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Last weekend, I whipped up a hand-drawn image on the role that technology should play in teaching and learning spaces. Over the last five days, it's been viewed over 4,000 times on Flickr and shared/favorited/retweeted over 500 times on Twitter.

Thought you might want to see it too:
(click to enlarge)
The motivation behind the image was to remind teachers that carefully thinking through just what we want our kids to know and be able to do is the FIRST step that we need to take when making choices about the role that technology plays in our teaching.

Sometimes I think we get blinded by the digital shine that comes off of new gadgets, tools and services. Worse yet, I'm convinced that far too many educators have bought into the mistaken notion that TECHNOLOGY motivates kids.

That just isn't true, y'all: Kids AREN'T motivated by technology. Instead, they're motivated by opportunities to make a difference in the world; they are motivated by opportunities to ask and answer their own questions; and they are motivated by opportunities to learn together with like-minded peers.

Digital tools CAN make all of that work possible - but until we start seeing technology as nothing MORE than a tool, we'll keep wasting time and cash on products that do nothing to change learning in meaningful ways for our kids.

#nuffsaid

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Are Kids REALLY Motivated by Technology? Classroom Technology and the Motivational Herring What DO We Want Kids to Know and Be Able to Do? Two Important Reminders for Digital Leaders Change Depends on MORE Than Shiny iGadgets

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Technology is a Tool, NOT a Learning Outcome.

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Last weekend, I whipped up a hand-drawn image on the role that technology should play in teaching and learning spaces. Over the last five days, it's been viewed over 4,000 times on Flickr and shared/favorited/retweeted over 500 times on Twitter.

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Our site has moved to a new address. Please note the change of address.

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The Story Of Diva And Flea By Mo Willems And Tony Diterlizzi

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The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Conttell Boyce

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What have you seen in how we use technology?
What ways do you observe students incoroporating thinking into their work?
Is it important to give them real world opportunities to communicate?
WHY?
What happens when the problem is real?
The audience is real?
The 'refrigerator' is not the communication tool for their work?

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Process and growth

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User friendly

Privacy

Don't have to have accounts for every student

Easy to share out w/others

Visual

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email

webpage

tweet

QR code

make a pdf

print

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asking/anwering questions

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6th grade

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Collaborate with teach other - #PVLEARNS

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Collaborate with teach other - #PVLEARNS

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Harrison Niap
Growth Hacker | Piktochart

If geography is prose, maps are iconography. - Lennart Meri

Following our very well-received charts improvement on the Piktochart editor, we're proud to roll out improvements for the 'other half' of our beloved visualisations: Maps!

Based on popular user requests and needs, we've developed more fluid and user-friendly improvements for map visualizations on Piktochart. These include state-level visualization, precise color customization for countries or states of your choice, area-value (also known as choropleth ) maps, and quite literally, maps of almost all countries known on Earth!

7 Continental Regions, 237 Countries, and The Entire World Map

The maps feature is still conveniently located under the 'Tools' category of our left sidebar. Clicking on it, or dragging and dropping it into the canvas, will activate the following window:

With maps of 7 continental regions, 237 countries and the entire world map available for use, it just got way more convenient to visualize any geological information on Piktochart. We've implemented a search function for you to easily sift through the available maps on the editor, so don't worry about being overwhelmed!

Once you've decided on which map you'd like to use, simply click 'insert map' or 'edit map' according to what you'd like to perform next. Even if you have inserted your map, you can still edit it simply by double-clicking on the map itself.

Edit colors to further enhance your data visualization

As you hop into the editing interface, you will be greeted with a cleaner interface that hosts several new subfeatures.

Being able to change your map color and country or state borders color has always been vital to represent data visually, and we're keeping that. Now, we've added on a toggle to show or hide border lines! Depending on how you want to visualize your map, being able to hide the border of the countries and states might help you present your information more clearly.

What's the best new thing about colors for maps? You can now select specific states/countries on your map and change their colors individually too! Being able to personalize your map so that it can better fit into your infographic is important, and we believe that this step forward in greater color customization will certainly help you do so.

Select locations relevant to your data, and remove unnecessary clutter

It's easy to customize the map according to the data you want to present. In the editing interface, simply click on the countries or states present in the map, or alternatively in the data grid, to select them.

You can then have the option to hide these selected countries or states, leaving the relevant ones on the map. Simply select the hidden ones from the data grid and press 'Show' to have them reappear on your map!

Visualize your data more precisely with the Area-Value Map

The newly added area-value map, or commonly known as the choropleth map, can be found under the Data Visualization tab of the map editor.

Area-value maps allow you to represent the various segments of your data value through color gradients on the map. As an example in the screenshot above, a darker shade of blue was used to represent the lower population segments on the map, whereas a lighter blue was used to represent the opposite. This visualization definitely helps people understand your presentation in a glance! Toggling the Area-Value Map active opens to you a variety of customization options.

First of all, you can choose which column of data you would like to present through the area-value map. Once that is selected, the countries or states of the map will then be categorized into five segments based on your data, each represented by a different shade of color depending on the area-value start and end colors you pick. The 'start' color is usually the data segment with the smallest values, whereas the 'end' color is the opposite. The shades in between will form a color gradient for each segment of data.

Moreover, you can opt to show or hide the legends of the map, as well as position the legend to various positions in respect to the map.

What happens to my existing maps?

We're assuming this question will be the first to pop into your mind. Take a deep breath and let it out.. because everything is going to be fine! Your existing maps will stay the same. Still functional, still editable, but take note that existing maps' editing interface will also be as the old one, and hence without the new features. If you'd like to apply the new features, you will have to create a new map and apply your desired changes.
Here's to lots and lots of new, beautiful maps being created with Piktochart! If you have any questions, feel free to tweet us @Piktochart or send an email to our lovely support team. Let us know how creative you've been with our revamped maps feature!

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Take Storytelling to Another Level with Improved Map Visualizations

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If geography is prose, maps are iconography. - Lennart Meri Following our very well-received charts improvement on the Piktochart editor, we're proud to roll out improvements for the 'other half' of our beloved visualisations: Maps! Based on popular user requests and needs, we've developed more fluid and user-friendly improvements for map visualizations on Piktochart.

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How we teach it? What we teach? Why it matters?
How to embed it into all of our work?

Not separate - but incorporated....

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This is "The book Whisperer.." by on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Thinking first
Cummulative experiences
What do you want to do?
Which technologies interest you?
Examples
Explore
Recap
Please share with us anything you do over the summer...

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Example

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Examples:

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Example

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Example

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Rising Distinction: India's Resilient Economy

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Example

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Group Assignments in Edmodo about your 'thinking':

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Group Assignments in Edmodo about your 'thinking':

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Alex's idea to help students find books to read

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This is "Alex's idea to help students find books to read" by on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Examples:

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Blogging
Sharing with other classes/grades/schools
Sharing of resources
Group work + thinking
Assignments

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Twitter chat with authors

Twitter chat with companies

Twitter chat with groups/classes

PV Twitter chat:
#HWLearns

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EXAMPLES...

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Authors
Companies
Virtual field trips

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Communication in the 21st Century                                                            The power of technology in the 21st century is to help our students understand their potential to communicate with others.  This session will explore various technology tools that empower both teachers and students ( Padlet, Piktochart, Adobe Voice, Skype, Twitter, Edmodo, etc.). Time will be spent exploring and discussing the instructional applications of these tools to help students improve their critical thinking abilities.  Novice and Experienced users of these tools are encouraged to attend as the power lies in sharing out ideas and questions.  Please bring any units that you’d like to work on.

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Communication in the 21st Century                                                            The power of technology in the 21st century is to help our students understand their potential to communicate with others.  This session will explore various technology tools that empower both teachers and students ( Padlet, Piktochart, Adobe Voice, Skype, Twitter, Edmodo, etc.). Time will be spent exploring and discussing the instructional applications of these tools to help students improve their critical thinking abilities.  Novice and Experienced users of these tools are encouraged to attend as the power lies in sharing out ideas and questions.  Please bring any units that you’d like to work on.