Visit Open Education Database and find a slew of college course materials free for the learning. http://oedb.org/library/features/236-open-courseware-collections Imagine taking a course at Cambridge University or Cornell. It’s all here, podcasts, videoes, documents, encylcopedias and more. You have to check this out. Learning is now free, oh imagine, learning free. Isn’t that what this country was founded on?
Google Earth’s Flight Simulator February 9, 2008
Wow, this is so cool. Choose your cockpit!! Get ready for lift off. Fly through the air with GE’s flight simulator. http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/08/google-earth-easter-egg-flight.html You have to check this out!! This is how to do it. How to see this feature. Make sure you have Google Earth 4.2. Open the application, click on the globe and then press Ctrl+Alt+A. You should see this dialog that lets you choose one of the two aircrafts (F16 “Viper” and SR22) and an airport. Google is leading the way in so much more than web searches. It is amazing how they keep doing things even better.
Classtools.net February 7, 2008
Just got this one in an email. http://www.classtools.net/ create interactive graphic organizers. Simple to create and use with an interactive white board or even just the LCD projector. Fun for all!!! Check it out and let me know how you might use it.
Exploretree February 7, 2008
Ok here’s another one that I just have to share….. Exploretree – thinking guides…..http://www.exploratree.org.uk/ “Exploratree is a free web resource where you can download, use and make your own interactive thinking guides. Thinking guides support independent and group research projects with frameworks for thinking, planning and enquiry. They have provided a set of ready-made guides which you can print out or use online. All of the guides are completely customizable or you can start from scratch and make your own! You can save share and print them and work on them in groups too.”Sign up Free…. You will not be disappointed!!
MixBook - Create Online Photo Stories February 1, 2008
This one is AWESOME!!! Visit Mixbook to create terrific looking photo books. You can invite friends or colleagues to collaborate and share ideas and content. Imagine doing this in class. What a fun project for kids to create online books for research projects. Talk about getting the kids engaged in learning and collaborating!! You have to try it. Here is a simple sample that I created in about 10 minutes. Just a short sample. http://www.mixbook.com/books?bid=85493 While you are creating, you can invite people to collaborate. This is a must see site. Students will love building books to share and read. I will be using it with some middle school and elementary school students for sure!!
Live Look January 31, 2008
See the world live with this tool. Collect and organize all of your favorite live web cams!!! Visit LiveLook to sign up and begin collecting your favorite sites and sounds from around the world. Study Geography while your at it.
Wetpaint - Wiki Host January 31, 2008
Ok I have to say that I am partial to some hosts, especially wordpress and wikispaces, but this one is a great wiki for teachers. Wetpaint offers simple tools for creating a classroom wiki. Wetpaint offers various site schemes and templates and if you were to choose the classroom option, all navigation and pages for class syllabus, assignment, announcements and more are created for you. A great feature for the busy and novice wiki educator. I would now recommend this to you over wikispaces since it is easier to create a true classroom wiki or web site. Did I mention that you can email them to request an ad free site. Give it a shot and share it with every educator.
Wiz IQ - Demo January 30, 2008
Just got finished a web demonstration with Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0. The internet and free web 2.0 applications allowed us to take a cross country trip from PA to San Francisco. Through the flash based WizIQ platform we were able to share audio, video, files, a white board and more. We discovered together how the tool’s capabilities while discussing strategies in which this tool could be implemented in K-12 instructional environments. It was easy to surmise that WizIQ was a high quality and free web conferencing product. I am excited to begin utilizing this tool for training demonstrations, lessons and meetings so that participants can attend from anywhere on the internet. I am looking forward to using open discussion, dialogs, chats and file sharing opportunities with my teaching staff. I will give this a test run again before using it formally.
Oh and did I mention Steve is a really nice guy who works with non-profit organizations to assist with open source solutions. He is a pioneer in the field and a true inspiration to me. Check out his network for teachers http://classroom20.ning.com or his blog called the Infinite Thinking Machine. The only thing I did to get him to help me out was email him the WizIQ link and ask. What an exciting experience to actually meet such a well respected Educational Technology Leader.
Blabberize in the Classroom!! January 29, 2008
Want to have you students do something fun that they will remember? Register free at www.blabberize.com to get started. Upload photos or images of people, places, animals, things, anything at all. Trace the mouth on the photo and record your voice as you were the photo speaking. Imagine kids sharing information as Shakespeare, a Frog, a tornado, and anything else that they might be studying. Save the project and embed it into a web page or share it via email. Way to easy and cool!!! You have to check it out!!!
Blogs In Education January 29, 2008
Why not blog in your classroom? There are so many benefits to having students respond to topics, discussions, and various subject matters. Students who normally don’t participate in class will do so when they are given a chance to have a voice through Blogs. WordPress allows teachers to create multiple blogs, posts, and comments and monitor it all in one simple location. The real issue is making sure that the teacher monitors comments for quality and content. Teacher responsibility in a blog environment becomes the same as their physical classroom environment and some are not so interested in doing the police work, or extra work. Convincing them that blogs are not more work, but effective alternatives to class activities such as writing, discussions, debates and more, is the tough part. When some actually do take the leap of faith, they begin to see the true benefits to letting students learn by doing and building quality online content. “If you let them build it… they will come”!
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