Solar System Scope (SSS) is a 3D real-time look at celestial positions with planets and constellations in the night sky. Students can adjust planet and moon settings, star and constellation settings, earth observatory settings and time settings. View the solar system from a heliocentric, geocentric or panoramic view.
This is a neat website that lets students track missions as they are happening with the satellites that are collecting information about the Earth from space. Students can learn about the earth by choosing a mission to follow, zoom in and out of the globe, view satellite paths, view city and location labels on the map, replace the sun with an "artificial light" and see the view from Earth's surface. As students click on the satellite, they will be able to view and discover more information about the mission. Students can choose to view the 3D Earth in real-time or speed up/slow down the Earth with a time control.
Two New Free Games!
Just in time for the Holiday Season - two brand new games! Test-N-Teach (TNT) is our new spelling game and Read-A-Word is our first-ever reading game. Both games are available to everyone!
Apps in Education
One of the hardest things with using the iPad in the classroom is finding the time to go through all of the apps in the iTunes Store listed under the education banner. We have started to list some of the apps we've found under each of the Key Learning Areas.
Very Good!
The COL Inquiry Hub provides grade 8-12 students an innovative, technology driven, full-time program which allows them to pursue their own learning questions by shaping their educational experience around their interests instead of structured classes.
Many of the Web tools out there are restricted to users 13 and over. To save others at school some time,John Pearce has compiled a list of popular/well known Web tools that can and can't be used by children under 13 -
1), so we are legally covered in what we are allowing our students to use and
2), so they know what is available. Please note that generally the sites that allow for under 13s still ask for parental permission ( even Edmodo if you haven't read the Terms of Use) so a solid school user agreement is needed to use these tools. Some of the sites are not US based so are not bound by COPPA and CIPA regulations. It still requires schools to carefully check out what can be viewed on these sites to ensure they are appropriate to access."
And yet another great story of the iPad being a 'life changing' device for people with disabilities... please take the time to read- worth sharing with your staff and particularly of interest for students with special needs.
A Different Way to Read Great Literature!
This site is an experiment in teaching great literature in a very different way. Using Google Earth, students discover where in the world the greatest road trip stories of all time took place... and so much more!
This site allows you to type in a search title eg John Howard and it will locate and collate a 'tubeline' on all the movies associated with the search title and place it on a time line.
"Sync.in is a web based word processor for people to collaborate in real-time.
When multiple people edit the same document simultaneously, any changes are instantly reflected on everyone's screen. The result is a new and productive way to collaborate with text documents, useful for meeting notes, brainstorming, project planning, training, and mor"
Mark,
Even the interface is very similar. PiratePad (http://piratepad.net/) is another alternative
Google have now included the EtherPad feature in its new version of google docs (It' still in preview and you need to tick a box in the document editing settngs). I'm yet to try it out with a class.
Found that EtherPad also had issues with the 15 users. In a class I would often make more than one pad.
"CoSketch is a multi-user online whiteboard designed to give you the ability to quickly visualize and share your ideas as images.
Simple sharing
* Anything you paint will show up for all other users in the room in real time.
* One click to save a sketch as an image for embedding on forums, blogs, etc.
Zero hassle
* Runs in all common browsers without plugins or installation.
* Free and without registration.
Now with Google Maps support!
* Use google maps as the background for your sketches to show directions or share trips."