The Educational Use of Mobile Phones

The world is going mobile. The new sweeping technological changes and the introduction of smart mobile devices into our life have hugely transformed the way education is delivered. Everywhere you turn you spot someone deeply sucked into his/ her mobile. I know not all users use their smart devices for educational ends  but there is a growing category of teenagers that are trying the educational potential of these appliances.

Below is an infogrpahic that provides interesting data of how students use their mobile phones to study. I am really glad to know that some students are giving the example to others of how phones can be used to perform better.
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Via: STUDYBLUE.com

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Comparison between American Publich School Systems and others. ( infographic )

Below is a great infographic that compares the American public school system to some other countries like Canada, Great Britain, France, China and many more.Read the alarming stats that are annoying American public policy makers. You might be suprised to see that the educational system of the world's super power deteriorating but I don;t think it is only America, I think several other schools systems suck too.

" For years, Americans have been concerned about falling behind in education, and there may be some truth in that. World education rankings reveal that the United States falls behind a number of other nations in reading, science and math, and U.S, Education Secretary Arne Ducan has called it a " wake-up call for America "How does the U.S rate ? "

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Via: OnlineCollege.org

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Flipped Classroom A New Learning Revolution

There has been a growing buzz around a recently coined phrase " Flipped Classroom". This term starts to take root in education as more and more educators are discovering it. So what is this all about and what are its advantages in learning and teaching? ( Awesome Infographic included below )

Flipped Classroom is an inverted method of instruction where teaching and learning take place online outside of the class while  homework is done in the classroom. Advocators of this approach believe that this is the ideal method of instruction in our digital age. They basically build their judgement on the following facts :

• Flipped Classroom shifts the learning responsibility and ownership  from the teacher's hands  into the students'.
•  Students tend to perform better when they control when, where and how they learn.
• Teachers no longer dispense knowledge but rather guide and direct while students are the real active learners 
• Teachers create animated videos and interactive lessons and lectures and students access them at home in advance of class even. In this way all students can re-watch the video tutorials whenever they want.
• Classroom time can be geared towards data collection, collaboration, and application.
• Class becomes a place for students to work through problems, advance concepts, and engage in collaborative learning.
• Flipped Classroom also "allows teachers to reflect on and develop quality and engaging learning opportunities and options for internalization, creation, and application of content rather than just fluff or time filling assignments."

   Here is a model of Flipped Classroom as provided by Jackie Gerstein

Flipped Classroom depends a lot on educational technology and web 2.0 tools such as podcasting and screencasting applications.

"In most Flipped Classrooms, there is an active and intentional transfer of some of the information delivery to outside of the classroom with the goal of freeing up time to make better use of the face-to-face interaction in school. When appropriate, information transfer typically takes advantage of technologies like podcasting or screencasting. This allows for more time to individualize instruction in the class time and keeps content alive for remediation, review, or other reference when needed. Learners have immediate and easy access to any topic when they need it, leaving the teacher with more opportunities to expand on higher order thinking skills and enrichment. Offloading some information transfer allows a classroom to develop that understands the need for teacher accessibility to overlap with cognitive load. That is, when students are assimilating information, creating new ideas, etc. (upper end of Bloom's Taxonomy) the teacher is present to help scaffold them through that process."

A direct and concrete example of Flipped Classroom concept is the popular Khan Academy. This website  has completely reshaped home instruction via providing more than 2800 free videos and tutorials available in 16 languages and covering a wide range of topics such as Math, Physics, Geometry, cosmology, microeconomics and many more. Flipped Classroom should not be thought of as a single stand alone instruction cycle but rather as a part of a general educational systems that overlaps with other instructional tools such as Blended Learning, Universal Design for Learning, Inquiry Learning, Reverse Learning, and Online Learning.

Image Credit : Jackie Gerstein

Watch this video to learn more about Flipped Classroom

Read the following inforgraphic for more details




Created by Knewton and Column Five Media




Here are two other web resources on Flipped Classroom:

• The Flipped Classroom Model
• How Flipped Classroom is Radically Transforming Learning
• The Flipped Classroom Manifest
• Flipped Classroom: Flipped Talent Management Practices

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Microsoft Translator To Translate Anything with A Single Click

Translator Bookmarklet is a great tool provided by Microsoft. As you can guess from its name , this tool allows users to instantly translate the content of any webpage into several languages and all with a single click. There are several add-on and extensions that translate text but this one here is very accurate and I perfer it to many others.

To start using Translator Bookmarklet you need to head over to its main page. and choose your language and then drag the bookmarklet, as shown in the video, to your browser. Whenever you are reading a text that you want to translate , you just choose the laguage to which you want the content to be translated and there you go.
Translator Bookmarklet does not require any software download or registration. It is all free

Watch this video I made to learn how to use Translator Bookmarklet.

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File Lab Free audio and Video Editing Software

File Lab is a cool website for educators. It provides its users with tools to edit both their video and audio files right from their browsers. If you used to work on your audio files in a softeware different from the one you use for videos then File Lab will help you use one platform for both purposes.

To start using File Lab you will first need to install the apps on your desktop which will then be connected to your browser as a plugin . This will enable you to quickly launch a video or audio file in your browser and start editing it such as adding effects, trimming the tracks and many more.

Some features of File Lab


Here is a list of the main features that File Lab offers to its users:

• It is free
• It lets you edit video and audio online
• It lets you customize your videos via actions such as : split, cut, rotate, mix, add effects, add overlays, and add texts
• It lets you save your videos and share them with others
• It allows you to rework your audio files online
• It allows you to customize your audio files
• It lets you save them in popular formats
• It also has a section for scanning, cleaning and fixing your Windows.

Head over to File Lab and give it a try

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Can Technology Save Today's Education ? ( Infographic )

Is it true that today's youth are not really interested in schooling? " teacher I hate school " this is what  I was told by one of my  grade 12  students in a public school in Halifax just two days ago.I know this is a single case but it is just the emerging part of the iceberg. Below is an example of the American case. Read the frightening stats about test scores  and drop out rates among students. America is not alone in this for ,out of my decent expeirnece in teaching in different countries in Africa and Europe and now in Canada, I can strongly confirm the fact that several other educational systems suffer more or less  the same flaws.

" Open any newspaper and the story is the same: The American educational system is tragically failing our youth.Student test scores are dismal and drop out rates are astronomical . But many experts believe  that the burgeoning field of educational technology provides hope and with Apple's big announcement this week, they might just be right".

Do you think technology and Apple in particular can do any good to our educational failures? Is is the remedy we have been long waiting for ? read the infographic below to learn more and don't forget to share it with your colleagues and friends.


Via: OnlineEducation.net

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Google Correlate Learn More about your Searches

Google Correlate is a website that allows its users to determine patterns in the use of search terms over time and compare it according to specific regions. It looks like Google Trends but with slight differences. Google Correlate can help you determine some extra info about your search terms such as which ones are more popular in winter, which ones were most likely to be issued in 2005,...etc.

According to Google Correlate some search words tend to have much popularity in certain states of America rather than in others.So for users to be able to find terms whose pattern of activity across the US reflects their own US states dataset, they need to enter their data using the search bar in the main page and hit " search correlations".

If you are interested in tracking the trending search terms then you can use Google Correlate to stay up-to-date.

Watch this video to learn more about Google Correlate.

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