Lingro - Turn digital text into a clickable dictionary

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

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Pulse for iPad: A Gorgeous News Feed Reader

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.

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VocabGrabber: Generate Vocabulary Lists from Digital Text

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.

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Twurdy: Search by Appropriate Readibility Levels

 

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

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Online Bulletin Board of EdTech Blogs

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.

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Google Art Project: Explore World Museums

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.

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The Flipped Classroom

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. 

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Edublogs Free Tools Challenge

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.

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Text Compactor: Simplify and Summarize Text

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.

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JogTheWeb for Guided Student Learning

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.

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Tweet Topic Explorer

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

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Photosynth - Capture the World in 3D

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

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