graphite From Common Sense Media

Have you signed in to graphite yet?

If not, you are missing out on a valuable resource for your 1to1 iPad or "One-iPad" classroom.  A product of +Common Sense Media, graphite is a type of social network where teachers share, search and create reviews for the best apps (web-based or tablet), games, websites, and other digital curricula.  

You can find and share the best app workflows (App Flows) for you or your classroom.  And graphite's content is searchable by grade level, subject, type of content, and by Common Core Standards.  If you are not sure where or how you can start, try the Top Picks and explore some of the more popular choices by teachers.

graphite can serve as your Personal Learning Network (PLN) when it comes to finding the right digital content for iPad or other devices.

The account is FREE and easy to sign up.

What Are App Flows?

Two Proficiancy-Based Learning Hashtags

Here are two popular Twitter hashtags that are associated with Proficiency-based Learning.  If you are not familiar with what Twitter hashtags are, they are specific search quarries that are used within tweeted messages and using the "#" symbol to make it a hyperlink.  Hashtags in general are a great way to find common tweets and content.

Proficiency-Based Learning
There are two hashtags that I have found that will deliver to you a lot of great content when trying to learn and incorporate proficiency-based learning.

#SCLChat (student-centered learning)
Click on the label to view full Tweet stream

Tweets about "#SCLChat"


#competencyed (competency-based)
Click on the label to view full Tweet stream

Tweets about "#competencyed"

Google News

If you haven't already, you should check out Google News.  Yes, you can get news from many different sources depending on what kind of news you are looking for.  And, you can search a topic in Google and select News on the Google Menu.  However, the news.google.com News is different.  I'll tell you why.

Google News not only sources news from hundreds of popular news sources for the latest national and global news, but you can customize your Google News.  If you are more interested in sports, or business, or entertainment, you can customize your Google News to view articles regarding one of these topics only.  Or, you could include all of these topics, but make adjustments to how much of news from each of these aforementioned topics is presented in your Google News.

You can, also, add in your own customized News "section".  A devoted section of news pertaining to a customized topic you pick.  For example, I love reading about the global coffee market, so I added in a section devoted to Coffee Futures.  All new in this personalized section is devoted to the coffee market.

Ok, one more thing I like about Google News.  Be sure to check out "Realtime Coverage" in any of the news sections.  In realtime you can see up-to-the-minute articles as well as Google+ posts regarding the news topic of that section.

Read more features from Google's About page on Google News.

Here's a helpful video (Update:  this tutorial is actually rather dated; there have been recent changes since the posting of this video):

RSS Is So Last Year...

I don't necessarily mean that, however, if for any reason you are a frequent, somewhat frequent, or first-time viewer of my blog, you will notice that my commitment to posting content on a regular basis has failed miserably.  The reason for that is because I almost never now communicate via blogs; at least these kind.  For that matter, I almost never even view my Feedly account any more (if you are not familiar with what Feedly is, they emerged and grew when Google Reader announced its closing; basically it collects and aggregates feed from blogs like this one using RSS feed).

In a nutshell, it seems that blogs and blog readers are becoming a thing of the past for many.  I share and communicate almost entirely (apart from the necessary email) through social media.  If the writer of a blog has a social media profile, I'll follow that instead of the blog itself.  Not only is social media the easiest to filter and search through, but it is easier to share content.  It is not necessary to generate blog posts with a bunch of links, material or ideas for Technology Integration.  I can do the same with small, bite-sized pieces through social media.

I primarily use Google+ and Twitter.  I do find lots of great ideas and content through Pinterest as well.

So, whether you see more posts to come or not from this blog, you can guarantee I'm talkin' on either Google+ or Twitter.  Find me and follow me.

Google+:  +Benjamin Nason 

Twitter:  @Ratkacher

January/February Schedule

Study Human Anatomy in 3-D

I was assisting a Science teacher today with her interest in doing some interactive stuff with anatomy.  Here are a couple of things I shared with her.

In regards to anatomy, if you study human anatomy, have you tried this out - BioDigital Human - great with the interactive whiteboard.  Works best in Chrome (because of GL Web requirements).
Zygote Body is another 3-D interactive display of the human anatomy; simpler version.
For the iPad, Anatomy 4D is an amazing Augmented Reality app that used a "target" (piece of paper that you can print).  Then you can manipulate the body around and view system layers together or individually.

iPad Screenshots of Anatomy 4D app

Twitter Follow Feature

Danny Nicholson is the writer for The Whiteboard Blog from the UK; worth looking at.  Also, you can follow Danny on your Google+ network at +WhiteboardblogCoUk.

Tweets by @dannynic