Category:

Can I really trust this information?

9/26/2015

Got an upcoming project or paper coming up? Then check out this website for help evaluating sources for research projects with a step-by-step guide. In the initial appraisal, it tells how to focus on author’s credentials, date of publication, edition, publishers, and titles of periodicals. Then it moves to analyzing the content. Does it fit the intended audience? Is it real information or propaganda? Does it make sense and cite sources? It offers tips for analyzing both print and web sources, and provides signs of bad sources. Included is an exercise in which students list bad sources and explain what makes them bad.

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Kids Share Projects with Scratch

5/15/2015

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Developed by a team at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a free programming language and online community where students can create and share their own interactive stories, games, and animations. In the process of designing and programming Scratch projects, young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. When students learn to code in Scratch, they learn important strategies for solving problems, designing projects, and communicating ideas. This innovative product is available in more than 40 languages. -tech and learning

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40 Sites and Apps for Creating Presentations

8/7/2013

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School year is almost here and you know it will be time to complete one of those every pending presentations for class. With this nifty article from Tech and Learning you'll be able to produce those publications in a flash!

9Slides - A wonderful site and app for adding
video/audio narration to a presentation. Ideal for professional development or teaching a lesson.
Animoto - One of the most popular sites/apps for creating beautiful-looking slideshows with an educational portal.
AuthorStream - A great way to upload PPT presentations and share them with others, similar to Slideshare.
Aximedia Slideshow Creator - A wonderful Android app for creating stunning-looking slideshows.
Biteslide - A fantastic site for creating interactive presentations that contain all types of media with educational portal, where teachers create student accounts.
Electric Slide - A nice iOS app that allows users
to present all styles of presentations (PPT, Keynote, etc) wirelessly.
eMaze - A nice site that is a cross between Prezi and PP that allows users to zoom around their presentation. Best of all, a finished presentation can be embedded into a site.
Flixtime - A cool site for mixing photos, videos, and music to create a stunning presentation.
Haiku Deck - A amazing iPad app for creating
beautiful looking presentations with the ability to upload Creative Commons
licensed photos as well as creating charts and graphs.
HelloSlide - A innovative site that allows a user
to add narration to their presentations simply by typing in text.
Kizoa - A fun site for creating slideshows or collages with a built-in photo editor.
Knovio - A nice site for adding video or audio to
a PowerPoint presentation. Ideal for Pecha Kucha style presentations.
Magisto - A cool way to create a presentation with this video mash-up site/app.
Muvee Cloud - Another nice video mash-up site that creates fun looking
movies/presentations by mixing and matching video and music.
Narrable - An innovative site for adding audio to photos to create an engaging slideshow.
Netclick - While Netclick is more of a "student
response system," it is a great way to engage an audience through the use of an interactive slideshow.
One True Media - A fantastic video mash-up site for mixing video, audio,
and images to creating stunning presentations.
PhotoPeach - One of my favorite sites/apps for creating an interactive slideshow with an educational portal. A user can also create a quiz embedded into a slideshow as well.
Photoshow (Roxio) - A nice site for creating slideshows with photos, videos, and music, and sharing publicly or privately.
PhotoSnack - A fun site for creating slideshows for blogs, FB, or Twitter.
Popcorn Maker - One of the easiest video mash-ups sites around to creating stunning presentations.
PowToon - Is a new (beta) and wonderful site for creating amazing animated slideshows/presentations.
Present.me - A great site for "flipping" your classroom by adding a video narration side by side to a slideshow.
Reel - A simple site for uploading presentations to garner feedback and self assessment.
Slide.ly - Create a beautiful looking presentation with images and music.
Slideful - A fun site for creating beautiful looking slideshows.
Sliderocket - A easy-to-use site for creating visually engaging slideshows, recently purchased by ClearSlide.
Slideroll - A nice site/app to create slideshows and publish them on the web.
Slideshare - One of the most popular sites around for uploading and sharing presentations in a secure environment.
SlideShark - A nice iOS app for view and editing PPT on the iPhone or iPad.
Slideshow Creator - SSC on Google+ is probably one of the most popular way to create slideshows in a safe environment for students.
Smilebox - A very popular site for creating beautiful-looking slideshows, collages, presentations and more.
Soo Meta - A wonderful site for "flipping" a classroom and creating excellent looking presentations that can be embedded into a blog or site. Also, there are nice features such as: the ability to embed a poll into a presentation, track usages statistics, and more.
Speaker Deck - A great site for uploading a PDF then turning it into a
slideshow that can be embedded into a site or blog.
Swipe - A new (private beta) site for creating beautiful-looking slideshows that can be used on any device.
TotSplash - An innovative presentation and brainstorming tool for creating engaging presentations that can be embedded into a site/blog.
Vivapitch - A nice plugin for PPT and Android to engage audiences on mobile devices.
Vizlingo - A cool site for making a slideshow out of text.
Vuvox - A great site for creating stunning presentations and slideshows.
WebSlides - A neat way to turn Diigo bookmarks into interactive slideshows.

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Great Photo Projects with Muvee Cloud

4/27/2013

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Muvee Cloud is a redesign of the popular video presentation site Shwup. It is extremely easy to use and has a nice polished look. This site is great for creating school projects with photos and videos. Best of all it is free to educators

What is muvee Cloud all about?

You know the problem: Some people took photos and
someone else brought a camcorder. One guy promises to e-mail his photos and
another friend plans to post hers online. The third person swears he'll send
everyone a DVD, when he has time to get to it. That's why we built muvee Cloud.
We make it as easy as possible for you to consolidate everyone's photos and
video in a private, shared online album. - Muvee Cloud

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Lewis and Clark - Mapping the West

11/20/2012

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On Nov. 15, 1805, after a long awaited arrival, the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Pacific Ocean. One of the most important tasks of the journey was to map the little known areas of the interior of the United States. This site from the Smithsonian Institution offers primary sources that relate to this task, including an 1803 map of Nicholas King, Jefferson’s instructions to Meriwether Lewis, and the results of the careful cartography done by William Clark. There are several sections to this site with many suggested student activities. Celebrate the Corps of Discovery by exploring the information they garnered and mapped out. Compare the pre- and post-expedition maps to see how much knowledge about the United States was increased by the exploits of these brave men.

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Creating Word Clouds with Wordle

8/18/2012

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If you are not familiar with word clouds, than here is a new idea to add pizzazz
to projects that will be upcoming this year. Wordle offers Free software than can be utilized by teachers, academic learning coaches, or students. What a great way to use an unique idea for all types of reinforcement.

You simply input a bunch of text, URL, or del.icio.us tag and Wordle creates the word cloud for you. Simple, easy, and fun! What a wonderful way to incorporate technology into your various lesson activities.

"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.
The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the
source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color
schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like.
You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with
your friends." - Wordle

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30 Online Multimedia Resources for Academic Learning Coaches

6/22/2012

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I found this fabulous ariticle in Tech and Learning discussing 30 Online multimedia resources. I could write about these separately, since I've utilize most of them, but feel this blog would be more useful to bookmark by including all at the moment. Click through and get your favorites for the next school year!

Welcome to the another in a series of PBL Mania Posts here at Tech & Learning. For the next few weeks I am celebrating Project Based Learning. In this post I will
introduce you to some multimedia mega-sites found on the web that can be used in the PBL classroom. Before reading please take a moment to visit and subscribe
to my 21centuryedtech Blog by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans. You will not want to miss this series or future posts involving STEM, Flipping the Classroom, Technology Integration, Common Core, and 21st Century Skills, So Sign Up Now! As always… thanks and have a great week. - Mike Gorman (http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/ )

In this PBL Mania Post I explore Online Multimedia Resources. These fantastic
mega-sites can provide lessons and formative assessment activities for PBL. The
power of project based learning integrated with this type of online technology
allows teachers to provide multimedia that can be used individually, in groups,
or even at home. The multimedia may be a movie, sound clip, picture, simulation,
reading, or game. In PBL, the multimedia may be an entry event, a tutorial, a
basis for further discussion and inquiry, or a tool that measures student
understanding. It could possibly even be an assignment or activity for students
to investigate at home. Best of all, students can even be in control of the
speed of delivery and even control their own remediation by repeating sessions.
Multimedia can be used to flip the classroom, allowing students to participate
and formulate their own inquiry through teacher facilitated posts in content
delivery systems such as Edmodo or My Big Campus. Let's take a look at some of
these large mega resource sites.

WGBH Teacher Domain - Teachers' Domain
is a free digital media service for educational use from public broadcasting and
its partners. You’ll find thousands of media resources, support materials, and
tools for classroom lessons, individualized learning programs, and teacher
professional learning communities.

PBS Teachers – Launched within the last year, PBS
Teachers is an awesome place for all kinds of educational multimedia. PBS
Teachers is PBS' national web destination for high-quality preK-12 educational
resources. Here you'll find classroom materials suitable for a wide range of
subjects and grade levels. They provide thousands of lesson plans, teaching
activities, on-demand video assets, and interactive games and simulations. These
resources are correlated to state and national educational standards and are
tied to PBS' award-winning on-air and online programming like NOVA, Nature,
Cyberchase, Between the Lions and more.

The Khan Academy – At Khan, students and teachers are encouraged to “Watch… Practice… Learn almost anything for free”. The academy has a library of over 2,700 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 276 practice exercises. They make it clear that they are on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace. So many people watch the Khan Videos but overlook their amazing Practice Sessions. If you have trouble because of school filters blocking Khan, look into My Big Campus… also in this article.

YouTube – Let’s not forget YouTube and its amazing searchable collection. These videos can be used for teaching a concept, providing an entry event, or providing the catalyst for a discussion that climbs the Bloom’s Taxonomy ladder. Having trouble with those school filters?… check out My Big Campus and You Tube Education.

Thinkfinity – This site is worth an entire write-up in itself and will provide a wealth of activities for PBL products. You will find quick and easy access to the highest quality teaching and learning materials. Verizon Thinkfinity offers comprehensive teaching and learning resources created by some amazing content partners which are the most respected organizations in each academic subject area and literacy. The easy-to-navigate K-12 resources are grade-specific and are aligned with state standards. This truly is an amazing online community where, along with great resources, you can network with friends and other teachers, and share ideas, plans and advice with others in the education community.

NeoK12 - Take a look and you will find a vast collection of resources and Web 2.o tools that might fit into any lesson. Along with pictures and videos that have been teacher selected, there are also some other amazing features. You can allow your students to create their own mashup presentations using Flickr and Wikipedia. There are quizzes, interactive diagrams, and games that can provide for formative assessment and problem solving.

Watch/Know/Learn - Imagine hundreds of thousands
of great short videos and other media, explaining every topic taught to school
kids. Imagine them rated and sorted into a giant Directory, making them simple
to find. WatchKnowLearn is a non-profit online community devoted to this goal.
Presently this community has over 30,000 videos and is growing every day through
contributions from teachers across the globe. The co-founder of Wikipedia has
launched a Web site designed to offer free access to thousands of
education-related videos for students ages 3-18. Larry Sanger, who helped create
Wikipedia states the site, "will allow students and teachers to sort through a
library of online videos by content, and pick out what they need". Topics range
from math and science to history. The site is meant to house and organize videos
that are free and available online, yet which many educators may not have the
time to search for or may find difficult to locate

NBC Learn - While this is a pay service, I am providing a link to some of their free material that might just connect to your standards. NBC Learn is staffed by veteran NBC News producers, who have created scores of original stories and Town Hall events around the country, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, and others. The free area includes award-winning collections; Chemistry Now, Changing Planet, Science of NFL Football, Science of NHL Hockey, Science of the Winter Olympic Games, and Finishing the Dream. Videos and archival news stories are correlated to state standards and the Common Core.. Videos are generally short — less than six minutes in length — enabling instructors to engage and enlighten their students without wasting precious class time.

Discovery Education - This outstanding pay service also has a section that
is free, found via this link. Discovery Education offers a broad range of free
classroom resources that complement and extend learning beyond the bell. Foster
deeper engagement and provide opportunities for students to take charge of their
own learning with high quality, engaging, relevant tools designed for today’s
busy teachers. Take a moment to explore Discovery's programs and contests, interactive games, puzzles, lesson plans, videos and more.

Smithsonian Channel - From one of the greatest museums comes a network, and this website filled with some amazing clips, games, and activities that might just provide the right spark for some PBL.

National Geographic - Find some amazing videos, pictures, segments, and stories that could be used to spark interest or engage inquiry. Whether it be a discussion starter, an informational lesson, or a question raiser, you will find some awesome content at this site.

History.com - This is an amazing site that is sure to provide a game, video clip, or article that will engage students. Whether it be a hook to begin a study or some outstanding information to sustain learning, it is definitely worth a look.

C-SPAN Video Library - A great collection of both short and longer video
clips that allow students to explore the workings of government. Did you know
that CSPAN also includes American History TV, Book TV, Campaign 2012, and Washington Journal? Best of all, check out a large number of resources on CSPAN
in the Classroom.

BBC Learning for Teachers - What an amazing amount of activities and resources, including over 9000 video clips. Enjoy a visit... you might just stay awhile!

PicsForLearning - Not everything has to be video. Perhaps you wish to use a still image to facilitate a discussion and promote inquiry.

iTunes Education Podcasts - Countless numbers of videos and series' that cover every educational topic imaginable.

Pulse of the Planet - Each weekday, the Pulse of the Planet radio series provides its listeners with a two-minute sound portrait of Planet Earth, tracking the rhythms of nature, culture and science worldwide, blending interviews with extraordinary natural sound.

Center for Civics Education - Make sure you discover these amazing
podcasts, slideshows, and videos. Not to be missed is the 60 second civic education podcast series.

Newton's Apple- Discover the fascinating science of the world around us
through over 300 video clips. Browse the categories, or enter a question or a
keyword in the search box. There are a number of videos with resource guides
included.

American Field Guide - Over 1400 short video
covering all areas of science.

Exploratorium TV - Browse hundreds of webcasts, video clips, podcasts, and
slideshows from the Exploratorium's collection of original programming, from
remote scientific expeditions to fun hands-on activities.

Chemistry Video Collection - Excellent selection
of videos that relate to chemistry. Contains experiments and many simulations
that might not be able to be demonstrated in a standard school lab.

Science Hack - Every video on this web site is screened by scientists to
ensure accuracy.

Math Interactive- MathActive lessons are Flash-animated math modules
designed for grades K-12. Each module features content that touches a geometry
performance objective from the Arizona Academic Standards for mathematics.

Sports Science - Awesome collection of short videos that will engage kids in science and math from the people at ESPN.

Science Videos - A selection of engaging videos and podcasts from the creators at the New York Times.

Copernicus Project - Selection of short biology resources and videos.

How Stuff Works Science - Excellent collection of videos that cover interesting and engaging topics across the science curriculum.

Ted Talk - What an amazing place to begin some deep and meaningful conversations and thought. In fact, there are some amazing videos if you are working on the skill of collaboration. Or, check out the hundreds of other categories.

Science For Kids - Cool place for videos and activities. But wait... while you are there check out Kids Math Games and Fun English Games. You will find a gold mine of resources that can be put into a unit to help your students master content in a project.

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Share Yourself Through VoiceThread

5/29/2012

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Are you familar with VoiceThread? It's a tool for onversing by means of a different media. It's one of the best ways to talk about and share your images, documents, or videos. You create your VoiceThread, and others leave comments by telephone, text, webcam, microphone, or file upload. What a really cool resource for an upcoming project!

With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install.

VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and
colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.

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Woices Shares Voices Associated to Locations and Objects

5/19/2012

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Woices is an interesting tool for sharing "echoes" that are linked to specific geographic locations or real-life objects. This would be a great themed approach for a history project. Just upload and give everyone the "featured tour". You just upload and produce your own app. Then send it out for others to view. There is even a bit of cash in this!

How It Works

1. Sign upSign up for a Woicesguides account. It's completely
FREE.

2. Create your guideUse Woicesguides smart guide building engine to create your guide.

Upload your
custom maps or use Google maps.

Define as
many levels (in case of indoors guides) as you need.

Place points
of interest on top of the maps.

Add media (audio, text, images,...) to every point of interest.

Upload
images to customize the guide look and feel.

Add
additional interesting information for your visitors.

3.Submit it for publishingSend the guide for publishing. Woicesguides will automaticaly compile and create the guide from your materials and design.

4. Get the guide pubished in all major mobile app stores
Woicesguides will publish the guide in every major mobile app store*. Right
now, Woicesguides publish to AppStore, Android Market and BlackBerry
App World.

At the last stage of the guide creation you will be asked whether you want to
charge users for the final app or not:

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Top 10 Sites for Creating Graphs or Charts

2/21/2012

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If you have an upcoming online project, and do not have Excel loaded, there are other sites available to graph and publically display your data. Better yet, these sites offer some excellent graphics to make your project stand out from the others. Peruse the below list and book mark your favorite.

Rich chart Live - An excellent site for created
animated flash based charts that can be embedded into a site. Also, a user
has the ability to add links to a chart.

iCharts     - A wonderful site/network for creating charts that you can
embed into a     site. Also, a user can share charts on social networking sites
and     browse/save other iCharts from the
web.

Chartle     - A great site for creating online interactive charts. What
makes Chartle     so unique and impressive is the ability to create more than
your standard     graphs such as: venn diagrams, maps, gauges, and
more.

Hohli -     A very user-friendly site, similar to Chartle. Users can
create a variety     of charts, such as pie, scatter plots, and radar, then
embed them into a     site.

Lucid
Chart     - A nice site for creating a variety
of different charts and diagrams.     Also, it is a very easy site to use with a
drag-n-drop interface. Best of     all, Lucid Chart has an educational portal
which allows chart creation     free for
education.

ChartGo     - ChartGo is a neat site for creating charts that's very
easy to use. All     a user has to do is fill out the pre-determined sets of
data and select     the type of chart they want to
create.

Pretty
Graph     - A simple site to use to make a wide
variety of graphs, such as: line     charts, histograms , and more. Also, a user
can embed into a site, share     with others users via email, or save as
template.

Diagramly - A cool site for creating     diagrams, flow charts, and more
that is similar to Lucid Chart. Users of     Inspiration should feel right at
home w/ this online tool as there are     plenty of shapes and clip art to
choose from.

Cacoo - A great site for creating online charts and diagrams. A
great feature is the ability to collaborate with others in real-time while
creating a chart via a chat.

Lovely
Charts - A easy site to use to make very
polished charts. While not free, there are three paid versions to choose
from, such as: iPad, online, or desktop.