This is an excellent example of how to use a Prezi in Langugae Arts - specifically in narrowing a research report topic. Its use of zooming in precisley aligns with the thought process we ask students to use when narrowing their topics.
This is a guest post by Caro Pinto, the John Hay Whitney Family Papers Processing Archivist at Yale University Library. Follow her on Twitter at @caropinto.--@jbj]An Archivist Walks into a Classroom… Many archivists spend their professional lives working in basements preparing diaries, letters, and photographs for use by students and faculty. This is first hand account of someone using Prezi successfully for instructional purposes at the college level.
This article describes how a sixth grade teacher, Bill Ferriter, uses VoiceThread in the classroom. Ferriter explains the positive aspects of using this tech tool with students and suggests that teachers start small, but that the program is easy to use.
This is a wiki originally started by Colette Cassinelli. There is lots of information here about using VoiceThreads in the classroom. The wiki describes VoiceThreads, shares samples, gives resources and other tips and and ideas for use at different grade levels.
This website takes you right to the source. Here VoiceThread provides information to users including easy to follow steps for beginning to use this in the classroom, publications that cite positive uses of VoiceThread with students, and websites where you can get other information.
This is book written by Howard Pitler, Elizabeth R. Hubbell, Matt Kuhn and Kim Malenoski
This book with a foreward by Robert J. Marzano explains researched based instructional strategies that have proven to be effective uses of technology in educational settings. The authors are a distinguished list of experts in educational technology.
This article discusses a study done to see how Interactive White Boards affect student engagement within the classroom. The results of this study showed that students enjoy using the whiteboard and the use of an IWB as an instructional tool did affect student engagement positively, mainly because of visual potential. Although this information seems like having an IWB in every classroom is a 'no brainer', schools have to take many factors into mind such as funds, safety, teacher interest, and available technology training.
This discusses the pros and cons of IWB on student collaboration with the studies conducted. These studies test if Interactive White Boards can be altered from their teacher-led purpose to encourage collaboration among students.
This article is a research synthesis. This woman looked into articles and compared their opinions and results on student motivation using an IWB. Specifically, she found that student motivation will increase if teachers provide students with many opportunities to interact with the IWB, use engaging effects within the IWB, and allow children to use multiple senses within the lesson.
This is a vocabulary website that allows you to create your own interactive flash cards to help you learn terms and definitions. There are also tests and spelling activities available for your terms. Lastly, there is a game where you drag the definition to the term and they will disappear when correct. What a fun twist on paper flash cards!
Tell your students to get their cell phones out and turn them ON! With this program (free for audiences of 30 or less) you can get your students to interact with the content being presented, and they can do so anonymously. Teachers can do votes, poll the class on whatever is suitable for that lesson, get feedback on how well students are understanding material, and students can also post comments. A science teacher at my school uses it often and loves it! (And so do her students!) Here is what the Poll Everywhere website has to say:
"Poll Everywhere replaces expensive proprietary audience response hardware with standard web technology. It's the easiest way to gather live responses in any venue: conferences, presentations, classrooms, radio, tv, print - anywhere. It can help you to raise money by letting people pledge via text messaging."
ReadWriteThink is a respected organization dedicated to improving student literacy. This site has a variety of resources for both in and out-of-school use that focus on helping students organize their thoughts and learn about language.
This PDF document was put together by SMART Technologies, which is important to note, as there might be some conflict of interest in reporting factual research versus making money on their interactive white boards. In any case, after reading through it, it seems to me that a lot of the information is plausible. Specific topics of interest include how the IWB increases student engagement and motivation, as well as how it can be sued to adapt to various learning styles and specials needs.
This site provides a great number of fun learning activities for use on the IWB. What is great about this site is that it covers all grade levels and a variety of topics/subject areas, including language arts, math/science, social studies, and games.
This PDF gives an introduction to IWBs. If you are new to using an IWB, this is a nice guide that provides information about what they are, how to use them, and most importantly, the benefits of using one in the classroom. Specifically, this PDF provides a concise list of these benefits as evidenced through research. This reading also provides information on other technologies that can be integrated with the IWB, such as webcams and tablets.
Learn about dinosaur parts while constructing your own. (K-2) Experiment with online weather tools. (K-8) Sharpen skills with engaging math word problems.(K-2) Solve math problems with the clues Math Maven uncovers. (3-5) Discover insect facts and fun. (K-4) Teach students to think like scientists. (3-10)
An e-learning company dedicated to providing engaging science simulations and labs. This site has a virtual dissection of frogs for middle and high school students.
Wordle is a program that allows you to enter words and make 'word clouds'. These word clouds can be used for vocabulary within Math and Social Studies units or to demonstrate a students prior knowledge of a topic. This could also be used for a spin on the traditional word wall. The more you enter a certain word, the larger it appears in the cloud. By creating a Wordle 'word cloud', children will be exposed to vocabulary words they have seen or will be introduced to. This website allows you to be creative and use words to make a piece of art in which you can share, show, and use within the classroom.
This is a unique presentation software adding depth as a dimension and providing a nonlinear conceptual tool for organizing thought and presenting information. Its flexibility affords multiple uses for IWB use in a classroom setting.
Welcome to Seussville! This site while a bit young for middle school, completely absorbs them! It contains fun literacy activities for all ages. Very engaging animations, graphics and sound. Turn your speakers on! Get the students up out of their seats to read and move.
