Learning Light Bulbs are musings on anything related to education and learning, though admittedly very technology-in-education and innovation oriented. Curiosity is a wonderful thing, so these posts hope to bring some new (and old) ideas to an educator audience. The content will vary but is tied together by an education theme. View the links for more professional learning resources and connect with me on Twitter!
Mentimeter is a fabulous user-friendly, interactive presentation tool. Responses are anonymous, but collective responses are viewed with rankings that change as responses are submitted, so the audience can view responses in real time. The tool is great for generating conversations, testing knowledge, gathering data, and discovering group thinking/values. Audiences can use any device with an internet connection. The output tools vary so you can choose depending on your needs for an activity. You can use multiple slides and choose a presenter or audience pace. Scroll down for a bulleted list features.
Everyone from tech geek to beginner device users can experience being overwhelmed with boatloads of information on the internet and what to do with it. By now you may have heard of Wakelet or been riding the #WakeletWave on Twitter, but if you haven’t, you’ll be seeing it a lot in the future. True to the developers’ words, this is a great tool to save, organize AND share information. (oh yeah, and it’s free!) Although this is an education blog, you’ll find that it’s not just for those in the field of education - it’s for all of us! (even Coca Cola and Barcelona FC are using Wakelet)
What does Wakelet do?
No more do you have to send a document with a boring list of URLs. The beauty of Wakelet is its simplicity. It allows you to organize websites, YouTube videos, tweets, bookmarks, images, PDFs, and Drive documents into visually appealing collections that can be easily edited, updated, and most importantly - shared. Although I’m new to the tool I have been building collections that my students will be able to access on their devices. Yes, there is a mobile app as well. Although you can keep a collection private until you make it public. However, you can also make it unlisted should you only want those with the link to view a collection.
Other features in Wakelet:
Choose between a browser and a mobile app. (Android, iOS, Microsoft teams)
Categorize your collections.
Create ‘sections’ in a collection by adding text above your links. See this example.
Add Google Drive docs directly to a collection.
Change the image to a source if there isn’t one available (or the one that automatically generates isn’t what you’re looking for).
Embed Flipgrid so that you can access the tool directly from Wakelet.
Invite collaborators without the need for them to sign-in - GREAT for classes, especially if you’re collaborating with a class in another town or country.
Save items from other collections into your own in just two clicks with a bookmark.
Save entire (public) collections you find useful.
Inclusive/assistive technology such as the text reader. (surely to continue developing over time)
Easily switch from one account to another. (useful for people like me with multiple accounts with multiple purposes)
Invite Wakelet users to add to your collections and accept invitations from others to contribute to their collections.
Receive notifications of updates that come out regularly. Some of the more recent ones:
Download a copy of your Wakelet information in a JSON format.
Want to get started now?
Download Wakelet’s comprehensive ebook in PDF format and learn how to quickly become a Wakelet ninja. (see page 11 for examples of how you might use Wakelet in your classes, but don't limit yourself to these!)
Use the Wakelet Hyperdoc to helps others learn. Sharing Wakelet with colleagues with a quick presentation? They’ve done the work for you with this Slides deck.
Want to an easy way to keep up to date with what’s going on in Wakelet? They walk the talk by using their own collection to share blogs posts. (but you can subscribe to have them emailed to you!)
