http://blog.ditoweb.com/2013/10/ten-time-saving-features-of-google-apps.html?m=1
Saturday, 5 October 2013
Sunday, 8 September 2013
Forensic Science Resources for teachers and students
My wife is teaching Forensic Science this year so I was helping her find some resources for the class. I decided to share the resources here.
NCIS - another great show to get students interested in science
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ncis-another-great-show-to-get-students.html
Great listing of resources and sites.
http://shs2.westport.k12.ct.us/forensics/ - high school forensics class site
http://bsapp.com/forensics_illustrated/ High School Forensic Science curriculum and resources
http://www.forensicpage.com/new09.htm Forensic Science for high school students.
http://nrhs.nred.org/www/nred_nrhs/site/hosting/Rubins/main%20page.htm - New Rochelle High School Forensic Science Page.
http://www.nclark.net/ForensicChem Forensics Science labs and activities.
http://sciencespot.net/Pages/classforscilsn.html - great resources for all sciences too. Lesson Plan links.
Forensics First (from FreeTech4Teachers) http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/08/forensic-firsts-science-of-solving-crime.html
Interactive Games, including forensics (from FreeTech4TEachers) http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/12/16-fun-interactive-games-about-nature.html
Science-Class.net - has an entire section on Forensics http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/01/science-classnet-great-science-resource.html
CSI: The Experience Web Adventures (great site!)
Friday, 16 August 2013
Class Dojo real-time behavior feedback platform Apps get updates
ClassDojo is a free online system that helps teachers promote positive behavior in their classroom by letting them track and share student progress and positive behaviors and areas of concern. It's easy to use and many teachers who use it have seen positive outcomes from using it with their students.
They had launched an iOS app this past September, and an Android app after that, to help teachers be able to use their tool while moving around the room, and even access it when not in the classroom. They have just announced an update to their iOS and Android apps to make them even better and more useful for teachers and students.
The full press release is below:
ClassDojo Mobilizes More Teachers to Build Students’ Character Anywhere with Version 2.0 of its Popular iOS and Android Apps
ClassDojo 2.0 now lets teacher manage, edit, share and sync up their students’ behavior reports from their mobile devices
SAN FRANCISCO – August 15th, 2013 - Today, ClassDojo, the free behavior development platform for teachers, students , and parents, is launching a major update - version 2.0 of its mobile apps for iOS and Android. ClassDojo, already used by over 15 million teachers and students in over 80 countries worldwide, will now offer teachers the full suite of ClassDojo’s web functionality on mobile devices, including setting up and customizing their classes, taking attendance, viewing progress reports, and inviting other teachers.
Download the iOS app here: www.classdojo.com/ios and the Android app here: www.classdojo.com/android
The original ClassDojo app was intended to be a lightweight ‘remote control’ for the website, making it easy for teachers to give students positive feedback on their behavior in real-time within their classroom. There were significant limitations, including the inability to customize classes, view reports or even set up a class. In effect, the app made teachers somewhat dependent on the web application to fully manage their classrooms. ClassDojo’s new iOS and Android apps will offer the full set of ClassDojo’s experience.
Now that roughly two in three teachers have a personal smart device, more teachers can access ClassDojo’s full set of experiences without using a laptop or desktop computer. For many teachers working at underfunded schools with limited school technology resources, this means for the first time they can use ClassDojo with their students to reinforce positive behaviors like persistence, curiosity, and teamwork - and indicates great promise for ClassDojo’s continued ubiquity.
The new version also allows teachers to give behavior feedback without needing to have a Wi-Fi connection (although they still need network coverage). This new feature meets one of teachers’ biggest needs: to be able to use ClassDojo in settings outside of the classroom - for example, in lunchrooms, the playground, on field trips, and even just in classrooms with poor Wi-Fi connections.
Today’s news reflects the company’s continued learnings about the ed-tech market. Classroom adoption of mobile devices is growing quickly, as is evident with the recent news that Apple partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide students 640,000 iPads. Accordingly, the company has built out its mobile capabilities to allow its mobile development to parallel its web efforts.
“For many teachers and in particular for students, education is now a ‘mobile first’ environment, and we’re excited that ClassDojo is leading the charge,” says Sam Chaudhary, co-founder of ClassDojo. “Our new mobile apps build upon our mission of helping teachers, parents, and students develop the behaviors and character strengths that are essential for lifetime success. Real-time reinforcement of positive behavior, especially when provided consistently across contexts, helps build the character strengths that influence students’ academic and lifetime success.”
ClassDojo’s mission is to address the ‘other half of education’ that goes beyond just building good test scores, to actually helping students develop the character strengths that are essential for lifetime success. The company is a graduate of the ‘Y-combinator for education’, ImagineK12.
About ClassDojo:
ClassDojo is a real-time behavior feedback platform used by millions of teachers, students and parents to build specific positive behaviors like persistence, curiosity and teamwork at school. It helps teachers solve the most painful problem they face teachers: improving student behavior. It enables teachers to easily conduct their lesson and improve student behavior by providing students with visual and audio feedback triggered using a smartphone, tablet, or computer; it engages parents and students to effect changes in behavior outside of the classroom as well.
About the founders:
Sam Chaudhary worked as a high school teacher and McKinsey & Co education analyst, and has a degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge. Liam Don was an MMO game developer at Runescape (Jagex), and was doing a computer science PhD in Education Technology, which he left to start ClassDojo. ClassDojo was early-stage seed funded by the incubator ImagineK12.
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Wednesday, 24 July 2013
Edmodocon is Aug 7th - free online conference on using Digital Tools in the Classroom
Edmodocon is a free online conference on using Digital Tools in the Classroom. It will be held August 7th. It is hosted by Edmodo, a free online classroom management system. Edmodo features a social media section, class files, bulletin boards, and much more.
Edmodocon is a great way to get some free professional development and learn some new things to use in the new school year.
You could even attend while sitting at the beach or pool!
Click HERE to register (for free).
Related:
Edmodo - first year using it with my students - so far, AWESOME!
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Google Reader is Shutting Down July 1st - here's a great replacement
Lots of people use Google Reader as their RSS feed reader, including a few thousand who follow this blog using the RSS feed. Google is shutting down Google Reader as of July 1st. Here's how you can backup your subscriptions and a great replacement you can use.
You can export your Google Reader Data (subscriptions) using Google Takeout. Google Takeout actually lets you export pretty much all your Google account data. You go to Google Takeout, and go to the Reader page and click "Create Archive". This will then download all of your feeds, people you follow, starred items and more. When the file is completed, click download. The subscriptions.xml file in the zip file is your subscriptions that you will need to import into other readers.
The app I am using to replace Google Reader is Feedly. It has a web version, plus an Android and iOS app. It's easy to use, can be setup to look like Google Reader, or even better with some cool views with pictures and preview text. The apps sync with the web so no matter what device you use, your feeds will be up to date. It's also free. I've been using it for about a month and love it.
Feedly even has a one-click Google Reader import to make it easy to switch.
Remember, you need to export your data, or import into Feedly before July 1st!
Related:
Google Takeout - Take your Google Account Data with you (or just back it up)
Why I Use Google's Products as an Educator
Friday, 21 June 2013
Adobe Announces Updates to Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud was launched last year as a cloud offering of many of it's most popular applications. This month Adobe has announced a major update to it. The update adds new features, including cross device collaboration, syncing, and publishing. There is also an expanded community of users.
Adobe has also launched Create Now: a Celebration of Creativity, where Adobe will hots a variety of projects and programs and projects. You can read more about it here: http://adobe.ly/createnow
For more information about Adobe Creative Cloud and the updates, visit: https://creative.adobe.com/plans.
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