Tuesday, December 14, 2010

QuizSnack



QuizSnack is a quick and easy to use Web 2.0 tool for creating online polls and quizzes that can be viewed online or embedded into your blog, webpage, or wiki. I made a sample that your see below. What took the longest to do in making it was thinking of the names of the movies. Enjoy!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Super Book of Web Tools for Educators

Reposted from Free Techology for Teachers by Richard Byrne. Those of you who attended our Summer Technology Institute will remember Richard. His blog has over 25,000 subscribers from all over the world.
There are many teachers who want to start using technology in their classrooms, but just aren't sure where to start. That's why I got together ten prominent ed tech bloggers, teachers, and school administrators to create The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators. In this book there introductions to more than six dozen web tools for K-12 teachers. Additionally, you will find sections devoted to using Skype with students, ESL/ELL, blogging in elementary schools, social media for educators, teaching online, and using technology in alternative education settings.


The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators -

MathTrain.com


This site is part of the Mathtrain.com Project and was created to host student-created math video lessons all in one place. It was created by Mr. Marcos and his students at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, CA. Videos are searchable by topic or by most viewed, most recent, or most discussed. The site is highly interactive and has an option to subscribe to their free podcast through ITunes. In addition to the student-created videos, there are also teacher-created videos with explanations on different math topics. Most videos are under 2 minutes in length making them perfect to use for introduction or review with different math topics. This site runs in conjunction with mathtrain.com. Below is an example on Prime Factorization.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Holiday Advisory Activity

I found a website called, "Top 10 Lessons I Learned from Charlie Brown." Go to the site and read through those lessons. Then come back to this blog post and watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Finally, write a response listing how you saw examples of the lessons in the video or about how one of the lessons really "spoke" to you.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Vocaroo


If you find yourself or your students recording audio for use in the classroom, then you should take a look at Vocaroo. This is a handy Web 2.0 tool that allows users with a built-in microphone to record audio very quickly that can be used for podcasts, narration, and presenting information to webpages, blogs, and or wikis. Like most Web 2.0 tools it is free, does not require an install, does not require a specific browser, or computer operating system.

For those very reasons, Vocaroo is different than say, Audacity. Simply click the record button, speak into the microphone, click the stop button. Vocarro automatically creates a link (or an embed code) you can quickly add to your web page. Unfortunately, it does not have an option to edit the audio, but that is part of what makes this tool so quick and easy to use. Have a microphone connected to your computer?… give it a try today.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Write Comics

Write Comics is a great place to get started with digital story telling. It allows you to create your own online comic strip. One just needs to add a scene, characters, and text to create their own comic.


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Guess the Google

If you are trying to teach students how to do more effective searching, you may find that students have trouble coming up with a good keyword to describe what they are looking for. One way to get them familiar with what Google comes up with when a keyword is entered is to have them practice putting in various keywords to see the results. The trouble with this is that they may get results that are inappropriate. Well, there is a game called Guess the Google. Users look at 16 pictures and try to determine what keyword describes them all. I played the game several times and I did not see any inappropriate pictures, but you should always double check first.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

OK. This has nothing to do with technology, but I couldn't resist. Last night we missed watching a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. If you missed it too, you can go to hulu.com and watch it, or you can view it right here. Happy Thanksgiving!


20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web

The good folks at Google have created a very well done ebook about browsers and the web called, "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web".

From iLearn Technology: This interactive e-book is your guide to how browsers and the web work, how the World Wide Web has evolved, cloud computing, and what we need to know to navigate the web safely. The book has an enchanting quality with its humorous approach to the web (love the titles) and fun illustrations. This guide-book is one you will want to share with all of your colleagues, relatives, friends, students…you will want to dive into it yourself.


This handy little online book is a great one to share with students. Share an individual chapter (called a thing) or the whole book. Here your students can learn all about the web, how to keep themselves safe, and will know the difference between cloud computing and a web app. 20 Things I Learned is also a must share with your co-workers, neighbors, mom, grandpa, and the rest of the crew that is constantly calling you for your tech expertise.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Khan Academy


It has been a few hours since I found Khan Academy and I am still shocked and awed by its complete awesomeness. This site is the very reason why schools should keep YouTube open to its teachers and students. Khan Academy contains over 1800 video lessons on the topics of Math, Science, Humanities, and Interviews. What makes these videos different, it that the instructor is not only showing how to say, solve a problem in physics, but he is also talking about what he is thinking. Basically, thinking out loud while visually displaying the problem and the thought process. This is just so absolutely cool. Not only can viewers watch and learn from these videos, but they can also download them or get the embed code to embed them into their own web page, blog, wiki, or Moodle course. But wait, there's more. There are also practice exercises for some of the lessons as well that viewers can do simply by logging in with their Google Account. I am so happy that I stumbled upon this site. It is like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Oh yeah, the another great thing about this is: IT'S FREE!!.
Below, I have embedded a video on slope. Take a moment to view it to see how cool these videos are.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A Fair(y) Use Tale

As I was walking through the library, I heard little snippets of Disney Animated Movies. Being a HUGE Disney fan, I recognized the voices and phrases from several of the movies my boys watched when they were younger. It took a minute to realize though that the snippets were spliced together to make sentences about copyright law and fair use. I immediately did a search on YouTube and found the same video (titled: A Fair(y) Use Tale) the librarian had been using. I watched it, and WOW, what a cool way to introduce the topic of copyright and fair use.


You S*%K at PowerPoint

I came across this slideshow while viewing the Teacher Reboot Camp blog, and despite the name couldn't help but post it here because it is so true, and all teachers and students could benefit by looking at it. There are some great cardinal rules listed that all users of presentation software could benefit from, not just the technology gurus who make their living from them. So, please take a look when you get a moment.

YOU SUCK AT POWERPOINT!
View more presentations from @JESSEDEE.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Information is Beautiful

Many students and teachers learn best visually. Some of us just need to be able to "see" it in order for a concept to sink in. Information is Beautiful displays data in visual form which is just what the doctor ordered for visual learners? These infographics help viewers to make connections between related concepts. The general subject areas range from health to government to economics to science and more. This site can be used to teach data and the display of data graphically. Try assigning groups of students to choose a graphic and report to the class on how the data was made more meaningful by using the graphics that were chosen. You may also want to share this link as a research tool for debates or presentations on science or social studies topics. Discuss the science, history, or math behind the data collected. Discuss other information and ways of presenting the information in order to create a more interesting graphic. This infographics found at Information is Beautiful can spark conversation and creativity in your students.

TestMoz


Want to save the time it takes of correct quizzes and test? Try creating an online quiz with TestMoz. Online test creation really couldn't get any easier than it is with Testmoz. Once your test is created and students start taking it, results are found in the Reports tab. Students are listed along with their scores. This site works really well providing your remember or bookmark the url for the quiz or test and that you remember the admin password you gave it and students know the password they need in order to take the quiz or test. You can also use Google Forms for creating quizzes and tests just like Testmoz, but the plus here is that Testmoz will correct it for you.

Monday, November 8, 2010

iCivics

iCivics, which was inspired by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, provides users with learning activities, games, and simulations that will help them learn about our American democracy. The games and simulations are excellent and cover so much more than just the typical "Three Branches" one finds at most websites about American government. I found out about this when reading a posting that was just about one of the simulations, "Argument Wars". Once I took a look at this simulation, I just had to see what else was offered at iCivics. I was not disappointed. I found games and simulations on Citizenship & Participation, the Constitution & the Bill of Rights, Separation of Powers, as well as each of the three branches of government. This is truly a unique site that I highly recommend.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

WebList

I was doing a little surfing while watching the Celtics season opener last night. I eventually stumbled upon a neat little tool for providing students with links to web resources called Weblist. What I liked about Weblist was that sites can be arranged by topic and students see a thumbnail image of the site as well as a label for it. Students can click the thumbnail or the label to get to the site. This would be a great tool for teachers to create a weblist of only the sites they want students to use to complete a project, and because the teacher has already used and previewed them, students don't need to search for the sites or type in long urls. I created a Weblist of Writing and Vocabulary Resources that I have posted about this blog. Give it a try the next time you want students to use only certain sites in your class. There is also a short tutorial on how to create your own weblist.
Writing and Vocabulary Weblist

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Pasting a Google Book into a Blog

The book that I am currently reading is, "21st Century Skills: Learning Life in Our Times". I believe all but one chapter is available for preview on Google Books. I was recently looking at instructions on how to embed a Google Book on to a blog, wiki, or webpage. I thought I would try it out here. In order to embed a Google Book title you would find the book in Google Books first. Next, click on the "Preview this Book" link. Then, click on the Link link. (see image above) Click on the embed code and copy it to your computer's clipboard. You can then paste the embed code into your webpage, blog post, or wiki.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Glickr.com "Create Your Own Animated Gifs"






Ever wish that you or your students could create their own animated .gifs?  Well, Glickr.com let's you do just that, for free, with no registration required.  Users can upload their own images or those found on Flickr, Picassa, YouTube, or their own gallery.  Once your animated .gif is created, you can download it for later use, get the url for its location on the Internet, or get the embed code you need for just about any Web 2.0 host you can imagine.
avatars myspace at Gickr.com

One Word: Writing Prompts

One Word will give you just that, one word, to use as a writing prompt. Users then have 60 seconds to type all that they can about the word. If users register for an account, they can see what others wrote about that word. If you are concerned that students' inability to keyboard quickly will get in the way, you can use One Word to get the word of they day and have student write out by hand their prompt. Also, you can give them more than 60 seconds to write if you wish.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

5 Card Flickr


Are you familiar with the 5 Card Nancy game? Scott McLoud invented the game based on the premise that any 5 panels from any of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy comic strips can be combined to tell a story. Alan Levine then extended this concept to create the 5 Card Flickr game.
The idea has evolved into something more than a parlor game. It has become an exercise in storytelling that teachers use to engage students and get their creative juices flowing. Check out the links at the bottom of this page to learn more about 5 Card Nancy, 5 Card Flickr, and what this kind of storytelling looks like in the classroom.
5 Card Nancy - http://www.7415comics.com/nancy/index.html
5 Card Flickr - http://web.nmc.org/5cardstory/play.php?suit=5card

We used this activity after lunch at a MLTI Leadership meeting. We wrote the stories, put the photos into iPhoto, then used Garage Band to make an enhanced podcast with audio of the story being read and the five pictures. This same activity could be done with KeyNote as well. I thought it was a really neat way to get the juices flowing.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Online Timeline Tools

Recently, a teacher asked me about a tool that would allow students to create a timeline. I knew that I had used some in the past but had either forgotten about them or had deleted any documentation of their use that may have been on my computer. So, in order to assist the teacher mentioned above, I had to do a little research. Below are the results of that research. At the bottom of this post is an example of a timeline I created on TimeToast.

Read*Write*Think Timeline From site: Creating timelines with this tool becomes an engaging activity for students as they choose from five different units of measure (date, time, event, entry, or other) and add specific descriptions of each entry. Once the entries have been added, students may navigate through any part of the timeline by simply clicking on the appropriate entry. Students may view and edit their draft timeline, then print the finished timeline for reference. This is a handy tool for classroom use that guides students through the process of organizing information in timeline form and results in a polished finished product.

XTimeline is a collaborative time line creation tool. XTimeline gives users the option to include photos, videos, text, and web links within each entry of the timeline. After creating a timeline the creators can invite people to comment on and discuss the timeline. Think of it as Youtube for timelines. Timelines created with XTimeline can be easily embedded into another website like a blog or a wiki for example.


Time Toast is a simple timeline builder. To add events to a timeline simply click on the inconspicuous "add an event" button and a simple event box pops up in which you can enter enter text, place a link, or add a picture. Time Toast does not have the more advanced editing options that X Timeline offers. What it offers instead is ease of use which makes it a suitable choice for students in elementary school or middle school.

Dipity is my favorite online timeline creation tool. It allows users to include not only text for entries, but also images, and videos in their timeline. Dipity also has a mapping feature which allows users to place a Google Maps bookmark that relates to the topic of the event, on to an entry in their timeline Like most Web2.0 tools, Dipity has multiple ways for users to Each entry to a Dipity timeline can include multiple types of media which allows users to add more detail and information than can be included in a traditional timeline.

PicLits.com


Many people, especially those with children, have those little magnetic words that they place on their refrigerator to make phrases. Imagine a website that provides that type of writing experience but also provides a picture to write about. PicLits is a great site to use whether you want students to write a sentence, paragraph, a poem, or even list descriptive words in order to capture the essence or meaning of the picture. Once users select a picture, they have a choice of using the word bank that is provided to create their writing or they can simply go "freestyle" and write what they wish on their own. If the user wants to save a copy of the PicLit they created, they will need to create an account for themselves (its free) or possibly they could sign in under their teacher's account.

PicLit from PicLits.com
See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Poem Flow


Poem Flow is an App created for the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad that displays a daily poem line by line to viewers. Everyone can see the same poem on the same day creating an instant, invisible community of simultaneous readers. The poems are from a mix of the greatest poems in English. But, even if you do not have those devices, you can still utilize this poetry resource online. After viewing Poem Flow, I immediately thought about, after students became familiar with it, how cool it would be to have them create their own Poem Flows by using KeyNote. Students could use a photo of of an iPod, iPad, TV, or just about anything, and then create slides or builds with text boxes. Students could export their Flow as a movie file and then share with an audience of their class by using an LCD projector, or with the world, using a Web 2.0 tool that would allow them to embed their video on to a website, blog or wiki.


NBC Learn


NBC Learn provides many of the video resources of NBC to K-12 learners and educators. I found out about these resources when I read a blog post about "Science of NFL Football". I clicked on the link provided to find out more about these videos and lessons centered around football and discovered that NBC Learn, which produces the videos and lessons, has created several video lesson series for K-12 learning. Not all of the videos and lessons are about science. There is a series titled "Finishing the Dream" which contains over one hundred video clips from the civil rights era. NBC Learn also has produced hundreds of mini-documentaries (each two to six minutes in length) that focus on Early American history. These mini documentaries are a part of NBC News Archives on Demand, a subscription service that provides full access to all of their content and lesson materials. You can however register for a 30-day trial, during which you could download content that you want to use. If there is not enough science for you in "Science of NFL Football", then check out "Science of the Winter Olympic Games" which explores the physics, biology, chemistry, and math behind the winter games.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Sumanas Science Animation Gallery


Sumanas Science Animation Gallery provides users with a nice collection of animated tutorials for various science disciplines. Some use Flash, while others are QuickTime movies. Some include audio with captions of what is being said while other contain no audio with explanations of what is being shown to the viewer. While you may not have access to every scientific concept, process, or phase, it is a good collection that will hopefully increase over time.

Conceptua Tools for Teaching Fractions

If you are a math teacher who needs to provide instruction on fractions, then conceptua math may have some tools that would help improve that instruction. There are tools for Concepts to Procedures and well as Higher Order Thinking. Each tool includes a video tutorial, a list of NCTM standards covered, Common Core Standards covered, vocabulary, and some possible IEP Goals. Take a look at the video embedded below to learn more about conceptua math.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

President Obama's "Back to School" Speech for 2010


Yesterday afternoon, at about 2:30, I discovered that President Obama had made his second annual "Back to School" speech at 1:00 PM. I was very disappointed because, even though his speech last year was considered controversial because the White House put out a list of discussion questions teachers could use with their students, I found his speech to be uplifting and inspiring last year. I wish I could have let teachers know ahead of time that it was occurring and even arrange to have it broadcast on our television system in the school. But regardless of my disappointment, I missed the boat. Luckily, the White House Website has the video available to those who wish to embed it into their Blog, Wiki, or Webpage. I have embedded it below. Have a look at it. Hopefully, you will want to share it with your students.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

AnswerGarden


AnswerGarden is a great way to get feedback from others. It allows you to post a question on to your webpage, blog, wiki, social network, etc., and viewers to post a response. The more people who visit or see the question, the more responses you'll get. This could be used with just your students as a quick survey tool, or as a means for finding out what they know about a topic. For example: have students list adjectives that describe something. Like, Apples are.... Here is an actual example. Have students estimate how old something is. Like, How long ago was the Great Depression? The possibilities are endless. Take a look at the example below:

How might you use AnswerGarden in your classroom?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Grammarly


Grammarly is a great tool for students to use prior to passing in writing or research papers. It can act as their own personal proofreader. It is also a great tool for teachers to use to check quickly for writing errors and plagarism. By uploading text to Grammarly, text is checked for grammar, punctuation, and plagarism. The text is checked for over 150 different grammar rules, provides easily understood explanations about the errors found. Grammarly also spots errors in spelling and finds words and phrases inconsistent with context or style of your document. Grammarly also looks for text borrowed from other online sources and provides links to those sources. Grammarly also helps you to write more eloquently by providing context-optimized synonyms that make more of an impact. Grammarly also is a time saver by allowing you to see all your mistakes at a glance without having to scroll through the entire document.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Print What You Like


Times are tough, as well all know, when it comes to school budgets. But did you know that toner and ink for printers is at the top of the list when it comes to cost per ounce.? Something to think about when students do research on the internet is all of the ink and paper that is wasted. They often print unwanted or unnecessary pages, pages cluttered with ads, and other "junk." Print What You Like allows you to select a part of a page and print it easily. You can even install a bookmarklet in your browser to make the process easy. If plan on having students do research involving internet resources, I recommend experimenting with this tool. It might save lots of precious trees and ink!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

A Vision of Students Today

Today I put the results of a technology integration self-evaluation into a NoteShare document. I will spend much time going over the results so that I know where to begin helping my colleagues develop the 21st Century Skills of their students. As I started looking, I thought about how much has changed about teaching, information, media, and literacy since I was a kid. Kids today are an entirely different type of animal when it comes to school, information, media, and communication. Teachers who are just entering the profession may be better able to empathize with today's students. But, for the many educators who were not raised using technology, integrating technology into their teaching pedagogy is not as natural. For those of us who are not digital natives, the video embedded below can be a real eye-opener. While this is not my usual type of post (having no tool for you to use) it could be a good discussion starter with students, between teachers on a team, or during collaboration between teachers of the same content area.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

10 Incredibly Inspirational Videos on YouTube


YouTube can be a powerful tool to use in the classroom regardless of what subject area you teach. If you teach Social Studies, then this resource may be of particular interest to you. The newssite Mashable has collected ten videos of some of man's most inspirational moments caught on film ranging from the late 1800's to 2008. These videos could make for some interesting and inspirational lessons. It would be interesting to create a video timeline using these videos possibly using an online timeline maker like Dipity. You may even want to turn all ten videos into one long film using the tool Dragontape.
I have embedded one of the videos below:

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Readability


This morning, Kim Cowperthwaite and Paula Eppich did a Language Arts presentation for the staff. One tool that Kim shared with her colleagues was Readability. Readability is a tool that allows you to read and print articles online more easily by removing the clutter of graphics, adds, and other distracting items found on a website. The Readability website provides instructions for setting up your browser to make use of this tool. There is also a FireFox Readability Add-on that can be installed. This tool can make it a little easier to keep students focused on the text at hand.

Another staff member asked me to share the tool QuietTube which can be used to display a YouTube video without all of the other distracting clutter on the page. Click here to read my post about QuietTube.

Wall Wisher: Online Sticky Board

Yesterday, the principal passed out paper to the teachers in the first staff meeting of the year. He then asked people to generate lists of their favorite pedagogical practices to use in the classroom. Teachers were then to find out what others at their table listed and then select one practice they had never used before to try out during the year. As we did this, I was thinking about how we could have used a Web 2.0 tool to complete this task and collaborate not just with the people at their table, but all of the colleagues in the room. I then recalled the site WallWisher.com which allows a user/presenter to create a blank wall, give access to participants, and then participants can then place sticky notes on the board. Once the presenter and parents click Refresh, they can then display/see all of the posted sticky notes. WallWisher is a great tool to use for brainstorming in class, or for back-channeling. Below is a slideshow about WallWisher, created by Tom Barrett, as a part of his Interesting Ways Series.


Monday, August 30, 2010

Back to School


If you are returning to teachers technology toolbox, welcome back! If this is your first time visiting my blog welcome. Throughout the course of the school year I hope to post several times a week to this blog, some of the dynamic online tools that are available to educators that will help students develop some of their 21st century skills. I would love for those who read/subscribe to my blog to provide feedback about these tools after they have used them, or if they have used them before, so that we can all benefit from your experiences with using them in a classroom. As I write this, realize that some of you may not know how to "subscribe" to this blog. If this is you, take a look at the video below:

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Trying Out DocStoc.com

I am trying out DocStoc.com because a teacher in the Blog session of our Summer Technology Institute asked if she could post her classroom newsletter to her blog so that parents could see and download it. So, I am giving it a try. Hopefully, you will see my test below.
The document I chose to make available is Richard Byrne's "Google For Teachers" document

Google+for+Teachers -

PollEverywhere


During the summer technology Institute, I learned about a cool tool for getting data from students. We used a polling tool called Polleverywhere.com which had us use a cell phone to text our response to a question that was on a presentation. When we finished texting, the presenter hit refresh and suddenly all of our results appeared in a bar graph on his presentation. Very Cool!

Dragontape - Education Today

Dragontape - Education Today

This is my first time using Dragontape, which allows you to take several YouTube videos and combine them into one. You are then given a link to the now larger video and you can (as you can see) blog the To try this out, I took a couple of videos that I have seen this summer which illustrate how education has changed since the time that most teachers were in school themselves. You could use this tool yourself by putting together a series of videos for students to watch on a topic you are teaching. You could have students create a DragOnTape video of "Greatest Hits" for videos they found about their research topic.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Trying Out Twitterfeed


Since creating this blog, I have been tweeting each new post by logging into Twitter, or starting up TweetDeck and then manually writing each new post so that those who follow me on Twitter get informed about the new post. Tim Hart shared with me the use of TwitterFeed.com which will look for any new posts I make and then automatically tweet any new posts I write on my blog. Hopefully, it will do so once I post this. Let's find out.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Enjoying My Summer Vacation


Just in case you were wondering whether I have been slacking off during the last several weeks, the answer is, "Yes." I have been enjoying my summer vacation immensely. It has not been ALL play though. I attended ISTE 2010 at the end of June and then attended FOSSed at Gould Academy just after the 4th of July. I am now preparing for the Summer Technology Institute that will take place next week. While I haven't posted anything at this site in recent weeks (OK, about a month and a half) I haven't given up on it. I want the readers of my blog to enjoy their summer vacation too and not have to think about all of the tools out there that can be used in their classrooms. So, at the end of August, I'll be rested and ready to continue posting my technology tool finds. I have some great ones lined up.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Veezzel: Free Stock Photo Search


I try not to make a habit of re-posting from other technology integrator blogs, but I just couldn't resist when I read the post by Richard Byrne from Free Technology for Teachers about Veezzel. Recently I did a post about the tool Behold which was a search engine for Flickr where users could check off that they only wanted it to search for copyright-friendly pics to be used for education. With Veezzel, all of the pics are free stock photos. I did a search for ice cream (must have had a craving) and all of the result were of high quality. This could be a good place to send students when they are working on their digital projects.

issuu.com Online Publishing Tool


Now you can publish your writing or the writing done by your students online by using Issuu. By uploading a PDF, PowerPoint, Word Document, or anything with a PDF, DOC, PPT, ODT, WPD, SXW, RTF, ODP, or SXI extension. Those of us using iWork apps (Pages & KeyNote) need to Export to one of the above type of files. There are several display formats that you can select such as; book, presentation, magazine, newspaper, report, journal, portfolio, essay and manual. Issuu can be embedded as a small presentation, as seen below. To be seen full screen, click on a page. Or you can also embed your presentation, book, magazine, etc., as a larger document if you select Customize. Viewers can also zoom in and zoom out when reading the your publications, as well as download or print it. Another option is that viewers can embed your publications into their blog, wikis, or webpages.







How could this be used in the classroom?
There are some obvious uses of this online publishing site where children can publish their own work such as;
  • ebooks of student stories, poetry, or other writings
  • the class or school newspaper
  • presentations of their research
Some other, not so obvious uses could be:
  • Student created textbooks
  • online digital portfolios
  • class literary magazine
  • class book reviews
Teachers could use it to publish their own whole units of work that can then be embedded in their own websites or Moodle course. There are so many ways that issuu can be used.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Branches of Government Game


If you want to help students prepare for a quiz or check for their understanding about the Branches of the U.S. Government, then this game could be helpful. At this site users are shown a bare tree with branches labeled as the branches of government. At the bottom of the tree is a cluster of leaves that describes a branch of government. The player needs to drag the cluster of leaves to the correct branch. If they drag it to the wrong branch, it goes to the bottom of the tree for them to try again. If they are correct, it stays on the branch and a new cluster appears at the bottom of the tree. When complete, the player is told how many cluster were correct, and how many attempts they made. Could be a fun way to study with students competing to see if they can have no incorrect attempts.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Math Remediation Sites


Over the course of a school year, when I find a good online resource that I think teachers would like to use, I tend to send out an email with the link to teachers of that specific content area. Recently, a teacher approached me and asked if I would make a page with links to sites that would help with math remediation and then send him the link so that he could bookmark it. He said it would save him the time of going through all of his emails. So, here is a link to just such a web page. You will also see a link at the top of this page. Math teachers, make sure you bookmark it. I won't name any names, but Larry, if you need help with this, let me know.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

100 Ways to Use VoiceThread

Last week, I made a post about using voicethread as a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments. Now there is a voicethread slideshow called,"100 Ways to Use VoiceThread in Education." So, if you are not sure how you would use this tool in your classroom, take a look at this slide show and get some ideas.