Group items tagged

Authors: Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Patricia McKane, Tera Hafermann (Group 2) Category: practice, games, lessons Discipline: English, Language Arts, Writing, grades 9-12 Tutorial information: There is no tutorial or help. The website has highlighted links and gives directions as you work through the site. Possible Uses: grammar and mechanics practice, learning grammar and mechanics rules Basics: Grammar and mechanics tutorials and practice games are set up for students or classes to work through. There are pictures, noises, and sometimes fake prizes. Positives: Engaging to students, good information on English grammar and mechanics, game format is appealing, lots and lots of content Negatives: Some of the prizes or consequences for a wrong answer are iffy on appropriateness. It is loud.

Authors: Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Patricia McKane, Tera Hafermann (Group 2) Category: test preparation Discipline: English, Writing, grades 10-12 Tutorial information: Help option in upper right corner offers explanations on how to complete any functions and activities of the program. Each section has a view option, to watch the action done for you. Possible Uses: Students can use this to see exactly how their ACT essay was graded. They can then work on improving for a re-take. Teachers and administrators can search score ranges and use the information to see where most students are achieving and also where the overall weaknesses are. Then, they can adapt their curriculum to strengthen that weaker area. Basics: This site is a collection of all the ACT writing exams. To log on, you must have your school's ACT code. Once inside, you can search for any combination of results to see how the students did on the ACT writing exam. The site shows the exact written exam the student wrote. They are scanned into the webpage. It also shows the comments of the graders to the essay and the English score and the overall ACT composite score. There is some personal information available too, like students names, addresses, and social security numbers. This is why you have to have the school code to access it. Positives: You see the exact essay the student wrote. It is online pretty quickly after the students take the exam. It provides good feedback for students wanting to re-take the ACT. You also have access to the writing prompts, and can then use them for practice prompts in the classroom. Negatives: The comments are fairly vague and similar. More specific feedback would be more helpful to students and teachers alike. Must have access code to enter.

Authors: Kaufman, Belcher, Knowles, Duffy (Group 4) Tool Name: Online Books Page Tool URL: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu Category: Online Library Tags: Online Books Page, Online Library, All Levels, English, Science, Math, Social Science, Technology, Journalism, Writing, Music, All topics Grade level use: All Levels Topic/discipline: English, Science, Math, Social Science, Technology, Journalism, Writing, Music, All topics Tutorial Information: No actual help link or tutorial, but there is an FAQ link at the bottom that has a little bit of useful information Possible uses: Research Basic explanation: Online library of books available online in various formats from various sources. Positives: Free content available for researching, large catalog Negatives: Not that easy to use all the time, broken links in some of the results, not as polished as some of the other tools available today

Authors: Kaufman, Belcher, Knowles, Duffy (Group 4) Tool Name: Blogger Tool URL: http://www.blogger.com Category: Blogging Tags: Blogging, Blogger, All Levels, English, Science, Math, Social Science, Technology, Journalism, Writing, Music, All topics Grade level use: All Levels Topic/discipline: English, Science, Math, Social Science, Technology, Journalism, Writing, Music, All topics Tutorial Information: Help Links located at bottom of page for all users Possible uses: Blogging Basic explanation: Users can create and customize a blog to detail information they wish to add to it, can also read and comment on others blogs. Positives: Easy use, customizable, large community, can connect it to other sites (login using google user name instead) Negatives: May be blocked by some districts, have to set up blog how you want it (can be time consuming)

Group 2: Wenzel, Getchius, McKane, & Hafermann Tool Name: Discovery Education URL: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/ Category: classroom resources, assessments, lesson plans Tags: English, science, math, reading, writing, social studies Grade Level Use: K-12 Topic/discipline: English, math, science, reading, writing, social studies, and technology Tutorial Information: There is a help section in the upper right hand corner of the page as well as a contact us link at the bottom of the page Possible Uses: Teachers can use to create or edit lessons. Teachers can learn how to use media in the classroom as well as use some of the site's media information in creating lessons. Basics: Discovery Education allows teachers to utilize lessons and ideas to create new and improved lessons in the classroom. The site also has games available for classroom use. Positives: The site is easy to navigate and has a lot of useful information. The site also has a parent corner for parents to stay informed. Negatives: The school or teacher using the website must have an access log-in

Authors: Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Particia McKane, Tera Hafermann (Group 2) Category: web quest Discipline: History, Literature, English, grades 10-12 Tutorial information: There is no tutorial or help. The site takes you though and presents choices only. Possible Uses: background information, historical information, literary connections Basics: takes students through the witch trials as if they were there Positives: very engaging, real life choices for students, relates well to literature and history of Puritan America Negatives: when accessed multiple times, site slows down

Group Members' Names (Group Number 4: Belcher, Kaufman, Knowles, Duffy) Category- Online Story Telling Grade level- PreK-8 Topic/discipline - Reading, Listening, ESL Tutorial information - At the bottom of the screen users may click on TumbleTour to learn more about the website. Possible uses- Students could listen to books independently during reading workshop, or free time. Teachers can also project the stories for children to watch. Basics - Students across all grades can use this as a way to read books online, listen to audio books or watch video of their favorite story books set to animation. Positives - The website is full of popular texts and extremely engaging. Negatives - The site is not free. However, most local libraries purchase the license and allow public access. To get to Tumblebooks you will have to go through your local libraries webpage.

Group 1 (Bulfer, Sennett, Gourley, Carl) Category: Creative Art Grade level use: 3-8 Topic/discipline: Art, English, Reading, Spelling Tutorial Information: Click on "How to Play" Walks you through making a movie and picture. Tutorials, Top 10 Questions, Tips and Tricks, Kids FAQ, Teacher FAQ, Contact Us. There are also YouTube videos available. Possible uses: Create a storybook, spell a picture, make a picture, make a movie, make a card, make a story, doodle pad, make a drawing. Basic explanation: Kerpoof Studio lets a student create the above mentioned. They can also save their creations, share their creations, vote on shared scenes, create an avatar, and earn Kerpoof Koins. The Koins can be used to buy more features to use when creating things. There are more benefits if you buy a membership (1 month is $4.39, 6 months is $24.79, and 1 year is $44.79) the benefits are that you can chat with friends, create with friends, and share Kerpoof Koins. Positives: Has a separate section for teachers with lesson plans and other ideas. The website offers many creative channels for students. The registration goes through the parents email. Negatives: A solid program, but I wish it had more for older students.

Authors: Group 1 (Bulfer, Sennett, Gourley, Carl) Category: Book cataloging social network Grade level use: All levels Topic/discipline: Library, language arts Tutorial information: Take a tour or FAQ section Possible uses: catalog and classify books, social networking, book reviews Basic explanation: Library Thing is a social network of book lovers. People can add up to 200 books for free into their account by searching author, title, ISBN and then catalog them in different ways. Book lists can be public or private. Positives: Can connect with people who enjoy the same books, get recommendations based on favorite books or find out which books you would probably not enjoy, no advertising Negatives: Must pay a small fee for more than 200 books.

Authors: Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Particia McKane, Tera Hafermann (Group 2) Category: practice, games Discipline: most school subjects are represented, grade 7-12 Tutorial information: tutorial center, frequently asked questions, and help options all available at bottom of the page. When clicking on the tutorial, there are many categories available, with quality answers and help. Possible Uses: lesson review, practice games, student competitions Basics: database of educational games organized by subject and then content of game Positives: Engaging to students, many choices, games are involved, have to spell correctly, a lot of free content that does not involve log in Negatives: Some things you must log in and create and account to do

-Authors: Regilio, Saal, Costello, Stroch - Group #5 -Tool Name: Glogster -Tool URL: http://www.glogster.com -Category: Interactive Poster -Tags: images, picture, pics, pix, photos, text, music, video, clips, poster, -Grade Level Use: High School and College -Topic/discipline: history, art, english -Tutorial Information: There is just a tab at the bottom for FAQs -Possible Uses: Class presentations, Posters for Clubs -Positives: Posters can be made quickly and easily for presentations. Free -Negatives: This site has no "crowd patrol". It might be too "open" for the education field.

Group Name: (Group 4 (Belcher, Kaufman, Knowles Duffy) Catgegory: free interactive posters Grade Level: All Topic/discipline: social networking and expressing ideas in all content areas Tutorial Information:edu.glogster.com offers great resources for teachers including several links for specific tutorials from the homepage. Possible Uses:Links, images, text, videos, music come together together to represent personal diaries, research project information, digital scrapbooks, lab reports Basics: Students and teachers can create interactive posters which can be embedded in wikis or websites. Very easy to creat! Positives: free, can create student accounts, easy to click and drag, resize etc.. Negatives: I really haven't found any weaknesses other than sometimes my perfectionist students get a little carried away with the details!

-Authors: Regilio, Saal, Costello, Stroh - Group #5 -Tool Name: Lulu - Tool URL: www.lulu.com -Category: Publishing website -Tags: on demand publishing, self publishing, on demand publisher, self publisher, self-publish, book printing, book printer, free publishing, print-on-demand, POD, print on demand, eBook publish, ebook publisher, on demand books, sell ebooks, independent publisher, book publishing company, getting published, out of print books, on-demand books, online bookstore -Grade level use: Elementary school and up -Topic / discipline: Literature, English, Publishing, Photography, Culinary, Art, Poetry, Video Production -Tutorial Information: There is a help button at the top of the home page on the website. There is also a support tab on the home page of the website. -Possible uses: Publish books, , publish photography books, publish cook books, publish calendars, publish CD's and DVD's, buy all of the products listed previously, publishing packages available, retail listings available, and marketing packages available. -Basic Explanation: Be able to publish your own book or independent work. People are also able to buy your work. -Positives: Anyone can publish their work professionally! Website is easy to use and navigate. Forums, blogs, and newsletters available -Negatives: EXPENSIVE!!