Tech Talk Follow-Up
March 12th, 2015
Thanks for Spending Lunch With Us!
Bill
How Do I Find Good Tech Resources?
EdShelf
EdShelf is sort of like a Pinterest for Apps. I like the graphical way this website presents the apps as well as links to tutorials and ratings by other teachers. EdShelf is finding itself a victim of its own success. There servers have been under heavy load lately and I see they are currently down for maintenance until tomorrow (March 18th).
I have created a collection of Pinewood Upper Campus Core Apps that are on our student's iPads.
Common Sense Media
https://www.commonsensemedia.org
Common Sense Media is not just for apps. It gives really good movie, book and TV show reviews for parents. My 9th grader cringes when I open up the iPad app before I approve a movie for him to see with his friends. ;-) You need to be able to read into the detailed reviews, but they are a great starting point.
Common Sense Media has just started a new website called Graphite that works to find worthwhile apps for teachers to use in the classroom.
Common Sense Media also has a lot of wonderful information and lesson plans for integrating Digital Citizenship into the curriculum.
EdTechTeacher
http://edtechteacher.org/apps/
I like the way that EdTechTeacher presents apps. They begin by asking what you want your students to be able to do. From there, they guide you to decent apps to take a look at.
Teachers With Apps
http://teacherswithapps.com/category/high-school/
I like this website because it was created by teachers for teachers. It is well worth checking out.
APPitic
http://www.appitic.com/index.php/teachers/apps-for-teachers
This site has a good breakdown of apps by subject area, ideas for challenged based learning, project based learning and more.
iPad4Schools
A site made by a teacher in New Zealand to help fill the professional development gap for teachers that he saw in his own local community.
Bonus Sites!
We didn't cover these in our last Tech Talk because I wanted to get to the augmented reality demo. Here are two additional web resources for you.
Te@chThought
http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/52-of-the-best-apps-for-classrooms/
Two Guys and Some iPads
http://www.twoguysandsomeipads.com/p/game-changing-apps.html
Augmented Reality in the Classroom
Here are some additional articles and ideas for using augmented reality in the classroom.
- Article: Aurasma: Augmented Reality for Your Classroom
- Article: Augmented Reality Brings New Dimensions to Learning
- Pinterest Board: School- Aurasma and Augmented Reality
- Blog Post: Meaningful Integration of Augmented Reality in Education
- Blog Post: Classroom Examples Using Aurasma - A Complete How-To Guide!
- Blog Post: Elements4D - Exploring Chemistry with Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality Review
In case you are wondering what Augmented Reality is. Here is the information I sent out in the first flyer.
What do you know about Augmented Reality?
Put simply for our purposes:
- Take an iPad running an Augmented reality app
- Point the camera at a real world object or setting
- Virtual information is layered on top of the real world (images, a video, animation and so on) on the iPad screen
If I did a poor job explaining, here is a brief video that will do a better job...
Now that you have seen it, the possibilities are endless... Don't you just want to scream every time you hear that phrase? At our Tech Talk we will look at interesting ways of using augmented reality in the classroom.
- If you want to try it out: Download the Aurasma iPad app