Pros and Cons of Social Media

There is so much discussion about how or even whether to use social media in the classroom. "Free range" schools are popping up all over the place. As educators, don't we have an obligation to help students navigate their way through a consistently growing online presence? Here's an interesting article from our friends at TeachThought: Read here.

Educateurs-francophone

Our friend Darren Kuropatwa posts a newspaper for francophone educators. He uses Paper.li
You can subscribe directly from his newspaper or follow him on Twitter. Check him out!

http://paper.li/dkuropatwa/educateurs-francophone

Learnist

Learnist makes it super easy to share what you know by curating the web. You can use video, blogs, books, docs, images, or anything on the web to explain a concept.
Once entering the site, find out how to get started by typing "learnist" into the search window.

Popplet

Have you tried Popplet?  It's a great web tool for idea mapping and idea collaborating (there is also an app for iOS). You can add maps, video, images and of course text and drawings. Popplet creates a link for sharing and collaborating in realtime. You can create 5 free Popplets or subscribe for unlimited.

100 of the Best Twitter Tools

If you love Twitter...or even if you don't, check out the post at  www.teachthought.com,  100 of the Best Twitter Tools. Teachthought has organized the tools into categories.
My favourite so far for classroom use is in the "Groups" section (scroll down to #75-86): paper.li. Paper.li lets you create a daily newspaper from your Twitter feeds. There are other great classroom ideas under "Twitters", "Games", and "News and Research".

Future Learning

French Podcasts

Those teaching French Second Language might be interested in Linguistica 360 where you can download "News in Slow French" podcasts from iTunes for free. Each podcast consists of  Weekly News, French grammar, and French expressions, and much more in simplified French at a slow pace so that learners can understand almost every word and sentence. The French is Parisian, but the news is current and global.
For information on Linguistica 360 and lessons in French and Spanish go to: http://linguistica360.com/