Webinar recording: Mindmapping with iPads and other devices (by Carolyn Bruton)

 

Yesterday we held two SchoolNet webinars presented by Carolyn Bruton, a teacher who is an expert in Mindmapping. The first one took place at 3:30pm and the second one was a repeat that took place at 6:00 pm. Thank you to all who attended the webinars

Presentation:
Carolyn’s presentation is given below – Carolyn has kindly agreed that teachers can download it.

Recording link:
If you wish to listen to the presentation the recording link can be found at  http://meet78641452.adobeconnect.com/p9ns17glj1f/

Mind mapping on your i pad and other devices by Carolyn Bruton from Schoolnet SA

Read&Write with Google Docs-a useful Chrome extension for students

What I love about using Google Chrome as a browser is the way it makes browsing so efficient and easy.  There are so many very useful free Chrome extensions that you can add to your browser to have everything you need right at your finger tips. I installed a useful Chrome extension today called ‘Read&Write with Google Docs’. This is really designed for students, but I want to explore it and discover all its benefits.

What does Read&Write with Google Docs do?

This extension can only be used when Google Docs is actually open. It then becomes very useful because it can read the Google document to the students. Imagine how useful this could be to with dyslexia, learning disabilities, struggling readers, and English as a second language Learners.  I can also see a great use for this in a writing assignment when the student wants to review a piece of writing and hear what it sounds like.  However there are a number of other really useful features to this extension:

Features
- Text To Speech with Dual Synchronized Highlighting.

- Talking Dictionary

- Picture Dictionary

- Vocabulary Tool

- Study Skills tools to capture highlights

A video from the creators of Read&Write for Google Docs

The creators of this extension have made a video that explains the extension and elaborates on all its amazing features.  Here it is:

Access Read&Write for Google Docs at the Chrome Web store 
You can access this extension on the Google Chrome web store here: http://goo.gl/JNc3o

Free Virtual School Chemistry Resources for you

WE have an update from Frederic and Malik two of the international speakers at our SchoolNet Conference in July this year. They run the Virtual School in the UK 

"Dear teacher friends in South Africa,

We hope you are all doing great and, after having talked at length about #OER (Open Educational Resources) at the SchoolNet conference a couple of weeks ago we now want to start sharing with you the work that we are doing ourselves.

Some of you may not know yet what we are trying to achieve with our OER project 'The Virtual School' - we want to create 3600 free videos for secondary education in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths, English and ICT literacy within the next 2-3 years. We have already created 300 videos accesible totally free here: http://www.youtube.com/user/virtualschooluk/videos

Currently and during the next two months, with our talented young design team [watch them introduce themselves here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZId1Jmwpz4] we are working on the chemistry curriculum, and we have a growing playlist of videos here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=edit_ok&list=PLW0gavSzhMlReKGMVfUt6YuNQsO0bqSMV. The other subjects will follow thereafter.

We are hoping that you can all share the chemistry playlist, which will be growing by over 150 videos in the next few months, with the teachers at your science department and at the science departments at fellow schools. 

It would also be fantastic if you could give us feedback on these videos, be it via email or with comments under the YouTube videos.

For those of you who want to download the videos for offline use you can use a download tool like Keepvid: http://keepvid.com/ [you can watch a tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35myFjW_axY].

All the very best from London from Malik, myself and our team,

Freddy"