Level Up Your Summer: Discover New Tools for Teachers & ISD Pros!

 

Photo Credit: Bennet K Kireker (Flickr)

So, you are on summer break or you are in between projects and you have a little time to kill and a nice bottle of wine to enjoy.  Let's pour a glass together and explore some of the lesser known social media sites and how these sites can be used in your professional life.

Flickr: Beyond Just Photos

Most social media savvy teachers and ISD professionals know FLICKR as merely a photo-sharing site.  But it has become so much more since it inception in 2004. 

• Visual resources: Do you have a couple of projects or slide decks that are in need of some visual gestalt?  Flickr has resources galore!  Many of the media pictures come with Creative Commons licenses that allow for free use
• Collaborative Storytelling: Create your own albums as you sift through the mountains of pictures available to you in the Flickr files. 

Cluster: your Private Group Sharing Space

Its summer break, you are on vacation and you have tons of picture to share with friends and family.  But, you don't want to post to a public social media account,  What do you do? 

• Secure Collaboration: This app specializes in creating secure and private groups in order to share pictures, videos, and messages
• Event Specific Sharing:  This app allows for event specific sharing with identified collaborators!  

MERLOT: The Educators Treasure Trove

You may need another bottle of wine for this one, you are going to be here a while! This site by far has the most vast collection of learning materials and professional development. You can find:

• Curated Learning Materials that can be filtered by grade level. Everything from flash card makers to interactive historical simulations to authoring apps.  
• Professional Development:  Want to learn a new skill but don't want or have the time to go back to college? MERLOT has micro trainings just for you.