CALL_IS_VSL

Some beautiful websites with video and photos. You'll have to explore for yourself what the copyright issues are. Some of the sites have good search categories for teachers, like "history" and "art." Using emotionally laden and content-rich digital images is a great way to start a writing project or a speaking class.

A page created by the Media Coordinator of a school, this list of web tools links to Bloom's action verbs. Each visual link leads to a page describing what the tool does and to further support, such as examples and help files. Quite a mammoth piece of work, and it will require a great deal of exploration. Of note is the right-hand column, which lists the experiences provided by the tools, e.g., animating, videocasting, podcasting, etc.

This is the kind of real-life project that makes sense to students an could be used for extensive vocabulary and syntax development. The app used to create Chow Checker (which finds allergens in foods you enter into the app) is free from MIT App Inventor, which has extensive help and documentation. R. Byrne claims you can get students started with this without knowing anything about app programming yourself.

R. Byrne shows us a neat way to use a set of pictures/digital images arranged with the tool PicMonkey to create a collage which you can then upload to Google Drive, Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox, etc., and use with student projects and activities. A nice look.

This looks like fun, and would be great for students doing projects to add some spice to their work.

Interesting article for those who are curating for projects like CALLIS-VSL. Seems to ignore a few of the good tools that are not as visual, but still do the job with list sorting and tagging, like Diigo. Content curation is very important as students get into content-based and project-based learning.

"Improve your English vocabulary with GCFLearnFree Reading program! Fun activities and videos will help you master 1,000 common English words. Reading and listening to texts will improve your ability to speak, read, and understand English." Has interfaces in a dozen or so languages so that learners in a mixed language classroom could learn through their native language. So far it's free (sponsored by Goodwill).

Webcams from around the world are the basis for participatory collection of data about the zoo-universe, as well as astronomy, climate, and genes. Have your students join one of the on-going projects.

This appears to be an infographic that shows how various Internet tools support the Common Core Standards, though it doesn't seem to mention the Common Core. The standards listed, however, are quite ins[iring, and the visual elements with small abstracts desribing each tool, are helpful for finding something that might work with your own classes.

"Student reflection is a key ingredient in project-based learning, and for good reason. As John Dewey reminded us nearly a century ago, "We do not learn from experience . . . we learn from reflecting on experience.""

This is a great collection of tools and the suggestions for video projects for students is excellent. Let your students' creative energy run!

This is "a free, easy-to-use screenwriting tool that helps you build stories for Movies or TV." The interface is a set of notecards on a virtual corkboard that can be moved around to create and organize a storyline. Accessible from table or smartphone as well as desktop. Additionally, there are "post-it notes" that you can stick anywhere to remind yourself where further information is needed, etc. Colorful and flexible, this is a nice graphic organizer for teens and young adults.

Yet another presentation tool that might motivate students. For teens and adults. Lovely colorful interface.

This is a great resource for teaching math and geometry. Slide the figure's grab points around and you will see how the sizes and math change in 2-dimensional objects. Would be great for whiteboard work.

"Be part of a unique scientific experiment by playing games on your phone. "Test your memory, your impulsivity, your attention and decision making. Learn about the neuroscience of every day life. " Another crowd-sourcing data collection to contribute to neuroscience research. Looks like a fun app.

This was the tool used to make Trace Effects for the U.S. Dept of State. It takes hundreds of hours to build an online adventure, but it's a nice long project that some students may really enjoy. It seems to be a pay as you go experience, however, so you'd have to inquire about school discounts, etc.

This two-step exam process sounds like a great way to do online-exams: "The two-stage exam is a relatively simple way to introduce collaborative learning and formative assessment into an exam. Their use is rapidly growing in the physics department at the University of British Columbia, as both students and faculty find them rewarding. In a two-stage exam students first complete and turn in the exam individually, and then, working in small groups, answer the exam questions again. During the second stage, the room is filled with spirited and effective debate with nearly every student participating. This provides students with immediate targeted feedback supplied by discussions with their peers. Furthermore, we see indications that the use of this exam format not only ensures consistency across interactive course components, but it also positively impacts how students approach the other collaborative course components. This is accomplished without losing the summative assessment of individual performance that is the expectation of exams for most instructors. In this paper we describe how to implement two-stage exams and provide arguments why they should be part of physics courses that use interactive engagement and social/collaborative learning methods." The paper is from The Physics Teacher, AAPT.

Nice example of a critical thinking activity. This is how the Gettysburg Address might look in live-tweet version; compare to the full version; research the ways it would link to other sites, etc. An interesting activity that could get students thinking about how the social media world interprets the universe. I can imagine this in a citizenship class, and adapted to many other events and themes. Teens/adults.

Teach-This.com is an interesting site that appears to be developed by teachers for teachers. A typical page, like this one contains a dozen or so activities/lesson plans with a brief description and downloadable pdf files for each. The bottom of the page has links to other topics in the site. The activities specify a learning level, but not age, but almost all are for teens/adult learners. A really good resource, but you'll have to decide for yourself if the activity is appropriate for your own students and teaching style.

"Whether you are looking for teaching activities, worksheets, lessons, games, ideas or articles, you've certainly come to the right place. The pages at Teach-This.com are designed to direct you quickly and easily to the ESL/EFL teaching resource you are looking for. You will find lots of new teaching ideas and activities to keep your classes imaginative and interesting." Created by Paul Adams, this crowd-sourcing site collects lesson plans and activities from teachers and lets other teachers download pdfs and use them. Categorized roughly by themes and grammar structures, there is a lot of helpful cross-referencing. Each lesson has a designated level (intermediate, elementary, etc.) and a brief abstract. Most lessons are for teens/adult learners. It's up to you what pedagogy or approach is going to work with your students. It's free -- add your own lesson!