Otus for Remote Learning

Otus is an ideal tool for Remote Learning w/ schools being closed.  Their learning platform makes it easy for educators to build dynamic engaging lessons, deliver instruction, and then assess student learning.

Otus is a all-in-one mobile learning solution for schools that combines the best features of a: learning management system, data management system, and more.  The sleek new design, allows for easier functionality, a brighter customizable color interface, and real-time analytics and third party integration (i.e. Khan Academy), and of course Otus Worksheets.

Below is a brief demo...



I highly recommend checking out Otus by clicking here!!!

For more information check out Otus on Technology and Learning.

*Otus is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.

HeadUP

HeadUp is a excellent new site for digital storytelling that I just found out about.  Once a user signs up they can create dynamic looking stories that contains, images, videos, links, and more.  Finally, HeadUP can be translated into 5 different languages and others can comment, rate, and share digital stories.

Below is a brief demo...



I highly recommend checking out HeadUP by clicking here!!!

Super Teacher Worksheets & I Know It for Online Learning

Two of my favorite sites for finding educational games, actives, worksheets, and more, has just recently made their sites free for educators/students during school closures.  More info from their following press release...

I Know It (iknowit.com) is a popular math practice site for students in grades K through 5.  IKI features over 500 Common Core aligned math lessons.  Normally it's a subscription service for schools, but it's being offered for free to teachers and schools during the COVID-19 outbreak.

More information, and to sign up for free access:  https://www.iknowit.com/

AND

Super Teacher Worksheets has over 16,000 printable resources for students in grades K through 5.  STW is offering temporary, full access via shared account to teachers affected by virus-related closures. 

Log in with the information below:

username:  temporaryaccess

password: stayhealthy

url:  superteacherworksheets.com

*Super Teacher Worksheets and I Know It are advertisers of Technology Tidbits.

Litehouse

Litehouse is an innovative new site for creating stunningly beautiful digital stories.  Litehouse incorporates a easy-to-use story editor that lets users add: text, audio, images, maps, are more to create a dynamic story.  Once the story is created it can then she be shared, exported, or downloaded for others to view.

I highly recommend checking out Litehouse by clicking here!!!

Curiscope

Curiscope is a wonderful company that makes augmented reality posters and tee's for education.  These are great learning tools for the classroom that shows student's different aspects of Science through augmented reality.

Below is a brief demo of an AR poster...



I highly recommend checking out Curiscope by clicking here!!!

Circly

*Circly's collaboration features make it an ideal tool for "remote learning" while schools are closed down due to the virus.  Students can even use it to do group projects from home.

Circly is a wonderful new graphic organizers that educators can use to brainstorm, manage tasks, create collaborative group projects, Venn diagrams and more.  Circly, is uses a drag-n-drop interface making it easy to use as well as lets the user change colors of circles to maximize data points.  Finally, the most unique feature of Circly lets users collaborate in real-time w/ built-in video caller lets user work in groups remotely.  This is a great feature for educators looking to do more group
projects as well work w/ peers remotely.

Below is a brief demo...

I highly recommend checking out Circly by clicking here!!!

Circly's latest press release details how they can help classrooms get over the COVID-19 pandemic.

15 Online Summer Learning Opportunities

It's that time of year again for my annual list of online summer learning opportunities or programs.  This is especially prevalent w/ the COVID-19 "double whammy" that is happening w/ school closures around the world, economic downturn, and high possibility of summer learning loss for students.  These programs help fill a gap that sometimes is lacking over the summer months and best of all can be done at the comfort from home.

*This list is in alphabetical order

15 Online Summer Learning Opportunities

1. BoomWriter Haunt - A Summer writing club that uses BW's unique interactive story-writing process to create entertaining collaborative stories.
2. Brain Chase - Is a online five week program for grades 2nd-8th.  This adventure has students working in the subjects of Math, Reading, Writing, and more, while watching animated episodes and solving educational problems.
3. Coding With Kids - A wonderful online summer camp that teaches kids of all ages how to code using Scratch, Minecraft, and more.
4. CodeWizardsHQ - A great place to learn how to code in a 3 week online class.
5. Connected Camps - An innovative online camp for students wanting to learn STEM skills such as coding, media, collaboration, and more through the use of Minecraft.
6. Connections Learning - A nice collection of technology related online courses for Math and reading grades K-8th.
7. Edgenuity - A great program for districts K-12 that offers at school classes or "virtual" through their online instructors.
8. fueleducation - A excellent online program for grades 6-12 w/ a wide variety of courses teaching any number of subjects.
9. GoNoodle (Camp GoNoodle) - A fun and free online program that has students learning through play and other various educational activities.
10. ID Tech - A fun online camp for students wanting to learn STEM skills such as: coding, game development, robotics, and more.
11. K5 Learning - A online Reading and Math program for grades K-5th w/ real time results and detailed reports.
12. K12 - A robust online summer school program w/ lotos of electives for students grades 6th-12th.
13. Outschool - A fantastic online platform for students ages 3-18 looking to learn a wide variety of subjects (i.e. Minecraft, physics, panio, etc.)
14. Time4Learning - A fun online program for grades PreK-8th in the subjects of Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts.
15. Treca - An 8 week course for grades 9-12.  Treca offers a wide range of online courses such as: Math, Science Social Studies, and more.

Newlearn.io

*Newlearn.io will send out two gift cards to the teachers that share their tips for "remote learning" during this COVID-19 crisis, during May 13th-19th.  Winners will be announced on May 22nd.

Newlearn.io is a excellent new social network for finding educational resources.  Newlearn.io curates their resources by common core standards and allows users to share (download/upload) files such as: videos, documents, PDFs, and more.  Best of all, the social networking aspects makes it easy to rate, comment, and collaborate w/ other educators to engage in best teaching resources and strategies.


Below is a brief demo...



I highly recommend checking out Newlearn.io by clicking here!!!

*Newlearn.io is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.

30hands Pro

30hands Pro is the excellent iOS app for project based learning, flipping a classroom, and digital storytelling.  Educators are using 30hands to integrate technology in a easy and seamless way.

• New Features in Pro:
— Enhanced Drawing with Editing, Adding Images to canvas, Layering Images, more! (Basic Drawing is still there, too)
— Share-a-Slide to create a single slide video
— Stop Motion is easier with settings and Enhanced Drawing
— Storyboarding is faster and easier
• New icons from Font Awesome and ION
• added support for iOS 9
• fixed some bugs

• Pro has 2 Drawing Modes: Enhanced and Basic
— Enhanced Drawing is vector based which is huge!
— Add images + photos to a drawing
— Edit a drawing after saving
— Drawing lines are crisper
— Text can be on multiple lines
— Resized and stretched text can still be edited!
• Pro has Share-a-Slide to create a single slide video
— Share a single narrated drawing or image to parents, teachers or friends
— Share-a-Slide allows for better collaboration
— Add video slides from multiple students into a central presentation
• Pro has easy Stop Motion settings
— Stop Motion slides can be within a normal presentation
• Easier Storyboarding in Starter and Pro
— New + icon to add a drawing from slide preview/record screen removes extra steps

For more information on 30hands Pro, or 30hands Web click here!!!

*30hands is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.

Peergrade

Peergrade is an all-in-one peer assessment platform.  The way this works is an educator creates an assignment and rubric while students upload their work to Peergrade.  Peergrade then automatically and distributes that work to other students.  The students then anonymously evaluate and assess their peer's work while providing constructive feedback.  This helps students learn by "grading" and become effective communicators.

Below is a brief demo...



I highly recommend checking out Peergrade by clicking here!!!

TeachVid

TeachVid is an amazing online tool for learning foreign languages that I just found out about from Larry Ferlazzo's blog.  TeachVid reminds me a tad like EDpuzzle where educators use interactive videos to assess student's learning.  Also, educators can create a "virtual" classroom and create assignments that contain: videos, worksheets, etc.  Finally, TeachVid makes it easy to flip a classroom or lesson and let student's learn at their own pace.

I highly recommend checking out TeachVid by clicking here!!!

*TeachVid is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.

Top 20 Sites for Creating a Quiz

There is an abundance of online tools that allows teachers to create a test or quiz.  Not only does this help teachers easily assess students but differentiate instruction as well.  This is especially useful considering schools are closed right now during the pandemic and remote learning is in effect.

*This list is in alphabetical order

Top 20 Sites for Creating a Quiz

1. Answer Pad - A great student response system where educators can quiz students to assess student learning in real-time.
2. ClassMarker - Another nice site for creating embeddable quizzes, similar to ProProfs. The paid version opens up a lot more options for the users.
3. EasyTestMaker - EasyTestMaker provides tools to generate a wide assortment of tests. The site gives you the ability to divide tests into sections and insert instructions.
4. Gimkit - A wonderful game based learning solution where educators can create quizzes for students.  This is a great tool for Remote Learning and Self Paced Learning too.
5. Google Docs (forms) - An ideal way for teachers to create tests/quizzes and then embed them into their site for students to take. Also, very user friendly and instant reporting!!!
6. GoToQuiz - A very simple site for creating a quiz that generates a unique URL for others to take.
7. involve.me - One of my favorite sites around for easily creating online quizzes w/ lots of features such as adding images and timers. 
8. Kahoot - One of the most popular sites around to "gamify" a classroom and create fun educational quizzes for the whole class to take as a group.
9. Otus - A innovative all-in-one mobile learning solution where teachers can create quizzes to assess student's learning and differentiate instruction.
10. ProProfs - A bit more robust then the other sites but still nice for creating quizzes. The paid version offers up more features such as student tracking, privacy settings, etc etc.
11. Quibblo - A fun/easy site for creating quizzes in a social networking environment. Quizzes can be rated, shared w/ others, and even embedded into a site.
12. Quiz Game Master - A nice little site where users can create quizzes and turn them into online games.
13. Quizizz - A fantastic site for creating multiplayer quizzes where educators get results in real-time.
14. Quizlet - An excellent and very popular site for students wanting to learn a wide variety subjects through the use of study guides, flashcards, and taking practice tests.
15. Quizpedia - An interesting site/app where the student creates the quiz to take control of their learning.
16. QuizSlides - A nice site for creating a quiz from PowerPoint slides and importing results into a spreadsheet.
17. QuizStar - Create classes w/ students to take online quizzes.
18. Super Teacher Worksheets - An amazing place where educators can find worksheets, printables, and generators for quizzes, for a wide range of subjects.
19. Testmoz - A great site for creating quizzes w/ 4 question types. Also, this site is very user friendly and is taken by generating a unique URL.
20. Triventy - A wonderful site for creating collaborative quizzes.

DOGOnews

DOGOnews is an excellent site for creating Reading assignments for grades K-8 that can then be integrated into Google Classroom.  This is done through 1000s of curated educated articles in a wide variety of subjects (i.e. Science, History, Current Events, etc.) where educators can then select lesson plans, create assignments, and help students increase their Reading and Vocabulary skills.

Below is a brief demo...

I highly recommend checking out DOGOnews for teachers by clicking here!!!

*DOGOnews is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.

involve.me

involve.me is an excellent site for creating online quizzes.  What separates involve.me from other sites is the abundance of features it offers as well as how easy it is to use to create a quiz.  involve.me uses a drag-n-drop editor to create quizzes where teachers can add images or timers.  Also, a educator can select through a template or customize an already created quiz.  Finally, once the quiz is created a teacher can include comments, and the answers, so the quiz will be graded in real-time.  This is a great way for educators to assess student's learning and differentiate instruction.

I highly recommend checking out involve.me by clicking here!!!

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo's blog for the tip.