Two Useful Google Drive Tools for Teachers

April 9, 2015
Below are two excellent Google Drive add-ons to use with your Google Docs. The first one in the list is an application that enables users to generate tag clouds from documents that have over 50 words. The second add-on provides users with a super easy way to integrate images from the popular OpenClipart right into a Google doc. The app's gallery has over 50.000 pictures to choose from.

1- Tag Cloud Generator

"Tag Cloud Generator creates a tag cloud in the side bar from any Google Docs document that contains more than 50 words. Use this add-on to quickly assess what your emerging theme is, how to best categorize your document, or if it is someone's else's document - find out the theme of the document without reading it. Stop words are automatically removed."

2- Open Clip Art

"Openclipart provides many of the best clipart images available and now you can search and insert them right into your Google Document. With more than 50,000 images in the library you will be able to find that perfect image to liven up your document or make a favorable impression to that new client."

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Everything Teachers Need to Know about Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

April 8, 2015
Bloom's Taxonomy is one of the major themes here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. We have been extensively sharing resources on it and we have a separate section where you can access and check all the resources we have posted so far.

A refresher for you, Blooms traditional taxonomy which was published sometime in the middle of the last century was revised in 2001 and henceforth was labelled Blooms Revised Taxonomy. This revision is a little bit different from the original one in that it replaces nouns with verbs and places emphasis on the process of creating by putting it on the top of the thinking continuum.

Since the emergence of the Revised Taxonomy, several educators have been adding to it expanding thus its scope and making it even more comprehensible by integrating technology component into it. Andrew Churches is one of the first guys who was behind the marriage of revised taxonomy and technology; a marriage which resulted in "digital Blooms Taxonomy".

As Andrew Churches stated, Bloom's digital taxonomy is not about web tools or technology, it is rather about effective use of technology to facilitate learning. For instance, Andrew added,  "bookmarking a resource is of no value if the resource is inappropriate, invalid, out of date or inaccurate."

Andrew has this wonderful PDF document that features a wide variety of resources and illustrations to help you better grasp and apply the ethos of Bloom's digital taxonomy in your instruction. The PDF is available for free download from this page. For more resources on Bloom's taxonomy, visit Andrew's wiki: edorigami. Enjoy

Here is a snapshot of the table of contents of this PDF:

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A Very Good Tool for Generating Citations, Reference Lists and Bibliographies

April 7, 2015
A few days ago, we published a list of some of the best web tools to help you manage and organize your citations and references. One of the useful tools we forgot to include to that list is RefMe. We are pretty sure several of you already know about it. However, here is a concise review of RefMe for those of you not familiar with it.

RefMe is a web tool and mobile app that you can use to automate citations, reference lists and bibliographies.  RefMe also offers a bunch of powerful features that will definitely help students in their research. Some of these features include :

• Generate citations by scanning book or journal barcodes using your phone’s camera.
• No Barcode? Search by Book/Article Title, ISBN, ISSN, DOI or URL.
• Citing a website? Simply paste in the URL or use RefME.com, which syncs with the app and is perfect for websites.
• A wide variety of citation styles including APA, MLA, Chicago and AMA as well as most school/college-specific styles. 
• Add notes to your citations, both in the app and at RefME.com.
• Export via Email or Evernote using the app.
• Send your work straight to MS Word, EndNote and more from RefME.com.

RefMe me is available as web tool, iOS app and Android app.

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A Wonderful Math Website for Students

April, 2015

MathGames provides 1200 different ways to practice math, ranging from Pre-K all the way to the 8th grade. Parents and Teachers get instant feedback on their students progress and can decide which method is best used to reach their students - interactive questions or fun games powered by the very same content. Whatever works best to keep students engaged and focused on practicing math.

MathGames works on smartphones, tablets, desktops and in the last 12 months 2500 new schools have started using MathGames.com in their classrooms, reaching over 400,000 students. All of the content on the website is 100% free.

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A Beautiful Graphic On The Evolution of Classroom Technology

April 6, 2015
The history of educational technology is an eventful timeline full of amazing breakthroughs that have radically transformed the educational landscape and reshaped the basic notions of literacy and learning. However, if you sit back and reflect upon these developments in their relation to education, you will notice that the first decade of the 21st century alone witnessed a digital revolution that is unprecedented both in breadth and grandeur and with it comes the emergence of new learning concepts such as MOOCs, flipped learning, mobile learning, to mention but a few.

Also the number of technological inventions in the last couple of decades alone outnumber all inventions during the past three centuries. The train of technological breakthrough is still moving but now it is moving at spectacular speed to the extent that we can not even expect what the EdTech world has in store for in the few upcoming years.

Here is a nice graphic that captures some of the major technological events in the history of educational technology. Check it out and share with us what you think of it.

Via : Fedena Blog
Courtesy of eLearning Infographics

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4 Great YouTube Channels That Provide Intelligent Content for Students

April 5, 2015
For today’s post, we have curated for you 4 interesting YouTube channels to recommend to your students.These popular educational channels feature educative videos ideal for inclusion in classroom instruction. Students can  use them independently to expand their knowledge and push the limits of their intellectual curiosity. The content shared on these channels is adequately challenging for students and will definitely benefit their cognitive growth and raise their critical awareness to a wide range of topical subjects.

1- Crash Course

In this channel, teachers John and Hank Green provide some excellent video explanations and tutorials on a variety of topics related to World History, Biology, Literature, Ecology, Chemistry, and US History.

2- Minute Physics

This is one of the most popular educational channels on YouTube with over 2 millions subscribers. MinutePhysics, created by Henry Reich, features a plethora of professionally designed videos explaining different scientific phenomena. Some of the topics it covered include: gravity, uncertainty principle, dar matter, and many more.

3- Smarter Every Day

As its name indicates, this YouTube channel, operated by Scott, provides an interesting collection of videos featuring smart and practical explanations of scientific phenomena.

4- SciShow

This is another wonderful YouTube channel that provides video explanations of challenging concepts. Some of the topics it covered in the past include: Do plans get cancer? How do my fingerprints form? The science behind that dress and many more.

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A Must Have Chrome App for Google Users

April 1, 2015
Google Tips is a website launched two years ago by Google to help Google users develop a working understanding of how Google products operate. As its name suggests, this platform provides a wide variety of tips and tricks geared towards enhancing users knowledge of different services including: Chrome, Google+, Google maps, Google Drive, Gmail, YouTube and Google Search.

Now the Chrome extension of Google Tips is available for free download in Chrome web store. Google Tips Chrome extension "shows you the latest and greatest tips and tricks across your favorite Google products like Maps, Search and YouTube. For instance, did you know you can ask Maps to give you directions to your family or friend’s place, without having to type in their addresses every time? You can even browse tips by things you can do on the go, at home, at the office- or by product. Click any card that catches your eye and flip it over to find out more. "

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