BC UDL

The Concord Consortium is working on technology-rich science curriculum modules for grades 3-6 which will be designed according to UDL principles.

A blog about interactive whiteboards and how they can be used effectively in education. Also discussion of other technology that impacts on education. There are some very simple activities described, such as the plenary circle, and also some very cool guru tricks.

Excellent online timeliner recommended by iLearn website. See her July 22 2008 review for comments about using Capzles in the classroom to keep a log of your students' reading progress through the year! This timeliner has an extremely attractive interface and is easy to use. You have to upload photos, videos, and audio files that you want to use. You can add short captions and descriptions easily to those files. The descriptions box looks small but expands as you add more text. Once you're out of edit mode a person clicking on the picture sees the whole block of text. If you want to create a longer text entry, you can blog directly on the timeline. It's unfortunate that you can't create a blog entry and have a picture, too, as the text graphic is kind of plain. Very slick feature grabs the date from your uploaded photos and adds them to the correct place on the timeline. Ideal for classroom use if kids don't spend too much time fiddling with the themes options. The only problem for classroom use is that you can't embed live links which is necessary for linking to sources used or other important sites. Or maybe I just didn't figure it out.

This excellent Australian site tells you how to subscribe to podcasts, how to get started, and points you to some real examples of podcasts used in the classroom.

Dipity is a free online timeliner tool . I've looked at several and think it may be the best for intermediate students to use. It's easy to create a free account and start working. The interface is very simple and requires no tutorial. Basically, each new event gives you boxes for title, date, upload a picture or video, url link, and description. You can share timelines out by email or automatically to popular online sites such as Diigo, Facebook, etc. iLearn website has a review of this timeliner and ideas for using it in the classroom in the July 22 2008 entry.

One-stop shopping for rubrics. This site contains a great rationale for using rubrics, advice on how to write good rubrics, and links to sample rubrics, rubric collections, and rubric generators (Try the Rubistar generator and storage link).

October 15, 2008 post. Seventeen Halloween SMARTBoard activities.

Big Universe(R) is an award winning web community devoted to beautiful children's picture books. READ hundreds of offerings from today's best children's book publishers, CREATE e-books with the help of an easy-to-use Author Tool, and CONNECT with other Big Universe members to share your creations and to learn what books they have read, created, or recommend. Parents, teachers, kids, authors, and others can share and learn while they enjoy this educational and entertaining website.

Amazing spelling site recommended by James Hollis (Teachers Love SMARTBoards). Input a list of spelling words and click test me, teach me, or play a game. The test me section gives the word orally , uses it in a sentence, and the student spells it and gets feedback. The teach me section spells the word orally and uses it in a sentence. The play a game section instantly generates games such as word search, crosswords, hangman using the spelling words. The games work great on a smartboard.

This section of flikr teaches social studies by inviting you to comment or tag photos. I searched for Titanic and found some very poignant images with comments by the people who had viewed the picture already. This could be a very powerful learning tool.

This is a great free site for kids to create and share stories in comic form. I tried it and found it to be a very simple interface. You select a page layout and can add your own pictures or pictures from the web. You add your choice of talk balloons and double click to add the text. You can also add text for titles. There are some good examples of student work on the site, e.g. on the French Revolution.

This is a super-fun word-search game on the tags associated with Flikr photos. Just type in a word (you don't need a Flikr name unless you only want to use your own photos) and the puzzle is created instantly. For more info see Paul Hamilton's review at

Make very cool animated movies just by typing. Be careful to turn off the ability of others to comment as some problems have been reported by team members.

Xtranormal's mission is to bring movie-making to the people. Everyone watches movies and we believe everyone can make movies. Movie-making, short and long, online and on-screen, private and public, will be the most important communications process of the 21st century and its democratization is a massive business opportunity. Our revolutionary approach to movie-making builds on an almost universally held skill-typing. You type something; we turn it into a movie. On the web and on the desktop.

literature website, many novels with online and printable questions, lots of information

The folks at eThemes have already searched 1000 themes for kid-friendly sites. They have also rated the sites with a star system. A phenomenal resource that will save you lots of time searching.

100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better. Jan Fraser recommended this excellent list of ways to use your iPod for education.

Interactive Whiteboard Resources for Teachers. A variety of free, easy to use IWB resources, for teaching a variety of subjects. New resources added weekly. These are great resources, mainly in math but there are a few language arts and one geography resource.

temaplates for Smartboards

The CAST UDL Editions are a set of free public domain novels that have been engineered with UDL principles. They contain leveled supports for text-reading, vocabulary and comprehension as well as story elements such as character and setting. These inter

Fabulous for use with any subject that can be turned into a story. This is especially good for author projects, history reports, and adaptations of stories. It can be used by teachers from intermediate grades through college, depending on the topic, need, and abilities of the students. Be sure to explore the many links to see how other schools and students have used digital storytelling. Many examples and excellent resources.