Summer sites

Below are six super summer sites to use with your kids during the long break

• Wednesdays with Sam
• E-Learning for kids
• Curious George
• PBS Kids
• Brainpop Jr. 
• Nickelodeon games

What are your summer site staples? Add them the comments sections and lets see how long our list can get! 

Diggin' Dinosaurs

This blog post is about dinosaur interactive activities, tools, and sites to use when teaching about dinosaurs. 

• Dig those dinosaurs - Match the pictures on the cards Found on Smartboard Goodies 

• Dino Data - Learn about many different dinosaurs with this dino-base.

• Match and hatch - match the the dinosaur eggs to the right dinosaur.

• Make a dinosaur This dinosaur games lets you change the way your dinosaur looks.

• Dino match - Match dinosaurs with their shadows. Learn the names of a few of the most popular dinosaurs. 

• Digging for Dinosaurs! - Play this dino cyberhunt.

• Is it real or is it make-believe? Show us that you know the difference! 

To dig into more dino games and sites check this out.  

TRETC Livebinder

My colleague, Mindy McMahen and I presented about how to use livebinders in the classroom. This was a create and take session. We taught and demonstrated all about livebinders and then gave time for the participants to investigate the site.

Here is a link to our livebinder http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=221082

Random TRETC resources

Here are some random resources I gained from TRETC

• edistorm - similar to wallwisher free post it not bulletin board, able to vote on ideas!
• coursesites.com - free online management of instruction, tools, assessment
• animoto.com - video creator

Switch software and sites

Good Sunday morning! This morning I am going to introduce you very quickly to some super switch software and sites. Some are free and some are software to buy.

• Switch it maker 2
• Choose and tell stories
• Help Kidz Learn
• Let's go series
• Choose it maker 2
• Switch it extras

Literature-Map - The tourist map of literature

Literature-Map - The tourist map of literature

Looking for that next good book or great author? Simple type in the author's name into the search box and see what comes up. The search will load with different authors you might like who are similar to the author that you searched with. This is a great and interactive way to find more excellent authors for yourself or you class, and to keep the love of reading alive!

All abilities playground

All abilities playground

This is a great space for students who use the computer via many different modalities can learn. There are two playgrounds with the same games, one playground is the mouse and keyboard playground the other is the scanning playground. Each playground offers several different virtual online games to play on the interactive whiteboard or computer. Thank you to Patrick Black who shared this site on Diigo!

Google Apps for the classroom

    This morning I attended a webinar about Google apps in the classroom. This webinar was presented by Alan Klein from Penn State. This webinar was all about how to use different Google apps in the classroom. There are many different Google apps to utilize, Google Apps are a collection of web-based programs. The first step in using Google apps is to have a Google account.  If you don't have one it is very easy to set up. 

After you have an account you have access to many, many cool apps from Google such as: 

• Docs – just like Microsoft office includes docs, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings.
• Gmail – email
• Calendar – online calendar where you can mark events and make plans, also able to share your calendar. You can even have appointment slots!
• Groups -  Create discussion groups that supports threaded discussions. Great way to keep in contact with colleagues, students, and more! 
• Sites – web site creator, I created by Wednesdays with Sam site with google sites - very easy to do!

 Google Apps Classroom Applications:

•     Docs 
•     Easily share documents with students
•     Have students write notes using Google Docs to share with each other in and out of class
•     Forms - create a fun and interactive test or quiz with mulitiple choice, true/false, check list questions
•      Drawing - create a collaborative drawing or concept map in groups
•     Email
•     Keep in contact with parents and students 
•     Calendar
•     Share a class calendar with parents to highlight events in school or parent/teacher conferences
•    Sites
•     Create a class site to show what is going on in the classroom
•     The site can house all websites and resources used during class 
•     Wednesdays with Sam example

Advantages for Google Apps:

•     Any time and any where access to your materials and resources 
•      Convenient 
•     Save time, energy, frustration, and money!
•     Storage
•     Familiar and consistent interface

Disadvantage for using Google Apps:

•     If you dont have access to the net  - no access to your materials and resources
•     Materials and resources are stored on a 3rd party server
•     Security

Closing the gap from a far

     Unfortunately I could not attend Closing the Gap this year. So I decided to aggregate some cool tools from Closing the Gap from by Twitter peeps that attended the conference. First, there were two hashtags that were used for all things closing the gap: #ctg11 and #closingthegap, so if you would like to you can search for those hashtags for more information.

Here is what I found regarding cool sites:

• Weebly - Great online site tool
• QR code site
• Nova chat

Here are some presenters and exhibit hall sites:

•  Crick Soft
• Teach smart
• Ablenet
• My own voice ipad
• Big Keys
• Beyond Adaptive
• Conovercompany
• Vizzle
• Text help
•  Satillo
• TFE
• Widgit Software
• Therapy box
• Smart Ed services
• Mayer Johson

Some people to follow on Twitter Tweeted about Closing the Gap

• @singoffpitch
• @ToledoSigmaChi
• @SpeechTherapist
• @amybraddock
• @Shoostie2010
• @techieteacher

Web 2.0 Technologies for Classroom Use.

   

This morning I attended a webinar through PSU entitled Topics for Teaching: Web 2.0 Technologies for Classroom Use. This webinar was about how how various Web 2.0 tools and can be used to deliver instructional content. Web 2.0 tools are efficient and effective tools for sharing information in a collaborative and fun way! 

This presentation was given by Mark Thomas Meckel of Penn State. The notes taken below were written in  a collaboration doc by  a colleague, Monique MacAllan and I.Welcome in to the wonderful world of Web 2.0 . 

There are several groups of Web 2.0 tools - communication, storage, productivity, management, socialization, and aggregation. Each group has an array of tools and resources to use within each group. There are several levels of cloud applications. to keep in mind when utilizing web 2.0 tools:

• Level 0 app: Doesn’t work in the cloud at all
• Level 1 app: Limited functionality
• Level 2 app: Moderately functional
• Level 3 app: Fully functional in the cloud
• Skydrive-MS tool that stores things in the cloud.

Communication

• Advantages/Disadvantages
• Formative Evaluation-where we make changes along the way
• Diminish amount of face-to-face contact
• Customizable
• Easy to set up and utilize in and out of a classroom

1. Instant Messenger Clients - AOL, Yahoo messenger, MSN, Meebo (aggregator of IM clients)

Advantages/Disadvantages

Can be more direct and relevant

Interactive

Feedback which is immediate

Examples of use

    Monitor discussions

    Ask and answer questions

    Post additional information

2. Back channel such as Todaysmeet  for synchronous (same time) and asynchronous (later time)  discussions

3. Start pages - page flakes, igoogle, yahoo, netvibes

Advantages/Disadvantages

Easy to set up

Focus on what you find interesting

Dynamic

4. Blogs  - Blogger, Word Press, Live Journal

Advantages/Disadvantages

interactive

multiple media imports (video, audio, links, ...not just text!)

longitudinal

easy to make

Examples of use:

    Live journals of daily life or class

    Classroom discussion

    Read/review/discuss topics

    Group journals-let teams develop their own journal

    Feedback on assignments

    Document research articles or summarize articles in a blog

5. Other communication tools

• Micro-blogs such as Twitter

• hybrid tools - mash up of blog and IM feaures (Yammer)
• Audio  - podcasts
• Video - Jing, Captivate, Camstudio, Presenter, Skype, Youtube
• Photo Editing- Picnkik, Flickr, Picassa

Examples of use:

Skype for use in Student Teaching

Searching for images in Flickr for classes

Share images with class that are relevant

Storage

• On-line Storage
• Wiki’s
• Project Management Tools: Basecamp, Google docs
• Zoho, BPWorks, box.net
• Hybrid Web Tool: Drop Box
• On-line office suites

Productivity

• Presentation
• Collaboration
• Informatin
• Question
• Survey

Examples - 280 slides(create slides of upload a ppt), prezi,slide rocket (access to presentations off the web), wolfram alpha (computational aggregate), Harvard question tool, doodle

Management

• Project management
• file storage
• calendars

Examples - basecamp, box.net, 30 boxes

Socialization

• Blogs
• instant messenger clients
• communities of practice

Examples: facebook, Ning, blogs, Twitter, Link’dn, Twitter, Yammer

Aggregation

• RSS Feeds and readers
• Information Collectors
• IM/Chat Aggregation

Examples: Diigo, Delicous, RSS Feeds, Livebinders

Recommended Resources for more info about Web 2.0 tools:

• http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=25123
• http://mach2k.net/web20/
• Go2web20.net - find what you are looking for great web 2.0 tools for many, many different categories!