The “Interesting Ways” Series: A Milestone in Sharing

On Saturday I joined the TEDx community of presenters and gave a talk about knowledge sharing at TEDxNottingham, so it is fitting that the Interesting Ways has passed a milestone of sorts – a milestone in sharing.

Thanks to some great recent contributions the iPad resource passed 100 shared ideas!

To you this may mean very little, as we see a great many lists of this sort “100 Ways to Eat Fruit…”, “100 Different Keyboard Shortcuts…”, “100 Reasons Not to Use Compiled Lists”. But the key characteristic of these is that they have almost certainly been built quickly, sometimes by a few people, but more likely by an individual compiler.

142455033 49ce50a89bYou only have to look at a copy of Wired or other such magazine to see how much we are transfixed with the presentation of numbered sets of information or advice.

The Interesting Ways series is different. Firstly the list always starts at zero and although I have a hunch people will chip in and share, it is not guaranteed. Secondly they are built with classroom practice in mind, the ideas are shared by mostly practicing teachers. Thirdly the resources have many, many editors – you only have to scan through the Twitter names left as signatures on each slide to see that. And finally they are built over time – there is no rush to get a perfect multiple of 10 before they are published, they evolve at different speeds, sometimes quickly, sometimes more slowly as the community learns.

I think the final point refers to the lovely imperfections of them – which is in direct contrast to the sterile multiple-of-10-perfection posts which drive traffic. These are evolving all of the time – the first resource for the IWB has been a publicly editable document for 5 years!

They’re a bit scrappy and some have had things moved around and deleted but that is to be expected for resources that are in the open and publicly editable for so long. I am always grateful to hear from so many of you who have noticed something is amiss, spotted any problems and either fixed it up or let me know – people care for these resources.

It would be interesting to know how you see it all, but I think there are a few reasons why they have proven popular/useful – (1) They are always changing (2) You can easily present them to staff and embed them in a webpage (3) One slide, one idea, one image seems to work (4) They are easy to contribute to, they have a low barrier to entry (5) they are owned by the community that have built them (6) We learn about our community through the ideas we share.

I always thought the idea might catch on, this milestone, of sorts, just reminds me of how far we have come and I am so pleased to help everyone build such great pots of ideas.

I genuinely think we can do more though and hope that we can all continue to share more of our ideas and expertise. 

Image: ‘Sharing

20 Great Classroom iPad Apps to add to your Collection (1-5)

Over the last year and a half I have really enjoyed exploring the types of iPad apps that can be used in the classroom and so I thought I would begin to draw together some of my favourites and share them with you here.

This is the first of 4 posts in which I feature my first 5 recommendations:

Hairy Letters

App Store - Hairy Letters

A great app for early years classes – understanding letter shapes and sounds. Good to see a phonics app using fonts / sounds used in UK.

• Interact with animations and trace the letter shape.
• Play games to reinforce learning and build letters into simple words.
• Letter sounds come to life with animated characters.
• Learn to form each letter shape with your finger.
• Play games to blend letter sounds into first words.

iTunes Link
http://bit.ly/ypbR4M
£1.99

App Store - Paint Sparkles Draw - my first colors HD !

Paint Sparkles

A lovely free paint application that sparkles when you use it. Little sounds play as you paint and when you have finished your line or brush. Each colour is read aloud when you select them from the palette, making this great for EAL pupils.

iTunes Link
http://bit.ly/ypbR4M
FREE

 

App Store - Toca Store

Toca Store

I was shown this at the Taipei European School by Glenn Malcolm – a great little app for developing role play areas in class. I see it being used alongside existing shop and money role play activities – love how it encourages working together.

iTunes Link
http://bit.ly/zx1cIz
£1.49

 

iTunes

Skitch

I am a big fan of Skitch for the Mac as a tool for screen grabs etc the iPad app is ace for all of that – but it also links to an Evernote account. Skitch for iPad could potentially be a great interface for younger students using Evernote. (It just needs tagging to be included)

iTunes Link
http://bit.ly/ADqdyl
FREE

 

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore for iPad on the iTunes App Store

The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore

A beautifully executed story that makes you feel you are part of a film, narrative and interactive app all at once.

iTunes Link
http://bit.ly/xNrwG0
£2.99

 

I hope that you find plenty of inspiration for your own use of the iPad – please make sure you share your ideas and experiences in the comments or you could even add them to the Interesting Ways resource which is now up to 75 iPad ideas, where these apps also appear.

74 Interesting Ways to Use Google Forms in the Classroom

The Interesting Ways series of resources continue to grow as the community add ideas from the classroom. Below is one of the most popular with over 70 ideas shared by teachers for using Google Forms in a range of different ways.

Make sure that you explore nearly 40 other crowdsourced resource like the one above – you can see the full series of resources on the Interesting Ways page

Interesting Ways to Use Google+ to Support Learning

Many early users of the latest platform for social networking have begun sharing their ideas about the potential for supporting learning. There is much to be anticipated – I always believed that the community element was missing from the use of Google Apps for Education.

Perhaps Google+ could provide the platform for schools to help positively teach social networking and tie in the use of the different apps more seamlessly together.

Take a look at what educators think so far and feel free to share your own ideas with the Google doc, or leave them in the comments here.

30+ Interesting Ways to Get to Know Your New Class

When the Australia winter is replaced with warmer days, it means in the Northern Hemisphere schools will soon be returning. 

The first few weeks should be about getting to know your class. The better we understand our students, the better we can design learning for them.

Over the last six years, I have gathered and curated some tips and activities for those early sessions we have with our students.

I hope that the ideas prove useful as we get to this time of year. If you have ideas for classroom activities or whole school transition days, please consider contributing them.