|
We are breaking ALL of the rules for #BlackFriday and giving you 48 hours to shop at your leisure. We're also sharing two recent (and Awesome) events that have brought some attention to what Tosca Killoran, Jeff Hoffart, Janet Hannah, Riva Zietsoff and the rest of our brilliant team has been working so hard on for you! Black Friday Deals Black Friday is simply an excuse to offer our community some sweet deals. Symbaloo EDU approached us, so we teamed up with them and DedicatedTeacher.com to offer you up to 50% off of our own books, along with Many…Many more sweet deals. Check out our "Black Friday Landing page" or click the image for details about deals on our books and sweet deals from: Symbaloo, Discovery Education, Apple, Blendspace, Lego Education, DedicatedTeacher, Barnes & Noble and more! 
ChangeUP Rewards Social Innovators 
We are extremely excited that ED-ucation Publishing won 1st place in the Okanagan Changemaker’s Social Innovation competition! Chosen as 1 of the top 3 to pitch (out of 16 applicants) at the sold-out ChangeUP event, 325 audience members voted for us as the #1 company that they felt would make the most effective change in a positive way. We were extremely honored to share the stage with fellow Changemakers, including some powerful youth change agents, socially-minded organizations, charities, and companies, including: Chris Priebe, who helped create Club Penguin, has led teams at Disney and now works on creating safe digital environments for kids using Pottymouth Chat tools. There are too many amazing people to spotlight, but we wanted to Thank the Okanagan Changemakers team for creating and holding the event, all of the pitch participants, showcase participants, and applicants for their commitment to making this world a better place! News Article Photos from the event (Courtesy of Glen Durrell Photography) Global Education Conference 2013 
We held the most attended session on Day 1 of this worldwide Education Conference! We were EXTREMELY excited to have more than 100 Attendees from all across the globe! Participant Feedback: "I have learned more in this session than I have in 23 years of college!" -Greg (Hazlet Township Public Schools, NJ) Tosca Killoran and Jeff Hoffart held a session on "Students as Creators", providing a plethora of #EdTech tools that foster the development of this movement. Jeff discussed these tools in the context of his classroom, providing examples of purposeful choice for authentic audiences, while Tosca rocked the discussions and networking going on in the chat! Video Blog post (Presentation slides and Resources) It's been busy lately, but we promise that we will soon return to our series on "Tools to Create"!
The next edition focuses on Creating Avatars, Talking Photos, Games, and Apps. Get your friends to subscribe, because this one is going to be Awesome!
0 Comments
 If you are looking for the resources from our Global Education Conference session yesterday (Slides, Symbaloo, Video), check out our newest blog post or click HERE.
There is also a reflection on 4 other sessions we attended and links to their resources and session videos. Enjoy!  We wanted to share 3 exciting upcoming events that ED-ucation Publishing is taking part in! We play a role in the Global Education Conference as a presenter, in the Okanagan Changemaker's ChangeUP as a Pitch participant, and in Desire2Learn's Edge Challenge as a Judge. Read on for more details about each event!  Announcing the fourth annual Global Education Conference, a free week-long online event bringing together educators and innovators from around the world, held Monday, November 18 through Friday, November 22, 2013 (Saturday, November 23rd in some time zones). Follow on Twitter (#GEC2013 or @GlobalEdCon) Like on Facebook Jeff Hoffart and Tosca Killoran will be presenting on: Students as Creators Session Brief: There is a current movement towards student-led learning, student empowerment, and students as creators or makers, which aligns with the revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In Creating, students learn to generate new ideas, ways of thinking, or habits of mind in designing, constructing, planning, producing and inventing. Learn about how certain tools can foster the development of these higher-order thinking skills, as well as promote connectivity and collaboration within and beyond your classroom. Session Date: Monday, November 18th, 2013 Time: 10 AM in B.C. (GMT-8), 7 PM in Bonn (CET) Session Link  Okanagan Changemaker's ChangeUP Social Pitch Competition If you are in the Okanagan region, come out for this great event. It is an amazing opportunity for you to support local change makers. ED-ucation Publishing has been chosen as 1 of the 3 "for profits" that will pitch to win funding and services! Get your tickets today to enjoy a great evening. Come out and vote! Follow on Twitter (#ChangeUP or @OKchangemakers) Like on Facebook  Desire2Learn's Edge Challenge
Desire2Learn is challenging post-secondary students to shape the future of education by building apps that improve the experience of teachers, students and administrators. Jeff Hoffart of ED-ucation Publishing has been chosen as a Judge for this great challenge. Follow along to see what innovative ideas and apps students develop! Follow on Twitter (#D2LEdge or @Desire2Learn) Like on Facebook We challenge YOU to CREATE! This week: Word Clouds, Mindmaps, Timelines and QR Codes! Take a look at the preview image below; if you want to learn what these are and how to easily Create them, then Read on (or pass this along to anyone else you feel might be interested)!  For the next 3 weeks, learn how to Create: talking photos, avatars, remixed videos, games, apps, podcasts, etc... and send them to us! In our newsletters, we will feature some of the great stuff YOU have Created! Here is the breakdown of the next few week’s of newsletters: -Create Avatars, Talking Photos, Games, and Apps (Get your friends to subscribe, because this one is going to be Awesome!) -Create Podcasts, Vodcasts, Remixed Videos and Hold Webinars or Online Conferences -Bring it all together and publish your content, by creating a blog or website For this week’s newsletter, we will focus on Creating visualizations (Word clouds, mind maps and timelines), which is the top block of 10 (to the right of “Popcorn maker”), as well as the 2 brown icons (QR Code Generators). VISUALIZE Wordle was one of the first to rock the scene with creating word clouds. Just a heads up, that they now have an App! If you have never created a word cloud, I am sure you have seem them around in ads, stores, online, etc... Word clouds take only a few minutes to create and can be highly effective in representing data or information, analyzing data in documents/sites (seeing which words occur most frequently), appealing to visual learners, or for marketing your brand. TIP: For each of the tools below, you will likely have to have to latest version of Java or a browser plug-in; it will prompt you. For teachers: 108 ways to use Word Clouds (sorted by different subjects) For business use: 3 Ways to use Word Clouds as a Business Research tool  Tagxedo Quicknotes: No log-in or subscription required, just use it! Use the quick “Start now” box and create a word cloud from a website, twitter account, news item or blog. You can also hit “Create”, press “Load” and then type or paste text. Personalize your font, colors, orientation, and then save it as a JPG or PNG. 101 ways to use Tagxedo Tagul This is very similar to Tagxedo. If you sign-up (free), you can upload your own image (e.g. your logo) and the word cloud will fit to the image! Another cool bonus is that each word in your cloud is a clickable hyperlink to a search for that term on Google.  ImageChef Benefits: No sign-up required. Likely the easiest of these tools to access and use and definitely has the largest amount of pre-created symbol shapes to create your word cloud. Limitations: Not the greatest for larger blocks of text from sites or documents. Get the App MIND MAPPING Mind maps are a cool way to organize and visualize ideas, showing connections, hierarchy, categories and sub-categories. In University, I used Inspiration and as a teacher I have used Kidspiration, but these cost money, so let us enlighten you and save you a few bucks.  Popplet Benefits: Easy to use, timewarp option to go back through the changes you have made, can embed text, photos, links, YouTube or Vimeo videos, and there is a free App , Recommended for kids and families. Limitations: The free version only allows you to create one Popplet. The Pro app costs $4.99, but it gives you access to real-time collaboration and allows you to create unlimited Popplets.  SpiderScribe Benefits: Beyond images and text, you can also include Google maps, excel/word/PDF documents, links and calendar events. Recommended for businesses. Limitations: 30-day free trial, free if your mindmaps are public, but limited use of space without paying.  Bubbl.us This tool doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it is simple. You can create mind maps using bubbles and text and export the finished product as an image, all without signing in or creating an account (But, if you want to edit and change your creation, you might want to create a free account). TIMELINES Creating timelines can be boring for kids or adults, but not anymore! These interactive timeline tools bring time to life and ensures time does not stand still! These are great tools for kids to look at school topics over time, understanding the development of an idea, invention, biography, etc... For businesses, this is a great way to show your progress and milestones. "For anyone creating an online resume or portfolio, these tools show you are a Tech All-star, while communicating your resume-portfolio in a creative and innovative way." (Tweetable moment) TimeToast This is super easy to use, simple, and free (but you will have to put up with some banner ads on your pages - no biggie). Add events on a timeline with descriptions, dates, an image and a link. Once published, you can embed these timelines on a website or blog.  Capzles Capzles takes this same idea and has advanced capabilities (add videos, music, Excel/Word/PDF documents, background music) and there’s an App! QR CODE READERS I have never understood why companies charge people to create QR codes for you, when you can do it yourself in seconds for free! QR codes have taken off a little, but it is actually quite amazing the cool and creative ways you can use these things. TIP: For you or others to scan these, you will need a QR reader. APPS: “Scan” is the most common, but I find “RedLaser” to be the most dependable. QR Code Readers for: -Mac Laptops / Desktops (Uses built-in iSight camera) -Windows Laptops / Desktops (Uses built-in webcam) -QR Code Reader Website (Access from ANY computer, with no need to download) QR CODE GENERATORS Get creative! A few years ago, I had my parents work to get their Christmas present as they were sent on a QR code scavenger hunt around the house! For marketing, you could put these in your window, on your vehicle, on your merchandise, or on your clothes; the options are endless. Kaywa If you choose “static”, there is no log-in required. This means that the QR code will go to the website you entered. If you upgrade to Dynamic, you can log in and change where the QR code goes (e.g. people scan it to see your facebook profile, and a week later you can change it to go to your website). VisualLead This generator has a few more options (e.g. scan QR code to send a tweet, add your contact info. to their phone), but the key benefit here is that it turns your boring old QR code into a visual code using a library of background images, or upload your own. QR Code Generator Website (Audio Message) SnapVu: Create a QR Code, Track its Use, and Change its Navigation as needed Remember: Send us any of your creations from last week's tools or from this newsletter!
In the next week, we will see how you great subscribers get on and may hold off an extra week to allow you to play and create! That being said, the next newsletter is, by far, the most fun and interesting one we have ever created. Learn how to Create Avatars, Talking Photos, Games, and Apps! Help us add new subscribers because you will not want to miss this! |
Previous Newsletters
ED-venture #1: Welcome #2 Take Action / Social Good #3 TECH Websites #4 TECH Apps #5 TECH PD #6 TECH in Social Media Archives
March 2014
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
