Cool Tool! Poppin' Presentations with Genial.ly

Haven’t yet tried this cool tool, but today I learned about Genially through my #Edmodo community. Genially is a presentation tool that can be used  to create interactive content...Here's a quick tutorial that gives a brief overview of how it works; another great alternative for students to use to make their presentations pop!

Exciting News from Audible.com... Free Audio Book Titles!

Story time? Free online books!

At stories.audible.com, you will find hundreds of titles available completely free. The collection has been handpicked by editors and is a mix of stories to reach young people, ages 0–18.

These stories offer a screen-free option that will hopefully break the monotony of home school time.

There are selections for listeners in English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese and Italian.

To access the free titles, just visit stories.audible.com/discovery from any web browser from your laptop, desktop or phone. The experience is completely free – no log-ins, credit cards, or passwords required. Just click, stream and listen!

Create a Mobile App without Code

Richard Burns' Free Technology 4 Teachers is one of my favorite Ed Techies who consistently shares great educational tools and tips. Today, I came across his tip on how to use Glide to create a mobile app without code. Glide is a cool new tool that allows anyone who can make a spreadsheet to design a mobile app. There are also pre-designed apps and templates that you can start with on  the teacher list of apps that has been made available through supportREALteachers.org.  Check out Richard's blog post and video how-to here!

#Draggo...My New Favorite Bookmarking Tool

#Draggo has recently become my favorite bookmarking tool. Since learning about it at #TCEA14, I've used it everyday...I especially like that you can 'chunk' groups of websites, which comes in really handy with my lessons in Edmodo. Here's my Draggo collection of Edtech resources so far... for more detailed instructions check out LEARN - LEAD - GROW : #Draggo: A Social Bookmarking Alternative for an excellent overview!

Reflector: Display Your iPad on Your Computer...

In total agreement with giving sympathetic nods due to absence, so I thought this one would be a good way for me to jump back into sharing mode...
Deep South Ed Tech: Reflector: Display Your iPad on Your Computer Unet...: Please pardon my absence - iPads happened. (I'm hoping for sympathetic nods here.) Speaking of iPads, let's talk about a program c...

BlendKit Course-Week 1

This was the kick-off week for participating in my first MOOC course and this week's topic was Understanding Blended Learning. As I continue my studies in instructional design for online learning, this activity has reinforced my understanding that blended learning is another way of allowing instructors and designers to look for creative ways to engage learners and use a variety of media to address specific needs of students. It also helped me to remember that according to Carmen (2002), some of the key ingredients to creating blended learning include: live events, self-paced learning, collaboration, assessment, and support materials all of which have been presented in this week's learning. While most online designs favor a systems approach, due to its consistency and ease of support, blended learning allows for a "move toward a networked model or, less emphasis on presenting information and more emphasis on building the ability to navigate the information, which equals connectivism," a theory touted by George Siemens (2002). For this week's learning activities I created a course blueprint and mixmap to lay the foundation for creating a blended learning course. Let me know your thoughts!

Carman, J.M. (October, 2002). Blended learning design: five key elements. Agilant Learning. Retrieved June 26, 2011 fromhttp://www.agilantlearning.com/pdf/Blended%20Learning%20Design.pdf

Siemens, G. (2002, September 30, 2002). Instructional Design in Elearning. Retrieved June 26, 2011 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/InstructionalDesign.htm

Math + Technology = Cool Construct!

One of my seventh grade students used Paint.net to create this digitally-drawn construct after learning how to arrange geometrical shapes using compasses in Pre-algebra class. Great example of creativity and innovation!