This video shows Hans Rosling lecturing through the means of augmented reality in order to visually explain the statistical growth of 200 countries over the last 200 years. Plotting life expectancy against income for every country since 1810, we see a world that is quickly evolving.
Here is a great video that I discovered on youtube that higlights the importance of incorporating social media into the 21st century classroom.
CNN offers a ten-minute, commerical-free, daily news program for middle and high school students. The news broadcast and it’s companion website are free of charge and can be viewed by going to CNNstudentNews.com . If you subscribe to it’s podcast using iTunes you can get automatic updates on a daily basis. CNN not only offers a great news feed highlighting the days events from around the world, but the website also offers free supplimentals for teachers to download. Some of the teacher materials...
A couple weeks ago I blogged about the website Animoto for those interested in creating quick and easy movies that require very little input from the creator. Although Animoto is extremely user friendly, the site does not offer much in the way of movie production or customization. Stupeflix is a great alternative to Animoto and allows for students in the class to determine what their end product will look like prior to rendering. The example above is a student creation based on the Virginia Stan...
April 1st already?
Good Luck VCU!
Mailinator.com – Let them eat spam! Mailinator is a website that allows for all students to have a valid email address with no registration or sign-up necessary. There are number of web 2.0 websites that require those that sign up to have a working email address prior to giving them full access to the site. For example, google docs, wikispaces, and prezi all send an email verification to those that sign up before allowing them to create products on their site. When a student registers at one of ...
Looking for a quick and easy way to have your students create a website? Well look no futher – Roxer.com has arrived. Roxer.com is a free online web 2.0 resource that allows for teachers and students to create a stunning website in a matter of minutes. Roxer allows for live editing. Just by visiting the webpage and logging on changes can be made to the site in real time – no need to publish or ftp the finished product to a webhost. Every change is made and updated on the spot. Another benefit wo...
Google docs is a great piece of online software to get you kids working collaboratively in the classroom. I recently spent some time working with a reading teacher who wanted to have his kids work in cooperative groups on a creative writing project. He wanted each person in the group to take turns writing out a different line to a story. For example, he would start the story with a single sentence such as; It was a cold, dark, and rainy night. I was at home all by myself watching television. Sud...
I created my first Prezi today highlighting the key characteristics of the 8 regions of the United States of America as outlined by the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL). My first creation is nothing real snazzy, and involves quite a bit of regurgitation… I was just trying to get a feel for the program. Turns out, Prezi is pretty straight forward. It was not time consuming and did not require much in the way of trial and error. Prezi is presentation software similar to Powerpoint. However, un...
Here is the HD version of our morning announcements introduction that the WUWW staff created using Animoto.com. Thanks to Mr. Nicholas for writing and performing the background music.
Polleverywhere is a great way to get your students engaged in the lesson. The site allows for a teacher to upload up to three multiple choice questions to the site. The site then displays an sms number and automatically generates keyword options for each of the choices. This allows students to use their cell phones to answer the questions by texting in their response. This is a great way to review prior to an assessment or to get quick feedback regarding a certain topic. The results are tabulate...
Animoto allows you to create “stunning video slide shows”. The greatness of this site can be witnessed in the fact that a person can essentially be brain dead and still create a beautiful movie. Non-Tech savvy teachers who want the illusion or false pretense that they are computer gurus will love this site. As far as creativity is concerned it is all smoke in mirrors, but it really generates a cool end product. Teachers can sign up for an educator account free of charge. This account lets you cr...
Titanpad.com is a great way to collaborate with students, faculty, and staff in real time. The beauty of Titan Pad is found in its sheer simplicity. Titan pad is so simple in fact, that you do not need a user-name or an account to use this product. To create your own titan pad you simply type titanpad.com in your browser’s address bar. When you arrive at the site click on the big button that says create public pad . You could also type titanpad.com/socialstudiesproject (or any name of your choic...
Are you ready for a new and relevant way to excite your students about their learning? How about turning your classroom into your very own radio station? Since the creation of the iPod, Podcasts (internet radio shows) have been a huge trend among listeners across the United States. You can find a Podcast on just about any subject in your curriculum. Why not create a Podcast with your class? Below is a link to a video I made a couple years ago that highlights the benefits of pocasting in the clas...
Youtube consists of a lot of poorly orchestrated, and downright asinine video clips. With that said, YouTube also contains a multitude of educational, and worthwhile videos as well. The HCPS filtering system block students from accessing the site and teachers are only able to bypass the filter by having an ethernet connection. Streaming video can also cause downtime in the classroom if the video the class is trying to watch is experiencing buffering issues. Have no fear Kiss YouTube is here! Onc...
The internet can be a scary place. Teachers are always a bit apprehensive when having a classroom of 30 students surfing the web while working on a research project. Proximity is always a good idea when students are online, but how can a teacher monitor every site that all their kids are visiting? Thankfully the filter blocks a good deal of the adult content, but there are always a few sites that manage to bypass the filter. Google Custom Search (GCS) allows a teacher to create a personalized go...
Aviary.com offers an online suite of free creation tools. How this site manages to offer such powerful features and remain free is beyond me. I personally use the site for its wonderful photo editing options. As a matter of fact, with the help of toondoo.com , I was able to create the ITRT Happenings banner as seen above for my blog using Aviary. Aviary essentially mirrors photoshop and gives me the option to save my work to my hard drive or online (not to mention that it is also a few hundred d...
I am not a fan of power point. My eyes often begin to glaze over and drool slowly dribbles down my chin whenever a presenter begins a lecture by reading directly from the text displayed on his/her powerpoint presentation. Don’t get me wrong students need to know how to create power point slides and practice oral communication skills in order to prepare them for the business world, but why not have some fun with it and make it a bit more challenging? I read about an activity online that does just...
Google Earth is a great way to get your kids excited about geography. It also gives them a greater perspective of where certain points on a map are in relation to one another. Google Earth 5 now offers the option to record your voice when creating a tour. The video below consists of a teacher modeled lesson I created to highlight where each of the European explorers traveled during their expeditions (SOL 4a). This project was created using placemarks, overlays, images, and the built in audio rec...
Webspiration is the online version of Inspiration – the popular mind mapping software. Mywebspiration.com offers all of the tools that Inpiration has to offer and then some. Webspiration helps students who are visual thinkers, by allowing for them to organize their thoughts and ideas systematically and provides them with the tools necessary to develop skills to write effectively. This online resource also makes it easy for student to collaborate with one another and provides them with the abilit...
Henrico 21 is an initiative that began last year. It is essentially a contest that allows for teachers in grades k-12 to submit their best 21st century lesson idea to the county level where it is judged using the Technology Integration Progression Chart (TIPC) . Teachers may submit their lessons with a focus on one (or all) of the following areas: Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Creativity and Innovation Research and Information Fluency Communication and Collaboration The winners of this c...
Each and every morning the televised announcements are delivered live on channel 10 closed circuit to the students, faculty and staff at Wilder Middle School. Everyone in the building is able to get real time information regarding up and coming events, important reminders, sports updates, weather, yada… yada… yada… However, since the morning announcements are delivered via. closed circuit they are only viewable “in house”. This in-turn, causes for a large part of the community outside of the sch...
Lorin Anderson, who is a former student of the late Benjamin Bloom, revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and published Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy in 2001. Anderson basically revised the original Bloom’s Taxonomy by simply replacing the nouns with verbs for each category. In Addition, the new Bloom’s taxonomy places creating as the highest order thinking skill. The picture on the left displays the cognitive process beginning with Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) gradually culminating to those Higher Order Th...
Sick of bloggin? Why not try glogging? Glogster is an online web 2.0 resource that allows students to create innovative, and interactive posters. When you sign up for a free edu.glogster.com account you are assigned up to 200 free student glog accounts. It is important to note that the edu version of Glogster is not blocked by the HCPS filter. I created a practice glog based on the novel by Elvira Woodruff entitled George Washington’s Socks. You can check out the glog by clicking on the link bel...
Wordle is a great teaching tool that makes it easy for teachers to transform mundane primary sources, documents, or vocabulary words into aesthetically pleasing eye candy. Can you guess which famous document in American History is pictured above? If you guessed the preamble to the United States Constitution… you would be correct! Wordle.net is a free web resource that can be used in many different ways. Students can create a wordle describing their strengths by having their most prevalent traits...
