Feature Top (Full Width)

Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Technology Tuesday - Web Curation

The internet is crowded with tons of resources and ideas.   How do you manage all the content you find online?  Do you add it to your favorites?  Do you add a link on your website?  Or have you taken advantage of one of the web 2.0 tools out there that help you curate your links in a way that make them accessible, ready to share, and ready to use.   Here are 5 of my favorite Web Curation Tools that are available for free.

1.  Pinterest Logo Pinterest –have you heard of it?  I know most of you have since I see your pins all the time.   Pinterest is a web curator site, or another way to organize your links that is social and visual.   You set up “boards” to which you “pin” websites. Each board can have a theme and you can look through other people’s boards (if they make them public) for more ideas.  Other users can follow your boards, like your pins or re-pin your pins onto their own boards.  There is a section labeled Education that displays people’s pins(website finds) that have to do with education.

I have created an account on Pinterest dedicated to educational resources.  If you would like to check it out (or follow them) go here:  http://pinterest.com/techrobin/

If you need an invite to Pinterest, please let me know!

2.  LiveBinders LogoLivebinders  - http://www.livebinders.com/ - collect all your resources, images, videos, pdfs, websites, and group them into a “binder” where students have easy access to the websites that you have.  Inside the binder you can divide the content into tabs and each tab can have sub-tabs.  Students can create accounts and add the binder to their own collections or create binders on topic assigned to them.

 Examples:




3.  Linoit LogoLinoit - http://en.linoit.com/ - An online collaboration tool in the form of Sticky Notes.  Create a bulletin board of ideas and files on any topic.  Organize ideas and resources be rearranging the sticky notes on the board.  This is an easy, visual ways for students to find the resources or information they need.  This can also be a great collaboration tool as students add in notes (if you allow that) and collect ideas.

4.  Diigo LogoDiigo - http://www.diigo.com/user/robiny - Diigo is a bookmarking website that allows users to create groups, share links and have discussions.      Researching biomes?  Give the websites you find a specific tag and gie that link the to students so anytime you add more resources their list is updated without having to add a link to your website.

This is a resource that I have been using for a long time and still love it.  I can add bookmarks from school and still retrieve them from home.   They also have apps that are useful for mobile devices.

 

5.  Wallwisher logoWall Wisher - http://www.wallwisher.com/ - another online bulletin board that has been around for a while.  You can add stickies that contain text, images or links to websites.   This tools is great for collecting images of a certain topic and them having students use those images for their projects and since the kids can help add in the resources, this can be a great collaboration tool.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Web Wandering Wednesday - Apps

WolframAlpha http://www.wolframalpha.com/ -  describes itslef as " the world's first and only computational knowledge engine."  Enter in a location and learn the population, elevation, unemployment rate, etc for the area.   Enter in a math problem and see the solutions appear.  The help page give examples of searches to try.  This is also available as an ap for iPhones and Androids, so download the ap on the school iPod Touch for a good resource for students.

While we are on the subject of  apps...


Top 50 Free Education Apps:  http://www.appstoreapps.com/top-50-free-education-apps/ - pulled from iTunes - this site lists the best/most popular free apps for education.   Some seem a little more gamey than educational, but the list is worth a look.

Droid does Educationhttp://www.iste.org/connect/iste-connects/blog-detail/10-03-24/Droid_Does_Education_Android_Applications_for_Teachers_and_Learners.aspx - ISTE compiled a list of the best android apps for education.

Free Education Apps for Android OShttp://www.mguhlin.org/2010/07/free-education-apps-for-android-os.html - this list is broken into grade levels.

What are you favorite sites and apps?

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Wallwisher in the Classroom

I started to title this blog post - A New Way to Brainstorm - but then I realized that Wall Wisher offers so much more than that.

Wallwisher is a free internet application that allows you to build a wall that then you or you and others can post notes on.   To build a wall you will need to log in with an email account but an email account is not needed to post notes on that wall.  Good news for those of us working with students under the age of 14.    Privacy levels can be set for each wall and posts can be moderated.

Once a wall is built there are a number of ways to distribute or share your wall.  Walls can be embedded into a webpage, blog or wiki.  You can link directly to the wall for users to go straight there.  It also provides an RSS feed so walls can be monitored through your RSS readers, such as iGoogle.

As I started looking for how others were using this tool I found the ideas fit into a few categories.  (This was easy to do as I took the ideas that were posted on the wall and started moving them around to create the groups!)

  • Brainstorming/ Idea Gathering

  • Homepages - a place to gather resources, post announcements, leave messages, provide homework help, etc.

  • Skill building - note-taking, vocabulary, sorting and summarization work wonderfully on this.

  • Portfolios of Student Work - either as a class or an individual.


I created a wall with all the ideas of classroom use I have found by searching the web and have embedded the wall below.  Please feel free to add to it!

Get Started:


The best way to learn to use this tool is to jump in and get started!

Go to my wallwisher sandbox and make your first post: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/RobinySandbox

Or go to: http://www.wallwisher.com - log in and build your first wall.

Please share your ideas for wallwisher or the walls you build!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Pic-Lits

Recently this web site was sent out through my PLN (personal learning network).  It was given as a suggestion for using technology to teach poetry.

http://www.piclits.com/

Basically the website has photos and users can drag and drop words from their gallery onto the picture, or they can write free style.  Here is my first attempt:

PicLit from PicLits.com

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

I then started digging around and found it also offer lessons plans on how teachers can use this site to teach grammar, figurative language and poetry.  Those resources caught my eye and made me want to share this sight with the teachers on campus.

Other ideas? I asked around and got some responses from our Literacy Coach and started this list:

  • poetry

  • Bernabei's Truisms

  • character traits

  • motivation resources

  • Anything!


Here are some recent blogs written about using Pic-Lits in the classroom:

So how could you use this resource in your classroom?  Please share anything you create or have your kids create so we can learn together!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Cartoons - Make Your Own

I ran across http://www.befunky.com/ through my PLN (Personal Learning Network) and have been playing with the possibilities.   It requires no fees and no sign in or account to be created.  Of course the first place I start when playing with photos is my kids.

luke_in_ink

katherinecharcoal

The process of uploading pictures is very simple:



  1. Navigate to the picture and upload it.

  2. Crop or rotate the image as needed.

  3. Choose the effect you want (effects can be changed and modified with the onscreen menu).

  4. Save the new image to your computer.


But then I started thinking what else could be done?  How about cartoons?

Cartoons and Cartoon Strips


The students could take pictures of themselves in various expressions, poses, run the picture through the web page and turn the digital photo into a cartoon version.  Those pictures could then be inserted into a PowerPoint and captions added to make your own cartoon strips.  This would be a great activity to summarize an event being studies, or a book they are reading.  Maybe give them the pictures and have them write in their own captions.  Students could also take historical images and make them "cartoonized" to tell the story of the event.

When Printing - Choose to print the handout page with 6 slides per page.

cartoon-strip
(Sorry the text is very small in this image- but the story line is lacking a bit.  :) )

Cartoon Movies


I then took it another step by pulling the images into Photo Story 3.  Instead of a paper cartoon, why not a video?  Students would process their pictures and then bring them into PhotoStory 3 where they can add text, narration and music.  The images could be zoomed in or out in the movie and the still photographs have come to life.

flashvideo

Any other ideas for using http://www.befunky.com/ in the classroom?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Web Wandering Wednesdays - September 16, 2008

The return of Web Wandering Wednesdays brings a focus on educational online videos.  Why use video in the classroom?  Video provides a common experience for everyone in a class.  It brings the subject to life and teachers report students understand the concepts better and retain the information longer.  Best practices suggests that short clips work best and are the most effective.

We are very familiar with United Streaming and Brain Pop - but what are some other options?

  • Studio4Learning - has a variety a videos on math, science, English, social sciences, languages, business and arts.  Each topic is also divided into subtopics.  These videos are on demand teaching tools provided free of charge.  You also have an opportunity of submitting your own videos to address topics.  The target for this website is for a secondary audience.



  • TeacherTube - TeacherTube is the educational version of YouTube.  It is a place that students and teachers can post videos for easy access.  Videos found on TeacherTube can be embedded into blogs, wikis, teacherweb, etc for easy viewing by students.   You can also search TeacherTube for videos that others have posted, including ones from partnering organizations, such as from the American Institute for History Education.


Most news organizations offer news clips of current events and networks are also offering their TV shows online so check out their websites for documentaries and current events.

Any other suggestions of places to look for free video resources?  Ideas for using streaming media in class? Please share!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Web Wandering Wednesdays - April 23

It is that time of the year, when we all need to take a mental break from time to time. Here are a list of sites that can help take your mind off of the testing season and onto something completely different.


Digg.com
http://digg.com/ - Digg.com is a collection of web sites/stories/postings that other people have found interesting.  if you like something you can "digg" it and the more votes or diggs something gets the higher on the list it becomes.  Search by category or by most recent "dugg stories."  Very interesting stuff can be
found here.

Stumble Upon
http://www.stumbleupon.com/ - "StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more. Discover your web with StumbleUpon."  Organized more visually than Digg, but also has categories to break down what type of information you want.

LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/ - Connect with people from your past.  The object of the game is to make as many connections as possible.  Actually the point of this website is to help you network with those you went to high school or  college with or worked with in the past.   I actually found my old college roommate here and found out what she is up to now.

Symmetry Lab
http://symmetrylab.com/machine/ - build machines and change what they do by adjusting friction, gravity, etc.  Okay - so maybe this is a little educational, but it is kinda fun as well.

Bonus:
Ellen and the Hula Chair - Need a laugh?  Watch and enjoy!

 

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Web Wandering Wednesdays - April 9th

This is the first installment in what I hope to be a weekly series of cool websites to check out.  I stumbled across this link today and I am totally hooked as to what it could do for teachers!

http://drop.io - Want a way for students to turn in files to you online?  Maybe a place where they can load their files and then access them later?  Drop.io is a free website that allows you to store up to 100MB of files online.  You can download all the files from the website as a zip file, or set the files to be deleted after a set period of time of non-use.  The program also has the ability to be added to a blog as a widget.  I have added it to the side bar of this blog, so check it out! 

One word of caution:  Students can see each other's work and can download each other's files for their own use.  That has good and bad features to it.  If you didn't want students to see what others have posted, consider hosting it through a blog and naming your box something out of the ordinary so students don't know where to go look.  (Ex.  Naming it MrsYoung or Young would be way too obvious!)   You also want to make sure that you are following AUP policies at all times!  So be careful of students names written as file names and on the documents themselves and don't make this a requirement.  I would be happy to talk this out and help set it up for anyone who would like to know more.

So what do you think?  Would you use it?  What would the downfalls be?  What are the advantages?