Category:

Online Tools and Apps

Discover innovative online tools for education. Explore strategies and resources to enhance teaching, learning, and collaboration in the digital age.

Easily Creating Explainer Videos

by Lori Gracey February 26, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

Having students (or teachers in professional development learning opportunities) create short videos that explain a key concept can be very powerful in terms of content mastery and retention. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to get lost in the video creation process with much less time and thought spent on the learning being showcased. MySimpleShow can change that.

What is MySimpleShow?

MySimpleShow is a free website that builds a simple slideshow of three minutes or less for you. You begin by answering a few questions so that a Storyline template can be found for you. Then you create your script. Next, the Explainer Engine automatically generates a storyboard for you to fine tune, along with recommended illustrations. (During this phase, you can also import a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation instead of writing, making it the perfect tool for flipped lessons.) And finally, you select your video speed and then publish to YouTube or download the video as an MP4. It’s just four simple steps, with the first three of them focusing on the content and not on the video itself.

MySimpleShow The video is done primarily in black and white with hundreds of simple cartoon-ish illustrations provided. But you also have the option of uploading your own image, logo, or text, if you wish. When it’s time for the voice over, you can upload a recording of you talking that is then automatically synchronized with the story or use the very sophisticated text-to-speech function that provides a voice over in seconds. This is a great resource for students with speech disabilities.

The finished product will have audio narration and some light background music, and your images will be timed exactly to the script, brought onto the screen by a pair of hands. In between slides, the hands will come back to sweep everything away and clear the screen for the next slide.

There are several examples available on their website. Here’s one introducing carbon dioxide. To use the site, a free registration is required, which means students will need to have an email address or a Facebook or Google account. And did I mention that MySimpleShow works on any device with Internet access?

How can MySimpleShow be used?

The possibilities for the use of explainer videos in school are almost unlimited:

Use them as part of a blended learning or flipped classroom strategy.
Introduce a new unit and grab students’ attention.
Encourage students to create them about things they’ve learned in a makerspace or during Genius Hour.
Have pairs of students create very short (one minute or less) videos as formative assessment to demonstrate what they already know about a topic.
At the end of a unit of study, learners can demonstrate their mastery through a video of key concepts, adding it to their portfolio.
Do a book review or character analysis with video.
Create a short video outlining common classroom procedures, such as using standard lab equipment or how to select a center activity.
Introduce students new to the school to what they need to know by having other students create videos that they can watch anytime.
When doing a book study or mastering a new technology skill, teachers in learning communities can create videos showcasing what they’ve learned. These can then become part of their portfolio.

What will you do with MySimpleShow? I’d love to hear from you!

February 26, 2017 0 comments

Visualizing Our Understanding: Graphic Organizers

by Miguel Guhlin February 24, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

“The use of graphic organizers,” says the El Campo ISD’s Intervention Warehouse website, “is a powerful tool that is easy to integrate into daily instruction.” The ECISD site then goes on to share access to several sources for graphic organizers for visualizing learning.

Graphic organizers are teaching and learning tools; when they’re integrated into classroom experiences, students are better able to understand new material. Creating a strong visual picture, graphic organizers support students by enabling them to literally see connections and relationships between facts, information, and terms.
Source: Teaching Graphic Organizers

As a writer, I often skip outlining and note-taking as ways to organize my writing and notes. Instead, I create graphic organizers to capture ideas and map out my writing. When taking notes, I capture powerful research concepts using a graphic organizer instead of laboriously writing out page after page of notes This approach helps me build a gestalt of the ideas presented.

The Problem with Graphic Organizers

Imagine that when someone says to you, “Could you read this technical text and summarize it?” you could ask yourself, “Well, which graphic organizer should I select?” Then, after some deliberation, you would pick the appropriate graphic organizer and use that one. You wouldn’t be limited to the default spider web graphic organizer with a main concept in the middle. Instead, you would just use the right one for each task.

Unfortunately, that has always been my problem with graphic organizers. Although I know there are different types (e.g. Problem-Solution, Fishbone, Time Order, etc.) for various functions, I never know which one to rely on. To this day, I still rely on the easiest graphic organizer: the spider web with main topic in the middle and ideas radiating out from the center. Also, drawing graphic organizers by hand can be cumbersome since mistakes are tough to correct.

Solutions for Visualizing Our Learning

“To know” goes the old constructivist saying, “is to know how to make.” When teachers pre-print graphic organizers for their students, they inadvertently do several negative things. Those things include:

Modeling the use of a graphic organizer appropriate to a text, and thus:
Removing the responsibility and ownership of selecting the correct graphic organizer appropriate to a text from the learner

Obviously, if students have less of a say in exactly what graphic organizer to use and when, their long-term use of this tool may suffer. This is because graphic organizers are visual representations of what we store in our brains. This can lead to challenges in comprehension. That’s pretty profound, isn’t it? That’s why it is so important to get students to create their own graphic organizers.

Let’s explore three tools you and your students can use to create graphic organizers via digital devices.

Hand-Drawn Graphic Organizers with OneNote

If you’re not familiar with OneNote, it is a phenomenal mobile app that makes digital ink a reality for those with touch-screen computers or Surface Pro/Android/iPad tablets. With digital ink (that is the ability to draw on the tablet screen with a stylus or fingertip), students are able to finally create graphic organizers that are representative of their own visualizations.

Computer/Browser-Based Tools

If you have access to a Windows, Mac, or Chromebook, then tools abound for creating graphic organizers. Here are my top two favorite free tools, but there are many more available, also known as “mind-mapping tools.”

Draw.io: Looking for an easy to use, browser-based diagramming or graphic organizer creator? Look no further than Draw.io! It works in your browser, but allows you to save to whatever cloud storage system you prefer, such as Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive.
yED Graph Editor: yEd can be installed on your computer (Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux) and works fantastically well. You can create graphic organizers using its simple layout. It also scales up to meet the needs of grades 9-12 and adult learners.

Conclusion

I still remember my first copy of Inspiration graphic organizer software. I was amazed at what I could create to represent my understanding of a process, a concept, or a text. Learning how to use graphic organizers, short of learning to read/write and use technology, remains one of the best lessons my high school teacher taught me. How are you teaching your students to use graphic organizers?

Get 80 Graphic Organizer Templates

February 24, 2017 0 comments

Leadership Online Tools and Apps

Saving Time and Sanity with Web 2.0 Tools

by Lori Gracey February 22, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

saving time Ask any administrator what he/she needs more of and the first answer will always be “time.” When the technology is invented that will allow us to cram 28 or 30 hours into every 24-hour day, then we can all rejoice and relax. But until then, here are some apps and websites designed to help us be more productive and efficient (and maybe keep us sane). They’ll run on any device with Internet access and are all free.

Web 2.0 Tools for Administrators

Boomerang for Gmail – This Chrome extension allows you to schedule messages to be sent or returned at a later date. Write a message now, send it whenever, even if you’re not online. Track messages to make sure you hear back, and schedule reminders right inside Gmail.

Doodle – This is a free group scheduling tool that allows you to connect with others to arrange the best time to meet. Post several dates/times, and people can respond on your doodle to let you know which works best for them. It’s much easier than emailing back and forth to find a time that works for everyone.

Dotstorming – If you need your staff to make a quick decision, try this fun resource. Create a board with a question, invite participants, and then see how the vote goes.

Easel.ly– Easel.ly is a web tool that allows you to create visual graphics. Register and begin creating with the user-friendly interface to custom build your infographic. (BTW, if you want to communicate information quickly, like for a board or parent meeting, an infographic is your best bet, according to this source.)

Flipboard – Flipboard is a customized magazine that can help keep you current and save you time. It is available as a free app for Android and iOS or on the web. Tell it what you’re interested in, and it will find and return current articles about your favorite topics. Free registration is required.

Google Alerts – Have Google monitor the web for you and automatically send you an alert when new information gets posted about you, your campus, or your district. Choose from news, blogs, videos, discussions, books, or everything. Have alerts sent when they happen, once per day, or once per week.

Padlet (formerly Wallwisher) – Build a Wall and invite staff to collaborate with you. Use it for noticeboards, bookmarking, discussions, brainstorming, note taking, planning events, making lists, watching videos, collecting feedback, and more. Free registration is recommended.

ScreenLeap – ScreenLeap allows you to share your screen instantly to any device with a browser, including laptops, netbooks, computers, smart phones, iPads, Android tablets, and more. There is no software to download or install, but free registration is required. With the free plan, you can share with up to eight devices. Your device that is shared must be capable of using Java, but it is not required on the other devices. After clicking to share your screen, processing for about 20 seconds will occur, and then you will be given a unique URL to give to those who need to connect with you. This is a great tool for quickly showing someone how to use a piece of software or where to find information.

Smore – Smore is a web tool used to create flyers and newsletters. The basic version is free and provides for up to four documents. But with the paid Education version for $59/year, you can use your own custom backgrounds, find out if your reports are being read, and create unlimited documents. What I like most about Smore is how easy it is to use and how professional the results are.

Today’s Meet – This website is a great tool for creating a back channel for discussions. No registration is required. Simply name your room, determine the length of time the room will be open (from one hour to one month), and click “Create your room.” Then share the link to your staff. Posts in Today’s Meet are limited to 140 characters, which helps focus the conversations.

Trello – With Trello, you can create boards to organize anything you’re working on. Use them solo, or invite colleagues, friends, and family to work together.

February 22, 2017 0 comments

Leadership Online Tools and Apps Professional Learning

Align Your Social Media

by Miguel Guhlin February 4, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

“Don’t wait for the stars to align, reach up and rearrange them the way you want,” says Pharrell Williams. “Create your own constellation.” Want to rearrange your learning experiences with social media? Bridge the gap between face-to-face community efforts and online? Then read on to discover tips on how to shape the social media flow. Grab a friend, your mobile device, and let’s go!

Manual Approach to Social Media

If you’re like most people, you probably have been cajoled into creating a social media account. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, YouTube, and LinkedIn are the most common ones that people start with. But how do you create a community around what you share? Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Tip #1: Mix-and-Match Your Social Media

Combine audio and video tools. Instagram and Facebook make it easy to post links to other social media tools, such as Twitter. That means you can start a Facebook Live session, record audio using Voxer (or use the YouTube Capture app on your phone) and share the link out via Twitter. This is great because it allows you to “liven up” Twitter with audio and video. Imagine recording a student explaining his/her solution to a problem or thinking process. Here are some Voxercasts that I shared via Twitter. If participating in a Twitterchat, try responding to a question with audio or video. It will leave participants “mind-blown.” And, if you’re feeling adventurous, use Voxer and/or Flipgrid.com to kick off audio or video reflections respectively.

Tip #2: Decide on a Content Curation Tool

Content curation involves finding great stuff, stowing it somewhere for safe keeping, and then sharing the relevant information with other interested parties. How the sharing happens is usually through social media. Here are a few tools that I use for content curation. They make sharing with others via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook easy.

Get Pocket.com: This remains my favorite content tool. Anything I find on my mobile device or on my computer, I promptly save to Pocket. Since it is everywhere and works well with other tools, it makes saving content easy. Getting content out is also straightforward. More on that later.
Diigo.com for Educators: An oldy but goody, social bookmarking with Diigo is a cinch on computers, not so much on mobile. Still, the benefit of Diigo is that you can turn every item you save to it into a tagged item. Tags in Diigo come with RSS feeds (learn more about RSS), which make it easy to share to Twitter and other places. Using the free for Educators account comes with additional benefits.
Flipboard.com: A fantastic curation tool since anything you “flip” into a digital magazine (ezine for short) becomes an easy-to-share resource with others. People can subscribe and leave comments. Imagine creating a flipboard ezine for your class on a particular topic or having students collaborate and contribute to a shared ezine. Flipboard makes it possible, and viewing is a pure pleasure.
Storify.com: This is a helpful tool since it makes capturing tweets and sharing content easy, although to access some of its more esoteric features will require payment. Storify is often used to archive Twitterchats, even though there are more comprehensive tools. Storify makes finding and sharing content for a classroom of learners simple.
Paper.li: Want to create a newsletter that curates itself? Paper.li makes that possible and can auto-publish itself via Twitter with new content daily. It can be hands-off or you can spend time updating it. Like Storify, full feature access costs money.

Tip #3: Master Those Twitter Chats

Every day, there are thousands of educators like you connecting and learning from each other. This network of professional learners, open to anyone and everyone willing to learn, is known as a “professional learning network” or PLN for short. You can find a wealth of hashtags, such as #tceachat, that boast robust conversations on days or nights. Here are several tools you can use to make navigating and participating in Twitter chats easier:

Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck allows you to set up multiple columns, as opposed to Twitter’s single column of content. You can follow multiple hashtags simultaneously, as well as see what you are tweeting and what others are tweeting at you. What’s more, as you get more proficient and want to manage your own Twitter chat, you can schedule your own tweets days in advance at anytime. Great for tweeting during a presentation and wowing your audience.
Participate Learning: This is a must-have tool to take advantage of since it provides a concise schedule of hashtags for Twitter chats and when they are taking place. What’s more, you can search hashtags for relevant conversations, as well as add your own chat. This makes it easier to find other’s chats, as well as sharing your content.
Twubs.com: Straightforward interface aside, Twubs is intended to help you get to know who is participating in a Twitter chat. A unique feature includes your ability to get an embed code so you can place the results of a hashtag search on your web page.

Tip #4: Create Image Flyers to Hook Twitter Chat Participants

Decided to facilitate a Twitter chat for your school or district? Create a landscape flyer with Adobe Spark, Pixlr, Powerpoint, or Google Slides that includes pertinent information, as well as a link to more content. In addition to creating a way to advertise your Twitter chat to the world, you will also want to solve the archive problem. For small Twitter chats, you can use Storify or simply copy-and-paste into a GoogleDoc or IFTTT recipe to feed tweets into a Google Sheet. However, for larger chats (>1000 tweets), consider using a more robust solution like TAGS.

TAGS – http://ly.tcea.org/tagsexample

Tip #5: Automate Your Social Media Sharing

“Share once and done!” Avoid having to share information via multiple outlets. Some school districts embarking on social media domination move to post the same piece of information on each social media outlet, but that can be a big waste of time. Use one or both of these tools to automate your social media sharing. Create a blog post and then see it shared automatically to Twitter and Facebook, post images to Instagram and email them to others, and more.

IFTTT.com: If This Then That allows you to create mini-apps, or recipes, that execute when a trigger action occurs. For example, if I add a tag “2tweet” to a web article I save on one of my content curation tools, Pocket or Diigo, that item appears as a tweet within thirty minutes. If I add a tag “tceamie,” the item is posted to a Slack group for technology directors and coordinators.
Microsoft Flow: A newcomer to the scene, Flow works like IFTTT, yet it works hand-in-hand with Office 365 tools. Visit their website to see some sample “flows.”

Tip #6: Create a Virtual Sharing Space

At a certain point, you will want to archive all the great things that are being said or happening. One way to do that is to save all chats to a virtual space, such as a OneNote Online notebook (see example, Google Plus Community (see example), or Facebook group. You can, of course, also use popular blogging platforms like Blogger and/or Wordpress.

Use tools like Remind.com to share daily updates via mobile phones. This helps keep your community connected to you, enabling easy, non-intrusive sharing. My favorite example is Dr. Scott Mcleod’s Dangerously Irrelevant daily reminders that arrive via SMS text message every day.

Conclusion

Don’t be afraid to grasp the stars and rearrange them! Social media tools like those discussed in this blog entry make shaping the flow of social media a joy, not a chore.

February 4, 2017 0 comments

ESL/ELL Good Teaching Online Tools and Apps Professional Learning

Connect Learners with Video

by Miguel Guhlin January 13, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Technologies that connect us, engage. One example of this is Flipgrid, a free video discussion board service. With Flipgrid, you can create grids with topics on them and have workshop participants or students respond to the topics with recorded videos. Several workshops ago, I decided to begin using Flipgrid as a regular part of the learning. Some of the applications of the tool included:

Ask participants to introduce themselves and/or each other.
Watch videos about a topic and then share a summary or take-away.
Summarize an article they have read.

Free Online Flipgrid Course

The Microsoft Education Community offers a free course, Amplifying Student Voice, that features FlipGrid uses. In that course, the developers imagine Flipgrid as being more than just a communication tool in your classroom:

For students, Flipgrid provides a safe space to connect with their peers, share their voice on relevant course topics, and add to the collective knowledge of the classroom. For teachers, you can see firsthand as your students develop confidence, reasoning skills, respect of diverse opinions, and understanding through reflection. Moreover, as Flipgrid videos are asynchronous, you can conveniently connect your students with classrooms around the world by sharing your grids with other educators. Their students add their voices to the grid building an active community of shared knowledge.

You can watch videos embedded in the course, as well as view content, without completing the course (but then you wouldn’t earn the badge!):

Introducing FlipGrid for Professional Development

Introducing Flipgrid to others has been easy. I point out how to access the Flipgrid topic I’ve set up for the process, either on a laptop and mobile device (e.g. tablet or smartphone). I start with a quick demonstration, often recording the video prompt in front of the class. Then I invite participants to work in groups of two to three to record their responses. Some even go out into the hall. After they have completed their video responses, we share a few to the whole group. Who would not be engaged by their own face and voice as they connect with others?

FlipGrid in the Classroom

“Seeing and hearing students’ video responses can make discourse fun; the site allows personalities and ideas to shine in 90-second clips,” says Polly Conway, Commonsense Media reviewer. “Design is colorful, clean, and intuitive.” Curious about how participants in my workshops would describe Flipgrid in their classroom, I asked them to share some reflections. “How would Flipgrid be helpful?”

In computer programming, students could use it to demonstrate how the code works and the output.
Formative assessment tool.
Quick check for understanding.
Have students work on a collaborative group project and then share their collective or individual video reflection on each task.
It is a great resource to use with the teachers we coach so they can reflect on their practices.
English Language Learners (ELL) students can experience opportunities to develop their language and practice language mastery.
Flipgrid in elementary would be a strong resource for reading responses.

Listen to this Voxercast (audio recorded using the free Voxer app). It features two TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE), Jocelyn Crew (Lyford CISD) and Jodi-Beth Moreno (Education Service Center, Region 1) sharing about Flipgrid.

Flipgrid Resources

Others have been exploring Flipgrid for classroom use. Consider these examples:

If you’re interested in exploring FlipGrid or other video annotation solutions? Check out this blog entry on Video-based Active Learning.

January 13, 2017 0 comments

Online Tools and Apps

Dotstorming: Brainstorming on Steroids

by Lori Gracey December 30, 2016

written by Lori Gracey

If you want your class to brainstorm ideas for their next project and then vote on the best ones or have the faculty decide how to increase reading on the campus or get your relatives to decide on a location for the next reunion, then Dotstorming is for you. Dotstorming is a Web 2.0 tool that lets people brainstorm ideas and then vote on them, quickly and easily. And it’s free.

How Dotstorming Works

Create an account with just your email address and you’re ready to begin. You’re given a blank Dotstorming board. Add your topic or question and then invite participants to join in. They can post ideas, links, graphics, text, and more. Once the brainstorming process is over, set the number of votes that each participant will have (up to 10) and ask them to vote. It’s just that simple.

Dotstorming

Dotstorming New Features

In April 2017, Dotstorming added some new features. You can now choose to clear a board of all votes and comments. This would be great for having the same poll for a number of different classes to take or if you wanted to poll a group at the beginning of a discussion and then again at the end to see if their opinions changes.

Another new feature added is an easier way to put images into a Dotstorming poll. While you could add images before, the new process allows you to simply past the URL for an image and the image will appear.

Similar to Padlet but with more features, Dotstorming should definitely have a place in your toolbelt. Not only is it great for brainstorming ideas, it’s a wonderful way to post discussion questions, math problems with several correct and incorrect solutions, and anything you want students to discuss as it includes a chat box. It works on any device and can be used by even very young students. Take a look at it today!

This blog was updated with new content on April 19, 2017.

December 30, 2016 0 comments

Online Tools and Apps STEM/STEAM

Great New Creativity Tool

by Lori Gracey December 27, 2016

written by Lori Gracey

I’m always on the lookout for a new tool to use in the classroom. And I’m thrilled to get to share this one with you today. It’s called CoSpaces and is a completely free online platform that lets you build your own 3D spaces and even experience them in virtual reality. It’s one of the simplest VR creation tools that I’ve seen and it works on any device with a browser.

Creating with CoSpaces

Once you create a free account (with either Facebook or your email), you are ready to begin. No need to download and install software. You’re given a blank stage to fill. Choose from a library of objects and characters to fill the stage and then edit them to create your very own fantasy worlds. Drag and drop the images around the stage to place them exactly where you want them. You can also search for and use images you find online, like photos of your family, and add background sounds, such as music, to make the scene come alive. Once your creation is complete, you are able to share your world via a link.

There are lots of tutorials on how to build in CoSpaces available on YouTube here. There is also a gallery filled with creations from other builders that can give you additional ideas.

Experiencing What You’ve Created

While it is easiest to create the virtual world on a computer, you can access what has been created using any device. There is a free app for both Android and iOS. And CoSpaces works in virtual reality with any smartphone, the free CoSpaces app, and a VR headset. A list of recommended headsets is provided.

Classroom Uses

CoSpaces DNA Model

I can see a ton of uses for this amazing product. Younger students can use it to build and explore their communities. Students can tell stories in 3D or illustrate what they’ve learned on a particular topic in science or math. Create a virtual exhibit about a particular period in history, an artist, or an element. Build 3D models of the human heart, the Eiffel Tower, or an ecosystem. Visually interpret a poem that they’ve read or a song that they listen to. Design an infographic depicting important data that they’ve gathered and analyzed. Create a VR greeting card. Or just see where their creativity takes them.

December 27, 2016 0 comments

Digital Literacy Online Tools and Apps

Powerful Photo Editing for All Devices

by Lori Gracey December 21, 2016

written by Lori Gracey

Photo editing is one of the skills that I never really learned. As I was growing up, our Kodak or Polaroid cameras didn’t allow us to make any changes to the photo, and only a full photography shop with a darkroom could change the image once it left the camera. But that’s definitely not true today. Our students should learn how to (and when to) edit photos as part of any good media literacy program. And I’ve found the perfect free resource to help them be successful doing that.

Polarr Photo Editor works on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Chrome web browser, any web browser, and Linux, which means it works on every device imaginable. And did I mention that it’s free? The features Polarr offers include those for basic users, as well as more advanced options. You can add a filter easily or apply automatic fixes with just one click. It also includes step-by-step, interactive tutorials to help you and your students learn photo editing basics. And there are free stock photos on the site that your students can use to practice.

For advanced users, there is a full version of Polaar which is just $19.99. (That’s about $100 less than the price of Lightroom software.) However, educators with an EDU email can receive the software for free by applying here. With the full version, you can adjust the color, lighting, detail, vignetting, HSL (hue, saturation, and luminance), RGB channel curves, toning, and distortion. You can even apply photo effects like fringing or film grain. And you can do this on a RAW file up to 40MP in size. All of the adjustments are done in real time and there’s a history panel that will quickly let you undo any change you don’t like.

Photo Editing Resources

To help students master important photo editing skills, here are a few good resources:

Teaching Kids Photo Editing
Downloadable Photos for Editing Practice (along with lessons for K-5)
Teaching Photo Editing in the Classroom with Katherine Conor (process)
Visual Literacy (book excerpt)

December 21, 2016 0 comments

Microsoft Online Tools and Apps

Overcoming Detours to a OneNote Blog

by Miguel Guhlin December 1, 2016

written by Miguel Guhlin

“I am interested in the Integration Blog project,” says Jennifer Moore, “but I am wondering if I can do a OneNote instead?” Jennifer participates in the TCEA Campus Technology Specialist Certification program, a phenomenal learning opportunity for TCEA members. In this blog entry, we explore a few detours to a Microsoft OneNote-based blog. For a blog to be read, it must be relevant to its readers. Yet reader-relevant blog entries cannot be the sole measure of a successful blog.

The Measure of a Blog

The rubric for an Integration Blog Project includes the following elements:

Blog Layout and Theme
Blog Entries (minimum of five)
Spelling and Grammar

You could use a traditional blog platform (e.g. Blogger, Tumbler, Wordpress, old Google Sites’ Announcement feature, etc.) and miss a Microsoft option, OneNote. Three elements characterize blogs: 1) Content readers can subscribe to the blog via real simple syndication (RSS); 2) Entries are organized in reverse chronological order; and 3) The blog offers reflection on an experience, research, or current topic. As John Dewey points out, “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.”

Creating Enduring Content

“Either write something worth reading,” quipped Benjamin Franklin, “or do something worth writing.” The best blog entries combine both in a simple formula:

Introductions: A fresh take on an instructional strategy or technology that excites.
Compelling Narrative, simply organized: Ready to jump into your blog entry? Start with these three steps:

Define a problem that held you back.
Tell about the hero’s journey you made to find a solution, including audio/video interviews and/or demos.
Move forward, step by step, to a successful resolution. Use the list approach (e.g. listicle) and keep it simple.

The Call for Adoption: In short, punchy sentences, call for adoption of the new strategy. This can also be a call to action. Write fast, write short.

Mix the steps and use a quote or problem scenario to set the hook.

Detours Around OneNote Obstacles

“I want to use OneNote as a blog,” some have said, “but OneNote doesn’t quite work as a blog.” To use it as such, you have to overcome a few obstacles:

Real Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds are not available for OneNote Online Notebooks.
Reverse Chronological order of blog entries isn’t publish and forget it.

Eager to adapt OneNote for a blog solution, I sought out various solutions. Most failed, but these were workable. Let’s explore the detours.

Detour #1: RSS Feed

detours Create an RSS feed for OneNote blog entries with the Diigo Social Bookmarking Tool. Every web page you bookmark and tag gets added to an RSS feed for the tag. Below, you can see items tagged “mgc” via Diigo bookmarks. These tagged items reflect favorites from my OneNote Online notebook, TCEA Connects!

Scroll to the bottom of the page shown above to see the distinctive RSS feed icon:

detours

Get the RSS link, then add an RSS icon of your own to the front page of your OneNote Online notebook (example shown below). Subscribers click on the RSS icon to subscribe with their RSS Aggregator of choice (e.g. Feedly.com):

detours

Now that you have an RSS feed via Diigo tagged items, copy and paste the link to a specific OneNote Online page:

detours

With the “Copy Link to this Page” in your device’s clipboard you can paste the link into Diigo to add it to the RSS feed:

detours

Update 12/1/2016: Another way to obtain a link, especially if you are using the free Windows 10 OneNote app (as opposed to OneNote 2016), is to do what Marjolein Hoekstra (Twitter: @onenotec) suggests in this 11/30/16 blog entry:
“Share a view-only link to an individual page through Share > Get a Link. Unique for OneNote for Windows 10 and only for notebooks stored on consumer OneDrive. Recipients can open this page in a browser.” See Marjolein’s example, Emoji Keyboard sample page, below:

Once added, view the RSS feed (only if you must) and see the result (highlighted section is what we just added):

detours

Sharing the RSS Feed via Twitter/Facebook

The next step is to use IFTTT.com to publish your RSS feed content to Twitter/Facebook. Anything added to the RSS feed will be shared via detours Twitter or Facebook. Check out this how-to available online.

Detour #2 – Reverse Chronological Order

Re-organize your pages in OneNote to get a reverse chronological list of blog entries. Simply click and drag the title of the blog entry to where it should go.

detours

Give It a Try!

OneNote 2016, 100% free, features a full-blown editing toolbar, automatically timestamps your blog entries, makes it easy to embed content (without messy embed code) from various sources (a feature other blog platforms make difficult or for pay), and image embedding is drop-dead simple. This makes it the perfect blog tool, especially when you incorporate Diigo RSS feeds and take care to organize pages in your OneNote blog. You can also publish a notebook via Docs.com as an ebook, viewable across numerous mobile devices. And you can password protect sections to prevent unauthorized access to blog entries (e.g. for pay, embargoed or not ready for release). Wow, give it a try!

December 1, 2016 0 comments

ESL/ELL Online Tools and Apps

ESL/ELL Students Playing with Words

by Miguel Guhlin November 9, 2016

written by Miguel Guhlin

Humor can be tough for ESL/ELL students. It’s a difficult concept to begin with, and adding a new vocabulary to the mix just makes it harder. Playing with words, however, gets positive results (Azizinezhad, 2011). These results include a constructive attitude toward mistakes, along with the stimulation of critical thinking.

The Incongruity of Humor

Word slapstick often provokes a chuckle:

Incongruity theory: Stimuli can be unexpected, shocking, or surprising.
Incongruity-resolution theory: Juxtaposition of two incongruous items that are actually related.
Superiority theory: Others’ or our own shortcomings, failings, or inadequacies (source).

Share these ideas with students so they will know when a situation requires a smile.

Contagious Learning

ESL/ELL To help ESL/ELL students with vocabulary development, have them construct memes. A meme is a cute photo or picture with humorous words. The more popular memes quickly become Internet sensations. Memes can be ideas, values, or behaviors that are contagious. Pair quotes with pop culture images and you get a meme that must be shared. Meme quote generators help students engage in language play. Deepen their experiences with interpretation, reasoning, and inferential thinking.

Meme generators that tickle the funny bone include the following. None of these require an account or login to use.

Make sure that, as your students are searching for photos to use with their memes, they follow copyright rules and practice good digital citizenship.

Digging for Treasure in Text

Quotations that students unearth in text they are reading can enrich the meme creation experience. Language learning jokes can sparkle with smiles. Combine outrageous text with bland backgrounds or vice versa:

Learning is often a comedy. Mix text, technology, and incongruity to achieve meaningful language learning. The results may be too humorous to stomach!

November 9, 2016 0 comments

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