Google Wave is the next big thing by Google that is currently released as a “preview” for people to try. It has been said to be a mix between email, wikis and instant messenger and has some excellent functions for collaboration. This short video is worth watching to get an overview of what Google Wave […]
General News
Holiday Card Exchange Project
This is the second year I have involved my class in a global Holiday Card Exchange Project. This project, organised by iEARN, matches schools up with 7 schools from around the world. The schools then prepare an envelope of cards (Christmas, Hannukah, Chinese New Year, Eid etc) which they send to each of the schools. Part of the […]
Put a poll on your blog
Polls are great way to make your blog or website interactive and more interesting. A poll could be part of a post or as a sidebar widget. Poll Daddy and Vorbeo are two very easy to use applications that allow you to create a poll to embed on your blog or website. After you click […]
Read Write Think
Read Write Think is a site from the UK that offers a collection of online Student Materials to support literacy learning in the P-12 classroom. While this site includes lesson plans and web resources, I have found the most useful aspect of the site to be the Student Materials. There are over 50 interactive resources […]
Word Magnets
Word magnets is a fantastic website for the Interactive Whiteboard or classroom computers that I read about Nik’s Learning Technology Blog. Word magnets is a tool that allows you to paste in some text and then change the text into word tiles like fridge magnets that you can drag and rearrange. Word magnets would be […]
Shifts Happens: Version 4.0
Thanks to Aaron Peterson for alerting readers to the new updated “Shift Happens” video. This is the 4th version of Karl Fisch’s original thought provoking video and includes interesting facts on the changing face of technology with an emphasis on media convergence. This video was developed in partnership with The Economist and while educators are […]
Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Digital Age
Most teachers are probably familiar with the Bloom’s Taxonomy model which details the six levels of thinking from lower to higher level thinking (remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, creating). Mike Fisher, an American instructional coach and consultant has come up with an interesting revision of the Bloom’s Taxonomy model based on 21st century skills. The model incorporates online tools […]
Whyzz
Whyzz is a site that provides kid friendly answers to children’s questions. The tagline of the site is “answering your child’s whyzz, whatzz and howzz”. It is aimed at answering the questions of children aged 4-7 although could be used for children older than this. Registered users of the site can submit and answer questions. […]
Student Avatars
If you need student avatars for blogs, Voice Thread or other Internet applications and don’t want to upload photos of your students, there are a few options for creating avatars. I had my students draw a self portrait which I then photographed and uploaded (as above). Alternatively, there are a number of sites you can use […]
Downloading YouTube Clips
Thanks to Aaron Petersen I found an easy way to download YouTube clips that I want to use on my IWB, class iPod or classroom computers. I had previously downloaded “YouTube Downloader” software to download the file I wanted until I discovered YouTubeSnips. You don’t need software and it’s easy to use. There are three […]
Photo Story Alternatives….
Here are a couple of good online alternatives to Microsoft Photo Story for making digital story videos or slideshows. The benefits of these tools over Photo Story are they are very fast to generate and you can often download the final product, embed it on your blog or email it. ANIMOTO Animoto allow you to […]
Finding Online Images
There are many places on the Internet where you can find images for you or your students to use. Here are just a few. You can search Google Images – the first place many people look for images. While Google Images provides a comprehensive search, the problem with this is that most image results are copyright. Flickr is a […]
Get Arty!
There are a number of free sites on the web for students to create cool artwork. Here are a few… Sketch & Paint This is a fun art program which allows you to create and save your own art work. The great thing about it is the program makes your masterpieces look like real artwork! Open and […]
About del.icio.us…
My list of favourite sites have become so large that I’ve saved them all on my delicous account. Click here or on the picture below to check the links out. I have sorted them into tags (categories) which you can click on on the right hand side. There is a search box on the top […]
Finding videos to use in your classroom
There are a number of sites on the net where you can find streaming educational videos to show your students YOU TUBE: While it was only launched relatively recently in 2005, most people have probably heard of YouTube. It is the most well known site for watching and sharing videos. Unfortunately, while there are thousands […]