Group items tagged

This site offers a growing bank of imaginative, highly visual teaching-aids developed for use with interactive whiteboards in 11-18 Schools. The resources are designed to be used as rich sources of visually stimulating material, making use of both animations and drag and drop interactivity. The appropriate Key Stage is indicated for each resource. It is hoped that the resources will help students to make sense of some of the more challenging concepts they encounter.

Stop Disasters is a collection of disaster simulation games created by the ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction). As students play the games, they learn about natural disasters and actions that people can take to help protect themselves and others. The student's job is to plan and construct a safer environment for their population. Students must assess the disaster risk and try to limit damage when natural disasters strike. Some advice that students are given within the game will be good and some of it will be bad, it is up to them to discern which is which. Students can choose from 5 different scenarios, Tsunami, Earthquake, Hurricane, Wild Fire, and Flood. Each scenario has 3 levels: easy, medium, and hard. When students enter the simulation, they are greeted by a local who briefs them on the situation. Students are given a budget and time limit to complete the necessary precautions. After 20 min., the natural disaster occurs and tests their solutions. Students develop the land and learn about their choices each step of the way. During the game students can keep track of their budget, the population they are working to keep safe, a map and risk management map, and their remaining time. The game is very engaging, it reminds me of the SIM City games that I played as a kid. This game will put those critical thinking muscles to the test!

"Turn your students into historians with primary-source based activities that develop historical thinking skills. Activities are ready to use in your classroom. Or alter an existing activity to fit your unique needs. Exchange primary source documents and modify activity instructions. "

Moonbase Alpha is a new online game developed by NASA to be played on the Steam online gaming platform. Moonbase Alpha a simulation/ role playing game in which players assume the role of an astronaut working to repair equipment in order to restore oxygen delivery to a settlement on the moon. The game can be played by up to six players at a time who communicate using voice over communication.

ISTE Learning is an anytime, anywhere online community for professional development where educators can sample free concepts, buy cool resources and exchange creative ideas. This space provides relevant learning experiences in multiple formats to strengthen the teaching experience and grow digital literacy.

"At Google, we support the education of families on how to stay safe online. That's why we've teamed up with online safety organization iKeepSafe to develop curriculum that educators can use in the classroom to teach what it means to be a responsible online citizen. The curriculum is designed to be interactive, discussion filled and allow students to learn through hands-on and scenario activities. On this site you'll find a resource booklet for both educators and students that can be downloaded in PDF form, presentations to accompany the lesson and animated videos to help frame the conversation. "

A nice set of tools for developing Online Courses

"Summer is a time when many of us are thinking about and planning professional development workshops for our schools and for other schools. I've always found that a short 3-5 minute video can be a good introduction to a PD sessions and or make for a nice thought-provoking break during a PD session. Here are seven videos that I think serve those purposes well."

"This whitepaper takes a comprehensive look at the research, policies, and practices of technology literacy in K-12 settings in the United States. It builds a research-based case for the central importance of "doing" as part of technology literacy, meaning more than just being able to answer canned questions on a test. It also explores the current approaches to develop meaningful assessment of student technology literacy at a national, state, and local level."

Flash app (which is in constant development) showing how active & dynamic the Social Web, Mobile Industry and Game Business are.

"The Interesting Ways to Use series has been really successful. I measure their success in how useful they are to teachers and other educators in helping with professional development. They have been a great example of crowdsourcing good quality classroom ideas and it has been great fun connecting with all of the people who have taken time to add an idea. It is remarkable what can be achieved and created together if you give people the right way to do it. Thanks for all the help so far. It all began with One Idea, One Slide and One Image as a premise for the IWB presentation and that has always remained. I hope we can all continue to create them - let me know if you have any other ideas for a presentation. I wanted to keep the family together in one place and give you one page to see them all, as so many of you have requested. Don't forget that if you want to contribute an idea just let me know and I will give you access to share your thoughts."

"The Interesting Ways to Use series has been really successful. I measure their success in how useful they are to teachers and other educators in helping with professional development. They have been a great example of crowdsourcing good quality classroom ideas and it has been great fun connecting with all of the people who have taken time to add an idea. It is remarkable what can be achieved and created together if you give people the right way to do it. Thanks for all the help so far. It all began with One Idea, One Slide and One Image as a premise for the IWB presentation and that has always remained. I hope we can all continue to create them - let me know if you have any other ideas for a presentation. I wanted to keep the family together in one place and give you one page to see them all, as so many of you have requested. Don't forget that if you want to contribute an idea just let me know and I will give you access to share your thoughts."

The Military Times has a multimedia presentation on the 9/11 Memorial developed at the Pentagon.

"Copyright laws can be vague and confusing. We hope that you can find your way with the help of this information. Although this website was developed for North Carolina educators, it should be of use to teachers and librarians everywhere."

App Friday is a weekly feature on a family-friendly developer from Moms With Apps (i.e., someone in our Google Group, which are the folks listed on our sidebar). We highlight one of the developer's apps with a review and description, along with a FREE download or special promotion.