How do YOU mindmap? Let us count the ways

I was recently in a training session in a small group of educators when we were tasked by the instructor to create a mindmap on a relevant topic of our subject curriculum. We all got to work and voilà! Each one of us created a mindmap, using different apps in each case, save one. I was amazed at the possibilities, not having realised the myriad options at our disposal. Here is a list of the apps we used. „How do YOU mindmap? Let us count the ways“ weiterlesen

21st century English Teaching: Embracing the Digital Age in your Classroom

This past week I had the pleasure of holding a workshop aimed at helping English teachers to integrate digital tools and learning technology in their language teaching. At the 10th annual English Teachers‘ Day at the University College of Teacher Education in Vienna, Austria, several hundred educators gathered to further their professional development and deepen their knowledge on how to use different methods, strategies and activities in their teaching practice. I was eager to exchange experiences with my fellow educators. What would this trip outside my personal „bubble“ reveal?  „21st century English Teaching: Embracing the Digital Age in your Classroom“ weiterlesen

Kahoot kreativ und kollaborativ im Klassenzimmer nutzen

Unzählige Millionen von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Klassen rund um den Globus kennen es: das Kahoot-Fieber! Was ist Kahoot? Es ist eine web-basierte Plattform, wo mithilfe von Smartphones oder Tablets spielerisch Quizzes oder Umfragen durchgeführt werden können. Wer das schon ausprobiert hat, weiß kennt den Ablauf gut. Wenn es heißt “Kahoot!”, kommen die ersten Rufe: “Was ist der Game-Pin?” Darauf folgen oft nervöse Minuten für die Lehrperson während sich die Teenager Zeit lassen einen coolen Spielnamen auszusuchen.

„Kahoot kreativ und kollaborativ im Klassenzimmer nutzen“ weiterlesen

Learning to Manage Learning – Why I opted for Google Classroom

Post-it Notes

I read yesterday that Adobe is working on its own LMS, even though there may be already over 600 in existence! This epitomizes the challenge posed to us educators. Finding the „best“ solution for our classroom needs means investigating the offerings, evaluating them, then choosing the right one. In the educational sector there are so many being used that it’s hard, even for connected teachers, to gauge the added value of each, to be able to make this kind of decision.

I myself tried to get my head around two this past year – Moodle and LMS.at (an Austrian LMS), which have a great number of useful features like timed assignments, calendar, grading, course administration, communication etc. LMS.at is visually more appealing to me than Moodle and has the advantage that it is adapted for the Austrian school system. Still both left me with a feeling of „not quite what I need“. Moodle seems to be the number one choice in education and in business, but I checked out many others like Edmodo, Schoology, Blackboard, Fishtree, Chalkup, not to mention the ones that each publishing house seems to build as an accompaniment to their printed or electronic publications. With so many to choose from, it’s important to me to find something with a manageable learning curve for both students and fellow teachers (who may be eLearning beginners), with an attractive UI and with a simple, easy-to-use workflow. I settled on Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom. Here’s why:  „Learning to Manage Learning – Why I opted for Google Classroom“ weiterlesen