This
week is about software:
When
looking for a Web 2.0 tool to discuss for this week, I came across lots of articles
about the best in web 2.0, such as:
The
best in web 2.0 for education 2014 so far (and also seven years prior).
This
week in web 2.0:
Not to
mention a mind-boggling set of over 1400 "The Best of" lists from education
blogger, Larry Ferlazzo:
Dr.
Goldberg, you will lose your mind on this guy's blog, just sayin'. (This guy may have won the internet [for teachers anyway].)
I am not in the classroom now, nor will I be
for any length of time for the foreseeable future, so I have decided to look at
the CK-12 resources. I was aware of
their textbooks because they are available in Kindle editions for absolutely
free. There is regular and honors
Biology and I downloaded them to help me study for the Praxis exam, my next big
test to pass. These 30 graduate hours
are winding down, but the big test looms heavily at this point.
Our
blogger mentioned in the paragraph above, Larry Ferlazzo, has a brief article
about it:
As
a teacher, you can create custom textbooks (called digital flexbooks) for
students, and there are lots of interactive activities on the site. Everything is free. I couldn't find
anywhere that they ask for money. There
are hundreds of questions and quizzes and as a teacher, you have access to
answer keys. The site is heavy in STEM
education. I am curious to see how it
will branch into other areas as it grows.
A key feature of the program seems to be that teachers can choose which
content they want to include in units and create a set of resources that fits
their needs.
A
webinar explains everything here:
Here are the technology explorations:
Delicious
1.
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Describe what you learned
from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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Delicious.com
is a social bookmarking site. You can
save your bookmarks to the site and then access them from any computer. You can tag and share the bookmarks
publicly. What is the point? You can sort a lot of resources and share
them, and find resources from other people.
Here is an article that explains how it all works in greater detail:
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2.
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How could you use this
resource in a school setting? It does
not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the
resource might be used in educational settings.
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The
tagging allows you sort a large number of resources by subject area or
topic. Bookmarks are not tied to the
local browser, but are available wherever you can log in to the account. As a
teacher, you could store the hundreds of resources you come across for the
classroom, and access them at school or at home.
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3.
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Would you recommend this
resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so
forth. Why or Why not?
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Delicious.com is still around, but is not
nearly as popular as it once was. It
may have fallen prey to too many buyouts (from Yahoo to Youtube founder to
Science, inc)or the changing times in social media. There are lot of alternatives if it doesn't
serve your purposes. They are listed
here:
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History Pin
1.
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Describe what you learned
from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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Historypin.org
is a place where anyone can upload photographs, videos and audio files
related to history from any time period or place. They want to build a collective archive for
historical record.
From the site:
"Historypin is a way for millions of people to come
together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share
small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history."
All
of the uploaded media is tracked using a map, and the information is
"pinned" to the location of the event, and the date is also a key
piece of the picture. The map is from Google
maps, and the street view sometimes matches up to the photos posted.
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2.
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How could you use this
resource in a school setting? It does
not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the
resource might be used in educational settings
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Students
can explore the personal histories that surround world events. The uploaded media provides firsthand
accounts or primary sources that were previously unavailable. Local histories can be uploaded and
created.
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3.
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Would you recommend this
resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so
forth. Why or Why not?
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This
is a great resource that needs to be promoted more. There is a lot of pictures already, but I
can see it growing exponentially.
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Diigo
1.
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Describe what you learned from
exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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" Pronounced as Dee'go, it is an abbreviation for "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff." "
Diigo
is also a bookmarking tool, but its creators consider it more of a research
tool. Webpages are archived, and users can bookmark, highlight, annotate with
sticky notes and share their work.
There is a comprehensive description of uses on the site's About page.
The
description for the Chrome extension states the following:
"With
this easy-to-use tool, you can
1. Bookmark links to archive webpages or to
read later
2. Attach highlights & stickies to a
webpage as a reminder
3. Share pages with annotation via Twitter,
Facebook, Google Buzz
4. Access anywhere, via iPhone, iPad
(http://bit.ly/e2ujpL), Android
(http://goo.gl/tvbuq).
5. Create groups to pool findings, share
resources or curate content
6. Automatically cross-post to social
bookmarking site Delicious (optional)"
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2.
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How could you use this
resource in a school setting? It does
not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the
resource might be used in educational settings.
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Students
can use the chrome extension to markup the webpages as they encounter them,
without the need to print everything they find when doing research.
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3.
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Would you recommend this
resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so
forth. Why or Why not?
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Diigo
is free to use with basic functions, and all of the premium functions are
free for teachers, so it's worth it to try it out and see if it is helpful.
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Online Calculators
1.
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Describe what you learned
from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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PBS
Kids has hundreds of educational games, but the above calculator appears to
have been removed from the site. I
can't get it to load, or even the other directories in the URL.
Big
Simple Talking Calculator is a free downloadable program that makes a talking
full screen calculator with basic functions.
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2.
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How could you use this
resource in a school setting? It does
not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the
resource might be used in educational settings.
|
Big
Simple Talking Calculator would be good for students who need to hear the
numbers as they make calculations, such as visually impaired students,
students with intellectual disabilities, or young children who are practicing
the language of math.
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3.
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Would you recommend this
resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so
forth. Why or Why not?
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The
software is free and is a download, which makes it available for computers
that aren't on the internet, which is a plus.
You'll have to install it, and since a lot of districts prevent any
software installs without the help of the IT department, that could be a
minus.
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2Write4Math Wiki
1.
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Describe what you learned
from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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This
wiki explains way to promote writing in math courses. They emphasize five kinds of writing that
should be addressed in math classes to improve on overall writing (as well as
math) ability:
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2.
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How could you use this
resource in a school setting? It does
not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the
resource might be used in educational settings.
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I do
not teach math, but math teachers could use some of the ideas discussed in
the wiki, and some of the graphic organizers as well. Some of the ideas about writing across the
curriculum will apply to science, too.
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3.
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Would you recommend this
resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so
forth. Why or Why not?
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Most of the site has not been edited in
seven years, and all of the resources are at least four years old, so nothing
seems to be updated anymore. The files
that are there are useful.
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Pic Lits
1.
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Describe what you learned
from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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Piclits
is like the old Magnetic Poetry, but in an online interactive form with
custom backgrounds instead of your refrigerator. Random (but somewhat related) words are
given, and the user drags, drops, and arranges them on top of a given picture
that the user has selected.
Here
explains their story and motivations for the site;
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2.
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How could you use this
resource in a school setting? It does
not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the
resource might be used in educational settings.
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The site is great for building literacy
skills, both reading and writing. The
pictures add a lot to the creative aspects of the project, and will inspire
students to write original works.
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3.
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Would you recommend this
resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so
forth. Why or Why not?
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The site
is free, and they are working on a premium version that will permit the
created piclit files to be made private; currently, all saved work is
public. I think students of any age
and ability would enjoy the site.
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