Creating a Community with Edmodo

Edmodo is a free social network that can be used by teachers and students. It is a great tool for collaboration and can be accessed from any web-enabled device including smartphones and iPads.

Edmodo has many great features:

• Student accounts that do not require email addresses
• No games or advertisements
• Safe environment where the teacher controls who can join
• Ability to include files and links in a student/teacher generated post
• Share assignments with the class
• Create online quizzes
• Tag posts to better organize content
• Keep an online calendar or gradebook
• Organize classroom documents using the library feature
• Create small groups within a particular class for easier communication

Recently I had the opportunity to work with middle school English and French classes on two very different Edmodo projects. For the English class the students joined an Edmodo group as one of the main characters from the book they were reading. The students created journal posts in their character’s voice essentially producing an online diary.  In French class students had the opportunity to join Edmodo to communicate with a partner classroom in France. Each of the two classes joined the same group in Edmodo giving the students the ability to communicate with each other while being safely managed by their two co-teachers.

To learn more about using Edmodo in your classroom check out Edmodo’s Help Center or the videos on the Edmodo SchoolTube channel. Edmodo also provides a series of webinars. To access the Edmodo app for mobile devices go to iTunes for the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad and Google Play for Android devices.

Microsoft Office in the Cloud

Recently I have been experimenting with cloud-based solutions for using Microsoft Office with my Mac, PC, and iPad.

Photo Credit: zdnet.com

This past week I downloaded the OnLive Desktop App to my iPad. The OnLive Desktop App provides users with a Windows 7 experience on the iPad. With this free application users are able to use Office 2010 Word, Excel, PowerPoint along with a handful of other apps like Paint and Notepad. After you sign in to your OnLive account you are taken to a virtual Windows 7 screen. From there you can start a new Office document from scratch or you can access any documents that you have uploaded to your OnLive account. You can access your account through a web browser and upload documents to your account from either a PC or a Mac. All your files are seamlessly synced to the OnLive servers and your free account gives you 2GB of storage.

Photo Credit: theiospost.com

Another great cloud-based solution for using Microsoft Office products is CloudOn. CloudOn is very similar to OnLive Desktop in what it has to offer. One difference is that CloudOn uses a DropBox account to sync your files to the cloud. CloudOn provides you with the same amount of online storage as OnLive since a free DropBox account gives you 2GB of space. Since I have DropBox already installed on my local machine I find it very easy to have my documents ready to use with CloudOn without having to log in to another account to upload docs. DropBox can also be easily accesed from a web browser.

The look and feel of the two programs is very different. CloudOn is more of streamed version of Microsoft Office while OnLive Desktop gives you the virtual feel of working in the Windows environment. CloudOn only offers Word, Excel, and PowerPoint where OnLive Desktop has some additional Microsoft Programs. Try out both and see which one works for you.

Lending and Borrowing Kindle eBooks

Photo Credit: Jon Davis

Over the summer I enjoyed reading several eBooks on both my Kindle and iPad. Most of the time my preferred device for reading was my Kindle. I found that both the size of the Kindle and the E ink technology made it the easiest to read under most conditions.

In past summers my sister and I would exchange boxes of books to share with each other. This summer was different because we were both Kindle owners. If you are a Kindle owner there are several great ways to lend and borrow eBooks with friends, family, or complete strangers.

In October of 2010 Amazon began allowing Kindle users to borrow and lend eBooks from other Kindle users. Each Kindle book that a user owns can be loaned once for a period of 14 days. The person that you loan the book to does not need to have a Kindle to read the book. All that is needed is the free Kindle reading application that can be downloaded to a computer, cellphone, etc.

How it works - When you lend someone an eBook it is downloaded from the Amazon site to the "borrower's" device for the 14 day period. After the 14 day period expires then the book is deleted from the borrower's device and is again available on your own device again. Note: not all publishers allow lending of their book titles. Use your Amazon account to begin lending eBooks.

If you are a Kindle user that is looking for other great ways to borrow and lend books check out the following:

ebookfling.com - This site allows Kindle users to lend and borrow books for a 14 day fling. Borrowing books works on a credit system. If you lend a book you are issued one credit. You can then use your credit to borrow a book from someone else. You also have the option to purchase additional credits for 2.99 each. If you are feeling generous you can also gift credits to other users.

BookLending.com - This site also allows Kindle users to lend or borrow eBooks for a 14 day period. This site is programmed to reward really active lenders by allowing them to borrow books before other less active users.

Kindle Library Lending (coming soon!) - Amazon announced in April of this year that it is partnering with OverDrive to give Kindle users (or any device with the Kindle reading app) the ability to check out eBooks from their local library.

Flipping over the Flipboard App

Photo Credit: Gizmodo

The more relaxed pace of summer lends itself to catching up on the many things that are left behind during the busy school year. One of the things I have spent more time with is using the Flipboard App on my iPad. Flipboard was voted App of the year by Apple in 2010. Flipboard provides a digital magazine interface that users can customize based on their personal interests. Information is delivered in a magazine format and users "flip" the pages to enjoy the experience.

At first I primarily used the App for catching up on Facebook and Twitter feeds. Now I regularly use the App to read my Google Reader RSS feeds, technology news from sites like Gizmodo and Cult of Mac, education updates from sites like MindShift and Education Week, as well as a multitude of travel and entertainment content.

Recent updates to the Flipboard App (v. 1.5) now include a new Content Guide for easily browsing specific topics and categories, the ability to have unlimited favorites, a streamlined way to read full articles, and more. Another great plus to the Flipboard App is that it is absolutely free!

Summer Learning

Photo Credit: Dreamstime

Each June is a race to the finish for most educators. Once school lets out it is often time for some rest and relaxation. For many educators summer also includes time for personal learning and discovery. I find that it is a great time to explore new tools and catch up on a backlog of professional reading.

This summer I plan to take an online course that focuses on better ways to aggregate information to allow for more efficient evaluation, synthesis, and sharing of information. The problem with easy access to information is that it can also be completely overwhelming. I am looking forward to learning about new ways to tackle the ever growing amount of information that I have subscribed to.

For others you may also be taking a class this summer or exploring some other professional opportunity. If you are looking for free online events and courseware there's a lot available this summer. Check out some of the following opportunities:

Classroom 2.0 Live Events

The Future of Education

SimpleK12 Webinars

MIT Open Courseware

The 23 Things Web 2.0 Project 

Edutopia Professional Development Blog Series

Reform Symposium E-Conference - Friday, July 29 - Sunday, July 31, 2011

Google Tools to Support Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Over the years I have used many different Google tools for myself as well as with teachers and students. My experiences with Google tools started small but has grown to include many areas of both my personal and professional life. The biggest impact I have seen this year is how Google tools have successfully supported classroom learning objectives.

Most recently I worked with tenth graders who were using Google Sites for a biology project. Each team of students was able to collaborate on a given site as well as to link to their shared Google Docs. Students also found it easy to incorporate media from Picasa and other online sources.

This past week I was excited to find a resource that Kathy Schrock assembled that showcases Google tools to support Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. This resource is an interactive graphic that provides links to Google tools as each level of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. I was surprised by how many tools on the list were new to me. This is a fabulous resource for any classroom teacher that uses Google tools.

To read more about why Kathy Schrock to put this resource together check out her blog.

Skype in the classroom

Skype in the classroom was recently released in beta. This is a great way to introduce Skype to students.

Skype in the classroom provides a directory of teachers who are looking to make a connection with classrooms and teachers around the world. This site also provides a resource area where teachers can share exemplars as well as other project ideas. Teachers can search the directory and resource area by choosing categories that best apply to them. This is a great starting point for teachers interested in trying out Skype with their classes.

Free Online Drawing Tool

Draw Island is a free online drawing tool that was just recently released in Beta. What I like about this drawing tool is its simplicity!

It gives you four standard canvas sizes to pick from or you can create your own custom size with a max of 2000 x 2000. The drawing tools are very easy to use and you can choose different colors, line thickness, etc. Another feature of Draw Island is being able to create simple animations. Finished drawings and animations can easily be downloaded to your local computer.

Draw Island does not require an account so no email address is necessary. This makes it even more appealing at the elementary and middle school levels.

Students can use this tool to create drawings for digital presentations. This tool could also be useful for demonstrating math or science concepts.