2 COOL 4 SCHOOL:CREATIVELY USING POWERPOINT TO #WorkWonders FOR ANIMATIONI am a long-time Microsoft PowerPoint user. I have been using it to #WorkWonders since PowerPoint 2.0 for Windows 3.1 came out in 1992! Over the past few years, in addition to using PowerPoint to create presentations, I have both used and discovered some neat ways it can be used to solve a a few animation problems! You can read about those below.Want to share how Microsoft Office helps you #WorkWonders in your classroom? What creative ways have you used Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Lync, or OneNote to help you teach, administer, or help your students learn? Read about the contest and send in your entries!CONTEST INFORMATION#WorkWonders and win a Microsoft Surface 2!Between now and 11:59 midnight US ET on June 2, 2014, follow me on Twitter, submit a public Tweet to me (@kathyschrock), that includes my Twitter handle, a photo, the hashtags #WorkWonders and #contest, the rules and regulations link (http://bit.ly/1od3jSs) and a short overview of your creative project which you used an Office program or programs to plan  make, or create. (The tweet or comment does not have to include the name of the Office program you used.) The winner will receive a Microsoft Surface 2 tablet!Sample tweets:@yourtwitterhandle @kathyschrock Used MS PowerPoint for video storyboards to create HS graduation video. #WorkWonders #contest  http://bit.ly/1od3jSs (attached image)@yourtwitterhandle @kathyschrock Developed an interactive bulletin board to celebrate the "100th Day of School" #WorkWonders #contest http://bit.ly/1od3jSs (attached image)Hint: if you need to show a series of steps or pictures for your #WorkWonders entry image, consider creating a collage in Publisher or a single slide in PowerPoint and saving it out as a JPEG or picture to attach to the Tweet. I will be judging the entries, re-tweeting some of them, and will be announcing the winner of the Microsoft Surface 2 tablet on June 9, 2014. The entries will be judged on creativity/originality (25%), quality of submission (25%), and the "fit" to the #WorkWonders theme and use of Office (50%). You can find out more about the #WorkWonders theme on this site: http://office.com/workwondersContest rules and regulations:NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.), 13 years or older. Enter Promotion by: 6/2/14. To enter and for Official Rules, including prize description, visit http://bit.ly/1od3jSs Void where prohibited._______________________________________________________________________________MY #WORKWONDERS IDEAS"Poor Man's Flash" or "Animation on a Shoestring" I attended a conference in Australia a few years ago in which a presenter showcased three animations created by students in grades 4, 7, and 9. While watching the short animations, I assumed they were created in Flash. I was very impressed that such young students had become proficient with that software.Then the presenter surprised us! He hit the escape key, and we saw this on the screen...PowerPoint slides for a 7th grade student's animationThere was an audible gasp as the audience realized the animation was created using the drawing tools in Microsoft's PowerPoint, with each slide containing a single cell of the animation. The slides were set to advance with an automatic transition after 0 seconds to give the appearance of full-motion animation.Here is a screencast of the animation as it runs in PowerPoint. I have also shared the PowerPoint presentation in Microsoft's SkyDrive, which will allow you to view and download it to study how it was created.PowerPoint animation from Kathy Schrock on Vimeo. Below is is a great 3-minute video created by a student who showcases the steps in creating an animation using the tools in Microsoft PowerPoint. He makes it look so easy! Using Microsoft PowerPoint either locally on a computer or online with Office 365 can be a great way to introduce the art of animation to your students! Motion Paths are Your FriendLast year, I was creating a stop-motion animation movie using a camera and stop-motion animation software. The purpose was to showcase how apps were available to replace many of the items in a student backpack with the addition of a mobile device. I created the first part of the movie by taking photographs as items came out of the backpack. I then wanted the mobile device to pause as it entered the backpack and apps to "fall" into it, each one replacing the physical item that had come out of the backpack.I tried any number of ways to drop items into the mobile device, but had no luck until I remembered the motion paths that were available in Microsoft PowerPoint. I first took a screenshot from the movie just as the mobile device started to enter the backpack and used this image as the background of a single PowerPoint slide.I then imported that same image into an image editing program and cropped it so just the lower third of the image was left. I placed that in the foreground on that same PowerPoint slide. My idea was to have each app image "fall" between the background and the foreground images. You can see the highlighted area of the foreground image below.Cropped foreground image sitting on top of the background image.I next took all the app images and put them in the area outside of the slide itself, what I call the work area, so I had them handy. You can see what that looked like below. If you zoom out while in PowerPoint, this handy work area become available for use.Adding all the images in the work area outside of the slide itself in PowerPointI created a motion path that started in that same work area, entered the slide from the top, paused, and then slid down between the foreground and background images. I found out a neat thing at that point. Once I had one image attached to the top of a motion path, I simply copy-and-pasted that same image and motion path combination. When right-clicking on the copied motion path, I was given the option to "change picture" and replace the image with another app picture. It made things move along very quickly! You can see what that menu looks like below.Right-click on a image and "change picture" to create a motion path with a new image.I piled all of the motion paths on top of one another and had them enter the slide area with 0 seconds of time between each one.Motion paths ready to fall into the mobile deviceHere is the finished movie which includes the animation and the motion path segments. Pretty cool, eh?It's easy to #WorkWonders with Microsoft PowerPoint!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This Asus WL-330NUL Multi-Mode Pocket Router is cool and is a great addition to your traveling toolkit. For $34.55, it can serve a number of purposes and help you out in a pinch! First, if you need a USB Ethernet dongle for a Windows, Mac, or Linux laptop/ultrabook that does not have an Ethernet port, it can be used to become "wired". Since I already carry an Apple USB Ethernet dongle, this now replaces it in my travel bag. This tiny device (2.5" L x .75" W x .5" H) is well-made and the USB portion folds into the back for protection while not in use.The device needs power, which can be gotten from a USB port on a computer, from a wall socket via a 5 V, 1A power adapter, and even by plugging it in to a portable power bank!What it can do... If you plug an Ethernet cable into the Asus WL-330NUL Multi-Mode Pocket Router and plug it into a power source, it acts as a wireless access point and you can simply pick the device's SSID and type in the provided password to connect with your computer or mobile device.If you plug the device into a computer's USB port and plug an Ethernet cable into the end, it can act as a wired network connector for your computer. If you use Windows, there is a utility included to configure the router. The Mac seamlessly allows the use of the Asus WL-330NUL Multi-Mode Pocket Router as an Ethernet dongle.To connect the Asus WL-330NUL Multi-Mode Pocket Router to an existing wireless network and use it as a wireless router, simply plug it into a power source or computer USB port and then use the utility app (Windows) or visit a special ASUS Web page, enter the admin password which is etched into the side of the Asus WL-330NUL Multi-Mode Pocket Router and enter the SSID and PW of the existing wireless network to connect the router to that wireless network (Mac, tablets, and smartphones).When using the utility or the special Asus Web page to configure the Asus WL-330NUL Multi-Mode Pocket Router, you can even set up an open or passworded guest network that others can access with their computers or mobile devices. The Asus WL-330NUL Multi-Mode Pocket Router works with Windows XP through Windows 8, Mac OS X 10.5-10.8, and Linux. It supports 802.11b/g/b networking protocols and 64/128-bit WEP, WPA TKIP/AES, WPA2 TKIP/AES encryptions.You can even assign the Asus WL-330NUL Multi-Mode Pocket Router a static IP address via the configuration utility or special Asus online config page if needed for security purposes.So, this router can be used for many purposes and has found a permanent place in my travel bag!   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This post first appeared in my "Kathy's Katch" blog for the Discovery Education Network and is re-posted here with permission.Activators and summarizers have been used in classrooms for a long time. We all have our favorites and students know what to expect when we begin to use them. Since many classrooms now have at least part time access to 1:1 mobile devices, whether on a cart, a BYOD environment, or a true 1:1 program, I thought I would showcase how some of these can easily be used with mobile devices. This article will introduce you to activators and summarizers, convince you to use them, provide some help with how to introduce them, and find out how students can use them.What are activators and summarizers?There are many definitions of activators and summarizers. I like this overview of them from the US Digital Literacy site. My two favorite activity books are oldies but goodies by Research for Better Teaching. Written in 1993, the structures are sound and can easily be adapted for use with mobile devices. (Activators book / Summarizers book) And, here is a newer one that just includes activators and is full of both process and content strategies for middle and high school students.Coral Martin has a great Powerpoint presentation that includes many useful things about activators and summarizers in the classroom. She talks about a side effect of the use of activators and summarizers which is that they can be instruments to minimize the tension of the students.  Here is what that minimized tension can lead to in the learning process.Why should you use activators and summarizers in the classroom?Martin and Frazier/Mehle provides the following thoughts as to why it is educationally-sound  to use these structures.Use deepens student understandingUse enables students to begin to construct their knowledge and the personal meaning the material has for themThese structures support retention of knowledge as students begin to develop an organized pattern of thought and move from knowledge to experience.They help the students place new information in a larger frameworkStudents feel more confident after using activators because they feel they already know something about the new materialTeachers can use them to find out about students’ confusions or misconceptionsTeachers can use them to gather formative assessment dataTeachers can adapt the lesson plan to match what the students know/don’t know How can you introduce these structures  to students?The Frazier and Mehle activators book provides some sound advice for teachers when they are planning to use activators or summarizers. These activities may require students to move around and/or meet in small groups. Is your room set-up for this? Is your furniture conducive to this? Do you want to have students moving furniture around each time you do one of these activities, or can you plan a more permanent set-up for your room that will work?Students are very social, but that does not necessarily make them expert collaborators or a good small group member. It is helpful to use a teamwork rubric about these assets or develop one with students.There are also process (rather than content) activators that can help students feel more comfortable with practicing these skills. In the business world, activators are usually called "ice breakers" and you can find many different types online to use with your students. After the activity, make sure to have students reflect on the process and suggest things that might make the activities run more smoothly.How can students use mobile devices for these activities?The object here is for you to move from traditional activators and summarizers to those that can be implemented via mobile devices. Here is sample to get you started thinking about how you might achieve that goal.In the Saphier and Haley activator book, they introduce an brainstorming activator entitled "Brainstorm and Categorize" which is used before you present new information to students. The teacher introduces the topic and has students brainstorm everything they think about the topic and then sort the list into categories. This is done either individually or in small groups and label the categories.To move this structure to the mobile device, first introduce the topic.Have each group of students create a single Padlet for their group using the freeform layout.The members of the group will brainstorm their ideas about a topic and put them on a note titled with their name and adding the broad topic.Students then go out and gather Discovery Education Streaming and Creative Commons licensed images on those topics and either save them to their Photos or Gallery app on their device (and put the URL to the image in their notepad) or simply add the URL of the image to the Padlet note. If they have saved the image to their device, they will need to add the URL to the note after the topic title. If they are just adding a link to the URL, clicking on the image will bring viewers right to the source of the image. (To edit a note for adding an image, the student simply taps twice on the already-created note.)Students will then make a Padlet note for the category headings they decide on, and move their notes under the appropriate heading.Once their Padlet is done, the group will post the link to their Padlet to a class Padlet, so items can be shared and you can assess their work and determine what they do/don’t know.This activity can also be done on a whole class Padlet, and can be projected as you and the students decide on the categories and where each note should be put. Doing the activity whole-class will take longer, since there will be a lot of whole-class discussion on why items were added and which category they should be put beneath. However, working as a whole class will help you clear up misconceptions.Below is a screenshot of  Padlet using Discovery Education Streaming and one CC-licensed image about the jungle. The direct link may be found here.There are many other tools that can be used to adapt activators and summarizers to use on mobile devices. Drawing tools and screencasting tools, audio recording tools, concept-mapping tools, collaboration tools, and writing tools can help you move these activities to the digital realm. What is most beneficial about the digital results of these structures is that students can easily share work, you can assess everyone in the class since you have a copy of their work and sometimes an audio recording of their thinking processes, and you can see what information you may need to adapt or enhance the content of the unit of study.Links to activators and summarizers you can adapt may be found on my Activators and Summarizer page on the Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything site. Please email me and share any ways you use mobile devices for icebreakers, activators, or summarizers in your classroom!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

http://www.hrbds.orgAs I recently wrote about in a Discovery Educator Network blog post, financial literacy is one of the important literacies for our students to acquire. Financial literacy, sometimes referred to as economic literacy, according to Atomic Learning, "targets the importance of making appropriate economic choices on a personal level, and understanding the connection personal, business, and governmental decisions have on individuals, society, and the economy".Students are often taught, in a social studies class or a economics class, about the impact the decisions made by businesses and government have (and have had) on society and the economic climate. Students study capitalism, the Great Depression, government bail-outs of corporations, manufacturing, and so on.However, the area that is often overlooked is the personal finance component of financial literacy. Sometimes how to develop a budget is taught in a math class when learning about spreadsheets. And I remember working in pairs in my high school health class while we developed a budget for a wedding. (Really!)There are many online materials and sets of state standards to help teachers develop lessons and units dealing with personal finance into and across the curriculum. I have included resources in the DEN blog post, but I especially like the Council for Economic Education's set of standards for financial literacy that start in grade three, and include:Earning incomeBuying goods and servicesUsing creditSavingFinancial investingProtecting and insuringTo provide a more engaging and "real-world" practice with these personal finance skills, H&R Block is sponsoring an online contest, The H&R Block Budget Challenge, that provides students with a chance to compete for prizes while learning how to manage their money through a simulation environment. (Students in grades 9-12 and at least age 14 are eligible.) The contest involves students, over a period of two months, immersing themselves "into the financial life of a recent college graduate who has been working for about six months. Each student gets a regular paycheck, a checking account, a 401(k) savings account and bills to pay throughout the simulation. By maximizing 401(k) savings, paying bills on time and responding correctly to quiz questions while avoiding fees like late fees, overdraft fees and finance charges, students increase their individual score."There are six different start dates to pick from. (The first one is October 3, and registration for your class is due at least a week before the start dates.)  At the mid-point and conclusion of each period, the highest scoring classroom will win a Classroom Grant with up to $5000. And, at the end of each two-month period, twenty-two students will be awarded a $20,000 scholarship each! The grand prize of a $100,000 scholarship will go to the student who had the highest score of any student during the contest period.What better way to give students real-world practice as they learn how to manage their money and finances? The added bonus of classroom grants and college scholarships will keep students engaged in the process. And, if they win, they will be well-versed in how to manage their winnings!So get your students involved today! The H&R Block Budget Challenge site has much more information and details!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I recently received an HP ElitePad 1000 G2 for review, and decided to put it through its paces as I created a new set of Bloom's-related applications -- Bloomin' Windows.HP ELITEPAD 1000 I had not spent a lot of time with a Windows 8.1 Professional slate tablet. I had fooled around with the Microsoft Surface RT a bit, but I was unhappy with the fact RT did not allow the installation of "regular" programs. In addition, the RT tablets could not authenticate on a school network, and I felt their use in schools would be limited.The HP ElitePad 1000 is a beautiful tablet! It can run the 64-bit Pro version of Windows 8.1 so it will work well on school networks. Its 10.1" diagonal screen will allow it to be used for the Common Core tests and there is also a bundle available that includes Office Home and Student 2013. (The screen is also more readable outside than any laptop or tablet I have used.) There are a full range of accessories available to meet specific needs. I received the HP Expansion Jacket with Battery with the ElitePad 1000. It adds 2 USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, its own SD card reader, access to the microphone/headphone jack and a battery that is rated to allow you to use the tablet's and the case's battery for a total 20 hours! It does add .86 pounds (450g) to the tablet, but, if battery life is something you care about, it is a must-have accessory. The tablet and the Expansion Jacket re-charge at the same time.There is also a Productivity Jacket available which might be more suited for schools. It includes a keyboard, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and an SD card slot. It, too, charges as the device charges. The battery life of the tablet is rated for up to 10 hours, so the HP ElitePad 1000 should get through the school day on its own battery.There are adapters available for hooking up to projectors if you do not have a WiFi projector in your classroom-- both an HDMI and a dual HDMI/VGA adapter. There is also an Ethernet adapter,, a serial adapter, a Smart AC power adapter, and an external USB port adapter. (As with most other tablets, the adapters take up the charging port on the tablet, so you cannot charge the device and use an adapter at the same time.) HP ElitePad 1000, Expansion Jacket with battery, and USB adapter The specs of the Elite Pad 1000 G2 include:Intel Atom Processor (quad-core Intel Bay Trail Atom)4 GB RAM64 or 128 GB solid state driveBright and beautiful 10.1" (1900x1200) Gorilla Glass display Dual cameras: 2.1MP HD (front) and 8 MP with flash (rear)HD audio with 2 stereo speakersSDXC card readerUSB port (with optional adapter) Microphone/headphone jack Up to 10 hours of battery lifeWiFi (a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth (4G is an option)Weight: 1.5 lbs.Dimensions: 7.01 x 10.28 x 0.36 in. (178 x 261 x 9.2 mm)BLOOMIN' WINDOWSAfter getting comfortable with using Windows on a slate tablet, I began to think about the creation of another entry for my Bloomin' Apps page. A few weeks ago, I received a note from David Lopez, a Microsoft Innovative Educator Fellow. He had created his own version of a Bloomin' Windows graphic. He prompted me to think about the need for one in the many schools that are using Microsoft Windows. I decided to start my own from scratch so I could spend some time investigating the applications in the Windows store.My goal was to use applications that come with every Windows machine (or are freely downloadable as extras), including the use of the Office Suite applications, and then adding applications from the Windows Store. I spent a lot of time combing the Windows store for apps that were available through that venue. I could not find apps to meet all the spots on the grid, so did resort to a couple of Web 2.0 online tools. I understand I could have populated the entire grid with online tools, like the ones I have on this page, since the ElitePad 1000 can use all of those tools. But that would not have helped me learn about the many applications and apps that are available from both Microsoft and other publishers that are downloadable from the Windows Store and usable on the ElitePad 1000 even when it is not online.I also decided to become more proficient with ThingLink while I was creating this Bloomin' Windows grid. I identified the apps and applications for each level of Bloom's, created the background image for my ThingLink creation, and then used "hot spots" to link out to the applications, apps, and tools. I embedded the Bloomin' Windows graphic on the Bloomin' Apps page, but you can also view and use it below.Let me know your thoughts via email. Are you already using the HP ElitePad 1000 in your school? What are some cool ways you use it to support teaching and learning? Do you have other favorite Windows apps that are popular with your students or teachers?     Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I recently acquired two new tech accessories I want to share with you!STM Aero Small Laptop BackpackI was able to take a look at this laptop backpack at the FETC15 conference in Orlando last month. After examining it, I realized this laptop backpack was one that would work for me! Here are the features I love, in order of importance to me when traveling:SIZE: The STM Aero is intended for a 13" laptop, but I only need room for the 11.6" MacBook Air. Many backpacks sized for 13" laptops are big and bulky. This one is not! The outer dimensions are only 16.14 x 10.24 x 5.51 inches. The laptop device space is 9.05 x 12.8 x 0.98 inches, which will fit up to a 13" MacBook Pro Retina. In addition, is very lightweight at 1.5 pounds when empty! It comes in Berry red, black, and gray. (I opted for black since it does not show the dirt!)IPAD: I wanted a dedicated pocket for my iPad Air 2, and this bag includes a nicely lined one of these, too.BAGGAGE LOOP: The back of the STM Aero includes a luggage handle pass-through on the back to make it easy for me to carry it on top of my roller bag when I need to. KEY STRAP: One thing I always worry about when traveling is misplacing my car keys. The STM Aero includes a strap and hook for attaching my keys!INSIDE SPACE: The STM Aero is not very deep, but I can easily fit my technology accessory bag with the adapters, power supplies, extension cord, and additional items in the space. SIDE POCKETS: I often carry a water bottle, so a side pocket is a necessity for me. This backpack has 2 side pockets, so I am using the other one for easy access to my in-ear headphones.STRAPS: The STM Aero has comfortable, padded shoulder straps and back, and also includes a "sternum strap" that connects the straps in the front in case I am carrying a heavier load. There is a grab strap at the top of the backpack which makes it easy to carry down the plane aisles.FRONT POCKETS: The STM Aero has a zippered, soft-lined pocket on the front which includes two slip pockets (one that I use for my iPhone 6+ and the other for my Wayfarers) and I store my boarding pass in the larger section for easy access to it.INSIDE POCKETS: Inside the STM Aero, there are three more slip pockets, two pen slots, and a deep zippered pocket. I marked up some STM Aero images so you can view the components I included in the review.When fully loaded, the STM Aero Small Laptop Backpack retains it shape and is very comfortable to wear. If you need more space for your items, check out the larger laptop bags and rollers on STM's site!EQUIL SMARTPEN 2 I know we already have iOS and Android devices with drawing tools and external art/drawing tablets. And there are electronic pens that can collect your notes and send them to your computer when you use special notebooks for taking notes.I had read some reviews about the Equil Smartpen 2 and thought it hit the sweet spot for both notetaking and drawing in a more traditional way.The Equil Smartpen 2 includes a reciever that you clip to any piece of paper, pad, or notebook, a regular size pen, and extra pen tip, and a cool case for carrying and charging.Equil Smartpen 2As you are drawing or writing, and you are connected via Bluetooth to your Mac or Windows computer or iOS device, what you are drawing is transferred in real-time to the computer or iOS or Android device. You can then turn handwriting into text if you want to on the computer or tablet. It is easy to begin new "virtual" pages by pushing the button on the receiver. The receiver can hold 4 GB of information.Real-time transfer of drawing to tabletThere are two apps for the Equil Smartpen 2 for the iOS and Android devices - Equil Note and Equil Sketch - one for writing and one for drawing. I think the drawing app is a paper-based sketchnoter's dream come true! (Equil Note is also available for the Mac and Windows platforms.)  You don't need to be Bluetoothed to a device when you are taking notes or drawing. You can simply use the pen and the small receiver, which will collect the information, and send it to your computer, tablet, or phone later. (This saves some battery life, since the BT connection can be shut off on the receiver while you are writing/drawing.)The notes are synced across your devices using iCloud, Dropbox, or Evernote and also share with social media.I can't seem to locate a stylus tip for the pen to use with the iPad as shown in the video. (Perhaps that was scrapped during development.) You can find out more about the Equil Smartpen 2 on their site!   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This post originally appeared in September of 2014 on my Discovery Educator Network blog, Kathy's Katch, where I pen a monthly blog post. Please take a look at the blog when you get a a chance. The new posts go up the first day of each month!_____________________________________________________________________________________ I have identified thirteen literacies important for students to master, which you can see below.  Lisa Nielsen, in her blog post "Should the new math be financial literacy?" states "we have lost focus on preparing young people for what will matter in their real lives. If the education system were to provide some financial literacy classes for kids, it could make a tremendous difference in the economic success of society". Let’s examine some ways you can easily embed their literacies across the curriculum.Economic literacy, often called financial literacy, according to Atomic Learning, "targets the importance of making appropriate economic choices on a personal level, and understanding the connection personal, business, and governmental decisions have on individuals, society, and the economy". The report of the NASBE Commission on Financial and Investor Literacy also offers a useful definition: "Financial literacy is defined as the ability to read, analyze, manage and communicate about the personal financial conditions that affect material well-being. It includes the ability to discern financial choices, discuss money and financial issues without (or despite) discomfort, plan for the future and respond competently to life events that affect everyday financial decisions, including events in the general economy".STANDARDSSome states, such as Ohio, have an economic and financial literacy requirement in their Ohio Core state standards to be taught within social studies or another class. In their state, teachers certified in social studies, business education, marketing education, and family and consumer science are all licensed to teach financial literacy. These teachers can help develop a curriculum starting in the earliest grades to make sure these literacies are woven seamlessly throughout the curriculum at all grade levels.The Council for Economic Education has developed a set of standards for financial literacy that start in grade three.The strands include:Earning incomeBuying goods and servicesUsing creditSavingFinancial investingProtecting and insuringOf course, financial literacy strands are also found in the National Business Association’s standards, the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences standards,  and state standards, such as the ones in Ohio, Oklahoma (7-12), Nebraska (K-12) and New Jersey (4-12). There are even sets of standards, such as the Jump$tart Coalition’s National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Educationthat can serve to help you embed economic and financial literacy across the curriculum.DISCOVERY STREAMING RESOURCESDiscovery Education Streaming includes videos that can introduce age-appropriate content to students titled "Financial Literacy for Students" and a professional development series titled "Financial Literacy: Teach it!" The links below will work if your district subscribes to Discovery Education Streaming.Financial literacy for students (2010)Financial literacy for students grades K-2The meaning of moneyCounting bills and coinsWriting out money: decimals and dollar signsFinancial literacy for students grades 3-5Earning powerNeeds versus wantssaving for a goalWhat do banks do?Financial literacy for students grades 6-8Creating a budgetSavings accountChecking accountHow to use a debit card and ATMFinancial literacy for students grades 9-12Security and banking onlineFiguring interestRewards and risks of credit cardsGetting a loan: car, school, or homeLong-term savings and investingFinancial literacy: Teach it! (2009)PreK-4Penny the  pigCredit cluesCareer cardsClassroom economyCharity presentationsInsurance and floodsGrades 5-8Just interestComparing graham crackersFinancial goal settingDream citiesGrades 9-12Debt consultantsONLINE RESOURCESIn addition to economic and financial literacy associations, there are investment firms, banks, and government agencies who provide both online and offline material to help you weave financial literacy across the curriculum.Council for Economic Education: EconEdLink Personal FinanceIncludes lesson plans, up-to-date information, economic data and Web links for educatorsInteractive tools and lessons for studentsYour life. your money: What is financial literacy (PBS)" …dynamic, culturally aware (and true) stories of young adults in financial trouble. As their stories unfold, viewers learn how and why they ended up in trouble and how they got out."Federal Financial Literacy and Education Commission (US):  MyMoney.govInformation, games and fun facts about money, saving and planning for the futureCurricula, lesson plans, tip sheets, guidance and helpful tools for teaching financial capabilityClearinghouse of federally-funded research reports, articles and data sets on financial capability and related topicsUnited States Mint: Financial LiteracyActivities and lesson plans about coin to promote basic economic understanding for studentsFox Business: The CentsablesA cable program support page with comic books dealing with financial literacy topicsFederal Reserve Bank (US): Lesson PlansLesson plans for K-12 dealing with financial literacy; includes a literature tie-inGames and simulations for K-12 students Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company: The MintInteractive scenarios for kids and teens dealing with saving, spending, protecting, and entrepreneurshipH&R Block: Dollars and SenseProvides and gathers ideas, news, tips, and tricks for teachers and students in the area of investing and savingsUniversity of Nebraska- Omaha Center for Education: Economic Education WebK-12 concepts and lessons plans for economic and financial literacy as well as links to data setsSpecial THEN (Teach History and Economics in Education), a 4th grade curricular tie-inMoney as you learnCommon-core aligned math lessons for teaching financial literacyNational Endowment for Financial Education: Tools for financial educatorsWorkshop kits and money management sites for college studentsCanadian Centre for Financial Literacy: Activity worksheetsA curriculum for financial literacy with a handbook and worksheets for adults or high schoolersPinterest search on "financial literacy"Financial literacy iOS apps blog post"Financial literacy" search on Google Play storeFinancial literacy iTunes U course  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Many of you have asked me to write a review of the Amazon Echo once I received it. "Alexa" arrived a week ago and I have been putting it through its paces.Amazon Echo is a networked connected speaker, music player, note-taker, and information source. You can learn about its specifics here: http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/.To use the Amazon Echo, you simply speak aloud and ask a question or give an instruction to "Alexa". The more you speak to it, the more it learns your speech patterns and preferences.First off, it is a great speaker for playing music. Since I am an amazon Prime member, I have access to the Prime Music Library.I simply tell Alexa to "Play an artist" and music from that artist begins playing. I can ask Alexa to turn the volume up or down, stop, or even give another instruction while the music is playing. I do live in an open-space home (a geodesic dome) so the sound reaches all over the house! You can also play stations from iHeartRadio and other playlists you have hosted on Amazon.My favorite feature of Alexa is being able to tell her to add an item "to my shopping list" and it shows up in the Echo app on my iPhone. It seems like a silly thing to love about technology, but just be able to easily speak aloud to the Amazon Echo to create a shopping list is a beautiful thing! It also helps that the Echo is in my kitchen. I can also add items to a reminder list that shows up in the Echo iPhone app, too.Alexa can easily set a timer alert. This is great for those times when you want to be reminded about something that is happening later in the day. And, Alexa can tell you clean, funny, jokes any time of day by simple saying, "Alexa, tell me a joke".The Amazon Echo also provides information from weather sources, news sources, and can answer common questions found in Wikipedia articles.  If you have an Amazon Fire tablet, you are presented with more in-depth information about your question in the Echo app on that device.  After using the sophisticated Apple Siri for the last few years, the information you can get from the Amazon Echo pales in comparison. For simple content-related questions and weather forecasts, the Echo does a good job. But any more complex questions result in a "I do not understand what your are asking" response. Amazon's site says more features are coming to the Echo and these updates will be automatically installed over the air when they are  available.The current features on the Amazon Echo work flawlessly. Alexa understands the artist I want to play, what I need added to the shopping list, what time to set the alarm for, and more. The ability to talk over a playing song and give a new command, ask a questions, or just turn the volume up is almost magic!You can read more about the capabilities of the Amazon Echo here.   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Many educators have to use both Windows and Mac platforms. Sometimes they have Windows laptops at school and a Macbook at home. They sometimes have iPads in the classroom and sometimes have Chromebooks. I have recently found out that it is possible to use both major platforms and keep your life in balance!I received an HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook laptop to review. I had just sold my 11" Macbook Air and did not have a personal laptop to use, so the EliteBook came at the right time!My desktop is an iMac and I use and iPad and iPhone, so I decided to see if I could still keep up-to-date and work on my items in the Apple ecosystem using the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook.THE MACHINE The HP EliteBook Folio 1020 UltrabookThe HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook is a very well-crafted, thin, light laptop with tons of up-to-date features! With the SSD drive, it turns on and shuts down quickly, opens installed programs quickly, and completes intensive tasks, like rendering, just great!The machine I received has these specs:Windows 8.1 ProIntel Core M processor: 1.2 GHz up to 2.9GHz with Intel Turbo BoostIntegrated Intel HD graphics 5300 12.5" diagonal LED-backlit touch screen (2560x1440)Backlit keyboard 8 GB RAM512GB SATA SSDIntel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 802.11a/b/g/n/ac2 USB 3.0 portsHDMI port MicroSD card slotGlass Forcepad touchpadHeadphone/mic jackWebcam 720 HDFingerprint sensorNFCBacklit keyboardDocking connector Size: 12.2" x 8.26" x .6"Weight:  2.66 lbs.VGA/Ethernet adapterOne accessory I received with the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook was a smartly-designed dual Ethernet/VGA dongle that attached to the docking port. It was nice to have both of those connections in one adapter! As a presenter, I make use of Ethernet at the presentation table (to avoid the wireless that the participants use) and most projectors in venues are still VGA, so this is the perfect combination. The full datasheet with all the options may be found here.There were some features that were new to me. I love the built-in fingerprint scanner to log-in to the machine, the touchscreen for using Windows 8.1 in the way it was meant to be used, and the glass Forcepad touchpad. It took a little getting used to a "no click" touchpad, but, once I did, it really makes things faster and easier! The EliteBook Folio 1020 also has a quiet, backlit keyboard with just the right amount of travel to let you know you have hit a key. The speaker is top-loaded over the keyboard and, for conferencing, there are HP tools built-in that can minimize the background noise if you do not have a headset.MY USAGEI used the machine exclusively for a week, and, as I stated before, I wanted to see if I could keep up with the products I currently use on the iMac, iPhone, and iPad Air by using the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook.In schools, it is becoming less and less important to think about the hardware. The emphasis is on "Can I get done what I need to get done?" With many schools still running Windows enterprise networks, Windows-based machines are still very prevalent in the educational settings. But, with both major players (Microsoft and Apple) realizing that it is important to allow users "choice", I am able to use this cool new laptop and get my work done easily! I installed Firefox, Chrome, and Safari for Windows so I had access to all my browsers, plug-ins, and extensions.I have Office 365 for the Mac and was able to install the Windows version on the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook, so I have access to the Windows suite of tools (and love the fact I have Publisher back on the Windows side!)  My favorite organization and curation tool is OneNote and I use it on all of my Mac and iOS devices. Of course, it is a Microsoft program so it was easy to sync it to my notebooks.I opened Outlook to begin the process of setting up my email, and imagine my surprise when it took me through the icloud.com set-up effortlessly! It brought over my folders and sub-folders and I was in business!I am using iCloud.com and the iWork Beta to work on my Pages, Keynote, and Numbers documents on the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook . As you can see from the images below, I can even present basic Keynote documents via the cloud. (Embedded videos don't seem to work, so I will just put them online and link to them within the slideshow itself.)I installed iTunes for Windows for my Apple music libraryI purchased Reflector for Windows for mirroring my iPad to the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook for presenting my iPad workshops.I am a Creative Cloud user, so was able to download my Adobe apps to the EliteBook Folio 1020 and use them.HP EliteBook Folio 1020 worked with my external DVD driveLogged into iCloud with the HP EliteBook Folio 1020Working on my Keynote presentation via iWork BetaFull-screen presenting with iWork Beta and VGA adapter Many of the other tools that I use are Web-based, such as the ones listed on this page. Online tools are often used in the education sector because, if the school does not have a 1-to-1 initiative, or teachers and students cannot bring devices home, with online tools they still have access to the tools they need.  CONCLUSIONI am convinced educators can stop talking about being a Windows or Mac "shop" now. With new feature-rich laptops like the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Ultrabook or the new 12" MacBook, and with the software and tools accessible from either platform, I think school districts now can make a choice based on their needs, rather than the hardware dictating what can and cannot be done!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This post originally appeared on my Discovery Education Network blog, Kathy's Schrock Katch of the Month, on July 1, 2013 and is re-printed with permission from Discovery Education.IMHO or Why give constructive criticism?I recently had a brutally honest day. I was asked to review a new book coming out and write a blurb for the back cover. The title was something I was interested in, so I agreed. As I read along in a chapter about change, I came across the line. "Everyone knows that teachers, especially, are resistant to change." Hold on! This book was written for educators- why dis' them in the text? And who is "everyone" and why are teachers more resistant to change than anyone in a different profession? I re-wrote the sentence to be less insulting.As I read on in the technology sections, the exemplar lessons were pretty much the lowest level of technology use. The assessments were used to inform instruction but did not gauge student acquisition of content knowledge at all.So, as I found things that I felt could be made better and more meaningful to the proposed audience, I jotted them down and included additional ideas, quotes, and links to resources. I sent them along to the editor with a note stating I did not feel comfortable offering a blurb for the book because I did not believe in many of the tenets that were put forth. It was probably too late to do anything about the content, because the book looked like it was in its final form, but I felt compelled to do it.The same day, I was sent a lesson planning white paper that was released by a company. It was already on the Web. However, there were no author credentials on the pages and, since it was pedagogical in nature, I wanted to know that someone who was (or had been) a K-12 educator had written the piece. It was also a bit "preachy", so I reworked one of the paragraphs to something a bit different, without changing the content. I sent my thoughts along to them.I guess the point is, in education, where others sometimes tell us things we don’t agree with or we feel would never work in a regular classroom setting,  it is up to us to give constructive feedback when you see something that you don’t like or don’t agree with.The important thing is to provide something other than simply writing "that sentence seems to put down the whole teaching profession". Re-write the content so it will not be demeaning to teachers and will  make the teachers take more notice and continue reading the book or article. Provide links to resources that are, in your opinion, more appropriate   than the samples that are provided in the article, book chapter, Tweet, or GOOGLE+ post.This goes for educational trends, too. Although it sometimes seems, IMHO,  educators jump on lots of bandwagons for new pedagogical models, I don’t always initially agree with the idea or the implementations of the new idea. I read about it, look at successful practices, and then comment, constructively (I hope!) about it. For instance, I passionately disagreed with this blog post about turning Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy on its head.  In this case, I publicly disagreed in the comment area, but oftentimes I may just write to the blogger directly and offer some alternatives for her/him to think about.Following are some links about constructive feedback and criticism. Most are not directly related to education or even the online realm, but you should garner some good ideas. As with anything you are passionate about, you need to wait a few minutes before posting a bit of constructive feedback to someone else. Passion in print comes across differently than passion in person, so you have to plan your responses carefully. Write a draft, look it over, take a walk, and then push the send button.http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesyu/3764549/5 steps to providing good constructive criticismPeers working in the openYou’ve been doing a fantastic job. Just one thing….How to give feedbackGiving effective criticismConstructive criticism is a sign of your potentialWe need to encourage constructive discourse in our profession. I also feel we should to step back and think about all aspects of a plan or trend before becoming enamored with the idea just because everyone else is. Maybe parts of the new concept are useful to help students acquire both the 21st century skills and the content knowledge they need. But, perhaps other parts of the new idea won’t work in your situation and you have already discovered alternative methods that work well. You need to share those alternative ideas with the rest of us!Don’t be afraid to constructively criticize and don’t be afraid to be criticized, which you might be. If you are passionate about something or think something is not quite right about an aspect of education, write the company, the blogger, the Tweeter, the President, and let them know. Sometimes people just don’t know what they don’t know!Do you have any specific thoughts on ways to give online constructive criticism/feedback? There are not a lot of good ideas out there…please share via Twitter (@kathyschrock), Google+, or email me at kathy@kathyschrock.net!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Three companies have sent me items to review and reviews of them follow.  It is always fun to try out new technology gear!MagBack for iPadI am always on the lookout for ways to mount my devices in the car and around the house. MagBack for iPad is one neat solution! MagBack for iPad bills itself as the "world's thinnest iPad mount". The MagBack kit consists of two magnetic MagSticks, that can be mounted anywhere, and two MagBack Pads that mount to the back of the iPad. The MagBack is available for all models of the iPad Mini, iPad 2/3/4 non-Retina, and iPad Air 1 and 2, and comes in a variety of colors. The cost of the MagBack is $39 and you can also buy 3 sets of extra MagSticks for $19 to use to mount the iPad to additional places around the house or in your car.The MagSticks can be mounted on a wall, your car dashboard, your cookbook stand, or the wall behind your desk. They are a shiny silver and are 4.5" x .5", so are unobtrusive even when mounted to your car dashboard. The MagStick can be mounted on wood, a painted wall, fabric, leather, glass, or aluminum (and I am assuming the "pleather" on my car dashboard!)There is a template included in the package to ensure you get the MagBack Pads aligned correctly on the back of the iPad. These MagBack Pads also provide a nice gripping surface when you are carrying your iPad. The Apple iPad Smart Cover does not interfere with the MagBack Pads (and vice versa), since the MagBack Pads mount on the short sides of the iPad. MagBack Pads and MagSticksMagBack Pads mounted on the iPadsHere is a another review of the MagBack for iPad that includes additional screenshots and a video demonstrating the process for installation.MagBack is also accepting pre-orders for its MagBack for iPhone. In this model, the "Pads" are built right into the phone case and there is only one MagStick needed.Headset by ThinkWriteThinkWrite was formed in 2013, and designs low-cost mobile device accessories to support the education market.They sent me their headset (headphone and microphone combo) to review. This low-cost headset sells for $19.99 and volume discounts are available.ThinkWrite specifically made a headset to meet the needs of schools. It is very durable and is made from special plastic that allows the headset to be bent (as kids are likely to try) without breaking! The headset is constructed with a "pleather" material that is easy to clean and provides padding and adjustments to fit any child's head. Take a look at how indestructible they are!The inclusion of a mounted microphone that sits close to the student's mouth makes these very useful for students recording narratives and podcasts since the classroom noise level is kept to a minimum. And there is an in-line volume control to easily allow students to moderate the sound on something they are listening to.Teachers are always on the look-out for low-cost technology solutions for their classrooms, and I think these ThinkWrite Headsets are a winner!Reflector 2 by AirSquirrelsI have been a proponent of the Reflector app since the day it was introduced (when it was called Reflection). The Reflector app turns your Windows or Mac computer into an AirPlay device, allowing one or more devices to mirror their screens to your computer via WiFi or Bluetooth. If your computer is hooked up to a video projector, of course, the teacher and students can share their findings, work, or questions with the rest of the class. And it makes it easy for a teacher to roam about the classroom and clear up misconceptions by mirroring their device screen to the "big" screen.One of my favorite features of the Reflector 1 app is the ability to record the activity on the screen of the mirrored iOS device while it is mirrored to the computer. As one who creates lots of instructional videos, I use this feature daily. Even the sound comes over to the computer so it is included in the movie I produce. In a classroom, the ability to easily record an iOS device screen is invaluable when a teacher needs to record an on-going lesson for an absent student, for parents, or by wanting the ability to record a student's work for their digital portfolio.However, Reflector 2 ($14.99 per single license with volume licenses available) has bumped up the capabilities of the software! Devices running various operating systems can now mirror to the same computer! And whether the device is an iOS device, an Android device, or a Chromebook, the mirrored screen can be recorded! This is a wonderful addition for BYOD/T environments where students may have a mix of iOS devices, Android devices, and Chromebooks in the same classroom.Reflector 2 also allows the teacher to emphasize a certain device on the computer screen when multiple devices are mirrored, as well as hiding connected devices. In addition, the teacher can show a device full-screen to eliminate all other distractions for the viewerReflector Director is an iPad app ($6.99) that allows the teacher to handle the emphasizing, hiding, and previewing of mirrored device screens on the computer from the iPad, rather than having to sit at the computer to do so.There are a few additional programs that AirSquirrels makes that also may be helpful in a classroom. The Reflector for Android app allows iOS devices to mirror to the screen of an Android device (it does not enable Android mirroring.)Reflector for Amazon Fire TV and TV Stick ($6.99) allows one to mirror a Mac computer, Windows computer or Chromebook (in conjunction with AirParrot 2) to a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick as well as mirror any iOS device to your TV that has an Amazon Fire TV Stick.With all of these features, Reflector 2 meets the needs of teachers and students no matter what device they are using or need to share!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This is a re-posting of a blog post of July 12, 2013, which originally appeared on the now-defunct Sony Education Ambassadors site.If you were an education major in college, you are probably very familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy. In the image below, on the left, is the original Bloom’s Taxonomy, developed in the late 1950’s by Benjamin Bloom. On the right, is the Revised Blooms Taxonomy, published in 2000 by Anderson, a student of Bloom’s, and Krathwhol. The names of the levels were turned into action verbs since Anderson and Krathwhol felt that action verbs implied engagement and re-arranged them a bit.I want to point out is there is still a ton of instructional materials on the Web mapped to the original taxonomy and I encourage you to search for those "older" terms, also, for some good ideas.The image below includes both the original and revised taxonomies as well as the mapping of the levels to make it more clear when identifying resources to support them.However, when I think about Bloom's Taxonomy, I do not think of it as a triangle. The triangle image seems to indicate learners start at the bottom and move upwards. I feel that we use each level of the cognitive processes over and over as we begin to acquire new knowledge on a topic. My view of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy looks like the version below, The Cogs of the Cognitive Processes, with all of the levels inter-related and dependent on one another.REMEMBERING LEVELThe first cognitive level of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy is the remembering level. The remembering level involves finding information, storing it somehow and then recalling it. Activities involving this skill level include...Diane Darrow, in an Edutopia article, outlines the questions you need to ask when looking for and identifying apps to use to support this level of Bloom's.ANDROID APPS AND SITES FOR THE REMEMBERING LEVELInformation searching: Diigohttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.diigo.androidDiigo is an online bookmarking tool that allows students to gather information, tag it, and annotate it. With the Diigo Power Note app, they can add text notes, bookmarks, cached pages, pictures, text messages to their Diigo library as well as access information already in the library.Retrieve information: Evernotehttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evernoteEvernote is a must-have app that allows students to gather assets dealing with a topic.  It runs on all devices and operating systems and allows the user to take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders and search of all these. It is an organizational tool each student should have!Recall facts and ideas: Pockethttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideashower.readitlater.proOne tool that I have started using is Pocket, which downloads the items you add to it. This is a great way for students to have a hard copy of what they have found.  They can view the collection visually or in a list. They can also easily get back to the original site.Mapping: Simple Mind Freehttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.modelmakertools.simplemindfreeRemembering terms, ideas and facts can be accomplished with a concept map. Simple Mind Free lets students easily create a mind map, concept map, or flow chart. Students can use Simple Mind Free for all types of things, such as brainstorming new ideas, illustrating concepts, making lists and outlines, planning presentations, creating organizational charts, and more! There is even a desktop version available for Mac and Windows.Labeling a diagram: Skitchhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evernote.skitchOne way for students to remember is to label a diagram or image or illustrate a concept.Skitch lets students--- Annotate: Add arrows, shapes and text to existing images- Create: Draw something new- Edit: Reposition, recolor and remove annotations at will- Share: Send sketches and annotations to Twitter, email or EvernoteTimelining: TimelineJShttp://timeline.verite.co/Timelining is another activity based at the remembering level. TimelineJS is not an app but a Web site. It works best through the Dolphin Browser..  A student visits the TimelineJS site, downloads a Google Spreadsheet template to his/her Google Drive, edits the sample content with timeline information, and publishes it. The student then goes back to the site, enters the published URL of the Spreadsheet, and receives the embed code that can be put into a Google Site, a Weebly page, or blog. This timeline can include video, too!These are just some apps to get you started! The Google Play Store offers a ton of other apps that can be used at this level (or sometimes at all the Bloom's levels!) You can find more suggestions on my Bloomin' Apps page-- look for the chart for Android apps!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

One of the things I have missed since moving to the Mac a few years ago is Microsoft Publisher. I loved that program and even co-wrote a book about it! It was a simple-to-use full-featured desktop publisher. I know that Apple's Pages for Mac does allow some of the desktop-publishing features such as text boxes and images that can easily be moved around on a page you are creating, but it does not seem like a good substitute for me. I love Canva online for making graphics, but I needed a program that ran on my local computer.I have been looking for a desktop publisher for the Mac that includes lots of templates but also allows me to start from scratch. Pearl Mountain's Publisher Plus for Mac (or via the app store) seems to meet my requirements for a desktop publishing suite! They include over 170 easily-editable templates for brochures, flyers, newsletters. catalogs, posters, magazine covers, menus, invitations, cards, letter, envelopes, resumes, business cards, certificates, and disc case covers. The interface is clean and easy to navigate as you can see below.Once you pick a type of publication in Publisher Plus to work on, the templates are totally customizable. When you chose an image or component, you are presented with the common Mac menu of options in the right-hand pane. You can also change the paper size, margins, the color of the background, and even hand-draw vector-based images with the mouse on the publication if you want to.There are basic image libraries included in Publisher Plus, but Creative Commons icons and images are so plentiful on the Web nowadays, you can easily find your own to import. And, of course, you can use your own images and photographs.The publication file can be shared and saved in all the common formats we need to use. You can save as a JPEG, PDF, PNG, TIFF, BMP, and PSD file. You can email, message, AirDrop, and send to Facebook and Flickr for publication. Unfinished publications can also be saved out a a Publisher Plus file format (.ppl) that allow editing by others with Publisher Plus for Mac. Here is a link to the FAQ's for Publisher Plus for Mac if you have other specific needs.You can download a fully-functioning trial version of Publisher Plus for Mac here. The full version is $39.90 from their site ($19.99 from the Mac app store) and includes additional no-cost templates in each of the categories and no watermarks on the exported projects. I am hoping, as more educators try out this program, there will be an educational template category for common classroom and school publications or educational templates to edit in each of the template categories. Or maybe, we could create our own shared file area online of .PPL files so anyone using Publisher Plus for Mac could download and edit them.I think my search for a simple-to-use and full-featured desktop publishing program is over now that I have found Publisher Plus for Mac!   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This is a re-posting of a blog post of August 5, 2013, which originally appeared on the now-defunct Sony Education Ambassadors site.On July 7, 2015, I provided an overview of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy and include a set of Android apps and Web sites that could be used to support teaching and learning at the remembering level. If you did not read that first installment, please take a moment to do so...the introduction to the series can be found there.UNDERSTANDING LEVELThe next cognitive level of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy is the understanding level. The understanding level involves explaining and constructing meaning using various methods. Activities involving this skill level include....Diane Darrow, in an Edutopia article, outlines the questions you need to ask when looking for and identifying apps to use to support this level of Bloom's. ANDROID APPS AND WEB SITES FOR THE UNDERSTANDING LEVELDescribing: Lensoo Createhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lensoo.createLensoo Create is a screencasting program for the Android platform. A screencasting program allows a student to describe a process by including a real-time voice-over while drawing on the "screen" or when marking up an image. For no-cost, Lensoo Create allows up to 15 minutes of recording time, import of custom background images, and PDF file imports.For a $4.99 in-app purchase, you can get up to 30 minutes of recording time, the custom background and PDF import, additional shapes to use, and real time video capture right in the app. If you subscribe to Lensoo Create for $1.99 per month you get all of these features plus unlimited watermarked HD downloads.Lensoo CreateClassifying: Big Fat Canvashttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.justinholmgren.sketchpad&hl=enBig Fat Canvas is a useful drawing tool, and, with the ability to change colors and widths of the drawing tools, student could use the app for classification of items, a skill at the understanding level. The completed drawings can be sent via email, or to Dropbox, Picasa, and Evernote. For older students, the Picasso app might be a good choice, too.Big Fat CanvasPicassoSummarizing: Dual Screen Browserhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.mmasashi.android.dualscreenbrowserThe Dual Screen Browser allows the student to view two Web pages side-by-side on the screen. If one of the windows is an open Google Doc while the other window is the content that needs to be read, students can take notes and summarize while reading the other page.Dual Screen BrowserExplaining:  Video Edit +https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.w6soft.videoeditVideo Edit+ allows the student to use images or video from their gallery or shoot video right on the tablet. Students can import audio or record it then record it directly to explain a process, a book, a science lab, a physical education activity, etc.Video Edit+Interpreting: Slide Show Creatorhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amem&hl=enWhen students need to interpret something, such as this lesson about famous movie lines, they can use a slide show creator to include images from the Web or taken with the camera. The finish slide show lives on their site and also can also be emailed or uploaded to YouTube. The feature to add text to a slide is planned.Slide Show CreatorCompare/Contrast:  Mobile Decision Makerhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.broadreachsoftware.decision&hl=enOne way students can demonstrate understanding is to create a T-chart with compare/contrast or pro/con explanations included. Mobile Decision Maker allows students to create these charts on the tablet. Each entry can be weighted to help students make a final decision based on weighting.Compare/ContrastFOLLOW UP These are just some apps to get you started! The Google Play Store offers a ton of other apps that can be used at this level (or sometimes at all the Bloom's levels!) You can find more suggestions on my Bloomin' Apps page-- look for the chart for Android apps!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I truly believe financial literacy is one of important literacies our students should attain before they graduate high school. I have blogged about ideas to enhance this across the curriculum and consider it one of the thirteen essential literacies. Students are often taught, in a social studies class or a economics class, about the impact the decisions made by businesses and government have (and have had) on society and the economic climate. Students study capitalism, the Great Depression, War Bonds, government bail-outs of corporations, manufacturing, and other related events..However, the area that is often overlooked is the personal finance component of financial literacy. Sometimes, how to develop a budget is taught in a math class when learning about spreadsheets. And I remember working in pairs in my high school health class while we developed a budget for a wedding. But there is not often a systemic curriculum for real-life applications of personal finance, especially in this digital age. Learning how to balance a checkbook is great, but what about online banking and investing? Planning for retirement? Paying taxes?H&R Block provides a wonderful contest each year. the H&R Budget Challenge, that both helps students learn and practice personal financial literacy, as well as offers their teachers and themselves a chance to win grants and scholarships! The H&R Block Budget Challenge is a free online contest with the goal to teach students strong budgeting skills and fiscal discipline. The contest encourages students to learn personal finance in a fun, engaging way while competing against other classrooms and students for $3 million in classroom grants and student scholarships! These awards include 60 chances for classroom grants up to $5000, 132 chances of student scholarships of $20,000, and a grand prize student scholarship of $100,000.The Budget Challenge is a teen financial literacy program in the form of an online game that simulates real life financial and personal money planning of budgets, retirement, taxes, and more. The Budget Challenge is open to students 14 years of age or over in grades 9-12. There are multiple start dates for the competition (first one starting September 10 and last one over April 21) so it would be easy to fit into your curriculum when you see fit. Answers to all your questions about the Budget Challenge may be found here: http://www.hrblockdollarsandsense.com/Students will all need a personal email account, teachers are required to inform student parents/guardians about the program and prizes. and also subscribe to the educator mailing list for the contest.There is both an iOS and and Android app available to help students keep track of their progress in the H & R Block Budget Challenge and students can also access the information through the Web site when using a computer or Chromebook.Budget Challenge App screenshotsGET READY FOR THE BUDGET CHALLENGEI know if I was signing my class up to participate in the H&R Block Budget Challenge, I would want to have them prepared with some background information.There are online materials and sets of state standards to help teachers develop lessons and units dealing with personal finance into and across the curriculum. I have included resources in the my blog post, but I especially like the Council for Economic Education's set of standards for financial literacy which cover skills for grades 4, 8, 9 and 12.Earning incomeBuying goods and servicesUsing creditSavingFinancial investingProtecting and insuringThe Mint.org site also offers tips and tricks especially for teens in the areas of earning, saving, spending, owing, tracking, giving, investing, and safeguarding.There are also apps and interactive online sites that can get your students ready for the H&R Block Budget Challenge!Lesson plans created by teachers for previous years of the H&R Budget Challenge can be found at the We Are Teachers site. These will give you some ideas of the types of lessons that can be designed.Thrive and Shine is a app that teaches teens and young adults about personal finance. It is available for the iOS and Android platforms as well as a Web app. The site includes a curriculum and ideas for teachers, too.Thrive and Shine screenshotUnleash the Loot! is an iPad app that is intended for grades 5-8, but would be fun for the high school students to play, too. It can help them realize the basics of personal literacy such as setting goals, budgeting, earning money, saving and spending, and giving to charity.Unleash the Loot! screenshotThe Mint.org online site includes interactive scenarios for kids and teens to work through to learn about personal financial literacy. Here are some of the activities for teens.The Be Your Own Boss ChallengeThe Truth About MillionairesSaving Calculator "When Will You Be a Millionaire?"Writing a CheckThe Spending ChallengeWhat Kind of Spender are You?I Paid How Much?Credit Card IQ?Determine Your BudgetBalance Your Checking AccountThe Practical Money Skills for Life site by Visa includes some short interactive games to help students budget. One is called "Road Trip for Savings" and you have to collect money by doing "chores" as you drive across the US. I never was able to get anywhere, running out of money for gas and insurance, but students would probably do just fine!There are other games on the site including two well-created sports games, Financial Soccer and Financial Football (also available for iOS), that have students answering questions in order to advance up the field to score. For iOS and Android, there is a Plan'it Prom app for both iOS and Android to help students and parents budget for the prom!I hope you sign up for the H&R Block Budget Challenge and encourage your students to participate!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This is an edited re-posting of a blog post in 2013, which originally appeared on the now-defunct Sony Education Ambassadors site.Bloom's Revised Taxonomy is a pedagogical model we are all familiar with. This is the third in a series of resources outlining apps, Web sites, and ideas for using Bloom's Revised Taxonomy to support teaching and learning. This resource deals with Android apps for the third of Bloom's levels, applying.The previous posts in the series were:An overview of Bloom's and apps to support the remembering levelApps to support the understanding levelAPPLYING LEVELApplying is the cognitive skill set in which students use learned material through products like models, presentation, interviews and simulations, to execute or implement a procedure.Some activities at the applying level include:Diane Darrow, in her Edutopia series, outlines the questions you should consider when evaluating an app for use at the applying level.ANDROID APPS AND WEB SITES TO SUPPORT THE APPLYING LEVELSharing: Audioboomhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=audioBoom&hl=enOne activity at the applying level is sharing. Audioboom is an application for recording and creating a podcast. This free version allows students to create audio up to 3 minutes in length and post that to their own Audioboom page on the web. They can add titles, tags, geolocation info and a photo to the recording before it is uploaded. Here is a great overview of the use of podcasting in the classroom by Tony Vincent.AudioboomTeaching: Explain Everything ($2.99)https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.morriscooke.explaineverything&hl=enExplain Everything is a full-featured screencapture/screencaster program. It allows students to share a great idea or explain a tricky concept. They can bring in images and PDF documents and mark them up, take a photo directly, animate objects, or simply draw out the concept while recording voice audio at the same time. Students can demonstrate their learning by creating a tutorial or teaching unit for others.Explain EverythingPublishing: Tumblrhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tumblrActivities that involve publishing learned material in the form of a newspaper, article, or story can easily be done with the Tumblr app. With the app, students can post text, images, videos, and much more to showcase the application of their content knowledge. TumblrDemonstrating: Animation Desk - Sketch & Drawhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kdanmobile.android.animationdeskDemonstrating applied knowledge can be done with a drawing animation program. There are many of these, but I like Animation Desk Lite for hand-drawn animations. It includes all the best features of an animation program-- layers, onion skinning, duplication of previous pages, easy frame management, and the completed animations can be sent out to FB, YouTube, the photo library, emailed, or saved as PDFs. Users can even record their voice as part of the demonstration. KQED offers this article about use of stop-motion animation ideas for the elementary classroom.Animation DeskAnother stop-motion animation program, StickDraw, might be easier for younger students. Students draw and manipulate simple images.StickDrawPerforming a skit: Comic and Meme Creatorhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tiltedchair.cacomic&hl=enStudents can showcase the application of their acquired knowledge by performing a skit. Create A Comic allows students to add various characters and speech bubbles to impart the information in their comic.Comic and Meme CreatorFOLLOW UP These are just some apps to get you started! The Google Play Store offers a ton of other apps that can be used at this level (or sometimes at all the Bloom's levels!) You can find more suggestions on my Bloomin' Apps page-- look for the chart for Android apps!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Welcome to our Inaugural Round Up!   The goal of our site is to provide you with a daily overview of the latest posts, lessons, reviews, apps, and news in the field of educational technology.  We strive to find the most relevant and useful integration ideas and put them all together in one place. And, while you're here, feel free to check out our ever-growing collection of lesson plans, product reviews, and editorials, all designed to help you integrate technology into your classroom and curriculum.  So, without further ado, I give you the Weekend Round Up: Edudemic has some great content up from this weekend.  First, they've got an article entitled, "How Many Teachers will we need by 2015?" which is about UNESCO's new infographic exploring the global need for new educators over the next two years. The main point of the article is that the supply of teachers is failing to keep up with the global demand (especially in Sub-Saharan Africa) and that we'll need approximately 6.8 million new teachers over the next two years for our school systems to be effective.                              Next up, they've got a post outlining "4 Popular Screencasting Tools."  Screencasting is a way to share a recording of what's happening on your screen.  It can be a great resource for providing tutorials and lessons for students to watch outside of the classroom.  They review:Camtasia (30-day free trial, $299 to buy), Screencast-o-matic (Free for 15-minute recordings or $15/year for unlimited use)ScreenFlow 4 (Free trial, $99 to buy)iShowU ($20-$60 depending on the version)Personally, I'm a big fan of Jing.  It's free, has a lot of options, and has an easy to use interface as well.   Finally, Edudemic has a new post entitled, "5 Tools for Making Custom Timelines."  Occasionally, timelines are overlooked in classes outside of history and social studies but they can be great tools in English (timeline of events in a novel) or science (timeline of lab procedures) as well.  They review:Time Toast (Free with easy Facebook integration)Meograph ($20 and up)Capzles (Free with mobile iOS support)Dipity (3 for free and $5 a month after that)XTimeline (Free and great for collaborative work)Time Toast is pretty excellent in my opinion and I'm also a fan of TimeGlider, it's free and fairly simple.(I've got a lesson plan up for TimeGlider in the Lesson Plans section of the site) Next up, over at Getting Smart, we've got 3 new posts from the Weekend.  Their first post, "A District Guide to Online Learning" is an excellent resource for any district considering offering online classes.  They outline 10 steps/ideas every district should consider before launching online course offerings.Personally, I'm a fan of K-12 Online Curriculum (which is mentioned in the article).  Our district currently uses their services for online electives and they've been incredibly supportive, user friendly, well-created, and an overall pleasure to work with.  The article also discusses Apex, Connections, and Florida Virtual as other options for online curriculum.  Getting Smart's second weekend post discusses the launching of 10 New EdTech Startup Companies by the ImagineK12 organization.  It's a pretty exciting list of companies.  For me, one of the most interesting is Accredible which is focused on creating "the diploma of the future with a focus on MOOC and self-educated students" (MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses).  Finally, Getting Smart has a story about "Hacker Communities & Local Communities"  The article discusses the growing popularity of the Hacker Scouts, a non profit organization which was founded last fall and focuses on building STEAM skills and community connections in today's youth.(STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Emerging Ed Tech has a new post up about Moby Max.  Moby Max (Formerly Moby Math) is a K-8 curriculum system that helps educators identify missing skill sets and monitor student progress.  It's great for data collection and analysis, helping with student motivation, and differentiating student instruction.                        [Article Link]        [Moby Max Link] Over at the EdTechReview there's a new article and infographic discussing "How to Make the Jump to Digital"  While the infographic is sponsored by Online Colleges.com (an organization that supports online schools like the University of Phoenix), it's widely applicable and has some excellent information about tech-based learning. [ Infographic Download ] EdCetera has an excellent article discussing "How Technology is Helping Improve Graduation Rates."  The article focuses on the declining rate of students graduating from college and how Educational Technology can help.  It discusses how new tools like MOOCs and virtual textbooks can go a long way to making college more affordable and accessible. Finally, the always awesome Free Technology for Teachers has three new posts up from this weekend.  First up, if you have an interest in learning how to blog, Richard Byrne has some seats available in his new blogging course.  It will be an online webinar, cost $87, and be divided between two 90 minute classes. [ Information Link ] Richard also has a new video post outlining "How to Use Audacity and Other Tools to Create Podcasts." Podcasts can be excellent tools (much like screencasts) for providing instruction outside of the classroom.  Educators who are interested in "Flipping the Classroom" should familiarize themselves with podcasts, videocasts, and screencasts, as they can make the process a whole lot easier.Finally, Free Tech 4 Teachers has a post entitled "New Tools Added to Wideo" discussing the new support the program Wideo has added.  Wideo is an excellent (and free) program for creating online animations and movies.  Plus, they've now added a voice over option and improved scene arrangement support.  We'll have a review up for Wideo soon, but I highly recommend checking it out. [ Wideo Link ] All in all, a busy weekend for the field of educational technology.  But, in reality, it's a busy field every weekend, which is the main reason I started this site.With the ever-growing importance and ubiquitousness of technology in education, it has never been more necessary for educators to be aware of new tools and ideas in the field.  We will continually work towards providing an unbiased and wide-ranging overview of everything ed tech, and I hope you'll join me for our daily updates.  Thanks for reading, - The Round Up

Today's Round Up begins over at Moving at the Speed of Creativity, an excellent blog from Wes Fryer.  His first post of the day is entitled "More than Bandwidth: FCC Should Address Content Filtering in Schools" It's a thought-provoking post about the role the FCC should play in regards to internet content filtering.  He argues that "The FCC and other government agencies also need to pay attention to continuing policies of draconian content filtering in many public schools."  He talks about the role the FCC could play in promoting research that highlights the detrimental affects of restrictive content filtering. His second post for today, "STEM and Scratch Resources" provides a great list of support resources for teachers of science, tech, engineering, and math classes.  If you're a STEMer, I'd recommend giving it a look.  And if you're unfamiliar with Scratch, it's a wonderful program for teaching programming basics. Over at Getting Smart, there is a new post about "E-Rate and Blended Learning."  If you're not familiar with E-Rate, it's a program run by the FCC that is supported by a tax most people pay on their phone or wireless bill.  E-Rate provides discounts to schools and libraries to help them obtain affordable internet. The article discusses the intricacies of applying for E-Rate funding and the interaction between E-Rate funding and running blended learning programs (where students receive at least some of their instruction through online means).  The post goes on to discuss recommendations for the FCC to improve the E-Rate program and other ways we can help improve broadband capabilities for K-12 education. Teach Thought has a good write up on "26 Teacher Tools to Create Online Assessments."  It's an list that covers a huge variety of resources.  If you haven't considered adding online assessments to your curriculum, they can be a powerful tool - providing instant feedback and allowing students to take assessments wherever they prefer. EdCetera has a post about the relatively new company, Parchment.  The article, "How Parchment is Powering Innovation for Credentials and Transcripts" discusses the role Parchment plans on playing in the future of e-transcripts and credentials.  In short, the company would like to serve as a online hub for all types of digital credentials.  Parchment was founded by Blackboard's creator, Matthew Pittinsky. From Educational Technology we've got two new posts from today.  First up is about "21 ways to use Edmodo in your classroom."  If you're not familiar with Edmodo, it is a learning platform that lets students and teachers interact online by sending notes, providing feedback, turning in assignments, and so on.  It's an excellent resource and worth looking into.   They also have up a highly enjoyable post covering the "Top 10 TED Talks on Digital Lives for Teachers" The videos cover a wide span of issues, from "Why Videos go Viral" to "Social Media and the End of Gender."  There are some wonderful videos here, and if you've never watched a TED talk before, this is a great place to start. Last up, Edudemic has two new posts.  The first one discusses Adobe's new vision for the future of their software.  Adobe is now offering monthly subscriptions to CC (the Creative Cloud) which will run $50/month ($20 for students and teachers) and will allow a user unlimited use of the Adobe software suite.  A huge change to be sure, which some support (like Edudemic) and others are taking issue with. Edudemic also has an article about "What Your Online Habits Say About Your Teaching."  The article breaks down two different online-personality types: The Lurker and The Power User.  They then go on to analyze the differences in browsing and teaching styles between the two.   In short, Lurkers stay in the background online - browsing, skimming, looking, not digging in to deeply to online debates and discussions.  In the classroom, Lurkers are more hands-off, empowering students with learner-centered environments. Power Users on the other hand are buried in the net.  They don't just tweet, the research and plan their online posts, thinking deeply about every interaction.  As a teacher, the Power User is more hands-on, detail-oriented, and highly involved in every task.  The article concludes that striving to find a balance between these two personality types is generally the most beneficial in a classroom environment. And that's it for today, thanks for reading!  We'll close out today's Round Up with an excellent new infographic from Ava Launch Media which covers the Complete History of Social Media: The Complete History of Social Media infographic

Hey Round Uppers - Let's start today over at Free Tech 4 Teachers.  Richard and his non-stop blog machine have 3 great new posts up.  The first is about an iPad app called Nearpod Homework.  The original Nearpad app is used to send out lessons and polls through iPads.  Nearpad Homework expands on that by adding the ability to send out presentations and quizzes as well, which students can work through at their own pace. Next up, he's got an article entitled, "Collaboratively Create Multimedia Books on Widbook."  Widbook is a program that allows people to collaboratively create multimedia books (as the article's title would suggest...)  You can embed text, images, and videos in your digital book and then collaborate with whoever you want to!  It's a great (and one of the few) PC alternatives to iAuthor. Finally, there's a write-up on "eduClipper: It's What Teachers Want Pinterest to Be."  eduClipper is, at its core, a visual bookmarking tool (much like Pinterest).  But, it handles more than just websites; you can add PDFs, PowerPoints, images, and videos as well.  Plus it can link directly to your Google Drive if you've got one set up.  And probably the best educational feature is that teachers can create class boards which their students can post to.   EdCetera has an article up today entitled, "Understand How Students Learn with E-Textbook Analytics"  It's about the E-textbook publishing company Soomo who create e-books that are "designed to encourage regular student interaction with the content, and collect data int he process that can help professors understand student needs."   So, while your student reads and interacts with the textbook, it's busy collecting data (which sections are more difficult, which parts are the easiest, and so on).  Then, those results are sent to the professor for examination and analysis.  It's a pretty great way to find out how your students are engaging in their assigned reading.  Of course, privacy issues would be an obvious concern that would need to be addressed as well. Educational Technology has some excellent new resources today as well.  First up, "Teacher's must have tool for easily downloading or converting youtube videos."  I'll give you a hint, it's PWN YouTube, an online app that lets you easily download any YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, or Vimeo video in a wide variety of formats.  Definitely a great tool and worth checking out. They also have a new post about "Teaching Using Google Glass."  If you're not familiar with Google Glass, here's a video to check out.  In short, GG is a piece of wearable tech that lets users take pictures, record and share videos, get directions, send messages, translate your voice, and ask questions to the internet.  It's an incredibly exciting piece of technology.  And here's an example of a Google Glass Virtual Field Trip in action (it's the same video from the article)... Finally, TeachThought has two enjoyable new posts up.  The first, "5 Less Formal Alternatives to Homework Over Summer Break" provides some great ideas for teachers looking for possible summer assignments that are more engaging and enjoyable than traditional homework. They also have a new post, "A Primer in Heutagogy and Self-Directed Learning"  This article actually focuses on the work of my former Ed Tech professor, Jackie Gerstein.  She gave a presentation over "Education 3.0 and the Pedagogy of Mobile Learning"  which focuses on mobile and self-directed learning.  I've embedded the presentation below, in case you're interested! Education 3.0 and the Pedagogy of Mobile Learning from Jackie Gerstein Let's end today with two quick bonus links! First up, a niceinfographic about creating infographics from Educational Technology. Last up, a new featured paper from Digital Learning now about the benefits of blended learning. Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow! - The Round Up

Let's start today over at iLearn Technology.  They have a new article covering "Smithsonian Quests: Learning Through Discovery and Collaboration."  In short, the program is an online exploration of the Smithsonian.  Throughout the quests, students earn digital badges to measure their progress.  Many of the quests are collaborative and cover a wide range of subject-areas.  Over at EduTech for Teachers there's a new post on the "Top 5 Free iPad Apps to Use in the Classroom."  In the article they cover:Evernote: Great for managing notes, documents, and resources.MyScratchWork: Lets students take notes while they work.Educreations Whiteboard: Teachers can create virtual lessons.Edmodo: Used to share homework and notes with students.Screen Chomp: Teachers can record and narrate lessons. Popular Science has an article up introducing a new Xerox copier that can also grade papers!  Whoa! And not only can the machine grade, but it keeps track of student data for the teacher as well.  The software, called  Ignite, needs teachers to scan in the assignment and answer key, so it knows where to look for the answers, but after that, it takes over!  So far classroom tests have been pretty positive. TeachThought has a new post entitled, "Exactly What the Common Core Standards Say About Technology."  The article analyzes exactly what the CCS say about technology integration.  In short, the standards not only suggest, but require that students be able to make "complex decisions about how, when and why to use technology."   Ed Tech Review has an article up about "How to Make Improved and Better Online Courses." It's an excellent read for anyone designing online classes and it outlines 5 major areas that curriculum designers should focus on:  Using Effective Multimedia, Creating an Optimal Challenge, Giving Students Choice, Designing for Mastery Learning, and Designing for Social Learning. For our grand finale of the day, let's head over to Edudemic!  They've got three new posts up and for starters they discuss "When to Put the Tech Away in Your 1:1 Classroom."  It's a great article for anyone implementing (or considering) a 1:1 environment (i.e. 1 laptop or iPad or smartphone per student)  The article discusses the best times to integrate technology and how teachers shouldn't be afraid to "turn off" the technology when it isn't needed or beneficial. Next up, they've got a post outlining the new, "CrunchU: A Partnership between TechCrunch and Udemy to Offer Online School."  CrunchU will join a growing number of MOOCs (massive open online courses)  to provide online lessons.  Most courses will retail between $19 - $99 and they'll be starting with around 30 courses.  The full class list is available at CrunchU Online.Finally, Edudemic has a PD related post, "EducatorU Begins Offering Online PD Via Google+" Through EducatorU teachers will be able to join Google+ Hangouts to collaborate in online professional development sessions.  The initial sessions will cover basic technology tools like Google Drive, Evernote, Dropbox, GMail, iPads, and WordPress, but they will expand and grow from there. And that's all for the Round Up today!  Let's end with a video - "What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains."  The video is an animation describing the writings of author Nicolas Carr (he wrote, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.")  Enjoy!

Happy almost Friday!  Let's start today's Round Up over at Free Tech for Teachers.  First, a post about the app, "Silk - Collaboratively Create Digital Portfolios."   Silk is a free web-based program that let's you collaborate and share a collection of images, text, videos, and whatever else you may want to work on.  Here's an example.Next up is a post on another app, "Memofon - Create Mind Maps from Outlines."  Memofon can turn typed outlines into mind maps (similar to Text 2 Mind Map) Much like Silk, Memofon is free and web-based. The formatting takes a little time to get used to, but once you do it's easy to turn an outline into a full-fledged mind map! iLearn Technology has an excellent write up on "NBC Learn: Science Behind the News."  This is an NBC and NSF partnership that explores science and technology issues that are found in current events.  The site is packed with informational videos and is an excellent way for students to make real-world connections. And to end our super-short Round Up today, we've got a few links for you!An infographic from Educational Technology & Mia MacMeekin on 27 Ways to Flip The ClassroomAn infographic from Ed Tech Review on What Teachers Really Think about Tech IntegrationAnd a great video on what it means to me a 21st century teacher:

Happy Mother's Day!  And let's start by heading over to Edudemic for their post, "10 Digital Citizenship Tips From your Mother."  It's a friendly reminder of all the manners you should keep in mind when interacting on the internet.   Plus, the post has an infographic from Know the Net which would be an excellent lesson resource for students to learn about (or review) what it means to be a good digital citizen. Next up, Edudemic has an article on "The 5 Biggest Education Technology Trends to Know About." The article covers emerging and popular Ed Tech trends like: Online learning through MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) Alternative credentialing platforms providing students with alternatives to high-priced universities Tablets and smartphones allowing for learning on the go E-Textbooks offering multimedia-rich alternatives to traditional textbooks Learning management systems helping to track, monitor, and analyze student achievement data Speaking of MOOCs, Edudemic also has a post on, "Behind-The-Scenes: How MOOCs are Getting Money."  In short, the largest contributors to MOOCs and nonprofits and universities ($150M and $60M respectively) and the biggest names in MOOCs right now are Coursera, EdX, Udacity, and Khan Academy.  They also have a great infographic on the relationship between MOOCs and their donors. Finally, if you're looking to keep a little busy over the summer, Edudemic's last post from the weekend is entitled, "10 Resources for Learning Over the Summer"  If you're in need of new ways to integrate technology and improve classroom learning, check it out! Free Technology for Teachers has some great new resources up this weekend as well.  To start, they review "Our Little Earth - Bi-weekly News Summaries for Kids."  It's a site that offers "bi-weekly summaries of the world's biggest news stories" and they are written at a level that's appropriate for students.  Each edition has articles that can be used in a variety of classroom subjects. Next up, FT4T has an article on "Typing Club: Helping Students Learn to Type."  Typing Club is a web 2.0 app that offers free typing lessons for students of all ages (somewhat similar to TypingWeb).  Check out the post for the full review; it's a great resource for computer technology classrooms. FT4T also has a review of a new English/Spanish learning app, "Vocabla - Learn English & Spanish."  The program can be used online or with the free iOS and Android apps.  The software lets you create a list of phrases you want to learn and then you study with flashcards and quizzes.  (Sidenote: The app covers Polish too!) Finally, Free Tech for Teachers has a post about the relatively new app Flipboard.  The article, "Create iPad and Android Managzines on Flipboard on the Web." talks about Flipboard's features (like allowing you create digital magazines through your web browser) and has a video with more information. Tech & Learning has a new article from the weekend entitled, "Promote Digital Citizenship: 10 Ideas for Rich Academic Student Discussions on the Internet." The post discusses a wide range of great ideas to keep students on track, positive, and engaged while participating in online discussions. Getting Smart has a excellent, existentially-themed post, "Do My Students Still Need Me."  The article discusses how the rise of online and technology-based learning has seemingly decreased the importance of the teacher's role.  It's a wonderful read for everyone, especially those who have implemented some form of digital learning. Next up, Getting Smart has an article on "Blended Learning that is Truly Blended." The post discusses how difficult it can be achieve true blended learning and that many schools have tried to implement some form of blended learning without fully understanding what it means or how to best put their resources into action.  If your school has implemented, or is considering blended learning, I'd recommend checking out this article. They argue that true blended learning must be built around four central ideas: Self-Knowledge Shared Knowledge Options The Facility Educational Technology has four new posts up from the weekend.  First up is a list of "10 Awesome New Web Tools for Teachers."  They review some previously discussed resources such as WidBook, Memofon and Silk, but they've also got a lot of new programs like Tagboard, Shareor, and Wonderville. Next, Ed Tech has a guide to using "Shared Google Docs with Students."  If you're not familiar, Shared Google Docs (or Google Drive) is a feature that works with Google Docs and allows users to create shared folders for others to see.  An excellent resource to investigate if you're looking for a way to digitally share files and documents with your students. Educational Technology also has two links worth visiting: The First TED Education TV Show - About 50 minutes long with some wonderful content An Infographic on the importance of using videos within the classroom. Finally, Teach Thought has a few new posts from this weekend as well.  First is an article on "5 Mobile Apps to Help Teachers & Students Adapt to The Common Core Standards."  If your school is one of the countless across the US that is adapting the CCS, this list is worth visiting. They also have a post (which has been going around Facebook as well) covering "7 Animations that Reflect Rapid Environmental Change."  These animations are mesmerizing  depressing, and incredibly informative.  Great for science classes or any subject discussing the environmental impact of humanity. And, last but not least, Teach Thought covers 23 iPad apps from EdShelf that can be used in the classroom to bolster engagement, motivation, and achievement: And there you have it!  The weekend in review!  A lot of exciting new resources on the Ed Tech front and don't forgot... It's Mother's Day!  Give your mom a call and say "hey!"

For today's edition of the Round Up we're going to start over at the Ed Tech Review with the post, "Technology Can Bring Education to the Masses."  The article begins by arguing that the role of technology in education must be accepted, understood, and improved upon in the coming years.  The article then goes on to outline the following three successful programs which have "triumphed" in blending education and technology. CreativeLIVE: This site offers in-depth, live, interactive seminars for free.  Currently, the most popular classes on CreativeLIVE draw over 150,000 participants and have members from over 200 countries.  This site would be an excellent resource for art and business teachers as they offer a huge variety of free classes in those subjects. ClickMinded: This site offers advice and techniques for improving your personal or business web site.  ClickMinded would be a great resource for a computer-technology or web design teacher. TNW Academy: This site offers classes on web and app design with a focus on creating great user interfaces and experiences.  Similar to ClickMinded, this site is a solid resource for computer-technology teachers. Emerging Ed Tech has a great write-up on the benefits of running a "flipped classroom" (where students learn subject material through videos or tutorials at home and then put the knowledge to practice during class time)  The article discusses two schools who switched to the "flipped" model and saw a surprisingly high increase in student performance after a very short time period.  Definitely worth reading and considering. Education Elements has an excellent guide on selecting digital content for schools.  With hundreds (if not thousands) of options for digital integration, it's getting harder and harder to find and select the appropriate tools for classroom use.  They provide an easy to follow 4-step guide and have a great infographic which outlines their process as well (see below...) Courtesy of: Education Elements And that's all from the Round Up for today!  I hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing Mother's Day and see you for tomorrow's Round Up!

Happy Teacher Appreciation week, Round Uppers!  We've got a full post lined up for you today to celebrate.  First up, over at Edudemic, a new post on "5 Powerful Social Media Tools for Your Classroom."  They talk about Wikispaces Classroom, Edmodo, 123ContactForm, Edublogs, and WDWDT and give some great ideas on how to use these tools in the classroom for discussions and assessment. Edudemic's second post from the day is entitled, "Sir Ken Robinson's New TED Talk about 'Education's Death Valley.'"  If you're not familiar with Ken Robinson or his other TED Talks, he is an absolutely amazing speaker, thinker, philosopher, educator, etc.  This talk is no exception, in it he outlines "3 principles that are crucial for the mind to flourish."  Set aside 20 minutes and give it a watch! Next up, Free Tech for Teachers has a heap of new material from today.  First, a review of "ActiveNote - Organized Sticky Notes & Reminders."  Active Note comes free with Windows 8 and lets you create and organize your own sticky notes.  You can assign dates and times and mark off when tasks are completed.  If you're fortunate enough to have Windows 8 computers at your school, this program is a great tool to help students keep tasks organized.   Next is a review of Music Maker Jam, the free music making software that is included with Windows 8.  Free Tech suggests using the program to have students make music for soundtracks, podcasts or videocasts.  The program comes with four free music styles to modify, but more are available for purchase. Free Tech also has a review of "Depression Quest - An Interactive Story About Depression."  They suggest utilizing the web quest within a high school health class so students can have a better understanding of what it's like to suffer from depression.  Plus, it helps student identify the signs of depression and learn how to help friends who may be suffering. They end their day with a short but solid video entitled "10 Expectations" about the expectations that students have of their schools... Now let's head over to EduTech for Teachers with a guest post on "Cometdocs: Manage & Store Files Online."  Cometdocs allows for the storage of documents in the cloud, but there's a twist.  They also allow you to convert to and from a wide variety of file types (over 30 types are currently supported).  Free accounts come with 1GB of storage and you can upgrade from there.  Over at the Ed Tech Review there's a new post on the "Positive Impact of Blogging in Kindergarten."  If you think kindergarten is too young to start learning to blog, this post may convince you otherwise.  The article discusses 5 major benefits to blogging at an early age: Connections, Feedback, Audience, Communicating  and Self-Esteem.  Definitely worth reading and considering. If you're looking for some great professional development, head over to Moving at the Speed of Creativity and watch their 40-minute Google Hangout on "Elementary STEM Idea Sharing."  A huge range of topics is covered as the four teachers address standards, blended learning, 1:1 schools, and a ton more. Lisa Nielsen has a new post up today entitled, "Could PBL be the Solution to Education Reform?"  It is an incredibly thorough and thoughtful analysis of Project Based Learning.  She walks the reader through a series of 13 questions, providing research, data, tips, and techniques on how to begin using PBL within your school or district. Almost there!  Our second to last stop for today is Educational Technology.  Their first post is "A Step by Step Tutorial on how to Flip Your Classroom with Ted Ed."  They provide a 9-step guide to not only using Ted Ed in your classroom, but flipping your class so that students can learn their material at home.  It's a great tutorial. Educational Technology's next post is about the importance of understanding your Digital Footprint, "Your Online Life: Permanent as a Tattoo." The article discusses the importance of emphasizing to students that everything they do online leaves a footprint.  Students must understand the importance of leaving positive footprints as they make their way through the digital world. Ed Tech also has two great infographics up today to close out their posts: MOOCS - Are they a threat or opportunity Google Glass - How does it work? And for you science educators out there, let's take a look at Gizmodo.  They have an excellent article entitled, "How Chris Hadfield Made Us Care About Astronauts Again."  For any science or space fans out there, this is a great read.  And if you haven't seen Chris Hadfield covering Bowie in space... check it out, and then enjoy the rest of his videos as well! Finally, we'll end today's Round Up with two excellent resources (embedded below as well).  Thank you for reading and see you all tomorrow! An Infographic on "Getting More out of Google" from Hack College 30 Flipped Classroom Tools & Apps from Edshelf Courtesy of: Hack College