Media and Learning 2013

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning is a blog providing users, students, teachers, leaders and managers of educational ICT with articles and tools to better integrate technology into education. Practical tools, ideas and tips come along with a selection of interesting readings on the subject, tutorials and guides. An entire section of this blog is also dedicated to articles covering reviews of free educational mobile apps that work on smart devices.

SnagLearning features high-quality documentary films presenting them for free to an international online audience as educational tools to ignite meaningful discussion within the learning community. The library currently contains over 2,000 documentaries that are appropriate for students from middle school and up covering nearly every classroom subject.
Many of these videos are produced by well-known educational sources, including PBS and National Geographic.
Teachers can submit and share their own lesson plans, quizzes and homework ideas with fellow educators. On each film page there is a section containing learning questions related to the video and a commenting area that functions as public forum to share and discuss.

Animoto provides an array of tools for creating videos in the classroom. Educators can apply for a free Animoto account for use in the classroom to create presentations incorporating images, video clips, music and text.

With the Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology, Animoto analyzes and combines user-selected images, video clips and music, taking into account every nuance of a song - the genre, song structure, rhythm, instrumentation, and vocals. Animoto automatically orchestrates a custom video mixing relevant messaging, statistics and quotes among the pictures to educate the audience. Videos can be shared via email, on a blog/website, exported to YouTube, or downloaded to a computer for use in presentations.

The online service Edublogs, created in 2005, hosts blogs and provides custom blogging platforms to individual teachers, school districts and hundreds of thousands of students.

Within this platform, teachers can easily create and manage as many student blogs as needed, engaging students in their learning and enhance instruction through collaboration, student portfolios, and different classroom uses. Blogs can be completely private or open to the public and since Edublogs only host education related content, they are allowed by most school filters. Features also include discussion tools, video embedding, Facebook and Twitter integration, and calendars.

The Doha Film Institute (DFI), in Qatar, is an umbrella organisation bringing all of Qatar’s various film initiatives under a single banner. The Institute offers year-round educational programmes of film making for young people, aiming to inspire and support a new generation of Qatari, regional and international filmmakers. These programmes include a full range of high-level courses, from intensive film labs with internationally acclaimed directors to cultural partnerships with other leading film institutions around the world, informative panel discussions, animation classes, weekend workshops and hands-on professional training. Educational support and resources are available to cinephiles of all ages and grants are offered to individuals wanting to make short films, who live in the Middle east.

On the website, video resources are available for each section of the "WORKSHOPS AND LABS" menu (see also the Additional Information below).

Privacy Pirates is an Interactive Unit on Online Privacy introduces children, ages 7-9, to the concept of online privacy and teaches them to distinguish between information that is appropriate to give out and information better kept private – and to recognize how this may change in different contexts.

In the game children assemble a map leading to a pirate treasure (to introduce the idea that personal information has value). As they do this, they will be asked a variety of questions about privacy and personal information on the Internet. Correct choices will be rewarded with an additional piece of the map.

Media Awareness Network has prepared the document "Privacy Pirates: Background information for parents and teachers" (http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/privacy_pirates/upload/Priva...) to provide an overview of online privacy issues, as well as suggestions for playing the game with children and extension activities.

Smarthistory.org is a free, not-for-profit, multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook, which is now part of the Khan Academy. It has been created in 2005 by the art historians Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, who used their personal voice along with the multimedia they had already created for their blog and courses, to create a "web-book" that could be used in conjunction with art history survey courses. The website is a repository of audios and videos about works of art found in standard art history survey texts, organized stylistically and chronologically and with the addiction of text and still images.

George's Busy Day by PBS KIDS (http://pbskids.org) is a collection of 16 interactive learning games of numbers and counting which suit pre-K through 1st grade.
These games can be played on a laptop or desktop computer, but also as a whole class activity for small group or individual play (there is a Full Screen button in each game).

The Kindersite has 1,000s of links to games, songs and stories (not necessarily educationally focused) for young children and it is designed for kinder, child-care, preschool, kindergartens, elementary, primary schools and Special needs plus homeschool, libraries and the home.
The website offers early learners, with the aid of care-givers, a tool to find and use contents in the form of games, songs and stories.
Through a graphical interface it is possible for the child, alone or with assistance, to select contents. The content that is found to be most engaging or requested by a child can be added to a personal list, via an updateable 'My page' mechanism. It will also be possible for caregivers to build a 'my page' for a child with recommendations or required games.

The International Media Literacy Research Forum (IMLRF) provides a mechanism for policymakers, practitioners, regulators and researchers worldwide to communicate, share ideas and promote their media literacy work. It aims to improve understanding of the emerging issues, promote innovative methodologies and facilitate dialogue. This forum also promotes relevant events and provides a means to share resources and documentation on the topic of media
literacy.