, recommendations and resources by Teachers, for Teachers. We do have a page on the main blog with 100+ google tools but they push out about 20 updates a month so a more up to date version might be needed. Anyway enjoy the fruit of Amber's hard work.