Created Equal: America's Civil Rights Struggle, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), was recently launched to provide free access to documentary films highlighting some of the most dramatic events in recent American history. As America marks the anniversaries of the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington in 2013, NEH is introducing a website making four outstanding NEH-supported documentaries about the civil rights movement available for use in communities and schools across the nation.

ideas from a flipboard fan

Thematic Mapping Engine provides users with a very simple way to create Google Earth kmz files. Thematic Mapping draws on data provided by the United Nations to create maps depicting all types of development data and environmental science data. Users select a statistical indicator category, select a year or range of years, and the manner in which they would like the data displayed in Google Earth.

* Videos and interactive presentations drawn from NASA's vast collection of media resources * Informational texts, discussion questions, and teaching tips to support the Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core State Standards for Literacy * Professional development resources that illustrate best practices and provide concrete models of effective teaching

"Verizon Foundation is launching the Verizon Mobile Learning Academy, a virtual, moderated professional development course offered to teams of educators for free. The course includes five modules developed around ISTE standards. Course modules are designed to help teachers, administrators and tech coaches implement effective mobile learning initiatives in their schools and classrooms. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be offered to teachers completing the Verizon Mobile Learning Academy course."

students can design, build, and test a wind turbine.

suite of scholarly literature tools with a new release of the free ReadCube desktop application; ReadCube Pro, a premium add-on to the desktop version; ReadCube iOS apps; and SmartCite, a Word-compatible citation tool. Available free for both Mac and PC, ReadCube's desktop application allows researchers to organize and manage their scholarly article libraries, and discover new literature through searches and daily personalized recommendations.

Watch European colonialism rise and fall in seconds in this GIF. Vox has also written an accompanying text:

Research any topic with an interactive concept map, that you can customize and share. Free personal and low cost educational accounts.

Storyboard That is a robust web tool that allows students to create and edit Storyboards. This site is simple to use and allows users to drag and drop stick figures and screen elements, as well as add their own content, to the storyboard time line. Enough tools and features to be really useful and not too many to confuse young users, this is a nice way for students to create storyboards for class projects, videos, or anything else you can think of including comic strips. There is a nice educator portal which has some lesson plans and example student work. Not free, but free trial and reasonably priced for teachers

"Produce beautiful notes, quickly and easily. Share them with friends and colleagues to enhance your ideas collaboratively. All for free!" Mindmapping tool

"Go Social Studies Go is a free education resource dedicated to making the study of history fun and painless. Unless, of course, you're reading about the execution of William Wallace -who was hanged, drawn, quartered and had his bowels burned in front of him... then, perhaps... history is not so painless."

"A Cutting-Edge Second Look at the Battle of Gettysburg New technology has given us the chance to re-examine how the Civil War battle was won and lost" Interactive map

Nearpod makes presentations possible in a way that was previously impossible. It gives the presenter controls that they wouldn't have with a standard PowerPoint presentation (and it's free). Teachers send the digital presentation out to student devices and control what students see. Students interact and respond to the presentation, and the teacher can monitor student progress.

WeVideo is a cloud-based video creation platform. It's available for use by anyone with access to the Internet, through any browser on any device. Anyone can access WeVideo, from any computer or device at home, work, or on the go to capture, edit, view and share with secure storage of their content in the cloud. Personal - free, Educational license - $$

"integrating video projects into the classroom can be as simple or complex as you want. Just grab a phone, digital camera or tablet and your students are on their way. Here are some video project ideas, divided into ideas for any classroom and ideas for specific subject areas:"

"A Silk site lets you answer questions with your data by creating overviews and visualisations"

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge The community of teachers, researchers, and others interested in TPACK There are a number of ways to interact with others about TPACK- 1) Facebook, 2) Twitter, 3) Mendeley, and 4) sections of the TPACK.org site - in which TPACK.org is involved with social media.

"An Open Letter to Teachers Who do Not Prefer Technology"

"The ubermix is an all-free, specially built, Linux-based operating system designed from the ground up with the needs of education in mind. Built by educators with an eye towards student and teacher empowerment, ubermix takes all the complexity out of student devices by making them as reliable and easy-to-use as a cell phone, without sacrificing the power and capabilities of a full operating system. With a turn-key, 5 minute installation, 20 second quick recovery mechanism, and more than 60 free applications pre-installed, ubermix turns whatever hardware you have into a powerful device for learning."