Free online tool enables users to create digital stories

Here's what's new on eSchool News site today.

Site of the Week

Free online tool enables users to create digital stories

Meograph is an easy way to create interactive digital stories out of video, audio, pictures, text, maps, timelines, links, and other media.

Educators around the world are using this free website to create more interactive lesson materials, to “flip” their classroom—or to have students create their own projects.

Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (Education demos)

Photo: Meograph

Authoring what the site calls “four-dimensional stories” occurs via a few simple prompts on an intuitive interface, and users can share their creations online and via social media when they’re finished.

What is Meograph?
Meograph helps easily create, watch, and share interactive stories. Our first product combines maps, timeline, links, and multimedia to tell stories in context of where and when. Authoring is structured into a few simple prompts on an intuitive interface. Viewers get a new form of media that they can watch in two minutes or explore for an hour. Sharing is easy: the two most viral types of media are videos and infographics ... Meograph is both.

Source: eSchool News and Meograph

Free online tool enables users to create digital stories

Here's what's new on eSchool News site today.

Site of the Week

Free online tool enables users to create digital stories

Meograph is an easy way to create interactive digital stories out of video, audio, pictures, text, maps, timelines, links, and other media.

Educators around the world are using this free website to create more interactive lesson materials, to “flip” their classroom—or to have students create their own projects.

Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (Education demos)

Photo: Meograph

Authoring what the site calls “four-dimensional stories” occurs via a few simple prompts on an intuitive interface, and users can share their creations online and via social media when they’re finished.

What is Meograph?
Meograph helps easily create, watch, and share interactive stories. Our first product combines maps, timeline, links, and multimedia to tell stories in context of where and when. Authoring is structured into a few simple prompts on an intuitive interface. Viewers get a new form of media that they can watch in two minutes or explore for an hour. Sharing is easy: the two most viral types of media are videos and infographics ... Meograph is both.

Source: eSchool News and Meograph

Online: The Xs and Whys of Algebra

All teachers of algebra should have The Xs and Whys of Algebra at their fingertips during planning and instruction.

This handy 84-page flipchart cuts through the confusion to help you prevent common misconceptions. 30 modules focus on key standards with instructional strategies, activities, and reproducibles.

Table of Contents

Preview this book online!

Contents
Introduction
EXPRESSIONS
Walking the Cartesian Coordinate Plane
Simplifying Expressions
Generalizing Patterns
Geometric Patterns
Equivalence of Expression
Input/Output
Problem Solving with Patterns
Posing Problems
EQUATIONS
Equal Sign as a Balance
Solving Equations
Graphing Equations
Solving Linear Equations
Equivalent Expressions
Meaning of Slope
Working with Slope
Interpreting Graphs
Systems of Linear Equations
Linear Inequalities
Posing Problems for Inequalities
Absolute Value as Distance
Absolute Value Inequalities
FUNCTIONS
Am I a Function?
Linear Functions
Solving Problems Using Ordered Pairs
Quadratic Functions
Modeling Quadratics
Solving Quadratic Equations
Exponential Growth
Exponential Decay
Appendix
Answer Key

In many ways, algebra can be as challenging for teachers as it is for students. With so much emphasis placed on procedural knowledge and the manipulations of variables and symbols, it can be easy to lose sight of the key ideas that underlie algebraic thinking and the relevance algebra has to the real world.
Read more...

About Anne Collins
Anne Collins has thirty years of teaching experience having taught all grade levels K-12 including undergraduate and graduate level courses.
Read more...

About Linda Dacey
Linda Dacey, professor of mathematics and education at Lesley University, began her career teaching at the elementary level and early in her career, received an NSF grant to develop a model program for preparing middle school teachers.
Read more...

By Same Author

http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9511&r=eu12321&pos=sponstop1&adv=stenhouse

Source: Stenhouse Publishers

Online: The Xs and Whys of Algebra

All teachers of algebra should have The Xs and Whys of Algebra at their fingertips during planning and instruction.

This handy 84-page flipchart cuts through the confusion to help you prevent common misconceptions. 30 modules focus on key standards with instructional strategies, activities, and reproducibles.

Table of Contents

Preview this book online!

Contents
Introduction
EXPRESSIONS
Walking the Cartesian Coordinate Plane
Simplifying Expressions
Generalizing Patterns
Geometric Patterns
Equivalence of Expression
Input/Output
Problem Solving with Patterns
Posing Problems
EQUATIONS
Equal Sign as a Balance
Solving Equations
Graphing Equations
Solving Linear Equations
Equivalent Expressions
Meaning of Slope
Working with Slope
Interpreting Graphs
Systems of Linear Equations
Linear Inequalities
Posing Problems for Inequalities
Absolute Value as Distance
Absolute Value Inequalities
FUNCTIONS
Am I a Function?
Linear Functions
Solving Problems Using Ordered Pairs
Quadratic Functions
Modeling Quadratics
Solving Quadratic Equations
Exponential Growth
Exponential Decay
Appendix
Answer Key

In many ways, algebra can be as challenging for teachers as it is for students. With so much emphasis placed on procedural knowledge and the manipulations of variables and symbols, it can be easy to lose sight of the key ideas that underlie algebraic thinking and the relevance algebra has to the real world.
Read more...

About Anne Collins
Anne Collins has thirty years of teaching experience having taught all grade levels K-12 including undergraduate and graduate level courses.
Read more...

About Linda Dacey
Linda Dacey, professor of mathematics and education at Lesley University, began her career teaching at the elementary level and early in her career, received an NSF grant to develop a model program for preparing middle school teachers.
Read more...

By Same Author

http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9511&r=eu12321&pos=sponstop1&adv=stenhouse

Source: Stenhouse Publishers

eCampus News 2012: The Year In Review

Don't miss: The Year in Review 2012 below.

 

This is the time of year when educators reflect upon what happened in ed-tech over the last year and what the new year will bring.

In this special retrospective, the editors of eCampus News highlight the 10 most significant higher-education technology stories of 2012. Some stories include:

• Penn State scandal and what it means for campus IT departments
• Why 'flipped learning' is changing higher-ed instruction
• How 'massive open online' courses could revolutionize higher education
• And more...

Read today and learn how these stories will continue to affect campus decision makers in 2013 and beyond!
Read more...

Source: eCampus News

eCampus News 2012: The Year In Review

Don't miss: The Year in Review 2012 below.

 

This is the time of year when educators reflect upon what happened in ed-tech over the last year and what the new year will bring.

In this special retrospective, the editors of eCampus News highlight the 10 most significant higher-education technology stories of 2012. Some stories include:

• Penn State scandal and what it means for campus IT departments
• Why 'flipped learning' is changing higher-ed instruction
• How 'massive open online' courses could revolutionize higher education
• And more...

Read today and learn how these stories will continue to affect campus decision makers in 2013 and beyond!
Read more...

Source: eCampus News

Math game scores with students

A video game contest at Waipahu High serves as a channel for teaching algebra.

Photo:
Laura Devaney

"In today's story: Important skills students need in the professional world; a math video game is causing jumps in student engagement." summarizes Laura Devaney, Managing Editor.

Fourteen- and 15-year-olds can be a tough crowd—especially when it comes to math. But featuring the unpopular subject in an interactive video game and turning it into a competition managed to transform hundreds of freshmen at Waipahu High School in Hawaii into a pretty boisterous bunch.

“I was impressed,” said teacher Amelia Cook, who coordinated the algebra-focused competition that riled up more than 450 students. “I couldn’t even hear myself” because of all the cheering.

Photo: eSchool News

Four of the school’s seven Small Learning Communities for freshmen packed the cafeteria from 8:15 to 11:45 a.m. on Dec. 7 to compete in the school’s first-ever DimensionU House Cup Championship Tournament, Cook said. DimensionU, formerly Tabula Digita, is a company that produces multiplayer educational video games.

The game’s setting is reminiscent of the “Halo” video game series, without the violence. The object is for a player, working alone or on a team, to overcome obstacles and answer multiple-choice math questions to earn points. The player or team with the most points after a number of timed rounds wins.

Cook, who recently left her traditional teaching position to become the school’s math coach, said she first used the virtual game in her classroom four years ago. She hosted her own class competitions over the years and decided to turn the game into a learning community competition for the first time this year, modeled after the House Cup competition in the Harry Potter series of books and movies.

The Dec. 7 competition covered a range of topics such as fractions, decimals, and percents; inverse operations; solving linear equations; and order of operations.
Read more...

Source: eSchool News 

Math game scores with students

A video game contest at Waipahu High serves as a channel for teaching algebra.

Photo:
Laura Devaney

"In today's story: Important skills students need in the professional world; a math video game is causing jumps in student engagement." summarizes Laura Devaney, Managing Editor.

Fourteen- and 15-year-olds can be a tough crowd—especially when it comes to math. But featuring the unpopular subject in an interactive video game and turning it into a competition managed to transform hundreds of freshmen at Waipahu High School in Hawaii into a pretty boisterous bunch.

“I was impressed,” said teacher Amelia Cook, who coordinated the algebra-focused competition that riled up more than 450 students. “I couldn’t even hear myself” because of all the cheering.

Photo: eSchool News

Four of the school’s seven Small Learning Communities for freshmen packed the cafeteria from 8:15 to 11:45 a.m. on Dec. 7 to compete in the school’s first-ever DimensionU House Cup Championship Tournament, Cook said. DimensionU, formerly Tabula Digita, is a company that produces multiplayer educational video games.

The game’s setting is reminiscent of the “Halo” video game series, without the violence. The object is for a player, working alone or on a team, to overcome obstacles and answer multiple-choice math questions to earn points. The player or team with the most points after a number of timed rounds wins.

Cook, who recently left her traditional teaching position to become the school’s math coach, said she first used the virtual game in her classroom four years ago. She hosted her own class competitions over the years and decided to turn the game into a learning community competition for the first time this year, modeled after the House Cup competition in the Harry Potter series of books and movies.

The Dec. 7 competition covered a range of topics such as fractions, decimals, and percents; inverse operations; solving linear equations; and order of operations.
Read more...

Source: eSchool News 

Does the use of Twitter Improve Education?

George Couros writes, "There has been post after post acknowledging how educators love Twitter while also encouraging others to use it themselves. With that though comes skeptics (as there should be), questioning whether the use of Twitter is beneficial to educators. I have thought about that question a lot and I can give a definitive answer: yes and no ( I am 100% certain of this)."

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So to prove this, we have to look at a few things. First off, we have to look at how educators are using Twitter. Simply signing up for Twitter doesn’t improve anything in your classroom (similar to the notion that having a Twitter account will make people do inappropriate things and cyberbully). It all comes down to the use of it. I offer two scenarios in my own use of Twitter below.

Scenario A – Being on Twitter for the sake of being on Twitter
When I first started Twitter, my first follows were my brother, Shaquille O’Neal and every other Laker related Twitter account I could find. Although I liked talking to my brother, I was more worried about seeing what was happening with my favourite basketball team. Then about two weeks I quit using twitter and then thought to myself, “How does this improve teaching and learning? Whoever thought that is seriously crazy.”

Scenario B -Using Twitter to follow and learn from other educators
A year later, I went back to using Twitter in a totally different fashion and followed educators, found some great information on things that were happening in classrooms and schools, and it took my learning to a different level. I started trying different things and engaging in conversations that sometimes took place on Twitter or went to another space because of Twitter (blog, website, webinar, etc.). I started learning about things in an abundance, but also started to question educational trends (flipped classroom, BYOD, interactive whiteboards) because I felt that I had built enough knowledge to feel comfortable wondering aloud about these trends.
Read more...

Source: Connected Principals

Does the use of Twitter Improve Education?

George Couros writes, "There has been post after post acknowledging how educators love Twitter while also encouraging others to use it themselves. With that though comes skeptics (as there should be), questioning whether the use of Twitter is beneficial to educators. I have thought about that question a lot and I can give a definitive answer: yes and no ( I am 100% certain of this)."

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So to prove this, we have to look at a few things. First off, we have to look at how educators are using Twitter. Simply signing up for Twitter doesn’t improve anything in your classroom (similar to the notion that having a Twitter account will make people do inappropriate things and cyberbully). It all comes down to the use of it. I offer two scenarios in my own use of Twitter below.

Scenario A – Being on Twitter for the sake of being on Twitter
When I first started Twitter, my first follows were my brother, Shaquille O’Neal and every other Laker related Twitter account I could find. Although I liked talking to my brother, I was more worried about seeing what was happening with my favourite basketball team. Then about two weeks I quit using twitter and then thought to myself, “How does this improve teaching and learning? Whoever thought that is seriously crazy.”

Scenario B -Using Twitter to follow and learn from other educators
A year later, I went back to using Twitter in a totally different fashion and followed educators, found some great information on things that were happening in classrooms and schools, and it took my learning to a different level. I started trying different things and engaging in conversations that sometimes took place on Twitter or went to another space because of Twitter (blog, website, webinar, etc.). I started learning about things in an abundance, but also started to question educational trends (flipped classroom, BYOD, interactive whiteboards) because I felt that I had built enough knowledge to feel comfortable wondering aloud about these trends.
Read more...

Source: Connected Principals