Content Literacy

I've always liked timelines as an educational tool. They offer the ability to show related threads compared to each other easily. I loved having students investigate a single topic, create a timeline for that topic, mash the timelines together in a BIG overarching timeine, and then have students start to look for connections. I stole the concept early in my career from the TV show Connections (too bad it didn't make it, GREAT GREAT show).

I've always liked timelines as an educational tool. They offer the ability to show related threads compared to each other easily. I loved having students investigate a single topic, create a timeline for that topic, mash the timelines together in a BIG overarching timeine, and then have students start to look for connections. I stole the concept early in my career from the TV show Connections (too bad it didn't make it, GREAT GREAT show).

We introduced Diigo to WJHS this summer and I thought I would pass this news along to everyone, but especially that group. I still think Diigo is an incredible tool for collaboration in the classroom for research, group work/accountability, formative assessment, reaching beyond classroom walls both with students and colleagues. Additionally, Sean does some nice simple video production (with totally FREE tools) that I want to share with other teachers. It's easy to do, is a way of getting information to your students easily and in a manner that allows them to access the information as many times as they like/need.

Really interesting way of doing a multimedia search. Not sure it's classroom safe, even with safe search on there were several images that were beyond borderline. When I did compound search "algebra" + "linear" much tighter and deleted virtually all inappropriate material. I just like the way you can explore the information. If you have students gathering information and tagging with specific tags like "wjhsconlit09" then you could pull up all of that material without interference. I think it's a great tool for that kind of exploration.

Really interesting way of doing a multimedia search. Not sure it's classroom safe, even with safe search on there were several images that were beyond borderline. When I did compound search "algebra" + "linear" much tighter and deleted virtually all inappropriate material. I just like the way you can explore the information. If you have students gathering information and tagging with specific tags like "wjhsconlit09" then you could pull up all of that material without interference. I think it's a great tool for that kind of exploration.

Discovery Educator Network projects.

"BookRix allows writers to create their own projects and display their work to others. The BookRix-Format enables users to design individual books. All one needs is a web browser to easily publish and showcase their work." Book-like interface, where readers can "turn pages". Great way of showcasing student work, getting feedback, producing rather than just consuming material. The interface does provide a more formal presentation of material and makes a more published feel.

Lots of data displayed in an interactive way. Great for use with an interactive white board. Easy for students to gather data, display, and report.

More Smartboard resources from Teacher Online Training. Some nice easy to understand videos, easy navigation, and great exemplar files. I still need to do some exploring of the files, but liked the two I looked at today.

"Visualize your numbers, explore charts, and share insights with others. " Great data source. Students can explore data sets, identify different ways of representing data, as well as identify different characterisitics of data.

Another great post from Bud, actually calling attention to the issue of classroom management rather than the tool being the issue. How dare students express their boredom by doing something rather than daydreaming...

How do I know if my use is a fair use? This tool has been developed to help teachers and students reason through the fair use process. You can see an example of how this tool is being used HERE Use the form online. The data from this form feeds into a google spreadsheet so you can compare how individuals or groups reason the fair use of copyrighted material in a work. If you would like to use this form in your work you can click here. If you have a google account, you can sign in and copy into your google account.

Blog that I'm using with Striving Readers technology training.

Not a research article itself, but more evidence that supports the approach of activating prior knowledge, having students anticipate answers before reading a piece of text.

Links between math and art, current research, worth reading.

A collection of 279 Math Applets designed by International Education Software. Apps show individual concepts from multiple perspectives, usually conceptually from a diagram and graphically. Not very dynamic in that students wouldn't be able to manipulate multiple variables, but great to use with an interactive white board to show connections between representations and to confirm calculations/predictions.

Shanghai American School's blogs. The school seems to have adopted the blogging platform and you can see how different teachers are using the platform to accomplish different goals/objectives. Interesting site to visit and create a conversation about how you might use the tool/extend what they are doing/adapt what you are doing/want to do.

List of mobile learning resources/examples worth exploring.

Some nice ideas about using web2.0 in the classroom. Worth visiting for ideas.

NASA generated website with pictures, podcasts, blog posts of current happenings around the world. I explored one example, the recent Tsunami. Great pictures of the island and of showing the wave in the ocean! Also, great story accompanying the pics. I, also, loved the interactive global map with the geolocated pictures. Although I haven't listened to the Science for the Hungry World podcast, I subscribe to several NASA podcasts and think they are great for teaching!