Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Screen Sharing with Screenleap

Frictionless Collaboration!
Trying to explain what's on your screen to someone else? Are you frustrated because they can't see what you can? Try Screenleap - visit the site, click on the big green button and get a "share link" to send to your collaborator. They will see you working on your screen  - real time!

"View from any device with a browser (including PCs, tablets, and smartphones) without having to install any software."

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Monday, February 23, 2015

iExplorer - iPhone, iPad File Transfer App for Mac & PC

Want to access the files and folders of your device's apps?
Is there an easy way to get student work off an iPad for archiving or sharing? Yes there is...

"With iExplorer, you can access more files and folders than ever before. Need to access photos on your iPhone or iPod? Can do. Want to access the files and folders of your device's apps? Done."

Thanks Chris for sharing this at the METT meeting.
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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Generate an iPhone/iPad icon from any image

Turn yourself into an app icon!
You want to create icons for your webpage or blog, and you really want to rock an iPhone app look and feel. This site gives you multiple sizes for download, and even throws up a screenshot of what your icon would look like on a device!

"This tool generates iPhone/iPod icon from any image. Glossy, corner rounding and shadow effects are applied so icon will look exactly like on iPhone/iPod or iPad (original icon masks are taken right from firmware)."

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inklewriter - Interactive Stories made easy!

Bring interactive stories to the classroom
"inkle is looking to bring interactive stories to the classroom, and give teachers free and simple get-stuck-right-in software to use with their students. From within a web-browser, the inklewriter will let students make and play interactive stories with no programming required."

Here's an enthusiastic review: LINK
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Monday, February 16, 2015

Save online video for later

Avoid streaming issues!
Are you fighting with the wifi at your school site? Do you hate the "spinning rainbow wheel of buffering"? Here's yet another option for downloading video clips for use in class.

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Roll the dice

Quick dice roll webapp
This site offers an easy-to-use dice throwing interface for classroom use. (Pick one die or many.) Works great on iPads or iPhones. Use the dice for choosing groups, making a selection on a game card or as a way of randomizing conversation starters, etc. (Some more ideas here.)

For fun, look at these "image dice" sets you can print and make:

And here's an iOS app ("Make Dice") that uses either text or pics - hook up to your projector - have fun! ($3.49)

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Bingo Card Generator

A fun way to practice target vocab
Personalize with your own title. Paste in a list of words (Separated by commas), decide if you want a free space, choose the size (5x5, 6x6, etc.) and generate the card. For ease of printing, copy the cards row by row and paste it into Word. You can then play with the size, margins, etc. in order to get the printout you want. (You can even insert a graphic if you like!) You can print multiple versions of cards using the same basic word set. (ie. 30 cards for a class set.)

Have fun!

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Using Wordle to Make Word Choice Posters

Instant word wall to build vocabulary
Genevieve Hawtree has a great suggestion on how to use "Advanced" Wordle to generate quick mini-posters to boost vocabulary development in the FSL or ELL classroom. (You'll either need to follow the column layout suggested on the Wordle advanced page, or simply paste a chunk of words into the Wordle "create" box, and duplicate the main word 3 or 4 times.) Pick "horizontal" in the layout options as this will make the text more readable.


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Thursday, February 12, 2015

Use Voice Dictation To Speak To Your Mac

Streamlined and simplified dictation


Chris Hoffman gives a quick run through of how to use the Dictation feature on Mac. You'll need to be running at least Mavericks (OS 10.9)  to take advantage of this. The article also gives a list of all the dictation commands you need to know.

"The Mac Voice Dictation feature is streamlined and simplified. It's easy to start using without a long training process and will feel familiar to people who've used voice dictation on smartphones and tablets. In fact, it's extremely similar to the voice dictation feature on Apple's iOS."

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Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Greetings French flashcards | Quizlet

An easy way to review vocab
Consider using Quizlet to review vocab with your students. Projected, the flashcards can be used in a "game show" mode with teams trying to give the correct response. You can also put it in spelling, matching, testing or space race modes for more fun and practice.

Encourage students to create their own stacks (if they are over 13 years) or simply practice with ones you set up. (You can easily share a link via URL, class blog or QR code.) Cards will read themselves out loud in the language you select. Add pics from a preset bank or upgrade and use your own!

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Cartoon Maker websites?

Getting on the Graphic Novel Bandwagon
If you want to have your students create their own graphic novels, (or short stories for that matter) help them get familiar with the genre.

Tumblebooks has graphic novels that you could peruse. (We also have CDs at DRC with graphic novels (in French) that you can show without the words in the bubbles.) Flip through some comics to get a feel for layouts and techniques.

If you want to create from scratch, there are some options for this kind of activity.

Think about using Powerpoint templates for panels.
(This is a great how-to site with all kinds of suggestions!)

or look at these...

You can create free strips w/o a sign-in. If you want to save it, you need to sign-up.  (Limited style but appealing in a funny kind of way.)

Preset images, but lots of control and easy to use.

Works a lot like ComicLife and requires an account to use. Students can create panels, and then combine the panels into "books." (The prefab art is a little cliché, & the editor can be fussy to use.)

More Powerpoint

A site like Lunapic can be used to modify images and create the content - take screen shots and paste into a PPT panels template

A vid tutorial

Some Png images to use

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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Sitting too much? There's an app for that.

Stand Up! The Work Break Timer
While most teachers won't complain about sitting too much during the work day, there are times when we can find ourselves sitting for long stretches - at workshops, doing marking, evening emailing sessions, and even extended internet browsing. This app allows you to set a number of parameters: when to be alerted, where to be alerted, how long an interval etc.

More info?
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