Web2.0 Advent Calendar

A few weeks ago I was skimming through my Google Reader app and stumbled upon a Web 2.0 Advent Calendar created by iLearn Technology.   Advent calendars are a fun way to reveal information and “surprises” that users can look forward to each day in December leading up to Christmas. I decided to create my own using the same web site creation tool that iLearn Technology used, wix.com.  So feel free to view and bookmark whatever you find valuable.  Happy Holidays!

Quizbreak

QuizBreak is one of the many apps that can be found and used on the Rich Internet Applications for Language Learning site.  QuizBreak allows you to create an online Jeopardy-style game that can be used to  review material prior to an assessment. Not only can you put in your own questions and answers, but you can also add audio and images to your questions/answers. Once you set up an account and verify it through an email link, you can start to create your own QuizBreak games. Although intended for language learning, one could use this tool to review material for just about any subject. My only criticism of this site is that it would be nice if this site would allow you to search for games already created by others, like Quizlet lets you do.  The link below will take you to a game I created for basic Spanish.
http://clear.msu.edu/quizbreak/play.php?board=45145-1322492788

Word Dynamo

Created by the good people at Dictionary.com, Word Dynamo is a great site for expanding one's vocabulary.  Users can answer ten questions and Word Dynamo will estimate the number of words they know. This customizes the level at which the user starts a 20-level vocabulary learning game.  Users can also search through Word Dynamo for specific types of words they need to learn or for a grade span level of words.  Students can also create their own sets of words and definitions.  There are also a variety of ways to learn these vocabulary words ranging from matching to crossword puzzles.  This would be a great site for students to go to when they are finished with their work early.   http://dynamo.dictionary.com/

Making Online Assessments Using Google Forms

I have a training this week for teachers at Lake Region Middle School on how to create Online Assessments.  Thought I would try my hand at embedding a Google Presentation into my blog so that teachers can refer back to this should they forget how to do it.

Writing Prompts Blog

Someone has created a wonderful Tumblr blog that provides users with excellent writing prompts.  The prompts (currently there are about 250 of them) each include an image and some text.  These prompts are a great way to get the creative juices flowing for your middle schoolers.  These prompts can be displayed on a projector or pasted on to a Google Doc for students to work with.

Thinking Blocks

Thinking Blocks is a great site for Elementary and Middle School Math students that provides interactive templates in which learners use brightly colored blocks to model and solve problems. As students work through the problems they are provided with feedback as to whether or not they are using the correct sequence to solve each problem.Thinking Blocks is a suite of learning tools designed to help students solve math word problems accurately and efficiently. Using brightly colored blocks, students model mathematical relationships and identify known and unknown quantities. The model provides students with a powerful image that organizes information and simplifies the problem solving process. By modeling increasingly complex word problems, students develop strong reasoning skills which will facilitate the transition from arithmetic to algebra.(from the Thinking Blocks site)

Constitution Day Activities

Constitution Week is soon upon us.  With that in mind, you may wish to check out the Constitution Day activities that Weekly Reader has made available.  The Law of the Land provides learners with activities about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Framers, a time line, a Game and other resources.  No sign up or membership required.

StudyJams

So, it's mid August and I have resigned myself to the fact that my summer is nearly over.  As it has every August for the last 20 years (yes, I said 20) my mind starts to think about the upcoming school year and I start to get back into gear.  After a few minutes of going through the hundreds of articles I've ignored in my Google Reader account, an came across StudyJams.   This site created by Scholastic provides students with videos and songs that help them learn various topics in science and math.  The videos provide review at the end and, in some cases, the opportunity to practice the skill (in the case of math.) The videos are high quality and memorable.  They are also FREE!!! There is no login. No need to sign up.  I would say that this site would be appropriate for 3rd to 7th grade students. Not to be a "the glass is half full" type, but I do wish that scholastic provided an embed code for their StudyJams so that teachers could embed the videos directly on to their web sites, blogs, wikis, or Moodle courses. 

Go Animate

I just learned about "Go Animate" while at our annual Summer Technology Institute.  Go Animate is a wonderful Web 2.0 tool that allows users to create animated videos using various pre-made elements or their own.  This could be a great way for teachers to introduce a new topic or material or for students to show what they know about a topic.  This would be an excellent tool for students to use for book reports or presentations.

Below is my first attempt.

GoAnimate.com: The First Day by ryan.palmer

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Teacher Zone Math Video Tutorials

Teacher Zone is a collection of more than 1,000 math video tutorials created by Ten Marks. Teacher Zone covers a wide range of math skills from third grade to high school, including Algebra and Geometry. All of the videos are hosted on YouTube, but by registering with Teacher Zone, you have access to all of the videos by category and/or grade level. Like YouTube, you can copy the embed code to place on your website, online course, blog, or wiki. You also have some good choices when it comes to bookmarking the videos as well. If your school blocks YouTube videos, Teacher Zone provides access to these tutorials in a secondary format that is not as likely to be blocked by your school filter.

MLTI Minute

The good folks at MLTI have created a wonderful series of video podcasts called "MLTI Minute" which teach viewers how to do various functions with their MLTI computer.  Users can either view the episodes at the MLTI Minute site, or they can RSS subscribe to them so that when a new tutorial is posted, it comes to their reader.  The beauty of these tutorials is that they are fairly short in length.  Don't let the name mislead you, some are longer than one minute, but at least you are warned ahead of time how long they will be.  There is a fair-sized library of tutorials they have created, so I would recommend that one check the site out first and look at some of the older posts.  Very Cool!!!

Journey to the Moon

This week, Tuesday to be exact marks the 50th anniversary of the first space flight.  In it's honor, snagfilms has made available a fantastic film called Journey to the Moon.  It is a 44 minute film that takes the viewer from the very beginnings of space flight to the safe return of the Apollo 11 astronauts. Very worthwhile video that could create some wonderful discussions in class.








Watch more free documentaries

A Math's Dictionary for Kids

A Maths Dictionary for Kids is an animated, interactive online math dictionary for students which explains over 600 common mathematical terms and math words in simple language. This is a great site for students to use prior to starting a new unit or area of study in math.  Users not only get a definition of math terms, but can interact and practice with examples.  I looked up the word symmetry. I was shown a definition and some examples using various letters from the alphabet.  For practice, I was to drag various letters into the appropriate box. Letters like A, O, I, and M were to go to the symmetrical box. Letters like G, Q, and P were to go to the not symmetrical box. I really liked that students get more than a definition. They SEE and example and INTERACT with a practice set.

The Week in Rap

Looking for a great resource to help jump-start discussions about current events? The Week in Rap summarizes current events in the U.S. and around the world in an engaging and entertaining way.  It reminds me of some of the songs done in the Bill Nye the Science Guy videos or what you might see on ChannelOne.  Take a look at this special episode done for graduating seniors last year.


The Last 18 Years in Rap 1993-2011 from Flocabulary on Vimeo.

TweenTribune

TweenTribune is a website that contains infinite number or current news articles that are categorized by subject and written at a middle school level.  While anyone can read the articles on TeenTribune without registering or logging in, students who do are able to post comments or take part in writing prompts or essay contests.  Teachers who register their classes are able to review and eventually approve all student posts prior to their being published. Students enjoy not only reading articles, but the reactions other students post about them.  This in turn, motivates them to post their own reactions to the articles.  Because students can select the topic or categories they wish to read, they always have high-interest reading materials available to them.  TweenTribune is available 24/7 as well, which, if students have 1:1 access they will never have to ask, "What do I do now?"
 

Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century

Thanks to Michael Richard who sent a link to the PBS site that hosts the video Digital Media - New Learners of the 21st Century.  In the  first chapter of  Digital Media producers criss-cross the nation to highlight real-life examples of how digital media is exploding in educational environments. This is video can be very eye-opening for those who still picture the classrooms, learning, and students they experienced as children.

Watch the full episode. See more Digital Media - New Learners Of The 21st Century.

History for Music Lovers

There are some days, days like today, where I am so happy I subscribe to some great blogs about educational technology. Today, I read a post from iLearn Technology about a YouTube channel "History for Music Lovers", created by/for history teachers that fuses the tune from popular songs, with words about historical events/people/places, and video to create historical music videos.  These are really something and can be a great way to engage students.

Qwiki

If ever there was a resource that made me say, "OMG!" then Qwiki is it.  I found this awesome site thanks to Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers blog.   Qwiki is an online encyclopedia with over three million multimedia entries.  I say multimedia because when a topic is played, the viewer can read the text, listen to the text as it is being read, and view images that go along with the topic.  Viewers can also go to suggested entries based on the topic they just watched.  For example, I searched for an entry on the Gilded Age.  I viewed the multimedia information and was then given some suggested topics like Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, History of Immigration, and the Second Industrial Revolution.  Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I found out that it is possible to embed these  Qwiki s on to a web page, wiki, or blog.  I tried it out and low and behold, it worked.  Take a look at the  Qwiki I embedded below.

Switch2Google Tutorial Site

Over the past several weeks I have been working on a tutorial site to assist the teachers of my district (MSAD#61) as we begin switching from FirstClass to Google Apps for Education. For my readers who are outside my district, this tutorial site may assist you as well if you are switching to Google Apps.

Luckily I did not have to reinvent the entire wheel as the good folks at Google had a template for me to use.  This template allowed me to just spend time customizing the site so that it worked for users who are switching from FirstClass to Google rather than say MS Outlook to Google.  The site contains links to videos and documents that will help you with this switch. It takes you from introducing you to Google Apps to more advanced features that you can add using the Google Labs. Perfect for self-paced instruction and those who don't wish to take part in a large group instruction setting.

So, if you click the link below, you will be taken to this tutorial site.
http://switch2google.lakeregionschools.org

Tooble: YouTube Video Download & Conversion Tool

While there can be a whole lot of stuff on YouTube that is not useful or appropriate for education, there are a large number of videos that tie in perfectly with what you are trying to teach.  Unfortunately, using YouTube in the classroom can create a new set of problems that may make teachers think that it is more trouble than it is worth (network issues, students getting access to inappropriate material, advertisements, etc.) 

Tooble is a great tool that will allow users to download YouTube videos and then converts them to .mp4 files (movie files that iTunes will play). Once the videos are downloaded, converted, and added to your movie library in iTunes, they will be available to you in any app that allows the use of media files like KeyNote, Pages, GarageBand, iMovie, etc.) Not only is having this ability to put YouTube videos in other documents great, but not having to rely on your network or Internet connection makes it a really beautiful thing.

As Angelina Roberts of the Total Apps blog states, you can embed YouTube videos into KeyNote in three simple steps:

Step 1 : Download and Install Tooble

Here is the link: http://tooble.tv/

Step 2 : Tell Tooble which Video you want !

Go to YouTube.com and  locate the video you want to download. Copy the URL by selecting the address and either using CMD C or via the Edit/copy menu option. 

Now go back to Tooble and click the “Enter a URL” button on the top right of the application and paste the URL in the appropriate field.

Obviously this can take a few minutes depending the length and quality of the video being downloaded.

Once complete you will find your downloaded video file in your iTunes Movies.

Step 3. Place in Keynote (for example)

You can now open or create a Keynote presentation, and by using the Media button, gain access to the videos that are stored in your iTunes media files. Simply drag the video from the Media window to the slide you want it to play on.