UNfortunately, gig sticks are still necessary. Fortunately, they can help transform your classroom!

Gig stick: aka, mini-USB drive, thumb drive, geek stick, flash drive, memory stick, jump drive, pen drive, I'm sure there are many more synonyms out there for this ubiquitous little device, which is not platform dependent.

First, let me say, I can't think of anything more uninspiring to be doing right now than writing a post about gig sticks. 

What I'm Reading Lately (weekly)

• Schools Ditch The Classroom To Put Play Back In Education | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation
  tags: REACH edtechsec

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Mobile Learning Series: Overgram for great title slides...and poetry!

Overgram is a free app that I've been using for awhile on my iPhone because it can quickly add info or even humor to some of the pictures that I share through Twitter, Flickr, or even that I just text to friends. As an added bonus (for the Instagram crowd) they can also be shared through Instragram.  I recently loaded Overgram onto my students' iPads.

Logo Programming with Scratch - Let your students construct!

Let me start off with this caveat - Scratch is not a "sec" thing - it's more like a half an hour thing in terms of the initial prep.  With that said, I'll start singing the praises of this little program: it's fun, it will help your students construct and think in ways that make you want to sing, it's engaging, students become immersed in it, you will look at them in whole new ways!

Blooms Wheel and Blooms words - plan your activities thoughtfully

Blooms taxonomy has been around for a long time, and educators have found many creative ways to use it.  One way that I find it to be the most useful is in writing learning objectives.  In my mind, I have an idea of what I'd like students to know at the end of a lesson or activity, but using Blooms words helps me to really be specific about what kind of learning I'd like to happen, and then I can start planning for how to make that happen.

GoAnimate - a quick way to teach (and re-teach) quick ideas

GoAnimate is another one of those great free web tools that have the potential to bring your lessons to life.  It's one of those tools I really love because it creates immediate engagement, is useful for all kinds of topics, all kinds of lessons, and all age levels, and it's very very fast and easy!

What I'm Reading Lately (weekly)

• Code Literacy: A 21st-Century Requirement | Edutopia
  tags: digitalfluency code programming programminglanguage edtechsec
• Right of refusal | Dangerously Irrelevant
  tags: edtechsec refusal 1:1
• Technology Changes - Your Lessons Should Too - Instructional Tech Talk | Instructional Tech Talk
  tags: lessons edtechsec
• Study: Students Want Teachers To Use Technology ASAP - Edudemic
  tags: edtech techintegration edtechsec

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Mobile Learning Series: Educreations - creating instructional resources on the fly!

Educreations is an app that makes doing a SmartBoard style lesson easy enough to do on the fly and also keeps it easy by allowing you to capture and share any portion of your lesson.

What I'm Reading Lately (weekly)

• Home - Educator's Toolkit - ResourceGuides at Alaska State Library
  tags: toolkit alaska edtech edtechsec
• Why Haven't Districts Adopted Blended Learning Faster?
  tags: blendedlearning edtechsec
• 5 School Technologies To Watch: Personalized Learning Is Here - Forbes
  tags: personalized edtech onlinelearning edtechsec
• 30 Recommended Apps For Online Students - Edudemic
  tags: onlinelearning apps onlineapps edtechsec

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What I'm Reading Lately (weekly)

• Should we get rid of technology directors? | Dangerously Irrelevant
  tags: leadership edtechsec
• How Are Districts Covering the Tech. Costs of Common Core? - Digital Education - Education Week
  tags: techcosts edtechsec

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.