Eyeooo - Multiple Webpage Viewer

Eyeooo is a website that allows you to copy and paste up to 3 website urls and then Eyeooo provides each website in its own window within one larger window.  A simple concept and for teachers and students without multiple monitors would come in handy.  I could see students and teachers using Eyeooo to conduct a compare and contrast of two webpages or viewing articles that have different opinions.  Easy to use and very practical.

Weekly Core Subjects Resources

For many of you summer is about to start or has started.  For others (those plagued by snow, flooding, and severe weather) you still have a couple weeks left.  Summer is usually a slow time for this blog as I take time for family and other endeavors.  However, with graduate classes and working summer school, there might be more action around here....you just never know.

English

1.) Netspeak helps you improve your writing.  When searching for words, Netspeak can give you directions. Their dictionary contains billions of phrases and how commonly they are used.

2.) English Tenses With Cartoons is a website that helps users learn the proper tenses of words by providing cartoons to teach them.  Great for middle school grammar lessons.  

3.) Stick Figure Hamlet is the story of Hamlet in stick figures.  Not much else to say...but easy for students who struggle with Shakespeare to understand it.

4.) Ape Word is a website that helps you improve your writing.  You copy and paste some text into a "chalkboard" and it will generate drop down menus that provide synonyms or alternate words for users.  How it chooses those words I am not sure...am guessing it looks through and finds the ones used more than one time.

5.) Cool Tools for Writing is a four part series (this link takes you to the 4th part and then you can get to 1-3 from there) from the Ed Tech Ideas Blog.  It provides links and information to resources to help with writing.

Mathematics

1.) From Free Technology 4 Teachers comes a blog post with links to 5 Free Online Scientific Calculators.  A valuable asset for 1 to 1 schools so that students can save some money. 

2.) Math Maps is a activity idea from Tom Barrett where students use Google Maps to complete math activities.  If Google Maps zooms in enough to your hometown this would be a valuable activity to study the community.  What an interesting idea...kudos!

3.) Java Applets on Mathematics is a website that provides numerous (like that math vocabulary usage?) interactives that use Java to teach various math concepts.  Source: Educational Technology Guy

Science

1.) The Howard Hughes Medical Institute offer five virtual labs for teachers and students to learn about Transgenic Flies, Bacterial Identification, Cardiology, Neurophysiology, and Immunology. 

2.) Build a Solar System allows users to input the diameter of the sun and from that users will learn about how that impacts other planets in the solar system.  Users will also learn about the distance and speed of light as well.  You can also visit a more extensive page that allows more features.

3.) At My Science Box you'll find complete, scaffolded lesson plans to teach a 4-6 week middle school science unit through activities, projects, and field trips. Every lesson has been kid-tested with students at Archway School.

4.)  Java Applets on Physics is a website that provides interactives that use Java to teach various physics concepts.  Source: Educational Technology Guy

5.) From the iLearn Technology Blog comes a great list of 33 Space Websites to Celebrate the Luanch of Endeavor.   A great and a good synopsis of several websites that have been shared on this blog as well.

Social Studies

1.) Google Geography Teacher's Institute is a professional development opportunity for social studies teachers to learn how to sue the various Google Tools, such as Google Earth and Sketchup.  Travel and Room are not provided however.  Winners will be selected on August 15th, so make sure you apply well before that. 

2.) Newspaper Map allows visitors to find and discover the newspapers from all over the world.  A great way for students and teachers to be kept up to date on events happening from the journalists in those countries.  Each color coded place mark lets you know what language the paper is available in as well.

3.) YouTube Town Hall is a channel where videos are shown of politicians discussing various government policies.  A great way for students to see the differences between conservatives and liberals.  You can choose the issue, click who you support, and see who is winning. 

4.) Free Maps offers blank world and continental maps for free.  Choose from various styles and print them out. 

5.) Thinkport Tools offers a free online timeline creator for teachers and students.  You can start on a project, save it, and then get access to it later by the name you give it.  The setup and final product is very simple.  A good tool for introducing timelines. 

Celly - Create SMS Channels

Celly is a program that allows you to create a channel for your students using SMS.  You can even moderate the messages between students.  You can send out reminders and other information.  Students will submit to follow your "channel" and when a message is sent to that "channel" they will get it.  For more information, watch the video below.  For more information about using it in school, check out the Celly Schools Page

webdoc - Like Glogster, But Not....

webdoc, which is currently in beta, is a possible replacement/competitor to Glogster...although it does not have an education based theme or offering.  The concept is similar and provides many of the same options, just in a different format.  One aspect that is different is that users have the ability to reply to a webdoc by creating their own webdoc about the topic.  One feature is a "This or That" where users can discuss and interact between two things, or provide their own "This or That" argument.  It has the feel of a Point-Counterpoint type theme.
 
Users can put almost anything into a webdoc: pictures, videos and music from all over the web, but also interactive applications like games, polls, slideshows or web services such as Google Maps and Twitter. Anyone can start a conversation naturally with just one friend or all of them, and users can both friend people and follow conversations.

webdoc in action from webdoc on Vimeo.

The webdocs can be published publicly or privately which is a good option to have for educators.  However, I am still uncertain as to using it in the classroom because of several in the gallery that I don't think are appropriate.  I could really see it being used as a method of discussion or a great way to incorporate debate topics into the classroom.  Students could easily post links, pictures, videos, etc for the purpose of debating them.  webdoc is an interesting concept, but needs a more education based option to be completely adaptable in the classroom.

Here is a fun sample: Which 90's Dude Duo Was Cooler??

An Ed Tech Tip for Administrators - School Twitter Feed

A lot of people in the education world still wonder about Twitter and what it is all about.  They can't quite grasp the concept.  In reality, Twitter is gaining a lot of steam in the social media and education world.  Several educators are using Twitter to connect with other educators.  Teachers are using it to connect with students to provide an avenue of communication for homework assignments, extra credit, and reminders.  It is simple to use and with so many students having access to Smartphones and iPod Touches, it makes sense to use Twitter, which can easily be accessed through an App...for free.

What about using it at the school level?  Most administrators will tell you that visitor statistics to their school website is probably low.  It is a long URL address to provide to parents and sometimes can be hard to navigate for the average user.  Twitter can be the connection you need to bridge the gap between your school webpage and your parents.

The best way to use Twitter is to create an account for your school.  Students, parents, teachers, and community members could follow the school account.  Through this account you could share so much information:   School closings, sports scores, announcements, scheduling changes, etc.  The best part is that the messages are short (140) characters and it takes very little time to sit down and type the message.  Using an App or 3rd Party Software like Tweetdeck, you could easily share stories and links from your school website, thus increasing visitor traffic.

Often it is tough for an administrator to always know everything that is going on and be at every event.  You could easily provide the Username and Password to fellow administrators, Athletic Directors, coaches, and teacher leaders, and make it a collaborative effort to share information with parents and the community.  Therefore the school Twitter account does become a school wide effort. 

More Twitter Resources:
10 Tips for Twitter in the Classroom
So You Are New to Twitter
Twitter Chats


Previous Ed Tech Tip for Administrators Blog Posts