Teach the art of Searching

It is often said that the downside of a free and open web is the challenge it presents to find reliable sources with the information you need. As teachers we need to show our students how to Search, to provide them with skills and strategies so the search engine does the heavy lifting for them.

Google recognises this and has provided a site for teachers that includes teaching resources, tips, daily challenges and live training all aimed at maximising the quality of the results returned for any search.

Read a review by Ed Tech

Visit Google Search Education

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Action Research

Action Research can play an important role in improving the results we achieve through our teaching. It encourages us to focus meaningfully on what we do and to seek measures of our success. As a deliberate process it is well worth engaging with but if it is to be done right some planning and knowledge of the process is important.

The links below guide educators through the process and are worth reading before beginning an action research project.

Drawn to Science Education - Action Research Pages

The NSW Department of Education and Training offers the following guide for Action Research

DET - Action Research Guide

Image Courtesy of NSW DET

Popcorn Maker - Annotate Web Video

Popcorn Maker makes it easy to enhance, remix and share web video. Use your web browser to combine video and audio with content from the rest of the web — from text, links and maps to pictures and live feeds.

The web is full of educational video and the trend towards flipping the classroom is expanding, but how can you be sure your students are picking up on the key messages. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to comment on what is being watched or even add further details to it.

Popcorn Maker allows you to do this and by linking your additions to the web you can create a video lesson backed by any web based resource. Popcorn Maker is powered by Mozilla, is free and works with all major online video sources including TedTalks, Youtube and Vimeo.

https://popcorn.webmaker.org/

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Realtime Board

Realtime Board is a new service that provides users with a Whiteboard like page for sharing ideas, and collaborating on projects. It is highly visual and allows you to place comments  pictures, diagrams, documents, or notes onto an expanding board and then share this with team members. When you are ready you can use Realtime Board to create a presentation of the ideas controlling what your audience sees in a manner not unlike Prezi.

Realtime Board integrates with Google Drive providing easy access to your documents and allowing you to edit them with ease.

Realtime Board should work nicely in a classroom setting allowing students to collaborate ona project from anywhere and having the results available to all over the internet or via the Smartboard. It is presently in a Beta version and is free.

http://realtimeboard.com/