Book Creator is a fantastic (iOS/Chrome) app that educators are everywhere to create and share eBooks. This is done using a very user-friendly interface that makes it easy to creating stunning presentations, digital stories w/ the ability to record audio, projects, and more. Teachers are using Book Creator for project based learning, digital storytelling, and much much more. Book Creator can be used to teach any subject or grade level and can be published online, downloaded as an eBook, or
even printed.
Below is a brief demo...
I highly recommend checking out Book Creator by clicking here!!! For a detailed review on how to use Book Creator for digital storytelling check out Monica Burn's excellent blog.
*Book Creator is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.
Socrates is an innovate new site where educators can seamlessly differentiate instruction for each student through a unique game based learning system. This is done through fun and engaging learning games w/ educational portal where teachers can track and monitor student progress, assign educational videos, use a digital badge system, testing, benchmarking, and much much more.
Below is a brief demo...
I highly recommend checking out Socrates by clicking here!!!
Sketch Nation is a wonderful free app (iOS/Android) and website for creating games. Sketch Nation reminds me of Pixel Press Floors but w/out the paper. All a student has to do is select their category of game (i.e. platform, jumping, etc) then draw their backgrounds/characters/items and let Sketch Nation do the rest. The advanced level editor will help students create more complex games and work on their STEM skills. Sketch Nation even has a nice section for education w/ a collection of games and lesson plans created by educators/students.
More Features... - Custom movement / coding - You can now learn the basics of coding by setting custom movement for enemies. You can specify exactly how enemies move by setting each step of movement, such as “Go left”, “Go right”, “Start over”, etc.. We will add more customization like this in upcoming releases.
- Comments - You can now comment on online games created by other users. See what other users think of your games and give feedback to other game creators. All the comments will be checked by an admin before they are viewable to others.
- News feed - You can now see what users are doing in your games. You’ll see news feed items for new high scores, new comments, when your games have been favorited or featured. You’ll also be able to see when games and comments you have submitted have been approved or rejected.
- Art gallery - You can now re-use art you have previously drawn when creating a new object. Local games will be limited to art stored locally, while online games will be able to access all the art you have created for your online games.
- Pushable blocks - You can now create obstacles that can be pushed by the player. This opens up a whole new way to design levels by requiring the user to push obstacles in order to solve puzzles.
- New ammo settings - You can now create non-moving ammo that appears directly in front of the player. This can be used to let the player wield a weapon such as a sword.
- New dying animations - New dying animations for enemies like “Cut”, “Flatten” and “Fall over”.
I highly recommend checking out Sketch Nation by clicking here!!!
Below is a brief demo...
For my Pinterest board on Programing/Coding click here.
*Sketch Nation is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.
Room Escape Maker is an interesting site that I just found out about from Ozge Karaoglu's wonderful blog. This is a fun way to introduce game based learning into a classroom where students can play existing escape room games or make their own. The concept is just like those popular escape rooms where people work in teams to solve clues to escape their before time expires.
I highly recommend checking out Room Escape Maker by clicking here!!!
The Writing Bee is back and this year it promises to be another global event with over 100 school districts participating and results being presented at this year's SXSW EDU Conference in Austin, TX!
The 2019 Writing Bee kicks off this February and will feature American Writer, filmmaker, poet, activist, educator, Academy Award nominee, and former Black Panther Party member, Jamal Joseph. Professor Joseph will serve as The Writing Bee's featured Guest Author providing guidance and inspiration to all participating students throughout the event as they create original spoken-word oriented content. There is so much excitement about this Bee that SXSW has asked Professor Joseph to present the results.
This is the third consecutive year of the Writing Bee, which is free to schools and hosted on BoomWriter's unique content-generation platform. District/school-based Writing Bee Qualifying rounds consist of three sections, with each one open to all students and initiated by a prompt provided by the featured guest author to help guide students. Once they have completed their writing sessions, students again log in to BoomWriter to review the anonymous submissions of fellow participants and cast votes for their favorites. A winning submission is identified, and the process continues until The Writing Bee is completed.
Winners and top vote-getters of the Qualifying rounds will be invited to participate in The Writing Bee Finals. The Finals will consist of "knockout rounds" in which only the section winner and top vote-getters advance to the subsequent rounds and a chance to become The 2019 Writing Bee Champion.
Christ Twyman, CEO and co-founds of BoomWriter Media, Inc., said, "At BoomWriter, we've always taken great pride in our products' ability to connect with all types of students regardless of whether they are passionate or reluctant writers. By partnering with Jamal Joseph and having students write entries that are intended to be spoken out loud, I know both BoomWriter and The Writing Bee will have its greatest impact ever!"
The Writing Bee Qualifying rounds will take place in participating schools and/or districts any time between February and May with The Writing Bee Finals scheduled to be conducted in June.
Jamal Joseph intro...
To learn more and register your students for free, please visit TheWritingBee.Org or email megan@boomwriter.com. You never know, the next Writing Bee champion could be one of your own students and there's only one way to find out. Good luck!
NameCoach is a wonderful web service that educators are using to learn student's names and pronounce them correctly. This is especially useful w/ commencement/graduation ceremonies on the horizon. The way this works is simple as a teacher creates a name/web page and then has the student's speak their names. The audio gets embedded into a page and a user can access them all on one page at anytime. Also, NameCoach makes it very easy to share recordings and keep track of student's name/email. It's easy, accurate, and 100% safe for schools to use.
I highly recommend checking out NameCoach by clicking here!!!
Below is a brief demo...
*NameCoach is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.educational resources
*30hands Storyteller Web is $59 for the whole classroom through the end of Nov, w/ a FREE training webinar.
30hands Learning is the excellent company for creating an innovative LMS (Learning Management System) as well as the popular mobile iOS app that is ideal for digital storytelling 30hands Pro. The 30hands community is a perfect cloud based solution that allows educators to: manage/track students, hand in/out assignments, schedule events, and more. While the mobile is being used in education for project based learning, digital storytelling, and more.
30hands has lots of exciting news on the horizon...
After upgrading to Pro, users will have access to existing advanced features and new features in the works:
• Video clips as slides
• Google Drive + Dropbox Integration
• Importing of Google Slides and PDFs as 30hands slides
• Backgrounds and scenes
• Higher quality videos
• Advanced drag-and-drop drawing with editing
• Slide sharing with parents and students
• Slide Transitions
• Unlimited presentations
• Unlimited saves to Camera Roll
For more info on how your school can participate, email info@30hands.com.
Book Creator is a fantastic (iOS/Chrome) app that educators are everywhere to create and share eBooks. This is done using a very user-friendly interface that makes it easy to creating stunning presentations, digital stories w/ the ability to record audio, projects, and more. Teachers are using Book Creator for project based learning, digital storytelling, and much much more. Book Creator can be used to teach any subject or grade level and can be published online, downloaded as an eBook, or
