Free Video/Presentation/Animation App

If you are like me, the word "Free" got your attention. OK, so nothing in life is free, but if I don't need a large cash outlay to use something really useful, then that's OK with me. Powtoon is one of those online resources that can make your multimedia stuff better without opening your wallet much. This online app lets you easily create animated presentations. Some feature require payment, but you can do a lot of things for free to start with. If you need more features of higher resolution formats, then it may cost you. I created this embedded "Mission Impossible" theme presentation in about 5 minutes.

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Human Research Ethics and Teacher/Student Relationships

As part of my Masters in Education program at American College of Education , I recently took a course in ethics related to using humans as research subjects . This course was through the National Institutes of Health and led to a certification. Some of my peers questioned why it would be necessary for teachers to be concerned about how to treat human subjects in research. However, when you think about it, we are constantly observing our students, gathering data, experimenting with our methods and planning, and making adjustments based on student feedback. We often share our observations about our students with our peers and with students' parents. We also guide our students' use of and access to outside information. This could be considered study of human subjects, and as such has certain ethical ramifications. The three basic ethical principles that came from the Belmont Report are: Respect for persons , which involves informed consent; Benef...

In Memoriam of First Lady Barbara Bush 1925-2018

Literacy is an important issue for ESL teachers. I was saddened to hear that Barbara Bush passed away yesterday. Barbara Bush was a champion for literacy . She was responsible for helping to pass the National Literacy Act of 1991. She started a foundation to promote literacy which you can access here. I met her personally during a fund raiser at a Women's literacy club in Naples Florida. I was a news cameraman covering the event.. When it came time for our interview she leaned over to me and asked, "May I give you some advice in a motherly way?" "Sure, of course!" I replied. " You had better close the barn door before the horse gets out." I had forgotten to zip up my pants. - Dan

Apps for Education/Personal Tech in the Classroom

So, the big question is, "Should we allow students to use smartphones in the classroom?" In many classrooms, that question has turned into "How do we prevent it?" Teachers have creative solutions like the cell phone jail block . However, and please let me stand on my soapbox for a minute because there is no getting around it, nearly every student has a personal smart device, and they are going to bring them to school, instead of banning a perfectly awesome learning tool, teachers and parents could incorporate them into a blended learning model like the flipped classroom. To begin, there are lots of awesome learning apps that teachers can encourage students to use in class and at home. There are also a lot of online reference materials, starting with online dictionaries . When teaching ESL to my adult students, I always walk them through the steps of downloading at least two major English language dictionaries, not bilingual ones. Normal...

American English Dan

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