Comics in the Classroom

Creating comic strips in the classroom is one of the easiest ways to engage students immediately. They are glued to the comics creators because they are in charge of their creation, they have choice, and they can fully navigate through their imaginative realms.

Every teacher should try to use comics in the classroom. There are a million ways to do it. Let your students be the remixer, creators, characters, voices of their own stories.

Some of our favorite comic strips creators?
Check them out:
www.makebeliefscomix.com/
http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html
www.toondoo.com/
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/

And just came across this morning:

• Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics

•  Free Animation and Cartooning Tools

eLearning - Introducing Yourself

I´ve taken many online courses, and it strikes me that it is always the same old tell-me-something-about-you kind of forum. There are so many interesting ways to get started with a group online that I couldn´t possibly list it here. There is video, voicethread, slideshare,a blog post, intriguing questions, among others.

However, I want to share one with you that I thought worked nicely and it also gives a sense of online presence. You seem to be there, a real presence to your e-learners. When we are in an online setting, that´s what matters, connecting, being there to begin with.

What do you think? Is it an effective introduction? How would you make it different? How would you introduce yourself in an online course?

About Carla on Prezi

Changing Education Paradigms

Every educator, administrator, parent, professional should watch this. Great summary of our historical perspective, but, at the same time, giving perspective to what we do and should be doing. Now, it is up to us make the small shifts to change education.

With you, Sir Ken Robinson:

Planning Instruction - Don't Forget the Basic Principles

Still on the topic on how to stomp our classes, this video from Dr. David Merrill is a reminder of what we really need to have effective instruction. With three basic principles, we can stomp it, but sometimes it seems we just forget it...

I'm taking a very nice course on Instructional Design with professor Régis Tractenberg and revisiting instructional design is always a good reminder of basic aspects of teaching and learning that we sometimes take it for granted.
How well have we been applying the principles Dr. Merrill presents in our classroom instruction?