Take a picture of your homework and get help from volunteer tutors

Guest post by 
Ryan Hittner

After spending the last year helping college-bound New York City high school students prepare for the SATs, I realized something; I can’t be the only one who loves doing this. It turns out, I wasn’t.

At the New York Cares SAT tutoring program, most volunteers were drawn to the program to make an educational impact on the community and also, because they simply enjoy teaching.

There was just one problem. When students had questions outside of the weekly 2-hour sessions, we couldn’t help. The Dittles iOS app is the solution to this problem.

Dittles is a free, fun, and simple way to connect students with tutors right on an iOS device. It works like this…a student takes a picture of the problem they are having trouble answering. The picture gets posted for anyone to see. Tutors can then post a targeted video lesson that addresses the student’s problem. Students will receive notification when a lesson is posted for them. If a student likes the lesson, a tutor has made an impact.

You can download Dittles on the App Store.

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Got iPads? Get a WiPad!

If you are an innovative educator whose school has moved to iPads in the classroom, you need a WiPad. Unlike Apple TV it does not require network connections or IDs. Unlike an interactive whiteboard you can get up and away from the board and into class. Just snap your iPad into the WiPad case, attach the battery to the back of the case, and connect that to WiPad and iPad with a cable. Place the receiver on your TV or projector and voilà! You’re ready to share whatever is on your iPad (i.e. apps, audio, video) with the class.  

What’s nice about the wireless device is that not only can the teacher be anywhere in the class, but the projecting iPad can also be given to a student to share their work as well. Or...you can just connect the WiPad to a student device.  

Unlike an interactive whiteboard that requires training, keeps you tethered to the front of the room, and costs thousands, consider a WiPad Pro. It works on an iPad 2 or 3 and runs for $299.  

You have read this article Innovative Tools / iPad / iPad2 / iPad3 / WiPad with the title Innovative Tools. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/09/got-ipads-get-wipad.html. Thanks!

16 Ways Educators Use Pinterest

Pinterest is catching favor with many innovative educators and their students. This infographic from Online Universities shares some ways they're doing that.  Are you using Pinterest? If so, share your ideas in the comments.


From: Online Universities Blog

You have read this article Innovative Tools / learning tools / Technology tools with the title Innovative Tools. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/05/16-ways-educators-use-pinterest.html. Thanks!

With Flubaroo, You'll Never Have to Grade A Test Again

Flubaroo is a free auto-grading tool that you can use with Google Spreadsheets to instantly assess your students.  Students simply complete a fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice quiz or test and their grades are automatically compiled and available for viewing by the teacher, class, parents and whomever else the teacher chooses.  

It also...

• Computes average assignment score.
• Computes average score per question, and flags low-scoring questions.
• Shows you a grade distribution graph.
• Gives you the option to email each student their grade, and an answer key.

I made the video below that shows you how to get started with Flubaroo.  

Here’s a video from Flubaroo that provides more information on how to use it and what it can do.


If you didn’t catch all that, the instructions below walk you through creating an assignment, and grading it with Flubaroo:

Step 1: Create an Assignment

Step 2: Create an Answer Key

Step 3: Assign It!

Step 4: Grade It!

Step 5: Review the Grades

Innovative educators love Flubaroo. Connect with them and read what they’re saying here.

Students will love Flubaroo, because it can be set up for them to instantly know whether they've answered something right or wrong rather than a week later. As a result they can go back and brush up in the moment.

So, what are you waiting for?  Go create a test or quiz, or better yet, have your students create one.  When you do, come back here and let me know how it goes.

You have read this article Innovative Tools / learning tools / Technology tools with the title Innovative Tools. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2011/12/with-flubaroo-you-never-have-to-grade.html. Thanks!

Capture Skype Conversations for Anytime / Anywhere Listening and Viewing

As I’ve shared here and here, Skype is a great way to enable students across the world to converse and interact with others who share their passion, talents, and interests. With the popularity of learning techniques liked the flipped classroom and passion-driven learning, teachers and their students might be interested in capturing these conversations.  SuperTintin is a fully-featured audio and video recording software which allows Skype users to record their online conversations. These recorded conversations can be used for review purposes in the classroom, to share with others in the school or the students’ parents and/or for any other reason which the teacher and students see potential.

Here a couple valuable features of SuperTintin for recording Skype calls that might be difficult to accomplish using other means.  

• Picture-in-Picture: Record video in Picture-in-Picture, Side-by-Side, Remote-Only, or Local-Only mode! And you can also record local and remote video as two separate files.
• Saving. Supertintin lets you easily save your conversations to your computer's hard drive or a portable USB drive, allowing you to re-watch your conversations as easily as watching your favorite DVD.
• Skype group video conference up to 10 ways!

For students and teachers that enhance their learning with Skype, recording those conversations is a great way to remember and reinforce any lessons learned. Additionally, recording conversations make them easy to share with other teachers, the students’ parents or the community at large. SuperTintin provides a simple and easy recording solution so that classrooms can capture, save, and share collaborations on Skype.  SuperTinTin is available here for $29.95.

You have read this article 21st Century Tools / Innovative Tools / skype / Technology tools with the title Innovative Tools. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2011/11/capture-skype-conversations-for-anytime.html. Thanks!

Cut out the interesting part of videos with TubeChop

Innovative Educators often use video to supplement learning.  Sometimes however, it's just a small clip of a longer video they are interested in showing. For those times, TubeChop is a terrific tool to just show the part of the video you are interested in featuring.

Here's how it works.
1. Find the video you want to chop.
2. Enter the url at www.TubeChop.com
3. Select & cut interesting part of the video.
4. Share it with friends.

The chopped video will have a unique url which will be nice for some schools where YouTube is blocked, but TubeChop is not.

You have read this article Innovative Tools / TubeChop with the title Innovative Tools. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2011/07/cut-out-interesting-part-of-videos-with.html. Thanks!