“Google Photos has grown into an awesome service. From automatically backing up your phone’s pictures to letting you easily share your photos, there’s a lot to love for anyone who works with photos. Whether you want to make a mini stop-motion animation or just make a slideshow of related pictures, Photos can help. Select the Animation button under the Assistant tab, and you can choose from 2–50 photos to add. Once you’re satisfied, click Create and you’ll have a neat little GIF ready to share.” — Ben Stegner
“Google Home now has more than 200 third-party skills, also known as conversation actions. If you’re just getting started, or you want to really see what your virtual assistant can do, check out” this list from PC Mag. — Sascha Segan, PC Mag
Google Photos “takes your entire photo library — every photo you’ve ever taken on your phone, as well as screenshots and photos taken within Instagram and whatever else — and uploads it to the internet. The photos remain private, hidden behind your Google account information, but now you can access them anywhere. On your laptop? Yep. On a new phone? Yep. On your tablet? Yep, there too.” — Ben Gilbert, Business Insider
Larry Ferlazzo describes EDpuzzle as “a new innovative site that lets you take just about any video off the web, edit it down to the portions you want, add audio notes and questions for students, and create virtual classrooms where you can monitor individual student work” (Source). Perhaps the best part is that teachers and students can use it for FREE.
The following quick demo will help you begin using EDpuzzle.
Flipped Learning and EDpuzzle
“EDPuzzle is a great resource for the flipped classroom, allowing teachers to create and present innovative lectures in a safe environment” according to Education World. Further, iLearn Technology notes that as “students watch, [the teacher] can check understanding and ensure active watching vs. passive watching. In a flipped scenario, this gives you the ability to completely tailor a lesson the next day based on the formative assessment results you get from homework. This is truly utilizing assessment to inform instruction.”
Educational Connections
EDpuzzle can be used:
In flipped classrooms (as discussed above).
To make lecturecasts, tutorials, video directions, etc. more engaging and interactive.
For compiling data and information about students’ performance, and perhaps understanding, which can helpful formative assessment.
So that students can annotate video reflections, recorded reports and skits, and more.
To allow students to develop tutorials and quizzes about the current topic of study. Putting students in the teacher’s role can encourage higher-levels of thinking.
“ThingLink is an interactive media platform that empowers publishers, educators, brands, and bloggers to create more engaging content by adding rich media links to photos and videos…Use ThingLink to create interactive news photography, maps, posters, family albums, infographics, and shoppable product catalogs in minutes” (Source).
Getting Started
The following video will help you start using ThingLink.
Setting up ThingLink for the Classroom
This playlist, compiled by Susan Oxnevad, contains tutorials for setting up ThingLink channels, embedding Google docs, setting up student accounts, organizing students into project groups, and more.
Educational Connections
ThingLink can be used:
To communicate the directions and expectations for class projects, small group activities, independent learning, etc.
With book reports, research projects, and science projects.
To add narration to images.
For teacher and student introductions at the beginning of the year.
To develop interactive posters to communicate with students and parents.
For student reflections.
To integrate multimedia and dynamic data with maps, infographics, Wordles, and other images.
For organizing and sharing professional development resources.
Prezi introduces a new way to share life’s little moments, in a nutshell.
Combining the simplicity of photographs, the compelling nature of video, and the fun of animated graphics, Nutshell uses Prezi’s new storymapping technology to create short, shareable cinematic narratives that can be shared easily and instantly.
Besides creating fun social media updates, Nutshell opens the door for all sorts of unique messaging opportunities when videos feel like too much of a production and plain photos just are not adequate for capturing life’s moments.
3 Easy Steps
Snap three pictures.
Add captions.
Choose graphics and let Nutshell turn it all into a shareable cinematic story.
Features
Library of free animated graphics that you can use to create short cinematic stories
Instant sharing to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
Send nutshells directly to friends via email, text messages, and WhatsApp
Full camera support for iOS 8.0 and above
Much more
Educational Connections
Provides students with a creative alternative for submitting reflections, journals, etc.
Share engaging news and announcements with students and parents.
Integrate with standards focused on communication: personal expression, propaganda techniques, etc.
Enables creative ways for students to share their interpretations of poems, stories, books, plays, and other works of art.
Empower students to collect evidence of their thinking during a lab or group activity.
The finished product can serve as an artifact of learning, potentially making thinking visible in your classroom.
There are many other educational connections. Please share yours in the comments to this post.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to take one of my graduate classes on a tour of new 3D Printing Lab in the University of Memphis Library. We received training in computer-aided design (CAD) and use of the 3D printer, and had the opportunity to see it in action. Our conversation about integrating 3D printers with learning was packed with ideas and I left feeling energized. Additional educational uses have been popping into my mind since.
The following video and photos showcase some of the various projects that were printed. The Memphis skyline is my favorite and look even more impressive in-person.
The following album offers snapshots and captions of our tour.
Discussion
What experiences have you had with 3D printing?
Can you see potential ways to connect 3D printing with learning?
“Treasure hunts are a fun way for students to use problem solving skills, to work in teams, to practice comprehensions skills, and to use technology resources all while practicing subject matter” (Source).
Klikaklu has reinvented the scavenger hunt. The iOS app allows you to create a treasure hunt based on images. It is a photo hunt game that uses your phone’s GPS, camera, and advanced image matching technology. It’s a great way to quickly create and play treasure hunts! Share hunts privately with friends and family, or leave them in public places for students and others to find. Lead people to new and interesting spots. Reveal secrets and rewards when they crack your clues. No geocaching boxes or QR codes are necessary, so you can create hunts around school, in national parks, museums, at the public library, or on field trips – any place you want to add an element of challenge or mystery, or share information with others.
AAIM Conference
Educators at the 2014 AAIM Conference can download the app and begin competing for prizes in IDT Memphis‘ virtual scavenger hunt. Our scavenger hunt is a very simple demonstration of how the app works and the game is played. Browse through the resources below for ideas for using Klikalu at your school.
I enjoyed listening to the following interview from Robert Scoble. On his Facebook wall Robert states that he learned “from an Indiana school superintendent, all about how Google Chromebooks are really changing what he can do and why Android tablets are coming on strong against the iPad” (Source).
What are your thoughts and experiences related to these platforms and tools?
“It’s a pen that can draw in the air! 3Doodler is the 3D printing pen you can hold in your hand. Lift your imagination off the page!” (Source)
“Forget those pesky 3D printers that require software and the knowledge of 3D modeling and behold the 3Doodler, the world’s first pen that draws in three dimensions in real time. Imagine holding a pen and waving it through the air, only the line your pen creates stays frozen, suspended and permanent in 3D space” (Source).
are really changing what he can do and why 
