4 Good Digital Storytelling Apps for Android

November 21, 2015
Digital storytelling is a great way to engage students in a wide range of multimodal learning activities where they get to practice key literacy skills. It is also an effective method in helping students express their own narratives in both written and verbal media. In today’s post we are introducing you to some good digital storytelling apps to use on Android-operated devices. For those of you using iPad, check out this resource instead.

1-Tellagami

“A Gami can be an exciting tweet or status update. It can be a fun way to tell a story. It can be a thank you message or a vacation postcard. It can be a birthday greeting, party invite or cool way to share photos. The possibilities are endless!”

2- Story Dice

Story Dice is a creative tool to prompt ideas for plot, character, and setting. This idea generator can be used effectively for both written and oral storytelling.This app can be used with a wide variety of age groups ranging from preschoolers to teenagers. The user interface is simple enough for ages 3+ to use without any additional instruction.

3- WeVideo

'The WeVideo Video Editor helps you capture memories and moments wherever they happen, and turn them into amazing videos to share with others, across your favorite social networks.'

4- Animoto

Turn your camera roll into beautiful, pro-quality videos. Choose some of your favorite photos, mix them with one of our engaging styles, and pick a soundtrack from our huge library of music. Within moments you'll have an amazing video to share with everyone!

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6 Powerful Writing Prompts Generators to Use on Android

November 21, 2015
Looking for some good writing prompts to fuel students muse? The list below has you covered. We have curated some of the best prompt generators in the Android app store. Using these apps, students will be able to access a wide variety of thought-provoking prompts to provide them with inspiration and creative ideas to write about in their writing projects. For those of you looking for prompt generators to use on iPad, check out this list.

1- iDeas for Writing

‘If you like writing, you don't have to worry about the creative blocks or the fear of the blank page anymore. Thanks to "iDeas for Writing", you will always carry with you a whole writing workshop with creative triggers and exercises to get your imagination flowing.’

2- Writing Challenge

‘With Writing Challenge you will enjoy a game with creative prompts to spark your inspiration and master free writing…It's easy. You just have to press "start" and the app gives you the first prompt to start writing your story. Choose the one that you most like and fire up your writing. Then, every minute (or the time you choose in the app settings) the app will give you a new prompt for you to add new ideas, words, characters, sentences, places or actions to the plot. Quite a challenge to turn your writing into a game!’

3- Fresh Start Writing Prompts

‘Get ready to ignite the spark of imagination for all your upcoming creative writing projects with the Fresh Start Writing Prompts application for Android. Available for smartphones and tablets!
Whether you are looking for fresh ideas to help encourage you to write daily or are looking for inspiration for a college skit look no further. The Fresh Start Writing Prompts application can provide you with millions of prompts to help you get started.’

4- A+ Writing Prompts

‘Our prompt generators use scene elements, current events, words, sketches, colors, genres and writing types, unleashing endless random bits of fantasy to fuel your muse. Plus, we've included our database of 600 creative writing prompts so you've got them right at your finger tips, online or off!’

5- Writing Prompts Pro

‘Writing Prompts Pro gives you a variety of thought provoking prompts to help with your story.Whether you've already written half of your story or have yet to write a word, this app includes the prompts and situations needed to keep your story moving.’

6- Writing Exercises and Prompts

‘Writing prompts and exercises designed to help you get started with creative writing or to break through writing blocks.Generate random first lines for stories, subjects for free-writing exercises, characters and plot-lines with four simple, yet effective, creative writing tools.’

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4 Great New Google Docs Templates for Teachers

November 21, 2015
A few months ago, we shared with you six popular Google Docs templates to use in your instruction but those were in the old template gallery. Now that the new Docs template gallery is released, there are way more practical templates to use for different educational purposes. We have spent sometime browsing through the collection there and picked out for you the ones below. These are especially helpful for  creating lesson plans, brochures, newsletters and resumes. To access and use any of these templates, go to Docs Gallery and click on 'More' on top right hand side

1- Lesson Plan
This is a great template to use for creating your lesson plans. It is pretty basic and features the basic elements making up a lesson plan. There are two versions of this template one is called Playful and the other Simple.

2- Brochure
This one allows you to create beautiful brochures without any technical hassle. You can use text, visuals, maps, shapes…etc to create a short 4 pages brochure to share with students. You can choose between two types of brochures: Modern Writer and Geometric.

3- Newsletter
Always under the Work section in Docs gallery, you will find three types of newsletter templates each one is slightly different from the other. There is the Geometric newsletter, the Lively newsletter and the Plum newsletter. They are all beautifully designed and can be appropriated for different purposes.

4- Resumes
There is a whole section in the new Docs gallery for resumes. There are actually four resume templates: Swiss, Serif, Coral and Spearmint.  Students can use them to create professional looking resumes in a matter of a few minutes.

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15 Tips to Make The Best of Google on Your Phone

November 21, 2015
Here are 15 interesting handy tips to help you make the best of your Google app on your mobile device. More details on each tip is available on Google Tips page. Some of the things you will get to learn from these features include: how to make a phone call using a simple voice command, access your google Calendar and add events by tapping or asking, set reminders while you are on the go, check the arrival time of your packages, search for places locally or globally and many more. Below are some of our favourite tips from the list, check out  Google Tips page to learn more about other hacks to use with Google app on your phone.

1- Keep tabs on the time
You can easily set timers and alarms with a simple speech command. For instance, try saying ‘ Ok Google, set a timer for 12 minutes or Ok Google wake me up at 8’.

2- Become a scheduling ninja
You can ask Google to show you events in your calendar by saying ‘Ok Google, what’s on my calendar today?”.

3- Translate 90 languages
This feature allows you to get translations in 90 languages by speaking or typing.

4- Find places locally or globally
You can search Google for places of interests using speech commands with the name of these places included. e.g ‘ Ok Google, where is the nearest coffee shop?’.

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10 Excellent Apps for 1:1 iPad Classroom

November 21, 2015
The massive embrace of technology in education has radically transformed teaching pedagogy giving birth to some new instructional approaches that were, to the very recent past, unheard of. It has also helped in creating teaching environments where personalized and student-centerer learning is encouraged. One such environment is what is known as the 1:1 iPad classroom. If you are lucky enough to be teaching in a classroom where every student has access to their own digital device then you would have probably experienced firsthand some of the pedagogical benefits of  this approach.

However, while 1:1 iPad classrooms come  with numerous advantages, there are also certain caveats to be heeded  especially in terms of classroom management. Students can be easily distracted by their devices and lose focus and attention. They might try to use social media apps while in class, multitask in a negative way and many more. To learn more about the challenges facing 1:1 teachers together with the best practices on how to manage them, we highly recommend these reads: 5 Best Practices for Managing a 1:1 iPad Classroom (by Hans Mundahl); Teaching in a 1:1 Environment (by iPad Bootcamp for Teachers); and 5 Epiphanies on Learning in a 1:1 iPad Classroom (by:Alyssa Tormala, Edutopia).

Below is a collection of iPad apps we have curated specifically for 1:1 iPad classrooms to help teachers and students make the best of their iPads.

1- Showbie- Paperless Classroom

“With Showbie, you can quickly and easily assign, collect and review student work on your iPad, then provide rich feedback to your students by adding annotations, text notes and voice notes directly onto their documents. Students can show their learning creatively by submitting to Showbie from thousands of compatible iPad apps, or by completing assignments with Showbie’s built in tools. Showbie keeps everyone organized with individual student assignment folders, email and push notifications.”

2- Teacher Toolkit

“Over a million educators worldwide trust TeacherKit with managing their time and activities. TeacherKit helps you organize classes and students easily. Create a seating chart, record attendance, log behavior, and track grades all with few taps. TeacherKit lifts the headache of routine administration, allowing you to focus on what really matters to you – teaching.”

3- Socrative Teacher

“Engage, assess and personalize your class with Socrative! Educators can initiate formative assessments through quizzes, quick question polls, exit tickets and space races all with their Socrative Student app. Socrative will instantly grade, aggregate and provide visuals of results to help you identify opportunities for further instruction. Save time and visualize student understanding when it matters”

4- Nearpod

“The Nearpod platform enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students' iPads, iPhones, iPods or Macs. It combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution.”
5- The Brainstormer

The Brainstormer is kindling for creative minds. A tactile tool to randomly combine a plot, a subject and a setting or style, the Brainstormer provides a moment of inspiration for writers, painters, or any creative mind. Combat creative block, spark new ideas and summon up quick subjects for doodling, sketching or journaling.
6- Prompts

"Get more than 1,000 starting lines and creative writing prompts to inspire you and give you ideas for improving your creative writing. Great for students, amateur writers, or professionals who want to free write often."
7- Videolicious

‘Over 3,000,000 downloads! Videolicious 3 is beautifully designed to make high quality video creation even easier and faster! Instantly weave together interviews, videos, photos, music and more into a sophisticated video production—in seconds. Just talk and tap—or watch and tap—to make the perfect video.’

8- Pixlr Editor

'Unlock your creativity with Pixlr – the free photo editor! Capture any moment and make it beautiful with over 2 million combinations of free effects, overlays, and filters. Once you’re done, share your finished work directly to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or your other favorite social networks!'

9- Explain Everything

'Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Using Explain Everything, you will be able to create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer. Rotate, move, scale, copy, paste, clone, and lock any object added to the stage.Add existing photos, objects, import PDF documents from local storage, Google Drive, Dropbox or insert a fully functioning web browser window'

10- Skitch

Skitch allows you to easily capture your screen and share it with others. You can also use it to annotate images and PDFs by adding shapes, arrows, stamps, text and many more.As a teacher, you can use Skitch for a variety of purposes. You can, for instance, use it to mark up a PDF document and highlight important parts you want your students to focus on. You can also use it to create annotated visuals to include in your instructional tutorials. Skitch is also a great tool to use to give feedback and share ideas with students.

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A New Interesting Google Drive Update Released Today

November 20, 2015
After the recent updates for Google Drive on Android and iPad, a new feature has been added today to Google Drive for the web. With a single click, you can easily drag and drop files and documents from your desktop right into your Drive’s folders and subfolders. To do this you need to make sure you have the latest version of Chrome or Firefox. Here is how to check whether you have the latest Chrome version or not.

By default, Chrome gets updated automatically whenever there is a new version. However, if you haven’t closed your browser for awhile you will be able to see a coloured menu in the top right side of your browser indicating the availability of a new update:

• "A green menu means an update's been available for 2 days.
• An orange menu means an update's been available for 4 days.
• A red menu means an update's been available for 7 days.

To update Google Chrome:

• In the top right, click the Chrome menu .
• Click Update Google Chrome. If you don't see this button, you're on the latest version.
• Click Relaunch.

The browser saves your opened tabs and windows and reopens them automatically when it restarts. If you'd prefer not to restart right away, click Not now. The next time you restart your browser, the update will be applied.
To Update Chrome on iPad
Chrome should automatically update based upon your iOS App Store settings. You can check if there's a new version available:

• Open the App Store.
• Touch Updates.
• If you see Chrome in the list, touch Update to install.
• If asked, enter your Apple ID password. The updates will download and install."

Source : Chrome Help.

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A New Collection of Web Tools for Social Studies Teachers

November 19, 2015
Below is a collection of some very good websites for social studies teachers which we have curated from Graphite. We have particularly focused on new websites which are featured here for the first time. To check out other social studies tools we reviewed in the past, read this post. From lesson plans and classroom resources to interactive games to engage students in learning about the world, these platforms are definitely worth your attention.

1- Teaching Tolerance

‘Founded in 1991 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation's children. We provide free educational materials to teachers and other school practitioners in the U.S. and Canada. Our self-titled magazine is sent to 450,000 educators twice annually, and tens of thousands of educators use our free curricular kits. More than 5,000 schools participate in our annual Mix It Up at Lunch Day program.’

2- Gapminder

‘Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.’

3- 3D World Fact Book

‘Do you like to discover new things? Geo Walk is an interactive globe model with handpicked articles on various topics (Animals and Plants, History, People and Inventions), which are placed on the Earth with respect to their location with pictures and short descriptions making most wonderful things of the world easy and fun to discover.’

4- EDSITEment

‘All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom. They cover a wide range of humanities subjects, from American history to literature, world history and culture, language, art, and archaeology, and have been judged by humanities specialists to be of high intellectual quality. EDSITEment is not intended to represent a complete curriculum in the humanities, nor does it prescribe any specific course of study.’

5- Internet History Sourcebooks Project

‘The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use.’

6- iCivics

‘Founded and led by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics provides students with the tools they need for active participation and democratic action, and teachers with the materials and support to achieve this. Our free resources include print-and-go lesson plans, award-winning games, and digital interactives.’

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