onlinelearningcoursedesign

What is Keybr? Keybr is a web tool that helps you learn touch typing using typing exercises tailored specifically to your skill level.  As you improve your typing practice and enhance your typing speed, you move to advanced levels where you get to train your muscle memory to type based only on the feel of keyboard strokes.  What is touch typing? Touch typing, according to Techopedia, is a method of typing that is based primarily on feeling the keyboard without the use of sight. In other words, 'typing through muscle memory'. This is only possible when you develop a strong habit of typing that it becomes second nature to type without having to peek at the strokes of keyboard.  In this way, "the fingers get so used to typing that they instinctively go to the appropriate keys without the typist needing to see or even feel around the keyboard." The opposite of touch typing, to use Keybr' s terminology, is hunt-and-peck typing, a method of typing in which the ...

The purpose of this post is to share with you a collection of some of the best free QR Code generators for teachers and students. By definition, QR Codes are readable barcodes that store various types of data (e.g., the URL of a website, a YouTube video, address, contact information, business card, email, plain text, among others).  Since its introduction, QR Code technology has  gained a strong foothold in the field of education as more and more teachers and students are using it to revamp old ways of learning and teaching and to explore new learning opportunities that were not available before.  In a previous post I shared here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, I talked about some of the ways QR Code technology is being used in education including:  * Create interactive and engaging content * Share resources with students * Provide help with homework * Communicate with parents and the school community * Integrate QR Codes in reading activities in and outside c...

We love the Halloween season and our kids love it even more. You can see the excitement in their eyes and sense it in the vibrant atmosphere everywhere you go. Halloween infuses everything with a spooktacular energetic vibe creating a lot of fun and joy. As teachers and parents we can not help but take full advantage of this amazing event and turn it into meaningful learning experiences for kids in and outside class, all while keeping the spooky and ghoulish spirit of the season intact.  To this end, I collected for you this collection of educational resources to use to celebrate Halloween with your kids and students. You will find Halloween presentation templates, Halloween apps for kids, resources where you can access Halloween images and icons, Halloween books for kids, Halloween games and activities, Halloween printable worksheets, and many more. 1. Halloween Apps This is a collection of some of the best Halloween apps to use with kids (and older learners) to engage them in...

The Halloween season is a time for 'spooktacular' fun.  Our kids and students love to celebrate it their own way but as teachers and educators we also have our own way to create out of it educational opportunities to enhance students learning in fun and engaging ways, while keeping the spooky theme of the season intact. In a previous post I featured a number of helpful Halloween activities and games to use with students in class. I also shared a number of platforms where you can download Halloween Google Slides and PowerPoint templates to use in your presentations. In today's post, I am sharing with you this collection of some popular Halloween books for kids. Share with your young learners and help them enrich their  imagination with spooky stories inspired by the Halloween spirit.  Disclosure: the links below are Amazon affiliate links. 1- Creepy Pair of Underwear! by Aaron Reynolds  (Author), Peter Brown  (Illustrator)"Jasper Rabbit is NOT a little bunny anymore....

Quizlet Live is a collaborative gaming system that allows teachers to engage students and boost their learning using a wide variety of game-based activities. As students play the games, teachers access live data on their performance and track their progress.  Quizlet Live games can be used for various educational purposes including review vocabulary, practice study materials (e.g., math and chemistry),  learn coding, and many more. In this post, you will learn  what Quizlet Live is all about and how to use it with your own students. What is Quizlet liveQuizlet Live is a collaborative classroom game. Like other  game-based formative assessment tools (e.g., Kahoot, Blooket, and Quizalize), Quizlet Live has two game modes: a Teams mode where students work together to answer questions and review terms and definitions and an Individual mode in which students play against each other.  The way Quizlet Live works is simple and easy. You can either select a study set you created or use one...

The popular classroom tool Book Creator recently dropped two big updates which teachers will be excited about. If you’re someone who has traditionally relied on PDFs and worksheets to aid learning in the classroom, it’s now time to bring those PDFs to life in Book Creator! From now on, Book Creator allows you to upload your PDFs onto the pages of your book, where you can then annotate them and add rich multimedia materials such as audio, video, emojis or AppSmash with various other tools. Learn more about the process of importing PDFs on the Book Creator website. And if you’re new to Book Creator, you’ll be pleased to know that this tool is free to use for teachers and you can get started right away. What are the benefits of adding PDFs to Book Creator? 1. Personalize your PDFs PDFs are often used to consolidate thinking and practice learning. But often the PDFs we source online aren’t quite tailored to your students learning style or the exact concept you’re trying to teach. I...

Typeform is a good  form builder that you can use to create a wide variety of form types including: surveys, contact forms, questionnaires, quizzes, registration forms, polls, invitations and many more. Typeform provides a set of interesting features (some of which are interactive) enabling you to easily collect and share information in a secure way. Of particular interest to us in education are the online Form Builder tool, Survey Maker tool, and the Quiz Maker tool. 1. Form Builder  Typeform' s Form Builder tool allows you to create beautiful and interactive forms to share with others. ‘Just start typing like a notepad, and out intuitive form builder anticipates your questions and automatically adds them.’ You can include in your forms things such as custom designs and GIFs. You can also choose from a variety of predesigned forms and customize them the way you want. Typeform forms are mobile-friendly and can be embedded anywhere online. 2. Survey Maker The Survey Maker to...

Zoho Survey is a good tool that teachers can use to create surveys and quizzes. Zoho Survey enables you to easily create your own surveys. It offers a wide variety of pre-made templates with the ability to edit and customize them the way you want. You can add different question types, drag and drop questions, upload your logo, add your own theme, and many more. Image source: zoho.com  Zoho Survey also supports collaboration allowing you to invite reviewers and work together on creating better surveys. You have access to different sharing options including sharing your surveys as web links, as QR codes, and many more. Zoho Survey offers detailed analytic and real-time reports to help you make sense of your audience responses.  Zoho Survey Features Zoho Survey offers a suite of powerful features that enable you to easily create, edit, and share surveys. Some of these features include: 1. Online QuestionnaireZoho Survey offers access to a handy online questionnaire tool t...

Below is a collection of some of the best web tools you can use to create surveys and polls. As a teacher, you can use these tools for a wide range of educational purposes including formative assessment.   Students feedback is an important source of data that teachers and educators highy value. Teachers use it to structure their lesson plans, formulate effective instructional strategies, and provide individualized feedback and remediation.  Also, allowing students to share their feedback is in itself an empowering practice for students. It empowers them with a voice and makes them feel valued. Knowing that their opinions matter drive students to become active participants in the learning taking place in and out of class. They also learn to take ownership of their learning and become independent learners.   The list below features some of the most popular web tools you can use to create various types of polls and surveys. Browse through the collection and select the ones that works fo...

ISLCollective is an ESL learning platform that offers a wide variety of educational materials such as ESL worksheets, ESL PowerPoints, and video lessons. You can either search for and use ready-made materials created by the ISLCollective community or upload your own.  ISLCollective is especially ideal for ESL students and teachers but can also be used by anyone interested in language learning. I particularly like the video lessons section and I wish I had these materials when I used to teach EFL. They would have made my life way easier. Materials provided by ISLCollective can help ESL students improve their language proficiency and fluency in key areas such as listening, speaking, reading, spelling, and writing. They are also focused on two main language learning aspects: grammar and vocabulary. ISLCollective is also part of my favourite resources for printable worksheets. What is iSLCollective ISLCollective stands for the Internet Second Language Collective which is an internati...

Kids are getting more and more excited as trick-and-treating season is just around the corner. Halloween is back to bring some happiness and fun, things we have missed so much during a tough pandemic-ridden year.  But while Halloween is a time for celebration and festivities, we, teachers and educators, can also turn it into an educational occasion to teach our kids about a wide variety of relevant topics such as cultural diversity, tolerance, empathy, social justice, among others.  There are even digital activities designed specifically to engage kids in fun learning experiences during this season and throughout the whole year. There are also books and apps packed with interactive games, spooky stories, and challenges that will not only enable kids to enjoy their Halloween season but will also make sure they keep learning while doing so.  What is Halloween?Several students know Halloween by name only and have mo idea about the story behind it. The purpose of today's post is t...

Halloween's joy is upon us. Our kids are excited and the spooky fun is everywhere including in our classrooms. There are numerous educational Halloween activities and games to help you create meaningful learning experiences in your class without sucking the Halloween joy out of them.  There are also Halloween apps kids and students can use to learn and develop their Halloween vocabulary and facts. The pedagogical purpose is to seize these events that kids love and turn them into fun learning opportunities in and beyond class. In today's post, I am sharing with you some very good platforms where you can search for and access free Halloween pictures and images to use with your kids and students. You can search for spooky Halloween pictures, scary Halloween backgrounds, vintage Halloween images, Halloween posters, and many more.  To be on the ethical and safe side, always make sure you go through the licenses of the images you want to use and make it a rule of thumb to include pr...

Halloween brings a lot of fun and joy to us all. It is about the time of the year when spooky and ghosty themes are everywhere. Our classrooms are no exception. Halloween infuses our classrooms with its fun spirit and boosts kids excitements. There are several educational ways to celebrate Halloween season with students in and out of class. Besides creating halloween-themed presentations using special Halloween PowerPoint and Google Slides templates, reading Halloween books created specifically for kids, and using Halloween apps, there are also a number of engaging and interactive halloween games ideal for use with kids of all ages. Below is a collection of some great Halloween games from the popular educational games platform ABCYa. The games are simple yet powerful enough to engage kids in various Halloween themed activities from solving challenging puzzles and word searches to learning keyboarding skills. No login or sign up is required to play the games, and best of all they ...

In today's post I am sharing with you this interesting infographic from The Literature Network featuring major literary movements and periods from the medieval period stretching between 500 to 1500 to the postmodernist era that started in the late sixties of last century and is still going on till today.  This timeline also chronicles important events that marked the trajectory of literary history together with brief mentions of the popular authors in each of these eras (from Beowulf to Samuel Beckett). Literary Periods and History Timeline is a great resource to share with students to help them learn about the major events, movements, and authors that shaped our literary history. And if students want to learn more about each of the literary eras featured in this timeline they can browse this Literary Periods page. The main literary periods covered include: Renaissance Literature, The Enlightenment, Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Victorian Literature, Realism, Naturalism, Moderni...

YouTube is a powerful video resource to use in your instruction. It offers video content covering almost anything you want from learning how to dance to watching the latest James Web's pictures of the planets millions of years away. In fact, YouTube is now being used as an alternative search engine to Google. A growing number of people opt for video results instead of textual content.  However, the unlimited access to YouTube videos comes with a cost: annoying clutter. You all know the amount of distraction that accompanies YouTube videos from the rolls of suggested videos to ads and comments, your viewing experience takes a tool. When it comes to sensitive video content (e.g., politics, religion, diet, etc),  the comments section can turn into a heated battleground with all kinds of weird and expreme ideas published unrestricted.  For us in education, YouTube, unfortunately, is blocked in several schools. Even in those that allow it, YouTube in its current form, still poses a numb...

Knowing how to develop a bibliography and cite the resources you drew on  in your research papers are two elemental skills for any student researcher. Correct and accurate citations do not only augment the credibility of your research but also help other interested researchers use your citations for reference mining and thus building on your work.  There are actually a wide range of free web tools that make it easy for students to generate citations  in different style formats. Below are some of the titles I would recommend for student researchers.  1-RefWorks RefWorks is an online research management, writing and collaboration tool . It is designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies. 2- Zotero Zotero helps you collect all your research in a single, searchable interface. You can add PDFs, images, audio and video files, snapshots of web pages, and really anything else. Zotero autom...

In today's post, I am sharing with you this collection of some of the best and most popular social studies apps for kids and elementary students. The apps offer a wide variety of social studies games, challenges, adevtjrues, quizzes, and several other materials designed specifically for young inquisitive minds.  Using these apps, kids will get to develop an appreciation of world cultures, develop their cultural awareness, explore world geography, learn about the history of different countries and more. 1. Stack the States Stack the States is a good social studies app for kids and elementary students. Stack the States is an engaging and dynamic game that helps kids learn about the 50 states. Kids get to learn everything related to the states including: flags, capitals, shapes, geographic locations, abbreviations, bordering states, and more more. This social studies game consists of various levels and as kids move through the levels they earn more states and unlock more bonus...

Emerging technologies are revolutionizing how organizations across industries operate, and the education sector is no exception. Over the last 10 years — particularly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — schools and colleges have had to adapt and evolve their approaches to learning and collaboration, opening the door to the “learn from anywhere” world. Even now, as schools firmly embrace in-person learning again, it’s clear that the education sector is in a period of great modernization. Chalkboards, pen and paper are a thing of the past. Today, students and teachers alike want digitally enabled experiences. One of the most powerful digital solutions that is enhancing the education sector is cloud storage. Below, we’ll explore how your institution can harness the potential of cloud tools to improve learning outcomes, accessibility, and data security.  What Is Cloud Storage? Cloud storage refers to a form of data storage in which files and information are stored on a remote ...

Watermarks are tags you add to a photo,  video, GIF, or any other creation to mark its authorship and/or ownership. You can use watermarks for various reasons most important of which is to protect the ownership of your artwork by applying a unique copyright signature to it. Of course, the simple fact that your photo has a watermark does not make it out of reach of copycats.  Pretty much any photo editing software embeds tools that allow anyone to remove or hide your watermark. But still, adding a watermark to your creation is important not least because it  adds extra work for the would be thieves and can also discourage lazy copycats from tinkering with your artwork.  Image credit: visualwatermark.com A watermark can be anything from a logo, an image, a copyright symbol ©, or text layered on top of the photo or contained within a box (or any other shape) and placed either discreetly or obtrusively somewhere within the image. For instance, readers of Educational Technology ...