Monday, October 27, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Monday, September 1, 2014
Google Classroom is on
Last year I gave a presentation on Edmodo as a classroom management tool. There are many of these out there including Moodle, Schoology, etc. Well, lucky for us (maybe) Google launched Google Classroom just last week. The coolest thing about Google Classroom as a classroom management tool is that it links to the kids already existing Google Apps account and school email. In other words, they don't have to sign up for anything extra. Furthermore, it works really well with the new ChromeBooks because well, Chrome is a Google product. It will link their Drive folders as well. All you do is sign in as a teacher...get the access code after you create a class and share that code with your students. Here is the link:
Cheers,
Josh
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
New Report Has Surprising Stats About Information Literacy Shifts Over Past 24 Months
With Information Literacy units embedded in English classes and full access to EasyBib and ResearchReady, Profile is on the right track. (Jude)
It’s been two years since we released our Trends in Information Literacy infographic, one of our most popular downloads. We recently surveyed 1,200 librarians and over 10,000 students to see how the information landscape has changed over the past two years. Thousands of participants answered questions about:
- Student understanding of website evaluation and information synthesis
- Current information literacy instructional methods
- Frequency of plagiarism
What did we find? Some of the statistics were significant, and the percentages may surprise you. We compiled the preliminary findings into a free report. This video features some highlights from the survey:
Toggle the resolution of the video by selecting 720p from the gear icon.
Want to learn all the details about shifts in the information literacy landscape and student research habits between 2012 and 2014? Download the report today!
Friday, August 8, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
Monday, June 30, 2014
Good News from Microsoft Office 365
1 TB of OneDrive storage coming to an Office 365 near you
Since we introduced Office 365 for consumers nearly a year and a half ago, customers have told us that one of their favorite benefits of the subscription service is the additional OneDrive storage–for accessing and sharing files on their favorite devices and getting things done from home, school, work and everywhere in between. These are precisely the reasons we included additional OneDrive storage with every Office 365 consumer subscription–and we’re happy that people are realizing the value.
Today, OneDrive and Office are announcing a BIG change to that benefit for consumers, to the tune of 1 TB per user. That’s right–we’re increasing the OneDrive storage allotment included with Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal, and Office 365 University from 20 GB to 1 TB. That’s a whopping 50 times, or 5,000 percent increase in storage–and it’s going to be here before classes are in session!
As previously announced in April, all Office 365 business customers will also get 1 TB of OneDrive for Business storage per user as part of their Office 365 subscription, which will begin to roll out in July.
What’s a terabyte? Here’s some perspective:
- 1 TB is equivalent to approximately 50,000 trees made into paper and printed
- 1 TB can store about 1,000 copies of the full edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica
- 1 TB can hold around 2,000 hours of audio recorded at CD quality
- 1 TB can remember roughly 8,000 times more data than the average human
While other cloud storage providers charge more than $100 a year for the same amount of online storage, we’re bringing in a full productivity suite too–with Office 365–starting at just $6.99 per month:
Office 365 consumer subscription options
Application availability varies by platform. Skype world minutes available in select countries. Seewww.office.com/information for details.
If you’re an Office 365 Home, Personal, University or Business subscriber, you’re good to go. Your TB of OneDrive storage is on its way and will be added to your existing account beginning in July. You should not be concerned about current files that are stored in OneDrive as they will not be affected by this change.
Things are about to get a lot more spacious, and we hope you enjoy the added legroom.
–Jevon Fark, Office Team
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
The Epic BYOD Toolchest (51 Tools You Can Use Now)
By Vicky Davis:
Apps for: Formative Assessment, Screencasting, Content-sharing,
Note taking, Cloud syncing, Graphic Design, Presentations, Blogging, Social
Bookmarking...
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Library Summer Professional Development Opportunites
37 Links to Summer Professional Development Opportunities for Librarians
From the excellent blog of Julie Greller
JUST FOR SCHOOL LIBRARIANS
ALA Las Vegas- American Association of School Librarians schedule HEREEasyBib Professional Development- on demand and free
Summer Getaway Professional Development Workshops- for school librarians from the Graduate
School for Library and Information Science at the iSchool at Illinois.
The flyer can be downloaded HERE.
On Common Core 2014: Professional Development for School Librarians- instructional webcasts
from School Library Journal
Summer Institute 2014- South Carolina Association of School Librarians
FREE
Annenberg Learner- view videos in these subject areas: arts, foreign language, literature and language
arts, math, science, social studies and history
Annenberg-Newseum Summer Teacher Institute- three-day institute in Washington, DC for teachers
using new media; application deadline is May 26, 2014.
Coursera- verified certificates for certain courses
edCamp- list of all edCamp schedules (it's worldwide!)
EdmodoCon- 11-hour virtual event
Free Professional Learning Through ASCD's Professional Development Tools- includes webinars,
virtual learning, book study guides
Google Teacher Academy- this summer: Atlanta, GA, Mountainview, CA and The Phillipines
Hidden Histories: Free Summer Professional Development and Lodging for Teachers- for
North Carolina K-12 teachers
NEA Member Benefits: Professional Development
NJEA Professional Learning
NSTA Learning Center- science teachers can find workshops in New Mexico, Texas
Smithsonian Educator Workshops- includes the Mobile Learning Institute
Summer Professional Development Blog Series- Edutopia's list of virtual workshops, tools and
resources and their Summer Rejuvination Guide
YALSA Academy- Young Adult Library Services Association's online educational video initiative
$$$
2014 Civics and Civil Rights Institute- Washington, DC
2014 Summer Institute- Learning Forward's four-day event in Chicago
American Studies Summer Institute- Defining "Public" and "Private" in America: Cultural, Social
and Political Arguments Past and Present (Washington, DC)
Annenberg Learner- full courses for graduate education credit, courses for continuing education units
and certificates (Through Colorado State University); facilitated or self-paced courses through PBS TeacherLine
The Art of Education Conference- online conference for art teachers
Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute- covers teachers of grades K-12
The Conference Calendar- lists conferences for all types of educators
Hybrid Institutes for Grades 3-8 Educators- in conjunction with Framingham State University and
Cambridge College
ISTE 2014 Atlanta- The International Society of Technology in Education
Kansas Summer Institute for School Librarians- open to in and out-of-state teachers
Learning and the Brain- "Connecting educators to neuroscientists and researchers."
Massachusetts Teachers Association Summer Conference
Millard Oakley STEM Center- for Tennessee teachers
NJEA Summer Learning Opportunities
Richard Byrne's In-Person PD Opportunity- Maine
Summer PD Opportunities- Mathematics, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies teachers from
Ohio
Summervision DC- sponsored by the National Art Education Association
Teaching the Holocaust at the Middle School Level- at the University of New Hamshire
Follow me on RebelMouse or Twitter,
Like me on Facebook or Subscribe to this blog.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Previewing a new Classroom by Google
Not a lot of specifics, but it sounds like teachers piloting Google Classroom are pretty happy about it.
Jude
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Free Booktrack app for Google Chrome and Ipads
Reluctant reader? Creative reader? Artistic reader? Geek reader? Have fun and improve your skills
Booktrack Classroom
allows students to read with a movie-style soundtrack, or to create their own
soundtrack for any story, essay or
other text. Students can also create and publish their own Booktracks, reading them on the web or on mobile phones
and tablets.
Visit
www.booktrackclassroom.com to get sign-up and get started.
• 17% increase in
comprehension
• 30% increase in engagement
• Common Core integration across multiple subjects
• Proven to dramatically improve test scores
• Free and incredibly easy to use for grades K – 12
• Multiple uses across the reading and writing curriculum
Jude
• 30% increase in engagement
• Common Core integration across multiple subjects
• Proven to dramatically improve test scores
• Free and incredibly easy to use for grades K – 12
• Multiple uses across the reading and writing curriculum
Jude
Friday, May 9, 2014
Google Unveils 'Classroom' Learning Management System
Viewed on Education Week by Jude:
Google is entering the world of "learning management systems" with the pre-release ofClassroom, designed to work with the Google Apps for Education suite currently used by 30 million students and educators.
The tool, which Google announced on its blog Tuesday, will give teachers a way to create and collect assignments, provide real-time feedback to individual students, make announcements, ask questions, and organize their folders by assignment or by student.
Below is a screen shot from Google's blog, showing an example of how a home page might look using Classroom, with assignments for each period of a school day.
The free tool, which weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail, is expected to launch officially in September to K-12 schools and colleges. It will be available in 40 languages.
For now, the company is inviting educators to apply for a preview, and ed-tech companies or individual developers can sign up to learn more about integrating with Classroom.
"We've been working with more than a dozen pilot schools and universities to try out Classroom and provide feedback," wrote Zach Yeskel, product manager for Classroom and a former high school math teacher, in the blog.
Educators interested in applying for an opportunity to try out Classroom before its release can do so here.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Easy navigation between Apple devices and Chrome
Apple devices and Chrome users, our life keeps getting simpler and better.
Thanks to a couple of Chrome extensions, you may access your Apple productivity tools, docs and data on your PC. Syncing between devices is all automatic.Here they are:
- Your bookmarks
- All your iWorks documents: Pages, Numbers, Keynote... In fact, Chrome allows you to create and modify documents as if you were using your Apple device.
- All your pictures, mail (you have the option to sync with outlook, too), contacts, calendar and tasks.
- For the absent minded-ones among us, you can even use "Find my phone" on Chrome.
All you need to do is install in Chrome these two apps, iCloud Bookmarks and iCloud Dashboard.
Jude
Monday, May 5, 2014
Edmodo Snapshot
Whether you are using EDMODO or not they just released a really cool tool for use in the classroom and for teacher evaluation. Its called EDMODO SNAPSHOT and it is a very easy way to test student's understanding of the Common Core standards. You can use it as a pre-test or exit ticket or quiz for lessons or for your class. EDMODO will create the assessment for you as long as you identify the standard/s you want tested. It gives instant real time results that shows student strength and weaknesses, thus your strengths and weaknesses since their entire academic potential rides on teacher effectiveness and not diet, home life, personality, community, mood, sleep schedule, job, mental state, and on and on.
Check it out:
Josh
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Microsoft Office for iPad
Yes, it's available. No, it's not free.
You can download the apps (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote)
from the App Store. They are free.
Then, when you open the app, you'll discover the string attached to it; you need a subscription to Office 365.
Then, when you open the app, you'll discover the string attached to it; you need a subscription to Office 365.
The subscription is ~$10/month. It automatically saves on
the cloud all the documents you create, either on your iPad or your Microsoft Office applications on your computer. It also syncs between your devices.
iWorks, the Apple version of Office does this for free.
Pages (Apple word processor, not quite as versatile as Word), Keynotes (Apple version of powerpoint), Numbers (Apple
version of Excel) are all free apps (if you bought your device after Sept 1, 2013. Otherwise it is ~$10 for each app). They automatically save your documents on iCloud and
sync between your devices. Your documents can be exported in
Microsoft Office format and iWorks will open Office documents.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Preparing for the 2015 NH Young Adults Literary Award
For the first time this year, Profile English students participated into the selection of the 2015 Flume Award nominees.
They can now choose the 2015 Flume Award winner! All they need to do is read the books on the 2015 nominees list, then cast their vote for the book they think deserves to be the winner (voting deadline is April 30, 2015). See Jude for more details.
They can now choose the 2015 Flume Award winner! All they need to do is read the books on the 2015 nominees list, then cast their vote for the book they think deserves to be the winner (voting deadline is April 30, 2015). See Jude for more details.
The 2015 Flume Award nominees are:
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
The Selection by Kiera Kass
Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Winger by Andrew Smith
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
The Selection by Kiera Kass
Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Winger by Andrew Smith
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Brochures and Bookmarks are on the Flume webpage.
Science Teachers: Free Virtual Chemistry Lab
The ChemCollective is a collection of virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, tutorials, and concept tests. Teachers can use our content for pre-labs, for alternatives to textbook homework, and for in-class activities for individuals or teams. Students can review and learn chemistry concepts using our virtual labs, simulations, and tutorials. The ChemCollective is organized by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon who are interested in using, assessing, and creating engaging online activities for chemistry education.
The ChemCollective is a collection of virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, tutorials, and concept tests. Teachers can use our content for pre-labs, for alternatives to textbook homework, and for in-class activities for individuals or teams. Students can review and learn chemistry concepts using our virtual labs, simulations, and tutorials. The ChemCollective is organized by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon who are interested in using, assessing, and creating engaging online activities for chemistry education.
Jude
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Teachers: where Ipad and Bloom's taxonomy meet
Ipad users: this poster is worth several hours of Professional Development. I know this sounds like a bold statement, however, I believe you'll see the point after taking a look at the original posting by Allan Carrington here.
You may download the poster here.
Jude
You may download the poster here.
Jude
Monday, April 14, 2014
Three Extremely Cool Outdoor Sites for Science
Science Teachers,
With Spring in the air, here are great sites and apps to explore outdoor learning opportunities:
Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Nature Sound Map: A group of professional nature recordists from around the globe have collaborated to develop Nature Soundmap, an enjoyable and interactive way of exploring the natural sounds of our planet.
Geocaching (and yes, there are geocaches around here): Geocaching is the real-world treasure hunt that's happening right now, all around you. There are 2,364,046 active geocaches and over 6 million geocachers worldwide.
Credits go to Richard Byrne. Visit his blog!
Jude
With Spring in the air, here are great sites and apps to explore outdoor learning opportunities:
Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Nature Sound Map: A group of professional nature recordists from around the globe have collaborated to develop Nature Soundmap, an enjoyable and interactive way of exploring the natural sounds of our planet.
Geocaching (and yes, there are geocaches around here): Geocaching is the real-world treasure hunt that's happening right now, all around you. There are 2,364,046 active geocaches and over 6 million geocachers worldwide.
Credits go to Richard Byrne. Visit his blog!
Jude
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Gale databases w/content mapped directly to the national curriculum framework
Profile teachers:
In addition to the Profile's current subscription to the Gale Virtual Reference Library (logon info here), here is
a free trial to a series of additional databases with content mapped directly to the national curriculum framework. Your free trial is just a click away.
Follow the link below to your free trial:
http://www.galetrials.com/ default.aspx?TrialID=76467; ContactID=59049
Having trouble? If the above link takes you to a page asking for Account# and ZIP, please copy and paste the URL into your browser address bar.
Don't delay. Your trial lasts until May 5. I'll ask for feedback at that time. Enjoy!
Jude
In addition to the Profile's current subscription to the Gale Virtual Reference Library (logon info here), here is
a free trial to a series of additional databases with content mapped directly to the national curriculum framework. Your free trial is just a click away.
Follow the link below to your free trial:
http://www.galetrials.com/
Having trouble? If the above link takes you to a page asking for Account# and ZIP, please copy and paste the URL into your browser address bar.
Don't delay. Your trial lasts until May 5. I'll ask for feedback at that time. Enjoy!
Jude
Information Literacy at Profile
In light of studies like this one on Edutopia, I am glad to announce that, starting September 2014, the Media Center will provide school-wide access, instruction and tutorials for EasyBib Pro and ResearchReady (Web search, evaluation, and information use) for Middle School and High School levels. To schedule teaching units in your class or individual tutoring, just contact me.
Jude
Information Literacy Units can be designed from 15 minutes to a full hour in a blended format (online and on site). They include practice and assessment. They are aligned with national standards and the Common Core.
Jude
Information Literacy Units can be designed from 15 minutes to a full hour in a blended format (online and on site). They include practice and assessment. They are aligned with national standards and the Common Core.
Friday, March 21, 2014
(Relatively) Independent News
For those of us who feel that mainstream, corporate infotainment is not a good enough source of information for themselves or their students, I have compiled a list of relatively independent news sources. Here is the link, located in the Library page of the Media Center website. I update it occasionally. Suggestions are welcome.
Jude
Jude
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
TeachThought Blog
TeachThough This blog about technology integration in the classroom, blended learning and new learning paradigms always gives you something brand new, original, to think about for possible use.
http://teachthought.com/
Jude
http://teachthought.com/
Jude
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Friday, January 31, 2014
Chromebooks for education expands with new devices, Google Play textbooks
It looks like all the major players, including Dell, are coming with a Chromebook. Decision time for Profile:
Chromebooks for education expands with new devices, Google Play textbooks
Jude
Chromebooks for education expands with new devices, Google Play textbooks
Jude
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Basic Facts about Chromebooks - Profile Fac Meeting
Super fast startup time
Day long battery capacity
What you do online: Apps and Extensions
What you can do offline
User friendly, light updates.
No need for virus protection
Not all software have their equivalent in apps. Check the Apps store, the specific software company you are interested in, and list serv groups.
More info here
More questions? Email me.
Jude
Day long battery capacity
What you do online: Apps and Extensions
What you can do offline
User friendly, light updates.
No need for virus protection
Not all software have their equivalent in apps. Check the Apps store, the specific software company you are interested in, and list serv groups.
More info here
More questions? Email me.
Jude
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Free and Bargain eBooks
Following up on ebooks, Kindle owners will enjoy these two sites. They offer free and bargain ebooks.
Subscribe to them and you'll get a daily update. Enjoy!
Kindle Buffet
BookBub
Jude
Subscribe to them and you'll get a daily update. Enjoy!
Kindle Buffet
BookBub
Jude
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)