State of the Union Word Clouds

I have previously compared two State of the Union Addresses by President Obama and thought it would be interesting to take word clouds from the four previous ones as comparison for tonight's State of the Union Address.  This might be interesting to share with your social studies teachers as well.

You can find transcripts of the previous addresses for all the presidents through the American Presidency Project and it might be good for your social studies teachers to create their own Wordle or Tagxedo Word Cloud and compare previous State of the Union Addresses from various presidents.  Remember, the words that are the largest are the words that appear the most in the speeches.

If looking for a writing assignment, here are some suggestions: Where The Classroom Ends

2009 State of the Union Address*

2010 State of the Union Address

2011 State of the Union Address

2012 State of the Union Address

2013 State of the Union Address

Flashcard Resources

In the digital age, flashcards in the literal sense have taken on a new meaning.  Computers, tablets, and other mobile devices haven't changed how way can use flashcards to study, but they have definitely provided a new way to study.  Below are some resources for creating, finding, sharing, and studying using flashcards.  Share with the teachers in your building so that they can find the one that meets the needs of their students.

Quizlet - One of my favorite, and thinking back, the very first Web 2.0 tool I used as a teacher provides students and teachers the ability to create accounts, search through a database, and then participate in games to help study.  You can also find an iPhone App and Google Chrome App as well.  One of the great things about Quizlet; it was created by a high school student.

Braineos allows users to create flashcards, play study games to learn the the information, while at the same time allowing users to challenge their best friends.  Competition is sometimes the best way to increase learning.  There is also a database that you can search for flash cards as well.  There is also the option of having a multiple choice quiz based on the flashcards as well.

Cramberry is another free option that allows users to create or search for flashcards in the database, and then when you are ready to study, Cramberry will analyze a users progress and help users hone in on the areas that they are weakest.  You can also get the service as a iPhone/iPod App and an iPad App.

Study Stack is a simple, no muss, no fuss type of flash card site.  You can browse previously created flashcards or you can create your own and study on the web.

StudyBlue is a mobile and web based flashcard creation option that also allows the creation of study guides and quizzes.  Users can create an account via Facebook or through an email address.  Teachers can also create an account that allows users to create cards for students and then share them for them to access.  StudyBlue also has mobile apps as well.

Memerise is more of a course based system, but provides a lot of features for studying content.  Users can use images and audio (good for language learning), take tests that help users exercise their brain, and then get reminders to help users remember to study.  There are currently 145 languages and over 203 categories that users can browse through.  This might be the most advanced of all I mention, but worth looking into.  No account is needed to use, but creating an account will make tracking and storing easier.

Flashcard Stash is built on top of a dictionary, so users can look up words and save them.  Users can also get sentence usage, synonyms, and audio as well.  Using the service is free and user can login using Facebook or standard email login.  If you are a teacher, you can create an account and share lists of flashcards easily with students.

Superflashcard provides users the ability to look for and create flashcards in various languages and for various categories.  Users can also view in a slideshow or study using matching, memorizing, or through a quiz.  Users can connect with Facebook, Google, or an email account.  Users can also create a review schedule to help them remember to study.

Flashcard Database is a free service to create, study, and share flashcards online.  Users have the ability to study in two different methods and make study easier and more efficient.  Users can search for recently created lists, recently studied, or look through popular subjects.  Signing in is not required to study cards, but it is for creating them.

Flashcard Exchange is also a free service that allows users to search from over 50 million flashcards or create their own.  By creating an account users can save their flashcards and access them later.  This service is more about utilizing what is already available and not reinventing the wheel; although you can if you want too.

Headmagnet is a free services that helps users predict and understand what users are forgetting the most and helps them focus on what you need to remember.  The more it is used, the better the service and its users can learn how to study.  Users can create lists and track what they have learned as well as share with others through the Headmagnet Community.  The service also provides stats that are helpful in determining strengths and weaknesses.

What Flashcard service do you use that I have not shared?

Padlet...Formally Wallwisher

Wallwisher has been making some changes recently and I have written about them here and here.  Now, the most recent change is its name.  Padlet, it is the portmanteau of paper + wood + tablet...the rock kind, as a tribute to our ancestral beginnings of writing.  If you have been an avid user of Wallwisher, then you will have nothing to worry about with the name change.  It will not affect previous walls that you have created and there will be a period where you will be redirected to the new URL in the future.  To read more about this change, check out the Wallwisher Blog.

To see suggestions for using Wallwisher in the classroom, see my previous post about this tool.  

Slide Talk

Voice recognition software and typing text to voice over is becoming a very popular service.  There are also several apps and web based services that provide this for free.  Slide Talk is one of those options.  To use the service, you first must create an account.  Users will then upload their slides and arrange them to build a story.  These slides will need to be images.  For each slide users need to type some text to explain what is in the slide.  From there, in 20+ different languages and 70+ different voices, the service will convert the text into a voice over speech.  The images and audio are turned into a video and automatically published to YouTube, or can downloaded for personal use.  See video below that showcases several of the different voice options.

The Largest Archive of Biodiversity Sound and Video Library

The use of sounds in our lives is taking a dramatic turn with the use of Apps and mobile technology.  How many of you know someone that has an animal sound as a ringtone or message tone on their phone?  That is what I mean.  The Macaulay Library archive is the largest collection of biodiversity audio and video recordings that was just recently completely digitized for anyone to access.  The collection contains over 150,000 digital recordings with about 9,000 different species represented.  There is an emphasis on birds, but the library also includes the sounds of several other types of animals.

The Macaulay Library is working to improve search features and make it possible for people to collect their own recordings and upload them directly to the archive.  Many of the recordings are being used in movies, museums, and as mentioned above, in smartphone apps.  On the site you can browse by bird, mammal, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods, and fishes.

For each sound, other information is also provided that might be of use.  Behavior is discussed as well as a location for where the recording to place as well.  Users can also learn the equipment that was used to capture the sounds.