Digital Resources 
A Tour through Open Source Creative Tools(1)
by Máirín Duffy (Red Hat), from OpenSource.com (licensed under CC BY-SA) Image credits: Flickr user Leszek.Leszczynski Every tool in this talk is available via Fedora 17, the latest version of Fedora. Here’s a quick rundown of the tools represented in this talk. MyPaint and Krita are fantastic sketching apps that feature natural-feeling digital brushes. Darktable is a raw image processing… Read More ›
Always Write by Corbett Harrison
Reblogged from Tech Seeds: Always Write (http://corbettharrison.com/) has been a resource I have found inspiring for many years, and have frequently recommended to my fellow writing teachers. Students engage the lessons, and love the interactive pages within the site. Teachers who are just starting out and writers’ workshop pros will benefit. It is connected to… Read More ›
May is California Digital Citizenship Month!
“Every day, your students are tested with each post, search, chat, text message, file download, and profile update. Will they connect with like minds or spill TMI to the wrong people? Will they behave creatively or borrow ideas recklessly? Will they do the right thing or take shortcuts?” – from Common Sense Media Join Common Sense, California… Read More ›
15 Digital Resources For Rhyming and Wordplay
by Kenney Meyers, TeachThought.com : 15 Digital Tools For Rhyming & Wordplay Rhyming words are fun, but some words will leave you tongue-tied trying to find a suitable partner. Anyone who has ever dabbled in poetry will tell you that meter is a refined art that requires the poet to have a comprehensive understanding of how the… Read More ›
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) (#OER)
by Sean Connor, published on Saylor.org Perhaps you’ve heard of WorldCat, which is, in brief, “the world’s largest network of library content and services” — but to folks like you and me, that means that we can search across many different library collections for a particular holding. It’s fun, it’s convenient, and it helped Yours Truly solve an Advanced… Read More ›
“How To Do Research” Game
“How To Do Research” game is presented by Kentucky Virtual Library. It’s designed for kids to learn how to do research independently with kids-friendly user experience. Did you know that you can access “all the information in the known universe”? It’s true! In libraries and on the internet, you can find answers to almost any question… Read More ›
100 Recommended Search Engines for Serious Scholars
by Staff Writers of OnlineUniversities.com : 100 Time-Saving Search Engines for Serious Scholars (Revised) Back in 2010, we shared with you 100 awesome search engines and research resources in our post: 100 Time-Saving Search Engines for Serious Scholars. It’s been an incredible resource, but now, it’s time for an update. Some services have moved on, others have been… Read More ›
Inanimate Alice – Digital Storytelling and Creating Your Own
Inanimate Alice is a digital novel (with text, images, sound, and interaction) narrated by a girl named Alice who travels the world with her family and her virtual friend Brad. There are so much teachers and students can do with it. Copied from its recent flyer : Nurturing Old and New Literacies Teachers around the… Read More ›
Big History Project – Building Foundation for a Lifetime of Learning
(from School of Education, University of Michigan) Big History Project is focused on bringing a broad view of history—covering 13.7 billion years from the Big Bang to modern times—to high school students. The course, designed by Bob Bain, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Education, seeks to help students identify patterns and connections… Read More ›
21 Literacy Resources For Digital Classrooms
by Kimberly Tyson, Ph.D., learningunlimitedllc.com, cross-posted on TeachThought.com If you follow this blog, you know that I believe effective vocabulary instruction is just about the most important instructional activity for teachers to get right. For lots of reasons. Vocabulary influences fluency, comprehension, and student achievement. How’s that for starters? In addition, a broad vocabulary is important for effective… Read More ›
Free Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)
Supported by the National Science Foundation, Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) is a free, online platform that engages students in the methods of real scientists and collaborative exploration of science issues through customizable curriculum and activities. Featured by Edutopia Technology Integration Research: Evidence-Based Programs by Subject : WISE has been shown to improve students’ science achievement, especially when teachers… Read More ›
OpenEd Free Video Library for Open Web Learning
OpenEd is an effort to collect free educational videos aligned to Common Core State Standards for all teachers and students with internet connection and computers. It’s now accepting user applications into beta release, and of course user feedback. This is their letter for an introduction: OpenEd helps you find the best videos and other content… Read More ›
Registry of Digital Research Tools
Bamboo DiRT is a tool, service, and collection registry of digital research tools for scholarly use. Developed by Project Bamboo, Bamboo DiRT makes it easy for digital humanists and others conducting digital research to find and compare resources ranging from content management systems to music OCR, statistical analysis packages to mindmapping software. Bamboo DiRT by Project Bamboo is licensed… Read More ›
50 Educational Podcasts You Should Check Out
Maybe you don’t have time to sit down and sift through the latest education blogs for ideas and inspiration. If the thought of trying to carve out more hours in your day leaves you feeling overwhelmed, this list is for you. Podcasts are a great way to get information when you’re driving in your car,… Read More ›
A Handbook for Self-organizing Self-learners
Kicking off the learning journey of 2013, many MOOCs just started last week, Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum from Open University (#OLDSMOOC_w1) and #ETMOOC (focused on educational technology) from a group of thought leaders are especially for educators, while DS106 on digital storytelling is for anyone who likes to tell stories in digital forms. Of course, storytelling… Read More ›
Teaching With the Library of Congress
Did you know that the Library of Congress has a huge selection of materials designed to be used in the classroom? Muhammad Saleem shared with us an infographic on the classroom materials and professional development resources available at the Library of Congress, first appeared on BestCollegeOnline.com. Please include attribution to BestCollegesOnline.com with this graphic. Related article : The Teacher’s… Read More ›
UNESCO launches online course in Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue
(news from UNESCO website) UNESCO supports the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) and Intercultural Dialogue University Network in the launch of an online course in MIL and intercultural dialogue. The course is designed for teachers, policy makers and professionals. It is led by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and will be offered over 13… Read More ›
Computational Thinking: A Digital Age Skill for All
Preparing students for their future in a rapidly changing world. A video from ISTE, CSTA, and NSF tells you how. (Scooped by Jean-Charles Blondeau onto Education 3.0, that’s where we came across this introductory video) This video points to a computational thinking (CT) resource page on ISTE, the following free resources are provided. The CT Toolkit - You can use resources in… Read More ›
10 Universities with Amazing Online Digital Resources
OEDb(Online Education Database) has complied a great list of 10 Universities with Amazing Online Collections. So many colleges have begun digitizing their collections and putting them online, giving the world access to their amazing resources. Award-winning photographs, ancient manuscripts, original pieces of history and more… Remember to bookmark the post. Oxford University: The University of… Read More ›
Free Digital Citizenship Tool Kit
A survey of teachers from the Pew Internet & American Life Project cautioned the concerns about digital literacy of teens. How Teens Do Research in the Digital World – released Nov 1, 2012 by Kristen Purcell, Lee Rainie, Alan Heaps, Judy Buchanan, Linda Friedrich, Amanda Jacklin, Clara Chen, Kathryn Zickuhr The teachers who instruct the most advanced American secondary school students render mixed… Read More ›
Education-Focused Search Engine for K12
Gooru, a free search engine for learning, teachers and students can use Gooru to search for rich collections of multimedia resources, digital textbooks, videos, games and quizzes created by educators in the Gooru community. Collections are aligned to standards and currently cover every 5th-12th grade math, science and social science topic, with more subjects coming… Read More ›
Google World Wonders Project
From the archaeological areas of Pompeii to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Google’s World Wonders Project aims to bring to life the wonders of the modern and ancient world. This project is under Google Cultural Institute which aims to to provide a visually rich and interactive online experience for telling cultural stories online. Discover exhibits by expert… Read More ›
15 Free Learning Resources for Independent Learners
by Site Administrator at OnlineCollege.org It can be hard to keep up with the ever-growing list of free educational sites out there, much less distinguish which ones will best meet your needs and help you learn skills you really need without shelling out big bucks. New sites are always being launched and even those that have been… Read More ›
Top 10 Glogs for Professional Development
by Beth Crumpler, from Adaptive Learnin (a guest post on Glogster EDU blog) I have written several posts about Glogster EDU on my own blog, so I am thrilled to be asked to contribute as a guest blogger. After brainstorming for a while and searching through Glogster EDU’s website for writing ideas, I came across some fabulous Glogs that contain web… Read More ›
50 and More Recommended Links for ELL/ESL Educators
by Angelita Williams, onlinecollegecourses.com Teaching a new language to non-native speakers may be one of the most challenging educational jobs out there, so ELL teachers can use all of the help they can get! Thankfully, many excellent resources for ELL and ESL exist online, from full-service websites to reference tools and communities, all designed to make… Read More ›
75 Free or Open Source Resources for Remixing
Nothing is original, says Kirby Ferguson, creator of Everything is a Remix. From Bob Dylan to Steve Jobs, he says our most celebrated creators borrow, steal and transform. — from TED talk What’s a remix? In Kirby Ferguson’s view, any piece of art that contains a recognizable reference to another work–a quote from a lyric,… Read More ›
50 Important Links for Common Core Educators
by OnlineColleges staff writers Jasmine Hall Educators across the nation are working hard this summer to begin developing updated curricula that will fit into the new Common Core State Standards, which will be fully applied in 45 U.S. states (Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia, and Minnesota have opted out of statewide participation) by 2015. Yet despite… Read More ›
Historical Scene Investigation in Classrooms
The Historical Scene Investigation Project (HSI) was designed for social studies teachers who need a strong pedagogical mechanism for bringing primary sources into their classroom. With the advent and accessibility of the internet, many libraries, universities and government agencies are housing their historical documents online. Simultaneously, there has been a push in K-12 history education… Read More ›
Literacy Shed – Visual Resources for Literacy
The Literacy Shed is a “treasure trove” for literacy education. It’s the home to a wealth of visual resources – video clips or pictures - that the site owner has collected over his 10 year career as a primary school teacher. It can help you improve your students literacy and critical thinking skills. The curated contents are divided into… Read More ›
Why Every Education Company Needs an API
In this post we like to highlight the argument from Audrey Watters’ article: Why Every Education Company Needs an API (& Why Educators Should Care When One Doesn’t) (licensed under CC-BY-SA) API stands for “Application Programming Interface.” At its most basic level, an API allows one app to talk to another app. It’s the way in which… Read More ›
Learning Resource Metadata Initiative
According to a new survey data speaking volumes about educators’ search experiences(report here), educators often find the process of conducting online searches for educational resources frustrating, and publishers wish their materials were more easily discoverable through online searches. The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative(LRMI) is working to make it easier to publish, discover, and deliver quality educational… Read More ›
The Learning Registry – An Infrastructure for Sharing
From the perspectives of education decision makers, the importance of sharing can’t be stressed enough for common benefits. The Learning Registry is designed to make sharing much easier in a digital world. With the Learning Registry, many kinds of information about learning resources can be shared efficiently. It’s an open source technical system designed to facilitate the exchange of data… Read More ›
Why and How to Teach Critical Thinking – Tool Kits
With a generation of strong critical thinkers, we won’t just see improvements in the workplace. We’ll see it in public policy and political discourse. But critical thinking takes practice. And that practice needs to begin in our schools. ***** Critical thinking: Why our students need it and resources for teaching it If you believe in conspiracy theories,… Read More ›
Curation in the Age of Abundance – Curator’s Code
“A curator is an information chemist. He or she mix atoms together in a way to build an info-molecule. Then adds value to that molecule.” – Scoble One of some buzzwords from SXSWEDU 2012 is “educators as curators”. With lots of Web2.0 curation tools available, what does it mean to be a curator? What’s the difference… Read More ›
Online Lesson Planner / Gradebook – LearnBoost
LearnBoost is an online grade book and lesson planner that is available for free to educators. It has a grade book, lesson planner, attendance, reporting, calendar, and more… This is a write-up by David Andrade. ***** LearnBoost is an online grade book and lesson planner that is available for free to educators. It has a grade book, lesson planner,… Read More ›
Connected Learning Principles and Resources
The MacArthur Foundation has just launched a new research initiative called Connected Learning, which is focused on building models for connected learning — “learning that is socially connected, interest-driven, and oriented towards educational opportunity.” Here’s Henry Jenkins’ take on the new endeavor. Dr. Eric Mazur’s Peer Instruction has recently started up some similiar resources: Peer Instruction Network(their Blog). And, this post is… Read More ›
Learning Math in Artful Ways
How about that teachers become DJ in the classrooms? Classrooms become digital learning studios? With a laptop or a tablet for each student, everyday every students receives a playlist designed for their learning needs, including texts, videos, interactives and digital games. School of One (So1) first promoted the idea of the playlist in education more than three years… Read More ›
Creative Animation about Reading Wins Oscar
Yesterday my kids went to bed with excitement because their favorite animation short film - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore -just won an Oscar statue (Best Animated Short film)! Blended with computer animation and traditional hand-drawing, the 15-minutes film was made made by Moonbot Studios, a fledgling animation shop in Shreveport, Louisiana. Moonbot’s founders (William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg and Lampton… Read More ›
A Research Engine for Differentiated Learning
There are a lot of search engines out there, I know, we’ve also mentioned some options about Surfing Internet and Learning Safely. But if you look into InstaGrok, you will learn how much different search could be done today. We should call it a research engine (instead of search engine) that adds value to search results. These are main features… Read More ›
Teaching Webmaking with Hackasaurus
Web site building could become one necessity of digital literacy in 21st century, but that doesn’t mean we have to go through all coding techniques with boredom. With innovations like Hackasaurus from Mozilla, teaching and learning webmaking(with resources provided) could be pretty cool! This post is from Audrey Watters, Hackeducation, licensed under CC-BY-SA. ***** Web (De)Construction with… Read More ›
