Heads in the Cloud

One of a number of Earth Labs for Educators available at http://serc.carleton.edu/earthlabs/index.html. Topics include fisheries, hurricanes, corals, climate, and drought. Each topic has multiple labs, which are often accompanied by printable resources. These labs use a variety of resources from around the web to present concepts in lessons for MS/HS. This lab in particular maps marine biodiversity as a part of a larger lesson on balance in the ecosystem.

One of Jane McGonigal's games -this is an alternate reality game where students have the opportunity to think and communicate about what a world without oil would be like. The original game occurred in 2007 with over 1500 participants engaging and responding. However, students can still use the game. Lesson plans for teachers are available through the Learn About link. Teachers may choose to go through the whole series of ten lessons or use just one.

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

EduPic Graphical Resource is a teacher designed free image resource for use by teachers and students. All images contained within are free for use by educational professionals and the students they serve without permission. All other use is by permission.

Morguefile.com free stock photos Students need access to plenty of content that is available for them to use if they are creating - useful for everything from Animoto to websites.

Read Write Think has a number of different lesson plans available for teachers. Many of them involve interactive elements, like their new online publishing interface for students. Includes lots of graphic organizer and story/drama/essay map options to develop an understanding of reading and how to write. Has creative options for keeping student engaged - like the comic creator. Intended for K-12, and many of the interactive elements are going to work best with the elementary crowd.

Oceans, Nature, 3D Buildings

Lessons and web links for the math teacher. Includes over 100 online activities for K-12 with some overlap. Topics cover a variety of areas - including lots of work with fractions, factors and use of data. I like the paper tool that allows the teacher to create specially designed paper for an assignment.

Upper el and middle school students can explore math concepts in a (somewhat) real life context through games. Geometry, Scale, Proportion, and Measurement are applied in different games. In Rock n Roll Road Trip, students work through a series of word problems in each city. In Rio, they work on ratios. Students can only proceed to the next problem by answering correctly. Great for making sure students read the instructions in the problem and pay attention to details like order of terms and reducing to simplest terms. Once the student reaches London, the topic switches to measures of time. The "game" framework helps make the student want to get to the next city, and it gives good word problem practice (useful for those tricky standardize tests). Nice for a mixed review challenge.

Students can make and share their own flash cards. Teachers can use these for their classes as well. A teen made this site - he gives his intro tutorial in the video below.

Rather than get into all the possible uses, I will just explain how I have been using my account. I choose to follow or get tweets from many different individuals and institutions that post education-related information. I also look for new sources of information here - my favorites might get transfereed into my reader if they have a feed and I think reading through all of their posts would be valuable. Many of the tweets have links to new posts, articles, or studies that I may want for reference so I will retweet them. I have linked my twitter and diigo accounts so my diigo records those links in my bookmarks. I do this on my mobile, since Twitter is blocked at my school, but since Diigo is in the cloud it all ends up together. I have worked with students and teachers on trying to tweet an idea - to capture the essence of something, but we used pencil and paper/word processing because of the block. If you are interested in who I follow - I am @txchat

Explore Engineering. Good for 3-5th graders exploring man-made structures or forces & materials. Labs and challenges let kids "see" the possibilities and problem-solve. Includes a database of big structures for kids to research. Activities and links for bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams and tunnels. Students could definitely use this information to outline their own big ideas - it would be fun to follow some of this work up with real-life collaborative design and model-making.

Primary source material from the time is interspersed with modern-day photos of the land the party encountered. Contextual information ranging from Native American beliefs to Natural history are included. Videos of people speaking about issues of the day and an audio presentation of Lewis and Clark day-by-day add further enhance this multi-modal presentation of history. The section on technology might provide a starting point for an interdisciplinary unit between Humanities and Technology for an MYP program.

Wikis are very easy to use and they allow for collaboration and organization. You can use a wiki to post information or answer questions. Wikis are suitable for publishing assignment dates or content. Students can use a page to work together on a project. Wikis can be good spaces for eportfolios, too. Like websites and blogs, other media can be embedded. This video talks about wikis in general.

Totally 21st century in mindset, this site allows you to search by themes including American History, Community & Social Action, Creativity & Innovation, Global Cultures, Natural World, People & Places, and STEM. Many videos and lessons are available for educators to use with the K-8 set. The site has its own interactives like "Pitch Perfect" which uses a baseball metaphor to explain the parts of the orchestra and its "All Star" players through the years. Lessons also refer users to other helpful websites and interactives. Lots of ways to celebrate and integrate the arts with the help of this website!

Get a 3D perspective on human muscles,bones, and organs. Challenge your senses or map your brain. There's even an interactive on the changes the body goes through during puberty. Overall, good for middle school students to explore anatomy in depth (poor pun intended).

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.

With so much data available via the internet, an important skill students must learn is how to make meaning of that information. Many Eyes gives middle school+ students an opportunity to experiment with comparing values, tracking value over time, looking at the relationship between the parts and the whole. Data can also be interpreted as text or with maps. Creates polished looking infographics that would be great visual aids for science experiments or oral presentations. Good resource for teachers and administrators, too!

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.