Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners

Oolone and More Search Engines for Students

2012-01-30T21:03:00.001-06:00

Oolone is a new visual search engine that displays results as web previews instead of text, offering a nice option for efficient and intuitive searching. An oolone search displays the top four results in a grid that allows uses to scroll over the images to get a closer look at the site before actually selecting it. Designed to be a quicker and more efficient way to search, it speaks to the idea that that sometimes an image is the best answer to a question.

With the added bonus of plugins available for Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, it's easier than ever to offer students search options to fit their unique learning styles. I've added it to my Bag of Search Engines for Students found below. If you like this Bag, feel free to click on the embed button at the bottom and quickly embed it in a place for student use.

Screencasts -Tech Support to Maximize Instructional Time

2012-01-28T11:10:00.002-06:00

As educators in the 21st century, one of our goals should be to design student driven experiences that offer flexible learning paths, using a variety of tools to meet the diverse needs of all students. Fueled by essential questions, technology is certainly a fabulous tool for facilitating these types of experiences, but with limited instructional time, loads of content to uncover and varied comfort levels with the technology itself, implementing these types of learning experiences can be overwhelming and can be an inefficient use of instructional time. If educators are going to effectively use technology as a tool for learning, than the learning focus has to be on the content, not the technology.

How do we keep the focus of the learning experience on content and avoid being consumed by teaching students how to use the technology? A tool that I've found to be particularly effective is the use of screencasts to create quick tech tip tutorials to help teachers and students use the technology to succeed. A screencast is a narrated video that captures what takes place on a computer screen. It can be used to provide demonstrations and tutorials to teach the "how to" of using the technology. The primary benefit of using this tool is the pause button. Users can pause the tutorial, and replay it as often as needed to learn the "how to", allowing the teacher to circulate around the room facilitating differentiated content based instruction through informal assessment, reteaching and enrichment.

There are plenty of screencasting tools available online. The free and user-friendly tool I have adopted is Screencast-O-Matic because of the simple push-button recording feature that allows users to easily create a screencast, publish it on YouTube, and make it available for teachers and students right away. A screencast created with this tool can be embedded into a blog, wiki, or website or linked to a Google Doc, so it is very versatile. Screencast-O-Matic has announced the addition of a new feature in February that will allow screencasts to be published right in a Google Doc.

Below I've embedded a snippet of an example from a lesson in which students used a Google Presentation template to construct knowledge. In this project, screencast tutorials were included right on the template to provide them with easy access to tech support.

Example: Using Screencasts to Support a Technology-Driven Lesson
Click on the images or links to access the tutorials.

Build Vocabulary Cards with Google Presentation

2011-12-03T10:32:00.001-06:00

There is a wealth of research to suggest that vocabulary knowledge is the single best predictor of student academic achievement across all curriculum areas. Experts agree that vocabulary development is an attainable goal. If given the opportunity to receive effective vocabulary instruction, most students can acquire vocabulary at rates that will improve their comprehension and also their chances for success in school. Technology is an effective and engaging tool that can be used to improe vocabulary acquisition for all learners and engage them in the learning process. Google Presentation offers some features that make it an attractive tool for a lesson in which students work collaboratively to construct knowledge about vocabulary by creating vocabulary cards.

Lesson: Use Google Presentation to Build Vocabulary Cards

In this activity students use the template found at the bottom of this post to guide the learning. The template includes formatting which allows students to focus on content rather than technology. An added bonus of this template is that it includes a Help Page with links to resources and video tutorials about how to complete certain tasks when using Google Presentation.

Help Page with links to tutorials

Grouping:
Students work in groups of three. Each group works on a copy of the template that has been shared with members of the group. Each student within the group has a job to do.

Jobs: Click on the images to jump to a page with tutorials and resources
.

Finds and inserts a video to illustrate the term using the handy feature that lets users preview and insert YouTube videos without leaving the presentation.

Find a copyright-friendly image or use the drawing tools available to draw directly an illustration of the term directly on the slide.

Use dictionary tools to compose a definition.

Create a Slide: Each student contributes to the slide, using the Help Button, if needed.

sample student card with jobs

sample student card completed

Create a Quiz Card:

After students create the vocabulary card, they use the animations feature available in Google Presentation to turn their cards into a Quiz Card for review and practice when studying the terms

Vocabulary Card Template:

Get Template:
You must be logged in to a Gmail account to copy and use this template.

Improve Search Skills - A Google a Day

2011-11-06T09:13:00.000-06:00

Searching for information is a process that involves critical thinking. A Google a Day is a trivia game that provides students and grownups with a playful way to improve search skills. Every day Google posts a question that is complex enough that a regular Google search won't yield the solution. Players have to put on their thinking caps to find the answers. Here are some things you should know about a Google a day:

Players are encouraged to "cheat" and search for the answer, that's the point of this game.
Tips and tricks for searching are available through a link right on the game page.
The answer includes the path used to find it.
Players must solve each day's puzzle by searching the Internet as it existed before A Google a Day was launched. This is known as "Deja Google".
The trivia game can easily be popped into your own blog or website with the embed code provided. Try it for yourself at the bottom of this post.

Beyond the fun of the trivia game, Google has also put together lessons and materials to help teachers teach students how to search, known as the Google Search Education Evangelism Site which is worth taking a look at. The materials on the site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike license which means teachers can use and modify them for their teaching as long as they give attribution to Google.com and keep the sharing going by licensing modifications of the work under the same category.

GoogleDocs for Learning on Scoop.It

2011-10-29T12:12:00.000-05:00

View Google Docs for Learning on Scoop.It

I've put together a collection of resources for using Google Docs for Learning on Scoop.It and I'm always looking for more.

If you have ideas to share, please take a minute to complete my Google form and share.

Zoom.It: Publish Zoomable Images

2011-10-27T10:12:00.000-05:00

Zoom.It is a free and user-friendly Cool Tool for embedding, viewing and sharing images. Just copy an image link into the box on the website and in return receive a link or embed code to your zoomable image. Click on the tools at the bottom of this awesome poster, published by The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, to experience Zoom.It as you think about the 4 C's.

GoogleDocs Presentation: New Look and Features

2011-10-25T14:06:00.000-05:00

Recently Google released a new version of its online presentation software and with it comes some additional features that have been available in traditional presentation software programs like PowerPoint and Keynote. Here are some of the highlights:

Include transitions in between slides
Use simple animations, or "flying text"
Link images
Include tables with improved formatting options
Draw directly on a slide to create flowcharts, mind maps and doodles

To get a glimpse of the new tool in action, please view the Google Presentation below.

The Flipped Classroom Infographic

2011-10-23T20:11:00.000-05:00

Check out this infographic about The Flipped Classroom created by Jeremy F. Stayer of Ohio State University.

Learn About Culture Through Images

2011-10-18T16:31:00.002-05:00

Culture is a very popular topic of study in our 6th grade curriculum. Larry Ferlazzo has identified some great photo resources for Learning About Different Cultures on his blog, Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...for Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL. I decided to combine Larry's resources with ThingLink, to create a visual launcher to help students expand their visual and cultural literacy skills in the 24/7 classroom.

A ThingLink Launcher

3 Interactive Math Tools to Engage Students

2011-10-10T11:49:00.001-05:00

The flexibility of virtual manipulatives and interactive math tutorials can provide opportunities for all students to master math.. Here are 3 interactive sites that work well with students working on their own computers, projected in front of the class, or on an interactive board.

Thinking Blocks
This is a very nice interactive site for modeling and solving real-world math problems, designed for elementary and middles school students by Colleen King. The site uses a series of interactive templates to provide guided instruction through tutorials that model the step-by-step process of solving a problem. Then it provides students with independent practice that also walks them through the process and provides them with immediate feedback and progress checking options. Content includes addition, multiplication, factions and ratios, but there is also a modeling tool for teachers to create their own problems.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

This a library of colorful and interactive web-based virtual manipulatives and tutorials for teaching math. The award-winning project, developed by the National Science Foundation, is research based and designed to use a virtual learning environment to actively engage students in math and help them visualize relationships and applications. The wide variety of manipulative is impressive and activities are available for teaching math in grades PreK-12.

A Maths Dictionary for Kids

This animated, interactive online math dictionary for students, developed by Jenny Eather, explains over 600 common mathematical terms and math words in simple language. It's colorful, interactive and kid-friendly. This tool might be especially useful for parents to use as a reference supporting students at home.

GoogleDocs Templates: A Virtual Copy Machine

2011-10-09T07:17:00.000-05:00

If you're looking for an easy and efficient way to provide students with a starting point for a digital project, Google Docs Templates can help. You can save time and guide the learning by providing students with a consistent page format by using and creating your own templates. A Google Docs template is like a virtual copy machine. There are plenty of user-submitted templates already created and available for public use and there is even a category for Students and Teachers. Here are some tips and tricks to get you started.

How to Use an Existing Templates

Sign in to your Google account
When viewing your list of GoogleDocs, choose Browse Template Gallery from the top of the page.
Use the search box at the top of the page to find templates and use the links on the left side of the page to narrow your search by category or specific type of Google Doc.
When you find a template you like, click Use This Template. A copy of the template will move to your list of Google Docs.
Modify the template as needed and use it.

How to Create a Template

Sign in to your Google account
Create a new document, presentation, form, spreadsheet or drawing.
Add your content and save.
Go to your list of Google Docs.
Choose Browse Template Gallery from the top of the page.
On the new screen that appears, choose Submit a Template.
Click on the link to Choose from yourGoogleDocs
Complete the form with information about your template and submit.
The template will become available in the gallery in a few minutes.

Sample Some Templates Available for Use

Note: You must be signed in to your Google account to view


HistoricalFacebook, created by Susan Santoli		Charts in Spreadsheets created by the GoogleDocs Team		20 Questions Self-Grading Test, created by John Warf

5 Ideas for Use in the Classroom
You're bound to think of more!

Create a collaborative Google Presentation with copyright-friendly images or your own photos as a starting point for students. Have studemts open the template and write about the images.
Create a digital note-taking page complete with pre-formatted note cards, links to research resources and a link to Easy-Bib to collect information for the bibliography.
Use the drawing tools to create a mind-map, then group the shapes, text boxes and arrows together so students can easily contribute without worrying about formatting.
Create online student record-keeping templates. Use them to help students easily log their at-home, reading, instrument practice, food consumption or any task you want students to keep track of.
Create a template for student portfolios to guide them through the process of self-reflection and publishing work.

Manage Google Docs with an Assignment Tracker

2011-10-05T21:35:00.002-05:00

One of the challenges of rolling out Google Docs for all students at our school is in managing all those docs students are turning in. Teachers are experiencing the frustration of cluttered In Boxes taken over by individual messages from students sharing their assignments. Fortunately, I have found an awesome idea from John Miller @162 that utilizes a Google Form as an Assignment Tracker. The idea is innovative, efficient and simple. Here's how John's invention works:

Teachers create a very simple Google Form to be submitted by students every time they turn in work. Information on the form should include name, class period, assignment name and a link to the Google Doc with the assignment. The information submitted by students automatically populates a spreadsheet to be used by teachers to keep track of assignments and also to launch those assignment for grading and review.

Benefits:

Teachers only have to create one form to used for the entire year. At certain intervals, teachers can simply copy and paste the information into a new page on the same spreadsheet for the purposes of record keeping, then work from a clean sheet.
Use of an assignment tracker requires virtually no work for teachers. The additional effort necessary for the assignment tracker to work is a very quick task that is completed by students, but the task in itself is easy and it should actually make them feel good when they turn in work. The task is similar to crossing items off of a To Do list and we all know that just feels good.
When students submit the form, a time stamp accompanies it, so teachers can see when an assignment was turned in. This means there is no need to be dilligent about checking the form on that date an assignment is due. There is a digital record.
Since the information is in a Google Spreadsheet, it can be sorted or even exported to Excel and used as a database for generating form letters for missing assignments.

Samples:
Click the images to view the actual student form and teacher spreadsheet.


Many thanks to John Miller @162 for this great idea!

Collaborative Brainstorming with Google Docs Drawing Tools

2011-10-02T11:25:00.000-05:00

To help students develop skills necessary for living and working in the 21st century, educators must provide them with learning experiences to allow them to master the 4C's: creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Opportunities for students to work together to solve real-world problems foster the development of these skills and also require students think outside of the box to generate a number of different solutions to solving a problem. Brainstorming can be a key part of this creative process. The features available in the drawing component of Google Docs are well-suited for online, collaborative brainstorming sessions for quite a few reasons.

Tools are available to create a visual mind map
Use shapes, arrows, text, word art and imported images to build a visual mind map for any task.

Sharing allows for collaboration
Groups of students can collaborate and share ideas on the same mind map from locations near and far. Digital brainstorming sessions provide all students with an opportunity to contribute, unlike traditional brainstorming sessions which encourage contributions from the "quick thinkers" in the room.

Revision history feature highlights individual contributions
Contributors are assigned their own color and the revision history highlights and tracks changes to any Google Doc. It's easy to see what each student has contributed to the big picture.

Templates are available
Some generous and innovative users have created and shared templates for everyone to use. Use them as a starting point or a model to create your own templates for students.

Example:

YouTube for Teachers

2011-09-25T17:48:00.003-05:00

As educators, most of us recognize the benefits of using video for learning and we also realize that exposing students to the wide array of content available on YouTube can be dangerous. Finally, it's here... The YouTube.edu site!

Launched this week, the folks at YouTube appear to have been listening to teachers and edtech gurus. At first glance, I'm quite impressed with the new education site for many reasons. Here are the top three:

Teachers can now create their own YouTube channel on the education site for easy student access. They can organize and archive videos for future use, ensuring that the content is safe and educationally appropriate.
The site offers 10 ways to use YouTube in the classroom and they have hit upon many of the things I believe we should be doing to provide digital content to help all students succeed. My favorites include suggestions for differentiation, an example demonstrating how to solve math problems online to help students and their parents at home, and of course using video to facilitate The Flipped Classroom model. They've even created an instructional section on creating screencasts to help teachers get started.
The folks at YouTube are clearly well aware of the opportunities that exist for extending the walls of our classrooms and opening the doors 24/7 and they've done their homework to help teachers succeed.

Check out YouTube for Teachers

10 Minute Tech Tools

2011-09-25T12:25:00.000-05:00

I've put together a new collection of user-friendly tech tools for busy teachers on ScoopIt. Unlike my other collections, the criteria for this list is not based on a common theme, instead these tools are included because they will take 10 minutes or less for you to start using and they are versitile enough to be used to enhance teaching across the curriculum. No login or account setup is required.

View my collection:

10 Minute Tech Tools on ScoopIt

Use Google Docs to Facilitate a Digital Writer's Workshop

2011-09-24T09:53:00.000-05:00

As a longtime user of Google Docs, I am very excited that all students in our schools have been given their own Google Apps accounts because I recognize the tremendous potential that comes along with using these online digital tools. One of the things I'm most excited about is using Google Docs to facilitate the writing process. Here are some of the cool features available in Google Docs to support writers:

Sharing and commenting for immediate feedback
One of the most powerful features of Google Docs is the ability for students to receive immediate feedback in the 24/7 classroom by taking advantage of document sharing and comments. Since Docs are stored online, students can work at school and at home from any computer with an Internet connection. They are likely to revisit their work if they know someone else will be commenting on it. Comments are smart and each individual comment actually disappears after the paper has been revised by the author. Docs also provide support for collaboration in real time, so students can actually have a virtual mini-conference about the writing, if the timing is right.
To insert a comment, highlight the text, then the find the option to insert a comment under the insert menu.

Integrated reference and writing tools to support all learners
A built-in dictionary and thesaurus supports 12 languages and allows user to look up words without leaving their own document. Word Count capability provides feedback on number of words in a selection or the entire document. Built in spell check allows students to use Control + Click on an underlined word to get spelling suggestions and identify simple grammar errors as they type.
To use the dictionary and thesaurus, highlight the text, then find the option under the tools menu > define.

Autosave and revision history
Continuous autosave to the "Google Cloud" virtually eliminates saving issues. Use the revision history, found in the file menu, to review, compare, or revert to a prior version of the document at any time, or to track contributions made by collaborators. It's easy to see what individual students have contributed to a document because Google Docs assigns everyone a color to each contributor.

To use the revision history, find the option under the file menu.

Use in the classroom: Digital Writer's Workshop
The features in Google Docs can be used to facilitate a digital writer's workshop based on peer editing, and they are particularly useful when combined with cooperative grouping strategies to fine-tune students' editing skills. While students are writing their drafts, teachers can take advantage of opportunities to lead small instructional groups to help them focus on specific cooperative grouping job-related skills, then students can share their drafts with other group members who use comments to suggest revisions based on their job. The immediate feedback provided by peers will likely encourage writers to check comments and revise at home and stay on task during classroom work time. The revision history will keep student comments and revisions honest and focused on the task. Here are some examples of jobs to consider, modify and adjust as needed:

Word Smith: Check for words that are used well, overused, incorrectly used, or could be substituted for more descriptive or interesting words.

Punctuation Person: Check grammar and punctuation. Look for fragments and run-on sentences.

Reality Checker: Check facts and perform a plagiarism check by popping snippets of the writing into a Google Search.

Big Picture Person: Check to make sure the writing is complete. Focus on main ideas, paragraphs and use of transitions.

Description Detective: Check to make sure there are enough details to support the writing and suggest eliminating the extras.

Tense Tracker :Check to make sure the tense remains constant. It's easier to write in the past tense than it is to write in the present.

Your own: Design and redesign roles based on the skills you are covering in your writing curriculum.

Technology: A Tool to Support All Learners

2011-08-22T11:31:00.000-05:00

The Goal of Education by George Couros | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

CoolTools for Multimedia Projects on Scoop.It

2011-08-19T18:49:00.001-05:00

Multimedia projects provide students with opportunities to acquire 21st century skills by requiring them to gather, integrate and synthesize information as they collaborate and communicate within a digital environment. Effective multimedia projects require students to construct knowledge and use higher-level thinking skills to remix and present content.
There are many free and user-friendly tools available for creating multimedia projects and it's hard to know which tools to choose. I used Scoop.It to put together a collection of my favorites to get the school year started

.
View my collection of Cool Tools for Multimedia Projects on ScoopIt

Comics in the Classroom

2011-08-18T13:36:00.013-05:00

Comics are a powerful teaching tools that provide educators with engaging visual content to support all learners. Not only are the appealing and kid-friendly, they provide an opportunity for reluctant readers to visualize as they read, as well as providing a means for reluctant writers to communicate a story with a beginning, middle, and end. There has been a lot of attention focusing on the benefits of using comics in the classroom. Here are some resources for getting started:

Rationale for use:
Tom Hark and Lori Weinstein have created a list of ways comics relate to Multiple Intelligences on their Story Ark blog, which I have captured and republished here:

Story Ark Comics, Manga and Flash Teaching via kwout

Free and User-Friendly Web 2.0 Tools: Create Your Own Comics

Click below to view my collection of Cool Tools for Creating Comics in the Classroom on Scoop It.

Good Collections of Comics Lesson Plans and More:

ReadWriteThink Access a variety of great user submitted lesson plans and resources on this site.
National Association of Comics Art Educators
A rich resource complete with lesson plans, study guides, sample scripts, handouts and connections to comics teachers.
Comics in the Classroom
Lesson plans with a comics theme.
The Graphic Classroom Blog
A blog for teachers and librarians that is dedicated to providing resources for using high quality comics for classroom instruction.

Spell with Me: A Tool for Flickr

2011-08-17T07:16:00.000-05:00

Spell with Me is a quick and easy tool that translates letters in words into Flickr images. Type in any word and this tool will generate one image for each letter and then provide you with the embed code to include the image on your blog or website. Use this tool to create eye-catching graphics for your digital resources or let students use it to reinforce spelling or vocabulary practice, but be careful not to overuse it, a little goes a long way.

YouTube Tools: Maximize Instruction and Tame Videos

2011-08-16T07:26:00.012-05:00

Video in the classroom is a dynamic resource for supporting the curriculum and engaging students. A wide range of video with educational value is available on YouTube, but sometimes those videos need to be tweeked to maximize instruction. Want to eliminate the extras, share only a snippet of a video, or string several videos clips together? Here are some free and user friendly tools to help educators make the most of YouTube videos in the classroom.

ViewPure: Eliminate the extras
Install and use the handy bookmarklet to quickly eliminate related videos, comments, or ads found on YouTube. Share a purified video through a link on your blog or website, or pop it into your digital learning platform to encourage online discussions.
View example: A Vision of K-12 Students Today

Splicd: Share a snippet of a video

Enter a YouTube url, then set the start and end time for the part of the video you want to share. Generate a code for embedding into any blog or website in a snap and cut straight to the point. Use snippets to kickoff a writing project or discussion.

View example: Charlie Bit Me

CaptionTube: Guide the learning and maximize instruction
Add focus to YouTube videos by creating captions to share through a bookmark or link. Include captions for guided questions or to provide students with additional information.
Watch demo

Drag On Tape: Create a mix of your favorite video clips.
Splice portions of YouTube videos together with this online editor. Install the bookmarklet for added functionality. Use this tool to create a presentation for students, or let them create their own to illustrate a concept or make a point.
View example: Space Shuttle Launch Mix

ThingLink: Make Images Interactive

2011-07-29T09:20:00.186-05:00

Thinglink is an interactive image tool that provides users with the ability to turn any image into a multimedia launcher. Users can create multiple "hot spots" on specific parts of an image and then link them to any location on the world wide web. Compatible with any blog or website that has a widget to support javascript, this is a great tool for those of us who use Blogger, Wikispaces or WordPress.

To experience Thinglink, roll your mouse over the Apollo 11 collage I created below to see where the hot spots are, then click on any of them to enjoy the multimedia.

Directions:
To use Thinglink, simply follow these steps:

Go to the Thinglink website and sign up for a free account.
Follow the directions on the site to install the widget on your blog.
Insert a *copyright-friendly image into a blog post.
Publish your post. Although this step may seem out of order, you must publish your image before the tools become available.
After publishing, roll your mouse over the image to make the editing tools appear.
Click on the pencil tool then drag your cursor around the place where you want to place your hotspot.
A box will pop up, prompting you to create your links.
Repeat steps 5-7 to create multiple hot spots on your image.

Uses in the classroom:

Create a themed collage with links to multimedia resources to support all learners.
Create a word cloud using Wordle, then turn the largest words into hot spots with links to more information.
Use an image as a launcher with links leading to student-created projects.
Post an historical photo and use 3rd party software, such as SoundCloud, to give students the opportunity to record their voices speaking from the person's point of view.
Use a Thinglinked image to create a scavenger hunt or modified WebQuest.

Of course, the possibilities are tremendous here. These are just some ideas to get you started.

Try Thinglink

*Go to my wiki to view my favorite copyright-friendly images sources for students and teachers.

Bloom's Taxonomy Presented Visually

2011-07-28T12:16:00.021-05:00

Inspired by Kathy Schrock's Bloomin' iPad, I decided to use Scoop.it to create a collection of visual resources to support Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. View the collection on Scoop.it.

Scoop.it - Collect and Share Information Visually

2011-07-25T11:22:00.026-05:00

Scoop.it is a curation service that allows users to collect information about a topic of interest and display it all on one attractive visual page. The tool integrates instantly with Twitter and Facebook, allowing you to share with the click of a button, and a newly added feature allows users to embed a preview of your Scoop.it page into any blog, wiki or website. See the Cool Tools for Drawing sample I created below..

Besides for it's attractive and visual format, one of the biggest differences between Scoop.it and a traditional blog is that the creator can choose to simply collect and display content without having to write about it. Of course, users can add a post of your own too, but if you'd prefer to simply share, Scoop.it will do the trick.

Scoop.it is a user friendly tool. Simply install the handy bookmarklet in your toolbar and collect information yourself, or use the suggested resources collected for you based on the keywords you submit when you crete your page. Scoop.it will find images and descriptions of the pages you choose to display, or you can add your own with a few more clicks. The most important thing to remember when using this tool is to keep it simple and stick to one topic.

Click to view my Sample Scoop.it - Cool Tools for Drawing and Painting

Uses in the Classroom:

Collect resources at a variety of reading levels on a particular topic or area of study.
Collect news resources from different countries and/or perspectives to expose students to a current event or issue from a global perspective.
Create a page of related resources using a variety of multimedia to provide students with multiple ways to access information.
Collect and display primary source documents all in one place to help students bring it all together.
Create a page of student-created projects for sharing on the web.

Try Scoop.it

Tag Galaxy

2011-07-21T08:35:00.006-05:00

Tag Galaxy is a Cool Tool to visually explore word relationships. Just type in a term and watch a 3D orbiting galaxy of words and their associations evolve Click on any word to move it to the center of the galaxy, then click on it again and watch the globe populate with tagged images from Flickr.

Watch Demo

Uses in the Classroom:

Project Tag Galaxy on a wall to help students visualize vocabulary words, ideas and concepts.
Display Tag Galaxy on an interactive white board and letstudents touch the globe and explore.
Use the photos to prompt creative writing.
Engage students in a guided visualsearch.
Start a discussion about word relationships

Try Tag Galaxy yourself

The Blooming Orange

2011-07-19T10:10:00.005-05:00

I've always been interested in new ways to view and think about Bloom's Taxonomy and the folks at Learning Today have created a poster worth sharing. To help teachers get thinking about ways to apply Bloom's higher-order thinking skills in the classroom, they've put a spin on the traditional hierarchy and limited the number of verbs in each section to create The Blooming Orange.

They've popped Bloom's verbage into the segments of an orange and intentionally depicted it as a circle to illustrate the fact that often these skills do not occur in isolation, they often occur simultaneously. This Blooming Orange presents itself as a teacher-friendly tool for planning and possibly an easier way for everyone to think about Bloom's. Be sure to click on the link below to visit the Learning Today blog and print a copy of this poster to hang in your classroom.

Blooming Orange: Bloom's Taxonomy Helpful Verbs Poster via kwout

Present.Me

2011-07-15T09:09:00.005-05:00

Present.Me is a free tool that allows you to use the webcam and microphone on your computer to record yourself giving a PowerPoint presentation. Just create and upload your presentation, then use your computer's webcam to talk about it as you progress through the slides. The end result is a side-by-side view of the presentation along with the presenter. The entire creation is stored online and easily accessed through a link.

Uses in Education:

My first thought is this would be a great way for teachers to try The Flipped Classroom approach to teaching by publishing a Present.Me and asking students to view and interact with the content for homework in preparation for the next class. After all, many teachers are already familiar with PowerPoint and recording yourself with this tool is quite easy.
Another good use of this tool might be to have students use it as a substitute for the traditional whole-class project presentation. Instead of asking the student audience to sit through hours of student-led presentations, assign them a task related to viewing the presentations and let them interact with them at their own pace.
Teachers can use this tool to create and publish presentations online for parents unable to attend Open House/Curriculum Night that generally happens at the start of the year.
Schools and districts might consider using this tool to make good use of limited staff development time by creating and publishing an ongoing list of resources. Provide teachers with time to view and interact with presentations during staff meeting time, and also give them the opportunity to continue the learning at home.
And of course, this tool could be really useful for virtual conferences of all kinds.

Try Present.Me for yourself

Simplify and Summarize Digital Text

2011-07-13T08:25:00.012-05:00

In nearly every classroom there are a number of students who do not have the reading level needed to comprehend written content-based material. One of the biggest challenges teachers face is providing text for struggling readers. Technology is a tool that can help. Here are some tools for providing students with the support they need to succeed. Many thanks to Sheri Lenzo, assistive technology expert, for teaching me all of this and much more.

	Natural Reader This free software needs to be installed on your PC. After that, just highlight the text you want read aloud and click on Control + F9. Voila!
	Readability Bookmarklet Install a handy bookmarklet and watch this tool scrub web pages of distractions by removing the ads and creating a more readable body of text.
	Text Compactor A free online tool that is extremely user-friendly. Just copy and paste some digital text into the box, use the slider to determine the percentage of text you want to end up with, and view the summary
	Text to Speech for Mac Macintosh computers have the text to speech feature built in, but it needs to be activated in System Preferences. Watch the tutorial on this wiki.
	Twurdy A search engine that yields color-coded results by readability in order to provide users with text written at appropriate levels. View more simple search engine tools on my wiki.
	Wikipedia Simple English One of the languages supported by Wikipedia is "Simple English". Choose it to find information written using simpler words and simple sentences, which lowers the readability level.
	Hands-On Overview on JogTheWeb Try my Jog: Tools for Summarizing and Simplifying Text

Cool Tools for Teaching Vocabulary

2011-07-10T20:57:00.208-05:00

I spent the first part of my summer working with teachers to help them learn to use technology as a tool for differentiating reading instruction to help all learners succeed. During that time we experimented with many different tools for teaching vocabulary. Here is a glance at the list of tools the course participants found to be user-friendly and useful for students and teachers.

Lexipedia A very nice multi-lingual visual dictionary that creates a word web and defines words based on parts of speech. Use the toolbar bookmarklet for convenience.
Lingro An amazing tool that turns all the words in any website or digital text into a clickable dictionary and translates text into 12 different languages.
Shahi A visual dictionary that combines Wiktionary content with Flickr images, and more.
Snappy Words An online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words.
Visuwords Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts.
The Visual Dictionary This tool uses photographs of words in the real world to visually explore them.
Vocabulary.co A very popular site for vocabulary games.
VocabGrabber Copy and paste text into the box and this tool generates a word cloud to identify the key vocabulary. Sort words by content area.
Wordsift Place text into a box and then press sift to create a word cloud in which most frequently used words appear larger in size.
Wordia A tool that uses video to make personal connections for users. The school account keeps it safe for students and allows students to create their own video definitions and schools to build their own dictionaries.
Wordle Use this word cloud generator to identify key vocabulary in digital text. Try copying and pasting more than one related article into Wordle to get the big picture.
WordStash Teachers can sign up for a free account and create word lists to support written text. With a click of a button, students can access dictionary information and create flash cards for review.

Tag Galaxy
This tool creates a 3D orbiting galaxy of words and their associations Click on any word to move it to the center of the galaxy, then click again and watch the globe populate with images from Flicker. This is a must see.

WordStash: Build Vocabulary Cards

2011-07-10T08:38:00.009-05:00

WordStash is a dictionary based website for helping students learn vocabulary and more. Teachers can sign up for a free account to create and store word lists to support written text. With the click of a button, users can access definitions, example sentences from context and pictures to support the word. Once created, teachers will have a set of digital flash cards to use to help students practice the words and concepts through a couple of no-nonsense games and quizzes. Students can access the vocabulary activities through a link, without logging in.

At first glance, this seems like a handy tool for reviewing vocabulary, but after experimenting with the tool myself, I realized that the tool can also be used to help students build their own knowledge about vocabulary terms and concepts, which makes it a much more appealing tool.

At it's most basic level, users can create a word card in a few quick and simple steps.

Add term
Choose the appropriate part of speech from a list.
Click on the appropriate definition to add it to the card.
Add an image from the Flicker or Wikipedia database.

Following those steps will yield word cards like the example below.

My goal with this activity was to create word cards to support understanding of The Louisiana Purchase, so I decided to dig a little deeper to create a more fine-tuned word card. Here are the modified steps followed:

Add term
Choose from a list to determine the part of speech
Read the given definitions, then search for an article on the Internet that uses the word in context. Word stash has a button to find context clues, but I found it easier to do my own search.
From the context, develop your own definition of the word. Type that definition on the word card..
Add a more accurate image from the database by typing in a more manually adjusting the search term. In this case, the term "territory" yielded a generic image, but type in "Louisiana Purchase" did the trick.

Truly, by building my own specific vocabulary card I also developed my own understanding of the word as it was related to the content and I think this could be a very meaningful activity for students.

Sign up for a free teacher account and try WordStash for yourself.

Lingro - Turn digital text into a clickable dictionary

2011-06-29T08:20:00.002-05:00

Lingro is an amazing online tool that turns any website or digital text file into an interactive dictionary where users can click on a word to view it's definition and hear it's pronunciation. Support by 12 languages, Lingro is also a very useful tool for translating text.

Lingro is easy to use. Just copy and paste any web address into Lingro's web browser and click on a word, or use the file viewer to upload a document and translate it in the same way. One of the most impressive features of Lingro is that it stores and remembers all the words you click on and allows you to easily create and store words lists. Then, with the click of a button, Lingro turns your word lists into an online flash card game.

This tool does not require a login to use the most basic features so it can be a handy tool for students without an email address, but teachers should create a free account to take advantage of additional features, such as storage, history and word lists.

.Try Lingro for yourself

Pulse for iPad: A Gorgeous News Feed Reader

2011-06-24T08:53:00.016-05:00

Pulse is an iPad app that collects multiple sources of your favorite news feeds and displays them in a convenient and attractive way to create a highly enjoyable reading experience.

News sources you select are arranged as a stream. Just drag the screen vertically to scan all your sources, then drag it horizontally to view particular articles within each source. Tap the screen to read an article in text view or view it as a full webpage. Pulse will even collect and display your Twitter stream. Sharing is as easy as a couple of taps.

To get a glimpse of what Pulse can do, please watch the video below and try Pulse for yourself, available from the iTunes store.

VocabGrabber: Generate Vocabulary Lists from Digital Text

2011-06-21T17:21:00.003-05:00

VocabGrabber is a Cool Tool that makes it easy to generate vocabulary lists from digital text. Just copy and paste text into a box and watch the tool generate a word cloud in which the most frequently used words appear larger in size. Those words are sorted into categories so users can extract specific content-related words from the cloud, or generate a general vocabulary list. Clicking on a word displays a definition, examples from context and a visual word map generated through the company's Visual Thesaurus Tool.

Be sure to use the handy toolbar add-on for maximum efficiency when you try VocabGrabber for yourself.

Twurdy: Search by Appropriate Readibility Levels

2011-06-16T15:11:00.000-05:00

Twurdy is a Google powered search tool that displays results at appropriate readability levels. Just enter a search term to get color-coded results which determine how easy the page will be to understand. This is certainly a useful tool to help all learners succeed and also a good tool to add to any teacher's toolkit of resources.

If you think the name of this search engine will be difficult to remember, perhaps knowing that it was derived from a play on words, "Too Wordy?", will help you remember it.

Try Twurdy

Online Bulletin Board of EdTech Blogs

2011-06-05T11:57:00.003-05:00

As a tech facilitator much of my success can be attributed to what I learn through the contacts I've made via my Personal Learning Network. Summer is a great time for educators to begin to build a personal learning network and so I've decided to simultaneously introduce a new tool for collaboration and try an experiment to demonstrate the power of a PLN.

If you have received a personal invitation to view this blog through Twitter, that means your blog has been published on the online bulletin board of Good EdTech Blogs I created using a user-friendly post-it note tool called Lino It. I am asking you to give the tool a try and add your favorite edtech blog to the bulletin board, then send a Tweet to the author with an invitation to contribute and continue the process. If successful, I think this bulletin board will grow rapidly and demonstrate the power of a PLN in addition to creating a great list of resources for those who are just starting to build a PLN. If you just happen to be reading this blog, please join us. You can post your own edtech blog, or your favorite, then do spread the word.

About the tool:
Lino It is a tool for creating a bulletin board of online sticky notes and a good tool for teachers to try this summer for collaborating with team members as you reflect and think about ideas for the upcoming school year. Working on a project? Collecting resources for a unit of study? Why not start with this simple and easy-to-use bulletin board. You can set up an account for free and share your bulletin board with a target group or make it public and share it with the world.

View or contribute to the EdTech Blogs Resources Board:
http://bit.ly/lts4rj

Try Lino It for yourself:
http://linoit.com

Stay tuned to this blog this summer as I continue to focus on ways to help educators develop a personal learning network.

Google Art Project: Explore World Museums

2011-05-28T14:46:00.036-05:00

As the end of the year approaches, teachers are often looking for engaging activities to keep their energetic students on task. Perhaps you might want to consider taking your students on a virtual field trip to explore art museums from around the world.

Google Art Project is an interactive website that uses the same street view technology you've probably seen in Google Maps to allows visitors to virtually explore museums and view hundreds of pieces of art. Even better, visitors can view them at incredible zoom levels to get even closer than you could if you were actually standing in front of the original painting. Visitors can even create and share their own collection of masterpieces.

A Few Ideas for Classroom Use
I have collected some interesting suggestions for classroom use and used Kwout to publish the screenshots and attribution you see below. Clicking on the link under each excerpt will take you to the full blog articles referenced, and in most cases lead you to more ideas for integration. Have some good ideas of your own? Please consider sharing them here through a comment.

Joe Jelen on Google's Art Project | Teachinghistory.org via kwout

Real vs. Virtual: Examining Works of Art Online - NYTimes.com via kwout

iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » Google Art Project: Virtual Art Museums via kwout

9 Ideas for Integrating Google Art Project in Your Curriculum | The Teaching Palette via kwout

Take a Sneak Peak

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Explore at googleartproject.com

The Flipped Classroom

2011-05-20T12:57:00.198-05:00

As an instructional tech facilitator my goal is to help teachers progress through the stages of technology adoption to get to the point at which they are using technology as a tool for learning, rather than using it as an add on to supplement traditional learning activities. To do that successfully, teachers must adjust their roles, moving from traditional teacher to learning coach or facilitator. Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams are a couple of innovative teachers who have developed an approach to teaching and learning known as The Flipped Classroom, which certainly supports the idea of teachers as learning coaches.

At it's most basic level, The Flipped Classroom approach means front loading the learning and assigning the prep work as homework in order for students to come to class prepared to use it. This means the classroom becomes a place for collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and communication where the teacher serves as a facilitator who interacts with students, assesses them, and spontaneously pulls together groups for reteaching and challenge. The Flipped Classroom is a place where students are actively engaged in applying the learning and it is noisy and unpredictable. Worksheets as homework become obsolete and students no longer sit in the classroom listening to lectures. Essentially, The Flipped Classroom is a place where "the teachable moment" comes alive.

If you want to learn more about The Flipped Classroom, please watch the video below and also check out The Flipped Classroom Network, a social network where Flipped Teachers share their experiences and learn from each other. As for me, I am excited to Flip the professional development classes I'm teaching this summer.

Edublogs Free Tools Challenge

2011-05-18T16:26:00.022-05:00

The Free Tools Challenge is a great online professional development opportunity for busy teachers provided by Edublogs. Designed to help participants learn to use free Web 2.0 tools, this 30 day challenge encourages us all to try one new tool each week through challenge activities created by by guest bloggers. I got the opportunity to be a guest blogger for the challenge and the activitiy I created, Free Tools Challenge #25: Using Jog the Web in the 24/7 Classroom, was published earlier this week.

Each of the Free Tools posts featured on the blog are complete with directions, suggestions for use in the classroom and opportunities for discussion. In my opinion the challenge is certainly worth taking.

If you are interested in learning innovative ways to use free Web 2.0 tools and also expanding your PLN at the same time, please check out the Edublogs Free Tools Challenge. You can find links to all the previous challenges in the sidebar on the left of the blog.

Keep up with future Free Tools Challenge posts as they are published:

Subscribe to the Free Tools Challenge Blog by RSS
Follow on Twitter to keep up with future challenge posts as they are published.
Follow on on Facebook

Text Compactor: Simplify and Summarize Text

2011-05-14T09:29:00.005-05:00

Text Compactor is a free online tool for summarizing and simplifying text. It is extremely user-friendly and requires no login so it's a perfect tool for students to add to their own toolkits of resources.

Just copy and paste some digital text into the box, use the slider to determine the percentage of text you want to end up with, and view the simplified text.

Use it as a tool to help struggling readers of all ages. Try it at textcompactor.com.

JogTheWeb for Guided Student Learning

2011-05-10T16:37:00.004-05:00

One of the best ways to use JogTheWeb is as a tool to create flexible, guided activities to help all students learn. It's easy to design a Jog for success if you set a goal of providing students with multiple ways to access and acquire information. Design your lessons to include video, text written at a variety of reading levels, simulations and interactive websites then see if it makes a difference in the success of all students. Take a look at a very simple Jog I created, Let's Explore the Nervous System, to view multiple ways to present information to students.

Tweet Topic Explorer

2011-05-03T14:20:00.008-05:00

If you appreciate a good word cloud you might be eager to learn about a tool that creates a word cluster out of the information people post on Twitter, commonly referred to as tweets.

This word cluster identifies the most frequently used words tweeted and also groups them to show relationships. Although the sample of my tweets below is only an image, you go to the actual website then click on any word to highlight it in the tweets.

View on Tweet Topic Explorer and try it

Photosynth - Capture the World in 3D

2011-05-02T19:19:00.010-05:00

Photosynth is a cool tool for capturing and viewing the world in 3D. This tool takes a series of photos and weaves them together to create a virtual tour. You and your students can explore the many photosynths already created simply by visiting the website, or create your own by signing up for an account.

Please enjoy this photosynth of the Chicago Skyline.

Try it for yourself at phyosynth.net

10 Minutes of Tech for Busy Teachers

2011-04-29T22:09:00.005-05:00

I used JogTheWeb to create a mixed-bag of quick tech tools for teachers to explore in ten minutes or less. All of the tools in this jog are extremely user-friendly, free and require no login. The tools are simple and versatile enough to assist in the teaching of just about any content to students of all ages. Ten minutes is all it will take to check out one of these tools and add it to your tech toolkit of resources.
10 Minutes of Tech for Busy Teachers

Jog The Web

2011-04-28T09:09:00.014-05:00

Jog The Web is a cool tool that allows users to assemble tidy packages of web content. For teachers it can be a tool for providing students with easy access to guided learning.

The websites within a Jog are live and can be explored right within the page frame, which solves problems related to students getting lost within multiple windows. Even better, Jog authors can annotate pages within the Jog and also create original pages with unique content.

This appears to be a very promising tool for education because it's user-friendly, engaging and interactive.

View Sample: A Jog for teachers, featuring several Web 2.0 tools
Using Glogster to Construct Knowledge

Why Glog?

2011-04-02T14:43:00.006-05:00

Glogster.edu is a cool tool for creating online multi-media posters. I created this glog to briefly introduce the concept of glogging to students. It includes a video that says it all, a glog of samples created by students and sine simple directions to get you started.

Visit: Why Glog?

Blogger: More Ways to Share

2011-03-31T11:06:00.005-05:00

Blogger is always making changes. Recently I've discovered several
newer options that make sharing your blog easier.

Share Buttons:
You can add share buttons to the bottom of your posts so visitors can quickly share your post on one of their favorite social media sites, like Twitter or Facebook. This is a handy feature, but unfortunately the buttons are small and appear in gray scale. Maybe blogger will work on this. In the meantime, add these buttons by going to Design, then click on the Edit link in the Blog Posts box. Try the buttons for yourself at the bottom of this post.
Follow by Email:
This is a new gadget that allows visitors to quickly enter an email address into a box in the sidebar to receive automatic blog updates by email. When you add this gadget Blogger will walk you through the steps to get you up and running. See sample in the sidebar
View Options:
Everyone has a preferred method of viewing, and while I'm going to stick with the traditional web log format, it's nice to know your visitors can choose to view your blog in a variety of ways. To do this, simply add a backslash followed by the word view to your blog address. Modifying the address will take you to a new page with a variety of viewing options. As far as alternate views go, I am fond of the timeslide view. Here is an example:

My blog address: http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com
Alternate viewing options: http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com/view/timeslide
Look in the upper right-hand corner of the new screen to switch views.

Google Apps Aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy

2011-03-30T19:46:00.007-05:00

Kathy Schrock, has aligned Google Apps with Bloom's Taxonomy. Please visit her site to access the amazing interactive map she has assembled, then submit a quick form to add your ideas and justifications for why you might have students use these tools in the respective cognitive areas in which they appear. Thanks Kathy!

Go to Kathy Schrock's Bloom's Revised Taxonomy page:

http://kathyschrock.net/googleblooms/


View live version, courtesy of Kathy Schrock http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide

Wordle Flashback

2011-03-27T13:34:00.003-05:00

Two years ago I was excited enough about Web 2.0 tools to actually start this blog. I started with Wordle, a simple word cloud generator. After all this time, I must admit I am still passionate about using Wordle. I find myself using it regularly in my teaching, even though several new word tag generators have evolved, including Taxedo, Tag Cloud, and the ever-popular WordPress rotating tag cloud.

Still, I love Wordle for it's simplicity. Just go to the Wordle website, type some text into a box, click a button and your text becomes a Word Cloud. Anyone can do it, but the real trick is in how it's used. After all, words that appear more frequently within the text appear larger in size within the word cloud.

Here are my top 3 favorite ways to use Wordle:

Copy and paste the text from a few good articles about a specific topic into Wordle to get the main ideas and vocabulary. Use it as a starting point for a lesson to help students construct knowledge.
Copy and paste student generated text into Wordle for self-analysis of writing. Words and phrases that are overused will jump out.
Wordle a current event topic, then use it to generate a classroom discussion.

My goal this week is to see if we can build on the Wordle ideas we started a long time ago. Please view the list of ideas and contribute ideas of your own.

This Blog, Wordled

Qwiki - A Multi-Media Search Engine

2011-03-20T22:54:00.007-05:00

Qwiki is a multi-media search engine designed to improve the way people experience information by appealing to users on a human level. A Qwiki search delivers content in the form of a narrated, interactive slideshow that tells a story. Although it's relatively new, there are millions of topics available for searching now.

Here is an example of Oak Park, IL, qwikied

View Oak Park, Illinois and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.

Try Qwiki for yourself

Dipity: Create Multimedia Timelines

2011-03-13T10:30:00.020-05:00

Dipity is a cool tool for creating multimedia timelines with a variety of viewing options. Click on any event in the timeline to view details and images, or choose to view as a flipbook, list, or map instead.

Civil Rights Hot Spots on Dipity.

AnswerGarden: A Quick and Easy Feedback Tool

2011-03-06T21:30:00.010-06:00

AnswerGarden describes itself as a minimal tool for maximum feedback that can be used for creative brainstorming. It's simple, just create a question and publish it. The answers are immediately displayed as tags in a word cloud, which means responses that appear more frequently appear larger in size. Try it for yourself by answering the question below. No login is required

What is your favorite Web 2.0 tool?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Person-First Language

2011-03-05T13:22:00.001-06:00

Two teachers at Brooks Middle School in Oak Park are using VoiceThread to spread the word about Person-First language. Learn more by viewing their VoiceThread, then record a comment to make your pledge on the appropriate page. Please pass this along and spread the word!

Voki: Animated Talking Avatars

2011-02-27T08:10:00.000-06:00

Please press the play button to hear a message.

Try it for yourself at voki.com

Rag Linen: Teaching History with Historic Newspapers

2011-02-13T10:54:00.010-06:00

Rag Linen is an online museum of rare and historic newspapers which serve as "first drafts of history". The creators of this site have certainly done their work to develop an extremely well-organized and powerful collection of resources including

digital exhibits
digital collections
videos
links to websites, books, bibliographies and blogs

They've even established an active community of online learners for sharing innovative ways to use this amazing collection as a tool for learning.

Go to RagLinen.com

YouCube: Create a cube of related videos

2011-02-06T14:52:00.004-06:00

YouCube is a cool tool used to create a cube of content-related YouTube videos. Just select six videos, pop each url into the designated spot on the YouCube site, press return, and get a link for sharing. The cube isn't embeddable, but it certainly is a nice way to collect and share themed videos.

Since it's SuperBowl Sunday, my sample is a collection of the best commercials from years past.

View my YouCube

Snappy Words: Online Visual Dictionary

2011-02-05T15:38:00.020-06:00

Snappy Words is a free online visual dictionary and thesaurus that requires no log in. Just enter a word

into the search box and this cool tool instantly creates a web of related words, definitions, and phrases. Hover over any word in the web to view it's definition. Double-click on a word, or drag a word to a new location to explore other branches of the word web. Snappy Words is simple, quick, and offers a visual alternative to the traditional dictionary.

Try it yourself at snappywords.com

Prezi - Create Stunning Presentations

2011-01-16T13:40:00.015-06:00

Prezi is a presentation tool that can be used as a refreshing alternative to the traditional linear slide show. Rather than walking an audience through a series of slides, Prezi uses one canvas to zoom from idea to idea and engage viewers with every twist and turn along the way. This user-friendly tool can be used by students to construct knowledge, tell a story, or as a tool to persuade. Watch this quick video to understand why you should consider using Prezi . Let your students create!

View an interesting Prezi sample:
Digital Learners Becoming Digital Educators, by Eitan Benzaquen

Wild About Wikispaces

2011-01-06T08:56:00.017-06:00

Click to view

A wiki is a website that allows members to easily edit and contribute content. Wikispaces is a tool I'm wild about for collaborative learning for some good reasons.

Wikis are virtual classrooms for the 21st Century Learner
Members of a wikis spend time reading, writing, editing and publishing their work and the work others from locations near and far. Students enjoy writing and creating for an audience and a wiki offers an exciting way for them to become engaged in real world learning.

Wikis widgets provide opportunities to support all learners
A simple widget lets you embed an abundance of Web 2.0 tools into any page in order to provide students with multiple and flexible means of becoming engaged in learning. This means a wiki can be a tool used to support RtI and Universal Design for Learning.

Templates provide consistent formatting options
Wants students to have a starting point for a project with prompts, directions and formatting? Want your colleagues to provide standard information on a wiki page? Good news! You can save time and provide a consistent page format for contributors by creating templates. A wiki template is like a virtual copy machine.

No email account for students is required
Free upgrades to K-12 educator accounts are ad free and they provide the opportunity for teachers to add users, which means students do not need an email account to fully contribute.

View my glog of wiki projects to see examples of some of the fabulous ways teachers in D97 are using wikis.

.

Glog On!

2011-01-02T11:53:00.008-06:00

Glog On! - U97 Wksp. on Jan. 4th

Glogster has become a fairly popular tool in D97 because it is versatile and it provides users with multiple means of engagement. I sent out a Call to Gloggers in search of samples and then created a glog of Glogs.

View Glog On and watch it grow!

Coolest Tools of 2010

2010-12-28T12:14:00.006-06:00

Time to reflect on some of the coolest tools...

Diversions
Sporcle.com - A place to go for mentally stimulating diversions
Keep your mind active and use it to master one of many timed quizzes on your favorite topic. An added challenge is in the spelling skills required. Remember, it's Sporcle with a c, not a k.

Fruit Ninja HD if you need a 2 minute break and have easy access to an iPad, try this app. to experience the joy of slicing fruit and watching it splat. Although it is best played on an iPad, you can also get it for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Networking
ePals / twitter / delicious
It took a long time for me to figure out how to use Twitter, but after publishing a collaborative learning project in ePals and connecting to Twitter through ePals I received 22 inquires about the project in one day and I also found a few people talking about the project in Delicious. Wow, now I get it!

Collaborative Learning Space
Wikispaces offers a free and simple educator platform with plenty of possibilities for engaging students in virtual work because it includes widgets for easy integration of user-friendly web 2.0 tool.

Primary Communication Tool
Still Blogger, a quick and easy tool for frequently updating content and maintaining a web presence.

Best Blogger Gadget: Picture gadget w/link

Publishing Student Work
VoiceThread and an avatar provide a great way to launch student work so it is live and worldwide. A bag of avatar resources can be found in my Bag Stream tab.

Staying Organized
EverNote is a well-organized place in the cloud accessible from any computer or Apple mobile device.

Presentation Tool
Prezi, a nonlinear presentation tool that requires the designer to redefine and construct knowledge in the process of building it. The end product is quite engaging for an audience.

Social Bookmarking Tools

With so many choices available I've used my favorite tool, Bag the Web, to put together a bag of social bookmarking tools to find the right tool to match your brain.
Check out the Bag Stream tab at the top of this blog for more bags of useful tools.

Muti-Media Tool for Students

Glogster.edu is still a great and free tool which allows students to create multi-media posters from the resources available on the web. Student account management features make this a very versatile and safe tool.

Research: Create a customized search tool

2010-12-18T12:21:00.000-06:00

As educators we are faced with the challenge of teaching students to use the Internet effectively. With so much information available, it's important to bring relevant and reliable resources into the classroom and also to teach our students how to conduct a search. Google offers a cool tool to assist with both tasks.

The Goggle Custom Search Tool allows you to easily build your own search engine customized with content for your grade level or for a particular unit of study. The tool helps you teach students to search for information, but it limits the search to websites you have chosen as appropriate. It can be embed into your own blog, wiki, or site.

Do teach students that the customized search tool only searches websites you have identified, and consider allowing them to build a custom search of their own when teaching them how to evaluate reliable websites.

Try this example, created for finding information about Regions of the United States.

Go to Google Custom Search

Wikis for collaborative learning

2010-12-11T19:54:00.000-06:00

A wiki is a website that allows visitors to easily add, remove, and edit content, making it an effective tool for collaborative authoring which allows students to construct knowledge. There's no need for software, all you need is an Internet-connected computer to contribute, which makes a wiki a great tool for the classroom that's open 24/7. Uses in education are abundant. Here are a few examples from our own backyard:

Names of the Constitution, a wiki for middle school students, created by Ashley Kannan
Intervention Lesson Plans, a professional development resource, created by Angela Peterson for Holmes School Institute Day
Digital Classroom, a tool for middle school students created by Sheri Lenzo
Regions of the United States, a wiki project starting in January for collaboration between students in 4th grade classrooms in Oak Park and students in classrooms across the US.

To develop a basic understanding of a wiki, please view this commoncraft video:

CurateUs: Share Web Content Visually

2010-12-02T13:27:00.000-06:00

CurateUs is a tool for visually sharing content on the web. With the click of a button, this cool tool makes it easy to legally take a snapshot of a website, add a sticky note to it, and embed it into your blog along with automatically generated attribution and a backlink to the original site. There's more, CurateUs also lets you quickly grab a quote from the web and publish it along with the attribution and backlink.

Example: Embedded clip w/attribution and backlink

Clipped from: davidwarlick.com (share this clip)

Example: Quotation with annotation and backlink

The only thing that is one to one that we should be concerned with is equitable access to rigorous, relevant, and irresistible learning experiences that reflect and harness the times, environment, and ultimate goals of the learning.

From davidwarlick.com (share this quote)

Go to CurateUs (formerly known as Clipsy)

Web 2.0 in the Classroom, by Ryan McCallum

2010-11-20T09:45:00.001-06:00

Please give it a minute to load, then push play below...

Web 2.0 in the classroom on Prezi

A look at Institute Day

2010-11-17T12:16:00.000-06:00

Session Titles & Descriptions-11/20/10

Cool Tools on Institute Day

2010-11-11T21:35:00.001-06:00

Driven by NETS-T, Digital Leaders and instructional tech folks have been busy collaborating to prepare sessions designed to help teachers leverage technology to meet district goals and initiatives. Cool Tools will be featured throughout the day. Stay tuned for our wiki, filled with session resources.

Location: Brooks Middle School

Time: 8:00-1:00, no lunch

Session 1: Keynote, Burke Hatch
Session 2: Breakout session, 80 minutes
Session 3: Breakout session, 80 minutes

Online registration is scheduled to open on Tuesday, November 16th.

Stay tuned to your email for more information.

Cool Tools on Institute Day - Nov. 24, 2010

2010-11-05T21:04:00.000-05:00

Click to view larger

Digital Leaders are building a wiki of resources for the sessions we will be offering on Institute Day. The sessions are designed to help teachers and administrators leverage technology to meet district goals and initiatives. Cool Tools will be featured throughout the day. Watch our wiki grow!

Registration opens Nov. 14th

Wordle and Current Events

2010-11-03T10:38:00.000-05:00

Wordle is a great tool for beginning a discussion about current events. Here is what happened when I wordled election results from the Chicago Tribune, The State Journal-Register, and The Associated Press this morning.

Awesome Highlighter

2010-09-29T17:04:00.000-05:00

The name says it all. This cool tool allows anyone to highlight text on any web page, add a sticky note, and share the link. It seems like a very useful and friendly tool for teachers and students.

A bookmarklet can easily be installed to your bookmarks bar as a Firefox add-on to allow for highlighting on the go. If you find something you like when browsing the web, highlight it and get the link with the click of a button.

Try it for yourself by selecting the highlighted text below.

Awesome Highlighter

A Laptop for All Teachers

2010-07-28T09:05:00.001-05:00

A laptop for all teachers is certainly a cool tool.

In our school district we have adopted a technology plan and declared our committment to 21st Century Learning. In order to provide every teacher with a cost-efficient laptop, we made the switch from Mac to PC.

Teachers attending Dell Training Sessions throughout the summer were asked What do you like about your new laptop? Here is the response, wordled.

21st Century Learning and VoiceThread

2010-05-14T09:18:00.000-05:00

Here is a video snippet of how John McCauley uses VoiceThread as a tool for 21st Century Learning.

More samples of VoiceThread projects in D97 are included in the tabs at the top of this blog.

A Glimpse of 21st Century Learning

2010-04-23T15:35:00.000-05:00

Here is a snippet of 21st Century Learning, featuring the work of Ashley Kannan, Digital Leader at Julian.

Some interesting ideas

2010-04-20T16:17:00.001-05:00

BagTheWeb: Online Bookmarking Tool

2010-04-07T10:42:00.000-05:00

BagTheWeb is one of many free online social bookmarking tools that allows users to easily create a collection of web links which are conveniently stored and shared online. This cool tool functions similarly to Delicious, utilizing an optional bookmarklet to make collecting web links a breeze, but the organization of the links in an online bag is a unique feature that makes this tool quite appealing.

A bag of web links can collect any topic, and it can also be link to other relevant bags so there is no need to duplicate work when resources overlap. The website is very user-friendly and informative, and it includes a tutorial to help users create a bag of their own.

View my bag: Cool Tools for Graphics and Photo Editing
Or
Go to BagTheWeb: Follow the numbers steps at the top of the page to get started.

CrocoDoc: Collaborative Documents

2010-03-22T23:58:00.000-05:00

Crocodoc is a simple, online document sharing tool that provides users with the ability to edit and collaborate on documents without requiring an email address. Stickies and drawing tools are available and they can be applied to several types of files, including PDF files. The ability to password protect an online document is an added bonus that makes this tool potentially useful for teachers, students, and parents.

Upload a document for collaboration, then share the link via email. It's easy and works well when sharing with others outside of Gmail.

-Learn more on my website:

Go to Web 2.0

-Try it: Edit CrocoDoc

Sample Student Expository Writing

Flat Stanley in the 21st Century

2010-03-11T21:32:00.000-06:00

Flat Stanley has been embraced by teachers and students since 1964. Originally a character featured in a Jeff Brown's children's book, Stanley's most appealing trait is that he has the ability to visit his friends by being mailed in an envelope around the world.

Kathy Rolfes and Veronica White have found a much more efficient way for Stanley to travel, using VoiceThread, a Cool Tool often featured here. They have modified Flat Stanley and sent him into a 21st Century learning environment.

The 21st Century Flat Stanley will not get crinkled or lost in the mail, and he is ready and waiting for students across the globe to discuss, 24/7.

Please visit the Flat Stanley VoiceThread and then help him move across the globe by passing him along.

Flat Stanley VoiceThread

Screencasting Tools

2010-02-27T15:44:00.000-06:00

ScreenToaster:
This is a free online screencasting tool with plenty of handy features. The site itself is a great source of already created tutorials and it's worth checking out. ScreenToaster was very easy to use, and publishing a short screencast was painless. This seems like a wonderful screencasting tool and I will use it again.
Go to ScreenToaster

Jing:

Jing is an old, familiar application that works well and has exciting potential, but it tends to take a long time to load and play. Jing is free, but there is a download required so this is a tool for home use. There is also a more streamlined paid version of JING that is worth checking out.
Go to Jing

Screener:

At first glance, Screenr seemed like the perfect tool for recording simple video tutorials. Creating a Screener couldn't be easier, but publishing one was a different story. First, Screenr insisted on posting my screencast to Twitter, but then it couldn't quite make the connection. All of the Screenrs I created are somewhere lost in CyberSpace.
Go to Screener

ScreenJelly:
This is another screencasting tool that depends on Twitter for publishing, but it also has a nicely displayed collection of already created screencasts.
Go to ScreenJelly

WallWisher

2010-02-26T23:29:00.001-06:00

WallWisher is a free tool that allows you to create a page of online sticky notes. In addition to text, the notes can include images, links and videos as long as that media is already stored somewhere else online. Create a themed wall, then invite others to add stickies. Just think of all the ways this Cool Tool can be used!

Web 2.0 Tools for Online Presentation and Resource Sharing

2010-02-25T10:54:00.000-06:00

Nadine Norris, Instructional Technology Coordinator in District 15, always has a lot of useful tools to share. Here are some of the tools she shared at ICE today.

√ Wallwisher
√Online Screencasting

These tools will be used, reviewed, and discussed on this blog.

NEO2 for Keyboarding and Writing

2010-02-24T17:19:00.000-06:00

The NEO2 is worth taking a look at for schools looking for cost-efficient machines for keyboarding and writing. This machine is the newest Alphasmart. Here are some great features of the device:

text can be enlarged
not Internet-connected
transfer data wirelessly to computer
includes the "Home Row Check" feature within keyboarding program
has a feature to wirelessly transfer data to Google Docs
Text2Speech add-on device available
made out of football helmet material

The Fusion and the Writer are similar devices and I will try to take them for a test drive at ICE today.

Pixie 2 for Learning in D97

2010-01-06T10:31:00.002-06:00

Pixie 2 software is available on our lab machines. Over the past month I've seen some creative teachers use the software to help students learn. The results have been terrific, and teachers and students are enjoying using this Cool Tool for learning.

Pixie 2 is software made simple. A user can open the program, experiment with familiar drawing/painting tools and create! Stamps right within the program provide opportunities for those of us with limited drawing ability to create and express ourselves visually in spite of it. This opens the door for a world of writing possibilities. The ease of publishing Pixie 2 creations with Google Docs and a blog helps create a 21st Century Learning environment that extends the walls of the classroom and encourages higher quality work that is published for an audience.

The best way to take a peek is to take a look at a VoiceThread created with samples of the work and comments. You can also view some of the project featured by clicking on the links below.

Pixie2 for Learning VoiceThread

A closer look at projects

Alliteration - Debbie Creticos and Lucy Divis - Longfellow - Grade 2
Catastrophic Events - Phyllis Frick - Grade 6
Fall Fun and Festivals Janet Barnstable - Julian - Virtual Classroom Global Dreamers - Grades 7-8
City Wildlife - Stella Turi - Holmes - Grade 3

Catostrophic Events: Pixie 2 and Google Presentation

2010-01-04T10:29:00.000-06:00

Phyllis Frick's 6th grade science students used Pixie 2 to create slides about catastrophic events. After completing some research, each student created original artwork depicting the event and wrote a one sentence summary about it.

This was the first time Phyllis and her students used these Cool Tools in the lab, but they were able to create powerful slides in just about one lab session.

Please view and enjoy the Catastrophic Events SlideShow

Alliteration in a 21st Century Learning Environment

2009-12-01T13:56:00.000-06:00

The students in Debbie Creticos's and Lucy Divis's 2nd grade class learned about alliteration through painting and writing on the computer. Their work is impressive and delightful.

They used Pixie 2 to create the work, then uploaded the images to Google Presentation for publishing on the class blog.

Please enjoy the Alliteration Slide Show created by Longfellow 2nd graders.

Google Presentation for Guided Student Learning

2009-10-18T12:36:00.001-05:00

Google Presentation is a versatile tool. Since a presentation can be published online and linked to a blog or website, perhaps a good use of this tool is for guided student learning. After all, this Cool Tool is really only a blank page.

I'd like to share an example of a Google Presentation that integrates many of the Cool Tools discussed on this blog. This is a series of guided learning opportunities for students that focuses on Internet safety and introduces students to some of the Web 2.0 tools they might be using to create and share their learning.

Please take a moment to view Design Your Digital Self, by Veena Rajashekar, Beye School.

Prezi: Online Presentations with a Twist

2009-10-12T18:13:00.000-05:00

Prezi is an online presentation tool that's quite exciting, and certainly a welcome change of pace to the traditional slideshow. Prezi abandons the concept of using slide after slide to display bulleted text, and instead uses one giant canvas to hold all of the content. Viewers follow a path set by the author to explore chunks of information, and zoom in to take a closer look. You can embed videos and images, create links, and have a lot of fun creating and viewing Prezi presentations.

This nontraditional presentation is a Cool Tool for changing the way students and teachers disseminate information and ideas. Perhaps Prezi could be used to help students do something with all that information that's out there, and it could be used to encourage them to remix and create rather than regurgitate. Prezi seems very well-suited for the 21st Century Classroom.

If you want to try Prezi yourself, it's fairly easy to use, especially if you take the time to view the tutorial before getting started. You can sign up for a free account to get your feet wet and decide for yourself whether or not Prezi is for you.

Please take a look at an example of a Prezi presentation with a powerful message. The experience is better when you view it in fullscreen. (Choose More at the bottom of the screen.)

View Prezi: Web 2.0 in the Classroom, by Ryan McCallum

Sign up at Prezi.com

Google Presentation for Student Portfolios

2009-10-02T09:27:00.000-05:00

Compatibility with PowerPoint combined with the ability to easily publish slideshows online makes Google Presentation a Cool Tool for creating and maintaining student portfolios. I know of two innovative teachers in D97 who are building these portfolios, and they are definitely worth taking a look at. What a great way to celebrate the learning, progress and talents of your students, and what a fabulous way to share with relatives and friends across the world! I'll bet these students love having their work published and it certainly does encourage people to check your blog.

Erica Childress' Kindergarteners at Work (See Class List in the sidebar)
Sheila Vietzen's Kindergarten Class Work Blog (See Student Portfolios in the sidebar)

Sheila and Erica are two of the teachers you might be working with if you decide to attend a D97 GoogleDocs training session, coming to a location near you. Sign Up for Google Training

Please comment to share your thoughts about these kindergarten portfolios of student work. Just click the link below and type a message into the box.

How's Your Web Presence?

2009-09-18T12:31:00.000-05:00

Blogger Flicker Twitter Facebook Picassa Glogster SecondLife WikiSpaces GoogleSites GoogleDocs Del.icio.us VoiceThread YouTube Diigo GlobalSchoolNet... the list goes on...

If you are using Web 2.0 tools, then you do have a web presence. Have you googled yourself lately? Unfortunately, the Internet does not allow us to categorize ourselves to make a distinction between our personal and professional selves. This is true for everyone.

Do you think students, parents, and even prospective employers use Google to check you out? You bet. Do you think universities offering scholarship use Google to check out prospective students? Yes. Do you think students think about their own web presence and how it relates to their future. They should.

After you've googled yourself, remember this. Check the settings in all the Web. 2.0 tools you use to see how to set the privacy and lock things down. If a tool offers no control over what others see, is it a Cool Tool?

Drawing & Painting: Kerpoof Studio

2009-09-11T14:35:00.000-05:00

Kerpoof Studio is another tool for drawing and creating on the computer. It's kid-friendly, and again, no sign in is needed to use the tool in it's most basic form. But, Kerpoof does offer free teacher accounts which are certainly worth the trouble of creating. Teachers can create student accounts and also limit the features accessible to students using Kerpoof. As an added bonus, there is an entire Kerpoof for Teachers page with lesson plans, standards, a useful newsletter, and more.

There are many options available within Kerpoof studio, and some are more educationally appropriate than others. It's important that students using this tool have a clearly identified learning goal when using Kerpoof in an educational setting or they will just play.

A word of caution...
Kerpoof Studio is owned by Disney and this company has very clear terms of use. Please do spend some time looking at the terms you've agreed to, before using the tool. If you are going to publish work that has been created with Kerpoof, it is extremely important that you label the work according to the terms, each and every time. Notice the sample above.

Drawing & Painting: ArtPad

2009-09-02T08:01:00.000-05:00

Drawing and painting can create a bridge between the ideas in a child's head and the blank piece of paper. Students are generally pretty movitivated and engaged when drawing and painting on the computer, and many are very good at it. In an effort to encourage content based writing and promote tech literacy, I'd like to introduce you to a very good, easy to use, online painting tool.

ArtPad.com

This simple tool is designed to bring out the artist in us all. It records the process used to paint, then makes it available for viewing. There is no login required and students can easily use this tool. Teach students to take a snapshot of their finished painting, then insert the picture into a document for writing.

View the artpad gallery glog to see what some of our teachers have created and please consider submitting a painting of your own for display. Student paintings are appreciated too!

Using Avatars to Teach Internet Safety

2009-08-22T15:39:00.006-05:00

Using educationally appropriate online tools with students opens up a world of possibilities, but it's important to communicate a clear and consistent message about Internet safety every time you introduce a new tool. If students hear about Internet safety often enough, hopefully they will start thinking about it themselves.

Creating an avatar is a really great way to teach students to protect their identities on the Internet. Avatars provide students with a safe way of representing themselves while also providing opportunities for creative writing experiences. So why not start out the school year with this simple but powerful learning opportunity?

A good idea for a lesson is to start by asking students to create an avatar of their own, complete with a pen name. After that, students can be challenged to write a narrative from the avatar's point of view, without giving out any personal information. The final student products can be published or turned into a podcast and the avatars and pen names can be used when students contribute to wikis, blogs, glogs and more.

Suggested tools to choose from:

BuildYourWildSelf.com
This kid-friendly cool tool was certainly the most popular choice among innovative D97 teachers this summer. Users can release their creative spirits and go wild as the title suggests. As an added bonus, no login is required . Find out what some of our very own teachers had to say about this tool, see examples of avatar stories created by some teachers and a student, and also take a peek at the avatars themselves by viewing a VoiceThread they created.

My Avatar Editor.com
Students love this option because the avatars resemble the Wii characters.

ReasonablyClever.com
If your students are Lego fans, this tool is a good choice. This block-head iconizer is as simple as can be and it is appropriate for the youngest students.

DoppelMe.com
This popular tool provides users with plenty of choices to create a unique and attractive avatar; however, teachers this summer were a bit weary about the use of fig leaves as clothing on the generic model. This is bound to cause students to giggle and also spark some conversation, so please do check out DoppelMe for yourself before you decide to use it.

View VoiceThread: Using Avatars to Teach Internet Safety

Updated: 3/2011 - Get a complete lesson plan. Go to my Cool Tools wiki.

Back To School: Cool Tools Preview

2009-08-15T20:37:00.000-05:00

It's time to get back to school, which means it's time for me to start blogging regularly about Cool Tools again. I spent a good chunk of my summer using cool tools with fabulous teachers who were eager to use the tools in innovative ways. We discovered that the tools are indeed easy to use, but perhaps the most difficult part of using them is to identify the safest and most effective way to use them with students. It's all about management and there is a lot to consider when choosing appropriate online tools for education.

Before I start blogging about each of these tools, I'd like to point out that I have created a home for information about Cool Tools with management tips on my website, just to keep things organized. I've named this section Online Tools.

Since I haven't wordled even once this summer, I've decided to create a Wordle to kick off the new school year with a sneak peak of the Cool Tools I will be blogging about early this fall.

Go to the Online Tools section of my website.

VoiceThread - Online Conversations Around Media

2009-07-23T18:36:00.001-05:00

VoiceThread is an online tool for having conversations around media. The possibilities for use in the Classroom are tremendous. This powerful tool is not free, but you can sign up for a trial account to get your feet wet.

Internet safety is a very important issue to address when using this tool for learning. A good way to protect students' identities is to have them create Avatars to use in place of actual photos. Also, please remind them not to give out any personal information about themselves.

You can check out this tool by contributing to the amazing VoiceThread below. All you have to do is click on comment, then register by providing your name and email address when prompted. You can record your comments, then upload your photo, an avatar or symbol. When you're done, take a look at all of the other VoiceThreads out there and let your imagination run wild!

Access VoiceThread at http://www.voicethread.com

Classroom 2.0

2009-07-23T17:33:00.002-05:00

Glogs: A SlideShow of Samples

2009-05-30T10:14:00.000-05:00

We have created several glogs as samples for teachers and can think of many more to create. These launchers are easily accessible tools to guide and differentiate student learning in a variety of ways. They are visual, fun to create and extremely versatile.
Glogster's education section allows glogs to be private.

Google Presentation was used to create a slideshow of glog samples. Please remember to use caution when streaming in D97.
View slideshow

Glogs as a Collection of Resources

2009-05-25T21:34:00.000-05:00

Glogs offer educators the opportunity to collect carefully chosen web resources and create an attractive package for students in order to guide the learning.

Here is a Memorial Day Resources blog.

View the Memorial Day Resouces Blog

Glogs as Curriculum Launchers

2009-05-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

Glogs seem to have many uses in the world of education. In this case a glog is used as a curriculum launcher, to help build background knowledge through video, and guide student learning. It includes a WebQuest for differentiated learning opportunities for students, and a Google Earth Lit Trips to provide students with visual experiences to enrich the reading. This glog serves as a cool tool for teachers to collect and organize web resources and deliver them to students in an attractive and convenient passage that's ready to use.

View The Orphan Train Glog

Glogster: Online Multi-Media Posters

2009-05-17T23:21:00.001-05:00

Glogster is a cool tool that lets you create online posters, rich with multi-media. Instead of using poster board and ink, creators gather information, synthesize it, remix it and then create something of their own that is environmentally friendly.

Glogster is visual and exciting. The uses in the classroom are seemingly unlimited. Students can certainly make a statement with this tool.

Learn more

Jing Video Tutorials

2009-05-11T09:39:00.000-05:00

Jing is a free tool from TechSmith that allows you to capture the screen on your computer to create a video tutorial. You do have to record your voice to narrate your video tutorial, but after a little practice this becomes more comfortable.

Here is a Jing tutorial created to demonstrate how to upload a PowerPoint slide to a shared GoogleDoc Presentation.

To learn more about Jing, go to
Jing, by TechSmith

Develop Keyboarding Habits with Three Cool Tools

2009-05-03T16:56:00.000-05:00

Effective and efficient computer use is essential to students today and keyboarding skills provide an important foundation. For this reason, I am focusing attention and effort and helping teachers and parents assist students in developing keyboarding practice habits. The Cool Tools used are the blog, GoogleDocs and Custom Typing.

Help Students Develop a Practice Habit
A habit takes about five weeks to develop, which means this is the perfect time to help students develop one. There is plenty of time between now and the start of next school year to make a huge difference in the development of good keyboarding skills by engaging in regular Custom Typing Tutorial practice sessions. Children will thank you for this one day!

Teachers: Sign up to be guided through the process of helping students develop a keyboarding practice habit:

Parents: Sign up your children up and you will begin to receive a slow and steady stream of information designed to help you support your child by encouraging home practice habits.

Google Reader: A Closer Look

2009-04-30T10:29:00.001-05:00

Google Reader is a cool tool that allows you to collect information posted on your favorite blogs and keep it organized and updated until you have time to read it. Here is picture of the Google Reader screen.

Please notice the option to Add a Subscription in case you don't see a visible Subscribe to Blog icon on the blog you want to subscribe to. All you have to do is copy the webaddress of that blog, then paste it into the box you see.

On the left side of the Google Reader page a list of all of your blog subscriptions is displayed. If you click on one of the links, you can read the updated information right from your Reader page. To view the full blog, just click on the title and you will be taken to it.

Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners

Oolone and More Search Engines for Students

Screencasts -Tech Support to Maximize Instructional Time

Build Vocabulary Cards with Google Presentation

Improve Search Skills - A Google a Day

GoogleDocs for Learning on Scoop.It

Zoom.It: Publish Zoomable Images

GoogleDocs Presentation: New Look and Features

The Flipped Classroom Infographic

Learn About Culture Through Images

3 Interactive Math Tools to Engage Students

GoogleDocs Templates: A Virtual Copy Machine

Manage Google Docs with an Assignment Tracker

Collaborative Brainstorming with Google Docs Drawing Tools

YouTube for Teachers

10 Minute Tech Tools

Use Google Docs to Facilitate a Digital Writer's Workshop

Technology: A Tool to Support All Learners

CoolTools for Multimedia Projects on Scoop.It

Comics in the Classroom

Spell with Me: A Tool for Flickr

YouTube Tools: Maximize Instruction and Tame Videos

ThingLink: Make Images Interactive

Bloom's Taxonomy Presented Visually

Scoop.it - Collect and Share Information Visually

Tag Galaxy

The Blooming Orange

Present.Me

Simplify and Summarize Digital Text

Natural ReaderThis free software needs to be installed on your PC. After that, just highlight the text you want read aloud and click on Control + F9. Voila!

Readability BookmarkletInstall a handy bookmarklet and watch this tool scrub web pages of distractions by removing the ads and creating a more readable body of text.

Text CompactorA free online tool that is extremely user-friendly. Just copy and paste some digital text into the box, use the slider to determine the percentage of text you want to end up with, and view the summary

Text to Speech for MacMacintosh computers have the text to speech feature built in, but it needs to be activated in System Preferences. Watch the tutorial on this wiki.

Twurdy A search engine that yields color-coded results by readability in order to provide users with text written at appropriate levels. View more simple search engine tools on my wiki.

Wikipedia Simple English One of the languages supported by Wikipedia is "Simple English". Choose it to find information written using simpler words and simple sentences, which lowers the readability level.

Hands-On Overview on JogTheWebTry my Jog: Tools for Summarizing and Simplifying Text

Cool Tools for Teaching Vocabulary

LexipediaA very nice multi-lingual visual dictionary that creates a word web and defines words based on parts of speech. Use the toolbar bookmarklet for convenience.

LingroAn amazing tool that turns all the words in any website or digital text into a clickable dictionary and translates text into 12 different languages.

ShahiA visual dictionary that combines Wiktionary content with Flickr images, and more.

Snappy WordsAn online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words.

VisuwordsLook up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts.

The Visual DictionaryThis tool uses photographs of words in the real world to visually explore them.

Vocabulary.coA very popular site for vocabulary games.

VocabGrabberCopy and paste text into the box and this tool generates a word cloud to identify the key vocabulary. Sort words by content area.

WordsiftPlace text into a box and then press sift to create a word cloud in which most frequently used words appear larger in size.

WordiaA tool that uses video to make personal connections for users. The school account keeps it safe for students and allows students to create their own video definitions and schools to build their own dictionaries.

WordleUse this word cloud generator to identify key vocabulary in digital text. Try copying and pasting more than one related article into Wordle to get the big picture.

WordStashTeachers can sign up for a free account and create word lists to support written text. With a click of a button, students can access dictionary information and create flash cards for review.

Tag GalaxyThis tool creates a 3D orbiting galaxy of words and their associations Click on any word to move it to the center of the galaxy, then click again and watch the globe populate with images from Flicker. This is a must see.

WordStash: Build Vocabulary Cards

Lingro - Turn digital text into a clickable dictionary

Pulse for iPad: A Gorgeous News Feed Reader

VocabGrabber: Generate Vocabulary Lists from Digital Text

Twurdy: Search by Appropriate Readibility Levels

Online Bulletin Board of EdTech Blogs

Google Art Project: Explore World Museums

The Flipped Classroom

Edublogs Free Tools Challenge

Text Compactor: Simplify and Summarize Text

JogTheWeb for Guided Student Learning

Tweet Topic Explorer

Photosynth - Capture the World in 3D

10 Minutes of Tech for Busy Teachers

Jog The Web

Why Glog?

Blogger: More Ways to Share

Google Apps Aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy

Wordle Flashback

Qwiki - A Multi-Media Search Engine

Dipity: Create Multimedia Timelines

AnswerGarden: A Quick and Easy Feedback Tool

Person-First Language

Voki: Animated Talking Avatars

Rag Linen: Teaching History with Historic Newspapers

YouCube: Create a cube of related videos

Snappy Words: Online Visual Dictionary

Prezi - Create Stunning Presentations

Wild About Wikispaces

Glog On!

Natural Reader
This free software needs to be installed on your PC. After that, just highlight the text you want read aloud and click on Control + F9. Voila!

Readability Bookmarklet
Install a handy bookmarklet and watch this tool scrub web pages of distractions by removing the ads and creating a more readable body of text.

Text Compactor
A free online tool that is extremely user-friendly. Just copy and paste some digital text into the box, use the slider to determine the percentage of text you want to end up with, and view the summary

Text to Speech for Mac
Macintosh computers have the text to speech feature built in, but it needs to be activated in System Preferences. Watch the tutorial on this wiki.

Twurdy
A search engine that yields color-coded results by readability in order to provide users with text written at appropriate levels. View more simple search engine tools on my wiki.

Wikipedia Simple English
One of the languages supported by Wikipedia is "Simple English". Choose it to find information written using simpler words and simple sentences, which lowers the readability level.

Hands-On Overview on JogTheWeb
Try my Jog: Tools for Summarizing and Simplifying Text

Lexipedia
A very nice multi-lingual visual dictionary that creates a word web and defines words based on parts of speech. Use the toolbar bookmarklet for convenience.

Lingro
An amazing tool that turns all the words in any website or digital text into a clickable dictionary and translates text into 12 different languages.

Shahi
A visual dictionary that combines Wiktionary content with Flickr images, and more.

Snappy Words
An online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words.

Visuwords
Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts.

The Visual Dictionary
This tool uses photographs of words in the real world to visually explore them.

Vocabulary.co
A very popular site for vocabulary games.

VocabGrabber
Copy and paste text into the box and this tool generates a word cloud to identify the key vocabulary. Sort words by content area.

Wordsift
Place text into a box and then press sift to create a word cloud in which most frequently used words appear larger in size.

Wordia
A tool that uses video to make personal connections for users. The school account keeps it safe for students and allows students to create their own video definitions and schools to build their own dictionaries.

Wordle
Use this word cloud generator to identify key vocabulary in digital text. Try copying and pasting more than one related article into Wordle to get the big picture.

WordStash
Teachers can sign up for a free account and create word lists to support written text. With a click of a button, students can access dictionary information and create flash cards for review.

Tag Galaxy
This tool creates a 3D orbiting galaxy of words and their associations Click on any word to move it to the center of the galaxy, then click again and watch the globe populate with images from Flicker. This is a must see.