Since a new school year is upon us, Edutopia recently posted this. Click the link for more in-depth explanations and exampels. A brief and quick summary is below.

10 Rules of Engagement

1. Start Class with a Mind Warm-Up

2. Use Movement to get Kids Focused

3. Teach Students how to Collaborate Before Expecting Success

4. Use Quickwrites When You Want Quiet Time and Student Reflection

5. Run a Tight Ship When Giving Instructions

6. Use a Fairness Cup to Keep Students Thinking

7. Use Signaling to Allow Everyone to Answer Your Question

8. Use Minimal-Supervision Tasks to Squeeze Dead Time out of Regular Routines

9. Mix up Your Teaching Styles

10. Create Teamwork Tactics That Emphasize Accountability

Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings and connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas? (link here)

(Also archived under the “Arts, Learning & Talks” tab above)

(video link here)
ART & COPY out now in select cities.

It’s quite amazing what apps are available for the iPhone now. Check this out from Cinemek and view some of their other tutorial videos for it via their Vimeo link below:

“Hitchcock is the first of our suite of iphone apps. It is currently available in the iTunes app store (itunes.com/apps/hitchcock). In case you are curious, this is how it works.”

Hitchcock Mobile Storyboard Composer from cinemek / Hitchcock on Vimeo.

Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Welcome to the World of Socialnomics.

(video link here)

I have also archived this video under the “ICT Theories & Info” tab above and have added new TED talks from Daniel Pink and Tom Wujec under “Arts, Learning & Talks.”

Following on from my post yesterday, here’s the breakdown I used to help evaluate the features and final product of the three sites:

So, which one to recommend? Personally, I prefer Animoto, especially if you have access to the Educator’s Pass. Otherwise, you could pay for the video upgrade or settle with the 30 second video. Animoto looks flash, professional, modern and the transitions are synced to the music. You are able to highlight certain photos too. You can do this with the other two, but you would have to play with the transition times to do this. Animoto has a simple click option. The DVD quality upgrade costs five (US) dollars per flick.

UPDATE: As of today (what a coincidence), Animoto has announced that you can add video clips to your Animoto videos! Watch a few sample videos and find out more here. You can upload clips from your camera or phone, or use some from their collection (from iStockphoto and Getty Images). You can choose highlights of up to 10 seconds each, though they recommend using only 3-5 seconds as that works best within the flow of an Animoto video. (I’ll update it on the chart later as the file is on another computer)

Stupeflix, though in beta mode, does not store your video. It only hosts it for a month, allowing you and viewers to download it. This may be a good option for those teachers willing to share videos with parents, but unwilling to post them to YouTube etc. (It would also save time of burning it to disc.) Therefore, it also does not allow embedding. You would have to download the video and then upload it to a sharing site. Stupeflix states you may also upload video, but when I tried, I was not permitted. I even converted the file (more investigation needed on this). I didn’t really like the black background at times and some of the cropping of the shots.

Photopeach does not allow downloading. It only hosts. It was rather fast and simple to use though. If you could download it, it may have stretched to number one. One option I did find interesting was the “Spiral View.” When you create a slideshow, you may switch between the two modes for viewing. It also has a quiz option that teachers may find useful. I did prefer the larger display area for photos.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

UPDATE 2: I have updated the change in the chart to the Animoto category regarding uploading video.

Teachers often ask which is the best photo slideshow creator to use in class. The ‘usual’ three I hear about are Animoto (teachers click here), PhotoPeach and Stupeflix. So I decided to do a test. Using the same photos for all sites, I created slideshows and compared their features and final product.

However, everyone has different tastes. You may view the three examples below. Which do you prefer? I’ll give my breakdown and verdict tomorrow. Do you know of any other alternatives? If so, please let me know.

Example 1: Animoto

Example 2: PhotoPeach
Eastern Canada Trip 2009 on PhotoPeach

Example 3: Stupeflix (Note: Stupeflix only holds the video for 1 month. I  downloaded it and then uploaded it to Vimeo.)

Eastern Canada 2009 from FNC videos on Vimeo.

Clear out your bookmarks. You’re going to need the space for 50 offerings that are indispensable to navigating, enjoying yourself, shopping or just killing time on the Web.

Go here to view Time magazine’s Best Websites list. Unfortunately, it’s a posting that requires you to skip through the list one by one. Some of us don’t have the patience or time to do this (sorry, that was a really lame joke). You may view the full list without descriptions here.

Also view 5 websites you may not know.

The Productive Flourishing blog offers some interesting free planners for personal use. The site states:

After years of struggling with the planners designed for and by office workers, I figured out that it wasn’t me that was the problem: it was the design of the planners.

Creative people approach their work differently. Most of us don’t work 8-5, and we don’t have projects that we can plan to get done during the same times each day. The limiting factor for us is not the amount of time we have available, but rather the type of time we have available.

One size does not fit all when it comes to planners. Check out the planners to see which ones best relate to what you’re trying to do, and give them a try!

Check the link above to see the planners which best relate to what you’re trying to do, and give them a try. They may help increase your productivity.

Interesting bits from the web:

Why Group Norms Kill Creativity from Psyblog:Research shows group members equate creativity with conformity.

Unique TV Series Episodes That Inspire Creativity from Smashing Magazine: In this article you’ll get inspiration from the area of creative writing in popular television series episodes from the past 40+ years, and we’ll discuss how the creativity achieved in these particular episodes can motivate all of us, as artists, to always strive to prevent our creations from being too normal and predictable.

Balance Life With the Media Diet Pyramid from Flowing Data.

Free Tools to Back Up Your Online Accounts from Lifehacker: Cloud computing means you can store your data in web applications and access it from any browser, anywhere—but that doesn’t mean you don’t need a backup plan. Safeguard your data when a storm’s a-brewing in the cloud with these tools.

15 Great Free Online File Sharing Alternatives from Hongkiat: Here are some free file-sharing sites we come to know and if you share files with friends or peers via Internet frequently, you might want to consider getting them done this way.

Free and Commercial Stock Photography Sites from Smashing Magazine: Here are a handful of sites to check out when considering the use of stock photography on your next project.