Learn Lead Grow

How do you use an iPad to get your students to brainstorm? Why not have them create a garden of words with AnswerGarden? I have been using the original AnswerGarden website for several years as a way to stimulate thinking. If you are not familiar with the tool, students can enter up to 20 characters into an interactive word cloud (much like Wordle). I was very excited to hear that AnswerGarden is now available for the iPad ! Now you can quickly have your students brainstorm, summarize, or gather information from the confines of their iPad. Check out this free and innovative tool!

For this series, I want to concentrate on iPad Apps that will make your life easier and more organized in 140 words or less – of course! Do you keep organized with lists? Then Wunderlist might be a great option. This web-based program and mobile App gives you options to stay organized, collaborate with others, and set due dates. Easily enter tasks into Wunderlist, set due dates, create subtasks, add notes, and attach documents or pictures. Stay organized by organizing your tasks into your own customized lists. For example, I often create lists for blog topics, books to read, school, grad school, and home.   The best part is that you can drag and drop your tasks into whichever list you choose. Use the filtering features to see today’s tasks, this week’s task, or all of your tasks from all of your lists.

When was the last time that you had students use a paper dictionary or encyclopedia? Where do students typically turn when they can't find an answer? Google. Here are a few tips to make your life (and your student's lives) easier: Tip 1: Quickly Define a Word Do you ever need to define a word quickly? Where do you go? Next time this happens to you, type "define" and then your word. Google will quickly come up with a definition. Tip 2: Search by Document Types Do you want to find a specific type of file? For example, would you like to see if someone created a PowerPoint on the very topic you will be presenting? There are several ways to do this. One way is to: 1. Go to the Options icon 2. Choose "Advanced Search" 3. Type in keywords 4. Scroll towards the bottom of the search where you see "File Type." Choose the file type of your choice. Tip 3: Need Help with Conversions? Need help converting inches to centimeters? US dollars to Japanese Yen

A few weeks ago, I observed a very interesting conversation transpire. A local university was offering a three graduate course in PowerPoint. It began an interesting conversation about the whether this course was needed or not. Don't get me wrong, I still use PowerPoint for the majority of my presentations; however, our students view this technology as "old school" and "out of date." It's the equivalent to watching a movie on VHS or listening to your favorite album on cassette. It made me think about ways that we can represent content differently without turning to PowerPoint. Is PowerPoint finally dead? Well...probably not, but this series will investigate a few "cool" alternatives. So far, we have talked about: Canva PowToon The days of sitting to a presentation and soaking in all of the information are quickly coming to an end. Our students and even adults (if we are honest), want to interact with the presentation in some way. NearPod is

A few weeks ago, I observed a very interesting conversation transpire. A local university was offering a three graduate course in PowerPoint. It began an interesting conversation about the whether this course was needed or not. Don't get me wrong, I still use PowerPoint for the majority of my presentations; however, our students view this technology as "old school" and "out of date." It's the equivalent to watching a movie on VHS or listening to your favorite album on cassette. It made me think about ways that we can represent content differently without turning to PowerPoint. Is PowerPoint finally dead? Well...probably not, but this series will investigate a few "cool" alternatives. In our first entry, we talked about Canva . Today I would like to talk about PowToon! What is PowToon?  PowToon is a free presentation tool with that combines the ease and structure of PowerPoint with the "wow-factor" of iMovie and MovieMaker. Teache