Google Apps Aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy

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

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Wordle Flashback

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:

1. 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.
2. Copy and paste student generated text into Wordle for self-analysis of writing. Words and phrases that are overused will jump out.
3. 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.

• View Wordle Ideas
• Contribute Wordle Ideas
• Try Wordle 

This Blog, Wordled

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Qwiki - A Multi-Media Search Engine

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.

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Dipity: Create Multimedia Timelines

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.

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AnswerGarden: A Quick and Easy Feedback Tool

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

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Person-First Language

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!

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Voki: Animated Talking Avatars

Please press the play button to hear a message.


Try it for yourself at voki.com

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Rag Linen: Teaching History with Historic Newspapers

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



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YouCube: Create a cube of related videos

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

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Snappy Words: Online Visual Dictionary

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

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Prezi - Create Stunning Presentations

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

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Wild About Wikispaces

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.


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