CALL_IS_VSL

An online game where you can discover how energy decisions impact life. Don't be put off by the Chevron sponsorship -- there is a wide range of energy resources, and opportunities to point out discrepancies, do research with newer stats, etc. Upper middle school and higher. Can be played in Group mode competitively.

Includes links to Project-based learning methods, Animoto for multi-media, Dipity for timelines, Google Drive for archiving, Glogster for digital posters and media, and Mindmeister for mind-mapping. Each tool is described with reasons for using it. A nice summary of the current state of PBL.

A teacher explains what complex texts are and how to measure their complexity in several ways. An important element in preparing students for college.

"Today the lecture system is the preferred teaching style used by 89% of science professors. Indeed, lecture is a comfortable format for many instructors and a non-threatening one for students. It is low cost, easy to control, and an excellent method for organizing course content. However, many of us are becoming more aware that during lecture students are not actively engaged with the topic, they don�t seem to listen for very long, and their retention of concepts is minimal. Studies show that students are not attentive 40% of the time they are in class and that although attention is high for the first 15 minutes, it declines rapidly until the final 10 minutes of class. " K. Timberlake makes a good case for student-centered strategies, such as group work, and mini-lectures, peer presentations, and formative assessment.

This article (pdf file) considers three styles of motivation: goal-, relationship, and learning-oriented. It then offers strategies for engaging students in their own education. Includes a nice table comparing teaching-centered vs learning-centered classrooms.

"I was recently in a third grade classroom and was struck by the presence of rules that were posted for how to have a conversation. The poster said, "Each person must contribute to the discussion but take turns talking. Ask each other, 'Would you like to add to my idea?' or 'Can you tell us what you are thinking?' Ask questions so that you understand each other's ideas. Say, 'Can you tell me more about that?' or 'Can you say that in another way?'" "Having visited many middle and high schools, I think these same rules could -- and probably should -- be posted there as well. " How important the rules of conversation are! We all too often expect our students to "get into groups and discuss," but how often are these productive conversations? These tips/strategies are well worth practicing at the beginning of every year/semester, and not just with young learners. These tips are also a nice practice for EFL/ESL students as they prepare to speak with native speakers.

A. Kohn: "it's not really possible to motivate anyone, except perhaps yourself. If you have enough power, sure, you can make people, including students, do things. That's what rewards (e.g., grades) and punishments (e.g., grades) are for. But you can't make them do those things well....The more you rely on coercion and extrinsic inducements, as a matter of fact, the less interest students are likely to have in whatever they were induced to do. "What a teacher can do - all a teacher can do - is work with students to create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with: to make sense of oneself and the world, to become increasingly competent at tasks that are regarded as consequential, to connect with (and express oneself to) other people. Motivation - at least intrinsic motivation -- is something to be supported, or if necessary revived. It's not something we can instill in students by acting on them in a certain way. You can tap their motivation, in other words, but you can't 'motivate them.'" Another take on the idea of motivation -- it's easier to kill than to foster. Kohn gives some good advice on how to create NON-readers, and then some ways to get around the traditional approaches to teaching and learning that dominate the field of education.

"Say the word 'grammar' to teenagers and you might be met by yawns or icy stares. But don't be daunted - the experience can be positive, or even fun. On LearnEnglishTeens, you'll find fun grammar resources to use in class and for self study. Here are some ideas for making grammar teaching more teen-friendly." Some good tips (not all easy to live by, e.g., "give rules which are true.") One of the most important is probably using texts to teach grammar. Several important lesson ideas here.

"There are millions of web resources you can access on any web-based device, but here are a few suggestions for web apps that you can find in the Google Chrome Web Store. These work on the Chrome browser on a desktop or laptop and on Chromebooks." A nice visual chart with the task needed opposite the app that could be used with Chrome.

"A few years ago, all I had to do to keep my kids safe online was set up the family computer in a well-trafficked room and walk by every so often. Now, my daughters are 12 and 14, and each has her own iPhone. Their online lives are lived in WhatsApp, Facebook comments, texts, and occasional emails. They regularly interact with kids I've never met. While they're (probably) smart enough not to reveal information to strangers they've never met, my daughters are at risk for cyberbullying (both being bullied and being bullies), overexposure on social networks, and even sexual solicitation. " Some good cyber rules to keep kids from destroying their own lives.

A tool to let you pack images together with little marks to show where they "link" on a main photo page. Include text and video. An interesting tool to pack a lot of information behind one significant image for digital storytelling. For iPhone with Android coming soon, as of this writing.

This is another Instagram-type site. Join and make a social list. I haven't had much use for them myself, but others seem to enjoy this kind of site. I prefer something with more rigid organization.

This is a nice set of tutorial videos showing how to run Listly, a visual bookmarking service.

This is a list of links with very brief notes on what the various applications do for those with learning disabilities or other accessibility issues.

This might be a very useful tool, especially as you could get students to fill in their own vocabulary or content to be studied. The application creates flashcards that look like index cards (red line at the top, lined content section. Paste your published Googe spreadsheet link into the box at the website and it will generate a link to a set of online cards to share. Free

R. Byrne: "Study Boost could be a good service for students to use to study on the go. Using Study Boost students traveling for club or sports activities need to only take their mobile devices with them study. As a teacher you can register and submit batches of questions that your students can study. Or students can create their own sets of questions to study. " This has some potential, especially if students can be persuaded to build their own study questions to answer.

R. Byrne: "Flubaroo is a script that you can use in Google Spreadsheets to have your multiple choice and short answer quizzes graded for you with just a couple of clicks on your part. The latest version of Flubaroo can even be used to email grades to your students. "

R. Byrne: "Wikispaces recently added a Quizlet widget to the library of widgets that you can embed into your Wikispaces pages. Quizlet is a free flashcard service that anyone can use to create and share flashcards. Quizlet offers a massive library of flashcard sets created and shared by other users of the service. And now you can search for Quizlet flashcards, embed them into your wiki, and use four different study modes while those cards are embedded into your wiki. The screenshots below provide directions for adding Quizlet to your Wikispaces wiki." Quizlet can handle various types of media, so it makes for interesting flashcards. This step-by-step visual explanation makes the embedding task easy; creating the flashcards at Quizlet takes some work and thought.

These are some good tools, some of which may be new to you. Includes Dipity, Document Suite (an authoring tool to transform documents into online help modules), Izzui to track and deliver courses, LessonWriter, Scratch from the MIT MEdia Lab for content creation, timeliners, course builders of various sorts, and a list of free podcasting, polling, and quizzing tools. Not much for mobile technology. There is a lot here to explore.

R Byrne has a nice set of links to tools and a brief discussion of how to do a book review site. Try out his book trailer ideas for a lively class project.