Melanie Fessler

Here’s a great site shared with me by a third grade teacher. She says that, “It’s a fun way to start the day off on a note of fun and positivity.  Sometimes we share jokes and sometimes fun clips from the internet.  This is an AWESOME site that you might want to check out.”

The Kid Should See This is a site video site that is created, watched & collected by Rion Nakaya with her 2 & 5 year olds. It contains an awesome collection of science, nature, music, art, technology, storytelling and other assorted good stuff the kids of all ages will enjoy.

Follow @thekidshouldsee on Twitter

Go to GettingSmart.com

From classroom pop quizzes to RSVPs for your family reunion, you can use Google Forms in tons of different ways -- which is why it's important to be able to customize each form to fit your needs. Starting today, you’ll be able to take advantage of four new features to create your perfect form: progress bars, data validation, embedded YouTube videos, and custom messages.

Guide respondents through your survey with a progress bar
Sometimes it’s helpful to give respondents a sense of how much of a survey still needs to be completed, and now you can by turning on a progress bar in your form.
To turn it on, just check the progress bar box in the Form Settings tab.
Get results the way you want them with data validation
Let’s say you’re using Forms to collect sign ups for an email newsletter. With data validation, you can now ensure that the email addresses are formatted correctly, and consequently avoid those unpleasant bounce-back messages.

To get started, create a new Text question in Forms, then click on the Data validation tab. Click the checkbox and select “Text,” then “Email address,” and voila, the survey taker will see an error message if they don’t enter an email address.
You can also set up data validation for maximum character count, numbers, zip codes, and more.

Embed YouTube videos
You can now embed a YouTube video right inside a form -- perfect if you want to get feedback or ask questions about a video.  

This works really well for quizzes in class, especially if paired with data validation and the progress bar. Embed a video and then use data validation to give hints when students enter incorrect answers, and add a progress bar so they know how far along they are in the quiz.
Add a custom message to closed forms
Sometimes when a form is closed, you still want to make information available for respondents who weren’t able to complete it in time.
After you’ve switched your form to “Not accepting responses,” you can now add your own message and instructions for follow up.

Posted by Elynn Lee, Software Engineer

The We Do Listen Foundation offers free animated stories, games, and lessons for children. The books and their corresponding lessons are designed to help young children learn about things like how to be a good listener, what to do about bullies, and good sportsmanship. All of the books feature the character Howard B. Wigglebottom.

The We Do Listen Foundation's games are a mix of matching activities, spelling games, and pattern recognition games.

Children can create their own Howard B. Wigglebottom stories on the We Do Listen Foundation's website. The foundation provides online tools and templates for writing and coloring their stories. You will also find templates that you can print out and have students color offline too.

Applications for Education
Reading or watching the Howard B. Wigglebottom stories could be a fun way for students to learn about proper school behavior. Creating their own stories could be a good way for students to express what they think are proper social interactions in school.

Earlier today on iPad Apps for School I reviewed an app that teaches children about human anatomy and physiology. If your students don't have iPads take a look at the Human Body Study Jams from Scholastic. Study Jams are slideshows and animations that provide a short overview of various topics in science and math. There are six human body Study Jams; skeletal system, nervous system, digestive system, respiratory system, muscular system, and circulatory system.

Applications for Education
The Human Body Study Jams from Scholastic could be useful resources for elementary school or middle school students to review prior to a lesson that you teach to them. The Study Jams could also be good review materials for students.

Before your next brainstorming session with students or colleagues try one of the warm-up activities suggested in this slideshow from Ethos 3. Explanations of each activity are available in this corresponding Ethos 3 blog post.

After doing the warm-up exercises your students can use one of these ten tools to organize their thoughts as they brainstorm together.

123D Circuits is a free tool from Autodesk and Circuits.io (reviewed here) for collaboratively designing electronic circuits online. On 123D Circuits you can design your circuits and test them on the simulator in your browser. You can create circuits from scratch or use and modify templates and other publicly shared projects. All projects are public unless you pay a subscription fee to make your projects private. Watch the video below to learn more about 123D Circuits.


Applications for Education
123D Circuits could be a great tool for students to use to design and test circuits before moving on to creating them with real components in your classroom.

Click here for seven other resources you can use to teach students about electricity and circuits.

Problem Attic is a service that I reviewed when it launched last year. Since then it has continually expanded to the point that you can now quickly create practice assessments and flashcards for social studies, language arts, mathematics, and science from a collection of more than 85,000 questions from past state assessments given in New York, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

To create your practice tests on Problem Attic you simply create a new document then browse through questions and pin them to your document. After you have pinned all of the questions that you want in your document you can arrange the order in which they appear in your document. Finally, before printing your document you choose and set the page formatting.

Applications for Education
Years ago one of my colleagues used old exam questions as review activities with his students. Problem Attic takes that concept and makes it easy for any teacher to build review activities based on problems from actual tests that students have taken. Students can also use Problem Attic to find a big collection of questions that they can use to help them prepare for tests in mathematics, social studies, language arts, and science.

Last Friday I shared a idea for collaboratively creating a book review site with your students. On Monday Jenny Murphy Tweeted me to share what she has done with Wikispaces to create a book review site with her students.

@rmbyrne I've created a book review site for years of students podcasts. Check it out: http://t.co/eaemtytLSN
— Jenny Murphy (@jennyrmurphy) September 24, 2013

If you would like to create a site like Jenny's, the Wikispaces back to school kit provides all of the directions you need to get started. Wikispaces hosted a bunch of webinars this summer. In those webinars they demonstrated everything that you see in the back to school kit. One of the webinar recordings is embedded below. The rest of the recordings can be found on the Wikispaces YouTube channel.

An expectation of the Common Core Learning Standards is that teachers differentiate their instruction to meet the needs of all children. This includes special education and general education students, as well as English-Language Learners. One of my favorite technology tools, the QR code, can be used to meet the needs of a variety of students in one classroom. Teachers can create QR codes for differentiated instruction activities.

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Editor's Note: In this blog sponsored by LEGO, author Mark Gura mentions LEGO's WeDo Construction product. Gura did not know that LEGO was sponsoring his blog, and LEGO made no request for product mentions. To best serve our audience, Edutopia is leaving the reference intact, as it reflects the facts of the author's experience and not any commercial arrangement between LEGO and Edutopia.

Having been involved with student robotics programs for many years, I feel that robotics just may be the most perfect instructional approach currently available. It offers classroom activities that teach high-value STEM content as well as opportunities to powerfully address ELA Common Core Standards. In fact, there are connections to robotics across the full spectrum of the curriculum. Robotics is also a highly effective way to foster essential work skills like collaboration, problem solving and project management. It does all this while keeping kids so motivated and engaged that getting them to stop working and move on to the rest of the school day can be a challenge -- a good problem to have!

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Picadilo is a free image editing service that offers a lot of useful tools. To use Picadilo you do not have to create an account on the service. To get started just upload a picture and start editing. After your image is uploaded you can re-size it, crop it, add filters, touch-it up, add text, and put digital frames around your pictures. When you're happy with your edited image you can download it and or share it on Facebook.

Applications for Education
If you're looking for an image editing tool that doesn't require your students to install any software or create online accounts, give Picadillo a try.

Snappy Words is a free visual dictionary and thesaurus. Enter any word or phrase into the Snappy Words search box and it will create a web of related words, phrases, and definitions. Hover your cursor over any word or phrase in the web to read its definition. Click and drag any node to explore other branches of the web. Double click on a node and it will generate new web branches.

Applications for Education
Snappy Words could be a good resource for students that are stuck in the rut of using the same words and phrases repeatedly in their writing. Snappy Words will give those students access to alternative words and their definitions much faster than thumbing through a thesaurus.

Amazon features book reviews from customers because we tend to look for recommendations from real people who have read the books that we're considering reading. You can recreate this same experience for students in your school.

Step 1: Have students create book reviews.
Book reviews don't have to be text-based. Your students could create short videos or podcasts in which they talk about their favorite parts of the books they have read. Along the same lines you could have students create "book trailer" videos. You can find five tools for creating book trailer videos in this post. To create a simple podcast have your students try SoundCloud or Vocaroo.

Step 2: Create a collaborative site.
There are plenty of free website builders and blogging platforms that would work for creating a review site. My choices for a site like this are Wikispaces or Google Sites. The ease with which you or your students can build pages and build navigation links is what makes Wikispaces and Google Sites my choice for a collaboratively created book review site. Wikispaces is probably a little easier to initially set-up, but if you're in a school that uses Google Apps for Education then your students will already have an account that they can use on Google Sites. The option to restrict students to editing specific pages in Google Sites is a nice option too. Click here for directions on how to do that.

If I was the teacher-librarian in the school I would probably create the site with pages aligned to genres or themes. If I would also include grade level labels.

Welcome to another post that I know you will want to share and bookmark. The more I study PBL, STEM and the Next generation Science Standards… the more connections I see!  Enjoy this reflection and  please take a moment to subscribe by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans.  I promise you will find some great information coming your way this school year…so Sign Up Now and please pass this on with a retweet!   – Mike Gorman (http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

Booking Info – Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Dates are going fast, with time up to and including December just about filled,  but i am  taking 2014 dates.

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” – John Dewey

As a long-time advocate of STEM education and more recently Project Based Learning (PBL), I can’t help but see how these two concepts really do complement one another.  Both STEM and PBL depend on a student need to know and inquiry which allows for higher level learning. Additionally, they both facilitate and promote important 21^st century competencies.  Since STEM includes the integration of the curricular areas of Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering, this intertwining allows for connections and an authenticity that is essential to both PBL and STEM.

Best practices behind the disciplines of STEM are changing. The Common Core State Standards places a strong emphasis on scientific literacy involving student writing about process. It is no longer acceptable to just find the answer to a math equation. Students must be able to apply their math skills to the real world.  The Next Generation Science Standards promote the kind of application found in engineering and technology,demanding formulation of a problem that is solved by design thinking. These standards state, “Strengthening the engineering aspects of the Next Generation Science Standards will clarify for students the relevance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (the four STEM fields) to everyday life.”

Virtual Science Experiments on your Interactive Whiteboard The Whiteboard Blog - Supporting the use of technology in the classroom

Welcome to another post that I know you will want to share and bookmark. As I travel the country  I constantly have teachers ask me for places to find some engaging PBL ideas! Below you will find the collection of links I have started to assemble. Enjoy and  please take a moment to subscribe by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans.  I promise you will find some great information coming your way this school year…so Sign Up Now and please pass this on with a retweet!   – Mike Gorman (http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

Booking Info – Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Dates are going fast, with time up to and including December just about filled,  but i am  taking 2014 dates.

The PBL Super Highway… 45 Great Idea Links!  – Mike Gorman ((http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

Are you on a journey to find  great PBL ideas? Then you have come to the right place. In fact, you just might want to spend some time here and also continue to come back. The first of my list includes sites that have created data bases of PBL Units. You will find units that you can use, improve, or incorporate as a base.

• BIE Tools – PBL Project Search – Here you will find a collection of 450 proven lesson plans to set any PBL desire into action. Look at the database found on the right hand side of the page.
• West Virginia PBL Project Data Base  – This is a wonderful site where teachers can search through the subjects of reading, language arts, math, science, social studies, dance, visual arts, theater, and music. You can select from grade two all the way through grade twelve. These are PBL projects made by teachers for teachers!
• Learning Reviews – This website claims to connect kids to learning on the web. It really connects kids to awesome, engaging, rigorous, and relevant projects. It points to numerous websites on the internet that house some great PBL possibilities. Be sure to check out all of the subjects and grade levels. There are more than 30 websites linking to these resources with free PBL examples, guidance, rubrics, and templates.  PBL Language Arts Projects by grade level, PBL Science Lesson Ideas by topic, PBL Math Project Ideas by topic, PBL Social Studies Project Ideas by grade level

Other PBL Idea Generators

While the sites below may not all always provide a total PBL unit, they will offer an idea starter for a  some great PBL. Some are based in Project Based learning while others focus more on Problem Based learning. You may find an entire project, an idea, or scaffolding for a project you have in mind. Enjoy the selection… you are bound to walk away with some great ideas!

• Talladega School Collection - Great collection of PBL resources, projects and ideas.
• PBL Gallery – Some wonderful projects from state of Michigan teachers
• Middle School Gallery – If you teach middle school look at this expanded list from the above  PBL Gallery in Michigan
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute – Wonderful collection of Industrial Mathematics projects.
• PBL Academy – Collection of PBL projects including a concentration of math ideas
• High Tech High School - Selection of PBL projects from High Tech High in San Diego, California
• Envision Schools - Collection of projects from Envision Schools
• Emergent Math - A blog dedicated to brainstorming interesting and dynamic math problems that could be part of a PBL
• The Learning Network – This amazing site from the New York Times provides ideas to start or scaffold a PBL Unit
• Virtual Schoolhouse - Online and blended PBL ideas for projects
• Edutopia - Article pointing to ideas for High School with regards to PBL
• Global Schoolhouse - Whether you’re just starting out, or ready for advanced levels — this tutorial will help you  implement collaborative, project-based learning on the Internet.
• Indiana University PBL Academy – Contains some great project ideas, especially in Math areas. It is a Moodle so log in as guest and realize you may have to navigate a bit. It is time will spent.
• Real World Math – Provides some interesting ideas that could provide for some great math PBL.
• Project Foundry – Any school investigating PBL must take a look. It is the last of my Land Of PBL only because it does carry a cost. Project Foundry is an online learning management and student portfolio system that allows innovative educators to scale authentic, integrated, individualized learning. It really works well in a connected online environment. You will find that this fee-based system includes integration with online tools such as Google Apps and Moodle.
• Mathalicious – While this is primarily a fee based site, there are some great ideas (even some free).For those willing to put up some funds the price is very reasonable!
• PBL Pathways – Some great advanced math and science ideas that could spur some PBL into action.
• Cases Online - A collection of great STEM related activities that will satisfy students at all levels.
• CIESE - The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education has wonder units that are PBL based

Challenges and Competitions

Did you know that a challenge or competition can be a great base for PBL? You can enter that competition and provide some engaging authenticity for students. Are you just getting started? You do not have to enter a competition to use the resources, although the completions are a lot of fun! In fact, many times a resource in a competition can be the perfect tool for a scaffolding activity in PBL.  While this list starts with science and math, you will find other subjects as you keep reading down the list. How can you use one of these ideas be used to facilitate PBL in the classroom?

• Siemens We Can Change The World Challenge – Great site loaded with resources, standards, and ideas. Enter the competition or just use the resources that are provided. Applicable to all levels of K-12 education.
• Kids Science Challenge – Awesome and inspiring challenges involving bio-designed scientific inventions, sports on Mars, and detective science. Be sure to check out the great podcasts listed in Pulse of the Planet.
• Young Scientists Challenge – Great resource for students in  K-8. Lessons, multi-media, and other materials that can be incorporated into PBL units.
• National Engineer Week: Future City – Great Project-Based Learning Activity incorporating STEAM along with Language Arts and Social Studies. Engage students with Sim City Software, model building, and a new curriculum designed to integrate disciplines.
• Google Science Fair - The Google Science Fair challenges students aged 13-18 to carry out a scientific investigation on a real-world problem or issue that interests them. The competition asks them to carry the investigation forward through rigorous experimentation, recording and conclusions.Students compete with peers in their age group from all over the world to win scholarships, internships and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
• National STEM Video Game Challenge - Inspired by the Educate to Innovate Campaign, President Obama’s initiative to promote a renewed focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, the National STEM Video Game Challenge is a multi-year competition whose goal is to motivate interest in STEM learning among America’s youth by tapping into students’ natural passion for playing and making video games.

• CyberPatriots - Great PBL program based on code and cyber security from the US Air Force Association
• Imagine Cup - A wonderful Microsoft Competition designed to push STEM and imagination.
• Dupont Challenge - A  STEM program promoting “What is Your Challenge?”
• Moody’s Mega Math Challenge - Program designed to go beyond the content and allow tor math connections to real world.
• Who Wants To Be a Mathematician - Great opportunity to explore mathematical knowledge.
• Science Talent Search - A great program that allows talented science students to express and demonstrate their talent.
• Science and Engineering Fair - Intel brings this amazing competition to the STEM field.
• APP Challenge - Do your students have an idea for an APP? Then look at this competition from Verizon.
• Biomimicry Challenge - What can living organisms contribute to STEM and engineering? Check it out.
• Got Game - A challenge devoted to students wanting to create that game.
• National Science Bowl - The National Department of Energy offers this unique experience.
• Be The Change - Wonderful idea for social studies and any class promoting positive change.
• Scholastic Arts and Writing Award - Great opportunity for writer s and artists.
• National Geography Bee - Helps students to get to know the land.
• Profile In Courage - What political leader has shown courage. Fits in great to social studies and language arts.
• Philosophy Contest - Your students could become the best philosophers as they learn and work together.
• CSPAN Video - Use CSPAN resources to create a documentary. Fits any curriculum.
• Global Cardboard Challenge – An awesome opportunity to engage any class in innovation with free and inexpensive resources.

Thanks for joining me on this wonderful journey of 21st century PBL resources . Join me in future weeks as together we continue to explore several more posts devoted to the Flipped Classrooms, Project Based Learning, Assessing 21st century skills, technology integration, web resources, and digital literacy.  I enjoy learning from all of you. Also remember to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email and follow me on twitter at mjgormans. I also appreciate your sharing of this post and any retweets. Keep up the amazing work,  have a great week, and enjoy the resources! – Mike Gorman

Booking Info - Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Dates are going fast, with time up to and including December just about filled,  but i am  taking 2014 dates.

In June 2013 at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in San Antonio, I had an opportunity to share a short “Ignite” presentation during the opening session. An Ignite presentation typically includes 20 slides which auto-advance every 15 seconds, so each presentation is five minutes long. (I used less than 20 slides in my ISTE13 Ignite, so my presentation was a little shorter.) Here is the 4 minute, 40 second video recording of my ISTE 2013 Ignite talk, which was titled, “Open Doors for Students.”

This is the proposal I emailed to ISTE when I applied to share this Ignite talk:

I’d like to share three ideas which can open big, important doors for students in your community. They are: Make an eBook with a Child, Lead a Scratch Camp, and Start a Storychaser Club. Creating an eBook with a child can help them learn “your word is your wand.” Students can discover their voice and the responsibility which comes with communication power. By leading a local Scratch camp, you can help kids learn to use a FREE program to create games, tell stories, make animations, and practice computational thinking as well as problem solving in ways they may have never experienced in the classroom. Students can connect with a worldwide, collaborative learning community which can both inspire and support them. Playing with Scratch gives adults opportunities to experience being “a beginner” again. Our kids face this every day. We need to be brave learners and embrace both creativity and possibility. Scratch lets us do this in transformative ways. The enthusiasm of young Scratchers is unavoidably contagious. Storychaser Clubs are after-school opportunities for students to learn the skills and ethics of being new-media journalists in their community. Digital citizenship is best learned as a verb rather than a noun and an adjective. By learning to create and share hyperlinked text, images, audio interviews and quick-edit videos, student Storychasers can not only amplify wonderful things happening in your school but also open the door for students to model twenty-first century literacy for everyone in your community.

This video is an excerpt of a longer 1.5 hour video posted by ISTE to YouTube. My presentation starts at 43:14. I created the previous “time-specific” YouTube link using YouTubetime.com. I recorded a 5.5 minute screencast today demonstrating how I created this shorter video and posted it to YouTube with the title, “Quickly save an excerpt of a longer YouTube video.”

Here are some referenced links of interest from this presentation:

1. More resources about making multimedia eBooks with kids are available on:
   http://wiki.wesfryer.com/Home/handouts/ebooks
2. Information and resources about Scratch software is on:
   http://wiki.wesfryer.com/Home/handouts/scratch
3. Information about starting a student Storychaser / journalism club at school is on:
   http://storychasers.org/clubs/

My presentation slides are also available on SlideShare, with a practice audio recording I rehearsed at the June 2013 iPad Media Camp in Oklahoma City.

Technorati Tags: challenge, edtech, school, scratch, technology, iste13, ignite, iste, ebooks, journalism, club, students, teacher

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Check out Wesley's new ebook, "Mapping Media to the Common Core: Volume I." (2013) It's $15!

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If you're trying to listen to a podcast episode and it's not working, check this status page. (Wes is migrating his podcasts to Amazon S3 for hosting.) Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also "like" Wesley's Facebook pages for "Speed of Creativity Learning" and his eBook, "Playing with Media." Don't miss Wesley's latest technology integration project, "Mapping Media to the Common Core / Curriculum."

Opening Doors for Students: An ISTE 2013 Ignite Presentation originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 11, 2013.

Earlier this week I published an updated version of my guide to using backchannels and informal assessment tools in your classroom. In that guide I included ideas and directions for using Padlet. I received a few questions about Padlet via email so I put together a short video to demonstrate how to use some of the Padlet settings. The video is embedded below.

This evening I received a question from a reader who was wondering what I use to create the annotated screen capture images that you see in the guides that I produce. I create those images by using Jing which I have installed on my Mac and Windows computers. There are other services that I have tried from time to time. Those services along with Jing are described below.


Vessenger, producers of a group messaging system, offers a free program for capturing and annotating images on your computer screen. The free program, called Snaplr, is available for Windows and Mac. With Snaplr installed you can capture all or part of your screen. Snaplr's annotation tools include text boxes, highlighting, and free-hand drawing tools. When you've finished creating your annotated screen capture you can save it as a PNG file or attach it to an email message in Outlook.

Using the print screen key on your PC or "command+shift+4" on your Mac are easy ways to create a screen capture. But if you want do more and draw or annotate on that screen capture, give Snaggy a try. Snaggy is a web-based tool for drawing on, annotating, and sharing screen captures. To draw or write on your screen capture just paste your screen capture image into Snaggy. Snaggy offers tools for highlighting a section of your screen capture, typing on it, and drawing free-hand on your image. You can also use Snaggy to crop your image. When you're ready to share your screen capture, Snaggy assigns is a custom url that you can Tweet, email, or post anywhere you like. Snaggy lets you save your edited screen captures to your computer too.


Monosnap is a free screen capture tool for Mac and Windows. Monosnap is advertising that they will soon offer it for Android and iOS too. To get started download Monosnap. Once installed you can use Monosnap to capture a portion or all of your screen. One neat option is to capture your screen after a ten second delay. After capturing your screen you can draw on your image, type on it, or highlight portions of the screen capture image. You can save your screen captures on your computer or upload them to a free Monosnap account.

Szoter is a free online tool for annotating images that are stored on your computer. You can also use Szoter to capture and annotate screenshots. You can use Szoter on the web or download the Adobe Air version of it to run on your desktop. Either way you can upload images, draw on those images, and type on those images. When you're done annotating and drawing on your images you can save them to your local computer or share them online through your favorite social networks. Szoter can also be used to capture your screen and create annotated screen captures.

Explain and Send is a free Chrome extension that I have just installed in my browser. The extension allows me to quickly select all or a portion of my screen, draw on it, type on it, and share it. The extension installs in seconds and if you have synchronization enabled (click here to learn how) it will be available to you on all of the computers that you use. After you have created your screen capture you can share it via email, Twitter, or Facebook.

Pixlr offers a large set of image creation and editing tools. One of the tools that can be quite handy is Pixlr Grabber. Pixlr Grabber is Pixlr's screen capture tool. Pixlr Grabber is available as an extension for Chrome or Firefox. Using Pixlr Grabber you can capture your screen, crop the screen image, and print what you like. You can also send the image to Pixlr Editor for further editing options.

Screenr is a very simple, easy-to-use tool for creating screencast videos. You do not need to register in order to use Screenr, but if you want to save your recordings you do need a Twitter account. Screenr uses your Twitter ID to save your recording and publish it to Twitter (you can opt not to publish to Twitter). The recordings you make using Screenr can also be published to YouTube or you can download your recordings.

Screen Castle is a simple screencast creation tool that is completely web-based. To use Screen Castle simply visit their website, click the start button and you're recording. You have the option to enable voice recording for your screencasts. Screencasts made using Screen Castle can be viewed on the Screen Castle website or embedded into your website or blog.

Screencast-O-Matic is a web-based screencast creation tool similar to Screen Castle. Screencast-O-Matic allows you to specify how much of your screen that you want to record. Screencast-O-Matic gives you up to fifteen minutes of recording time per video. If you want to include a webcam view of yourself talking you can do that too. To do that enable your webcam and then when you record a small video of you will appear in the corner of your finished video.

Quick Screen Share is a free screen sharing service from the makers of Screencast-o-matic. To use Quick Screen Cast just go to their website, select share your screen, and enter your name. Quick Screen Share will then provide you with a URL to share with the person with whom you are screen sharing. When that person opens the link you he or she will be able to see your screen. Quick Screen Share doesn't require you to install anything (assuming you have Java installed) or require you to register for the service.

Show Me What's Wrong is a free service offered by Screencast-O-Matic. The service is designed to help you help others with their computer problems. To use the service enter your name and email address to have a custom url assigned to you. You then send that url to the person who needs help. The person receiving your email opens the link and then starts recording his or her screen while talking about the trouble he or she is having. When the person you're trying to help finishes recording his or her screencast is sent directly to you.

Webpage Screenshot is a Chrome extension that you can use to capture all or part of webpage. You can draw and type on screenshots you make with Webpage Screenshot. One feature of Webpage Screenshot that is quite helpful is the option to capture the entire content of webpage even if it doesn't appear in your current view of the webapge.


The tool that I use most often of creating annotated screen capture images is Jing. Jing enables you to take a picture of part of your screen or all of your screen. Once you've captured the area you want in your picture, you can type on it, draw arrows on it, and highlight sections of text within it. To use Jing you must download and install the free software for your Mac or PC. Once it's installed, launch it and it runs in the background until you need it. You'll know that Jing is ready for you to use because you will notice an orange ball in one of the top corners of your screen. It takes up very little screen real estate and is ready to use whenever you need it. You can also use Jing to record a video of your screen. Simply select the area of your screen that you would like to show, click the record button and begin talking. Jing will capture everything you say and do for up to five minutes.

Awesome Screenshot is a great Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browser extension for capturing, annotating, and sharing screenshots. Once you've installed Awesome Screenshot you can simply activate it from your browser to capture a page or region on a page, draw boxes, draw lines, blur out information, and add text to your screenshot. When you're satisfied with your screenshot you can save it locally or share it via the url provided by Awesome Screenshot.

Bounce is a neat application that not only allows you to make annotated screen captures of websites but also allows you to instantly share those screen captures with others. To use Bounce go to their website then type in the url of any website you like and click "Bounce." Bounce will then create an image of that website on which you can draw boxes and annotate those boxes. You can create as many boxes and notes as you like. When you're done creating notes, Bounce will provide you with a unique url for your screen captures that you can share with others. If you create a Bounce account (optional) you and other Bounce users can annotate the same screen capture.

Capturing and Annotating Your iPad's Screen
To capture whatever you're currently viewing on your iPad's screen simultaneously press the on/off switch and the center "home" button. Your screen capture will be saved to your iPad's camera roll. After creating my screen capture I like to use Skitch for iPad to draw and type on the image. Using the latest version of Skitch for iPad you can register for an Evernote account and then your images will automatically be saved in Evernote. You can download Skitch for iPad here.

Capturing and Annotating Your Android Device's Screen
If you want to capture your screen on an Android device that is running Android 4.0 or higher you can do so by holding the "volume down" and "power" button at the same time. Then you can share those images to another service to mark them up.

There is one method that I've used to capture my Android tablet's screen. By using AirDroid you can mirror your Android device to your Windows or Mac computer. Then you can use a desktop screen capture tool like Jing to capture an image of your Android tablet's screen. It's far from being a perfect or quick method, but it works.

We started the project by having a wonderful conversation about life as a reader.  We talked about the earliest memories they have as a reader, what books they remember, who read to them, and more interesting moments.

I then told them all about my life as reader and showed them the timeline that I created. They loved hearing the stories behind each of these books too.....Like how in 2nd grade I had to play Mike Parks in the play we had based on the book Freckle Juice because I had red hair.
We then went over the specifics of their timeline project.  I showed them the "My Life as A Reader" Timeline Storyboard and we went over how they would fill this out during their research.
They couldn't wait to get started.
They used the internet and the library collection for their research.  It was fun to see what and how they would go about this.  We stopped a few times and listened to the stories from the students about what they were doing and how it was working for them.

I love how they teach each other through this curiosity and exploration.

Here’s a mix of various recent infographics and interactives:

This Interactive Map Compares the New York City of 1836 to Today is from Smithsonian Magazine.

The Pew Center has a ton of infographics on a wide range of topics, including Internet usage and American reading habits. And you can see all of them here.

Here’s an interactive map showing how the Yosemite Fire spread. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The Fire Near Yosemite Valley.

How the West Coast Will Look Under 25 Feet of Water is an interactive from Popular Science. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Climate Change.

Infographic: Taking Time Out to Play is from GOOD.

I’m adding this infographic to The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About World Water Day:

I’m adding this infographic to The Best Sites For Learning About Various “Seven Wonders”:

One of the things that I always do in my Google Apps workshops and webinars is teach people how to create self-grading quizzes through Google Forms and Spreadsheets. Depending upon the pace of the group we'll often look at creating image-based and multiple page quizzes too. I've recently put all of the screenshots of those processes into one PDF. You can view the PDF below. (If you are viewing this on an iPad, you might not be able to see the guide).


This PDF is not available for download at this time. My current Google Apps guides including this one are available as free downloads to people participating in my workshops and webinars. Please see my work with me page for information about my workshops. Please visit PracticalEdTech.com for information about my webinars. 

Not less than ten minutes after I completed my guide to Creating and Grading Quizzes With Google Forms Google released a major update to Google Forms.

There were actually four new features added to Google Forms this afternoon. The best new feature is if you are using a personal Google account (signing in with a gmail address, not a Google Apps for Edu address) you can now create Google Forms that include videos.

The other updates include data verification which allows you to require people to prove that they're human before submitting a form, an option to display a custom message when you stop accepting form responses, and a progress meter for people to view as they complete your form. I've included directions for these new features in the screenshots below. Again, these features don't appear to have been rolled out to Google Apps for Edu users.

Inserting Videos into questions: This could be a great way to enhance a flipped lesson. 

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Data verification AKA the "are you human?" test.

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Form closed message.

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I just watched this Ted Talk from Scott McLeod which does a great job highlighting some of the empowering ways that students are using technology.  It seems that too often our schools, the media, and community members focus on only the negative ways that technology can be used.  Although we can’t ignore those things, we really need to begin to also embrace all of the positive ways students are using technology!

 

 

Nick Sauers

Today I am excited to be presenting for the EasyBib Free Professional Development Series.

At the BLC Education Conference in Boston this summer,  I had a great time creating and presenting There's A Digital Tool For That! and thought it would be a fun theme for back-to-school time.

You can register for the webinar here.  I hope to see you....It will be filled with ideas and inspiration to kick off another amazing year.
You can learn more about the entire EasyBib Free Professional Development on their website and sign up for the series.

There have been several wonderful webinars already....You won't want to miss them.

When school started a few weeks ago, our 4th and 5th graders also started their Related Arts Student Portfolio Blogs.  We are using KidBlog for the platform which they are posting to in art, music, and the library (You can read about their student portfolio blogs here).

Another goal for this year that our two 5th grade teachers Kate Goodwin and Aubrey Stafford, along with our colleague Bart Jones who is the elementary PE teacher and myself, is for all of the students to have a digital portfolio.  This is a pilot within our elementary and a goal for all of our students K-12 next year at Van Meter.

Each student will share their learning, creating, and voice within their digital portfolio.
We decided to use Google Sites for their portfolios.  They each have an iPad with them throughout the day and access to laptops in the classroom and library.

The 5th graders started their Google Site in the library last week.  I walked them through the steps and each one created their own.  We love working together in front of the screen.....they can follow along with me very easily.  Also, working together as a group they also become the teachers, helping and teaching their classmates.
Once their Google Site was created they had fun personalizing it by changing the theme, color, fonts, and adding a picture of themselves on the home page.

I love seeing them use PhotoBooth on the MacBooks and PicMonkey online to create the perfect picture to represent themselves!
By the end of the time in the library, every one of the 5th graders had a place that was just for them.

They also had created a page for their Related Arts Portfolio Blog....we will add these next week.
I want these portfolios to be all them.....Truly letting their passions, voice, and talents shine through.

Through their portfolio work we will see our students produce and publish work that they are proud of, work that they will want to share with others.  These will follow them through their secondary years.  It will be really inspiring and important to see how they are develop into young people ready to change the world.

And a new place to share their learning, creating, and voice.

World Geography Games is a newer site that features twenty-five games. The games are simple identification games in which students are shown the name of a country, state, city, or geographic feature and then have to click on the correct locations. Students earn points for each correct answer. World Geography Games tracks how many attempts students make at correctly answering each question.

Applications for Education
The concept of the World Geography Games is not unique. The aspect of the World Geography Games that is interesting is that students have unlimited attempts at correctly answering a question. Students do not receive any clues, they simply see the number of attempts increase. At first I didn't like this, but it actually could be a good thing as it will force students to stick with the game even when it gets tough.

Today, in Grande Prairie, Alberta I wrapped-up the second day of a Google Apps workshop. Creating image-based quizzes in Google Forms was one of the things that was a hit with a good portion of the participants. Earlier this year I created a short tutorial on the process. That tutorial is embedded below.