Sunni Brown at TED about visual notetaking a.k.a. “doodling”

Published by Martin G. Döpel on September 25th, 2011

I like the concept of visual note taking, Sunni Brown gave a talk at TED encouraging to “doodle”. These 5 minutes are well-spend, in my opinion.


Tools for educators and students: Skitch

Published by Martin G. Döpel on September 22nd, 2011

I came across a great tool today. It’s called “skitch“.  It is available for MAC (app store) and Android phones (market) at the moment.  iOS (hence, iPhone and iPad) may also be supported soon. Furthermore, I hope, there’ll be a Windows application, but you may also refer to these alternatives. Though Skitch and its alternatives are useful, one can always use basic graphic editors to gain the same results. So, if you have Photoshop, Firefox, Gimp or whatever, you can basically do the same. (more…)


Das direkte Objekt, eine Zusammenfassung

Published by Martin G. Döpel on September 21st, 2011

Hier ist eine kurze Zusammenfassung des Akkusativobjekts mit englischen Erklärungen.

Akkusativobjekt


Mobile learning applications (iPad) and Bloom’s levels

Published by Martin G. Döpel on September 21st, 2011

Bloom taxonomy of learning domains is very useful and widely accepted. But how do mobile learning activities be categorized into Bloom’s levels of

  • remembering,
  • understanding,
  • analyzing,
  • evaluating,
  • creating?

(more…)


Tools for educators and students III: Blog (Mindmap)

Published by Martin G. Döpel on September 20th, 2011

I wanted write a lengthy post. But I’ve thought, this mindmap might be more helpful.
If it is not shown below, you can access here (file size 5MB).


The ideal blog post

Published by Martin G. Döpel on September 18th, 2011

A quick google search gives you plenty of guides, telling you how to compose good blog posts (1, 2, 3 examples). So, why this one? Well, everyone has her/his own ideas about this.

Great Blog post mindmap

Paul Foreman for mindmapinspiration.com

Here is mine. (more…)


Tools for educators and students II: Instapaper and Delicious

Published by Martin G. Döpel on September 11th, 2011

These are two bookmarking tools, however, there are differences among them, so it is useful to use both. These examples show perfectly that sometimes two applications make a better job than just one. (more…)


Helpful tools – my presentation at the CLS sharing session

Published by Martin G. Döpel on September 7th, 2011

First of all, here is my presentation, again.

(more…)


“lernen” und “Fehler”

Published by Martin G. Döpel on August 17th, 2011

I said in class that errors are normal and part of the learning process. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to avoid errors by staying silent in class all the time.

The German dictionary “Duden” (Germans’ main reference when it comes to spelling) offers many information relating to a specific word, including typical nouns and adjectives that are often related to a verb like “lernen”. And as you can see on the screenshot (taken from: http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/lernen on 17 August 2011), the word “Fehler” (error, mistake) is commonly related to the verb “lernen”.

\"Lernen\" and \"Fehler\" cooccur together (Screenshot from http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/lernen on 17 Aug 2011)


Tools for educators and students I: Evernote

Published by Martin G. Döpel on July 7th, 2011

I decided to write some comments on the tools I use in my everyday life, as I have realized that some of my colleagues don’t know them. The tools will be analyzed with an emphasis on the use for educators and students. These texts are not meant to be critical reviews. I tried out all applications for some time and I like them. However, if there are any negative points or alternatives, which are better, please feel free to comment on the entries.

Let’s start with Evernote. It’s a note taking application, but unlike other, the notes can be pretty long, you can underline texts, use bold face and italics, different fonts can also be used in one note. And yes, you can also go for different colors. Finally, bullet points, ordered lists and checklists (with checkboxes) are also supported by Evernote.

Evernote editing possibilities

Evernote, editing possibilities

What makes this application special is synchronization. I work with different computers at home and at work. All notes are saved in the cloud and can be accessed with a web browser from everywhere. However, you can also download different applications for MAC and WIN. If I start Evernote on my computer, it automatically syncs all notes. That means, I can access them on all my computers automatically. (more…)