HOW TO GET TWITTER ALERTS TO VIEW International Space Station OVERHEAD

International Space Station(ISS),my earlier post, talks of what the ISS is and how it can be viewed with the space station locater. My popular post entitled, When Does The International Space Station Fly Over My Home talks about your ability to view the ISS as it passes overhead without a telescope. NASA gives a realtime update for viewing all satellites according to your country and city, and Google Sky can be used for real time viewing. Yes, the internet has made it possible for us share information in order to view anything from any part of the world & get updates in real time. Educators around the world are guiding their students in viewing the ISS. And now a twitter application from Netherlands gives us twitter alerts based on our location,so as to enable us to be ready to view ISS as it passes overhead.

This is what you need to do:

1. Get a twitter account.
2. Enter your location (coordinates or text) in your profile.
3. Start following http://twitter.com/twisst
4. You will receive twitter alerts a few hours before in order to be able to view the International Space station as it passes overhead.

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ENGLISH IDIOMS MADE EASY

Learning English Grammar also means learning to use idioms. Idiomsite is an excellent source of idioms. Idioms with their meaning are categorized alphabetically for easy searching and learning. A great resource for students, educators and elearners learning to speak English.
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CREATE A FREE WEBSITE

Most students want to learn to create a website for free. Wix is one such website that allows you to custom create with the online editor provided for free. The drag and drop facility allows you to experiment till you decide on the right spacing. Knowledge of HTML is not required and best of all,hosting is free as well and the website is search engine friendly. A demo video provided on the site shows how to build one and edit in 2 minutes Truly professional look where slideshows and youtube videos can be embedded. It can then be promoted on your blog or facebook profile.

TWITTER GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS-A must Read

Microblogging on Twitter has taken the world by storm particularly in the last 2 months,even among teachers and educators of all kinds.Tutorials that teach the use of twitter,the tools to use with Twitter to make your twittering life easier,tips and tricks with this online tool,the use of it in branding and business apart from the special role of twitter in the classroom as seen and being experimented upon by innovative teachers are found all over the internet.
Yes,using 140 characters in an update can integrate a class with their teachers like never before and that too in real time. Getting updates on homework and class schedules apart from being able to participate in a class discussion even when you are absent from the class are some of the valuable ways in which twitter connects people. And of course, teachers are increasingly becoming aware of the new applications with twitter. Here are a few new finds about twitter.
Twitter guide for teachers
Twitter Tips For Teachers
Recommended Reading: Twitter In The Classroom?
How To Twitter-Best Video Tutorials
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How To Use Twitter In The Classroom

HOW TO TEACH YOUR CHILD TO DRAW

Children love to create anything with a pencil and paper. Art is important for development as much as are outdoor activities. Learning to draw and paint gives way to expression that must be encouraged from a very young age. Motor skills are developing and coordinating hand and eye movements is helped.
Keeping a child occupied indoors or when it is raining or when you are attending a family service can be challenging,but if you know how to train the child to keep quiet and let be, giving vent to free expression with some colour pencils,and a scrap book,you will be helping the child as much as yourself.
Michelle outlines this in her hub entitled,"Teaching Your Child To Draw"
Recommended Reading: Art As Hobby For Students

FREE RUBRICS FOR TEACHERS

Teachers will certainly find this website particularly useful in creating rubrics that will help in assessment and storing gradebooks online."A rubric is a scoring tool that's generally used for subjective and authentic assessments".
Assessing and reporting student performance just got easier when you build and share rubrics according to your students' grade. A teacher can custom create a rubric easily and with just a few clicks to leave her/him with more time to do something else.There are several available created by teachers from across the globe for you to choose as well.

VOCABULARY LEARNING ONLINE TOOL

Educators involved in teaching English vocabulary to Primary school children will find Wordsift particularly useful. It is a handy tool where you can paste a sample text copied from anywhere and words from the passage appear as a cloud,which can then be discussed and the use of which can be understood even better with a visual word map or Google pictures or youtube videos.Sample sentences from the said passage for the use of the chosen word additionally helps the students grasp the meaning and usage of the word being discussed thereby building up vocabulary. The demo video below helps one understand the tool better.Students can use this tool on their own to help build their vocabulary using texts from their current textbooks as well as any other books they read.

HOW TO CREATE CONTENT IN INDIAN LANGUAGES WITH GOOGLE TRANSLATOR KIT

Google Indic Transliteration can be used for many Indian languages such as Hindi,Kannada,Telugu,Tamil,Malayalam where you type words as pronounced in the language of your choice in English and it gives you the writing in the desired language. It is not a perfect translation,since you have to type out in English as you speak in the desired language which can be cumbersome. You can even send emails this way now. Go to Settings in your Gmail account and under General heading enable transliteration in the desired Indian language. Now you can type and shoot an email in your mothertongue or send an assignment to your Kannada/Hindi teacher online.
The new Goggle Translator tool kit now simplifies the process and you can directly type your words in the language of your choice. You can also share it online with whoever you choose. And store as Translation Memory(TM).
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HOW TO LEARN ANIMATION & MULTIMEDIA FOR FREE

Education is highly valued in India,and students have many avenues to choose from to pursue a career. A passion or hobby cn be properly channeled to awaken and light the entrepreneural streak in soe. Some brilliant startups have performed well een during ression because of continuous innovation and the ability to be resilient. Some students are artistically inclined and their sense of aesthetics is lost if asked to pursue a career that does not befit them. It is imperative to counsel every student as they step out of school and seek college admissions in choosing an education that furthers their aspirations and more importantly complements their skills and mindset.
To further help these students to land themselves a better job,certifications are necessary. Vocational courses such as Fashion Designing can be pursued simultaneously by a student with a commerce background. A chartered accountant or company secretary course can be simultaneously pursued by a commerce student.
A CAD or a computer course that complements an engineering student's course of study is definitely going to help puit him ahed of his competition when he starts applying for a job. Computer courses are a must for any student to be ahead of his class. Most know the computer basics as taught in school,but many are still unaware or are not proficient with use of web 2.0 tools. Several online tutorials are available to learn at one's own pace. Multimedia interests many and students wanting to pursue learning this computer course know that it is expensive.
A student with artistic inclination and wanting to learn 3 D animation for Free can now do so with an open course free software called blender that is easy to download and install. He can learn to create 3 D movies,games and interesting and exciting visuals online. Free tutorials and video tutorials are available and manuals that take you through step-by-step are available which can make you not only proficient but also earn handsomely once you get certified. You can even become a trainer yourself.

CONVERT YOUR FILES FOR FREE

Ever faced with the situation of wanting to convert one type of file format into another? Most of us have and the quest for free online converters begins. There are several online but not all allow all types of files to be converted. A simple and free online file converter called convertfiles is available online and can be used to convert a variety of file formats.
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Listen To Your Homework

HOW TO USE TWITTER IN THE CLASSROOM

My previous post entitled,Twitter In The Classroom? enumerates the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter among students and particularly for use in the classroom. Tom Barret, an edublogger has created a presentation on "25 interesting ways to use Twitter in the classroom", and the ideas are particularly useful for teachers and educators wanting to make use of the social media in the classroom. More teachers and professors are embracing technology in the classroom as students are to be equipped for competition in tomorrow's world.
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Twitter In The Classroom

TEACHERS WHO USE TWITTER IN THE CLASSROOM

Twitter is fast becoming the most favoured tool for many. Microblogging with just 140 characters or less,educators and businessmen worldwide are taking note of its ability to market your ideas,services and products like never before. And many have already begun taking advantage to increase revenue even during recession. Doctors are also connecting with their followers on twitter to educate them and keeping updates with their patient's progress.Twitter in the classroom explored the idea of teachers and professors using twitter in the classroom. Educators are increasingly able to communicate with their students effectively as they log onto the updates of their peers and teachers. Introverted students are also opening up and giving their feedback via tweets. Perceptions of their friends change for the better and they are more confident in using tools such as these.
Dr.Monica Rankin,a Professor of History shares her story of how she is successfully using twitter in the classroom in the following video.

Another teacher David Parry, from the same University shares his story of using twitter with his students.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use twitter in the classroom as given by academhack.
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How To Twitter-Best Video Tutorials
Twitter In The Classroom?

FREE MANUALS FOR FREE SOFTWARE

Software created for making our work easier online is sold and some software is free to download and use. So,how do you learn to use the software you just downloaded. Perhaps you need help installing it on your PC/Laptop. Or perhaps you need a video tutorial or a manual to help understand the basic features. In time, you will learn to use all of the features,but being able to learn the basics require your time and patience. And then,come the tips and tricks that can be used to manipulate the software in creating what you finally want to achieve. The internet has lots of Tutorials,Video tutorials on sites such as youtube.User manuals are also available. Some are free and some are to be bought. But, the best ones are already online for free. Relevant searches made will give some very apt tutorials, or manuals which are easy to follow.Step by step wikis are also made available. Learning to use software to create more educational material is becoming increasingly easy. An amateur can easily learn a software use and apply it to create educational or learning material for his students or for other educators to buy from him. Flossmanuals have some excellent manuals that are free.They contain manuals for the use of several free software such as audacity,for audio recording and editing. Audacity can be used for creating podcasts or giving a voice-over to your slide presentations.
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HOW ABOUT A VIRTUAL PARTY?

Man is certainly a social animal,and he needs relationships in order to remain healthy in body,mind and spirit. Depression sets in when one remains alone for a long time with little or no outside influences. hobbies like photography and fishing keep one engaged in a meaningful passion. Similarly with playing a musical instrument,reading,cooking,baking or simply traveling makes one rejuvenated and refreshed. Having company of like minded friends or a family that appreciates is certainly a plus. So,what does one do when alone and BORED. Students easily get bored and need a change. Change is always welcome and some love having friends over for parties. Parties that are pre-planned or spur-of-the-moment parties are at once exciting and make everyone rekindle the zest for life. It is often the company that makes parties rock.
But, what if you were far away from your friends or simply want to have some fun rocking @ a party with your online friends. It would certainly be FUN if you could get all your friends to join you from all parts of the globe @ a given time for a VIRTUAL PARTY. All you need is a webcam! Lyla shows you How To Have A Virtual Party?

HOW TO USE BING-MICROSOFT'S NEW SEARCH ENGINE

Bing is the new search engine from Microsoft touted to be the decision maker in your life. Search results sometimes are not always the best and so Bing is supposed to help you find the right info on pretty much anything. Country specific searches can be made and the best travel plans or health info or the smartest deals on any product you wish to compare before you make a purchase. is now only a mouse click away. Making informed choices only got better with Bing.
Tips and tricks on using bing
Educators and students can now use bing to bring up relevant search results for their topic and save time.

HOW TO TWITTER-BEST VIDEO TUTORIALS

Twitter is a useful online tool for social networking. Microblogging @ its best,but also it is a preferred marketing or a branding tool for many. Whether it is Facebook or Twitter,the uses of social media are many,provided you know how. For instance, you can join groups pertaining to your field of interest and any updates by any member of the group will help in educating you further on the topic of your interest. Connecting with people and being able to network, while furthering your interests is what these tools are all about.
Educators are successfully utilizing these social media tools with their students and keeping abreast with educators from across the world like never before. After all,students spend more time on the internet connecting with friends rather than looking for useful resources. So, it is only prudent that educators join them and teach them to use these tools more effectively. We are after all headed towards Digital Literacy.
If you are new to twitter,the following will be of use.
Top 7 Video Tutorials that teach the basics and use of twitter
Recommended Reading: Twitter In The Classroom