Heads in the Cloud

Great site to make pictures with words. Students can run passages or speeches through Wordle to come find the main points. This could extend from entering in a sonnet to inputing a student's own diet record. Design elements make this fun to play with. Could be used with technology lesson to review the role of tag clouds on the internet or look at visual representations of information (eg. surveys).

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.

Online games and simulations to explore topics like refugees, world hunger, and natural disasters. Great example of content in games being great because of its link to a high-level institution.

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.

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.

A quick and easy reference. This tool might be nice for introducing other teachers to the possibilities of Diigo.

If you just want to record and modify audio - this is a great option. I like the small easy-to-use window that allows me to see most of my screen while I am recording so I can still glance at notes or images that I may be speaking about. Audacity allows you to export in several formats, including MP3s, making the process of uploading a track to a website or blog pretty simple. You do have to download this software.

David Warlick's new InfoGraphic-a-Day is a great way to help kids (and adults) understand how data can be formatted and analyzed. The site's organization with specific subjects and some interdisciplinary themes like Health works well with a 21st century approach. Students also can work on developing skills related to understanding all of the content that is available and creating and sharing their own work. Conveniently, Warlick has included a section just for data sources - although teachers and students could certainly seek out their own. If you like this site, you might like to check out his Blogroll too - I liked the DailyInfographic.com because I thought its Glogster-like posters looked like a great idea for a student project - with models already created. Check out this one about technology and the environment to see! http://dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/earth-day-internet-infographic.png

Flikr is the BEST way to find a photo to illustrate your point. If you are posting a photo in any public way, you will need to be aware of what you can and cannot post according to copyright law. Flikr has made it easy to find what you need with their Creative Commons section. Under the advanced search tab, you are easily able to select photos that you can use on your website or blog. The site is very easy and fun to peruse. I use it for nearly every project that would benefit from an image, personally and professionally. *Teachers do need to be aware that there may be some inappropriate content for students on this site that may be accessed even during a routine search. Try it yourself to get a sense of how well it would work in your community.

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.

Word-related fun! Browse their online dictionary. Play games for vocabulary and spelling. Make and define your own words using the build-your-own dictionary feature. Resources for teachers include background information on dictionaries and words. You can access the Scripps' Spelling Bee information from this site. Probably best for 2nd to 4th grade.

Work with GPS can be great because it gets students out in the "real-world." Lessons may focus on animal habits, different earth science features, or the built environment humans have created. Mapping is a great skill to use and develop along with these projects. Most people are familiar with GPS systems in cars, but many mobile phones have this capability as well. There are also special devices dedicated to GPS tracking. This site can help you to explore the possibilities for learning with GPS.

Easy websites for your classroom or your students!

Fun games for middle school that cover Citizenship & Participation, the Constitution & the Bill of Rights, Separation of Powers and the Three Branches of Government. Content can be customized to your state standards and teachers can print out reports of student work for assessment. Great role-playing to understand content. Modules designed to fit in most class periods. Recommended by the ALA and Sandra Day O'Connor.

Intended for middle school classes, these units work well with the interdicsciplinary theme of "Environments," allowing students to view events and ideas with the perspective of place. Teachers can search for lessons in a variety of ways, including location, time period, or type of student work. A number of different skills can be utilized through the lessons, and primary sources are a focus for many units. Some teachers will be able to take advantage of the resources in their communities and explore these real-life historic places more thoroughly. If your area has no featured lessons, students could always be encouraged to find a local "historic site" to research and visit.

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.

"Class Blogmeister" allows classrooms to set up their own blogs that students and teachers can contribute to. This seems to be most appropriate for early elementary. "Citation Machine" is a reasonable option for students who want to have their citations formulated for them on the basis of the information they give, but most kids will probably end up with a more popular site like EasyBib for this purpose. "The Education Podcast Network" has a variety of subject specific recordings for teachers and students. Personally, the section I have used the most is the "Library of Links." Many of the links lead to sites with data, especially under the science section. Accessing the material with students gives them an opportunity to understand that information is available and that there are different ways to present findings about data. Great for projects! Upper Elementary and up.

Ten Marks is a math site educators can use free with their students. It is designed for students in grade 3 . Students have multiple choice worskhets to complete - after the student completes the worksheet, the student will be shown which answers were correct and encouraged to go back and correct the wrong answers so th score will be "ten marks." While doing the worksheet, students have access to a video review or lesson on the concept and a few "hints" or strategies for the topic. Each concept has multiple "albums" to work through - Grade 3 has 14 of them. Each of those albums has multiple tracks- or sub-concepts - composed of a number of worksheets. After working through a certain number of worksheets students unlock new games. In addition to the worksheet series, there are practice questions available for the students. Teachers might like to take advantage of the tests that are featured or the ability to track student progress. This is great for student who need a quick review of the process or those who benefit from a little motivation.

"[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."

Create a presentation that lives in the cloud - accessible anywhere you can hop on the internet. Insert text and photos. Zoom in and out. Play with the path you take through your presentation. The nonlinear presentation style may remind some of sitting in the midst of piles of papers preparing to type a paper. Students in middle school will use this to its best advantage, given some time to be creative. Of course teachers can use this one for their presentations, too. .prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }Thoughts on using Prezi as a teaching tool on Prezi