Bitstrips for Schools

The fad is in...with this quirky and cute BitStrips application that is taking the world by storm. I must admit it is indeed a really cute app. Unfortunately I am unable to get my hands on the ITunes version to work probably because of the exponential take-up rate over the last couple of weeks.

Just to reminiscence about BitStrips which I used 3 years ago in a Secondary 1 class to create a portrait poem. Here's a few to recollect....

STEM Education

Many people lament that researchers and engineers work long, painful and laborious hours that see little products or innovations to fruition. Looking back at my secondary school days, I wasn't quite your bright spark of a science student. Physics was passable because I tried hard enough and Math was a breeze because of intensive practice.

For a sustainable STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) education, we have to allow students to be creative in classrooms, be experimental and even take a little risk. How do we excite students about STEM? What can we do as educators to truly encourage innovation from students?

Check out the Center for K12 STEM Education where students create hydroelectric power generator and make use of 3D-printing to unpack what they learn in the classrooms.

The Center for K12 STEM Education

Symbaloo Again

Here are more webmixes on the Symbaloo Gallery that I found.

For Physics

For Chemistry

For Biology

Symbaloo

Recently, something called Symbaloo caught my eye as I was searching online. Essentially, it is a webmix portal that aggregates online content into 1 common webspace that is visually appealing and easy to use. Some people will call it a grid of bookmarks. As a user, you are able to create customizable tiles linking to URLs of online resources. The drag and drop feature allows you to drag the tiles around while categorising content.

Currently I'm trying to create a webmix for English based on the 4 prime skills of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking, Grammar and Vocabulary. They will be placed along the 4 corners of the Webmix Grid. Once it is ready, I will post it here.

If you are interested to find out more about SymbalooEdu, the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) from an academic's perspective, you can read a review from Christopher Harwood, Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore.

A Review of SymbalooEdu

For a video tutorial on Symbaloo and how to create a webmix, watch the video below.

Let me post a few of the top webmixes created by Symbaloo users.

1. Tech for Teachers

2. Library Symbaloo

3. Educational Gamewebsites