5 Great Tools for Creating your own Educational Infographics

Posted by Nikki Gerhardi on Teach1-1

Infographics is a way of communicating visually with your students. Many students tend to be more visual learners and this is an effective way to explain and communicate complex concepts in a graphical way.

Here are 5 useful on-line tools that teachers can use to create their own infographic and transform the learning process for their students.
Emerging Edtech Article on Inforgraphics Tools

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BYOD project for Afrikaans

Posted by Nina Adams on Monday, May 20, 2013 on St. Cyprian's Technology Blog

Teachers in South Africa often comment that there are no apps available for specific languages, for example Afrikaans. However, one does not need to be limited by this, as there are many other apps that can be applied to do the job just as well.

In this BYOD example, Grade 5 students are using Puppetpals 2 and Toontastic to create Afrikaans cartoons. These great apps have been used by both the Preparatory and High School to teach languages, as students are able to visualise and hear their stories, which helps them to practice pronunciation as well. 

  

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Afrikaans blog project (by Insaaf Levy - Gr 6KJ Class Captain)

Posted by Nina Adams on Monday, May 20, 2013 on St. Cyprian's Technology Blog

We really enjoyed this project because we got to watch an Afrikaans movie (Hoofmeisie), in class, that was very funny. It had many jokes that made the class laugh. It also had two scenes that made the Grade 6s sigh and gasp! The actual project that the class had to do was a little bit challenging because we had to write a review in Afrikaans about this movie and then blog about it. Our class really enjoyed this part, we loved looking at each other’s blogs, commenting, reading comments that were posted about our blog and changing the settings to personalise our blog page. This has been an amazing project and check out our class blog on http://kidblog.org/MrsJsClass-11/

Insaaf Levy – Class Captain of Grade 6KJ

 

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Understanding different learning styles (Guest post by Justin Skea - Head of Prep School)

Posted by Nina Adams on Monday, May 20, 2013 on St. Cyprian's Technology Blog

When we move away from the mindset that intelligence is one dimensional, and accept that it is multi-dimensional, we must conclude that children have different ways of learning. How one child perceives and assimilates information can be completely different to another. 

Education experts have roughly grouped learning styles into three basic styles – auditory, visual and kinaesthetic. By knowing how your daughter learns best, you can guide her to learn more effectively. I hope that it might also spark memories for you of how you went through school, and what worked best for you when it came to learning. I must caution you however! As many of you know, I do not like boxes! I don’t want your children being boxed into a mold, nor do I want them to think in a box. With that in mind, please do not now ‘box’ your child into one of the three learning styles. The truth is that even though we all have a dominant learning style, we all draw upon the different learning styles depending on the learning context in which we find ourselves. The challenge for teachers is to facilitate learning so that all the learning styles are accommodated. 

Auditory learning style 
For the auditory learner, she uses her sense of hearing to gather and process information. The auditory child is the one who listens carefully to instructions and proceeds accordingly. Similarly, the auditory learner is highly sensitive to variations in spoken words, to inflections and emphases. She retains information through hearing and speaking. I have found that these learners tend to thrive in discussion groups, and will often remember information by repeating it aloud. Some may even struggle a little with written instructions alone. When I first started teaching, I was often bemused by the child who would not look at me or the board during lesson time or would not write down a single note during discussion time. What I initially perceived as a child not paying attention was, in many instances, simply a child whose listening skills were far more pronounced than his/her visual skills. If your child uses the auditory learning style as her dominant style, you may wish to do the following to assist her with her learning: 

• Whilst studying, she may concentrate better with soft, wordless music playing in the background.
• Have her repeat what she has learnt aloud and in her own words
• Get her to teach what she has learnt. It could be you or someone else at home, like a younger sibling.
• Making jingles or rhymes can often help with recall of key points or concepts.
• Silent studying does not work for this learner, and she should be given the space to read (aloud) act out and speak about what she is learning.
• An aural learner loves study groups, so be prepared to allow this, making sure that the study time is directed and not simply an excuse to ‘hang out’ with friends.

Visual learning style 
Children who are primarily visual learners tend to get information through reading books, and must see, visualise and illustrate in order to understand. The visual learner is drawn to paintings and crafts, and is creative and imaginative in her approach to the world around her. Appreciation of aesthetics is a common trait of this learner. Look at your child’s learning habits – if tidy and organised, then she might well be a visual learner. Once again, early in my career in education, I could not understand why some of my pupils would doodle during class, but later came to realise that this was the most effective way for them to listen and internalize what was being taught or learnt. The visual learner prefers written instructions or demonstrations over verbal instructions or explanations. This may explain why men never ask for directions from someone at the side of the road! The visual learner can often become quite confused if given verbal instructions alone, and will often need to see it in order to understand. For a teacher, the balancing act is to balance too few visual aids with too many. Too few, and the visual learner becomes distracted by everything and anything happening around her! Too many visual aids and the child becomes overwhelmed, even confused, by the barrage of stimuli! If your child uses the visual learning style as her dominant style, you may wish to do the following to assist her with her learning: 

• It goes without saying that images, colour and visual media are incredibly helpful for the visual learner. Encourage your daughter to take her notes and turn them into mind maps, picture and diagrams. In this way, she moves towards replacing text with colour and images.
• Highlighting or colour coding key concepts is very helpful when learning a new concept.
• For content that needs to be memorized, flash cards work well.
• Ensure that the environment in which your child studies is free from as many distractions as possible. An open doorway or window can be incredibly distracting for a visual learner.
• When approaching a subject, it is critical that this learner understands the big picture before going on to the specifics and details.

Kinaesthetic/tactile learners 
In the traditional classroom, the kinaesthetic/tactile learner was often the one who was identified as the troublemaker, or the one labeled as having concentration problems. No doubt, many of you reading this editorial will attest to this through your own school experiences! The visual and auditory learners used to thrive in the traditional classroom because “chalk and talk” favoured them. But what about the fidgety child in the corner (maybe you?!) who learnt best through hands-on activities and movement? Sadly, this child became the ‘behaviour problem’ of the class. Thankfully, the modern classroom is a far more interactive environment, and caters for the learner who needs to either do what is being talked about or learnt, or needs to touch something or move around while she is learning. This is the child who will rather show someone how to do something than write a list of instructions. She cannot wait around for the information to come to her, but goes and actively seeks it out. If your child uses the kinaesthetic or tactile learning style as her dominant style, you may wish to do the following to assist her with her learning: 

• Help her to use touch, action and movement when learning.
• Flash cards often work well, as she can touch and move them as she is learning something that requires memorization.
• Role play works well for this type of learner, so try to encourage her to act out or simulate what she is learning.
• You may find that your daughter learns best when she is moving or standing. Sitting behind a desk is a daunting prospect for her, so don’t be surprised if she asks if she can jump on the trampoline while going through her text book!
• Ensure that she takes regular breaks when studying or doing homework. These breaks should involve a movement or touch activity that will help them re-focus for the next session of work.
• Though mind maps, diagrams and pictures are perfect for the visual learner, they are equally beneficial for the kinaesthetic/tactile learner as the physical component of writing and drawing will hold her attention. The bigger the sheet of paper, the better!

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The 100 Best Video Sites For Educators

Posted by Sally Bowes on Teach1-1

There are some useful links on this page.

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How to create great presentations

Posted by Nikki Gerhadi on Teach1-1

Fix Your Presentations: 21 Quick Tips

Here are 21 ways to make certain that your presentations hold your audience's interest–and help them make the decision you want them to make.

Preparation

• Build a story. Presentations are boring when they present scads of information without any context or meaning. Instead, tell a story, with the audience as the main characters (and, specifically, the heroes).
• Keep it relevant. Audiences only pay attention to stories and ideas that are immediately relevant. Consider what decision you want them to make, then build an appropriate case.
• Cut your intro. A verbose introduction that describes you, your firm, your topic, how you got there, only bores people. Keep your intro down to a sentence or two, even for a long presentation.
• Begin with an eye-opener. Kick off your talk by revealing a shocking fact, a surprising insight, or a unique perspective that naturally leads into your message and the decision you want made.
• Keep it short and sweet. When was the last time you heard someone complain that a presentation was too short? Make it half as long as you originally thought it should be (or even shorter).
• Use facts, not generalities. Fuzzy concepts reflect fuzzy thinking. Buttress your argument, story and message with facts that are quantifiable, verifiable, memorable and dramatic.
• Customize for every audience. One-size-fits-all presentations are like one-size-fits-all clothes; they never fit right and usually make you look bad. Every audience is different; your presentation should be too.
• Simplify your graphics. People shut off their brains when confronted with complicated drawings and tables. Use very simple graphics and highlight the data points that are important.
• Keep backgrounds in the background. Fancy slide backgrounds only make it more difficult for the audience to focus on what's important. Use a simple, single color, neutral color background.
• Use readable fonts. Don't try to give your audience to get an eyestrain headache by using tiny fonts. Use large fonts in simple faces (like Arial); avoid boldface, italics and ALL-CAPS.
• Don't get too fancy. You want your audience to remember your message, not how many special effects and visual gimcracks you used. In almost all cases, the simpler the better.

Presentation

• Check your equipment ... in advance. If you must use PowerPoint, or plan on showing videos or something, check to make sure that the setup really works. Then check it again. Then one more time.
• Speak to the audience. Great public speakers keep their focus on the audience, not their slides or their notes. Focusing on the audience encourages them to focus on your and your message.
• Never read from slides. Guess what? Your audience can read. If you're reading from your slides, you're not just being boring–you're also insulting the intelligence of everyone in the room.
• Don't skip around. Nothing makes you look more disorganized than skipping over slides, backtracking to previous slides, or showing slides that don't really belong. If there are slides that don't fit, cut them out of the presentation in advance.
• Leave humor to the professionals. Unless you're really good at telling jokes, don't try to be a comedian. Remember: When it comes to business presentations, polite laughter is the kiss of death.
• Avoid obvious wormholes. Every audience has hot buttons that command immediate attention and cause every other discussion to grind to a halt. Learn what they are and avoid them.
• Skip the jargon. Business buzzwords make you sound like you're either pompous, crazy, or (worst case) speaking in tongues. Cut them out–both from your slides and from your vocabulary.
• Make it timely. Schedule presentations for a time when the audience can give you proper attention. Avoid end of day, just before lunch, and the day before a holiday.
• Prepare some questions. If you're going to have a Q&A at the end of your presentation, be prepared to get the ball rolling by having up a question or two up your sleeve.
• Have a separate handout. If there's data that you want the audience to have, put it into a separate document for distribution after your talk. Don't use your slide deck as a data repository.

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-fix-your-presentations-21-tips.html

Geoffrey James writes the Sales Source column on Inc.com, the world's most visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World's Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source

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Posted by Nikki Gerhadi in Teach1-1

For most students these days technology has not only become a critical part of learning, but has become an essential tool for communication and engagement. Which technology is most important to students and how does it impact on their levels of academic experience and achievement?

The findings were based on a survey done by the EDUCAUSE Centre in the States. It involved 100 000 students in over 195 different institutions.
(http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2012/undergraduate-students-technology/)

Information provided by : www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com

For more information on this study  link to:http://www.educause.edu/ecar/about-ecar/ecar-annual-study-students-and-it

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Grade 7 collaborative project with Appleby College

Posted by Nina Adams on Friday, May 10, 2013 on St. Cyprian's Tech Blog

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Last term, the Grade 7s completed a collaborative project in Natural Science with the Grade 7 classes of Appleby College in Toronto, Canada.

This included our girls creating presentations about the habitats and adaptations of Southern African animals, while their pupils did the same for Canandian animals.

They shared their projects via the internet, and had to achieve specific goals with the other school’s projects. To round off the project, we collated common questions from their projects and had a Skype meeting last Friday (3 May).

During the Skype meeting, we were able to ask our questions, share stories about interacting with some of these animals, and learn about opposite seasons at their school. Plus, we could see their uniform, hear their different accents, and see the people who put the projects together.

Some of the students from both schools have expressed an interest in continuing to keep in touch, and the schools are working on a safe way that this can happen.

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