Thứ Ba, 17 tháng 11, 2015

5 Good Google Hangouts Apps for Teachers

November 17, 2015
In yesterday’s post we talked about how to create a video Hangout on Google Plus together with a few other things you can do in your Hangouts (e.g. how to invite people to your Hangouts, how to share the content of your screen with others and how to share links and files). We have also mentioned an important feature which allows you to add apps to your Hangouts. These are third party extensions that bring a variety of functionalities to your Hangouts. For instance, there are apps that enable you to create drawings in your hangouts, watch YouTube videos with your participants, apps for realtime collaboration on diagrams and many more. Below is a collection of some very good apps to try in your Hangouts. Here is how to access and install apps in your Hangouts:

To add apps, click on the more icon on the left-hand side of your video call window and select ‘Add apps’. Browse through the apps featured in the ‘featured’ or ‘recent’ tabs and pick out the ones you want to add.



1- YouTube

This is absolutely a must have app. It allows you to watch YouTube videos inside your Hangouts. All participants get to see the same video you are playing. You can also create playlists to share with others.

2- Google Effects

This app provides you with a collection of effects to customize your Hangouts experience. These include things such as background pictures, sound clips, props, headwear, facial hair and many more.

3- Cacoo for Hangouts

Cacoo for Hangouts is a good drawing tool that allows multiple users to collaboratively work on the same diagram in realtime.

4- Google Art Project

This allows you to ‘join friends on a tour around the inspiring artworks on the Google Art Project.’

5- Soundation

This is particularly useful for music teachers. Soundation allows you to create music with your friends in a Hangout.

Thứ Hai, 16 tháng 11, 2015

7 of The Best iPad Apps for learning Human Anatomy in 3D

November 17, 2015
Following the publication of ‘TED Talks on The Workings of Human Body’ we received a request to features apps for human anatomy. We went ahead and curated this collection comprising some of the most popular apps in this category. The apps will particularly help students explore the human body through 3D  graphics and interactive content. The list also includes some of the best anatomy reference apps out there.

1- Visual Anatomy Lite

‘Visual Anatomy Lite is an interactive reference, and education tool. The Lite version contains 130 high-resolution images and more than 350 feature points which can be interactively selected. Each feature has its own label and short description. Add-on Images from 6 chapters of Gray's anatomy can be used as a quick reference. 6 chapters are bones, muscles and circulation system. In additional, a quiz with 23 multi-choice questions also is included.’

2- Explore the Heart in 3D


‘Heart 3D is a learning activity which provides an immersive learning experience. You can learn about the structure and functions of human heart along with various factors affecting the normal functioning of the heart. With supporting text information and audio, along with “rotation” and “pinch to zoom” interactivities on the heart, it makes it much easier to visualize the human heart and understand its functioning.’

3- Anatomy Quiz Pro


‘Learn anatomy easily with this unique quiz app that features traditional multiple-choice quizzes on 416 structures, or our new quiz style where you match a name to one of four images. You can make your own quizzes, or have the app quiz you only on what you have missed. Includes over 416 anatomical structures in beautiful 3d renderings. The topics include 167 bones and landmarks, 138 muscles, and 111 organ images. Turn on the timer option for an extra challenge!’

4- Human Anatomy Atlas – 3D Anatomical Model of the Human Body


‘Need a human body 3D reference for your healthcare practice or to help you in your anatomy course?  Human Anatomy Atlas is the worldwide gold standard in anatomy reference apps. More colleges and universities teach with Human Anatomy Atlas than any other 3D atlas.’

5- Learn Muscles : Anatomy Quiz & Reference


‘A great reference, testing and education tool. Includes 141 beautiful muscle images with name, action, origin, insertion and comments, plus audio pronounciation guide, a quiz maker, an action viewer, 7 3d models, and 6 short videos to create a rich learning experience. ’

6- 3D Brain


‘Use your touch screen to rotate and zoom around 29 interactive structures. Discover how each brain region functions, what happens when it is injured, and how it is involved in mental illness. Each detailed structure comes with information on functions, disorders, brain damage, case studies, and links to modern research.’

7- Essential Anatomy 5


‘Essential Anatomy 5 is a full-featured anatomical reference app that includes MALE and FEMALE models, with 11 SYSTEMS and a total of 8,200 ANATOMICAL STRUCTURES. The app is fully 3D, meaning that you can view any structure in isolation, as well as from any angle and represents the latest in groundbreaking 3D technology and innovative design.’

Great Tools to Make Kids Enjoy Math Learning

November 16, 2015
Math is not only a necessity in everyday life, but it can be fun too. Don't believe me? Maybe one of these teacher-tested tools can change your mind.


SOLVY 
 Assign and grade math homework in less than 10 minutes a day. Now available for Algebra 1.
Play a variety of Common Core-aligned math games online or on a mobile app.
Young children can learn basic math while gathering virtual ingredients for silly recipes.
Young children can learn counting and musical instruments at the same time.

A simple website with printable worksheets, online games, and online drills.

Want more? Check out these shelves of tools created by educators on edshelf.

Getting Ready for an Interactive Math Class 
This is curated by bilingual teacher Coral Zayas.
This one is curated by instructional designer and online instructor Christi Collins.

By: Mike Lee, Co-founder of edshelf

Teachers Guide to Google+ Video Hangouts

November 16, 2015
It's been almost three years since the publication of our Google Hangouts guide for teachers. Since then, many interesting features have been added to Hangouts the last of which is the introduction of a new interface. In today's post, we are revisiting Hangouts features with a focus on how to create video Hangouts.  As a teacher, you can use video Hangouts with students to hold online discussions, interact and share learning resources. You can also use it for a variety of professional development purposes with peers and educators from all around the globe.  By the end of this guide, you will know how to :
  • Start a video Hangouts
  • Invite people to your Hangouts via both emails and phone calls
  • Share the content of your screen with others in a video Hangouts
  • Share and watch YouTube videos with your video call participants
  • Add apps to enhance your Hangouts performance
  • Share links and files using text chat.
1- Hangouts Plugin
For those of you using accounts that do not end in @gmail.com, you will need to install this free Hangouts Plugin. The installation takes only a few seconds and will enable you to have voice and video conversations from your computer.

2- Start a Hangouts video call


Before you start your video call make sure you camera, microphone and speakers are connected and working properly. Open Hangouts in your browser and click on the video call icon and allow Hangouts to access your video and microphone.

3- Invite people to your video call
Hangouts allow you to invite up to 9 people to your video calls. To do so, click on the Invite icon at the top of the video call window and type in your invitees email addresses or search for them by name. You can also copy the generated link of your video call and share it with others via email.


4- Invite phone participants to your Hangout
You can invite people to your Hangouts using their mobile or landline numbers and they will be able to participate without the need for having a camera. To do so, in the same window where you are asked to type in email addresses(see 3 above), click on the dialpad icon and enter your invitee’s phone number and click on ‘call’. Learn more about Phone calls in Hangouts from this page.

5- Screensharing on Google Hangouts
This feature allows you to share your computer screen in your video call. This is especially useful for doing tutorials and instructional videos. To start screensharing click on the Screenshare icon on the left-hand side of your video call window. Then choose the screen you want to share and click ’Share’.



6- YouTube in Hangouts
You can share and watch YouTube videos with others in your video Hangouts using the YouTube app. You can access the YouTube app on the left-hand side of your video call window. If the app is not listed you will have to add it using steps in tip 7 below.
Once you access YouTube app, you can then search for videos you want to watch with your invitees by clicking on the ‘Add videos to playlist’ button. And while they can see the same video and playlist you are playing, they won’t be able to see your search queries and results.


7- Adding apps to Hangouts
Apps are a great way to enhance your Hangouts productivity by providing you access to a wide range of functionalities that include: creating documents, playing games, adding fun effects and many more. To add apps, click on the more icon on the left-hand side of your video call window and select ‘Add apps’. Browse through the apps featured in the ‘featured’ or ‘recent’ tabs and pick out the ones you want to add.



8- Share links and files through Hangouts chat
Using the Hangout chat conversation feature will enable you to share textual content with your video call participants. You can, for instance, share links to websites, URLs of videos , files and many more while on your video Hangout. To start a chat conversation, click on the Chat icon on the left-hand side of your video call window then type in your message or paste the link to share with others.


Source: Hangouts Help.

Chủ Nhật, 15 tháng 11, 2015

3 Powerful Translation Apps for Teachers

November 15, 2015
Upon the request of some of our readers here, we curated the list below  comprising some of the best language translation apps out there. If you ask us about our favourite app in this collection, we will definitely pick out Google Translate. We have been using this app for few years now and found it to be way better than many other similar apps. Just keep in mind that all translation apps are only good for word to word translation but when it comes to translating a whole paragraph inaccuracies occur mainly because meaning in these situations is dependent on other factors that translation apps can not take into account including things such as grammar,syntax, linguistic phenomena like homophony, polysemy, connotations and many more.

1- Google Translate

As we have mentioned earlier, Google Translate is a powerful translation app to use on your iPad or iPhone. It supports over 90 languages and enables you to use your camera to translate text in 26 languages. Other interesting features provided by Google Translate include: Two-way automatic speech translation in 40 languages; Draw with your finger as a keyboard alternative;  Star and save translations for future reference and many more.

2- iTranslate- Translator and Dictionary


‘iTranslate is an award winning translation tool that helps you break down language barriers. With its state of the art technology you can speak any language in a second…With iTranslate you can translate words, phrases, and text in over 90 languages. ’

3- iTranslate Voice


‘Can you imagine talking into your phone in one language and immediately hearing yourself in another? That’s exactly what iTranslate Voice does. Just speak into your phone and it immediately replies in one of our 42 languages.’

5 Must Watch TED Talks On The Workings of The Human Body

November , 2015
The human body is an absolute mystery and science has only shed light on part of it; yet what has been revealed till now is mind-boggling. Technology has definitely played a huge role in helping us better understand the workings of the human body. It has even facilitated the teaching of this knowledge to our kids and students. There are now multiple tools, games and applications that enable students to explore the body in 3D and carry out simulated anatomical operations in virtual labs.  We have covered several of these tools in previous posts but today we are approaching this topic from a purely theoretical perspective. We are sharing with you some wonderful TED talks that reveal amazing facts about the human body. We have curated these talks from an earlier list published by TED entitled ‘Weird Facts about the Human Body’. Enjoy

1- What is so special about the human brain? by Suzana Herculano-Houzel.



2- How our microbes make us who we are by Rob Knight



3- 10 things you didn't know about orgasm by Mary Roach



4- 3 clues to understanding your brain by VS Ramachandran 



5- Could the sun be good for your heart? by Richard Weller



6 Useful Android Apps to Help Students with Their Writing

November 15, 2015
A few days ago, we featured here in EdTech and mLearning a collection of some powerful Android apps to help you with grading and assessment. Today, we are intruding you to anther equally important collection of popular Android apps to help students with their writing. Using these apps students will be able to: access a wide variety of creative writing prompts, generate plots and outlines for writing projects, focus more on the writing task under hand using distraction-free editors and many more.

1- Writing Prompts

'Writing Prompts gives you a variety of thought provoking prompts to help with your story.
Whether you've already written half of your story or have yet to write a word, this app includes the prompts and writing ideas needed to keep your story moving.'
2- Story Plot Generator


'This story plot generator provides you with four key aspects of your story: a location or situation, a detail, a complication and an objective. This application generates over 1 million possible combinations of these four aspects in various genres, giving you plenty of ideas! This story plot generator is an excellent writing prompt tool that can be used by writers, students or as a creative game to spark your imagination.'
3- iDeas for Writing


Ideas for Writing provides you with numerous creative triggers and exercises to get your writing flow going. It helps with prompts for starting a story, create inspiring titles and characters. It also includes a ‘complete writing workshop with a lot of exercises organized by category and difficulty, for you to improve your writing and get the most of the creative triggers in the app.’

4- Writing Challenge

‘With Writing Challenge you will enjoy a game with creative prompts to spark your inspiration and master free writing…t's easy. You just have to press "start" and the app gives you the first prompt to start writing your story. Choose the one that you most like and fire up your writing. Then, every minute (or the time you choose in the app settings) the app will give you a new prompt for you to add new ideas, words, characters, sentences, places or actions to the plot.’

5- Writer

‘Writer is a writing application without the fuss and distraction of a traditional word processor. It's perfect for everything from taking notes to writing a novel on your phone or tablet.
Writer's philosophy is Keep It Simple. Writer tries to be as basic as possible, giving you somewhere to turn your thoughts into text, markdown support, and some statistics. ’

6- JotterPar (Writer)

‘JotterPad — Writer is a minimalistic writing app for the creative writers. It is perfect for writing novel, lyrics, poems, essay, draft and screenplay. The clean typing interface allows you to focus on writing, shaping your thoughts into text. Go about your creative writing without distractions and write to your hearts content.’

Thứ Bảy, 14 tháng 11, 2015

5 Great Apps for The Visually Impaired

November 14, 2015
Below is a list of some good iPad apps for people who are blind or have low vision. Besides apps to help visually impaired recognize colours and objects around them, we have also include ViA by Braille Institute which is an excellent app search engine for blond people. ViA allows you to search for apps specifically designed for the blind and in different categories including fun apps, educational apps, apps for colour detection and many more.

1-ViA


'ViA has been designed to help identify apps that are useful for adults and children who are blind or have low vision, including those with additional disabilities. Users can easily sort through the 500,000+ apps in the App Store and locate those that were built specifically for, or provide functionality to, the user with a visual impairment... ViA allows users to sort apps by category, price, and the App Store star rating. ViA has a forum to suggest and discuss apps with the ever-growing, interactive community of avid iOS users. It also links to external reviews, podcasts, and blogs that provide further insight into the use of a specific app. Users can track new apps that fall into the categories that interest them, making the process of locating appropriate apps even easier.'

2- Dragon Dictation


'Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard. With Dragon Dictation you can also dictate status updates directly to your Social Networking applications (Facebook and Twitter) or send notes and reminders to yourself….all using your voice. So when you’re on-the-go, stop typing and start speaking – from short text messages to longer email messages, and anything in between. '

3- Light Detector


'If you are blind, Light Detector helps you to be more independent in many daily activities. At home, point your iPhone towards the ceiling to understand where the light fixtures are and whether they are switched on. In a room, move the device along the wall to check if there is a window and where it is. You can find out whether the shades are drawn by moving the device up and down. '

4- Color ID


'Color Identifier uses the camera on your iPhone or iPod touch to speak the names of colors in real-time. It's an Augmented Reality app for discovering the names of the colors around you!'

'TapTapSee is designed to help the blind and visually impaired identify objects they encounter in their daily lives. Simply double tap the screen to take a photo of anything, at any angle, and hear the app speak the identification back to you (Note: Spoken identification requires VoiceOver to be turned on).'

4 Good Educational iPad Apps Free Today

November 14, 2015
This week’s apps gone free features four interesting educational apps to try out. These apps are free for a limited period of time. PDF Expert 5 is our favourite in this list and is definitely a must have on your iPad. It allows you to customize and mark up your PDFs the way you want. You can annotate, edit, highlight, insert text and stamps, sign and merge PDFs.

1- PDF Expert 5

‘PDF Expert 5 is a must-have app for anyone who reads, annotates or edits PDF documents on iPad or iPhone. It allows you to mark up documents with highlights and handwriting, insert text and stamps, sign and even merge PDFs. Moreover, PDF Expert 5 is the best choice for filling out PDF forms right on your iPad and iPhone.’

2- MagiCal

‘MagiCal is a Calendar and Reminders application for your iPhone/iPad. It combines your reminders and events together so you'll never miss a thing.’

3- Crop of the Fly

‘Finally, a cure for Vertical Video Syndrome! Crop your awkward vertical videos into normal videos – square or landscape. Adjust your crop "on the fly", as the video plays back in real time, so you get the right part of every frame as the video plays. Use the main app, or use the Photos Extension and crop on the fly right in your Photos app.’

4- DivisionFlow

‘This application is great for kids, adults, professional educators and gamers alike. In addition to the main game: 'Enter the Flow', there are other tools to help you practice division and track your progress. DivisionFlow is THE ESSENTIAL TOOL for practicing division. Use it inside the classroom to engage learners, or outside the classroom as a fun and addictive game – challenge yourself while you learn! ’

Courtesy of Apps Gone Free

Thứ Sáu, 13 tháng 11, 2015

Pearltrees- A Very Good Tool for Organizing, Bookmarking and Sharing Web Content

November 14, 2015
Pearltrees is a wonderful social bookmarking and curation tool. Students can use it to curate and organize web content into collections and sub-collections that they can share with others. They can add links, URLs, notes, PDFs, files, docs, photos  and arrange them into a digital library to access anywhere they are with Internet connection and across different devices.


Over the years, Pearltrees has added a number of interesting features that make it one of the best curation web tools out there. One of our favourite features is called  Remix. This is a suite of editing tools that allow you to personalize your collected content the way you like. It lets you annotate web pages, change and reformat text in a webpage, add captions to videos and images, illustrate your notes and many more. Additionally,  Pearltrees offers some good collaborative features that let you collaborate with others on your favourite topics and discover collections others have shared.

Pearlers is available for the web, Android, iPad, and as a Chrome extension. Pearltrees is free to download and use. Pearltrees premium adds additional features and is available through an auto-renewing subscription.

Check out these videos to learn more about Pearltrees.

1- About Pearltrees

2- Why Pearltrees


3- About Remix



3 Great Chrome Apps to Help Students Effectively Search The Web

November 13, 2015
Being able to conduct smart search queries online be it on Google or any other search engine is absolutely an essential skill for the 21st century students. Smart searching is all about finding relevant and reliable content that matches your query with the minimum time possible. Google offers a wide variety of tips and tricks to help you become search savvy. Additionally, there are also some very good Chrome extensions that are also indispensable for doing online research. In today’s post we are sharing with you three of our favourite add-ons to use on your Chrome browser for a quick way to search the net.

1- Google Similar Pages


This is an excellent extension to help you find webpages similar to the one you are actually browsing. With a simply click, Google Similar Pages fetches a number of websites with content relevant to the one you are currently reading. This saves you time and makes finding relevant content much more easier.

2- Highlight to Search


Highlight to Search is another great Chrome add-on that allows you to look up  keywords in a webpage by simply highlighting them. ‘After you highlight keywords within a web page, you'll see magnifying-glass icon appear below the highlighted keywords.By either clicking on the icon or the keywords itself, search-box with Autocomplete enabled appears for you to search quickly and easily.’

3- SearchPreview


‘The single purpose of this extension is to enhance your search results pages. SearchPreview inserts site preview images (thumbnails) and related links (if available, some may be advertising) into your search result pages. Supports Google™, DuckDuckGo™, Yahoo™ and Bing™.’