HippoCampus - Online Learning Supplement

"HippoCampus is a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE). The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge."

HippoCampus would be a valuable addition to a classroom or for students who are interested in taking their learning a step further.  Teachers can use the site as a supplement to their teaching or create a Custom HippCampus page for their students.   Several screenshots are available to showcase what the website looks like and how students can interact with the software. There are several valuable lessons free of charge for teachers.  I could see this being used on days that teachers had a substitute teacher as well.

Check it out and see if any of your classes are available.

BrainCog - Online Assessments

BrainCog is a free online assessment website.  Educators can create a free account during the Beta testing period and you will have access to a dashboard that allows you to test students online.  When you sign up you provide all the usual information.  The difference is you also create a specific BrainCog URL that students will use to access the assessments.  A confirmation email is required for registration.

With each assessment you will be provided reports so that you can see student progress.  Assessments are limited to multiple choice, but each test can also be a timed test, which is important for ACT and AP test preparation.  You can easily import student rosters into the site as well.  For each test you provide an intro message, a fail message, a pass message, and an email reminder.  Several valuable tools that would be worth trying with students to see how the program could work in your classroom.

BrainCog is worth signing up for while it is still in Beta. 

Conovate - Changing the Way We Learn

"Conovate is a platform for real-time assessment, analysis and reporting of student performance by skill and over time. Our free teaching tools are easy to use, reduce paperwork, and can be used to supplement and assess learning in and out of class, providing instant access to student progress for individualized instruction."  It is provided on an Open Source Platform, so it will be free for teachers, students, and schools.  It is currently in Beta, so you would have to sign up to be added to a list. 

Through Conovate, teachers can create quizzes and students can take them online or they can be printed off and copied.  Since it is like a community, teachers can find questions that other teachers have created.  The benefit will be that it allows teachers to track student responses and gauge the time they spend on each question (if they do them online I assume), therefore learning where students are struggling, and then provide intervention. 

To learn a little more visit their main site and see the features available for teachers and parents.  There is also a Prezi that explains what they intend for the website to do.  It will be interesting to see what becomes of this Conovate.  Teaching AP next year, I could see this being used to see where students stand. 

FlipSnack

FlipSnack is a simple web-based tool that allows users to turn a PDF file into a magazine style document.  Signing up for an account is required and it does require authentication within 15 days, but you don't have to do that to upload and create a Flip Book.  To add a file you can upload it, drag and drop, or add it through a URL.  Each document is limited to 500 pages (If I ever have something that long, it will be published, not uploaded here though!)

If students are working on a project, this would be a great way to prepare it and share it with teachers and students.  It can easily be embedded to a blog or website as well.  When you create your flip book you have the option of four different styles.  You can choose the size, background color, etc.  The premium version allows download and embedding without a watermark.  You can see a sample of one of my PDF's below.

All Things Art Related

This post is being provided by Eric Crabtree, a guest author.  I teach art at Hopkins County Central High School and have been given the opportunity to share with you my views on how technology and art can work together.

The web is full of art related resources.  Listed below is a small sampling of the websites, blogs,  and twitter feeds I use on a daily basis to help aid in my students' artistic experience.

Artist of the Day
Everyday a new artist is provided a small spotlight on their work.  This is a great way to find artists from all over the world.  Check it out on the web at: http://artistaday.com  and follow them on twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/artistaday. 


20X200 
Jen Bekman has taken her passion for supporting emerging artists and made their art available for everyone on the web.  Here you can find limited edition prints for low prices.  Each week at least two new editions are added in three to four sizes.  In the beginning the smallest size was reprinted in an edition of 200 and sold for $20. Hence the name 20x200.  Sometimes the original artwork is also available.  Check them out on the web at: http://www.20x200.com, twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/20x200, and follow their blog at: http://twitter.com/#!/20x200.


Behance
The Behance Network acts similarly to a social network site, but caters to creative professionals.  Members create a portfolio to showcase their work where creative companies, recruiters, editors, and more can find incredible work and talent to hire.  I am not a Behance member, but I am considering it.  Check out what Behance Network has to offer at: http://www.behance.net/ or follow on twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/Behance.

Design Observer
Here one can find many sources for art and design.  Design Observer has many established ways to stay connected.  You may subscribe via email or blog, follow on twitter and facebook, or use their free iphone app.

Every Person in New York
Jason Polan is attempting to draw every person in New York.  If you follow his blog at: http://everypersoninnewyork.blogspot.com/ you can monitor his progress.  His contour drawings are great! It might also be worth mentioning that West Elm sells some of his art as well. 


Rachel is a Dreamer 
Rachel DeJohn quotes John Lennon in her bio: "Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one."  As an outsider who has never met Rachel, I would say she is doing a great job living an art dream.  You can find her at http://rachellovespeace.blogspot.com.

Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty
At http://isaacgracelily.blogspot.com a father post his four childrens' artwork.  A student sent me a link of a family project that peaked my interest in following this artistic journey.  Here is a link to that post: http://isaacgracelily.blogspot.com/2011/03/rock-on.html

Many of these resources also have facebook pages, but I do not use them because of restricted access at school.

I hope to be back soon with more art resources.

Crabtree