education and technology

20Jun 2016

Become an engaging presenter with PREZI

Ever suffered by the phenomenon called “Death by PowerPoint”?

If YES, then its time to break the wheel of monotony and explore an excellent alternative to Power Point to engage your audience ….Prezi!!!

Prezi is a free, web based visual learning tool used for interactive and interesting presentations. As oppose to the traditional slide making tools, Prezi offers a nonlinear way of presenting text, images, videos and graphics. With in one large canvas users can pan and zoom to various areas within the canvas to elaborate the ideas presented. This tool is equally useful for teachers and students.

Prezi is cloud-based, which means that users can access the latest version of their work from any web enabled device. As the Prezi can be kept in public domain, teacher created Prezi can be assessed by students anytime. Users can also present remotely from their browser, desktop, iPad or Smart Phone. Using Prezi app, users can create or edit on the go, the changes automatically synchronize across all devices. The premium version provides extra features such as working offline and central account management. This feature is extremely helpful if your school is not equipped with an internet connection.

Prezi is interactive whiteboard friendly. It allows to create interactive presentations with touch navigation using pictures, text, videos, sound or personally recorded narration.

22Feb 2016

Engage Pakistani Digital Natives through eLearn.Punjab

by Maryam Hamad ⋅ 3 Comments

“Digital natives” represents today’s students – the first generation of students that has grown up with technology (Prensky, 2001, p.1). Marc Prensky (2005) argues that today’s learners have changed radically and therefore need to be motivated in new ways. The current teacher centered pedagogy of educational system stimulate rote learning and memorization or learning that cannot be applied to new situations (Oblinger, 2004; Prensky, 2005).

The pedagogy needs to facilitate student-centered deep learning that enable today’s student to become critical thinker, creative problem solver, innovative and adaptable. One way of doing this is using a variety of technological tools, relating to real life, to support classroom instruction and to enhance learning.

eLEARN.PUNJAB is one such initiative taken by the Government of Punjab, to encourage the use of educational technologies by establishing a self-study platform for Pakistani Digital Natives.

To enhance the learning value of Pakistan National Curriculum text books and improve quality of education, the digitized book versions of Science (Grade 6-8), Mathematics (Grade 6-10) and Biology, Chemistry and Physics (Grade 9, 10 and O Level) has been made available free online. The contents can be accessed using any device such as desktop, tablets or smart phones. Watch this short video to learn about eLearn.Punjab platform.

31Jan 2016

“REMIND” – Instant and safe Communication with students and parents

by Maryam Hamad ⋅ Leave a Comment

Would you like to communicate with your students and their parents outside classroom BUT do not feel comfortable sharing your personal phone number or email address with everyone?

If Yes! Then REMIND is the right tool for you.

Remind is a FREE web 2.0 communication tool that help teachers connect instantly with their students and parents without exchanging personal phone number or email address. The messages can easily be sent to any device such as computers or smart phones, iPad or iPod using free Remind App.

How to use REMIND Tool

Watch this video to learn how to use REMIND Tool.

Using Remind consists of four simple steps.

Teacher signup and create a class.
A class code is generated by Remind, that can be shared with students and parents. Invitations can also be sent via email.
Parents or students join the class using the class code or by accepting the email invitation.
Teacher can send instant announcements and start chat conversation.

16Jan 2016

Enhance Students’ Learning Experience using ThingLink

by Maryam Hamad ⋅ 1 Comment

A picture is worth a thousand words but sometimes a simple image given in a book may not represent the sequence of the whole story. THINGLINK, a free web 2.0 tool, allows you to add narrative to your picture to make it more comprehensive.
Thinglink is a creative platform that empowers users to create interactive images and videos, which can be tagged to external information such as videos, notes, websites, music or images. The creativity and interactivity offered by this platform makes it an engaging and interesting tool for teaching and learning purposes. Read More →

20Dec 2015

Inject Creativity in Class using TAGUL

by Maryam Hamad ⋅ 1 Comment

If you wish to be creative with your teaching style, TRY TAGUL!

Tagul is a free online tool which allow users to create interesting word clouds. Word Cloud is a visual representation of the relevant text within a region (a shape or an image) called “cloud”. It is easy to use and require minimum technical proficiency.

Tagul is a fun tool which promote creativity learning. Although, it can be used for learners of all ages, it can be especially motivating for younger kids and may help draw their interest in learning the language. View this short video to learn how to use Tagul.