Sunday, 16 June 2019

Creating Interactive & Collaborative Presentations




Sutori (formerly Hstry) - https://www.sutori.com/ - is a tool for creating interactive multimedia projects such as presentations and timelines.

It's also an ideal tool for digital storytelling.  

Learners can use their creative skills to design and 
share digital stories with others.

Their stories can include uploaded…
·        photos,
·        videos,
·        audio clips
…and many more.

Sutori supports real-time collaboration enabling Learners to collaboratively work on their projects. They can invite each other to…
·        view,
·        comment and/or
·        edit
…their stories.

There are numerous ways Learners can share their stories: they can…
·        print them in PDF format,
·        share them to Google Classroom,
·        publish them in a blog or website through an embed code, and/or
·        share them via email.

Sutori works seamlessly with Google Drive allowing learners to import and embed any file taken from Google Drive (e.g., Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Drawings).

Sutori also works with several other popular platforms including…
·        Twitter (embed tweets into Sutori projects),
·        ED-puzzle,
·        History.com, and
·        Prezi.

Sutori features a collection of educational resources and guides designed specifically for educators showcasing the different ways they are using this tool in their learning environments. For example, educators will learn about tips to create a great story; how to use Sutori with elementary learners; how Maths, Science, Social Studies, English, Arts, Music, and Language educators are integrating Sutori in their teaching.

To learn more about Sutori watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/embed/VAjIF_JVwgg

If you give Sutoria try or have already used Sutori, do share your feedback, positive and/or negative, in the comments.

Thank you

P.S. To make it easier for you to locate posts that are appropriate, take a look at my two Live Binders at…
1.       https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510432 (for 2018 posts) and
2.       https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510566 (for this year’s posts)

P.S.S. Disclaimer: I don't have any relationship (financial or in exchange for services) with any of the items that I post.

"I post about items that I either like using myself or have found them to be very helpful and/or I feel that educators and/or Learners will find they can enhance their current practice by trying them out."

Thursday, 13 June 2019

Prepare, Sprint and Review - The Learning Sprints Process

Learning Sprints - https://learningsprints.com/ - supports the adoption of evidence-informed practices and enables educators to collectively plan, act and evaluate their impact. 

The approach is aligned with the existing research evidence into the features of effective teacher professional learning and the science of behaviour change.

The Learning Sprints Process

There are three Key Phases

1. Prepare:
a. Define: What student learning outcome do we want to focus our practice improvement on? For which students? What evidence justifies this decision? 
b. Design: What small, specific actions can we take in our classrooms to improve student learning? 
c. Assess: What evidence of student learning will we collect? 

2. Sprint: 
a. Teach: In what ways are we deliberately improving our teaching practices? 
b. Monitor: How are we collecting evidence of student learning? What is it telling us? 
c. Support: How are we harnessing peer and expert feedback?

3. Review. 
a. Analyse: What progress did students make and how did our actions contribute to this? 
b. Transfer: How can we transfer what we’ve learned into future practice and ways of working together? 
c. Reset: What professional learning could we engage in next, in order to help us maximise our impact on student learning? 

Most of all, it is designed to be adaptable to a learning providers context and focused on the challenges specific to their learning environments and their learners.

It’s also well worth checking out the “Learning Sprints” site for free resources, videos, tools, stories and support.

If you give “Learning Sprints” a try or have already used “Learning Sprints”, do share your feedback, positive and/or negative, in the comments.

Thank you

P.S. To make it easier for you to locate posts that are appropriate, take a look at my two Live Binders at…
1. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510432 (for 2018 posts) and
2. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510566 (for this year’s posts)

P.S.S. Disclaimer: I don't have any relationship (financial or in exchange for services) with any of the items that I post.

"I post about items that I either like using myself or have found them to be very helpful and/or I feel that educators and/or Learners will find they can enhance their current practice by trying them out."

Saturday, 8 June 2019

ViewPure's New Section - “Teacher Resources”


ViewPure - http://www.viewpure.com/ - an interesting web tool that enables users to watch YouTube videos in clutter and distraction-free space, has added an interesting new feature designed specifically for educators. 

Teacher Resources - http://www.viewpure.com/pages/teacher-resources-chooser/ - is a new section where users can browse through and access educational video content curated specifically for educational purposes. 

These video resources are arranged into four main categories…
high school, 
middle school, 
upper elementary, and 
preK-lower elementary. 

Each of these categories embed popular ViewPure video resources organised by subject. 

Educators may want to spend some time browsing through the collection of purified videos there and see what works for their learners 

To make things even easier, ViewPure offers a bookmarklet that lets you purify YouTube videos with a single click.

If you give “ViewPure’s New Section Teacher Resources” a try or have already used “ViewPure’s New Section Teacher Resources”, do share your feedback, positive and/or negative, in the comments.

Thank you

P.S. To make it easier for you to locate posts that are appropriate, take a look at my two Live Binders at…
1. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510432 (for 2018 posts) and
2. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510566 (for this year’s posts)

P.S.S. Disclaimer: I don't have any relationship (financial or in exchange for services) with any of the items that I post.

"I post about items that I either like using myself or have found them to be very helpful and/or I feel that educators and/or Learners will find they can enhance their current practice by trying them out."

Monday, 3 June 2019

An on-line assessment tool

GoFormative - https://goformative.com/ - is an on-line assessment that can be used to create and deliver assessments that include…
handwritten responses, 
diagram-based questions, 
interactive image-based questions, 
…and many other question styles.
GoFormative can be added to G Suite for Education. 
Take a look at Richard Byrne’s Video clip - https://www.youtube.com/embed/2zBmYDiRPkI - where he shows how GoFormative can be added as a domain-wide tool or it can be added to a user’s individual account.

Richard has also produced other video clips, showing ways to use GoFormative for Formative assessments
1. How to Create Show Your Work Questions on GoFormative.com - https://www.youtube.com/embed/8YPKKTx0PaY
2. How to create labelling activities in GoFormative.com - https://www.youtube.com/embed/B5TSn_TgKl8 - and
3. Use GoFormative to Create Diagram-based Quizzes - https://www.youtube.com/embed/BR6l-BCJIQc

If you give “GoFormative” a try or have already used “GoFormative”, do share your feedback, positive and/or negative, in the comments.

Thank you

P.S. To make it easier for you to locate posts that are appropriate, take a look at my two Live Binders at…
1. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510432 (for 2018 posts) and
2. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510566 (for this year’s posts)

P.S.S. Disclaimer: I don't have any relationship (financial or in exchange for services) with any of the items that I post.

"I post about items that I either like using myself or have found them to be very helpful and/or I feel that educators and/or Learners will find they can enhance their current practice by trying them out."

Friday, 31 May 2019

Coding Resource


Code.org offers a wide variety of coding courses - https://studio.code.org/courses - designed for grades K-12 and beyond. 

NOTE: Some of the materials are available without having to sign in. 

The courses and activities will help learners: learn how to…
make their own game, app or computer drawing; 
build real working apps, games and websites using HTML, CSSS, JavaScript, blocks and more. 

Code.org also offers on-line university courses to help learners master various programming skills. 

There is also the popular “Hour of Code” - https://code.org/hourofcode/overview - that provides one-hour tutorials available in over 45 languages and designed to attend to the different coding needs of learners. 

Find out more about Code.org by watching the video clip at https://www.youtube.com/embed/mTGSiB4kB18


If you give “Code.org” a try or have already used “Code.org”, do share your feedback, positive and/or negative, in the comments.

Thank you

P.S. To make it easier for you to locate posts that are appropriate, take a look at my two Live Binders at…
1. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510432 (for 2018 posts) and
2. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510566 (for this year’s posts)

P.S.S. Disclaimer: I don't have any relationship (financial or in exchange for services) with any of the items that I post.


"I post about items that I either like using myself or have found them to be very helpful and/or I feel that educators and/or Learners will find they can enhance their current practice by trying them out."

Tuesday, 28 May 2019

A Tool Educators & Presenters Will LOVE


Wheel of Names” - https://wheelofnames.com/ - is a random selector tool that was designed for choosing winners/names. 

However, educators can use “Wheel of Names” for so much more! E.g. “Different Writing prompts / Projects /Presentations / Podcasts #Vidcasts etc.”

Users of “Wheel of Names” are able to type text but the entire text won’t show up on the wheel piece. However, when users spin the wheel the entire text pops up once a piece has been selected.
"One of the nice things about this tool is that users can click Remove to eliminate that selected piece from the spinner if they want to spin again."
NOTE: This tool can be used without signing into an account. However, if educators wish to use their spinners over and over again or want to create one ahead of time, they can login with their Google account and their lists can be accessed and edited any time under the Open List Tab.

There are several different ways users can share their spinners with others to use. 
1. Share>Get Shareable Link. 
2. Enter someone's email address by clicking Share>Email List. 
3. They can also be embedded into blogs/websites.

Enhancing the wheel…
Under the Customise tab users can choose to add an image in the centre of the wheel 

Other customisations include Changing…
the section colours, 
spin time, 
sound and 
the message that pops up once a name/category has been selected.

This “Wheel of Names” web-tool works beautifully on Chromebooks, laptops/computers and has been optimised to run well on most mobile phones and tablets.

Other Features…

Importing from Google Forms:

If users are delivering a presentation and want to choose a winner for completing a survey, create the survey in Google Forms
It’s essential to include a question that asks for the attendee's name or email address. 
Once information has been collected, 
click on Summary to create the spreadsheet of responses. 
Then on your “Wheel of Names” spinner (make sure you are signed in), select Import>Link Google Spreadsheet. 
Choose your spreadsheet, select which tab and column you would like to pull from and then all of the information you need will be sent to your digital spinner!

There are many more really cool features that you can read about in the FAQ section of the website at https://wheelofnames.com/faq.html 
Update!

I’ve just discovered that users now have the ability to add images to the different spokes of the wheel!

If you give “Wheel of Names” a try or have already used “Wheel of Names”, do share your feedback, positive and/or negative, in the comments.

Thank you

P.S. To make it easier for you to locate posts that are appropriate, take a look at my two Live Binders at…
1. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510432 (for 2018 posts) and
2. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510566 (for this year’s posts)

P.S.S. Disclaimer: I don't have any relationship (financial or in exchange for services) with any of the items that I post.

"I post about items that I either like using myself or have found them to be very helpful and/or I feel that educators and/or Learners will find they can enhance their current practice by trying them out."

Thursday, 23 May 2019

Video Feedback


Otus - https://otus.com/ - is a learning management system (LMS) that’s evolved from a relatively simple iPad app into a full-fledged LMS that can be used on any device. 

Educators can add video feedback to their learners through the Otus learning management system

It's easy to do from any computer that has a webcam. Richard Byrne’s Video clip “How to Give Video Feedback in the Otus LMS” - https://www.youtube.com/embed/qv0_07ds5x8 - demonstrates how to add video feedback to a learners' portfolios in the Otus LMS

NOTE: Video feedback in Otus could also be used to just give learners some encouragement.

If you give “Otus " a try or have already used “Otus “, do share your feedback, positive and/or negative, in the comments.

Thank you

P.S. To make it easier for you to locate posts that are appropriate, take a look at my two Live Binders at…
1. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510432 (for 2018 posts) and
2. https://www.livebinders.com/b/2510566 (for this year’s posts)

P.S.S. Disclaimer: I don't have any relationship (financial or in exchange for services) with any of the items that I post.

"I post about items that I either like using myself or have found them to be very helpful and/or I feel that educators and/or Learners will find they can enhance their current practice by trying them out."