Hey, tech gurus! It’s Tuesday, which means I’m back and ready to get this school year rolling with new segments of “Tech It Up Tuesday”, a series devoted to sharing an edtech tool, app, site or other resource that can be utilized in the classroom setting.

So, here’s the first feature of our 2015-16 adventure: Wordmark.it, a web utility that allows users to preview a word of their choice with the fonts installed on their computer.

OK, so if you’re like me, you might just have an addiction to fonts. I download them more than music from the iTunes Store, which is saying a lot of a lot. The only problem with all that is trying to remember the crazy font names as well as what each one looks like when you want to utilize one of them. No matter what the project, I sometimes spend more time browsing through my font list to find the perfect style of lettering as opposed to the content itself—sigh!

Well, thanks to Wordmark.it, gone are those days of wasting hours of your life trying to locate that one typeface. Yep, this nifty tool takes the guess work out of designing your next project—a classroom newsletter, directions for an activity, a presentation or even a new logo.

And it’s as simple as this: Access the site, type in a sample word or phrase, click the “load fonts” button and bang! You’ll get a preview that looks like the one shown below.

After the computer loads a preview of all fonts installed on your machine, you can click on those you like followed by the “filter selected” button at the top of the page to show a side by side comparison of your choices.

Other features include the “negative” option, which provides users with a glimpse of what the fonts look like in reverse—meaning white lettering with a black background. You can also select to view your fonts in different sizes as well. And lastly, if you need some advice from some of your font obsessed friends, you can also share and solicit feedback about your selected typefaces from others, save the list or even print a copy of it. Of course, you’ll need to register for an account if you want to resort to these drastic measures.

Classroom Connection:

You and your students can save time when creating documents, presentation and/or graphics by using Wordmark.it to preview exactly what your words will look like when using certain fonts.

In addition, art or graphic design teachers could even utilize this site to demonstrate design aspects of different fonts.

I personally think it’s pretty cool and useful to be able to view all of my fonts laid out in a grid-like format on one screen as opposed to messing around with a bunch of annoying drop-down menus to see what my projects might look like in print. OK, maybe it’s because I’m a font junkie.

If you’re not, be sure to check back later this week… I’ll have another tech gem waiting just for you!

Hey, tech gurus! It’s Tuesday, which means I’m ready to share another segment of “Tech It Up Tuesday”, a series devoted to sharing an edtech tool, app, site or other resource that can be utilized in the classroom setting.

This week’s feature, the Breaking News Generator, is a quick and simple yet effective interactive resource that will give students the opportunity to create their own version of a screenshot from a newscast in a fun and interactive way. And in just six user friendly steps to be exact.

All you have to do is let your group loose on the Classtools.net web site, access the Breaking News Generator and insert the text required on the template shown below:

Once the image is generated, users have the following options: Download the png file, snag the URL containing the finished product and/or tweet it out to social media.

Check out an example of how the super cool Breaking News Generator can be utilized in a history course to provide factual info about a person or event being studied in class.

Seeing is believing, right?

Classroom Connection:

If you really think about it, the Breaking News Generator can be integrated into the curriculum in a myriad of ways as any topic could be the subject of a newscast—World War II, genetics, a character from a novel in Language Arts or a math theorem to name a few. I know it’s cliche, but the possibilities for using this tool really are endless.

Besides requiring students to summarize and share knowledge about a particular theme, it’s an excellent way to incorporate a simple tech tool into a lesson or project.

And the best part? There’s more where this one came from! So, if you think the Breaking News Generator is a nifty application, then be sure to check out additional interactive resources on the Classtools.net web site.

A shout out to history teacher Russel Tarr for developing and sharing these way cool and very useful applications for educators!

Here it is: Tuesday again—which means it’s time for the next installment of “Tech It Up Tuesday”, a series devoted to sharing an edtech tool, app, site or other resource that can be utilized in the classroom setting.

This week’s tech-isode takes us back in the day to an oldie but goody: Jeopardy Labs, a free online service that allows users to create customized jeopardy game boards without the use of PowerPoint. Once completed, your game is assigned a unique URL—one that can be posted on a blog, wiki or web site so it can be accessed by anyone with the link.

So, here’s how it rolls: There are no fees and registration associated with utilizing Jeopardy Labs nor is an account required; however, in order to be able to edit a template at a later date, the tool does necessitate the creation of a password. After one is entered via the Quick Build mode, you’re ready to roll. It’s just that simple!

Just so you know: All jeopardy templates submitted become available on the public domain (i.e. can be found on Google) unless you’re a Jeopardy Labs member. Choosing this option does require an account as well as a $20 fee which includes a lifetime membership of access to pimped out templates, privacy controls and a public list of all templates generated.

Not interested in building your own jeopardy templates? Well, that’s cool too. You can also browse the site for additional jeopardy templates created by other contributors. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Classroom Connection:

Students generally find studying to be more enjoyable—OK, tolerable—when they can do it via an interactive game format. That said, Jeopardy Labs provides a way for teachers to create review games that students can play independently or in a whole class setting.

Also, as summer vacation is rapidly approaching, this cool tool would be a great resource to use for a final exam review. Or just incorporate it as a fun learning activity to wrap things up for the year.

Time for the next tech-isode in the “Tech It Up Tuesday” series in which I will share an edtech tool, app, site or other resource that can be utilized in the classroom setting. This week’s edu-goodness actually focuses on some tech-knowledge-y that all educators who create multimedia projects and/or who conduct research with their students could surely use.

So here it is: When you need the answers to life’s burning questions or more along the educational lines,  information for a presentation or report, you and your students most likely default to one of the most robust resources that currently exists: The Internet. Because of the continuous evolution of mobile technology, it’s simple to use, fast and in most cases, accurate.

And here’s the part where the infamous “but” word enters the equation…

Yep, there’s no doubt that we have a wealth resources at our fingertips; however, the real question becomes: Is snagging this stuff for our own purposes legal? What constitutes fair usage of various form of media?

Open Educational Resources (OER) to the rescue. By taking a look at the infographic shown below, teachers and students can become more aware of how to locate images, documents and videos that can be edited, remixed and shared without copyright restrictions. Check. It. Out!

Props to the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning for creating and sharing this helpful visual.

Classroom Connection:

Use the infographic as a how-to guide to search for openly licensed educational resources that can be used in conjunction with digital projects and presentations. Having this knowledge should help to avoid having the copyright police bang down your door!

Appy Tuesday, everyone! As you may have guessed from the greeting, this week’s edition of Tech It Up Tuesday focuses on a pretty neat mobile app, one that has just been released on the edtech scene. And it goes something like this:

Hey, difficult homework assignments! You’ve met your match! Yep, thanks to a newly released iOS app called Snapsolve, students can get instant homework help for any grade level or topic any day, anytime , anywhere. And it works something like this:

Just snap a picture of the challenging homework problem, optionally include additional info that will assist with solving the question and press send. The image is then relayed to one of thousands of highly qualified tutors, who within about 15 minutes on average, not only provides the answer but a customized explanation as to how the problem was solved.

And you thought this stuff only happened on the Jetsons! Seriously, with its interactive and collaborative capabilities, this app takes homework helper to a new level!

And just so you know: Snapsolve is currently available for the iPhone only, but plans are in the works to develop versions of the software for iPad, Android and OS X devices.

Also, the app is a freebie and so are answers to simple math problems. However, there are pricing tiers based on question difficulty and wait time for responses that range from $1.99 (the Decaf option) to $9.99 (the Energy Drink option). Regardless of the amount, all paid selections have a money back guarantee if the services rendered are deemed unsatisfactory.

Snap, send, solve… End of story!

Classroom Connection:

If you’re a math teacher, Snapsolve is a great resource to share with all of your students. You might even find that it’s a pretty cool app for your own use as well!

Happy Tuesday, edtech fans! Yeah, I realize we’re about 72 hours from having a TGIF moment, but the good news is you have three days left in the week to incorporate this super cool tool into classroom activities!

So, here it is: The next time you need an engaging prewriting or postreading activity for your students, then be sure to check out the Cube Creator from ReadWriteThink, an interactive that provides students with a visual organizer to summarize information in one of the following categories:

» Bio Cube: This option allows students to develop an outline of a person whose biography or autobiography they have just read. It can also be used before students write their own autobiography. Specific prompts ask them to describe a person’s significance, background, and personality.

» Mystery Cube: Use this option to help your students sort out the clues in their favorite mysteries and/or develop outlines for their own stories. Among its multiple applications, the Mystery Cube helps students identify mystery elements, practice using vocabulary from this popular genre, and sort and summarize information. Specific prompts ask students to describe the setting, clues, crime or mystery, victim, detective, and solution.

» Story Cube: In this cube option, students can summarize the key narrative elements in a story, including character, setting, conflict, resolution, and theme. Students can even identify their favorite part of the story.

» Create-Your-Own Cube: Working on a science unit? Doing some research on volcanoes? Then Create-Your-Own Cube is the answer! This version allows teachers and students to generate their own questions or topics and/or customize cubes on topics of their choosing.

Check out a sneak peek of this nifty interactive shown below.

A “Planning Sheet” accompanies each Cube Creator template. Since space is limited on the cube, students can utilize this chart to organize and summarize information prior to completing the online activity.

As students respond to prompts on each side of the cube, a fun-shaped, organized chart of information is generated. Once complete, the finished cube can saved, printed and folded into a tangible representation of the topic—one that can be shared with others!

Classroom Connection: 

Unlike traditional prewriting and postreading web or charts, the Cube Creator is a fun and visually engaging tool to use.  Besides requiring the students to identify key elements, this activity challenges them to create a comprehensive summary of their topic.

Lesson ideas for integrating the Cube Creator interactive into the elementary, middle and high school classroom can be found here.

Hey, edtech gurus! It’s Tuesday again and time to focus on another resource that can be utilized in the educational setting. This week I’m turning things over to my one of my rock star colleagues, Susan Oxnevad, who will be sharing some awesome info about one of my all-time favorite tech tools: ThingLink.

For those of you who are familiar with this tech gem, you’ll just love, love these news updates to both the web version and the app. However, if you haven’t subscribed to the ThingLink craze yet, there are now even more reasons to make this one of your go-to classroom tools. And here’s why…

ThingLink is pleased to announce verified accounts for school districts along with the release of an updated iOS app that is well suited for educational use, making ThingLink EDU better than ever for teaching and learning!

Benefits of Verified District Accounts

A verified organization on ThingLink EDU serves three goals. First, verification is used to establish authenticity of an organization. Once this is done, the organization gets an invitation code that can be used to easily invite staff and students to ThingLink EDU. A verified organization account will be equipped with a dashboard to easily manage teachers, students, and groups. Third, a verified organization account gives schools and districts easy access to all of the ThingLink resources created by teachers and students across the district. These features make it easier than ever for teachers and students to create, share and curate multimedia rich content with ThingLink.

ThingLink iOS app Updated for Educational Use

More great news! The ThingLink iOS app has been updated with education in mind. When browsing for existing ThingLink content, students can only see images created by other teachers and students. Safe-search has been enabled to provide students with age appropriate content when searching for media to annotate images. The updated version of the app now includes student and teacher signup options with invitation codes, making it easy to manage students and engage them on mobile devices like never before.

Explore this slideshow channel of interactive image to learn how ThingLink can be used on a fieldtrip on a mobile device without wireless. Be sure to click the arrow to advance to the next image to see how students can extend the learning at school and at home, using whatever device is handy at the moment.

Link to channel here.

About ThingLink for Education

Over the course of this past year, ThingLink has become one of the the most popular free web tools for educators. The ThingLink app has become the most popular mobile app for creating interactive images in school or on field trips with or without wireless access. There are truly endless possibilities for using ThingLink in education.

Teachers can create media rich visual resources packed with content to engage students in deep learning experiences. Students can create a ThingLink to present knowledge and ideas or to document learning. A shared “Steam” enables students and teachers to collaborate on images beyond the classroom walls. Interactive images can be embedded on websites or shared with the class and accessed by inquisitive students at any time.

Explore this guided, student driven learning project ,powered by ThingLink and Google Apps, to view the  possibilities that exist for teaching and learning with ThingLink EDU.

Link to image here.

ThingLink Keeps Getting Better

As an early adopter of ThingLink I immediately fell in love with the tool because of the flexible options for creating rich media images for teaching and learning. I recognized the potential for using ThingLink to create differentiated resources to support all learners and I loved the fact that I could pack a lot of content into one image. At that time, the only icon available for adding tags was one black circle, the only embeddable media I knew of was YouTube, and there were no special features for education. Since then, ThingLink has  come a long way.  Over the course of the past year, ThingLink has introduced a full-featured education platform with a designated classroom workspace for teachers and their students. Here are just some of the features:

• Signup has become simpler with the addition of the Google Appls for Education login.
• Teachers have the ability to create accounts for students without email.
• District and teacher level management provide teachers with the tools to efficiently manage the ThingLink Classroom.
• Students and teachers can now create slideshow channels of related interactive images to share work, curate content or maintain interactive learning portfolios.
• The original black icon is now one of many colorful icons that include several icons designed for education.
• Teachers with premium accounts have the ability to create their own custom icon sets!
• The app for iOS and Android makes it easier than ever to use ThingLink on a mobile device, with or without wireless.
• ThingLink for Video provides teachers and students with the ability to annotate a video and turn it into a personalized, interactive learning tool.

 Learn More About the ThingLink Classroom

Link to image here.

Request a Verified Status for Your Organization?

ThingLink has the ability to transform teaching and learning, so grab your verified district account, add the updated iOS app and embrace this amazing EDU tool!

Send an email to support@thinglink.com.

About the Author

Susan Oxnevad is the ThingLink Education Community Manager, as well as an instructional technology coach in an elementary school district outside of Chicago who is passionate about using technology as a tool for learning. Susan provides professional development for busy teachers via a variety of online and in-person opportunities. Susan blogs about thoughtful ways to incorporate technology as an efficient and effective tool for learning on her own blog, Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners, and on the ThingLink Blog. Email Susan@thinglink.com for resources, ideas and inspiring ways to use ThingLink across all content areas. Follow her on Twitter @soxnevad.

It’s Tuesday, so you know what that means… It’s time to “Tech It Up” with another cool tool that can be utilized in the educational setting.

So, let’s get right to it. This week’s shout out goes to Photos for Class, a site that’s ideal for safely searching for images that can be incorporated into classroom lessons, activities and projects.

Besides providing G-rated images via Flickr and proprietary filters, downloaded images also include citations that are automatically generated by the web tool. Attribution includes name of the author and photo, a link to the original photo and the name and type of license as well as a link to the licensing terms. How cool is that? No more worrying about the copyright police banging on your door. Photos for Class has got you covered!

Check out the example I located and saved using the Photos for Class image search engine. Is it obvious where my mind continues to wander as Central PA is enduring yet another blast of winter weather?

Oh, and get this: If you really dig this tool, there are a few more ways you can make the best use of it. First off, insert a few lines of code that will add a Photos for Class search bar directly to your site. Yep, this is a fan favorite! Another bonus: If you are an Edmodo user, you can install the Photos for Class app straight from the Edmodo Store. Check out additional info about these options here.

Classroom Connection:

Students are always in search of visually appealing images for all types of digital and print projects. True statement. But in addition to learning how to successfully locate this type of media via the Internet, we—as educators—are also responsible for teaching our students how to properly cite materials obtained from others. Photos for Class is the perfect solution to simultaneously meet both of these needs.

And that pretty much sums it up. Safe. Simple. Useful. And free! My kind of resource. Be sure to add this cool tool to your tech-box!

Time for the next tech-isode in my new “Tech It Up Tuesday” series in which I will share an edtech tool, app, site or other resource that can be utilized in the educational setting.

This week the focus is on NicerTube, a nifty web tool that allows users to get rid of all of the fluff, distractions and sometimes less than desirable content associated with YouTube videos so they can be shared via an easy to view page. Yep, it’s really that cool—and simple too! Read on to find out how the magic works.

Find a useful YouTube video to enhance classroom content. Copy the URL and paste it into the NicerTube interface. Then choose a background type from three available options including web page, solid color or other design (such as holiday, birthday, nature and texture themes). After selecting the “click to continue“ button, a new URL is generated—one that can be copied and shared with others as desired.

So, basically—NicerTube turns this…

Into this…

No more worrying about what types of questionable stuff may pop up when you’re showing a video in class. Pretty neat, eh?

Oh, and just so you know—There is no registration or sign-up required to use NicerTube.

Tech Tip: If your school blocks YouTube, this tool may or may not work with your filter. To be sure, check out the link before you attempt to utilize it with students.

Classroom Connection:

Use NicerTube to eliminate unnecessary distractions from YouTube videos so students can better focus on the content at hand.

Time for the next tech-isode in my new “Tech It Up Tuesday” series in which I will share an edtech tool, app, site or other resource that can be utilized in the educational setting.

Regardless if it’s print or digital format, many students and adults alike love reading comics. But did you know this form of recreational reading can also be a powerful teaching resource? Yep, it’s true! I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing better than captivating another’s attention using comic strip style visuals and/or humor as the vehicle. Well, the survey says….. A super cool tool that provides students with the opportunity to do just that is Bitstrips for Schools. Most importantly, this web-based resource also enables them to demonstrate knowledge and creativity about a particular topic, regardless of artistic ability, using a fun setup.

I recently created a Bitstrips for Schools account and set up my first ever classroom for the Multimedia II course I teach. To get things rolling, I required students to create an avatar. Not only did this activity familiarize students with the interface, but by doing so, Bitstrips automatically generated this totally awesome group mug shot—one I’m now using to represent our class in various print and digital projects.

Is that just too funny or what?

Anyway—I realize it’s not the most academic of examples, but check out the sample shown below demonstrating the potential of this edtech tool.

Not only does Bitstrips for Schools provide students with an option to save their comics as an image, but it’s also possible to snag an embed code that can be utilized to post an interactive version of the comic on blogs and other online spaces.

Warning Label: If you elect to utilize this very cool tool, you may find yourself messing around endlessly with all of the features, giggling like crazy and even forgetting to watch your favorite TV shows. (Yes, I know this from experience!) However, these side effects are well worth it! And trust me—your students will definitely agree!

In fact, while working on this project, I repeatedly overheard my peops discussing how creating comics was the coolest project we’ve done all year. Honestly—we’ve completed some really neat stuff since August, so that’s really saying something about the use of a resource such as Bitstrips for Schools to engage students in learning.

Classroom Connection:

Although the reasons for incorporating Bitstrips for Schools (or any comic generator) into classroom activities are seriously endless, one of my favorite involves enhancing student writing by making the process fun and visual. Equally appealing is providing a creative alternative for students to complete projects across the K-12 spectrum—biographies, historical events, poetry, examples of figurative language, math and science processes, vocabulary and foreign language practice and/or diaries to name a few.

Need some additional info regarding the use of comics in your classroom? Then check out the following Slideshare presentation from S. Hendy containing 26 ideas for implementation of this concept. There’s even a list of additional cartoon creation tools at the conclusion of the slideshow.

If that’s not enough—here’s another comprehensive resource worth viewing: Comics in the Classroom 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers. This list of goodies will surely convince you of the why’s and how’s of using comics as a teaching and learning tool.

And if you really want to get all teched out, import student comics into an interactive tool such as Thinglink or augment them for even more depth of knowledge! Now that’s what I’m sayin’!