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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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Welcome back to your #EdTech source for great websites, Apps, PD, Social media, and FREE resources. That is right, as a subscriber to our newsletter, we want you to enjoy some cool free stuff! Last month, we featured Symbaloo and after a quick Tweet, Symbaloo responded! They decided to give YOU access to a free #BacktoSchool package full of #EdTech freebies for you and your students. 
The banner above isn't linked, but if you are interested and want more details and the promo code to get these freebies, scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter!  Just a Reminder, and for our NEW subscribers: For the person who interacts the most with the first 4 newsletters this month (opens, clicks, forwards, comments), we will send you a FREE paperback copy of our newest book A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action! To preview the first 9 pages of this book, click HERE and press “Download Sample”. We will announce the winner in our 5th newsletter, which should come your way on September 30th. TECH Month continues....with APPS!
It's difficult for us to recommend the best Apps for everyone, as you all have different needs, so we thought we would share a few APP "hubs" where you can find some great lists. Explore APPitic, or use the quicklinks below to go straight to what you want: Apps by Subject area Apps for Preschool Apps for Special Needs Apps for CBL (Challenge-based Learning) Apps for the Flipped Classroom Apps for Bloom's Taxonomy Apps for Multiple Intelligences Apps for Physical Education 
APPlist Builder tool: If you want to create your own personalized APP lists to share with parents, fellow educators, friends, family, or use with your students for specific subjects, skills or for homework, check out this new tool. If you end up making a cool list that you would like to share, please shoot it our way! 
AppsGoneFree: Download this free app, and check it daily for a small list of Apps that typically sell for $1.99, $2.99, $4.99 or more, but get them FREE! 
iPads for Education: Offers great APPS, organized by Category. 
APPList: This tool allows you to share a list of all your iPhone- and iPad-Applications with your friends, your colleagues and your family. Nothing more, nothing less. Here is Jeff's List from a few months ago. Please don't judge ;) 
ARTICLE: Why the “Explain Everything” APP is a must-have. 
Use Socrative as a student response system in any class (how kids are doing, polls, multiple choice) - check out the video. Digital Citizenship APPSIf you are interested in this topic, perhaps you want to recommend it to us for a future newsletter. 
eSafe Kids App - $0.99 
Garfield's Online Safety App - Free 
Netiquette for Kids App - Free See you next week for TECH Professional Development |
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
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