Group items tagged

Costello, Regilio, Saal, Stroh; Group 5 Tool name: Illuminations http://illuminations.nctm.org/ Category: interactive Tags: math, lesson plans, activities, NCTM Resources Grade level use: All Grade Levels Topic/discipline: Math Tutorial information: There is no tutorial or help section however; this website is very easy to navigate. In each individual game there is a link for instructions. Possible uses for students, teachers, and/or administrators: Teachers find math lesson plans and activities for students at every grade level using every math skill you can think of. It also provides teachers with tools to create materials such as game spinners, times tables and graphs. There are also games and activities for students to so on the computer. Positives: This site is very easy to navigate. The search options for teachers are simple. The topics available for study are many. Negatives: There is no help or tutorial for this site. Some of the activities listed for multiple ages actually seemed to be a bit advanced for young children.

Costello, Regilio, Saal, Stroh; Group 5 Tool name: Book Builder http://bookbuilder.cast.org/ Category: digital books Tags: diverse learners, individual needs, Universal Design for Learning UDL, digital books Grade level use: All Grade Levels Topic/discipline: Literacy, special education Tutorial information: On the home page there is a button labeled "Learn About Universal Design for Learning." After clicking on this link you have the choice to watch videos or read about the site. Possible uses for students, teachers, and/or administrators: Teachers can use this tool to create books for their students to read and listen to online. They also have a large library of "model" books for students to view and read. Basics: This website provides tools for teachers to create books their students can listen to and read. Teachers are able to attach images, text and sound to create their book. Teacher can also search the model books for topics that are relevant to the class. Positives: Struggling reads can use the listening option to help them with unfamiliar words when the teacher is unavailable. Because the teacher can create books they can be on any topic and at whatever level students need. You can also access books created by other who are willing to share them. Negatives: Some of the books already on the site where being read word by word. It was very choppy reading and could have a negative effect for a student who struggles with fluency.

Authors: Group 2 (Hafermann, Getchius, Wenzel, McKane) Category: Social network for book lovers Grade level use: All levels Topic/discipline: Language Arts, Literature and Composition Tutorial Information: "Help and Questions" link located at the bottom of the page once you log into your account. Help page has a drop down box that provides several different features for the user. In addition, you can ask the "shelfari community" questions. Possible uses: Journaling, book reviews, independent reading, reader's workshop, literature circles, social networking Basic explanation: Shelfari has the same concept of facebook, where as you are social networking with friends, however, you are able to keep track of books you have read, books you want to read and books you are currently reading. Another feature is that you are able to send e-mails, or look at your friends' bookshelf to see what they are currently reading or written reviews on. Positives: User friendly, provides a visual of all book covers, appeals to the younger crowd. Negatives: Users are able to post on other user's shelves, which could present a problem if the messages are inappropriate.

Group Members: (Group 4 Belcher, Kaufman, Knowles, Duffy) Category: Social networking site for book lovers Grade level: All levels Topic/discipline: Language Arts focus with cross-curricular potential Tutorial information: There are tabs on the homepage for Shelfari discussion groups which include FAQ's and a forum for asking questions. Possible uses: Teachers and students can create virtual bookshelves, join groups and invite friends. Book suggestions can be made, discussions, and networking. Basics: Users are able to create virtual bookshelves by searching for books or get ideas on what to read next through automatic suggestions or by joining a group. Positives: Ease of navigation, free, blog, media widget for both Facebook and MySpace Negatives: interaction with strangers, potential for misuse

Group 2: Wenzel, Gretchius, McKane, & Hafermann Tool Name: SuperKids URL: http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/ Category: Online educational tools Tags: Worksheets, iPhone apps., games Grade Level Use: K-12 Topic/discipline: Reading, vocabulary, music, math, language arts Tutorial Information: This site has all of the navigation information located on the left side. There is a link to about Superkids and contact us. Possible Uses: Use fun educational games in class. Use the PSAT and SAT flashcards for test reviews. This site can also be used from home for student practice. Basics: Superkids allows teachers and students to access practice assignments and educational games for almost every subject area. The site also reviews and rates educational software. There are articles on important educational issues listed on the site. The site also has PSAT and SAT review information. It has iPhone apps that can be downloaded for use on the go. Positives: Easy to use and easy to navigate through. The site uses games to create a more interesting learning environment for the student. Negatives: There are not that many games or tools to use so the site may only be able to be used for so long before a student has played all the games in a particular subject area. Also, there is no way for the teacher to grade the work the student does on the computer.

-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!

Group 2: Tera Hafermann, Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Trish McKane Category: online poster maker Grade Level Use: all levels Topic/Discipline: reading, language arts, social studies, science, math Tutorial Information: On the homepage of the website you can choose to create a glog for free. This allows the user to play with the different features of making a glog without committing to signing up for an account. Possible Uses: Students can use this to create posters for any subject as the culminating project for a unit. Basic Explanation: Glogster is a site that allows teachers and students to create posters and lessons online. Posters contain photos, videos, links to other sites, and audio explanations. It is an interactive way to get students more involved and engaged in learning. Positives: Glogster is engaging. It is beneficial to students who struggle with reading and writing because it allows them to show what they have learned through a multimedia presentation with less writing required. Negatives: Does require an account, however a basic educator account is free.

Group 3: Sarah Vaughn & Sara Reich Category: interactive poster Grade level use: junior high, secondary Topic/discipline: any Tutorial Information: Very intuitive- a little bit of playing around and students can figure out most everything you can do with a glog Possible uses: posters for presentations, summative assignments Basic Explanation: Glogster takes the idea of the old posterboard assignment and allows students the opportunity to "paste" in pictures, add information, add video and music, include podcasts Positives: Easy to use, students enjoy presenting this "posters" Negatives: Some difficulty saving and finding glogs, students may need to convert files to add to glog

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.

Group 2-Tera Hafermann, Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Trish McKane Category: online educational games Grade Level Use: K-8 Topic/Discipline: reading, math, science Tutorial Information: Since this is a site of online educational games, the tutorials come when you select a game. Possible Uses: This site could be used as a way to review math facts. It can also be used to engage students in science projects. Used in correlation with other sites, students can read the online books or comics and respond to them using Prezi or Capzles. Basic Explanation: Funbrain is a site that has games students can play to practice reading and math skills. It also has a blog for students. Positives: The site is engaging for students who like to play video and online games. Negatives: The site itself is rather busy and may make it difficult for students to find what they are looking for. It is also just limited to blogging and game playing.

Group 2-Tera Hafermann, Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Trish McKane Category: online flashcard maker Grade Level Use: grades 5 and up (though could be used for whole class on IWB for younger grades) Topic/Discipline: any discipline where vocabulary is involved Tutorial Information: A tutorial video is available on YouTube. The URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diqf0P5dbNQ. Possible Uses: This is a flashcard generator and is used to create or download vocabulary flashcards for studying purposes. Basic Explanation: This site allows students and teachers to create or search for vocabulary flashcards and share them with a study group or class. Flashcards can be downloaded and printed, they can be exported, and they can be shared on Facebook as well as with specific individuals. The site also included games as a way to study vocabulary. Positives: This site allows otherwise disorganized students to organize their vocabulary lists neatly. It allows them to share with a study group and to seek out already created lists and export them to their account. It is free. It is also user friendly. The site was created by a high school student to help him/her study vocabulary. Negatives: The site is not really kid-friendly in the sense that students younger than 5th grade cannot use it easily. The teacher must do most of the work with students in the lower grades.

Group Members' Names (Group Number 4: Belcher, Kaufman, Knowles, Duffy) Category- Manipulatives Grade level- K-12 Topic/discipline - Math, Science, Technology, Art Tutorial information - Users can click on each manipulative and find brief instructions on the right side of the screen. For more detailed directions users can click on Instructions at the top of the screen. Possible uses- This tool could be used in math. Instructors could use this with a projector/Smartboard instead of using an overhead. This could also be used in science to graph results from experiments. There are other manipulatives too such as tessellations that could be used in teaching art. Basics - Teachers and students of all ages can interactive with various math manipulatives from different disciplines. Positives - All manipulatives that teachers might purchase for their classroom are available free on this site. All students have access to their own set of manipulatives online. Basic operations are available for free use via the website. Negatives - To gain complete access to all the features of the manipulatives, one can download the free trial and then purchase the tools for $39.95.

Authors: (Group 1)Tim Sennett, Bulfer, Carl, Gourley Category: teacher forums and activity links Grade level use: all levels Topic/discipline: science Tutorial information: Help link science teachers together to find classroom and field trip activities. Possible uses: Find and share classroom activities as well as staying current on upcoming conference and meeting. Basic explanation: A science teacher could use this site to find different presentations and conferences that they could use to aid in their classroom material. Other website links are also given to connect to other classroom activities. Positives: The state conferences and presentations are provided for teachers as well as websites for classroom activities. Negatives: Many of the connecting websites are not useful for classroom activities and are more for the teacher and conferences

- Authors: Reglio, Saal, Costello, Stroh - Group #5 - Tool Name: Smarttutor - Tool URL: http://smarttutor.com - Category: Educational site - Tags: Education, reading, math - Grade level use: k- 5th grade - Topic/Discipline: Can be used to supplement a phonics based reading program - Tutorial information: Provides tabs for appropriate reading grade level. Also provide both visual and auditory cues for where to place the cursor. - Possible uses: to supplement a reading program, provide remediation, home-school use - Basics: The first step is to click on an appropriate grade level, choose a skill set, follow both the verbal/visual cues to proceed through reading tasks. - Positives: This tool is both visually and auditorally engaging. It provides immediate feedback for both correct response and error correction. Its use is child friendly. -Negatives: To the side of the homepage are options for information on purchasing a reading software program.

-Authors: Regilio, Saal, Costello, Stroch - Group #5 -Tool Name: Delicious -Tool URL: www.delicious.com -Category: bookmarks, social bookmarking -Tags: Favorites, -Grade Level Use: K-12 educators, 7-12 students -Topic/discipline: Would be useful for all subjects. -Tutorial information: There is a blog tab. There is also a support tab at the bottom with a tutorial/FAQs -Possible Uses: For classes to build a favorites that they can have access to from the web. -Positives: Keep, share, and discover the best of the web for sharing with the entire class. -Negatives: I really couldn't come up with a negative for this one because you can use it anywhere there is web access.

Costello, Regilio, Saal, Stroh; Group 5 Tool name: ReadWriteThink Note takers http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/readwritethink-notetaker-30055.html Category: organizing, summarizing Tags: Outline, Notes, Summary, Graphic Organizer, Research Grade level use: 3-12 Topic/discipline: Literacy, writing Tutorial information: One the main page students click "Get Started" to begin a new outline. Before beginning the outline there is an option for a tutorial on how to use the outline. Possible uses for students, teachers, and/or administrators: Students can use to take organized notes while reading. It can also be used to help students develop ideas as a prewriting activity. Teacher could use to quickly create notes for students. There is also an option to have an HTML assigned to your outline for Internet access so teacher can make it available to students anywhere. Basics: You begin by entering your name and the topic of you outline. The first time using it watch the tutorial. There are only a few buttons to use while creating your outline so it is very simple. Positives: It would be helpful to a student who gets bogged down by handwriting and outline format when trying to take notes. It is easier to use than formatting bullets on Word. Can be accessed on any computer with Internet connection. Negatives: The help section within the actual outline is not very helpful. It only explained what the tutorial demonstrated.

Authors: Group 2 (Hafermann, Wenzel, McKane, Getchius) Category: Online library Grade level use: All levels Topic/discipline: Social sciences, language arts, math, science, technology, history, primary sources (as tags) Tutorial Information: "Ask a Librarian" link is located at the top of the main page of the website. Once clicked, the next page is separated into 5 sections: 1) General Collections, 2)International Collections, 3) Digital Collections, 4)Special Formats and Genres, 5)Other Programs and Services Possible uses: Research projects, daily historical trivia, use of primary sources for lessons in Language Arts, Literature and Composition, and Social Studies. Basic explanation: The Library of Congress provides a vast amount of primary sources for teachers to use in the classroom. The site has five main features which can be found at the top of the main website. For example, the American Memory link provides free access to maps, audio, video, and pictures. Positives: Unlimited amount of resources to be used in the classroom. Free! Negatives: Too much information, students may not know where to begin.

Group Members' Names (Group Number 4: Belcher, Kaufman, Knowles, Duffy) Category- Presentation Grade level- All Topic/discipline -All Tutorial information - Users may click on "Learn" to read about the basics of Empressr. For additional support, users may click on "Support" to find answers to frequently asked questions. Possible uses- Empressr may be used as a way for students to share their PowerPoint presentations with others. Teachers and students may view other Empressr presentations. Basics - Empressr is an online storytelling database. Users can easily create presentations on Empressr or upload a PowerPoint. These can easily be shared through email or social networking sites. Positives - Empressr does all the animations for your presentation so you do not have to spend a lot of time doing that on your own. It also allows others to view your presentation easily online so file sharing is a cinch. Negatives - Teachers should be careful using this in the classroom, since it is open to the public. It might not be a good idea to let students use the sight independently.

Group Name: Group 2-Tera Hafermann, Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Trish McKane Tool Name: Capzles Category: online timeline creator Grade Level Use: 2nd grade+ (with guidance for the younger children) Topic/Discipline: social studies, reading, science, math, language arts, just about anything where timelines or how tos can benefit someone. Tutorial Information: The site allows you to view public capzles, or photo/video timelines. In order to create a capzle, you must join the site-this is free. Once in the site, choose to create a capzle and the site walks you through the process step by step. Possible Uses: create timelines of historical events in social studies, create personal timelines of events in language arts, create a timeline of a story or novel, create a how-to timeline in science or math. Basic Explanation: This tool allows the user to upload photos, music, and videos to the site to include in a timeline. It also allows you to upload voice recordings about the photos and to blog on the photo. The user can embed a capzle on their Facebook wall. It also has an app for your iPhone. Positives: Easy to use and explain to children. Engaging. This allows students who are fearful of writing long essays to show what they know in a format that encourages creativity. Negatives: Does require you to sign up for an account, but it is free. Younger students will need a lot of help with this at first.

Authors: Group 1 (Bulfer, Sennett, Gourley, Carl) Category: Online Tutoring Platform Grade level use: 11-12 Topic/discipline: Could be used in for all disciplines. Tutorial Information: Click on "How it Works" pre-written Q&A. Possible uses: Study with fellow students are tutors. Basic explanation: Students sign up and find teachers for specific subject areas. They then set up a time to meet via Skype or chat and go over what the student needs help with. The website is the middle man for payments. The teachers are given a rating by each student as well. A teacher could set up an account and only work with his or her students and offer times outside of school to help the student through this website. Positives: Students have a chance to get help outside of school in a convenient way. Negatives: The students are not guaranteed to get a quality tutor. There needs to be much parental involvement. I think that safety needs to be addressed.