Organize Anything in a Fun and Sociable Way

Organisr is a free and collaborate way to organize lists, to dos, or ideas.  Users have the ability to create multiple lists that contain color coded items while also allowing users to move any item from one list to the next.  Creating an account is easy; all users need is their name, username, email address, and a password.  Users can mark things complete and then incomplete if need be, and when they are completed, they get marked through.  Users can assign tasks on the list to fellow users as well and determine task color and background color.  If unsure about how you will use the service, there is a sample page that users can utilize to learn how to utilize the service.  Organisr has a simple interface and seems very user-friendly.

I could see teachers utilizing Organisr to organize lesson plans and various activities for their classrooms.  It could also be utilized to brainstorm ideas for lessons and the color codes could be used to match them up. Department heads could collaborate to use the service to determine department based initiatives and make plans for achieving them.  Students could use Organisr to divide up responsibilities for a project and then track completion of the members of the group.  

A Free Search Engine for Learning

Gooru, currently in Beta, allows users to search for educational resources, collections, and quizzes.  At the top of the page, users have the ability to see current featured collections.  Users can also click on categories from the various Core Subject Resources which are divided up by middle school and high school.  With Gooru, users have the ability to customize collections, collaborate with other teachers, upload materials, and find content aligned to Common Core State Standards.

To learn more about Gooru, users can join the Teachers Using Gooru Community to get further assistance.  Each collection could include pictures, articles, videos, and more.  From the collections, students can take quizzes in order to self assess their learning.  There is also a Gooru Collections App available for iPads that allows users to search through the collections, play games, watch videos, read textbooks, and take notes.

Users can create an account for free.  In order to join the beta version, users will need to provide their birth date and email address.  For more information, see the video below

Drop Your Pics and Create a Slideshow

DropMocks is a free service where users can easily drag and drop pictures from their computer and create a slideshow.  Once pictures are uploaded, users have the ability to reorder the pictures and then with the unique URL, users can share their slideshow.  Users can sign in with their Google Account in order to edit and save the slideshows for later.  DropMocks is very easy to use.  See the video below for a quick look at how it works.

#Tagboard

Tagboard is a website that allows users to search for Hashtags from across multiple social media platforms.  With the use of services like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite which allow users to post to both Facebook and Twitter at the same time, hashtags are appearing in more social media services than just Twitter.  Through Tagboard, users can search for hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and App.net.  Other sites can be added in the future as well.

Once a users conducts their search, the results appear in a Pinterest style wall.  You can look at all the services or pick just one.  There is also a refresh available as new additions to the search are added.  Users can also sign in to their Twitter or Instagram from the site and post a tweet to the hashtag they are searching. By creating an account users can create their own Tagboard which will help track the search results.  Several hashtags have a corresponding link or website with more information.  When available, users can click directly to those websites.  Users can also share the Tagboard to various social media services and through email as well.

As more social media becomes a resource for students and teachers, a service like Tagboard can become an important addition to the classroom.  Tagboard could be another way for students and teachers to track their hashtags that they use for classrooms as well.

Wealth Inequality in America

The video below is starting to go viral as it portrays the current thoughts, ideals, and reality of Income Inequality in America.  The video does an excellent job of portraying this information through the use of charts and graphs.


Teachers across the subject matter could use this video in their classroom.  Ideally, it would be more beneficial in a social studies classroom, but English teachers could use the video as a writing prompt.  A good activity would be to take the same data and apply it to students in your classrooms in order to make it relevant to them.  History and Government teachers could use the video and use recent historical events that created this reality in America.  Sociology classes could develop a list of how it has impacted our country and ways those could be addressed.  Either way, it could be a valuable video to share with students, especially high school students, as this is the economy that they are graduating into.

See the video for yourself and draw your own conclusions.  I highly recommend that you use Safeshare.tv or embed the video in order to hide the comments related to this video.