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We challenge YOU to CREATE! For the next 5 weeks, learn how to Create: comics, animations, infographics, word clouds, timelines, avatars, talking photos, games, apps, podcasts, etc... and send them to us! In our newsletters, we will feature some of the great stuff YOU have Created! THEME: It’s time to re-think our perspective on Technology from nouns (tools) like Powerpoint, Wordle, GoAnimate, to Verbs (skills) like Communicating, Presenting, and Telling stories! I know, I know, the newsletter is late. Well, let me explain. I started compiling resources for this one newsletter on tech tools to Create, and then BOOM, Pandora’s box was opened! I realized that it was not for “A” newsletter, there was enough great sites and tools for 4 or 5 newsletters! I know many of our past newsletters have been biased towards only educators, but these resources are fantastic for Anyone: parents, grandparents, accountants, actors, construction workers, nurses, dragons, mythical beasts, unicorns, literally anyone. Just a heads up that most of these tools require you to sign up; don't be deterred, they are free and only take a minute to sign-up. Here is the breakdown of the next few week’s of newsletters:
Are you a visual learner? We’ve created a Symbaloo webmix, which provides links to ALL of the resources over the next 5 weeks. If you are ambitious, play around! For this week’s newsletter, we will focus on the first 3 columns on the left. REPRESENT Infographics We told you that this newsletter is not only for kids, and here is proof in the pudding! Infographics are fantastic for businesses, marketing, researchers, and more! In a world with so much data and information (most presented as text-heavy stimuli), infographics allow you to visualize data in a fun, interesting, and engaging way, especially for visual learners! Here are 2 great tools. We have personally used Piktochart with grade five students and they were amazing, so you’re never too young, and both sites have How-to videos, or you can check out YouTube.  Piktochart: http://piktochart.com (Facebook log-in or sign-up required)  Infogram: https://infogr.am (Facebook log-in or sign-up required) Interactive Images / Poster Glogster is a little older and is pretty cool for an interactive digital poster, which you can embed in your website or blog. Thinglink rocks! It is super creative and allows you to embed video, music, links, and much more in an interactive image!  Glogster: http://www.glogster.com (30 Day Free Trial)  ThingLink: http://www.thinglink.com (Facebook log-in or sign-up required) Fake Profiles  Fake profiles for historical figures http://www.classtools.net/FB/home-page (No sign-up or sign-in required) This might be more for teachers, but is definitely a cool tool. For example, you could create a fake facebook profile using this tool for one of your heroes who lived over a hundred years ago. What would their Facebook status say? Who were their friends? Ditch the author biography and rock this new alternative! DIGITAL STORYTELLING I am not going to go into detail for each and every tool here. Essentially, these are all online tools for telling stories through animations, comics, videos, etc... Spend a few quick minutes clicking the links and see what you think. Animate / Present BOO to Powerpoint, YAY to engaging new tools that make Presentations more exciting! GoAnimate: http://goanimate.com (Facebook log-in or sign-up required) Above is an example of the capabilities of what you could create using GoAnimate. PowToon: http://www.powtoon.com (Facebook log-in or sign-up required) Above is an example of the capabilities of what you could create using GoAnimate.  Tellagami App (Animate your life!) https://tellagami.com Storyboard  StoryBoard That! http://www.storyboardthat.com (Sign-up required) Comics I am a little bit biased towards BitStrips because I have used it for years. The reason I love it is that it truly gets kids thinking critically about every last detail. You can zoom images in and out, change the body language of characters, facial expressions, there is so much freedom! It’s fantastic for looking at all of the essential elements in creating a great visual story!  BitStrips: http://www.bitstrips.com (Facebook log-in or sign-up required) What is really cool about BitStrips is that they have recently created the BitStrips app for Facebook, which allows you to create status updates using your own avatar, and let’s you create comics that include any of your other friends who have created an Avatar using this app, in your comics. If you are a teacher, check out the free class trial, where all of your students can create their own avatars and it groups them in an old-school class picture...very cool!  Pixton: http://www.pixton.com/ca/ (Facebook log-in or sign-up required)  Witty Comics: http://www.wittycomics.com (No Sign-up or sign-in required) Pop-up 3D Book ZooBurst: http://www.zooburst.com (Sign-up required) Artful Storytelling  StoryBird: http://storybird.com (Sign-up required, and has a safe sign-up option for kids under 13) Video Now, keep in mind that in a few weeks, we will offer free tools where you can make screencasts, edit video, remix video and more. This is one simple tool that allows you to make animation-type videos.  ZimmerTwins: http://www.zimmertwins.com/movie/create (No sign-up or sign-in required) Museum Box  Museum Box: http://museumbox.e2bn.org/index.php Note: Students can't directly sign-up for this, but you can grab a teacher's account and then you are able to give students access to their own accounts) Virtual Tours  Virtual tours http://edtechguro.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/virtual-tours-via-google-presentations/ This is a video that teaches you how to use PowerPoint to create Virtual tours. You could also use the same skills learned from this video, and instead of making a Virtual tour, you could create a “Choose your own Adventure” book! Digital Storytelling Apps  33 apps for digital storytelling and creativity If you want to tell stories using technology, but want to do it on your tablet, rather than your laptop or desktop, check out this list. http://mattbgomez.com/33-great-apps-for-storytelling-and-creativity/ Start creating and send us what you’ve created so we can show it off in next week’s newsletter!
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What are Jeff, Tosca, and ED-ucation publishing up to? (and the winner of A is for Action)10/10/2013 In this edition, we remind you of upcoming online education conferences (@FETC, which is beginning RIGHT NOW, and #RSCON4), where our very own Tosca Killoran will be presenting at the Reform Symposium E-Conference this weekend! We share updates on our published books (TED, A is for Action, Destiny Quest), as well as an update on our upcoming series of books (11 books focused on character education and the IB Learner Profile). We will also share a TED talk and website created by our very own students at Bonn International School. AND last, but certainly not least, we will offer you the chance to get a FREE E-copy of a Teacher Guide that focuses on kids taking action on domestic and international hunger (a value of $12), and we announce who has interacted the most with our last 4 newsletters, helping us to gain new subscribers, winning a free print version of our book A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action. Strap in, get comfortable, and Enjoy!  We are very proud to announce that our free TED eBooks have been downloaded more than 2000 times! These books focus on teaching the world about TED, TEDx, TED-Ed, as well as how to organize your very own TEDx event! Reviews: Thank you for this wonderful resource! I have been searching for something like this for quite some time, as I am a teacher who has been interested in TED, seen a few of the videos and wanted to find ways to incorporate it into an education setting. This eBook has it all and more! It really synthesizes how interested individuals can get more involved in TED in a meaningful and productive way. This is terrific! Admittedly, I did not know a lot about TED, but I have been TED-ucated. The materials were clear and concise, the links were helpful and the audio option was great. Congratulations - you have done a wonderful job! For more information on any or all of these books, click HERE. Coming Soon: -Over the next few months, you will see updates made to these books to keep them current and relevant to any changes that have been made. -We will also be releasing a version of TED-ucate Yourself in Chinese!  We were very excited to release our book A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action. It has gained a great deal of exposure and we have received very positive feedback from teachers, students, parents, and action organizations. We are extremely happy with the print version of this book - it looks and feels amazing! This is the quality that we strive to provide for our learning community. For the eBook version, we recommend that you purchase the book through Follett (FLR#5167CI5) or DedicatedTeacher. In the next few months, we will continue to add to and build www.HelpTakeAction.com, which is the complementary site to the book. We plan to add case studies to give the HOW (skills and know-how) in the book further context, so you can see what it looks like in practice. If you haven't seen our A is for Action Rap song yet, you HAVE to check this out!  For schools using Follett’s Destiny Quest, we are proud to say that we are offering the one and only comprehensive guide, Destiny Quest: An Educator’s Guide. Follett has recently released Follett Enlight, and we will be adding updates to our site, www.DestinyQuestGuide.com to keep the contents of this book recent and relevant.  We are SOOOOOOO excited for our next set of 11 books, which we hope to have available within the next few months! Tosca, Janet Hannah, and our illustrative colorist Riva Zietsoff (who has worked for Disney), have been working tirelessly on these amazing books. This series focuses on character education, (perfect for the IB Learner Profile), and will support teachers, students, and parents in learning about: being honest, having integrity, showing respect, being open-minded to other’s ideas, using critical thinking skills, believing in themselves, and being empathetic, compassionate and caring citizens. While focusing on attitudes and behavior attributes, this series tackles relevant issues that kids and youth face everyday, including: bullying, improving the environment, choosing healthy food options, how to be more successful as a learner, or dealing with struggles when learning a new language or being the new student. We will keep you updated on the release dates for these books!  If you have not checked out the ED-ucation Publishing blog, you are definitely missing out. Tosca Killoran’s poetic writing style combined with her honest and insightful approach, results in a journey of life’s experiences and teaching through the eye of a caring educator. Here are some of the previously written blog posts, that you should definitely check out: Teacher Appreciation Day The Musings of a Vegetarian Teacher Being a Teacher with a Learning Disability International Teaching and the mark of Impermanence The Heart of Teaching Heroes, Secret Plans and Breaking the Law Reflections on Family Job Fair Season Life, in the Time of Cholera Reciprocity and Benevolence On the Playground There are 2 upcoming FREE online conferences that focus on Technology, and on the Future of Education that you should mark on your calendars.  Look at who is Presenting Register for the Conference Check your local time when it all goes down - Just a heads up, it is on RIGHT NOW!!!  RSCON: Reform Symposium E-Conference October 11th-13th There are some brilliant sessions to take part in over this weekend, one of which will be presented by our very own Tosca Killoran! Click HERE to learn more about Tosca’s session on “Taking Action to make Change to and in the World”. For this conference, you do not need to register to attend, just click HERE to find the sessions you would like to attend and follow the instructions on the page. I’ll be rooting Tosca on from Kelowna, B.C., Canada at 4pm on Sunday, Oct 13, but you will need to click the link above and scroll down to find your appropriate time zone and then look at Sunday’s line-up and find out what time you should be taking part. We have some Amazing students that we have worked with and continue to work with. In the spirit of keeping with this last month’s theme of Technology, we are featuring a few of our awesome students, and can’t wait to share more of what our students are doing in future newsletters! The following is a TED talk from this year's TEDxYouth@BIS event. Keep an eye on the TEDxYouth@BIS website, where you will see videos from all of this year's speakers appear in the next few weeks! Paul Appel’s TEDx Talk - "Social Media Develops International Mindedness" Paul Appel, is a native German and has lived in Germany since his birth but has travelled to all five continents visiting a big variety of countries. Through his talk he will explain how social networks have influenced our world drastically and have helped to make our planet a better place. Paul is very interested in this topic because he attends an international school with students from all over the world and has experienced how social networks can help to build and improve international thinking.  Valeria created a website with a compilation of resources for students, parents, and teachers to teach about Digital Citizenship and Cyberbullying, as well as an eBook with tips to stay safe. She shared what she learned globally using TEDxYouth@BIS 2012 as a platform.  It’s FREE time! We want to thank our good friend Larry Levine, who is the Co-Founder of KIDS can make a Difference, an amazing organization that inspires young people to realize that it is within their power to help eliminate hunger and poverty in their community and world. He has been active in supporting us and we appreciate his help. Here is what Larry would like to offer our awesome subscribers:  Free Copy of Teacher Guide The Kids Can Make A Difference (KIDS) program has as its centerpiece an innovative teacher guide, Finding Solutions To Hunger: Kids Can Make A Difference. Thousands of books have been sold worldwide. The 251-page guide provides interactive lessons designed to challenge and engage middle and high school students as they explore the root causes of—and solutions to—domestic and international hunger. Students will examine colonialism, contemporary development projects, the media, and famine vs. chronic hunger, the working poor, and more. The guide also offers helpful examples of community service projects. The Guide is available in English and Spanish. To take advantage of this free offer send an email to kids@kidscanmakeadifference.org and place EDP Offer in the subject line. Include your contact information including address and email address. You will receive an email containing the link to download the guide (Be sure to specify either the English or Spanish version)  ....and the winner is! We want to Thank everyone for their engagement in the last month and for supporting us. Many people were very active with this past month’s newsletters, but there was one person that we wanted to thank for their support that went above and beyond. Congratulations to Ms. Ann Martin! Expect a free copy of A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action in the mail! In the next month, we aim to look at kids as creators and makers, and creative spaces, both at school and at home. We hope that these themes appeal to teachers, as well as parents, students, and all the great people who follow us.
Next week: Creating using online tools (e.g. Comics, Word clouds, Animations) SEE YOU NEXT WEEK! TECH Month continues and spills over into October....with Social Media!
Nick Chater: Where Quality and Quantity of TECH tweets meet! 
Free Tech 4 Teachers: We featured Richard Byrne’s Twitter account a few months ago, but this might be a better place to follow if you prefer Facebook! 
Med Kharbach: Fantastic TECH boards (e.g. Free Tech for Teachers, Google Guide for Teachers, YouTube Tools, 21st Century Education, Free iPad Apps, and Great Web Tools) 
Teachers on Pinterest: Great boards for Pre-School to Grade 6 and Subject boards (more of an overall teaching resource, but some TECH interlaced) 
We may or may not agree with these opinions, but these are perfect for inspiring some great discussions between staff. Article 1: Should Schools Implement Social Media Policies? Article 2: How (And Why) To Try Twitter Teams In School Article 3: 10 Reasons we Need Social Media in Education See you next week!
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ED-venture #1: Welcome #2 Take Action / Social Good #3 TECH Websites #4 TECH Apps #5 TECH PD #6 TECH in Social Media Archives
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