Awesomeness Quick Share

Below are some great things in EdTech that I’ve come across in the last few weeks – lots of great resources for those of you looking for options with Project Based Learning (PBL) and student response systems:

  • iPad uPad wePad; Going 1-1 at St Oliver Plunkett – This article details the iPad 1 to 1 rollout ‘Bootcamp’ at this school. Don’t miss the posters on Core Teacher Apps, Core Student Apps, and Inquiry Learning with iPads as well as the iPad Boot Camp Summary
  • Nick Vujicic Anti-Bullying Assembly: Utah Simulcast Recording – Hour-long assembly from an internationally known speaker engages and inspires Utah students to be more respectful and supportive of each other.
  • InfuseLearning – A web-based student response system like Socrative, but brings so many more assessment and instructional options – sort of a fusion between Socrative and Nearpod (described below) with the sorts of questions you can ask students. Web based means that you are not tied to a specific device, or even a device at all – anything with a web browser will work! Here’s what it can do.
  • Haiku Deck iPad presentation app – An alternative to Keynote & Prezi on the iPad for presentation creation. Simple to create a presentation, and the interface forces you to focus on keeping the message simple and to the point. Also allows to easily insert stunning copyright-free images, as well as charts and graphs with a few taps. Oh, yeah… it’s FREE. Learn more at HaikuDeck.com.
  • Symbaloo – great bookmarking site that works really well on the iPad. Easy to create your own groups or themes of links – check out my Symbaloo collection of the apps I cover in my 60 Educational Apps in 60 Minutes Prezi as well as the Symbaloo collection from EduTeacher.
  • Nearpod – Lucky enough to have a set of iPads or iPod Touches in your classroom? Then you’ll love Nearpod. Nearpod allows you to take control of what your students are viewing during a presentation. You can create or import presentations and then add videos, web sites, quiz questions – even add the ability for students to draw or write their answers. It’s tough to explain how great this app is – check it out!
  • Mural.ly – Self tagged as ‘Google Docs for visual people’, Mural.ly allows groups to collaborate on a giant whitespace (sort of like Prezi) where you can drag pictures, text, sound and videos from any Web site or your computer and map your ideas in a visual way. Check out their intro video below.