Live Look
See the world live with this tool. Collect and organize all of your favorite live web cams!!! Visit LiveLook to sign up and begin collecting your favorite sites and sounds from around the world. Study Geography while your at it.
Wetpaint – Wiki Host
Ok I have to say that I am partial to some hosts, especially wordpress and wikispaces, but this one is a great wiki for teachers. Wetpaint offers simple tools for creating a classroom wiki. Wetpaint offers various site schemes and templates and if you were to choose the classroom option, all navigation and pages for class syllabus, assignment, announcements and more are created for you. A great feature for the busy and novice wiki educator. I would now recommend this to you over wikispaces since it is easier to create a true classroom wiki or web site. Did I mention that you can email them to request an ad free site. Give it a shot and share it with every educator.
Wiz IQ – Demo
Just got finished a web demonstration with Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0. The internet and free web 2.0 applications allowed us to take a cross country trip from PA to San Francisco. Through the flash based WizIQ platform we were able to share audio, video, files, a white board and more. We discovered together how the tool’s capabilities while discussing strategies in which this tool could be implemented in K-12 instructional environments. It was easy to surmise that WizIQ was a high quality and free web conferencing product. I am excited to begin utilizing this tool for training demonstrations, lessons and meetings so that participants can attend from anywhere on the internet. I am looking forward to using open discussion, dialogs, chats and file sharing opportunities with my teaching staff. I will give this a test run again before using it formally.
Oh and did I mention Steve is a really nice guy who works with non-profit organizations to assist with open source solutions. He is a pioneer in the field and a true inspiration to me. Check out his network for teachers http://classroom20.ning.com or his blog called the Infinite Thinking Machine. The only thing I did to get him to help me out was email him the WizIQ link and ask. What an exciting experience to actually meet such a well respected Educational Technology Leader.
Blabberize in the Classroom!!
Want to have you students do something fun that they will remember? Register free at www.blabberize.com to get started. Upload photos or images of people, places, animals, things, anything at all. Trace the mouth on the photo and record your voice as you were the photo speaking. Imagine kids sharing information as Shakespeare, a Frog, a tornado, and anything else that they might be studying. Save the project and embed it into a web page or share it via email. Way to easy and cool!!! You have to check it out!!!
Blogs In Education
Why not blog in your classroom? There are so many benefits to having students respond to topics, discussions, and various subject matters. Students who normally don’t participate in class will do so when they are given a chance to have a voice through Blogs. WordPress allows teachers to create multiple blogs, posts, and comments and monitor it all in one simple location. The real issue is making sure that the teacher monitors comments for quality and content. Teacher responsibility in a blog environment becomes the same as their physical classroom environment and some are not so interested in doing the police work, or extra work. Convincing them that blogs are not more work, but effective alternatives to class activities such as writing, discussions, debates and more, is the tough part. When some actually do take the leap of faith, they begin to see the true benefits to letting students learn by doing and building quality online content. “If you let them build it… they will come”!
Blog Hosts
MagMyPic – Add a photo to a magazine cover
This is so simple and free. Choose a photo, upload it and choose your magazine cover. That’s it, a real looking magazine cover with your very own photo. So cool!!!! Give it a try. http://www.magmypic.com
Maths Dictionary and Writings Fun by Jenny Earth
I just happened to stumble upon this one. A Maths Dictionary for Kids that has a ton of great interactive tools for kids to discover the true meaning of math terms and concepts. Another great one here is the Rainforest Maths for kids K-6. More fun interactives that can be used to learn about various math concepts. Not only does the author Jenny Author have math content she has designed a way to assist with various types of writing genres. Visit Writing’s Fun to see many examples of text types. There are tips and examples to help kids write well and with purpose. I will defiinitely be sharing these with my teachers!!!!
The Visiblebody Interactive Web Site
A really neat free site to help teach and learn about the human body. You will find various layers and a very nice 3D rendering of the human body. Awesome site!! http://www.visiblebody.com/ It will remain free for a while, but how long is not known.
Adobe Labs
Ok I have to say that anything Adobe is usually very expensive when it comes to purchasing software applications, but you really have to see what they are doing in their labs. Two projects to see and try are JamJar and Buzzword. Jamjar allows users to create and share online. Up to 20 megs and 20 users for each project. I just worked on a newsletter, but there are various things that you can create. I would say that Adobe is a leader in quality products so visiting their labs is worth it. They are always up to something good!!! Visit Adobe Labs to see what’s next.
YouGetSignal
Ok this is a really cool site!!! http://www.yougetsignal.com/about/ Kirk Ouimet, a student studying Information Systems at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. has created this tool that allows you to trace the orrigins and paths of any IP address or web site. You can actually get an idea about how the internet sends the information to your comuputer through a maze of connected lines across the country. Check it out. A very intelligent young man, wouldn’t you say!!!
