Heads in the Cloud

Technology and science project ideas, some with instructions to download. Process and project illustrated in photos. Useful for those working with IB ICT and Design technology.

An online global collaboration examining water resources

Example of an interdisciplinary project and digital collaboration - with some fun science content. To participate in the current project with your elementary or middle school class, investigate Bugscope at http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/.

Trying to find a way to link time and place.. This tool is excellent for documenting current events. With some anachronisms (Country/city names), it can also be used for history projects. You can make a movie of the path - including comments along the way. (eg. http://www.tripline.net/trip/Silk_Road_Travels-35447507447210038F7CB9175B8803EE)

Use this tool to make an interactive poster. You can add all different types of media to this page, making it good for multimodal 21st century learning. Would work well with lots of subjects, but could be especially fun for addressing communication and math. Students could make a Glogster for a word problem they write or explain the concept of slope using a variety of formats. Older students could even work on analyzing data to make their own infographics. This is great for getting students to respond in a variety of modes. Teachers could use this as a communication tool for parents - with info, pics, and videos. Below is an example of a glog made by a 7th grade teacher to "sell" a book -students could make their own glogs similar to this one instead of a traditional book report.

Like Project Noah, this citizen science project aims to involve people from all over in the process of gathering data. Focusing on the fireflies (in New England or elsewhere), this might be a little harder to work on in class - due to the hours, the timing of the school year, or location. It is a great example of partnerships - two colleges and a museum partnering together with the public for learning. Personally, I would probably visit the "Open Call" section with MS students and work on analyzing the data they have collected. You can use the Many Eyes site to make visualizations and maps based on their information from the past years. If you are in IBMYP, consider looking at this issue through negative side of Human Ingenuity - how does the bug spray we use to keep away mosquitos and other insects affect species that do not harm us?

Easy to create your own QR codes. Great for K-3 or Special needs to access sites easily - can even be differentiated by color ( eg. green code is for the plant website). Challenging puzzle work for Gifted, MS, or HS to comprehend or create -( eg.make a map and document great websites to explore about cities with a QR code for each location).

LiveBinders is a free resource that allows you to gather together all of the web-pages you want in one location. You can also include images, videos, and documents (as pdfs) in the binder. Teachers may want to let younger students access the pages they need directly from a binder. Teachers might want to gather all of their websites and resources for a topic in one binder - like all math worksheet sites. Students can put all of the pages in one binder as they are working on a project - to make the information more manageable. Currently, I have students using this for their Technology process folders - they can make tabs for each part of the process, keep all the pages they refer to, and upload any documents they create in googledocs as pdfs. They give me access to see them so i can know how much progress they have made. I actually made a binder with the tabs laid out for them that they copied so we could all start with the same basic plan.

More information about copyright and the internet. Create, remix, and share - legally. "The infrastructure we provide consists of a set of copyright licenses and tools that create a balance inside the traditional "all rights reserved" setting that copyright law creates. Our tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to keep their copyright while allowing certain uses of their work - a "some rights reserved" approach to copyright - which makes their creative, educational, and scientific content instantly more compatible with the full potential of the internet. The combination of our tools and our users is a vast and growing digital commons, a pool of content that can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of copyright law."

Activities to help familiarize students with congress, the roles of is members, and the importance of civic participation. One module directs students to look at their representatives' or senators' websites to see how they take on various roles. These activities could be engaging starting points for lessons, discussion, or student projects.

Intended for HS and College chemistry students. Older students will be able to work through virtual labs or solve a murder mystery in a game. The interactive periodic table would be useful for MS students who are becoming familiar with the elements. There are also many links to hands on activities for younger students. Many partnerships and sponsorships with private institutes and journals help to ensure the highest quality of content. The Chemical Collective site is gathering information on teacher use of and student response to the use of virtual labs.

"[L]esson plans and teaching ideas to related real-world multimedia examples of excellence in teaching, especially focusing on collaborative efforts between classroom teachers and library media specialists in K-12." "The development of media submission software accessible from the S.O.S. site enables educators to upload digital photos and multimedia support materials that help illustrate their lesson plans and ideas. A new feature, buILder (stands for Information Literacy Builder), will allow users to translate lesson plans into actual online lessons for their students. That is, instructors will be able to actually build an online lesson with menus, links, and of course, the research challenge."

Great 21st century subject-specific skill maps for teachers to understand - created in partnerships with the leading national teachers' organization for each subject. ICT skill maps put in context of specific subjects as well. Guides for state leaders, policymakers and/or district and school leaders examining topics like assessment, curriculum & instruction, professional development, and learning standards in a 21st century Skills framework.

Easy to coordinate with use of student's own mobile devices or a classrooms set of iPod touches. Make your students aware of the organisms around them. Show students how to participate in research through collaboration. Works on android and iPhone platforms. Great connection of science to a theme like "Community and Service." I would use with elementary level students.

Support for educating students and adults about how to be aware on the web. Tips for safety in a variety of situations and links to more information. Special pages for parents, educators, kids 7-10, tweens 11-13, and teens 14-17. The animations would b great to include in classroom presentations - access them directly at http://wiredsafety.org/flashandvideo/index.html.

Short direct videos that explain concepts in easy-to-understand terms. Mostly focusing on technology topics, these videos could be used to help with staff development or in the classrooms with students. For students, these videos would make great intros to technology topics or stand as excellent examples that they could model their own videos after for an assignment (eg. explain Google docs to an incoming student through a video they can watch again and again). Generally speaking, accessing Common Craft videos through You Tube is easier, but this has a nice table of contents.

Games that relate to concepts like factoring, combining like terms, and perimeter. Join as parent, student, teacher. Players can work against the computer or challenge other members to a game. Fun to play! Appropriate for Upper El and Middle School.

"MapMaker Kits offer K-12 students the opportunity to work with key mapping concepts at a variety of scales and to see the world in new ways. Unique large-scale maps allow students to immerse themselves in the exploration of dynamic environmental and cultural aspects of the world. MapMaker Kit activities engage students in the manipulation and analysis of a variety of geographic information sets, helping them build skills in critical thinking, the representation of data, and mental mapping."

Our money is tied to our culture, so an interdisciplinary lesson on math and history would be be a logical choice. This website would be good for 2nd to 4th grade students. Adventure, Art, Facts and Collecting Games have some potential for use in a classroom. You can go on a virtual tour of the process of making coins on this site. My favorite feature is the Coin News page because it had some links and coin facts for holidays.