Content Literacy

Interesting examples, put together in a nice google doc (always like when people share using the tool they are talking about). Great thing about this list is that it should continue to grow and improve if googledocs does what it 'says' it can do.

Here's the emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009 list, where you can compare the rankings of the tools with the last two years. Note, by "learning" we mean both formal and informal learning.

Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.

Simple tool, but easy to use and nice for building some quick examples using the IWB. There are other ways of doing it using Smartboard software, but kids can use this tool, create some examples, do screen captures, and share with each other or in docs.

Google comes up with yet another great way of helping new users (who happen to be teachers) to use their product. Create some templates, package them in one location with some tutorials, and make EASY to use! Yeah for Google.

GeoGebraWiki is a free pool of teaching materials for the dynamic mathematics software GeoGebra. Everyone can contribute and upload materials! All contents of this pool may be used free of charge.

For the record...this is an implementation point, a discussion starter. Those of us that provide staff development around instructional technology have identified a need to share more than just tools with teachers. To evaluate them based on Bloom's Taxonomy is simply a way to connect the tools to those that would be identified with the Affective, Psychomotor, or Cognitive domains--specifically the Cognitive. The visual that you see here is the seed of discussion.

Anything from NASA will be slick. I'm a little disappointed in the videos about proportion. A 2 minute video and the mathematics is washed over in 13 seconds, and on top of that it's all procedural in nature (cross-multiply) with no explanation as to why it works. Other resources look more promising to me, but hope NASA looks into doing a better job of incorporating more conceptual development/understanding/explanation.

Good tutorial/tips site to pay attention to if using technology for education.

Some interesting applets and well thought out lessons.

Help embedding equations into text on web pages. I haven't been able to get it to work on wikispaces, yet, but it does work with as a gif file there. It's a step in the right direction for creating better use of symbolic representation in web pages.

An interesting collection of activities/demos. Well designed and planned. I like the fact that they have objectives but wish they were standards-based

Site for free graphics. Option to do a free CC search or open it up to commercial search with a little cost.

Pattern blocks are great tools for developing conceptual understanding. I hope to continue to see them used in classrooms, but the virtual kind can allow students to share their thinking with other students virtually. I like using screen capture, cut/paste, upload to a wiki, comment on characteristics/size/description of '1'/and sharing with students so that their thikning can be revisited from multiple venues (home, classroom, internet-broader audience).

Important to always think about how to create a safe learning environment. This post is a great analysis of several inputs. Worth reading and a great resource.

The Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways project (MSP2) is a component of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) that supports middle school educators and youth by offering contextualized, high-quality resources and promotes interactivity, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing among its users.

Some simple ways of creating activities for VT.

Examples of Poem Voicethreads written by high school students from Karl Fisch, always a good source.