Group items tagged

Followed closely by this treasure trove!

"What is a Memory Game? In this interactive memory game the player must find the matching pairs of cards. To do this click on a card in the top row and then click on a card in the bottom row. If the cards match the cards remain face up. If not, the cards will turn back over and you can try again until all pairs have been found. Using the Memory Game Maker, you can build your own interactive memory game. You can specify if you want text, pictures or sounds on each row of cards. You can then type in your own text, attach your own pictures or record your own voice. These will appear on the cards in your finished game. You can also customise some other features of the game such as the look of your game and the sound effects used. When complete, the game is saved on your computer in the location you specify. From here you can copy the game to a disc, memory stick or onto another computer or network to share with others. You can make games in any language. Any script (for example Arabic or Japanese) that can be typed on your computer can be used."

"Economics in the Elementary Classroom posted Sep 3, 2010 6:31 PM by lezlie harris [ updated Sep 3, 2010 6:50 PM ] I am so convinced that little children learn more by pretending and playing. I recently found a role-playing economics unit on the Scholastic site. During this unit, the teacher creates a community in the classroom where children apply for jobs, keep time sheets for those jobs, tally their wages, receive a pay check, cash it at the bank, and shop in the class store. Wow, how powerful is that! Think of all the concepts that can be taught within this unit! I can teach data, charts, graphs, money, persuasive writing, and many social studies standards. Since I am always trying to convert classroom activities into elearning activities, here is a Google Template for submitting job applications. My 2nd graders have loved submitting these applications. Their responses are so sweet! I may copy them to include in my parent conferences."

Very cool templates

"Plagiarism, I think, can be a tricky concept to help students understand. I can understand how an English Language Learner in an academic setting might be tempted to copy-and-paste someone else's work."

Popplet is a new web app that is like Wallwisher on steroids. You can make an online "bulletin-board" with virtual "post-its" (called "popplets), just like in Wallwisher. And, except for the fact you have to register to use it, Popplet is just as easy and, in some ways, easier to use with a lot more functionality. With Popplet, you search for images and videos on the Web directly within the "popplet" instead of copying and pasting the url address (as you need to do in Wallwisher). You can draw within the "popplet" and it doesn't appear to have an limit on the number of characters you can use. You can connect the "popplets." You can also embed the whole thing.

Definitely looking further into this one!

excellent read

Technology has been with us since I've been a teacher. I started my career succumbing to the alluring aroma of the Gestetner (Ditto/Banda/spirit duplicator) machine and its purple stained sheet. Then the photocopier arrived and we didn't think it could get any better than making copies of a page for every child. The reality is that many teachers still rely heavily on the immediacy and simplicity of the photocopied black line master provided by someone else. It is far less confusing that all that technical mum jumbo introduced with the computer in the 90s.

If you're looking for a simple, one-click, solution for converting and downloading YouTube videos sans software, DownloadTube is a free tool for web-based YouTube file conversion. Copy the URL of the video you want to convert, visit DownloadTube and paste it in, then select which format you want. DownloadTube can convert YouTube videos into MPG, MOV, 3GP, MP4, convert it to an audio-only MP3 file, or grab the native FLV flash file for you. Click "Convert and Download" and the file is converted and saved to your computer.

Fun4TheBrain is a great interactive and educational site for children. It contains a variety of math, reading and science games. The reading games are perfect for reviewing parts of speech and learning sight words and vocabulary. Some of the reading games are also available in hard copy to help teach children to read by giving them a stress-free and fun approach to learning. Math games cover a range of topics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

What is the Comprehension Task Maker? The Comprehension Task Maker is a program that can be downloaded and installed on your computer. Once installed, you can use the Comprehension Task Maker to create your own customised interactive multimedia comprehension tasks. When creating a comprehension task there are two main componants: * The information for comprehension * The questions the player must complete to show they understand the information provided. Questions can be either multiple choice or True - False. Because you decide on the information and questions, you can create tasks for any level and for any topic. Tasks can be made in any language using any script. Finished tasks are saved as webpages and can be used for any non commercial purposes. They can be copied onto the school network, a memory stick to share with others. Tasks can be linked to the schools intranet or ineternet site, or included in a blog.

It works like this. You first copy the web address of any news article that is behind the registration firewall and paste that URL into the Google Search box. Now click the first Google result and you'll be able to read the full text of the corresponding story without registering or subscribing. Nice

A brand new online site from Aus (i think!) i will have a look and let you know. Or drop them an email and they will send you an invite. Here is a quote off the site ReadCloud provides the answer to one of the most pressing questions librarians and teachers are facing today: What is your eBook strategy? ReadCloud is the world's first social eReader software with built-in learning tools and a Digital Library Management system that works on any platform. Our immersive digital library system connects teachers, students and eBooks through online and offline social reading classrooms. ReadCloud facilitates classroom conversations embedded within eBooks through rich media such as comments, videos, pictures and sound bites. Our technology mimics real life classroom discussions. ReadCloud provides a digital reading ecosystem for each school. Social Interaction ReadCloud enables conversations to take place real-time within each book and tailored for each classroom. Teachers can seed a book with comments progressively splattered throughout the book viewable in the margins. Students can participate by commenting further within the book and marking the annotations as private, public or for the attention of a specific classroom. Annotations can be filtered by teacher or classroom discussion. Rich text and media such as video, images or sound bites can all be embeded within the margins of each book by student and teacher alike. Every annotation can be shared within the classroom, copied to an email or posted to a social network such as Twitter, Facebook or Myspace. Books are about learning through stories and the sharing of information. ReadCloud gives students and teachers a toolset to spread and share the contents of books like never before. There you go.

Google Forms is a great tool and I hope to use it more throughout this year. Take a look here for a more detailed introduction and guide to using and creating a Google Form - this was written prior to Google bringing forms into the NEW menu. I have created example forms for each of the different topics, follow the links in each of the ten sections. With help from a Googler I have included a link so that you can get your own copy of the form - click on the appropriate link and it should open in your docs home.

Very cool screen capture tool, lets you embed it, download it or just send the link. Remember to copy and paste these somewhere as they are lost once you close the window!