Weekly Geekly
Vol. 12 November 11- November 15, 2013
What's Important This Week
Thank you to everyone who came to the Tech or Treat event. For those who couldn't make it, or for those who might be interested in seeing the information sheets again, you can find them here.
App of the Week- Sphere 360 Camera
This is a really really neat app for showing kids the world. People with the sphere app can use their smartphones to take spherical pictures of the world around them. Then others can go find those pictures and view the location as if through a window, where the window changes depending on which way you turn. You probably need to see this in action on a device to understand it, but you can see the web site version here. Also, the spheres from the website are embeddable, so you can put one right in your Moodle! You need an account to use this. honestly, this is one where I would create an account with a generic sign in and then change the password after the kids leave. An advantage to having an account already set up is that you can favorite certain spheres so that students can jump straight to great content.
Is this app available on school devices? Yes!
Is there an Android version? Yes!
Flip Tip- Discovery Education Board Builder...for TEACHERS!
Discovery Education Announces The Board Builder For Teachers
Discovery Education has announced the release of a brand new tool for teachers. The Board Builder allows users to present collections of resources in a dynamic, highly visual way. Teachers will now be able to create engaging, interactive lesson plans and assignments that not only include Discovery Education resources, but their own images, files and videos as well. The Board Builder debuted in the spring for students and became an instant hit for student projects. We can't wait to see what teachers will do with this tool. If you ever used Glogster this looks similar to that.
To find Board Builder, simply click on the "Builder Tools" tab and at the bottom of the list choose Board Builder.
I SPY...
The ILA 7th graders at Cobb created iBooks about Greek Mythology characters.
They were to draw their own illustrations (teacher’s instructions), take a picture of them with their phones or scan them. They then used iBook Author on the MacBooks to create the books. The kids exported them in iBook format and PDF so they can be opened on a computer or an iPad. See an example here (open in iBooks on an iPad for full effect!)
Very cool, Cobb!
Are you using Google Docs or Discovery Ed or a cool app in your classroom? Are you doing anything super cool with Moodle? Let me know and you could be profiled in the Weekly Geekly! Tell me what you are doing by completing this form!