New web 2.0 tools appear each day. Many of these tools were not originally intended for classroom use, but they can be powerful learning tools for today’s techno-savvy students and their more adventurous teachers. These sites appear (and frequently disappear) very quickly, launched by creative techno-geeks out there in the world.
Many of these sites require a higher-than-average set of teacher tech skills or extra monitoring to assure student “safety.” TeachersFirst Edge features these "tools on the edge,” and offers ideas for using them safely and effectively as yet another approach to teaching. This is the world your students already know. Try teaching in their vernacular.
If you are feeling adventurous -- or want to see what many teachers and students will be doing in a year or three -- try some of these tools.
If you try one of these tools and find it especially useful or if you know of another tool that teachers would find beneficial, please contact TeachersFirst.
This section of Nik Peachey's Learning Technology Blog for ESL/ELL teachers offers 20 ways to use web cameras for classroom activities. There are videos, blog entries, reviews of some GREAT sites, and more. These suggestions include things such as diaries, dictation, class research, poetry, having a tip of the day, questions, guessing games, news, and student support. If you are not a techie, he has also made suggestions about which type of web cameras work and how to use them. This is a great tool to learn about some new online tools. Be sure to check out TokBox, mentioned in this blog and reviewed here. This tool uses webcams to allow teachers and students from all over the world to video chat (for free). 10296
In the Classroom: This site would work well for world language courses and segments of classes where cultural studies and world awareness are important. Share the webcams, video clips, and more on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use these suggestions as group activities; ask your students to suggest more ideas with web cameras. Challenge students to create video commercials “advertising” their new idea. Share them using a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here.
This blog, created by Sean P. Aune, offers a collection of Web 2.0 tools which could be useful in business education, math, family and consumer science, or economics classes. Some of the sites offer ways to save money, create a budget, analyze your expenses, find hidden fees, and more. The four main areas of the site include Business Accounting, Personal Accounting, Personal Budgeting, and Shared Accounting. Each link on the blog includes a brief description of the site.
Be certain to consider your school's Acceptable Use Policy before creating any STUDENT accounts on any of the tools. There are comments (students can both read or add comments), so be sure to supervise their navigating or do this as a class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. For tips on using Web 2.0 sites in your class visit the TeachersFirst Edge Tips. Some of these tools require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 1718
In the Classroom: Use this site to help your students learn how to budget their money and expenses. Read through the descriptions of the 25+ tools and find out which ones may be useful in your subject area. Have students choose one of the tools to create a monthly budget a week or so prior to the start of the month. Have students keep calculations (using the site) throughout their "budgeted month" and see how well they can stick to their own budget. You may want to include this link on your class website so students can access the tools at home. You could also assign students to try more than one tool and compare them. Since students are used to using web tools for everything, challenge them to make the decision about which tool is best.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for moderately adventurous technology users and/or blog and wiki owners. These five sources provide Creative Commons images and videos for use in your blog/wiki/web site LEGALLY. Model your ethical use of media by sharing these with your blogging students or using them on your whole-class blog or wiki. The sources include abstract photos and current events new stories, as well as general photos. Each has its own search/browse features. The services include: Voxant Newsroom, PicApp, GumGum, Zemanta, and PhotoDropper. 9629
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Since each site has its own directions, our review team will not explain the how-to's of each here. Some require access to install a plug-in on your blog, such as wordpress. Many school blogging sites do not provide this access. Others permit embedding an image simple by copy/pasting code into your blog or wiki. Two are actually extensions you add to Firefox or Internet Explorer and may require tech department authorization or installation on school computers.
Safety/security concerns: If you do allow students to join a site, be sure to adhere to school policies. As always, we recommend previewing the content available on each site before recommending it to your students. These images sites are NOT education-only, so some image content may not be classroom-appropriate. Have a policy and consequences in place before turning your students loose.
Possible Uses: Art teachers or writing teachers can use the abstract images from the GumGum option as writing prompts or to launch discussion on design principles. If your students have individual blogs, allow them to personalize the "look" using these legal images. Be sure to model thinking aloud about why you are using a legal image source. Use news images or videos from Vixant Newsroom as prompts for current events discussions on your blog or wiki, or assign students to select a news story and write an in-depth analysis of it to accompany the image/video. English or social studies teachers teaching persuasive writing can assign students to use their multimedia skills as they present arguments both verbally and visually on a class "issues" wiki. Younger students can help select images to include on a whole-class wiki or blog then add their own writing about them. A teacher can embed a sequence of photos and ask student to tell the story that explains it. Be sure to include this link on your teacher web page for your tech-savvy teens to use as they generate projects with LEGAL images. Of course you will require them to document their sources.
At this site you will find a slide show with at least fourteen different programs you can use instead of PowerPoint for your lectures. Are your PowerPoint lectures boring you and your students? Take a look at this online slide show, and choose one of fourteen different programs to convert just one of your PowerPoint lectures. Not only is each program explained, but many have suggestions for integrating your lectures with the program. Take a look. Learn about some great web 2.0 sites (Glogster, Prezi, TypeWith.me, Animoto, ToonDoo, and many others). Note that many of the tools mentioned are also reviewed on TeachersFirst in greater detail if you want to learn more. 11365
In the Classroom: Surprise your students and yourself with how effective any one of these programs can be with your material or THEIR presentations. Create a comic strip to replace a traditional grammar lesson. Use a class wiki to discuss and debate topics in history class. Create an online poster “glog” on using Glogster to demonstrate a new math concept. Once you see a tool that sounds interesting, read its full review on TeachersFirst to find even more ways to use it.
Make any web site advertising free using the cool tool. Tired of directing kids back to the web site they should be using due to accidental clicks on ads? Use this free resource to make the page you are using ad free. Paste the web url into the field on this site to view your site in an ad free manner. To share the adfree resource, simply copy the new web address that is now ad free to share with your students. Note that some websites may be blocked by adfree. Check on your school computers to see if adfree is blocked or whether district filters already block ads. Missing ads show up as blank spaces on the pages. 10844
In the Classroom: Use this resource to use sites without ads to keep students on track and not be distracted by information that is not content Be sure to share this link on your class website for families to use at home..
Teacher's First Edge Review: for moderately adventurous technology users. This animation tool will help create a slide show with pizzazz. Add personal sounds, videos, and other media to create the next level of slide show for you classes. This tool is great for PC-based schools without access to other free video or multimedia creation software. The limitation of this site is the free portion limits enhanced slide shows to be only thirty seconds in length. However, a typical thirty second video requires twelve images which is a reasonable number for projects with middle and high school level students. The education version has some advantages: Use Animoto with all students simultaneously in class. Download created videos and share among other students in the class. There is also an upcoming feature of an Animoto application for iPhones. Here is a sample Animoto created by our review team: 10388
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Sign up and request an educator account. Wait a few days for your verification email to arrive. Create a new account and enter the classroom code from the email in the promo/referral code box in the sign up form. Provide the classroom code to your students (13 and over) as they register for an account, as well. Do this to allow all your students access to Animoto at the same time. Redeem the class code for 6 months of educator access. Time run out? Simply renew for a new educator account.
Users need basic understanding of how to upload pictures, videos, and other media, especially for a user who wants to add their own content. You may also use stock images and media available through the site. (Our sample is made primarily of stock images.) To create a show, simply click on the create button and follow the onscreen instructions. If adding personal images and video, the program will allow searching through files. Add music from site bank or from personal music sources (copyright-free, of course). Finalize the video with the last click and view your video. It can then be shared easily from the codes or export tools provided.
Safety/Security Concerns: Note that students under 13 are not able to create their own accounts. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Samples provided on the website are fairly generic and safe to view by students. Students can log into social networking sites for photo sharing if it is allowed at your district. Once the iPhone application is available, monitor students closely with careful attention to the schools acceptable use and electronic device policies. Be sure that videos created in an educator account are kept private among those in the class. Manage the students' activity on animoto while students continue to have their own account.
Possible uses: Use this site to make commercials, science fair previews, and animated shorts in any content area. Have students make "advertisements" for an organism or a literary character. Make a travel commercial for a country being studied or for cultural sites in a world language class. Be sure to share the presentations on your projector or interactive whiteboard.
Teacher's First Edge Review: This free site is for very adventurous technology users. With Apture, you can create a rich multimedia experience to your site, wiki, or blog, with instant access to video, audio, text, and more. Easily incorporate these multimedia objects into a page of your site, providing instantaneous information from Wikipedia, Washington Post, You Tube, Flickr, and many more. Adding these multimedia links creates icons next to your text. Hovering on the icon brings up the related multimedia items for any reader. Since learning and finding information is not linear, the discovery of your information’s deeper meaning occurs with richer context in a shorter time frame. This relevant content remains dynamic within your site. Apture's own example of a page using Apture can be found here. See another: a wiki page with class notes and Apture annotations created by a teacher..
At the time of this review, Apture is in “limited beta” but appears to be automatically accepting all new applications. 9301
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site and wait for verification email to log in. Enter your site/wiki/blog’s URL. You are actually allowed to enter many of these, but try ONE first! The site’s detector tool will then “sense” common blogging software, such as WordPress, and prompt you on what to do next. You must be familiar with embed codes and how to place them into your blog or website. Apture’s video tutorial will help (it also pops up along the Apture dashboard when you first go to your “Aptured” site/wiki/blog). Other the simple directions shown in pop-ups for using Apture in various blog and wiki tools. Instantly add the embed code to the most popular blog and wiki platforms with one click. The code generated is easily copy/pasted into your existing website/wiki/blog. Once the embed code is there, visiting your site/wiki/blog automatically brings up an Apture “dashboard” (small toolbar in the corner) for you to log in and add things to your site/wiki/blog. Highlighting text or another item automatically brings up the site (if a site name or URL) you wish to add. Other material can be located by clicking "add related media." Entering a search term instantly finds related Wikipedia or Washington Post articles, You Tube videos, Flickr photos, and more. Subsequent visitors to your site will see the icons next to any item you have “enriched” with Apture-linked media content.
Safety/security concerns: Membership requires an email address log-in. If students will use Apture with their own classroom blogs/wikis, check your school district's Acceptable Use policy regarding student email and establishing site memberships. A single class account created by an extra email account and password (NOT the one you use for your own teacher-created sites) is an option, assuming students will not vandalize each other’s work.
Apture recognizes your any site/wiki/blog name you have entered into its system each time you go there. Therefore, enter only sites you intend for multimedia use. Do not check “remember me” when you log into Apture or others will be able to add mischievous links to your site from that computer! Apture may not be fully accessible inside your school filtering because of the bandwidth it requires or the sites it pulls up. Check in advance to be sure all portions you plan to use in class will be available at school.
Practical Tips: Demonstrate first on a projector or interactive whiteboard with a teacher account so students see how easy the tool is for those familiar with embedding. This will allow you to discuss reliability of links and appropriateness of content to the audience for their educational projects. Enter additional search terms to add new media through the Apture pop-up dashboard. If you are Apture-enriching content on your site/blog/wiki for students to use independently, think of all the possible questions that your students may have about the content and vocabulary. For example, we know certain words are stumbling blocks for students, yet students are hesitant to find the meanings on their own. Link a Wikipedia or other definition for instant access to the meaning. Since Wikipedia is user-generated content, consider requiring students to link to two or three different definitions/articles so they can see first hand the variability of web information. You will need to be sure that students actually READ what they link and do not simply subscribe to “more links are better” to impress you. Consider asking for justification or critique of the links they include.
Possible uses: On your own blog or class information site, link videos explaining a curriculum topic or definitions so students understand the full context of the sentence. Use Apture to teach about evaluating the reliability of web sources by creating multiple links from the same term on a teacher-created page for students to compare and evaluate. Students can use Apture on a blog or wiki can to link content from the web to the information they are discussing. Special ed teachers may want to work with content area teachers to create enriched versions of key content on a class blog so students can experience a multimedia review. ESL teachers may want to create class blogs or wikis collaboratively with students to add visual stimuli and prompts. Consider having your more able students create some of these pages independently as a gifted project for learning support students to use later. Or allow gifted students to go beyond the usual “connections” to higher level, deeper understanding.
Teacher's First Edge Review: for very slightly adventurous technology users and their students.
Traditional art media become digital with the free ArtRage 2.6 Starter Edition paint program. Pencil, chalk, paint and marker tools smear, smudge, blend,and flow just like real art materials. You and your students can paint with thinned oils, use wet or dry markers, soften the pencil and control the hardness of the crayon, and much more. Scroll down the page to find the FREE 2.6 Starter download instead of the 30 day free trial of ArtRage 3.0.
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In the Classroom: Skills needed: ArtRage 2.6 Starter Edition can be downloaded and installed on machines running Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and Macintosh OS X 10.3.9 or later. Check with your IT department or administrator for download and installation approval and help (if needed). ONly the need to download and install pushes this tool to the "Edge."
The ArtRage 2.6 interface is simple and intuitive, with large icons which clearly identify tools and options. While the program has a user guide and the website offers a quick start tutorial plus several technique-specific tutorials, fifteen minutes of clicking on icons, exploring the menus and playing with tools will give you a good start creating works of art. Teachers and students who are familiar with standard paint programs included in Windows and Mac machines will quickly grasp the basics and enjoy exploring the artistic possibilities of ArtRage 2.6. The program supports English, French or German language labels on tools and menus.
Possible Uses: Be sure to ask student "experts" to demonstrate the ArtRAge tools on your interactive whiteboard. Students can use ArtRage 2.6 to create illustrations, drawings and paintings for storybooks, book reviews and author posters in English or language arts activities. Math and science concepts can be explained through illustrative drawings, such as a diagram of a flower's parts or the steps in oxidation. Make visual representations of mathematical operations or concepts such as fractions. Have ELL or foreign language students import images into ArtRage 2.6, trace and color them to create unique vocabulary cards and posters illustrating new words. Recognize and celebrate your students by importing their digital photos and applying textures and effects to create special birthday cards, awards, bulletin board pictures, and desktop signs. Share students' curriculum-related digital art projects on your class web page, blogs, or wiki (with parent permission) as well as your bulletin board.
There are no safety concerns with this program because it is locally installed and does not involve interaction with the "general public" or social networking.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: For slightly adventurous technology users. This site is useful to create an interactive video (hypervideo) through the use of hyperlinking. Just like hyperlinks in a document, create hot links to notes, websites, and other material you link to from parts of the video. The links appear as little circles (hotspot markers) that are clicked to reveal the information you "attach." Add more information to your video for students to access during the playback. Easy-to-follow directions and quick tours to get you started. When the video is done, you can generate and embed a code in your blog or website. Video can also be emailed. Quicktime and FLASH are required. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
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In the Classroom: Skills needed: Site is free, but you must join to create your own videos. Videos must originate from YouTube or TeacherTube (see editorial comment below). You can always upload your own originals to one of these sites, if you wish to annotate a video you shot for use in class, such as a science demo. Paste the YouTube url into the search function, click on a part of the video you want to label, and add notes to, or link to a website. No special skills needed. A teenager or techno-comfortable teacher will figure this one out in one minute. The only challenge is determining what notes and links to use. Keep a second window open to copy and paste website addresses quickly. Watch the demos for quick learning of how to use this application.
Safety concern: some featured videos available on the site's home page, especially those under "Entertainment," may not be appropriate for school viewing. If your school does not have an actively-enforced student acceptable use policy with specific consequences for accessing inappropriate content, you may want to avoid this page or generate such an agreement for student and parent signatures before allowing students open access to Asterpix. You can always create products of your own and share them directly by URL or by embedding them in your blog.
Does your school block YouTube? Try creating a video using an original from TeacherTube instead. Or follow your school's technology policy to request unblocking of specific YouTube video URLs that are directly related to curriculum.
Editorial comment: Be sure to SHARE the completed examples (and student-made products) with administrators and school decision-makers to demonstrate why school policies should permit such powerful opportunities for teaching and learning. Perhaps you can advocate, at the least, quicker unblocking of specific videos (24 hours or less?) for classroom use or permission for teachers to unblock on a per-computer basis. Your efforts to respect policies while pro-actively advocating for appropriate change will benefit all teachers and students.
Possible uses for annotated videos: Use a video and have students add information to check their understanding, such as to label the actions they observe during a chemistry demo and add links to web pages that explain the underlying concepts. Create teacher-made videos to share individually or on a projector with students of ALL ages to illustrate and annotate concepts that are especially challenging or simply to help students visualize the connections between the words they read or hear and the real world examples. Shoot on-site video at the zoo or at a pond study site, then add annotations later. Use videos already available, but add the explanations using the terminology from your curriculum and allow student so access then for review or extra help. Secondary students will love using Asterpix themselves and will give a new dimension to presentations they create. Teachers can use the interactive video for extra tutorial work, explanations of topics, etc. The possibilities are endless!
Teacher's First Edge Review: For serious technology users. Use this free site to create audio files easily for use in or out of the class. Record your own voice using phone or microphone, upload an audio file, or create audio from text to speech. Choose different voices, use the playback options, and update audio at anytime. Use your email to receive a link to your new audio file. 10227
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Users must be able to identify whether there is an internal or external microphone on the computer. If using a phone, understanding calling plans and additional charges is needed. You must know how to use embed codes to place audio files within your blog, wiki, or website. No login is required! Simply click the "Get Yours It's Free" button. Choose the method to create the audio and preview and edit the file. Enter your email address to receive a link to your file. Click on the link to grab widgets. Copy the code and place in your blog or website.
Safety/Security: The tool does not show which work is attributable to which student. You may want to require that students mark their contributions in order to get credit. Students can use an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Check your schools’ acceptable use policy, regarding students using email accounts. Consider using a class email account set up for this purpose. Be sure students understand the appropriate use of this email account.
Classroom use: Use this service to record audio of passages used in class, homework assignments, and other written material. Young students can practice reading aloud at this site (and listen to themselves), showing improvement in fluency as the year goes on. Have students use this site in place of a traditional book report. Have cooperative learning groups create a news broadcast and share it using this site. Use this site with ESL/ELL students just learning the English language. Use this site in world language classes for students to hear and learn the pronunciations. Place the embed code in a site that students can access outside of class for review, identifying directions, and listening to text. Speech and language teachers can use this tool to record student articulation and demonstrate progress through the year.
Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Create your own motivational poster easily and effortlessly. Choose a random picture, one from the Internet, or one chosen from your computer. Choose colors to border the picture and the type of text to be used. Enter your text and preview the result. Once complete, save to flickr, your computer, or print using a separate site. Remember you can use a saved image in PowerPoint shows and on a class wiki, as well. 10401
In the Classroom: Skills required: You need to know how to browse and upload a file from your computer or find the URL of an image already on the web (one you can legally use, of course!).
Safety/Security: Be aware: there are some advertisements on this site. Also, make sure students are aware of copyright laws. Use this site to encourage proper use of photographs that students have the authorization to use. Model including appropriate photo credits on the posters.
Classroom use: Younger students can use this tool together as a whole-class activity or simply enjoy the posters their teacher creates. Have students create a picture about what has been studied with a caption of what has been learned. For example, create posters about predators and prey or classifications of animals. Students can create a poster of a study skill or learning activity that helps them learn. Create a caption that explains how the student learns the best. Every subject area can use this resource to create interesting presentation posters for display or as springboards to talk about what was learned. For example, in Biology, students could create a poster about a cell part with a clever caption about the importance of the job. In Literature or History, students can create posters about the perspectives of others in the story or at that time of history. Rather than a traditional research project. Have cooperative learning groups use this site to show their knowledge in any subject area. Ask students to apply concepts such as constitutional rights by illustrating them in poster images with captions. Teachers can create bulletin board images, as well. Have a classroom motivation poster competition to start off the school year! Share the winners on your class wiki or in a PowerPoint presentation at back to school night/open house. As special occasions approach, have students bring in or take a digital picture they can make into a poster as a family gift with their own inspirational saying.
Teachers First edge Review: For very slightly adventurous technology users. Use Awesome Highlighter as you would conventional highlighters: to mark the best parts of a web page for sharing. Use awesome highlighter by entering a website, choosing the text to highlight, and share the url for others to view. Here is a sample made by the TeachersFirst review team. Add an optional bookmarklet to your web page to easily highlight pages with one click. NOTE: Some pages do not function with this tool. You will receive a message explaining that particular page cannot be highlighted. 10525
In the Classroom: Skills required: No membership required. You do need to know how to copy/paste (ctrl+c and ctrl+V on Windows, Command+c and Command+V on Mac). Users need knowledge of sharing url's with others or managing bookmarks. If using the boomarklet, users need to be able to install browser add ons for using later. Check with your IT department concerning the ability to add bookmarklet to district computers. It would also be helpful to keep a word document with the URLs to your annotated pages and notes about what they are if you plan to assign them to students.
To use: Simply enter your page in the awesome highlighter site and highlight specific parts of text. Share the url with others or bookmark the page for viewing highlighted text later.
Safety/security: If you plan to use this as a TEACHER only, there are no safety/security concerns at all. Be sure to check with your IT department about bookmarlets and using this site on district computers. No registration is required. Caution students that advertisements are found along the bottom and to ignore these. Encourage students to use this responsibly and not highlight information considered inappropriate for school.
In the classroom: Consider using this resource as a way for students to remember the location of specific points of web pages for later. Even without “sharing” of a URL, use this resource to keep track of specific points for discussion later, research for papers and other projects, or current events to be shared with others. Simply paste the highlighted URLs into a word doc to save and reopen later. Use this resource as an organizational tool of content found on the web. When sharing a site with students, highlight specific points that you want to draw attention to and decrease the chance of confusion while viewing the resource given. Include directions in notes. Assign specific tasks, such as pre-reading questions using the notes feature. Have students annotate their own pages including their own pre-reading questions, main idea sentences, or summaries using highlighting and notes on a text-based page. Have them explicate poetry, annotate motifs in online literary works, point our fallacies in arguments used in blog posts, or highlight evidence of bias in web page content. They can “turn in” their assignments to you or share them with classmates by URL.
Teachers First Edge Review: For moderately serious technology users. Want a location to place and share all of your vital links and information? Use Bag The Web to find a great place to view and share these links. Create an account easily and create your bag. Name it, find links, and paste them along with the titles and brief description. Find suggested resources below based upon information already entered. Add these easily with the click of a button. Use the embed code to place into a site, wiki, or blog to share with students or others. Share also by using Twitter, Facebook, or other services.
Here is an Example TF Edge “bag”:
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In the Classroom: Skills required: Users must be able to create an account, a new bag, and find relevant material to be placed into the bag. Use of embed codes or sharing of URL's are required to share the “bag” with others.
Safety/security: Consider creating a class account for use by all members. Be sure to remind them about using the site responsibly. Be sure to spell out consequences of inappropriate use and vandalism. Sign ups for this site require an email address and verifications. Be sure to check district policy with regards to student email. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Possible Uses: Create bags for each unit in your classes. Allow students to enter great resources that can then be used by all students. Build a bag for your class instead with resources that will be needed by students. Discuss annotating resources by creating short descriptors for each of the sites being linked. Create a class bag and then separate bags for units of study. Bags can be linked to each other, creating a great system to organize links and resources.
Teachers First Edge Review: For moderate technology users. Add some fun to your pictures by making them into puzzles using this free site. This easy-to-use, free site offers choices of flickr picture groups to choose from, such as "Patterns," "Hello kitty," "Water drops," and many others. Choose a picture you wish to "befuddlr." Pieces of the original picture are moved around in a new order. Continue to choose a different combination, change the lines that divide segments of the picture, and even drag a button to your toolbar to "befuddlr" any picture. Once done, use the snapshot function of your computer to take a picture. In Mac, use apple-shift-four to take a snapshot. In PC, use the print screen (Prt Sc key) function to “copy” the picture and then paste it into a document or elsewhere. You are able to submit your own photos to the site (found on Flickr, of course). Learn more about flickr, a photo storage and sharing site, in the TeachersFirst review here. 9922
In the Classroom: Skills needed: to use the pictures provided, simply chose a “group” title, such as water drops, and click to befuddlr it. If you wish to befuddlr your own pictures, you must first upload them to flickr, so you will need to learn that simple tool. Be sure to TAG your pictures so you can FIND them again! No membership or saving are available on befuddlr. Its is an on-the-spot tool.
Safety/Security: Be sure to use your own images or copyright free images and images that are available to be built upon. If students click to choose other pictures from flickr, they could encounter ANYTHING that someone has uploaded, so be sure to guide them to the pictures you want them to use and have a stated policy and consequence for those who wander off into inappropriate places. Flickr does have anti-porn policies, but girls in bikinis, for example, are still available!
Possible uses: Use snapshots of animals, numbers, letters, or other pictures and have students scramble the pieces. Befuddlr a picture on your interactive whiteboard to start a language lesson! Students can create their own and provide hints using a variety of constraints such as no more than 5 words, a poem, using adjectives only, etc. in order to help those guessing the original picture. In Art, create new patterns for analysis. Use befuddled pictures to practice new vocabulary for young ones or for ESL and world language students. Accompany student poetry with befuddled pictures
Teachers First Edge Entry: for slightly adventurous technology users and their students. Now, your students can create their own picture books with just a few clicks. Or if you want, you can read countless other books written by students. The professional illustrations and layout options offer the ultimate in publishing of students' writing.
Watch the Tips and Tricks tutorial to see how the features work. Due to the minor advertising, blogs, and internet retailing, teachers should monitor students closely or use this website as a whole-class activity. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 9336
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: Join the site (free) and log in. Registration requires an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Once registered, view the tutorial presentation to learn more about the website.
Safety/Security Concerns: Check your school policies on student email subaccounts (Gmail). You may want to use a teacher account and allow students to use it under your supervision. Be sure to obtain written parent permission before posting ANY student work online. Be aware that their work will “show” in “Recently published books” for others to see.
The opening page for outsiders and members shares featured and popular books, so you will want to preview for possible inappropriate books created by others. As with any site where students can create content, you will want to obtain parent permission before posting student work online.
Possible Uses: Use an interactive whiteboard or projector to share the tutorial presentation and some samples of student-created books. Create a "class book" or have students create individual books. Also, sign up for the free newsletter to receive information on updates at this site.
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: for moderately adventurous technology users. Blabberize is a photo editing tool that creates talking animations from a photo or other image. Search ready-made blabbers or create new ones. There are some real treasures among the ready-mades, some of which you can use as examples for your students. Here is an example created by the TeachersFirst Edge team:
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In the Classroom: Skills needed: You need a microphone in or on your computer for easiest recording. We recommend watching (and showing the entire class?) the introduction blab on the home page. It is a riot! To create blabs, you will need to be able to upload photographs or save then upload images from safe and legal sources. Once you know which pictures you are going to use, the rest is as easy as following the onscreen instructions. You will need to “allow” access to your computer’s microphone and/or a microphone you attach to the computer. Recording by phone also works. Browse a few examples first to get ideas on how to make a mouth on your photo to move and “talk.” Get started right away by choosing a photo and following prompts (arrows) below telling you what to do next. You have 30 seconds to narrate your photo. When you complete the blab, click SAVE. You will be prompted to create an account on the spot. You will also have the options to mark your blab “mature” or “private” (not shown on the “latest” pages and other public areas). Completed Blabs can be shared via email or embedded in another web page, blog, or wiki. See an embedded example below. Users unfamiliar with copy/pasting embed code can simple share by the URL of the blab's page.
Safety/security concerns: Registration requires email, You may want to use a single, whole-class account you create with your “extra” email account or establish student accounts using your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. This will make it easier to monitor student activity. Here is a blog post that tells how. No email confirmation is required for this Blabberize membership to work. Be sure to spell out consequences of inappropriate use/content of blabs. Since Blabberize is a public site, avoid allowing students to “browse” blabs. They may discover blabs not appropriate for the classroom. Blab creators are asked to mark their creations “mature” if they could be objectionable, but the only enforcement of this is by users clicking “I object!” Have students enter the site through the “Make” page link provided in this review to steer clear of the “latest” blabs. You may want your students to make their blabs “private” so they do not show on the public areas, depending on school policies.
Possible uses: The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Blab the homework directions on your teacher web page. Ask your students to create blabs for all sorts of reasons. Use photos or digital drawings to “blab”! Have students draw in a paint program, save the file, and then make it “speak.” Spice up research projects about historic figures or important scientists. Have literary characters tell about themselves. Create entire conversation sequences of blabs between people in world language or ESL/ELL classes (with students speaking in the language, of course), then embed them in a wiki. Have speech/language students make blabs to practice articulation and document progress over time. Promote oral reading fluency with student-read blabs. Create book “commercials.” Have students blab what the author may have been thinking as he/she wrote a poem or literary selection or as an artist painted. Blab politicians’ major platform planks during campaigns for current events. Blab the steps to math problem solving. Even primary students can make an animal blab about his habitat if you set up the blab as a center. Make visual vocabulary/terminology sentences with an appropriate character using the term in context (a beaker explaining how it is different from a flask?) Students could also take pictures of themselves doing a lab and then blab the pictures to explain the concepts. This would be a great first day project (introducing yourself and breaking the ice). Share the class blabs on your class web page or wiki! Give directions to your class (for when a substitute is there). Use at back to school night to show your humorous side to the parents.
This comprehensive article gives all the details on using gated blogs safely in the classroom, including explanations of blogging basics, a TeachersFirst Step-by-Step on how to start one, complete reviews of several free blogging tools for teachers, and over two dozen ideas for how to use a blog with your students. Make "writing to learn" approachable and exciting. Don't miss the specially-honored TeachersFirst Class Blogs. 6808
In the Classroom: You could use this step by step as the framework for a self-directed or "buddy" professional development project. Share it with your principal or professional development coordinator.
Teacher's First Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users and their students. Students and teachers can write their own original books, add your own images and artwork as illustrations, and read your published books in interactive, online form. For a fee, you can also have printed copies made, but there is no fee for the online publication and sharing. This is the ultimate in "digital storytelling."
Here is an example of a book created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors. Once you set up free membership in this site, students (or teachers) can select to create from a blank start or using templates provided. You can also create a book starter of your own as an example so students can follow the prompts you have created. The book creator allows you to upload your own images and to create books from a Word document or PowerPoint file you have already made. There is no provision for multiple users to collaborate on the same book.
After you save and publish the work, share the URL so people can read the entire thing online, either among an audience of “just my friends” or publicly. They also offer the embed code to place your books in a class or school web page, wiki, or blog, but at the time of this review, this code was not working properly. The BEST option is to copy the address of the new window displaying the interactive book. There is an option to have the book printed for a fee, but this is not required. You can also read books created by others (if they make them public). Use the fully-public option to create learning materials for classes to access year to year for at-home review or reading practice.
This site requires a simple registration. Members must be at least 13 years old. Teachers using this tool with younger students should use a whole-class account WITH parent permission and in accordance with school policies. See more detailed suggestions “In the Classroom” below and in our sample book! 10404
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site. No need for a confirmation email to get started. SKIP the profile and friends areas to get to the book creator. The site constantly offers ways to purchase printed versions of your books, but you can ignore them. On the Create Books page, choose from using a blank book, starting from a file, or using a template. Browse many “public” examples on the templates page of books created by others. Choose “school” to see projects from other classes or a sample created by you or a student team working in advance along with you. Explore ready-made themes (seasonal, topical, etc.) or use “open theme.” Choose book dimensions (match layout shape to any uploaded files, such as PowerPoint slides). Enter settings and description of your book (editable later), including who is allowed to “see” it: everyone, just friends, or private. Again choose a “theme” – more of a category where Bookemon will list your completed book. A logical option is “school.” Experiment with tools to upload files (within file limits), add images, add text, etc. Written help is offered as you go, but there is no video demo. SAVE often. Turn margins on to avoid chopping content. To share the book, you must “publish” it (i.e. finalize).
Once published, locate the book under "My Books" and use options to share (by email—and see the URL to copy from there), “Make a new edition” to create a new version—also useful for treating the original as a template for later books), Post to Other Sites offers embed codes not currently working properly. The BEST option is to click the book COVER which opens a new window without ads or “stuff,” and copy the ADDRESS of that window to paste into email, etc. You can also make that clean-window view a Favorite on a classroom computer!
Safety/security concerns: The home page of the site has “Featured books by our members” and the ability to browse all public books. You will want to preview for possibly inappropriate books created by others. As with any site where students can create content, you will want to obtain parent permission before posting student work online. The site does not allow users under age 13, so teachers with students below that age should obtain written parent permission for students to use generic student accounts you create and control through your teacher-extra Gmail address. Use up to 20 subaccounts of that Gmail account to create student accounts and passwords to be used by each student or group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
If you have older students use their own email accounts to join and navigate, you will want to first spell out rules about the “profile” tools, friends, and other social networking features. There are multiple opportunities to share address books, use social tools such as Facebook to share your books, etc., so teacher-controlled accounts may be the easiest option.
If students are to collaborate on the same book, they must either log in under the same user name or sit together to collaborate. This could provide opportunities for “vandalism,” so have class policies and consequences spelled out in advance.
Possible uses:
With younger students, have them create their work in PowerPoint then upload for whole-class books. See an example, created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors . The example is full of ideas for classroom use from Kindergarten to high school, including science concept tales, poetry books, general writing, math problem solve-its, and more. ANY grade can use this tool, depending on the amount of direction by the teacher. By the way, the correct answer to the problem in the sample book is c. 27. Another idea, have students create personalized books for their parents or grandparents for special occasions (Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Grandparent's Day).
Tip: Use this site for a guided introduction to social networking as a class, an excellent teaching opportunity for 21st century literacy skills and online safety discussion.
Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Use this resource to quickly and easily create a book from a series of flickr pictures. Click on the fields on the front of the album to add a title and an author (both required to share the finished product.) Enter a flickr user name to view that user's (or your) entire album. Drag a picture into the field of the page. Change to full page for the picture or to create a border around the picture. Add or remove pages by clicking the + or - buttons in the lower right. Change pages by clicking on the lower right hand corner. When finished, click publish. Share your creation by entering an email address. Copy and save the url of your book to find later. Currently embed codes are not an option. This site does not require a login. Start over by clicking "Recycle" which will overwrite your previous album. Click "view archive" to view the albums of others. 11175
In the Classroom: Skills required: Bookr is so easy to use. No registration required and albums are simple and easy to create. Be sure to keep the url of your creation to look at and share later. Be sure to check out this review to learn how to get your own collection of photos to use in your album.
Safety/security: When viewing albums created by others, keep in mind that there may be inappropriate materials, however, none have been viewed at the time of this review. Since Bookr does not collect information or require a login, this can be used by young students. Be sure to create a place to collect the url's of the created works to find easily later.
In the classroom: Use from Kindergarten to high school, including science concept tales, poetry books, general writing, math problem solve-its, and more. Use Bookr to create animal books, what I did last summer, places I would like to visit, vocabulary albums with definitions and related pictures, and more. Here is a link to a nice grade 1 example. ANY grade can use this tool, depending on the amount of direction by the teacher. Another idea, have students create personalized books for their parents or grandparents for special occasions (Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Grandparent's Day).
Teachers First Edge Review: For the slightly adventurous. Use this free web site to create flashcards for teacher or individual student use. There is also a link to “Study Flashcards” that are already ready to go. There are literally HUNDREDS of ready to go flashcard packets: presidents, addition, algebra, music, and more.
If you are creating your own, you can add images, video, or audio. Study flashcards online or share with others in created study groups. Use flashcards to learn new information (question and answer are side by side,) study (shows the question and then the answer,) or quiz themselves by entering answers. Create a game with the flashcards by using a timer and score board on the site. Share flashcard sets with others by sending a URL address or create study groups to share. View public flashcards created by others by using their search feature.
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In the Classroom: Skills needed: You can access the already created flashcards without any account, email, or age requirements. However, if you wish to create flashcards, an email and birth date is required to create an account. Users must be 13 years of age or older. Verifying email is required to create flashcards.
Using Brainflips: Use the Deck panel to enter flashcard deck title and other basic information. Use the Card panel to add, edit, and change the order of the flashcards in the deck. Create text or multiple choice answers for each flashcard and even enter alternative answers. Click "Insert" above the question field to add images, audio, and video to flashcards.
Safety/Security: Since an email and birth date are required, consider creating a class account for teacher use or for groups of students to use. Create teacher flashcards for class use by creating card decks and providing the URL for students to use. The home page of this site includes changing “featured” content contributed by the general public. Check ahead of time to be sure it is suitable for the classroom. You may want to send students to the flashcards via a direct link to the deck. You may want to prohibit or point out the links to advertising located along the top and sides of the site. Students must have individual accounts to create flashcards on their own(email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
Possible uses: Facts, spelling words, vocabulary, definitions, foreign language, root words, historical names -— all can easily be typed into this flashcard format for any subject. Plan a system of tags for sets on related material so they can be grouped. For example: tag all geography terms "geography" and all words from the same science chapter using the chapter number or topic. You can use multiple tags, too! In the computer lab, using a projector or interactive whiteboard, walk your students through making their own sets of flashcards or using teacher created flashcards for student and group use. Students or parents can then access their electronic cards at home or anywhere with a specific URL that can be placed on any teacher blog or website. No email address is needed to use the cards, only to create the cards. Include the link to your sets on your web page for students to study before tests. Collaborate with other teachers to create useful sets for all to use. Rotate responsibility each marking period among student groups in your class to create a set for each chapter/unit/week for the rest of the class to use as review. Give a special award (or bonus points) for the most creative, complete set that marking period. Learning support teachers may want to work together with small student groups to create verbal and visual card sets to accompany the chapters they are studying. Involve the students in the process so they can reinforce new content as they create their own “study materials” with color coding, images, and more.
TeachersFirst Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users. This simple and free online tool allows you to brainstorm ideas – no special software! Bubble.us features some highly interactive abilities: saving your mind map as an image, sharing (emailing) your work with a friend, printing your organizer, creating colorful mind map organizers, embedding your work into a website or blog, and working with friends. You are able to "play" at this site without registering; however registration is necessary for saving, embedding, emailing, and other features. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Here is an example of a bubbl.us map embedded in a page. Click and drag on the background to read more, or try the zoom controls:
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In the Classroom: Skills Needed: If you intend to save, email, or print your organizer you must join the site. Registration is free, simple, and requires an email address. You can start using the “membership” immediately and without confirming the email, though, which makes it quite convenient. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Experiment with the small icons on each “element” to change colors, drag, make new connections, etc.
Once registered (if you choose to do so), you will be taken to the work area. A box marked "Start Here" can be clicked on to type the subject of your mapping activity. By clicking Enter you create a new level (branch) within the map. By clicking Tab you create an additional branch on the same level as the current word. Save and set sharing (read-only or open access) in the area at the right. You can “send” a read-only link via email or copy the embed code from the Menu at lower right), but you cannot find the URL directly from your map. "Send" it to yourself via email to copy the actual URL. You may want to have your class accounts all be “friends” with you for easy sharing or simply have them "email" their finished work to you using the menu button.
Safety/Security Concerns: Check your school policies on student email subaccounts (Gmail), if you plan to have students use Bubbl.us on their own. You may want to use a teacher account and allow students to use it under your supervision. Be sure to obtain written parent permission before posting ANY student work online. Fortunately, there are no “see others’ work” links or other easy access to inappropriate content.
Possible Uses: There are countless possibilities at this mental mapping site. Demonstrate the activity on an interactive whiteboard or projector, and then allow students to try to create their own graphic organizers. Use this site for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics of study. Use this site to create family trees. Have students collaborate together (online) to create group mind maps or review charts before tests on a given subject.
Some student project ideas: Have students... organize any concepts you study; color-code concepts to show what they understand, wonder, question; map out a story, plotline, or LIFETIME; map out a step-by-step process (life cycle); map a real historical event as achoose-your-own-adventure with alternate endings(?) based on pivotal points; plan a “tour” for a “thought museum.”
Use this mapping website as an alternative to a traditional test, quiz, or homework assignment in literature or social studies: have students demonstrate their understanding by completing a graphic organizer about the main points. Be sure that they RENAME it before they start work to an individual name so you know who did it (they could EMAIL it to you!) or have them print their results to turn them in. See more ideas in the embedded example above!
Teacher's First Edge Review: For serious tech users. Create free comic strips from flickr pictures. Search tags in flickr or search by user to choose pictures then add words in the caption bubbles. If you use flickr reviewed here, you can set up your own tagged collection of images for students to use, as well. Quickly publish, email, or embed your comic strip. This site requires Flash. here. 10052
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Knowledge of use of tags and familiarity with flickr is required. Each picture is labeled with the title and the picture creator’s name.
How to use: Type in the name of a topic in the tag area or the name of a known flickr user. Entering information into both fields is not required. Pictures will appear in the top area. Choose a picture you wish to use by clicking on it. To add another picture, choose the options in "Add frames." Drag a caption bubble onto the picture and type in your caption. Easily delete pictures by clicking the “Delete” button at the bottom of the picture. When finished, click "Publish." Comics can be deleted afterward, and sharing gives the option for sending an email link or using an embed code to include within a website or blog.
Safety/Security: Clicking on "...or visit the archive" takes you to other users’ content. The archive of this site includes changing “featured” content contributed by the general public and may not be suitable for the classroom or may cause a distraction.
No login or password is required, but publishing requires a name to be entered. Be sure to know the rules and safety concerns of your district before entering any student names. Consider creating anonymous ways to enter names in order to track student contributions. All projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online. Written permission is always a good idea.
Possible uses: Use this site for students to take pictures of lab experiment steps and explain the experiment or the concepts behind the experiment. Students can create a story using pictures taken from home and uploaded to a class flickr account. Any school subject can easily use the comic strip generator to show knowledge learned in class. World language or ESL/ELL students can create dialog strips. Reinforce vocabulary by having students create strips with characters using the new words. Assess student understanding of concepts by providing a collection of tagged photos on Flickr and having the class create a Bubblr strip on the interactive whiteboard (collaborating for a whole-class or group grade). Share completed strips on your class web page or wiki.
Example created for review: embed code: or link: Angiosperms by Mrs. Maine
Follow the progress of 100 TeachersFirst members as they collaborate and use a safe web2.0 tool with the support of the tool developer and TeachersFirst's teacher-friendly team. The 100 participants receive free, premium pilot accounts to use TRintuition’s workBench and our support to help them build learners in their classrooms. These accounts allow teachers and students to create online collaborative projects using the workBench’s visually-rich and user-friendly tools, possibly even collaborating with classes from other schools.
Both teachers and students can build online or downloadable projects using the workBench. Each free premium pilot teacher account includes up to 45 student user accounts for access throughout 2008. Teachers who are part of the pilot project will be asked to complete at least one classroom-related, student- or teacher-created project (or as many classroom-related projects as you wish!) before November 30, 2008.
This blog documents the project and the idea-sharing from the announcement of the project start in April, 2008 and will remain online as a prototype for collaborative use of technology after the project completion.
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In the Classroom: Teachers who wish to join the project should read the details and sign-up from the blog. Learn more about the TRIntuition workBench from the TeachersFirst Edge review of this tool.
Teachers First edge Review: For moderately adventurous technology users. Looking for an easy way to create diagrams? This free site is easy to use and allows collaboration in creation of drawings. View the overview video on the front page of this site to familiarize yourself with its functions. 9043
In the Classroom: Skills required: Users must be willing to play with this great resource. Sign up easily with an email address though email verification is not required. Rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Drag shapes from the stencil area. Use the Inspector to add text, change colors, change sizes, and rearrange among many other functions. Use the toolbars along the top to upload an image, add items such as lines, take a snapshot, as well as other snapshots (hover over these buttons to read what each item is.) Use the buttons in the upper right, to export as a PNG, save, or share your drawing. Use the Save URL to embed in a wiki, blog, or other site.
Safety/security: Though an email is required, it is not necessary to begin using this resource. The tool does not show which work is attributable to which student. You may want to require that students initial their contributions in order to get credit. If students are using as a group, you may want to spell out specific consequences for project “vandalism,” depending on your students. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your younger students.
In the classroom: Use Cacoo much like other drawing and flowchart software. Use to take notes, create decision-making flowcharts, illustrate concepts, sketch a story/plot pattern, and more. Create classification diagrams on the type of animal being studied. Create dichotomous keys for identifying any kind of object or making a decision. Use to identify roles and responsibilities as pre-planning for a group project. Use as a storyboard as part of pre-production for a movie or podcast to be created by either individuals or a group. Ask students to share their storyboard or group responsibilities with you. Use as an alternative to a quiz by having students diagram a process such as oxidation or the steps from a bill to a law.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for adventurous technology users. This creative page allows you to add captions to photographs you have uploaded or found on an online site such as Flickr. A collection of your own photos uploaded to Flickr can be used easily. 6950
In the Classroom: Skills needed: locating and uploading digital image files, locating the actual URL for specific images, navigating the tools of Captioner.
Safety/security issues: Monitor "appropriateness" of images available on Flickr/the web. You might want to specify a tag or collection to work from for some classes. Upload your own set of digital images to Flickr ahead of time.
Possible uses: Creating a captioned sequence to explain a major concept, such as mitosis or narrative patterns. You could also have students create campaign ads, posters of important people, etc. Have an object explain a concept from its point of view (solar panel tells about itself), have a famous person explain his invention or accomplishment, show what a non-verbal creature or object, such as a cell, is thinking.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For serious technology users. Use this free online tool to create timelimes embedded with media that can be shared with others. Create timelines that include music, pictures and photos, video and text. Change backgrounds and customize your timeline for a personal and creative touch. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 10022
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Teachers need to be able to identify material to be used in the creation of the timeline and strategies to help students be prepared for student assignments (checklists, goal sheets, or presentation planners). Click "Create" to begin making a "Capzles." Use the buttons on the left to follow the creation process and create with the following: Add titles, description, tags, content and media, set privacy, and share. Watch a video tutorial to learn steps to create a timeline. Click "Explore" along the top to view previously made timelines. Click on "Share" to send email links to others.
Safety/Security: To create an account, enter a login and password. The next screen requires personal information including email. Consider creating a class account for easier access. If students are permitted to have their own account, it is recommended that passwords and logins be maintained for those students who forget. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
This site includes content contributed by the general public and may not be suitable for the classroom. You may want to send students directly to URLs for their own projects or use the site as a whole-class activity using a teacher-created capzles to spark discussion.
Classroom use: Create Capzles that introduce new topics and content for great student discussion. Students can use pieces of the capzle to brainstorm questions, initiate research, and learn more about the topic. Capzles are an interesting way for students to tell stories about a project, research, or as a class activity. Use to showcase fun items such as "what I did on my summer vacation," "the story of my dog," family, etc. Create Capzles from the point of view of a literary character or historical figure telling his/her story. Remember to teach about copyright, since using copyrighted images in a Capzle would not be “fair use” due to unlimited distribution. Look for images in the public domain or with Creative Commons licensing and model giving attribution for them.
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. This is one fabulous way for art or photography students to create a FREE online portfolio to share work in your class, share with each other, or submit as an online collection for competitions or college admissions. The users agreement specifies no "group" accounts or users under 13 years old. The free version is limited to 5 projects and 35 images (no videos in the free version), but this is enough to show your "best of the best." You can even choose the actual URL for the portfolio within Carbonmade. The home page has a Flash demo so you can see how the site works. 7819
In the Classroom: Skills needed: join the site (free), browse for files and upload to site, label with captions, project information, other information, and decide about viewing options. Works best with Internet Explorer 6+ or Safari. No special html skills needed. A teenager will figure this one out in one minute. A techno-comfortable teacher will take no more than four minutes! The only challenge is figuring out how to change settings on a project within your portfolio and have them SAVE. Watch the demo.
Share portfolios among neighboring schools or through art teacher associations to inspire your students and help them develop the critical skills to choose their best work and articulate their reasons (Use the "notes" space on each image to tell about it).
Be sure that you adhere to school policies regarding posting of student work. Have students create their accounts ONLY with written parent permission, especially since there is space for a "profile" (which teachers should require students to leave BLANK for safety reasons. Use your teacher email account so there is no danger of having outsiders contact your students. After graduation students may change the settings and use the site in budding art careers! Avoid including any personally identifiable information in descriptions or images. Personally identifiable information can always be shared with potential colleges, etc. via email or letter, rather than posting it to the web.
TeachersFirst Edge Tool: For more adventurous technology users-- and those who are willing to take the time to learn the tool. This fabulous, FREE online tool allows you to create your own interactive "books" to help young readers learn reading strategies to build comprehension. The tool allows you to enter your own text, images, and hints. The finished product is a very polished-looking book in a form that you can save on your computer or burn to a CD and use over and over and over with students for years to come.
Be sure to try the model books and read the tips for writers and illustrators. Click to see a sample we made for you and placed on our site. 8060
In the Classroom: Skills required: joining the site (free), locating or writing your own copyright-free text, locating or creating images for which you have the rights to make more than one copy (Fair Use does not apply!), copy/paste the text and resize/upload the images--following simple directions to create the pages and accompanying hints. Be sure to learn about the three interactive characters who teach the strategies! Publish and download the files of the finished "books" and save on your computer. Extract the zipped files and save locally, on your network, or burn to CD so your students can access them directly.
The uses of this one are endless. If you take the time to get permission from the publisher to use text from some of your textbooks or reading books, you could create interactive versions to use in your classroom or with special ed students. More simply, use student-written stories and artwork (scanned -- or created in Paint)to create the "book." Imagine creating a class "book" at the end of a unit on Communities or Animals, and including images you take with your digital camera. If you copy the CD's, students could sign out the "book" and read it to relatives using their home computer. You can keep the "library" of past books to help future classes. Or ask your middle/high school or gifted students to create books as writing/service project for struggling readers to use.
Teachers First Edge Review: For serious technology users. Upload an mp3 or wmv audio file, record your own voice, or enter text for the site to provide a text-to-speech recording. Here is an example of the site reading the TeachersFirst home page text. (The audio quality is not terrific for this tool feature). 10125
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Be able to manage and find any audio files on your computer. Recording of voice requires knowledge of internal and external microphones. Use the "text to speech" option for an easy way to record using a computerized voice. Register using an email address, though verification is not required. You do need a microphone either attached or built in to your computer to record chirbits.
Safety/security: Categories shown include Confessions, Jokes, and Pickup lines, among others. Though these are quite humorous, they may be inappropriate. Chirbits created become public, however by choosing "Settings" across the top, check the box to protect your chirbits and make them private. If each student is to have their own account, check your school policies on whether student work may be displayed online and what information is permitted. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Consider creating a class chirbit with a global email. You may want to require that students initial their contributions in order to get credit. Accounts have an RSS feed where you can follow others to keep up with the chirbits created. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” Click on "Profile" and then the gear symbol to copy a link to share. You may want to create a word doc, Favorites folder, or other “collection” of the URLS to all your students projects in
one place for easy work at grading time. Some teachers use a class wiki or blog with links to all projects from there.
Possible uses: Use chirbit to record quick assignments or responses. Create prompts which require clever answers such as viewpoints of famous people in your subject area. Use chirbits to record thoughts or facts of the day. Use chirbits to record how to solve problems, define vocabulary, or to understand class material. As closure at the end of class, ask a student to record a “chirbit” summary of the most important concept for the day’s lesson. You could even have a competition to decide which group/pair has composed the best sentence for a chirbit recording and have them make the recording on the spot.
Teachers First Edge Review: For moderately adventurous technology users. Create comics easily and simply by drawing, uploading pictures or graphics, and choosing as many frames as possible to complete your project. Registration is not required to use Chogger. Click “Create A Comic” to get started. The creator will launch in a new window. Note: to FINISH and share a comic by URL, you must establish a free account.
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In the Classroom: Skills Required: To FINISH your comics and view by URL, you must have a free membership which requires an email address but does not make you wait for a confirmation email. Use a whole-class account created using a teacher (memberships) email for students to create comics that can be easily monitored/managed by the teacher. Click on buttons to learn the basics that can be used to create the comic. To use, click "Create" and then on "New drawing." Use the tools to create shapes, draw lines, change points, and drag segments easily. Click on the camera icon to take or upload a picture. Click Text tab to add caption bubbles and text. When finished, easily save your comic by adding a title and description. Comics can also be marked private, if you wish. Share completed online comics by copy/pasting the URL of the “finished” comic. Be sure to KEEP a record of these URLs or manage them using “My Comics.”
Safety/security: If you use student accounts, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to add up to 20 subaccounts to your Gmail account for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Be advised that students are able to view public cartoons. Though some are slightly questionable, inappropriate comics were not evident. Teachers, however, should caution students to not browse the public portion of the site, and teachers should monitor this. Provide only the link to the “Create” portion of the site to remove possible viewing of public comics. If desired, require students to take a screenshot of their comic instead of saving to the site. Take a snapshot using the print screen (PrtScrn) button on a PC or using the screenshot shortcut in a Mac (apple/shift/4.) Images can then be uploaded to a blog, wiki, or other site for display.
In the classroom: Use Chogger to explain vocabulary words or other concepts from any class or subject area. Use comics to write summaries of current events, responses to reading assignments, expressions of teen problems, and creative works of humor. With younger students, use an interactive whiteboard or projector to share or create a class comic on a current topic of study, such as the life cycle of the frog or ways to conserve energy. Use this site to integrate an art and writing lesson. Why not have students create comics to demonstrate a concept in science or social studies, rather than a traditional paper/pencil quiz? World language teachers and ESL/ELL teachers will love the chance for students to demonstrate written language skills in the “context” of their comic situations. Emotional support /autistic support teachers and students can create comics to help explain social interactions.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. Imagine being able to give students (or parents)an exact link to a specific quote within a web page. This TeachersFirst Edge tool does exactly that. Why would you want to? Perhaps you want to send students to a certain paragraph for an activity: for reading comprehension, for reading a specific portion of text, or even for highlighting a literary device within a text or poem. Students will no longer waste time, announcing, "I can't find it!" or return to school saying they couldn't do the homework! 7987
In the Classroom: No membership or cost required. Tool can be used in less than 30 seconds. Skills needed: Open TWO windows in Internet Explorer or any web browser. One should be open to citebite; the other to the web page you wish to reference. On that web page, locate and "highlight" the exact passage of text you want to "send" people to see. Copy/paste the passage into the quotation box at Citebite (copy, then change windows). Return to the target web page and copy/paste its actual URL into Citebite. Click "Make Citebite." Copy/paste the new url, indicated after "Your citebite link is:" Note: if the original quote is within a FLASH presentation, it will not copy/paste or generate a Citebite. See this example of a Citebite link to a tip about TeachersFirst Edge tools: http://pages.citebite.com/b1j4l1j7o0ndu
Have your middle and high school students do a web page "credibility critique" on their potential sources by using Citebite before they start a research project. They can highlight passages as proof of credibility -- or lack thereof -- and give you the Citebite links. They will love this easy way to reference a specific portion of a page. You will love the ease of finding it. If you give them a Word document table as a web site evaluation rubric, they can paste the Citebites there, with their comments in the neighboring cell!
Teacher’s First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. This site has a useful choice of blogging tools that are simple to learn for students and teachers. The class mail feature is especially valuable because many schools do not allow students access to an email program. Class mail permits students and teachers to exchange information in a controlled professional environment similar to email or instant messaging without the hassle of having IM or e-mail accounts. There are several types of blogs available including; personal, assignment, and topical. Personal blogs provide students with a space to write and communicate freely. Assignment blogs allow the teacher to post and grade writing assignments. Topical blogs offers a forum for students and teachers to communicate about a common idea or topic. A co-teacher can be added to a class to share administration of blogs and other features. 10940
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Registering for a free account is simple. Registration requires first name, last name, and zip code. A user’s guide and introductory video are provided for registered users once they are logged in. The video explains in detail how to use all of the features available. After becoming familiar with the program, start with one class to pilot the program. Setup a test student account and become familiar with way in which students will use the program. It is important to understand the unique features that each type of communication offers. Familiarity with blogging and blog etiquette is important for safe ethical implementation. The help page includes a link to Information about educational blogging to help teachers and administrators understand the educational benefits to electronic communication.
Safety/Security concerns:The safety features of Class Chatter make it is easy for teachers to monitor students’ posts and other communications. Using the customize class feature, teachers can control student access to information and Class Chatter features such as class mail. Teachers have detailed control of students’ post including safe guarding students’ identity from others and editing posts including posts they created. It is important to follow any school procedures before using Class Chatter.
Possible uses: A class blogging program has limitless possibilities. Engage students in discussions using a topic blog on current events, independent reading, literature, and more. The class assignment feature creates a formal way for teachers to assess students’ writing. Students can create an online journal by creating a personal blog. Class mail offers the chance for quick informal exchanges such as a response to a post, question or idea. The robust features of Class Chatter capitalize on students' eagerness to communicate electronically while allowing the teacher to control the format and flow of information. Convert current assignments to an appropriate electronic exchange. As an extension assignment have students create a personal message using the design of their blog page as the medium. This gives students ownership of their communications. Find many more ideas for class blogs in TeachersFirst’s Blog Basics for the Classroom .
Teachers First Edge Review: For adventurous technology users and those who want to open a bigger world for their students. Classchats.com was created when a school in Maine asked for connections for their 3rd grade class with all the 3rd grade classrooms in the country. To help, they created this website (creating these connections became time consuming with variable video availability elsewhere). Use this website to connect with other classes and groups. Classrooms that connect use Skype or Google Chat but can also use the built in video conferencing tool. (Although it still needs to be upgraded some.) Participate in forums, find and write to blogs, use the whiteboard space, and share videos and files. 11020
In the Classroom: Skills required: Sign-up to the site. Users must be over 18. An email address is required. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. Use this site to connect to other teachers who can then open up conferencing to their students in one convenient place. Join this community, and greater use may lead to more functionality throughout time. Be sure to post information in the forum or a blog to make connections with other educators.
Safety/Security: As the members of this community are educators, safety issues are not a problem. Be sure that this site is unblocked at your school including all of the other functions as well.
In the classroom: Use this site for a means to connect to any classroom you choose for any subject area. Connect to learn about other locations, learn various perspectives, find animals that are similar yet different, learn about the different books that are read in various areas, survey students on various economic, political or environmental topics. Be sure that the content to be covered is communicated ahead of time and students have the opportunity to think through the material and formulate a response. Discuss appropriate ways to communicate to others prior to connecting with another classroom.
Teacher's First Edge Review: for moderately adventurous technology users. Create a panoramic photo without a special camera! Use a normal camera to take the photos. The CleVR Stitcher is the easiest photo stitcher available. Just drag and drop your pictures, click the button, and the application “stitches” them together for you. By joining your pictures, create a stunning panoramic picture. Clevr enables you to embed the image into your website or blog, share the images on various social networking sites, and more. 9619
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Users need to be able to log in to the website, upload and manage pictures from their computer, and use simple tools. You must register with an email and password to log in.
Safety/Security: Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. As an alternative, you can create a "class account" that all students can access. Share your panorama on the web in the interactive viewer. Embed it into your blog or website using the embed code.
Possible uses: Create panoramic pictures for blog headers on a classroom blog. Students can plan and take pictures representing their town, area, school, or classroom. Use the pictures to create a panorama for the top of the page. Social Studies teachers may assign students to create panoramas of local history. Art teachers can also assign a design challenge for students to create fictitious panoramas from diverse images. Literature teachers can offer an option of creating a “setting panorama” or “thematic panorama” as a project for visual/spatial students. Of course you will want them to explain their design choices in terms of the literary work.
TeachersFirst Edge Tool: For SLIGHTLY adventurous technology users. This site allows you to create flashcards, and includes sharing and group capabilities. Many teachers will be able to navigate this free site very easily. Enter vocabulary terms and definitions as well as any html (web page language), such as images and charts to create electronic flashcards and quizzes for word study to use in language or other content areas. Create individual sets of flashcards, or invite others to interact and learn the same words. Teacher or students can create groups to share word lists. As with other collaborative tools, the revision history is easily accessible. See this example flashcard list . This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 10072
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the free site easily. Membership asks for an email, but email verification is not needed to start using the site. Sharing with friends for collaboration does require the sending of an email invitation however. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. It is recommended to keep a list of email passwords and logins for students who forget.
Explore the guided tour to learn an overview or find answers to specific use questions. Save your "sets" and decide whether you want them to be completely public, just for you personally, or shared with a "group." Create your own groups for each class or subject. Publish your cards for others to use. Published sets can be altered to create a new and personalized set.
Possible Uses: Teachers in lower grades will want to create cards their students can use and perhaps have more techno-savvy help with the process. Content and English teachers may choose to set up their own network of users. Learning support teachers could suggest that their students create their own flashcard sets to assist learning of the concepts. Use the interactive whiteboard or projector for quick flashcard or electronic testing using your sets as a whole class or in small groups in the classroom. Collaborate with other teachers to create useful sets for all to use. Rotate responsibility each marking period among student groups in your class to create a set for each chapter/unit/week for the rest of the class to use as review. Give a special award (or bonus points) for the most creative, complete set that marking period.
This is a TeachersFirst Edge Entry for ANYONE who wants to know more about new technologies. No special skills needed. Watch and learn. If you are embarrassed to say that you don't know what all the "new web 2.0" terms are all about, this one is for you (and probably for your students' parents, as well). Common Craft uses a very simple, visual method of explaining all the latest technologies so that anyone can understand, using short video clips narrated by a positive and respectful voice. The next time you hear someone talking about RSS feeds or some other new doo-dad, stop here first so you will know what they are talking about. Did you think you were the only one who did not know? Fear not. This site has incredible popularity because there are LOADS of people quietly questioning -- just like you. Videos require Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.. 8729
In the Classroom: Start by looking at "Most Viewed" and "Most Popular Right Now," but don't be afraid to search for other topics that have you wondering. You will definitely want to make this site a Favorite and tag is as "professional" information to keep you informed. Share it on your teacher web page to help out your parents, too!
Teacher's First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Want a slicker way of finding creative commons pictures (pictures you are ALLOWED to use without copyright problems, simply by giving credit)? Compfight searches flickr pictures and finds those that can be used in other activities and projects. Enter text or tags, and compfight does the rest, providing thumbnail images for you to choose from. 10280
In the Classroom: Skills required: Users need to be able to use good search terms to find the best pictures possible as well as knowing where to save images on their computer. Be sure users know that credit must still be given to the person who took the picture and their name must appear wherever the image is used. Be sure to use Compfight correctly by changing the settings at the top. For students using images, it is recommended that the word "only" appears next to Creative Commons, the word "On" for Seek Original, and the word "On" for Safe Search. An image showing these settings can be found here.
Safety/Security: No login or registration is required. Be sure students understand what is and is not permissible due to copyright and how Creative Commons allows some extra uses. Students must give credit to the owner of the image.
Classroom use: Use in the classroom any time that an image is needed for projects, even if it is not put on a website for others to see. Be sure students are aware that any time another person's image is used, they must give full credit for it, even if that owner cannot see it. Student groups can use Compfight to collectively find the best image to use for a project. Have students create a multimedia presentation using Voicethread reviewed here. Voicethread allows users to narrate their collection of pictures. For example, students studying renewable energy can use compfight to find images of various renewable energy sources, then explain them on Voicethread. Teachers can collect images for use on their interactive whiteboard for sorting activities (monocots and dicots, producers and consumers, etc).
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for the more adventurous technology user. The Washington Post offers this short-term opportunity to create your own campaign interview. Begun in September, 2006, the project invites you and your students to create a video interview using the downloadable question "footage" they provide of an interviewer and insert your own video of the responses. You may submit your completed video back to the Post's site. After a few weeks, the Post will allow you to see others' work and comment to each other.
This would be a great activity to teach video editing, but more importantly to teach about interviewing, political "message," and the election process.
Although this activity was designed prior to the 2006 election, the video clips will work for most any election. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 6947
In the Classroom: As a class activity, you may not want to upload your resulting videos but instead share them in class, depending on your district policies about posting student work to the web. Certainly, you will want to keep student work anonymous. Tech skills needed: ability to download and upload, locating or creating video clips of responses, use of Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, or similar video-editing software, management of larger files, proper citation of sources.
Find great curriculum materials that would be perfect for students to use on standalone computers for individual students or for group and class work using an Interactive Whiteboard or projector. View the "Featured Resources" section or search the variety of subjects listed in the "Subjects" area. View the "Online Resource Library" to find games, quizzes, animations, and videos in every subject area. Search using specific search terms as well. No registration is required to use materials. 11597
In the Classroom: Allow students to choose and use activities to enhance and improve their learning of classroom material. Here are a couple of examples of Whiteboard tools: Whiteboard quiz generator and Whiteboard quiz generator 2 team. Be sure to use resources where students are manipulating the interactives and using the resources for their learning. These resources are best used when they are student centered (student chosen and student run) instead of an activity the teacher performs for the class.
Wondering what Google Docs are? Check out this short video, it is under 3-minutes. Instead of attaching a document to an email, attach an email to a document. Want to learn more? Take a look at this video. There is a link provided to embed the video (perhaps on your class web page when you introduce Google Docs?) . The site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 9997
In the Classroom: View this video for both professional and personal use. Administration could share this video with staff during in-service, a great way to collaborate! See more info on ways to use Google Docs in the TeachersFirst review here.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for ANY technology user. Dabbleboard (still in beta) allows you to make whiteboard drawings and graphic organizers in an online space you can share with others. Since more than one computer can "work on" the whiteboard at a time, students in multiple locations can add to the board at the same time -- or come back to a saved board to add to it later. The whiteboard includes freehand drawing, basic shapes (some that even pop in when you come close to drawing that shape), text tools, and simple colors. You can also upload images, drag and resize anything you draw or type, etc. If used as a whole-class activity, such as on an interactive whiteboard, you can save it by clicking SHARE, copying the URL so you can put the link on a class wiki, teacher web page, or blog so students or the class can revisit and change it later. The tool requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site (free), but only if you wish to be able to SAVE dabbleboards. You can share them in real time without joining, but they are lost once you quit. Joining requires an email address. Use your memberships email or check school policies before allowing students to sign up using email. Another option is to create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Once you join, watch the quick video tour or play with the tools. Be sure you can locate tools to draw, resize, delete, drag, and group/ungroup items. Try uploading an image (make sure you have the RIGHTS to use it!). Your uploaded items remain in your library for later use. Note that to add text you simply click in the whitespace and start typing. It is easier to change text size and color BEFORE typing. To keep a board, simply click NEW. The old board will become part of your library at the left of the screen.
Safety concerns: Once shared, any dabbleboard can be seen and altered by others who know the URL. You will not have any record of who makes changes, so student-to-student "vandalism" is possible. Do not make student drawings "public" unless this is within school policies. Clicking "Make public" will add that dabble board to the public library. Others can copy any "public" work. Note that sharing by URL does NOT make a board public unless you click "make public."
Ideas for using this tool: Assess prior knowledge as you start a unit by generating a class dabbleboard. Save it under your class/teacher account to re-access throughout the unit, adding new topics and content. Make the URL available from your class web page for students to use as review or for learning support teachers to reinforce what has happened in class. Have student groups map out the content of projects. Encourage visual prewriting for the students who "think in pictures." Have students create review organizers or drag and drop activities to share with classmates. Brainstorm together over time or distance by letting students add ideas from home or collaborating from another school. Save your visual notes from a faculty meeting to reopen next time. Allow students to use a dabbleboard as their visual during speeches. Map the sequence of steps in a chemical reaction. Then share the URL for absent students to "see" what happened in class. Annotate design principles directly on top of an uploaded image or have students submit their own analysis of an image by sending you the URL for their dabbleboard. Have young students use a dabbleboard to draw out ideas before they can even write entire sentences. This one has endless possibilities!
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for the more adventurous technology user. Delicious is a social bookmarking tool. Your high school students (and maybe you?)have probably been using it for a couple of years. Keep your Favorites (bookmarks) on a web page where you can access them from any computer, organize them by "tag" (keyword), and make them public or private. You can share them with others or search for others' choices by tag, as well, as long as the "owner" made them public. You must join to set up an account with a valid email, then you can download a toolbar or make an "Add to my Delicious" link on your links bar so you can add sites as you find them. Many school districts block this site, unfortunately, because the "What's Hot" links available from the Delicious homepage may lead to inappropriate content. Sometimes automated filtering systems therefore block the entire site. 7011
In the Classroom: If you can access the site from school, tag links by the units you teach or by assignment so students can access the public side of your Delicious page and use the links to complete assignments. If you are a truly inspiring teacher, they may even add some of them to their own delicious accounts. Unless your school specifically permits user profiles and accounts for students, do NOT encourage them to set up these accounts from school. If they do, use pseudonyms.
Another possible use is for collaborative projects. If students have their own accounts, they can "collect" links for a group project with a shared tag so others can access them. You may have to help those who have less experience with web tools, and you must be careful about equity issues such as home Internet access. Using a single teacher account IN class prevents these concerns. Another plus: you can add to your Del.icio.us from any inservice you attend and NEVER lose the links!
Tech skills needed: developing a system of tagging that will facilitate sharing and searching (look to see how others do it), adding a link to your links bar, copying the URL of the public side for students to use.
Teachers First Edge review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Use diagrammr to make a diagram or mind map by simply typing text. Diagrammr uses your sentences to diagram the sentences into a map for you. Once created, change the layout size or embed easily into a blog, wiki, or site. Create as many diagrams as needed without needing to register. Here is a sample created by the Teachers First’s editorial team: . 10264
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Use short, declarative sentences as you build your diagrammr. The image is updated as each sentence is added. When finished, click the text links below the diagram to delete, edit, or embed. Simply copy the code to embed into a site. Users need to have knowledge of embed codes and how to use them in their wiki, site, or blog. You can also share the diagram by Bookmarking and/or copying the actual URL.
Classroom uses: As soon as students can read, you can use this site to help them interact with and organize ideas. Use this application for simple mind mapping of important ideas, constructing points of a short story, or identifying main points of passages for a visual representation of the connections. Try this tool to generate a “main idea” statement or to map the basic points of paragraph development. Wrap up a lesson by having the students create a "diagram of the day" (the main points of the lesson). Students can use this site to map ideas in passages of a textbook. If each student or group maps a specific passage, ideas from chapters can be seen visually. Share students’ products on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to include the links to student-created “diagrams” on a class wiki or web page so students can use them for review. If your students have Internet access outside of class, assign them to create a simple diagram of an assigned reading as homework and email you the URL for their work.
Teacher's First Edge Review: for slightly to extremely adventurous technology users, depending on how much you use it. This interactive social bookmarking and collaboration tool does so much more than any ordinary social tool! There is something here for everyone! It is a research tool, knowledge-sharing community, and social information network all rolled into one neat web-based package. So much more advanced in its capabilities that its creators prefer it be called "social bookmarking 2.0."
Setting this "social bookmarking 2.0" above the rest is the educational use possibility. As a teacher, you have the chance to apply for an educational account. There is an online application to be filled out here. and the Diigo team should respond within 48 hours, contact the website if they do not do so. The education account allows a teacher to create student accounts without emails, enhanced privacy and security, fewer adds, and collaboration and sharing with other teachers (great for teamed educators!). To get more ideas on the potential education uses of this site, see this SlideShare powerpoint here.
While all of this potential could sound a little overwhelming to a technology newbie, this site can be used as a basic bookmarking tool to start and gradually the user can ease into more advanced and interactive features. The site can be used to store bookmarks (obviously), highlight parts of sites, add stickie notes to parts of websites, pictures, screen-shots, documents, audio, and more. It allows you to do group based collaborative research. It is cloud based and just like other social bookmarking sites can be organized by tags. Additionally, there are messaging, group creation, and search features within the website. All in all this is one extremely neat tool to use on the web!
Whether you are the "play to learn" type or the "follow the directions" type of user, this site holds something for both, and for all of us in between the two extremes. There is an optional toolbar installation. This is not necessary to use the site, but once you start using it and love it, you will want the toolbar. The features are wonderful! It goes beyond simple bookmarking and adds options like highlight, capture, send, read later, comment, search bar and Diigo message options. You decide your own level of use and desired tools to be shown on the bar. If choosing not to install the toolbar, then there is an applet called Diigolet that will be used in its place. It is not as strong a tool as the toolbar, but will work well if the toolbar installation is off limits on school computers. Check our sample group. 11373
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: This site requires email addresses that need to be verified to start a non-educational account. However, if you create an account and fill out an application for an educator account, you can add students without the need for personal emails. The application can be found here. To read a little more on the special features of Diigo for Education check out the FAQ here. To get the basic idea of how you can use this site, it is a good idea to check out: here. You will find a tutorial on the uses of Diigo. Beyond the basics of all website navigation, locating desired areas of the site through the links (top right of the screen) and folders (close to the top left of the screen), there is not much more skill needed. If you venture into creating your own groups or uploading files from your computer, you will need to be able to locate files. This is a "click and search" within your computer or other chosen folders. If choosing not to view the tutorial, feel confident that the more you use and "play" with Diigo, the more you will learn and love about its uses.
Safety/Security Concerns: Currently, this should be completely accessible from schools. While students will need an email accounts for ordinary sign up, if you create your account before using this in class and apply for the education account, this can be avoided completely. This should be accessible in any district, however if not check out our teacher's first Edge tips to work out the use of this site in your school.
Possible uses: Where to begin? There are so many applications and possibilities for this site! How many times have we heard as educators who assign group project, "But I couldn't get to his or her house to work on it?" Too many! Stop that comment and many others similar to it by using Diigo! Assign students to a topic and allow them to interact online. The research and conversations created through highlighting and annotating what they read can greatly enhance both their research skills and their online interaction on academic level skills. Or, use the site to post discussion assignments on specific articles or even parts of articles using the highlighting tool. Find a relevant article to your subject, highlight the part that you want students to read. (If students are younger keep it short, this helps to reduce the intimidating reality of too much information for kids.) Attach a stickie note with a discussion question for the students. Have them comment on the link in a "class discussion" as an outside of class assignment. If you are fortunate enough to have all students with computer access in your class and at home, such as in one to one laptop program schools, you can use this essentially to run your class. Post assignments, post readings, science teachers - post online interactive labs, and more. The site even allows students to submit work via the comment.
Teachers First Edge review: For moderately adventurous technology users. Use DoInk to create original artwork, animations, and even collaborate with others. Feel free to use elements from others artwork in your own creations. Download your creations to your computer or upload to a social networking site such as Facebook. Use this free resource to unleash creativity. 10127
In the Classroom: Skills required: Create a login with your email. Click "Create" to begin. Use the commands along the top to add text or images, draw, color, and create animations. Drag elements from other drawings to yours. Save your creations either in your account, or download directly to your computer. Listen to the video tutorials created by Do Ink as well as other users on how to best use the tools.
Safety/security: Creations can either be marked private and therefore hidden from the rest of the world. If marked public and commented upon, creations can be viewed on the main page. Be sure to check with district policies concerning posting of student work online and student registration with emails. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Consider creating a class account for student use. All students would have access to the creations made in the one account. Be sure to spell out what is considered appropriate and also thought of as destruction of content. Though the main page shows contributed content, reviews of the site have shown no inappropriate content. Teachers should be wary though and check the public page frequently.
In the classroom: Use DoInk for any creative work. Create animations of any concept including Math, Science, etc. Draw mitosis, the parts of a cell, or creating fractions from an object. Use the art commands or animations to show a process such as cell division, retell a story, make an animation or cartoon about a writing prompt, and many others. Allow students time to make their own avatars. Learn about niche and habitat by creating artwork that depicts the personal niche and habitat of each student. Create animations for historic figures to tell their stories or for literary characters to explain their motivations and inner thoughts. Animate processes such as the water cycle or make a whole-class animation of the life cycle of a plant. Begin a drawing of a cell and allow other students to collaborate on its creation.
Teachers First Edge review: For slightly adventurous technology users wanting a simpler way to create a drawing! Find easy to use tools to create sketches and drawings. Easily share your creation. No need to register. Easy to use tools make this drawing program fun. Completed drawings can be shared instantaneously by URL or through various social sites, such as Facebook, Delicious, and more. The instant sharing feature makes this tool especially useful. 10910
In the Classroom: Skills required: Users must be willing to play and play again! Use tools for thin, medium, or thick lines. Change colors of the pen by clicking on the black square and choosing a different color. Don't like what you have changed? Click the undo button (or the redo if you want to go back again!) Add text to the drawing by clicking the text button, enter the text, and then click the cursor at a place in the drawing where you wish it to appear. Use the eraser to remove certain areas of the drawing. Be sure to note: there IS an undo button! Click the share button to share as a URL or on facebook, twitter, and other applications including embed to place the code on a wiki, blog, or other site. Users must be able to manage using embed codes on the site of their choice.
Safety/security: Drawings submitted by the public do appear on the start page of this site. Visit these from time to time to determine whether there could be inappropriate artwork visible. Users can create directly without any need for registration or logins. Want to keep a picture version of the creation? Take a snapshot using the print screen function on PC or the snapshot in Mac (use apple/shift/4.)
In the classroom: Use slides of drawings to show any major concept. In History, show battlefronts in specific wars. Create drawings of material learned in science such as bonding of atoms, DNA structure and replication, food chains and webs, and physical laws. Use in solving Math problems as a physical whiteboard. Use with students to describe their day or specific emotions. If you are fortunate enough to have laptops or handheld devices such as iPod Touches, use this tool for a quick formative assessment by asking students to sketch their understanding of relationships between concepts (concept map) or a diagram of a science concept such as what is happening inside a volcano. Students can share it by URL, Twitter, or whichever social networking/bookmarking service is available in your school. Draw for understanding!
TeachersFirst Edge Review: For moderately adventurous technology users. Looking for more than just flashcards? Find a whole learning system in this free resource. Interact with others and create "study groups." Study with classmates online or download or print cards for offline study. Create either private or public cardboxes. Use a learning scheduler to personalize the use of the flashcards. Create individual sets of flashcards, or invite others to interact and learn the same words. Teachers or students can create groups to share word lists. As with other collaborative tools, the revision history is easily accessible.
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In the Classroom: Skills required: Sign up for free using an email address (verification not required.)
To use: Click on "Your cardboxes" to create a new flashcard set. Enter a card set name and description, add tags for better searching, and set privacy, sharing, and joining permissions. Click "Create" to begin. Use the flashcard tab to add flashcards to the set. Add images or videos to your flashcards as well. Use the "Learning group" tab to view members. Create discussions using the "Discussion" tab. The "Overview" shows the number of flashcards in the set and the learning progress. Import or export any flashcard information, print, change settings, invite learners, or create a test easily using the right hand menu. Click "Learn" in a bright green button to begin learning from flashcards. Use the tools of this system to learn by a schedule, review only unknown cards, or randomly sort cards. Hints on how to schedule and extra controls to switch up learning make this system extraordinary.
Safety/Security: Membership asks for an email, but email verification is not needed to start using the site. Sharing with friends for collaboration does require the sending of an email invitation, however. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. It is recommended to keep a list of email passwords and logins for students who forget. Be sure to spell out settings needed for your classes such as keeping study groups to your school only and ramifications for not following rules.
In the classroom: Teachers in lower grades will want to create cards their students can use. Students may perhaps need more techno-savvy help with the process at first. Content and English teachers may choose to set up their own network of users. Learning support teachers could suggest that their students create their own flashcard sets to assist learning of the concepts. Use the interactive whiteboard or projector for quick flashcard or electronic testing using your sets as a whole class or in small groups in the classroom. Collaborate with other teachers to create useful sets for all to use. Rotate responsibility each marking period among student groups in your class to create a set for each chapter/unit/week for the rest of the class to use as review. Give a special award (or bonus points) for the most creative, complete set that marking period. This learning system can be used for any content and is easily customized for any age group. Be sure to share sets with techno-savvy parents to assist their students at home, as well. The easiest way might be to provide links on your class web page.
Teachers First Edge Reviews: For adventurous technology users. Take brainstorming to a whole new level, including easy collaboration with others. Use Edistorm to place sticky notes on a shared whiteboard. Use Edistorm's free version, though all brainstorming "storms" are public. Use their paid service to maintain private "storms" in your own space. All new registrants receive a 30 day private room free, but to remain private you would need to pay their fee. Edistorm goes above and beyond a simple sticky whiteboard by providing "Idea Votes" to find "Top Ideas." As you enter information on your sticky, new suggestions pop up along the bottom. Use this phenomenal aspect of Edistorm as suggestions by their "Idea Bots" may take you closer to your goal. Revisit "storms" as they are saved which adds more perspectives when viewing later. Let others' ideas incubate a bit and return to see what they have added. 11151
In the Classroom: Skills required: Create an account using an email though verification is not required. Begin to create a "storm" easily. Enter the name of your storm, choose from the privacy options, add a description, and invite users to begin (members or by email). Type on the stickies and when entered, they will appear on the wall. Drag them across the screen wherever you want them. Be sure to check out the stickies that "appear" along the bottom. Edistorm will suggest new stickies that might be used on your wall. The center sticky on the screen will drive the "smart" suggestions. If Edistorm's suggestions are taking you away from your goal in your description, then move another sticky into the center spot or close the lower area. Use the viewfinder to see where all your stickies are located. Group related terms by aligning together and color-coding them. Use the "Idea votes" for contributors to choose the ideas that you like the best. Simply drag a vote to the appropriate sticky. Click on the tab "Top Ideas" to view those that have been voted more often. Click on "All Unrated" to view all those that have not been voted on (great idea if you may have missed one.)
Safety/security: Students must have individual accounts (email required) to see their user names in this collaborative space. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. If not using a private account, all projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online. Written permission is always a good idea.
In the classroom: Consider creating a classroom account for use with your students. Require them to initial their stickies in order to know which idea is whose. Use for any decision-making activity such as "What kind of pet should I buy?" Also use to generate related vocabulary words about a topic by entering their first word and letting the "Idea Bots" suggest stickies along the bottom. This is especially good if they must find information for a presentation or learn about a particular theme or topic. Business classes can find a multitude of uses for this site. History classes could decide what they would do in a particular battle. Use aspects of novels to determine better outcomes (for example, what if Romeo and Juliet had used Edistorm first?) Many issue based or ethics based problems in Science and Health can also be organized, debated, and discussed in this space. Use class time to discuss why certain votes were given the way they were. Why are some ideas "Top rated" more than others?
Teachers First Edge Review: For serious technology users. Use Edmodo for microblogging in your classes. Use microblogging for real time discussions and responses from all students. Designed specifically for education, teachers can easily create a network for their classes where members can quickly respond to each other. Post assignment reminders, build an event calendar, and post messages to the group as well. View a video of how to easily use Edmodo. 10606
In the Classroom: Skills required: View a screencast demo of using Edmodo here. Users must be able to manage passwords and logins. Before using with a class, create a master administrator and also create two to three "fake students" to practice using Edmodo for a few weeks. Use this suggestion not only to understand how to use Edmodo but to also determine how it will be used in the classroom. Allow students to register by using your group code.
Safety/security: Allow students time in class to create their login and password. Consider standardizing user names in order to identify specific students. Create a master list of usernames and passwords for students who forget. Allow students to use avatars but require them to not change these in order to quickly identify a student's post in the future. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. As all comments are public, be sure to spell out what is considered appropriate and inappropriate ways to comment.
In the classroom: Use this service for class scribes to detail what has been learned that day. In Math, instruct scribes to discuss how to solve a problem. Better yet, allow students the opportunity to discuss how they solve specific problems to identify more than one manner of solving. During class presentations, use Edmodo to provide feedback to the presenter. During videos, students can maintain backchannel discussions in order to recap events, ask for clarification, or carry on meaningful discussion of the content. Use to create stories one line at a time with collaboration from the whole class. Ask questions from the days work to identify which concepts are causing problems with students and need to be reinforced. Post assignments in Edmodo. Students can access assignments and ask questions for clarification. Discuss environmental, health, or other social issues to identify other viewpoints and concerns.
A fantastic and complete site that tells you all you need to know about making digital stories with students. The wide grade level range shows the versatility of the site for use with any student based upon his readiness to tell stories. The site includes everything from goals to resources to the step-by-step process used to create the stories. An example is also shown. Adobe Acrobat is necessary to see some examples. 7094
In the Classroom: Fabulous for use with any subject that can be turned into a story. This is especially good for author projects, history reports, and adaptations of stories. It can be used by teachers from intermediate grades through college, depending on the topic, need, and abilities of the students.
Be sure to explore the many links to see how other schools and students have used digital storytelling.
Does the thought of using Elluminate to join a class or other session want to keep you away? Use this great resource from Elluminate for help in getting set up, participating, and even moderating your own sessions using an Elluminate virtual room. (The free Learning Central area of Elluminate allows teachers (and students) to conduct small, three-person sessions for free.) This techline site also offers the answers to common questions and problems you may face in using this resource. 10520
In the Classroom: Find many great professional development sessions that use Elluminate from Classroom 2.0 to our own OK2Ask sessions. Gain confidence before joining by looking at this great resource to become comfortable using the virtual room. Find experts in fields that can help in student understanding and connect with them using this wonderful tool.
Teacher's First Edge review: For advanced technology users. Upload a variety of documents in order to embed them easily in a website. Embedding simply allows you to fill a placeholder “space” with content that is actually saved on another web space. Embedded items appear to be part of their new “space,” but can be shown (embedded) simultaneously in many, many places. This site offers a free service that simplifies the upload process. Upload documents of the following types: word documents, excel, adobe pdfs, PowerPoints, and open document formats, as well as a variety of image formats. Also use this site to embed URL's in a site. 9920
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Users will need to be able to locate the files to be uploaded, as well as knowing the specific formats they are working with. Users must be able to manage a login to one of the services used for user verification: AOL, Google, Yahoo, or OpenID. This site does not require registration of its own to use Embedit.in.
Click to upload the file to the site. You will then need to sign in to one of the following accounts: AOL, Google, Yahoo, or OpenID. After signing in, you will be able to see the uploaded item and will be given the code to embed it into the site(s) of your choice. You will need to know how to paste the embed code at the site where the item will be included.
Safety/security concerns: The documents and images are hosted on the embedit.in server. If for student use, logins would be needed for each student to the services mentioned. Alternatively, a class account could be created on one of the services for use by all students with a login shared. Students should be cautioned that the login is for classroom use only and the know consequences of misuse.
Possible uses: Embedding items using a variety of services can be confusing. This free site makes the uploading and sharing of information through embed codes simple and easy. Students can easily upload information to a class wiki or blog for use by other students or to show their knowledge. Documents and images for presentations and contribution of content can be shared. As a teacher, you can provide items to be embedded in student blogs simply by giving them the embed code (copied into a word doc, for example). Student can choose the item they wish to blog about: a video, image, or other web content, and spend their time writing their response to it. Art teachers can share web-based, copyrighted images for student to critique, for example, since you are not TAKING the image when you embed it!
Sadly, as of December 4, 2009, Etherpad has announced that it has sold to Google and will fold in early 2010. If you are a loyal Etherpad user, read more here. TeachersFirst Edge review: for even slightly adventurous technology users. Ether pad is a tool for writing and collaborating in real time between up to 16 different contributors-- without erasing or overwriting each other's work! This tool starts up instantly, requiring no log-ins, tricky features or difficult tools. If you can type (and choose your favorite color), you can work on an EtherPad, a "pad" of virtual paper out in space on the Internet. The free version allows you to invite others to join you, either by sending them an email or, even easier, giving them the URL to your "pad." Here is a sample EtherPad, ready for you to add your own ideas for using EtherPad in the classroom! Unlike Google Docs, this tool does not require user accounts or email addresses, so even young students can participate in an EtherPad.
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In the Classroom: Skills needed: Nothing special. No log-in needed Simply click "Create a new pad" or click/paste the link for an existing one, and away you go. Enter a name for yourself in the box at the right of the pad and click the colored square to set a color for the highlighting on your typing. Type away. Delete, add, etc. To Save, click "Save revisions" and SAVE NOW. Be sure to click SHARE and copy the URL (Ctrl+C to copy), so you can keep it in your favorites or recorded somewhere. Or you can email it to yourself. It will be impossible to find your "pad" without it! Up to 16 others can work on the pad at the same time, and their work will show in their own colors. When you and your collaborators are done with your "pad," click "Export" to save it as a word doc or other option. Try looking at the different versions you can "revert" to as your group works, too!
Safety/Security Concerns:
Be sure you are within school policy to have students put work online. Have them use initials or a coded identifier instead of their real names. Each pad is public, if someone knows the URL, so outsiders could possibly add inappropriate content, but there is no display of "recent pads" or other ways someone could discover students' work. Students could also locate another student/group pad by URL and vandalize each other's work. Since changes can be reverted, all will not be lost.
Possible Uses:
Have students make multiple "pads" to comment and write on several class topics. Ex. students add responses to questions, evaluations of web links, or critiques of passages assigned for in-class perusal and discussion... create an Etherpad collaborative "study guide" for the passages. A social studies teacher could provide links to seven articles on Iran today and students respond, explaining what they think is important about each article (a "pad" for each). Use Etherpads to evaluate web site/blog authority or bias. Younger kids could write cooperative stories on the pad(s) to use vocabulary, grammar skills, practice punctuating dialog, etc. World language teachers could have students compose dialog or scenes to act out on video. In Reading class, have students collaborate to compose a "main idea" statement or summary of a written passage, including in higher level content area reading. Pass-the-pad: use the pads to "jigsaw" summaries or explanations of new content knowledge between expert groups. Keep a master list of the pad URLs so groups can access and change as they learn. Eventually publish the "final" version by exporting it. Cooperative writing groups can revise on drafts (copy/paste in from other docs) - then export the version the writer likes best. BRAINSTORM in real time or across times and places. Write cooperative lab reports. "Meet" with another class (or screenpal) using Skype to talk and Etherpad to write, making notes together of your plans for an upcoming event or working together to compose a story, letter, or script. Write cooperative stories or poems. Keep student council or club "minutes' and plans. Be sure to add your own ideas on the sample EtherPad made by our review team.
Teachers First Edge Review: For serious technology users. Use Evernote as a web application, on mobile phones, or download for use on your computer. Use this fantastic application for note-taking. Think of Evernote as a ubiquitous set of notebooks that are handy for you to add and read from ANY computer or web-connected device. Take snapshots of whiteboards, products, or whatever you like and upload them to Evernote. Search your uploads through the search function which will also search handwritten or printed text sections in photos and images. Sync everything through Evernote across all the platforms. Use Evernote to create notes and to-do lists and even clip entire Web pages. Use to manage passwords or even record audio. Everything added to Evernote is automatically synchronized across platforms and devices and made searchable. Evernote offers a free account as well as a premium paid version. Categorize and organize information using tags, note titles, and notebooks. Keep track of several projects with the “Notebooks” feature. Use the web version or downloadable version of Evernote to share notebooks with others. 10550
In the Classroom: Skills required: Users must create an account with username and password. When using Evernote, create and title your notebook and then organize that information further using tags. Download Evernote in order to add an extension to your browser window to do web clipping with a click of a button. Click "New" to create a new document in your notebook. Use the search function at the top and even save searches for later use.
Safety/security: Have sensitive information (such as passwords, etc.) on your Evernote notebook but want to share other parts? Simply highlight and right click to choose "Encrypt Selected Text" to remove from the page to be shared. Currently, export functions are limited and moving information from one format to another may be difficult. Users must create a login and password with an email address. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your younger students. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
In the Classroom: Consider creating a class account that can be used by all students. Spell out the use of the site and what is allowed, not allowed, and the penalties. Even though all students have the same login, create different notebooks for different tasks that students can use to upload information that can be shared by all. Create separate accounts for student groups who can then share their notebook with other groups. Use to snapshot and share links, documents, files, and pictures for any group project or class work. Whole class accounts can be used by a class scribe during class and accessed from home for review, etc.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for moderately adventurous technology users. Create and collaborate on Excel spreadsheets using this online tool. You have choices to create and edit using the actual Excel program (with macros enabled) or edit in your browser--a more secure option for those concerned about macros. A user can create or upload an excel sheet and share it with others as a read only OR editable sheet. No more need to email versions around and have multiple users adding and changing versions that become impossible to "merge." The free membership seems just fine for schools. See a sample by logging in as "tf@tf.com" with password "test." You can even add to the TF sheet to play with the tools. Or click the "demo" log in to experiment with sheets created by other curious users like you. 8565
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site--free. It requires an email address, though no validation via email is needed, so there is no "test" to be sure the email works. Our reviewers tried a "fake" address, and it worked. Create and save sheets using the browser edit mode (or Excel--see security note above). "Invite" others to work on the same sheet. Remember to SAVE. Some pros and cons: Our editors using the browser-based editor could not find out WHO made changes and no apparent way to "revert" the file if someone messes it up. The site home page says it is possible to revert to a previous version, but this may only be when using the full Excel program. You CAN also make copies (versions) manually.
How to use it? Your students can maintain a single set of lab data for analysis of an experiment repeated by several students. They can also maintain a simple flat-file database of information, such as flora and fauna observed in a plot of land at your school or facts about inventors or authors. Anything you can do in Excel, you can do in Xcellery. You can also email an invitation to "real" people to join in.
Some safety suggestions: unless your school uses student email addresses, do not allow students to set up individual accounts. Make a few "class" accounts that students can use, but make YOUR account the controlling one for all the sheets. That will allow you to change access at any time to "read only," such as when the deadline for work has passed. Be sure to demo how to use the site on a whiteboard or projector the first time for uniformity of use. Secondary students working on group projects, club fundraisers, etc. can also benefit from this tool as long as they stay within school acceptable use policies in using it.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for the more adventurous technology user. This site allows you to upload and share images in an online location. It is not specifically an education site, so it has the drawback of possibly including "inappropriate" content. As a teaching tool, you can upload picture collections and "tag" them with a unique keyword so students can access them for various activities, such as creating sequenced "comic strips," making annotated posters, including photos in blogs, and other electronic projects. This is a great way to make the photos accessible for the students to use. Note: use the DIRECT URL to the specifically-tagged photos ("photosynthesisproject") or create a collection for each project. 6952
In the Classroom: Join the site for free (and make sure you turn OFF all the "send me emails" features). Place photos online for all the projects you expect to do with students. They will remain in place for future years. If you wish to, remove them from "public" viewing when you do not need them. Note: You MUST be the actual copyright holder to upload photos to this site, so use your digital camera, NOT downloaded photos from the web! Skills needed: taking and saving digital pictures, location and upload of photo files, "tagging" them so students can a find them, copying the URL of the tagged group or of the collection, changing the attributes of your uploaded pictures, finding other tools on TeachersFirst or elsewhere to use the photos.
This search tool is great for finding and editing Creative Commons photos from flickr, a popular photo-sharing site. Most importantly, the site provides the attribution information for you to copy/paste into any products where you USE the flickr photos, thus practicing ethical use of electronic images. FlickrCC provides two easy ways to edit the photos. The In house option has several basic editing features such as cropping and adding text. Right clicking on a Windows computer or command clicking on a Mac allows a user to save the photo. The Picnik option opens the picture on the Picnik website. The site offers more in depth features such as Sharpen and Red-Eye. The Share & Save tab has several choices including saving to your computer and sharing on several popular sites such as Picasa and Facebook. Of course, you will want to copy the attribution information into any projects you create! The link to the Creative Commons website explains the licensing of each photo. 10927
In the Classroom: FlickrCC provides a great forum for students to understand how pictures can be use to communicate information. Students can find pictures about a particular topic, then make simple changes to the photo using the In house or Picnik option. Share comparisons of original and altered photos to show the impact on meaning and emotions the image portrays. Art students can use these images to create collages, design studies, and more, all with attribution of their sources. Use images as blog prompts or illustrations in student projects. Find images of locations you are studying in world cultures or geography class. Find images to use in student online projects using Bookemon, reviewed here or Voicethread, reviewed here. Keep this site as a reference on your class web page for any time students are creating wikis. Blogs, or electronic projects where they need images. They can find just the right picture with CC licensing, and you can require them to include the citation provided!
Teacher's First Edge Review: For serious technology users. Want to use video, but do not have access to most sites? Create your own free video site with Fliggo. Allow only the users you wish. Users can upload to your Fliggo site and comment on each other's videos. Have complete control of the privacy of your site and create for the use of you and your students. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 10023
In the Classroom: Skills required: Ability to create and manage a site. Before creating the site, have a purpose for your site. After creating an account, describe your site, create a site that functions as a community, video blog, or producer site, and set privacy from moderated, open, or closed.
Safety/security: This site includes content contributed by the general public and may not be suitable for the classroom. You may want to advise students to not click on the "Popular sites" link at the top. And discuss consequences, if the rules are not followed. Manage the classroom with checklists, goal/progress sheets, and completing spot checks on student work. Adding members to your site requires an invitation by email. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Be sure to discuss with students the proper use of commenting and leaving positive feedback.
Classroom use: Create an environment of video sharing and commenting of student created videos. Identify You Tube videos you wish to show in class by importing from You Tube or Blip.tv. Students can comment on these as well without You Tube comments appearing with the video. Have students upload videos from projects for review throughout the year. Have students create videos as culminating projects for a science unit, historical reenactment, news reports about a piece of literature, or many other options! Share the video clips on your interactive whiteboard or projector.
Teachers First Edge Review: For adventurous technology users. Create flowcharts easily with this free resource. This is not just a graphic organizer but more like a simple flowchart that allows great possibilities for use. Here is an example chart created by the TeachersFirst review team.
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In the Classroom: Skills required: This resource is currently in Beta. Request an invite (which took only a day to receive.) Users must be able to play to find the best way to create their flowchart. Learning of tools is easy with a little play. Users must decide the best use and remember to create templates for use. Users must manage the saving of flowcharts and the exporting to other formats. If using in another site, users should be able to use embed codes.
To use: Create a new flowchart by using a blank template or one of the stored templates shown. Click the folders under "Cliparts" to find objects to place in the flowchart. The "General" folder holds boxes and arrows to get started. Drag an object to your building space. Double click on it to add text and click "Set" to place on the box. Objects will remain small, though clicking on it brings up boxes to drag to the required size. Use the right-hand side toolbar, to draw items directly in the workspace. Click on an object desired and draw that item effortlessly. Change colors and other parameters of the object with the on screen toolbox. Save the chart, save as a revision to go back to past versions, or even save as a template. Export flowcharts as PDF documents or even images. Print your flowchart easily or generate an embed code to use in a blog, wiki, or other site. Record a chart to show the process of the flowchart as it unfolds.
Safety/security: Sign up with an email address is required. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Consider creating a class account and have groups of students work on flowcharts for specific portions of the class work (each group could work on a different part.) Print flowcharts or download for easy sharing or flowcharts to provide simple step by step directions.
In the classroom: Use this resource for showing how a scientific process works, planning a how-to or step-by-step directions for a piece of writing, or documenting events leading up to a war or other historical event. Create a template to show the process of scientific review of articles or other writing types. Require students to enter their information in the sections of the template prior to actual writing of the assignment for a more effective way to plan their work. Use a scientific process flowchart to show how to use inquiry to solve a problem and learn information. Provide a flowchart of how students should learn unknown information. Even the simplest tasks become easier to follow using a graphically constructed flowchart.
Invent your own font with this free design tool. Fill sections of a grid pattern with various geometric shapes and build your own unique letter forms. Download your creation and it is immediately added to your computer's font library. There is an option to share your type and view impressive work made by other users in the on-line gallery. If you are looking for interesting font for a digital design project, movie, website or report you will most likely find it here. You must create an account with Fontstruct in order to access the “FontStructor” tool, post comments on their live chat, or view the on-line gallery. Registration requires and email address. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
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In the Classroom: Develop divergent thinking by asking students to produce a font that serves as a visual definition of a word. Demonstrate this tool on an interactive whiteboard---or have a student do so! Have your class choose an adjective and then create a typeface that imbues the same feeling or sense of the word's meaning. Digital design specialists can use this site to introduce the digital world of font and the way type face can reflect mood. Math teachers may find the grid layout and geometric shapes useful for teaching geometry or fractions. Inspire writers during Poetry Month to create a font in which to display their own original writing. Share results in a visual display around your school. Art teachers will love the possible challenges they can issue for students to create original fonts. Check with your administrator to be sure that your school allows students to set up individual accounts on on-line sites or access websites with a live chat room. Consider the option of establishing a single class account using your memberships email address. Fontstruct does ask that if use the font from another user that you credit the original designer in your final product.
Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Add voice to your pictures easily and effortlessly with this free site. Add your picture easily to Twitter, Facebook, and an unbelievable number of other sites. Don't see your site? Use the URL link or embed code to add your Fotobabble where you see fit. How easy is it? Upload your picture (you can choose whether it is public or remains private.) Add your voice and review quality. Share by clicking on the option you require or copy the embed code or URL to share. 10820
In the Classroom: Skills required: Users need to be able to locate and upload pictures. Use an attached or internal microphone to add voice to the picture. Manage the final product by email, adding to the vast array of services listed, or using the embed code. A username, password, and email address is required to create an account (email verification is not needed.) Students must have individual accounts (email required) or could use a single class account (one at a time) easily monitored by the teacher. For individual accounts, check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers.
You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Use a class account that is shared by all instead of using individual accounts.
Safety/security: Be sure that students understand to use appropriate and copyright free pictures. Check with your district policies about using pictures of or by students as well as using this service.
In the classroom: Use in any content area. Use to show and tell about a favorite animal, historical figure, place, or event, artists or musicians, scientists or technologies, characters from fiction, or how to play a specific sport (as told by the ball!) to name a few. Take pictures during a science demo and have students upload and speak as the science concept – or as Sir Isaac Newton or Louis Pasteur! Have students write stories and upload a photo of their story’s setting, reading their story aloud as viewers take in the setting. Try different options of storytelling: first person as an inanimate object, flashback, etc. Art teachers can have students upload a photo of recent artworks and narrate their technique or thoughts in creating the work. Speech/language teachers and ESL/ELL teachers will find that photos can promote oral language practice (and preserve a recording to demonstrate progress). A picture can SPEAK a thousand (or more) words!
Challenge your students' creativity and personal reflections about art: both their own and art through the ages. Use this site to CREATE their own videos with images from their own artwork, text, and video clips provided by the site. There are suggestions for structured video topics or you can suggest other ideas. The site provides clear, step-by-step instructions for students to complete their videos. The files can even be downloaded and played on any computer. Art teachers and computer teachers alike will love the possibilities of this project-site. If your students maintain electronic art portfolios, they will certainly want to add a video from this online production studio. REQUIRES FLASH!! Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.. 7213
In the Classroom: Demonstrate the skills and steps on an interactive whiteboard or projector, or simply allow your "digital native" students to work through the directions. Since no two computers are alike, it is strongly recommended that you or a student-assistant try a "practice run" to make sure your computers have all the right plug-ins and permissions. Then watch your students go to town!
Share the products on a projector or burn them to CD. We were unable to find information on the site about copyright and whether you have permission to share them on a web page.
This is a TeachersFirst Edge entry, though it is not difficult to use. Skills needed: drag and drop video elements, follow directions in Help, downloading files, unzipping and saving (directions provided)
Teachers First Edge Review: For somewhat adventurous technology users. Create amazing photo effects, animations, magazine covers, and more with this free site. Choose the effect, upload a picture, and save to your computer for use anywhere. Ads appear throughout this site. Be sure to warn students to only use the tabs along the top and choose the photo effects under each tab. 10254
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Users need to be able to find and upload a photo on their computer or find the direct URL of an image on the Internet. Younger students would need a lot of assistance navigating this site. Adjust the picture using the easy to use tools (experiment to master them). Once the effect has been applied, you need to know where you are saving the picture and how to give it a meaningful file name to be found later.
Safety/Security: Be sure to check district policy about using student pictures, though the web site does not “keep” them. If using pictures from the Internet, be sure to discuss copyright issues and approve pictures that students use.
Possible uses: Use these fun photo effects for creating interesting pictures for About Me information on blog and other sites. Use for pictures of lab events in science. These pictures can be incorporated into presentations or other multimedia products using online tools or PowerPoint. Students can dress as a historical figure, take and upload a picture, and use in classroom projects. Have students narrate their creative images using Voicethread reviewed here.
Be smarter and use smarter flashcards! Browse, use, or create flashcards for studying in a variety of courses from basic to advanced. Take flashcard creation one step further with this free site that not only uses collaboration in the creation of flashcards, but also chooses the next cards based upon correct/incorrect answers in order to move information from short to long term memory. Add explanation, links, and mnemonics to the flashcards. Create and join groups for creation and study of the flashcards. For an overview, watch the video tutorial to learn how best to use Funnelbrain. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 10100
In the Classroom: Skills needed: For moderately advanced technology users. Create an account with an email address and password. Verification of email is not necessary. Create a new group by finding an already listed school or adding your own. Create flashcards easily by entering the question, answer, explanations, and mnemonics in the appropriate tabs. Students can create a profile and join or create a group.
Safety/Security: You may want to prohibit or point out the links to advertising located along the side. This site allows others to comment on created flashcard sets. Some school policies prohibit such interaction, so be sure to check your school's Acceptable Use policy. You will want to discuss these features in the context of Internet Safety or establish specific written class rules and consequences for inappropriate comments given or received. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Alternatively, create a class account that has a global login and password that all students can access. Students would need to be cautioned against deleting or changing flashcards created by other students. Students would not be able to join groups using this option. All projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online. Written permission is always a good idea.
Possible uses: Create flashcards for students to study or have students create them as an assignment. Create the original questions of the flashcards and assign students to determine the answers, find links for additional information, and add hints and mnemonics to complete the deck. Have groups of students use the flashcards for study time and for critique of the flashcard deck creator(s.) No matter the topic or subject, this flashcard site has great uses for student learning. Use flash cards for terminology, test review, or reinforcement. Have students create and critique sets as the actual assessment, replacing traditional tests and quizzes.
Teachers First Edge Review: For moderately adventurous technology users. Visit the first virtual world with games that is devoted entirely to science. Choose to try the games as a tourist or register by creating your avatar and entering information including birthdate and email address. Email accounts must be verified to play the game. Check out the great other information on the site such as "Did you know?" or earn "Neurons" by answering science quizzes. Move through the game by clicking on the point you want your avatar to move. Find information from scientists along the way to help in your quests. Move through the areas and learn about health and the environment as you play quizzes and interact with materials. More games and interactives will be added to this site to offer new material. As players move through the game, a chat feature is available to chat with others. 11099
In the Classroom: Skills required: Students can play as a tourist but cannot save information from their quizzes and quests without registering. Check your school policies on whether students can be registered on this site and what information is permitted to enter. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Consider creating a class account(s) that students can play to move through the game for enrichment.
Safety/security: Student birthdate and email addresses are required to register for the game. Be sure to discuss this with supervisors or check school policy before entering such information. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” If the chat feature is used on this site, be sure to discuss what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behavior and the consequences.
In the classroom: In a health or environment unit, explore the different areas to find information, play in the lab, or answer quiz questions in the arcade and other areas. Use the information from the games to discuss information for students to help understand the world around them. For example, find the six hidden organisms in the body and then identify them as harmful or harmless. This opens discussion into beneficial bacteria and how diseases can be spread easily through a population. Use the information learned for further class discussion or individual research into the topic.
Teachers First Edge Entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. This tool allows you to create an interactive family tree. Once you are registered, you can easily create a family tree. You are able to include family member's birth-dates, death-dates, email addresses, pictures, video clips, and more. This site also has the capacity to create timelines for births, deaths, weddings, divorces, education, occupation, and other important events and information. The family tree and some of the other activities require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 9613
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: this site is fairly simple to use. Join the site (free) and log in. Registration requires an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Navigation of the site is simple. Click on Tree to start your family tree (or Timeline to use that free resource. For the family tree, arrows are provided to add family members. The arrows pointing up indicate a parent, arrows to the left or right are used to add a wife/husband or brother/sister, and arrows pointing down are used to add a son or daughter.
Safety/Security Concerns: This site allows users to set-up their family tree or timeline as PRIVATE. It allows you to control who can and can't view your profile, family tree, and other information. For more information about this feature, visit the Settings link (on the top right corner). Before you plan your family tree project, be sure to get parental permission.
Possible Uses: Use this site to create family tree projects in elementary or middle school classes. Have high school students create family trees as part of an immigration unit studying patterns in social studies classes. In science class, have students create fictitious "people" as they study genetics. With younger students, create a class timeline sharing important dates for individuals (i.e. birthdays) and class dates (field trips, tests, or other special events). Have students share their family trees on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to "advertise" this project on your class website (and newsletter, if applicable) so students have time to gather names, birthdates, and other information about family members. In world language classes, have student create a family tree using the correct vocabulary for relatives and talk about it as they share it on the interactive whiteboard. When researching famous people, reading biographies, or even reading literature have students create a family tree illustrating their discoveries about their famous person, writer, artist, musician, explorer, literary character, etc.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for the moderately curious technology user. Research verifies the power of graphic organizers in promoting strong thinking skills and comprehension for all ages. Gliffy is a FREE online tool for creating graphic organizers without purchasing ANY software. Individuals or groups can create the organizers or the class can create them together, such as in a brainstorming session on a projector. You can assign students to "map" out a chapter or story or assign groups to create study guides using this tool collaboratively. Your students are certain to enjoy this tool and be forced to THINK in the process. You can export the graphic organizers to a blog or "publish" them on the web -- all for free. See an example of a published diagram/organizer made by our editors for more ideas. 7125
In the Classroom: Skills needed: join the Gliffy site (free), play with the tools and toolbars to create diagrams, access help and FAQ to collaborate, publish, or embed diagrams in your blog or other web page. Easy to medium difficulty. Note: collaborators need individual email accounts to gain access. If your students do NOT have personal email, you may want to create group email accounts on Yahoo or GMail for which only YOU know the password and can log in for groups to work in class in order to avoid the safety and school filtering issues of student email access. This would also be a great tool for group projects in YOUR grad classes!
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: For moderately adventurous technology users (teachers) and most student users (with significant help in primary grades). Glogster EDU is a tool to create online multimedia "posters" that can incorporate all types of elements into a visual space: links, images, text, videos, music, and more. Your students will have multiple ways to express themselves and to learn from each other, making it easy for you to differentiate and engage each student.
The ad-free EDU community offered by Glogster is designed to alleviate the problems of inappropriate content and contact with "outsiders" not welcome in your class' electronic community. The EDU area provides classes advertising-free glogs and easy teacher monitoring of student work. Students can comment and interact within a "gated community" with education-friendly options for collaboration and learning. Remember those "All About Me" posters you used to make during the first month of school, or science fair stand-up tri-folds, or magic-marker-drawn visual aids for speeches? Translate 20th century "visuals" into the 21st century using Glogster EDU, extending your students' intellectual reach and mastering the media to incorporate new technologies and richer messages. Here is an example glog created by the TeachersFirst Edge team. 4733
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site (free). Premium service is available, but this review is for the free version. Registration requires teacher email. Once registered and confirmed by email, teachers can establish up to 200 student accounts without student emails. Take time to view "new glogs" within the EDU area to get some ideas. Skip making a profile, if you wish.
You can learn all about Glogster EDU and see student examples by scrolling down the home page to "Students Work," a collection of great videos (click the screens to play), and "Educational Resources." Don't miss several teacher-friendly, step by step tutorials in print and multimedia formats.
If you prefer to simply play, start by creating a glog to try out the tools (don't forget to name it). Keep it simple or add all the bells and whistles. Preview as you work or return later to complete and publish your Glog. Add ready-made graphics, images from files on your computer or by URL on the web, links (hyperlinked from text or other objects), text boxes or bubbles, backgrounds ("walls"), animated graphics ("vinyl and toys"), recorded audio, embedded video from SchoolTube or TeacherTube, uploaded media file, and much more. You can also "grab" video or audio from your computer's webcam and mike. [Our editors had some trouble "grabbing" video from a Mac using Firefox, so TEST in advance. A very responsive Glogster EDU tech crew tells us they are working to correct that glitch.]
Of course you will want to model and teach appropriate documentation of any sources of images and media you use and to use copyrighted works legally. If you limit access to your class only by keeping a glog "private," you can use copyrighted materials under Fair Use. YOU must limit the distribution of the URL, however.
When you are done working, decide whether the glog is "unfinished" or "finished" (and published), and decide whether it will be public or not. Share finished work with "friends" (classmates) in the Glogster EDU area or via URL and other social networking tools. You can access ALL your glogs and your students' glogs from your teacher dashboard, including the glog URLs. You can embed a glog in your class wiki or blog, making it easy to "collect" student glogs in one place. Watch the tutorials on embedding so you can learn how to adjust the size of the embed window and which codes work best for wikispaces.
Safety/security concerns:
Check school policies about posting student work on the web. Obtain written permission and notify parents about your exciting Glogster projects so you can share with them. Have specific rules about using social networking tools through Glogster, especially about "friend" and profile features available at log-in. EDU glogs are automatically "private." Teachers have access to see and administer student passwords (great for forgetful students!). Free accounts have "gobbledegook" user names for students, so keep a cheat sheet to help students log in with these odd "names." You have the choice to make student glogs "Unfinished private" - only teacher and creating student can see, "Finished Private" - only teacher and all students within classroom can see, and "Public" for all to see.
Possible uses: (in addition to those shown in the sample glog here) "visual essays;" digital biodiversity logs (with digital pictures students take); online literary magazines; personal reflections in images and text; research project presentations; comparisons of online content, such as political candidates' sites or content sites used in research (compared for bias); documenting science experiments or illustrating concepts, such as the water cycle; "Visual" lab reports; Digital scrapbooks using images from the public domain and video and audio clips from a time in history -- such as the Roaring Twenties; Local history features; visual interpretations of major concepts, such as a "visual" U.S. Constitution. Build a library of sample Glogs by you or by former students, then ask students to create their own as a new way to assess understanding: you could even provide links to images and raw materials they may use (especially if you have students who need extra scaffolding), and they can work with them to sequence, caption, and write about the pieces. After a first project where you possibly suggest "building blocks," the sky is the limit on what they can do. Even the very young can make suggestions as you "create" a whole-class glog together using an interactive whiteboard. Consider making a new project for each unit you teach so students can "recap" by visiting the glog long after the unit ends. Save student glogs from year to year as examples, possibly even awarding prizes for "best" examples. Have upper elementary or middle school students create "glogs for understanding" for "little buddies" two or three grades lower.
Teacher's First Edge Review: for moderate to advanced technology users. Use Go Animate
to create interesting and memorable
cartoon type presentations. Students will have fun unleashing their imagination and delivering a message through creative animation.
Flash is required. Get it from the
TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Here is a very simple animation example:
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In the Classroom: Skills needed: Create an account to login, but use the application right away (without waiting for an email confirmation). Video tutorials are available, and many functions are easy to figure out once you play with them. Choose from many templates or start with a blank screen. Create your cartoon using Saturday morning cartoon characters or a variety of other characters such as presidents, commercial characters, and many others. Add your images, such as faces or background pictures and customize additional characters, sounds, etc. Control length of sections, voices and sounds, and delete or add sections through the time line along the bottom. Save your creation easily and share to your favorite social or bookmark site; copy a link to share with others, or copy and paste the embed code into your wiki, blog, or website. Creations are saved in your account online and can be kept private or made public.
Safety/Security concerns: Use Go Animate as creators have recognized its broad use in education and have created this education portal separate from the non-K12 world. Caution: check student creations during the process. Students will need an email address to create an account. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Also check your district's policies on displaying and sharing student work. CAUTION! This site includes the ability for the general public to submit their own animations. Be sure to preview for content inappropriate for your classroom. You may want to limit use to whole-class activities or prohibit accessing the public portion of the site. The home page has loud music and links to many “public” animation projects, so firm policies and/or practices to avoid "exploring" these are vital.
Possible uses: Students can sum up debate ideas using animated characters or present simple concepts from researched material to introduce to the class. Students can tell book report stories, create fictitious stories or present ideas in a fun format. Challenge students to use this site to tell the history of political figures, historical figures, or historical areas. Use this site to teach about chemical properties, scientific figures or discoveries, or great moments in Science through animation. In language arts class, you can use this tool to apply concepts of narrative patterns or characterization. Teachers of gifted may want to assign students to create an entire animated series. ESL/ELL or world language students could create animations to practice their new vocabulary. Why not have students create a comic strip about their mom or dad for Mother's or Father's Day or honoring someone else special in their lives - - even the school custodian, nurse, or secretary!
Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Looking for the most from your search? Use Goofram to find the best of both Google and Wolfram alpha all in one place. View top Google searches using Safesearch as well as Wolfram alpha (which include definitions and abundant resources.) 11022
In the Classroom: Skills Required: This site is very simple to use. Simply type in the term you are searching and click “search.”
Safety and Security: No passwords, emails, or usernames are required. So this site is as safe as any other search engine. Just be sure students are aware of the consequences of misusing the search engine.
In the Classroom: Use Goofram the next time that you use search in your classes. Discuss the difference between each side of the screen where both parts appear. What is the advantage of Wolfram Alpha vs. Google? Use this site as you discuss how to search and use materials on the web. Practice showing different searches and aspects of the searches that are useful. Challenge students to use these sites for individual research projects.
TF Edge entry: If you have not heard about them, Google's online collaboration tools are a must for slightly adventurous technology users and for those in schools where students are allowed to log into their own accounts for web services. With Google Docs, users can create, edit, reformat, upload, and share documents they've created in WORD or other office applications. They can also look at their editing history. Perhaps the best feature is the ability to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets with anyone or with a selected group. Groups share editing capabilities, making collaboration much easier. Users can publish newly created, uploaded, downloaded, or revised documents and spreadsheets as well as making links to them on personal blogs. Easy directions and familiar-looking pages make exporting and importing documents simple; Google also helps users keep them organized. 8030
In the Classroom: A "tour" and simple to understand directions make this site easy to use. Have your students set up collaborative groups for projects, lab data, and more. Or set them up yourself, giving them specific passwords to access their "space." Skills needed: join Google Docs, take the tour, experiment with collaboration tools, upload and download files.
Users are normally invited to "join" via an email message. This may be problematic in the many schools that do not permit student email access at school. Note that notifications sent by Google Docs may also land in "junk mail" folders or be blocked by spam filters. We suggest that you experiment with a small group of students to determine what will work in your particular situation. One option is to set up the groups with the teacher as a "member" but have students work from home, using their personal email addresses, for group projects. Make sure you are protecting the safety of student work and identity and are within your school's Acceptable Use Policy.
Possible uses: Anything students can do on a single computer, they can do collaboratively on Google docs, accessing their work from any online computer. See this teacher forum for just a hint of the possibilities.
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: for any technology user allowed to install software. Bring the world into your classroom with Google Earth. This interactive view of the Earth (and more) is free for download. Find landforms, geographic locations features, pictures, and more from around the world using this satellite-powered software. As you spin the globe, you can tilt to view locations at an angle to show elevation, click to play a "tour" or "fly" from one location to another, or simply open tours and placemarker files created by others. Once you are comfortable, try making tours and placemarkers of your own. Note: this software uses more than the usual "bandwidth" to stay connected to the Internet while you are using it, so dial-up and slow connections will not work. Some schools block this tool because of the bandwidth needed, but teachers should not let this stop you from requesting this software to use in whole-class or group settings.
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In the Classroom: Skills needed: Permission and ability to download and install the free version. Use tutorials from this site to learn more, or try some Google Earth files from TeachersFirst's Globetracker's Mission to get a taste of what the program can do. Get started by exploring the different LAYERS available in the left side and searching a location you know. Locate and try the tools to drag, tilt, zoom, and even measure distance. Extensive user forums are available through the help menus.
Safety/security concerns: None. This tool is listed as "Edge" simply because it requires software download and installation (and may be blocked by some schools due to bandwidth demands). No log-in or memberships are required. Placemarker files created by you "live" on the computer where you make or save them and are not shared on the web. Note that your computer will ask whether you wish to save your “temporary places” (any places you have marked during a session) each time you close Google Earth. If many students use that computer, you may find you have a disorganized mess of saved places. Be sure to direct students to either name their saved places logically and file them into folders or NOT to save them to My Places! Students and teachers can create placemarker (.kmz or .kml) files and share them as email attachments, files on a USB "stick," or any other means you would use to share a file, just like a Word document.
Another practical tip: if students are using Google Earth on several machines at the same time, you may put a heavy load on your school network. Plan accordingly, perhaps having groups alternate their Google Earth time if it becomes sluggish.
Possible Uses: Use Google Earth to teach geography or simply give location context to class readings or current events, especially on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Ex. you can tilt to show the peaks scaled by Lewis and Clark or volcanoes that rise in the Aleutians. Have students show the locations of historic events or literary settings and create placemarkers with links to learn more. Placemarker text is editable by going to the placemarker’s “properties” or “info,” so students can enter the text description, place title, and any inks they want to include, such as a link to a certain passage of text, an image of a character, or news image/article for a current events map. Students who know html code can get even more sophisticated in what they include in placemarkers. Have students/groups create and play a “tour” of critical locations for global warming, a comparison of volcanoes, or a family history of immigration. Navigate the important locations in a work of literature using Google Lit Trips or search the web for placemarker files connected to civil war battles, natural resources, and more. Turn layers on and off to look at population centers and transportation systems. Teach the concept of scale/proportion using a tactile experience on an interactive whiteboard and the scale and measurement tools. See more ideas at the teacher-created Google Earth 101 wiki reviewed here. Even if you do not venture into creating your own placemarker files, there are many already made and available for use by teachers and students. TeachersFirst’s Globetracker’s Mission includes a weekly file to follow the Mission.
Google Earth, reviewed here, is a fabulous teaching tool. This participatory wiki (part of the larger "Teaching Hacks" wiki) walks educators step by step through the how-to and why-to of Google Earth (GE). Start with the two minute video, then click through the steps at the right. You are also invited to ADD to the wiki so other teachers can learn from you! The wiki includes curriculum ideas grade by grade (listed in text form). Since the wiki originated in the Toronto area, some topics are Canadian-only, but the wiki is open to all global learners and teachers.
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In the Classroom: Plan your personal professional development on your own or with a teaching buddy to learn more about Google Earth (GE) and plan activities for your classrooms. Even if your access to GE is limited to a single class computer, work together with a small team of student "GEniuses" to prepare class placemarker files, then have the team teach other students, as well. If your school has personal professional development plans or allows teachers to suggest topics for professional workshops, include this link, along with other GE resources from TeachersFirst, as your inservice day agenda.
Google Earth, reviewed here, is a fabulous teaching tool. This teacher-created wiki supplements it with Google Earth Resources galore. Find links to lesson plans and files for using Google Earth in your classroom for many subjects. See a tutorial video on Google Earth, find directions for making files, and more. Ideas for using Google Earth by subject even include links to ready-made files so you need not start out by creating from scratch. See what other teachers have done and let it inspire you and your students to do more. Learn how to make kmz (placemarker) files. 10270
In the Classroom: Make this site part of your personal professional development or pair up with a teaching buddy to learn more about Google Earth (GE) and plan activities for your classrooms. Share the link with your students, as well, so your class can become GE experts together. Even if your access to GE is limited to a single class computer, work together with a small team of student "GEniuses" to prepare class placemarker files, then have the team teach other students, as well. If your school has personal professional development plans or allows teacher to suggest topics for professional workshops, include this link, along with other GE resources from TeachersFirst, as your inservice day agenda.
Looking for innovative classroom activities? Search "Google for Educators" to learn about activities from great teachers. Click on "Classroom activities" to find lesson plans and activities (listed for grades K-5 or grades 6-12). Find information on using great Google tools as well. Learn about SketchUp, Picasa, Google Maps, Good Earth, Blogger, Google Apps, Google Reader, Knol, iGoogle, and many others. Don’t miss the “Search Tips” section with some great ideas for saving time searching in the classroom or the downloadable posters to help remind students about effective searching. Download information using Adobe PDF. This site requires Adobe PDF. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.. 10604
In the Classroom: Find great activities like Literature trips and Postcards from the Past which use tools that go beyond lecture and drill. Check back as more lessons are added. Share the lessons on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Many of the lessons include podcasts, videos, and other interactive elements. Use this site to teach your students about the many tools available from Google. You may want to list this link on your class website for students and parents to use to learn more about the Google tools available.
TeachersFirst Edge review: For any technology user comfortable with watching video and/or using video cameras. The more adventurous users can create their own videos to share. GotBrainy is a vocabulary development site with a twist. User-created combinations of images/videos and text explain the meaning of the words. There are two areas: BrainyPic and BrainyFlix. GotBrainy has numerous user-created sentences to illustrate SAT/ACT vocabulary, with images depicting the word on Brainypics, or videos demonstrating the word on BrainyFlix. Anyone can access the Brainypic vocabulary “flashcards” or offer new sentences for the words, simply by supplying an email address. *Be aware, anyone can click “go on to the next flashcard” and be taken to a new word. The words are in random order, so you are not able to preview. Be sure to set guidelines with students about if they can/can’t click on the other virtual flashcards. With an optional (free) registration, you can vote on the sentences and videos, or you can create your own sentence/image combos or videos. Once fully registered, you submit your uploaded video depicting the word, which then goes into a “holding” area. That video then awaits approval by the website’s moderator before becoming available. Because of the layering of approval, this site mitigates safety (and accuracy) concerns for students or schools. Searching the site and simply viewing the videos does not require any registration or log-in. Note that BrainyFlix videos are actually hosted on other sites such as YouTube, TeacherTube, or SchoolTube and simply embedded in Brainyflix, so some might be blocked by school filtering.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: No special skills are necessary to enjoy the site or view the Brainyflix and Brainypics shared by others. If you wish to vote or create your own Pics or Flix , you must register as a user at the site. Registration is free but requires email. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
For still Brainypic images, you need to save and locate the image file on your computer so you can upload it to Brainypic. Brainypic also requires an image credit, so keep track of the photographer’s name and the URL where you found it if not using your own photo. Be sure to use Creative Commons licensed images to model ethical behavior! For Brainyflix videos, create and upload videos to a hosting site accessible from your school, such as TeacherTube (reviewed here) or SchoolTube (reviewed here). (Windows Movie Maker or iMovie are great, free tools for video). You need to know how to copy the embed code for the video. When done, you can share the Brainyflix video or Brainypic image via link or embed video from its original hosting location. Submitting the entry to Brainyflix or Brainypic asks for an email address.
Safety/Security Concerns: If you wish to have students create their own BrainyPics or Brianyflix, check school policy on using student email to establish accounts. You may want to use an extra teacher email account to set up a whole-class account for students to use, then have them initial their work so you now who did it. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Check your school policies about posting pictures of your school or students. If you post student videos or student-created Brainypics, obtain written parent permission to post student work, again within school policies. Any student visible in a video should also have parent permission in accordance with school policies.
Possible Uses: Learning support teachers may find this highly visual format for word study actually helps their students retain challenging words. Share a BrainyPic or Brainyflix daily at the start of class to build vocabulary. When voting on the Brainypics, you’ll find a place to mark that the sentence has usage errors. Find sentences with usage errors, and have your students correct the sentence on a projector or interactive whiteboard. You can also use this program to help your students learn SAT/ACT vocabulary. Have pairs or groups of students each create a video or a Brainypic for one of the words for the week. You or your students will have to upload the video to Schooltube or Youtube and then embed it on GotBrainy. Another idea for vocabulary review would be to make one video for all the words for the week, using the ready made images and sentences, and then post the video to your website for all to review whenever they want. Assign student groups to each take responsibility for one week of the marking period and produce their own Brainyflix as part of the marking period grade or require each student to create a certain number of Brainypics per marking period, sharing the links to the class products on your class wiki so students can vote on each other’s. The wiki will be the best vocabulary study guide EVER! Hold an awards ceremony for the Brainypics or flix that earn the most votes throughout the year.
This is a slightly "edgy" TeachersFirst Edge Review, due to the options to download and create your own software game. This simple, interactive game practices parts of speech by asking the viewer to click and identify specific parts of speech in sentences. The options for the game itself do not last long, even though there are three levels. Teacher and students can take the game into many more levels and use students' own sentences, however, by downloading the "Grammar Ninja Sentence Creator" (GNSC). This software (available in both Mac and Windows versions) downloads as a "zipped" (compressed) file that opens to reveal a folder full of goodies. You will want to SAVE it on your desktop for easy access. There is an offline copy of the Grammar Ninja game and a separate Sentence Creator game. Open Sentence Creator and follow simple instructions to enter your own sentences and drag and drop labels onto the parts of speech. Then comes the "geek" part: the Sentence Creator has you copy and paste what appears to be scary computer code into a separate file within that folder of downloaded items. You can click for help that shows you what to do. Save the txt file you just copied and pasted, and YOUR sentence will show up when you play the Grammar Ninja game on THAT computer. Turn DOWN your speakers or the music will drive you crazy! If your school blocks downloads, save the folder onto a USB "stick" from a download at home and bring it in to school. 10418
In the Classroom: Have students try the online version of the Grammar Ninja game on your interactive whiteboard (IWB) when teaching parts of speech. As you exhaust the options and notice that the number of sentences is limited, challenge a few students to use classroom computers to download and create their own sentences. Students who follow written directions well could do this on their own. Or you could do it together as a class on your IWB. Once students know how to create sentences, give them a chance to add their own. Remember that sentences will only play on the computer where you have created and saved them. If you keep the GNSC folder on the desktop of that machine, you could easily copy it onto a USB "stick" to be added to another computer. Have students challenge each other with sentences written around specific science or social topics you are studying or use sentences extracted from their own writing drafts so they learn grammar along with other content. Have students "swap" sentence files or challenge the entire class. Note: if you create a sentence with the WRONG answers, the game does not know that. Teachers will want to check (and score?) the accuracy of the parts of speech their sentence-creators identify! What a great way to do assessment!
Teacher's First Edge Review: For thoroughly adventurous or organized technology users. Grou.ps is a tool for creating social networks. Though that may be a scary term to parents and a concept prohibited in your school, this site provides private spaces for classroom use in K-12. Because of concerns over COPPA (federal legislation protecting children on the web), it is recommended for ages 13 and up. Users outside the U.S. do not need to worry about this law. There are related blog posts and debate about whether the law applies if you configure your site a certain way, but TeachersFirst cannot recommend circumventing the law.
Provide an online space for forums (threaded discussions), blogs, “friends,” groups, personal spaces for members, and other options. As the administrator, you can control the actual set-up. Assuming you can access the site URL at school, this tool can provide either a PRIVATE or public online space for your classes or teaching team as an electronic home for use in and out of school. 11007
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Before you start, make sure filtering on the school network will not block your specific URL. See some of the tips from the Edge team. Join and set up a network, including name, URL, and description. Be sure to choose Private to limit viewing of your network to those you INVITE to join. If you choose public, be sure to check the box that users must be approved for joining. Add desired features to create your layout. You can always change items later. Make appearance choices.
Safety/security concerns: Since the tool establishes profiles for each member, you will want to customize the profile settings in accordance with your school policies. You will probably not want students to be able to set up groups, since they could make them “private” and lock you out. You can also change the questions they are asked as part of their profiles. The simplest way to set up student accounts may be through a teacher Gmail account with subaccounts. You could then create the accounts and passwords on your own or have students enter the information. Even though your space is private, we recommend asking for parent permission to be sure that parents are aware of this positive use of social networking and all the lessons about Internet safety that can grow from its use in class. A modified version of the Blogging agreement offered by TeachersFirst would work (a word doc). Find more information, and the agreement at Step by Step Rules for your Gated Blog.
This site does require either an email address or site URL. If you are having students register individually using email addresses, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to add up to 20 subaccounts to your Gmail account for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Possible uses: A class social network has limitless possibilities. Engage students in discussions on current events, independent reading, literature, and more. Create groups for students to work on projects and use the space as a forum to work out tasks, scheduling, and file sharing. Get creative and ask students to play the role of a historical figure on a social network across time: Ben Franklin networks with Harry Truman to argue about the atomic bomb. Use as a forum for any simulated or real task. Invite parents to join to share their points of view on upcoming elections or public policy issues. Include the principal or superintendent in your class discussions of students’ rights as you study the Constitution. Your students themselves will suggest ways to use this all-too-familiar tool from their world. Imagine the “profiles” they could create as characters from fiction or inventors from history! Create discussions around popular and controversial environmental or other topics. Definitely plan to model and use this tool in lessons about Internet safety and the “lasting” nature of one’s Internet presence. Social networking is part of life today, and the opportunity to learn about it in a private space is important for today’s students.
This is a TeachersFirst Edge entry: for more adventurous technology users. Groupvine is a free (for now) tool for groups such as student council, clubs, teams, or even academic project groups to organize their files, maintain a common calendar, and organize "to-do" lists. If you are a club adviser or ask students to complete long-range group projects, you should consider using Groupvine. 7323
In the Classroom: Although the site appears to be primarily for college groups, our editors contacted the folks at Groupvine, and they assured us that they welcome high school groups, as well. Skills needed: register to request a group space, follow simple tour and instructions to create groups, to-do lists, calendars, etc.
If you plan to have students use the site independently, we recommend demonstrating it on an interactive whiteboard or projector so all are in agreement on how you will use the tools within your organization. If students will be posting, we strongly recommend using initials or first names only. Once your club or group is using the site, you may end up answering questions from other club advisers who are interested in doing the same.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for the more adventurous technology user. GuruLib is a great way to organize and annotate your classroom library. If you can find the ISBN number on your books or UPC codes on CDs/DVDs, you can enter the full information on these items into a library that students can use to find favorites to borrow (you can even sort them only shelves according to related units you teach). Another idea is to have students use this site (and your single log-in) to enter titles, authors, and reviews that classmates can read. Since "borrowing" an item requires having an account (not a safe idea with your students), why not allow all students to use your account and create a "shelf" for each student's initials?. Then students can drag books he/she has signed out from the classroom. Students can enter reviews (Sign with initials so others know who wrote it) and even comment on the reviews left by others. What a great way to promote reading in a motivational way! Parents and others see the site from the public side. If parents join GuruLib, they can even comment on the reviews their children wrote. Think of the excitement! 7192
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site (free). Read and play (limited help given)to Add items, edit them (including a review), add or edit shelves, drag items to shelves, etc.
Show students how to enter a book and review on a projector, then mark your class library in Favorites on the classroom computer for them to make entries as they read!
.See our editor's sample library from the "public" side.
Power users can even add "widgets" to the class blog from the GuruLib. There's a challenge!
H2O Playlists - Berkman Ctr for the Internet and Society, Harvard Law School
This is a TeachersFirst Edge entry-- for more adventurous technology users. Create an online collection of annotated links and materials for academic research or have your students use this site to collect sources and materials for a collaborative project. A "playlist" is a set of links with explanations and tags that you (or students) can use to initiate self-directed research or that students could use to prepare or present content.
Have students make a "playlist" on a research topic, such as the Vietnam War, displaying and speaking about the resources in a class presentation on a projector. You can monitor the progress of collaborative research by checking their playlists-in-progress. Students who have Internet access at home can add to the playlists from any computer. Playlists can be published and shared. You can also find other playlists with the same tags, extending the reach of your research. 7266
In the Classroom: The site requires a log-in, so you may want to set up a single account and password based on your "extra" email account (always recommended for joining all these great web-based tool sites). When your students are finished with their projects, you can simply change the password. Skills needed to use this tool: join site (free), copy/paste links, create tags (keywords), reorder list items, start new lists (all very easy by clicking on text links).
TeachersFirst Ede staff strongly suggest that you create a sample playlist to start and model the process to your students. They will catch on fast. You will also need to prevent them from altering profiles or creating unmonitored accounts and profiles, for safety reasons.
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: for technology users who like math and like to "play." This online tool lets you create(or "share" someone else's existing) online calculations/spreadsheets. You can also display instant graphs of the spreadsheet contents. The spreadsheets are displayed in terms that ordinary people can understand and allow you to "plug in" numbers to see instant results. Some of the shared calculators already online are surface area and volume of geometric solids, interest calculators, body mass index, and more sophisticated business functions. The best way to see how the site works is to read through their "tour" then click to browse through the examples, especially the shared ones. Even if you never create your own, this tool is great! 8122
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Visit the site and observe how the shared examples work. If you find one you like, you can get the link (try the little disk icon) to go directly to it. If you are feeling more adventurous, try creating one of your own, perhaps for calculating the class average on a test. Your web-savvy students will love this tool for collaborative lab reports or graphs of statistics. For safety's sake do not use any student names or information if you share calcs online.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For only slightly adventurous technology users. Few skills required! Looking to make a great jeopardy game with no fees, registration, or powerpoint slides involved? Now you can with Jeopardy Labs! Create your own Jeopardy game or browse the already created jeopardy games! Be aware: there are over 6,000 Jeopardy Templates ready to use in the classroom, beginning at kindergarten! You may notice that some of the already created Jeopardy Templates are not in “question” format. The topics include nearly everything one can imagine: European Settlement, South America, various books, specific math topics, media, aircraft, and many, MANY more.
Note that all jeopardy templates created become part of the domain and can be used by others.
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In the Classroom: Use any already-created game as a quick assessment of prior knowledge or review on projector or interactive whiteboard.
Skills needed to make your own game: Nothing special. Here’s all you do:
To prevent others from editing your template you create a password when you start. Others will be unable to edit your created game without your password. After creating your password, you are taken to the familiar blue jeopardy screen. Here, enter the title at the top and the topics at the top of the columns. Click on a dollar amount under each topic to enter the clue and the What is... question in a pop-up box. Click done to enter the information. The dollar value square becomes blank to let you know it was completed. When done, click "Save." Click on Browse to view random template titles or enter a term into the search bar. On the "Build" page, follow the quick instructions and even browse tips for editing. When done, an internet link will be given for your Jeopardy game. Put this link in any website, blog, or wiki for students to click on and review information for study. This site uses Flash. Get it here.
Possible Uses: Use this as an introductory activity to uncover misconceptions. For example, prior to a unit on viruses, create a jeopardy game about myths and truths about viruses. Share the Jeopardy activities on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use these as a starting point for understanding concepts in the unit. Create review games for students to learn and remember content. After making one game together as a class, allow students to make their own games to challenge each other on segments of the material. This not only provides students with material to review, but the creation of a game takes thought and understanding of the material. Be sure that students understand how to create such a game and how to choose parts carefully. Check student games prior to saving. Maintain a page of Jeopardy links for review of a wide range of curricular topics.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For moderately adventurous technology users (as well as techie dabblers!) Download the free Jing software in either Windows or Mac versions. Jing allows you to screen capture whatever is on your computer screen, share it to Screencast.com, and then send the URL link to anyone so they can watch a sequence of things you do on your computer. The application says it is a way to share what you are seeing on your screen during your online conversations. This is useful, but for educators, check out the teacher uses to see some other possibilities. 10920
In the Classroom: Skills needed: The software needs to be installed, but it is easy because onscreen directions are given. Just a click or two and you are ready to use Jing. Once it is installed and the program is running, there will be a sun in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Scroll over the sun, and you will see three rays come out of it. Capture (to take a picture of your screen), History (a type of screen scrapbook), and More (which has preferences and the quit to turn off the program).
Safety/security concerns: Users unable to install software on school computers should request that the tech department install Jing on at least SOME machines. To register the software, an email address must be provided. Rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Student could always take inappropriate screen shots and send them to friends.
Possible uses: Try to record a screen sequence using this web 2.0 tool to make how-to directions for projects and post to your class web page along with the assignment. Kids can make a "tour" of online PROJECTS they CREATE or a tour of a web site they critique. Record a demo of safe internet practices and include on your class web page for parents and kids, and help learning support students (or techno-apprehensive teachers) with VISUAL directions for computer tasks. Have students make projects that show how misleading some Internet advertising can be or to explain effective design principles used in a web site.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For advanced technology users. Have a series of web pages you want to share with someone? Use Jog the Web to share links and a specific jogging pathway (“track”) through them. Look at some of these great examples: Google Earth in education and Find a Fallacy.
Search or browse existing “tracks.” Once clicked, a sidebar appears on the left that provides information about the track. The number of pages in the “jog” appears, as well as forward and back arrows. View the names and descriptions of the pages and any instructions that the author added. Click on any of these names to follow the link directly to the page. Register to create your own track. See TeachersFirst’s safety and use tips for using this site below under “In the Classroom.” Some content on this site may be inappropriate for the classroom. Always preview. 10210
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Registration is free and requires a password and email address. Once validated by email, click "Create a New Track" and enter a title and description. Find all of your tracks on your page. Click on each to edit descriptions or add steps (these are the web address url's of the pages you are adding.) Easily delete your tracks by clicking on the trash can icon next to each track.
Safety/Security: If students are to create tracks, each student will need to create an account (with an email address) and then email verification. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each
group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
Consider creating a single class account using your “extra” email address, so you can monitor and submit student work safely. Student-created tracks can be identified through title or adding initials at the end of the title. The home page of this site includes changing “featured” content contributed by the general public. Be sure to preview the content ahead of time. You may want to send students to your track via a direct link.
Classroom use: Create your own tracks as webquests for students to follow for class assignments. Students can be assigned different subtopics of a subject such as biomes, find related pages, and create a track working through these pages. Students could also create tracks to annotate their sources for a research project, critiquing each source in the sidebar. Teach about evaluating web sites and reliability of sources by having students in small groups create tracks comparing different sources on the same topic. Create tracks as homework help solutions for parents and students. Use a blog, wiki, or website to share these tracks for students to visit for obtaining information. Want to learn more about Wikis? Check out the Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here.
This annual "conference" started in 2006, costs you nothing, and connects you with teachers and education professionals all over the world in live or near-live interaction. Always held during the second half of October, the conference features "presenters" using technology tools to share their experiences using technology and best practices to change the way learning occurs in their schools and classrooms. They describe it as "a conference by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice."
Each year the strands vary, so be sure to visit the site early to learn more about the current focus. Our editors are very impressed at the changes in this conference since our first review in 2006 and cannot wait to see what will happen next. Every teacher can find something to learn and stretch without being overwhelmed.
Don't miss the "Fireside Chats," opportunities to talk live with the presenters and ask questions. NO question is too minor or "dumb." TeachersFirst writer and reviewer Louise Maine will be presenting in 2008. Don't miss the chance to "meet" her. 6981
In the Classroom: Put this conference on your calendar every year. Consider holding a get-together after school for pizza and participation with some face to face teacher friends as you meet new ones "virtually." Many of the presentations are available as podcasts to carry along to children's soccer games or listen as you commute or jog, too! As you move forward, possibly rethinking the way you teach in the 21st Century, consider sharing your experiences by submitting a presentation proposal. Most of the presenters are "just teachers" like you. Don't have time to "attend" during these two weeks? That's OK. The entire "conference" remains online in perpetuity for you to experience personalized professional development. Ask your administration to allow you to "attend" and earn continuing ed credits. Don't miss the archived material from 2006 and each year thereafter.
Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly advanced technology users. Use this E-learning tool for teachers to create educational activities, crosswords and quizzes. Create activities for online practice, review, and testing of up to 30 students. Create class pages, printable activities, improve students' results and check scores for free. 10468
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Users will need to create a free teacher account. Use this limited free account for 30 students and 15 activities at a time. Note that the account will be deleted after sixty days of inactivity. A Pro and Ultimate paid account is available. Students do not need to register. Teachers create the account for them.
To use: Create student accounts and group profiles. Prepare activities and create permissions for them. Provide login data to students for access. Consider adding links to a website, blog, or wiki page for student access. Alternatively, create a group with anonymous access by creating activities with a web address. Note that statistics of individual student use are not available this way. Publish the web address on a site for access or print the activities for use in a class. The 5 sections of the site control all aspects: Students, Groups, Activities, Files, and Profile. Use the Student section to check results, delete a student, or edit a student account. Click "Add student" at the bottom to create student accounts. Create group access to activities, enable a group forum with the group space icon, or share information under the Group section. Click on "Add group" at the bottom to create a group. Personal access requires students added to your account. Anonymous access creates a class page that students access via URL. Create the group and the kubbu url to save. Create activities and quizzes in the Activities section. View statistics, set permissions, print, review, duplicate, or share activities in this section also. Click on "Add activity" and enter a title and set permissions including time limit, answer revealing, and instructions. Upload pictures and sound files in the Files section. Use these items in with the Composer activities. Change your information including login and password under the Profile section. Hover over any icon you are unsure of to view a description of the function. This is a very helpful resource of this site.
Safety/Security: Material can be made public for others outside your class to use. Student information is not available for others to see. As teachers add students or create anonymous groups, this creates an ideal educational environment that is CIPPA compliant. Use a teacher site, blog, or wiki page to share links to created quizzes and other activities.
Classroom use: Create matching activities for many subject areas. Match synonyms, state or country capitals, definitions, terminology, and many others ideas. Create crosswords easily. Consider using student-created words and hints to be entered easily for practice and quizzing. Create student groups with each group working on a separate section of the chapter or unit. At the end, compile these crosswords and quizzes for a file of practice activities for all students. Keep a file of activities to be printed for substitute plans or extension activities.
Teachers First Edge Review: For serious technology users. Use kwout to grab a screenshot or quote of any web site to post anywhere else you need. Show snippets of information from anywhere on the web and insert on any site, blog, or wiki where items can be embedded. Add a "my kwout" badge to your blog or website that will display your quoted items in one place. Here is a sample “kwout” of the Kwout site:
In the Classroom: Skills required: Use kwout by adding a bookmarklet to your browser. Users will need to know how to add bookmarklets in the specific browser being used. You can test out kwout by using the demo on their home page, but this will slow down your ability to kwout pages as you browse the web. Network administrators may block download and installation of bookmarklets on district machines. Be sure to check with your IT department on the possibility of adding bookmarklets. Users of kwout need knowledge of using embed codes to display quoted image maps in the site of their choice.
How to use: After adding the bookmarklet to your toolbar, find a website you wish to quote. Click the kwout bookmarklet and view the popup screenshot of the webpage being viewed. Drag your mouse to choose the portion of the screenshot wishing to be quoted. Click "Cut out" to cut that portion of the screenshot that will now become an image map and hyperlink. Copy the embed code that is displayed to paste into the site being used to show the image map.
Safety/security: No registration is required to use. Add the bookmarklet to your browser window of computers authorized to do so. Be certain to only quote items that are appropriate for viewing and use in the classroom. Require students to show work prior to embedding in a blog, wiki, or other site to be certain of appropriateness.
In the classroom: Use as a way to aggregate content in one place. This tool is best suited for teacher use below grade 6 because unless your students are familiar with embed codes! As students find quoted material, use for discussions of different viewpoints or content needed to understand a specific subject area or topic. For example, have students create a wiki collection of kwouts to show different perspectives on an environmental issue such as global warming. Use teacher-made kwouts as prompts for blog posts or free writing activities in the classroom. Find a specific kwout (quote) that students must respond to and embed in a blog, wiki, or site of your choice. After students read the quote, provide time to respond to the quote and post their thoughts in a blog post or other type of writing. If students require more information or wish to read more, advise them to click on the quote to view the entire resource. View snippets or quotes from a variety of sites for students to analyze. Use this idea for many subject areas including history (multiple viewpoints of conflicts), environmental or economic problems, or other issues. You can also use kwouts to provide a collection of links to review and enrichment sites on your class web page. Non-readers will be able to “see” the sites and now where to click.
TeachersFirst Edge Review: For ANY user who wants to know more about new technologies. No special skills needed. Just watch and learn. Embarrassed to say you don't know what all the "new web 2.0" terms are all about? This is for you (and probably for your students' parents, as well). Common Craft uses a very simple, visual method of explaining all the latest technologies so that everyone can understand, using short video clips narrated by a positive and respectful voice. The next time you hear someone talking about RSS feeds or some other new doo-dad, stop here first so you will know what they are talking about. Did you think you were the only one who did not know? Don't be overwhelmed. This site has incredible popularity because there are LOADS of people quietly questioning -- just like you. 10535
In the Classroom: Start by looking at any video that catches your eye, but don't be afraid to search for other topics that have you wondering. You will definitely want to make this channel a Favorite to find information to keep you informed. Share it on your teacher web page to help out your parents, too! Create an account to add as favorites and subscribe to the channel to inform you when new videos are added.
Teachers’ First Edge Review: For totally-connected, adventurous technology users.
Organize your online resources into Lifestream for quick access! The concept is simple. If you already use the many Web 2.0 tools such as Flickr, Twitter, Picassa Web Albums, Del.icio.us, YouTube, FaceBook, Google Reader, RSS feeds and more, Lifesteam can be your homepage for viewing and sharing these resources. Lifestream connects to your accounts on over 40 popular Web 2.0 sites(and counting) so you can share your online resources with students and parents. Your activities and links to those accounts appear in a time-stamped daily event format on Lifestream.
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In the Classroom: Skills Needed: You must be familiar with have your Web 2.0 accounts already established to copy and paste URL addresses or usernames from these other accounts into the supported Lifestream services. You might want to create accounts on all services using your "classroom teacher" personna, thining of the accounts as being for your Clasroom and therefore only accessing and using services relevant to your teaching activities. A Gmail account for this professional identity would be a simple way to establish all the accounts. Register for a free Lifestream account. Registration requires an email address, but appears to work just fine with a "made up" address (warning: email notifications for forgotten passwords will not work if you pretend! That professional GMail account might be a wiser choice). Logging into Lifestream requires a user name and password. Click to "See a lifestream in action" to see how it works. Once logged in, add your existing web 2.0 memberships to your Lifestream.
Safety/security concerns:
Lifestream does not provide setting options to share or hide your materials on the other linked sites you select. Be sure to go to each of your selected sites to make appropriate settings to show only what you deem appropriate for your students or have an entirely separate account for your professional/classroom content. Be aware that once students go to your other Web 2.0 sites, there may be easy access to inappropriate content from the general public. We recommend always starting students from your member home pages and avoiding public home pages altogether.
Check in advance to be sure all your linked sites will be available for use at school. You may need to request to have a site unblocked. Be sure to rquest the precise URL for YOUR resource (such as YOUR professional del.icio.us account, not the general site). This will assuage nervous technology administrators.
Ideas for Use: Think of this site as a collection of clickable resources to support your curriculum. Create a set of RSS feeds for blogs, podcasts, bookmarks or specific curriculum topics such as current events, weather or science and make them available for an in-class activity, complete with directions. Add a link to your Lifestream page from your class web page for easy access in and out of class. Send the web address to parents and students so they can check the page for daily updates from home.Parents and students can become “followers” of your site by registering for a Lifestream account.
TeachersFirst Edge review: For serious technology users. Compile and share information from all over the web -- and text and images you add -- with others by creating a Livebinder on a topic or theme. Add tabs with specific information, easily accessed across the top of the binder. Interested in sharing information in a new way? Check out this extremely easy and exceptional site that can easily manage digital clutter. Gather and organize links, videos, information, charts, news, etc. in one neat and organized binder. As you update your binder in the future, all your changes automatically show to everyone who accesses the binder by URL or embedded version. Binders can be public or password-protected ("private"), so use of copyrighted images is possible under Fair Use, as long as you limit access to your own students via password (they call it a "key"). 10479
In the Classroom: Skills required: Creating and managing a login is required for use. Once an account is created, add the bookmarklet to your browser bar for quick access. Check with your IT department to have the ability to download bookmarklets on your computer. Knowledge of embed codes are required to manage Livebinders in other sites. To get a better idea of Livebinder basics, watch the 90 second video tour before you "play."
To use: Click on "start a blank binder," enter a description, tags, category, and mark it private or public. Click yes to "use Google search to fill a binder" to find plenty of information fast. Your new binder will instantly be filled with a new tab for each site matching your search term. After entering "climate change," a new Livebinder was created with tabs that matched research I had previously spent a lot of time to find. Now it can be instantly shared. Click on "edit menu" in the upper right of your binder to change description, title, etc. as well as fonts, tabs, and other details. To share, click on share this binder along the bottom right to share by email, Facebook, Twitter, or embedding via link or embed code. Embed your Livebinder in a blog, wiki, or other site or provide the link for access by others.
Safety/Security: Users must be 13 years of age to create an account. Teachers can create an account and share Livebinders for student use at any age. Create a class account with a global login and password. Students use the same login to access the Livebinder and create tabs on various topics. As each collaborator would not be known, ask students to add initials to tabs they create so you know the source. Check your school policies on whether student work may be displayed online and what information is permitted, then enforce that policy with your students.
In the Classroom: Create a Livebinder to assemble information and requirements for a student project. Make the Livebinder the actual ASSIGNMENT sheet. Use a new tab in the binder for each type of resource or topic of information. In English classes, use to offer spelling, writing, or grammar hints for students. Create a binder for specific sports teams that showcase team accolades, resources for increasing skills, or to create snack lists and travel information. Create a Livebinder for groups of students to plan or report on vacation plans, learn about cultures or countries, or maintain information for student projects. Students can use Livebinders to assemble information for group projects that can be discussed with the teacher to track progress. Consider creating a binder for assignments for students that focus on the use of information versus just the searching for the information. Any content or subject area can be easily managed by creating a Livebinder for student learning. Create an art or music gallery easily with a Livebinder. Use each tab of a Livebinder for each cell part necessary for the functioning of a cell. Create tabs in a binder for each battle or campaign in a specific war. Create a tab for each candidate in a specific election. Have students or student groups (13 and over) create Livebinder "tours" or annotated collections on a topic such as the pros and cons of organic foods, a cultural tour of a country, or applications of geometry in architecture. Of course their student-written annotations and commentary will be key to make these collections into meaningful products. They might even create tasks and questions for other students to try to learn about the topic.
If you are simply looking for a way to share technology-infused project assignments with students from grade 2 and up, a teacher-made Livebinder is an easy way to do it, and you can share the assignment with parents and learning support teachers by simply providing the URL.
TeachersFirst Edge review: for very slightly adventurous technology users. Create authentic-looking magazine covers sure to attract double-takes. Simply upload a photo to create your cover. If you do not need to SAVE the photo for online access later, you do not even need to join the site. Covers you create can be downloaded as completed images or sent via email and other sharing tools (Facebook, etc). Photos can be uploaded from your files, Flickr, your website, or other photosharing sites. Fill in your desired text for the titles and sub-titles and choose colors for them. It's that simple. Click 'Create' at the bottom and you have a magazine cover that will leave others in awe. For more creative ideas using Big Huge Labs, go to the top of the page and click on Big Huge Labs Blog or Forum. Big Huge Labs offers MANY similar tools, such as Mapmaker, reviewed here. Of course, this site offers advanced options for a fee or with free registration, but neither is necessary. See Safety/security suggestion below if your students use this site on their own. 10011
In the Classroom: Skills needed: You need to know how to locate your photos on your computer or photo sharing site. Click the little white boxes to change text colors, etc. as you enter desired text. SAVE your completed cover when done. Be sure to give it a meaningful name if you are creating several covers on the same computer!
Safety/security concerns: If you and your students simply use the tool without joining the site, there are no problems with email, profiles, etc. You do need to demonstrate the tool and specifically explain which links students should NOT use, including ads and links to social networking sites that are prohibited in your school. These may be blocked, anyway. Make sure you watch and teach copyright issues in snatching photos from the web.
Possible uses: Have students create magazine covers of themselves as a getting to know you activity and classroom bulletin board. Print and laminate magazine covers to make them appear even more authentic. Or share the images (WITHOUT student names) on your class wiki or web page. When doing reports for any subject, have students create magazine covers that mimic the real thing instead of boring plain covers. Make covers about famous Americans, scientists, or historic figures. Make covers about objects, as well. Assign students to research a vegetable and create a cover about its nutrients, recipes, and more as part of your nutrition unit! Guidance teachers or principals can feature exemplary students using this tool. Bulletin board creativity will skyrocket using Big Huge Labs Magazine Cover. Why not offer a rotating PowerPoint slide show of student-made magazine covers for parents to view as they wait in the hallway for conferences?
Teachers First Online Tool: Frustrated at creating sub accounts with your gmail account for more than 100 students? Try Mailinator as a possible solution to the problem. Make student accounts for the web 2.0 tools you would like your individual students to use. Create a "spoof" email account from one email account (preferably the teachers gmail.) Use this "spoof" account to enter when creating web 2.0 accounts. Mail can be viewed online for any verification if necessary. The bonus? Less spam when signing up for other sites!
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In the Classroom: Use your teacher gmail account to create different Mailinator accounts for each student by sending an email to the "spoof" account. For example, a student sends an email to gottalovebio@mailinator.com. Magically, your "spoof" email address has been created. Use this "spoof" email all year long for any web 2.0 tool you wish to sign up for. Find emails sent to the "spoof" account by viewing on the mailinator site (type in your "spoof" email address) or following an RSS feed (use a feed reader to view them all.) Important Note: emails must be read within a few hours as they are then permanently deleted. Caution students not to use these email addresses for anything important as it is not a regular email address. Use only for creating logins and registrations for other web 2.0 tools. Stumped with coming up with a unique name. Possible name choices are given on the site (refresh to see more options.) Be sure to read the FAQ's to familiarize yourself with the service and answer any questions you may have. Check to be sure this is not blocked by your school. If available on a teacher computer, consider cycling each student through your computer to get them signed up while being monitored. Record their "spoof" emails in case these are needed later and students forget. Be advised that these email accounts are public. If the same email address is entered on the site by someone else, those emails will be viewed. Despite this, use the service to quickly enter students to use the variety of cool online tools found on the Internet today.
Teachers First Edge review: For adventurous technology users. Looking for data for analysis and comparison? Use this great site for existing data sets and visualizations to explore, analyze, and form conclusions. Click on links to explore data sets, visualizations, comments, or topics. Use the search box at the top to search specific topics or subjects. Create your own visualizations by using an existing data set or uploading your own. Registration is not required to create visualizations (you will be named as anonymous.) Choose from the following possible visualizations of data: scatterplot, network diagram, matrix, bar or bubble chart, graphs, tree maps, histograms, word trees, tag clouds, or maps. 10216
In the Classroom: Skills required: Determine the data set to use, choose words or parameters, enter a title (required,) tags, or description, and publish the data. Easily share your visualizations by using the embed code in a blog, wiki, or other website or by emailing a link. Users will need to know how to manage embed codes and use in sites of choice. Create comments for other visualizations. Create an account to be able to find your visualizations and leave comments in your name. Registration requires an email account and verification may take up to an hour once submitted. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Safety/Security: Some content in this area may be inappropriate for your classroom. Always preview before assigning. If an existing data set is to be used, provide a link to the specific visualization and monitor student work. If students are to create data sets for submission, consider creating a class account that can be used by all students for submission. An extra email address or one created for this purpose can be used to create the login. Preview all visualizations before publishing. Model how to use this site safely on your projector or interactive whiteboard so students can learn how to think and act wisely online. Be sure to discuss what are considered quality and appropriate commenting of other students or users visualizations.
Ideas for Use: Use a single data set to with different visualizations so students can see the power of different visual tools in explaining and interpreting numbers. Find data sets that can be used to analyze trends, make comparisons, or apply information in a meaningful way. For example, begin a lesson in a Health, Science, History, or Math class while previewing this visualization. Use it to generate questions, ideas, and direction for student groups to research more information. Examples include change in diet in past generations, energy expenditure and input, health related issues concerning diet, differences in diets of other cultures, different types of food molecules and how they are processed by the body, etc. Create whiteboard presentations using the visualization and related information to share information with the rest of the class. Have a data set that students are having difficulty identifying trends? Try using this tool in order to view different visualizations to make meaning of the data.
Teacher's First EDGE Review: for slightly adventurous technology users. This online tool allows you to see various cities and countries throughout the world. The site features placemarkers added by users to interactive Google Maps including stories, photos, videos, and comments and ratings from other users. Visit this "story" we made in Reston, Virginia (west of Washington, DC) for a sample placemarker full of teaching ideas left by our review team “captain.” Mapskip allows you to zoom in and out (using the arrows) and scroll across the map in any cardinal direction. You can view the entire world, or individual cities. Red hands are used to represent placemarkers created by users. There are special features available for teachers upon registration. See their blog entries for more details about these features and ways to see only content created by your students or classmates.
The Mapskip blog is written by the MapSkip staff to explain new features and tools. Registered members are able to comment on any updates there, as well. The videos require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 9374
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: Register (requires email and activation from confirmation email). Before you submit your registration, be sure to scroll down to request "additional features for teachers" with the checkbox near the bottom of the form. Manipulate the map as you would on Google Maps (zoom, drag, etc). Click to add a new placemarker, enter a "story," title it, and upload pictures or video. You need to know how to locate and upload files. You can also edit your profile, view places created by you or any author you choose to "follow" and more. You can "rate" placemarkers left by others, as well. Why not make our review a "Favorite"?
Safety/Security Concerns: Membership requires an email address and user name. Use your “memberships” (extra) email account for such memberships, so you don’t clutter your mailbox. Register for the "special teacher features" to enable you to establish student accounts linked to your email address. Since this site has photos, videos, and stories submitted by members, always be sure to preview what you wish to share in class. The site has a link to click if anything appears inappropriate. At the time of this review, this website and its contents appear very useful and appropriate for intermediate and secondary students. Be sure to check your district's acceptable use policy before you submit anything to a website. Use fictitious names or initials for your students (or use the teacher features!) and be sure to get parental permission if photos, videos, or any student work are included. Since others can read, comment, and "Favorite" any entry you or your students make, you may want to discuss ethical behavior and help students build a “thick skin” to outside criticism. This is a good place to learn positive interaction with the public.
Possible Uses: Even without joining, you can share PREVIEWED Mapskip entries created by others on an interactive whiteboard or projector as you study faraway places. Create Mapskip entries about historical sites in your local area, including images taken with digital cameras, artifacts from your local historical society, links to newspaper articles, or video/audio interviews of older residents telling about old times. As you study community or landforms in your elementary class, "mapskip” them with annotations of a local map, showing examples of landforms and local community landmarks with digital pictures. Allow older students to use the site independently or in small groups. Mapskips are ideal as a product for individual research projects. In world language classes, have students plot a trip or write an imaginary story of their dreamed trip to Spain or Mexico. Take your students on a whiteboard trip to the native countries where the language is spoken. Literature settings can take on new meaning when your students annotate them on a map. Have students "mapskip" the landmarks of an author's life and/or the locations in his/her novels. Trace the path of a famous person's biography or annotate a famous painter's works, using links to the images from the places shown in landscapes. The "story" of a work of art can include critical analysis, as well. Anything that has a "place" can be a mapskip. Have students map family trips or important places in family history and share the maps with parents!
TeachersFirst Edge Review: For almost any technology user. Sometimes you just need to memorize certain facts and Memorize.com provides the easy to use resources to get the job done. The format of this site is simple and easily accessible to all. Choose pre-made flash cards or create your own. If you choose to create your own, you can create an account or let the system create one for you. Options to switch between flashcard, multiple choice, and matching formats are provided. Diagrams and explanatory text can also be included with your choices. 10715
In the Classroom: Skills needed: join the site or let them create an account for you — but be sure you remember that username, etc. so you can access it again! (email required). Read through the various options or use their “wizards” to create materials.
Safety/security: Creating materials does require registering with the site (and a valid email address). Create a class registration using a Gmail address. You can also use your Gmail account to create up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
Possible uses: Create materials for review and practice with basic information, terms, and more. Students can collect and save rows or information they missed to aid with their learning. Ask your students to create their own flashcards or memory set to review before a test or quiz. Have students make practice materials for each other, as well. Learning support teachers will find their students enjoy reviewing more if they are creating something themselves, and the process of MAKING the cards is actually a review in itself.
Share this link on your website for parents to review with their student. This format is very flexible and can be used to creating materials for everything from math to Social Studies.
TF Edge Tool: for the moderately adventurous technology user. Create collaborative mind maps (graphic organizers) using this online tool. See an example created by our editors. The example gives some ideas for uses of this online graphic organizer tool. The tool requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
NOTE: There is an advertising area at the right side of the screen on this free tool. TeachersFirst has been in communication with the Mindomo creators to assure that the ad content will not be alluring or inappropriate in the classroom. They are extremely responsive and interested in making their online tool practical for teachers. 8178
In the Classroom: The site requires membership (basic level is free). Have students create graphic organizers in cooperative groups as a study guide for unit content, to collect information for a group research project, or show examples of an important concept. Share and compare the organizers on an interactive whiteboard or projector in class and allow classmates to suggest changes. Skills needed: join the site, practice with the tools (don't miss the notes feature!). Save up to 7 "private" maps and an unlimited number of "shared" maps.
Make a map available online by saving and clicking "yes" for sharing, then clicking the Save by URL icon. This will copy the URL onto your computer's clipboard so you can paste it into a word doc or even your teacher web page. Imagine sharing several student made "study guides" in the days before the unit test.
Note that maps that are shared can be seen by the public, but not altered. You specify members who may collaborate and make alterations. For students to collaborate using this tool they must have individual memberships, requiring an email account. These memberships must be activated from their email. So, if students do not have email that is accessible from school, classroom use BY STUDENTS will be severely limited. Editor's note: we asked the Mindomo folks about spell check and student safety issues. They are still developing this tool, so they MIGHT address these issues at a later date.
Teachers First Edge Review: For adventurous technology users looking to create a more interactive classroom easily. Mouse Mischief is a PowerPoint add-on that can be downloaded and installed on your computer. Create interactive lessons with Mouse Mischief that allows you to insert quizzes and polls directly into PowerPoint. The whole class can interact with the simple click of a mouse. No extra or special equipment is required. Be sure to check the tabs on the site as the "Blog" is great for information, the "Help and How to" are useful for instructions on downloading and using, and take a look at the "Get Lessons" to peruse lessons created by other teachers. Mouse Mischief is for use on Windows based computers. 11093
In the Classroom: Skills required: Mouse Mischief requires the ability to download and install the program. Follow help instructions from the "Help and How to" tab. Use with PowerPoint to embed questions that students can answer with a simple mouse click to check for understanding.
Safety/security: Be sure to check with your IT Department about downloading and installing software on district computers. Information about students is not collected by using Mouse Mischief.
In the classroom: Use this to check for student understanding during a lesson. The one disadvantage? Students could wait to answer and then formulate an answer after they have seen someone else choose a mouse click (answers update the PowerPoint live.) Instead, use a think-pair-share to have students formulate their own answer, share with another student, and even collaborate on an answer between them. Have students justify their answer using paper and pencil or other means to check on individual understanding. Allow students the opportunity to add polls and quizzes in their presentations to create greater interactivity among the members of the class. Use words, diagrams, or visuals for greater differentiation for different learners in your class. Begin your lesson showcasing misconception statements to identify concepts that are already understood and those that may need more attention.
Teachers First edge Review: For average technology users (nothing tricky unless you want to use these clips elsewhere). Looking for short movie clips that you can view at school and use to teach something? Check out Movieclips. Thousands of short clips are available free and without registration at this site (not Disney!). Get a quick idea of the content by clicking on the Movies menu. You can make any clip display full screen using the small icon in the lower right. Note: Mature movie clips are available, but registration is required to see them. Sort through movie clips by subject, theme, genre, character, etc. Registered members can add questions to accompany clips. Unfortunately, registration also allows access to mature content. We don’t recommend this option, since this will allow students access to the entire site. You would be wise to use a teacher-only email account and membership to submit questions.
Use the embed code and URL codes with each clip to provide link or embed a specific clip into a blog, wiki, or other site. Ad links also appear along the bottom of the clips. Students should be advised to ignore these ads. 10492
In the Classroom: Skills Required: None, if you simply wish to view clips. Clips can be played through the site. Copy the URL or embed codes under “Share this clip” to link or share the video.
Safety/Security: Student registration is not advisable due to mature content.
Classroom use: Use the clips for vocabulary with ESL or ELL students. Introduce other curriculum topics or lessons using the clips on this site. For example, use video clips to get students thinking about concepts such as tornadoes, animals, feelings, or decision-making. As you teach about characterization in literature or creative writing, use movie clips to illustrate how a writer can “show not tell” about a characters personality or motivations. Have students observe the outward signs the actor uses to SHOW what he/she is feeling, then use these signs in writing their own stories: the way the eyebrows move, the body language, etc. Emotional support and autistic support teachers can use the clips to help students learn to “read” human feelings.
Teachers First Edge Entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. This tool helps you create an interactive family tree. Once you are registered, the family tree is easy to create. You are able to include family members’ birth-dates, death-dates, email addresses, pictures, marital status, and more. The site also includes some really neat features: Celebrity Morph, look-a-like meter (for children and parents), "smart matches" for your family tree, the ability to print family trees, and other features. The family tree and some of the other activities require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 9612
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: this site is fairly simple to use. Join the site (free) and log in. Registration requires an email address and some other personal information (name, hobbies, etc..). Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Navigation of the site is rather simple. Once you put in your own name, there are buttons on the bottom right and left side of your "name box" to "add" an additional family member or "edit" the current name. Once you click to "add" a member, you are able to put in their name, birth date, death date, marital status, and email address (see safety concerns). One tip: to scroll UP use the DOWN arrow, to scroll DOWN use the UP arrow.
Safety/Security Concerns: This site allows users to set-up their family tree as PRIVATE. It allows you to control who can and can't view your profile, family tree, and other information. For more information about this feature, visit the Privacy link (on the bottom bar). Before you plan your family tree project, be sure to get parental permission. You may want to use this tool with first names and last initials and keep email addresses out of it for safety’s sake.
Possible Uses: Use this site to create family tree projects in elementary or middle school classes. Have high school students create family trees as part of a unit studying immigration patterns in social studies classes. In science class, have students create fictitious "people" as they study genetics. With younger students, create a class “family” sharing important dates for individuals (i.e. birthdays) or to teach vocabulary and spelling of family terms, such as “grandmother” and “uncle.” Have students share their family trees on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to "advertise" this project on your class website (and newsletter, if applicable) so students have time to gather names, birthdates, and other information about family members. In world language classes, have students create a family tree using the correct vocabulary for relatives and talk about it (in their new language!) as they share it on the interactive whiteboard. When researching famous people, reading biographies, or even reading literature, have students create a family tree illustrating their discoveries about their famous person, writer, artist, musician, explorer, literary character, etc.
Teachers First Edge Review: For moderately adventurous technology users. Looking for a free and easy way to add chat function into your class activities? Check out this easy to use application.
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In the Classroom: Skills required: Users must be able to name a temporary chat room and post the URL for students to see. Students who have difficulty and enter the chat late have the ability to see all the discussions missed. Enter your chat room name and click enter. Copy and paste the link to a blog, wiki, or site to share with students or others. Upload files to share with others by using the upload button. Print your chat log when finished (Note: when you print, choose the adobe pdf button to "print"/save the document as a pdf.) Easily upload this document to a site or print the chat conventionally to share. Users can create a screen name during the chat.
Safety/security: No login or email is required to use this application. Advise students to use screen names that you can identify in order for them to gain credit from participating in the discussion. View users online easily.
In the classroom: Use when taking notes in any class where there is at least one computer (laptop) for every two or three students. Group students if one-to-one is not possible. Give feedback during group presentations in class from not only the teacher but also the peers. When viewing movies or other media in class, use as a backchannel to identify questions, challenge misconceptions, and obtain viewpoints from viewers. Use for any activity where feedback, viewpoints, and multiple perspectives would enhance learning. In world language classes, use the chat for students to practice written conversation and vocabulary skills and save their “dialog.” Set up a chat to discuss literature, role-play as literary characters, and more. Any chat you can do inside your classroom could also be done between your classroom and another classroom at another school (prearranged, of course). Why not chat during a presidential news conference or election debate?
Teachers First Edge Review: For adventurous new teachers and pre-service teachers to push teaching and learning to a new level! Use the New Teacher Chat wiki to find archived chats conducted on Twitter by new and pre-service teachers. Find a wealth of links and information as the wiki is developed in association with Edutopia's New Teachers Group. New to Twitter (reviewed here)? No problem. Find great stand alone information on this site and plenty of support for using Twitter to make connections among new educators and seasoned professionals. The new teacher chat uses the #ntchat hashtag on Twitter to find the conversations easily. Follow the directions on the main page to get started on Twitter and the New Teacher Chat. Still confused? No worry. Ask questions of anyone in the group (we all started out in the same place!) Be sure to follow @teachersfirst and @cshively to connect with other TeachersFirst users, too!
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In the Classroom: Skills required: Users must be have a Twitter account to follow the chat. Alternately, view the chat archive. To really receive value from the group, be sure to participate in the scheduled chats. View the wiki for times and days.
In the classroom: Use Twitter and the New Teacher Chat for the best professional development available today. Create connections with other educators, both new and seasoned, to support and challenge you as you begin your teaching career. Consider also joining Edutopia's New Teacher Group as well.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Create a fictional portion of a web page easily by entering a fictional Newspaper, Title of article, Date, and body of article. Final image will be downloaded and not retained on any website except ones that you publish to. Note: Model ethical behavior: Do not plagiarize or use real names of newspapers or people.
There are also links at the top of the page to create: a newspaper, ninja text, wizard text, talking flowers, talking tomatoes, talking owls, a wanted poster, talking cats, a cigarette packet, talking squirrels, and a clapper board. Be aware: this site does include some minor advertisements. 10053
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Basic ability to enter text into fields, download and find the finished file. For file to be shared, understanding how to upload the file onto another site or blog. The "clippings" you make do NOT remain on the site for access later by URL.
Safety/security concerns: You may want to prohibit or point out the links to advertising located along the side and the top of the site. As files are downloaded to the desktop, you may want to create a Favorites folder, or other “collection” of students projects in one place for easy work at grading time. Another idea: use a class wiki with all projects.
Possible uses: Create a fictional account of a happening or description to identify the errors or determine the item being described. Create an account of a class celebration or a fantastic project that should be shared. Students can use this site to create a fantastic account of a vacation or experience. Use this site as a “first week” activity for students to write articles introducing themselves to the class. Have them use pseudonyms in their “articles” and share them on your class wiki or web page. A week later, have a matching contest where classmates must identify the mystery students! You could do a similar "famous Americans" or "important scientists" activity where students learn and share.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For adventurous technology users. Use this free resource as more than a to do list, and more as a project management tool that follows the GTD (Getting Things Done) concept. Create and prioritize lists and send reminders. Create project folders and add to do lists to complete each project. Registration is simple and easy (no email address is required.) 10587
In the Classroom: Skills required: Managing the user interface is not very difficult. Spend a little time acquainting yourself with all the options.
Safety/security: Register easily without an email address. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It
may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your younger students.
To use: Create a new project by clicking on "Projects." Click on your designated project to enter new tasks for the project. Name the task and enter a description, due date, URL, and mark the action with immediately, idea, done, etc. Click on "Sections" to look at all similarly marked tasks at the same time (for example, you can view all marked “immediately” to see what must be done first.) View the calendar with tasks (and the specific project) outlined. Use "Reminders" to add specific actions to the calendar.
In the classroom: Help students organize the specific tasks necessary to finish a project. Use class discussion to decide what needs to be known and the best steps to take to complete the project. Organize tasks and set due dates to assist students in being timely completing projects. Use the tool together a few times on a projector or interactive whiteboard, returning to check off items, then have student groups try it as they do projects. Teachers of both gifted and learning support students can use this tool together with students to build organizational skills.
Watch, Learn, Research, Teach. Got your attention? View the statement, "Together We Learn" to understand the underlying purpose. This free beta site uses video that starts with many of the wonderful TED talks videos. “Nibs” provide the opportunity to view the best videos out there that are worthy of a learning adventure. Playlist subjects include architecture, the brain, business, chemistry, civics, computers and the web, cool stuff, design, education, Egypt, math, music, physics, sociology, sustainability, and several others.
As the site grows, others will have the opportunity to add videos to the growing timeline. At this point, there is only a select group of educators adding content (see the main page of any topic for more information). See the purpose of creating a smarter way to learn. Videos are "nibbed" (linked) to content on Wikipedia, as well as to equally worthy video that increases our knowledge and makes the experience smarter! The community is tightly controlled so only appropriate videos and resources are included. Clicking on a video link provides a biography or background information from Wikipedia, related information (nibs), and other videos. This site requires FLASH. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 9771
In the Classroom: Share these videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Search through the content to find topics relevant to your class. Allow students to use this site for research projects. Use Nibipedia to create smarter searches with purely relevant content. Use Nibipedia to find quality resources that links you to other quality resources. Learn and share information found in Nibipedia for use in class or by individual students. You may even want to list this site on your class wiki, blog, or website for students to access at home.
Editors' note: As of May, 2010, there is word that Ning will no longer be offering free Nings. They have announced, however, that a "major publisher" has agreed to underwrite the cost of Ning "mini" plans (up to 150 members) used in primary and secondary classrooms. As the details of this announcement become public, TeachersFirst will either update this review with the information for obtaining the free service.
Teacher's First Edge Review: for thoroughly adventurous or organized technology users. Ning is a tool for creating social networks. Though that may be a scary term to parents and a concept prohibited in your school, this education initiative from Ning provides advertising-free, private spaces for classroom use in K-12. Because of concerns over COPPA (federal legislation protecting children on the web), Ning specifies that the tool is for ages 13 and up. Users outside the U.S. do not need to worry about this law. There are related blog posts and debate about whether the law applies if you configure your Ning a certain way, but TeachersFirst cannot recommend circumventing the law. A Ning provides an online space for forums (threaded discussions), blogs, “friends,” groups, personal spaces for members, and more. As the administrator of your Ning, you can control the actual set-up. Assuming you can access the Ning URL at school, this tool can provide a PRIVATE online space for your classes or teaching team as an electronic home for use in and out of school. 9415
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Before you start, make sure your specific Ning URL will not be blocked by filtering on the school network. See some of the tips from the Edge team . Join Ning and set up a network, including name, URL, and description. Be sure to choose Private to limit viewing of your network to those you INVITE to join. Drag your desired features to create your Ning layout. You can always change it later. Make appearance choices. Create a “master key” (and for heaven’s sake WRITE IT DOWN somewhere secure – not on a sticky note at your classroom computer). Customize at will, but right away you will want to follow Steve Hargadon’s blog entry with detailed directions to remove the ads from your Ning for education space. The ad-free offer began in November 2007 and may not continue forever, so do it now!
Safety/security concerns: Since the Ning tool establishes profiles for each member; you will want to customize the profile settings to stay in accordance with your school policies. You will probably not want students to be able to set up groups, since they might make them “private” and lock you out. You can also change the questions they are asked as part of their profiles. The simplest way to set up student accounts may be through a teacher Gmail account with subaccounts. You could then create the accounts and passwords on your own or have students enter the information. Even though your space is private, we recommend asking for parent permission mostly to be sure that they are aware of this positive use of social networking and all the lessons about Internet safety that can grow from its use in class. A modified version of the Blogging agreement offered by TeachersFirst would work (a word doc).
Possible uses: A class social network has limitless possibilities. Engage students in discussions on current events, independent reading, literature, and more. Create groups for students to work on projects and use the space as a forum to work out tasks, scheduling, and file sharing. Get creative and ask students to play the role of a historical figure on a social network across time: Ben Franklin networks with Harry Truman to argue about the atomic bomb. Use the Ning as a forum for any simulated or real task. Invite parents to join to give their points of view on upcoming elections. Include the principal or superintendent in your class discussions of students’ rights as you study the Constitution. Your students themselves will suggest ways to use this all-too-familiar tool from their world. Imagine the “profiles” they could create as characters from fiction or inventors from history! Steve Hargadon, creator of this Ning in Education initiative invites participants to join a Ning for teachers who are using this tool. We hope you will tell them where you heard about it and send them over to check out (and suggest) more tools at the TeachersFirst Edge.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For adventurous technology users. Create online material or presentations in an unlimited number of formats for free with this unique collaborative site. Use an unlimited combination of media on this whiteboard space. Integrate drawings, text, pictures, articles, maps, videos, and a multitude of media too numerous to mention! Create an online informational poster, suite of pages, or presentation documents that multiple owners create. Embed your “Nota” in another site, Facebook, or Blog. Click the "About" tab to find great education examples. Use the "Quick Guide" and the "FAQ" section for easy to use information. Watch the tour video to learn more! This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 9915
In the Classroom: Skills needed: To use Nota, register with an email address. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. No need to wait for a registration email to begin. Name your new page and begin your work! Use the most common buttons on the left side of the workspace to begin: cursor, drawing, eraser, text, shapes, undo, and redo. Moving the cursor on the whitespace creates options to leave a comment box. Click to place on the whiteboard, then enter text, move by dragging the move tab, or other options. Use the menu to Insert objects such as font art, photos, movies, clipart, wikipedia, or google maps. Insert a message board or access counter. Share or embed your creation easily. Change the background colors or create new pages simply and easily. Change the license of your “Nota” to block changes or comments with one click.
Safety/security concerns: This site allows outsiders to comment on or modify work. Many school policies prohibit such interaction, so be sure to check your school Acceptable Use policy. You will want to discuss these features in the context of Internet Safety or establish specific written class rules and consequences for interacting with outsiders. Click on "no" to receive comments and for modifying work to create a level of security for students and work. Check your school policies on whether student work may be displayed online, and then enforce that policy with your students. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your younger students. In many schools, you will need parental permission before allowing students to post content online.
Ideas for use: Create a book (recipe, alphabet, places...), a scrapbook, poster project, or free graffiti projects. With younger students, create collaboratively on your interactive whiteboard for students to learn the tools. Have students decide how best to illustrate the water cycle or animal food chains. Make a visual literary magazine or visual aids to accompany oral presentations. In art class, collect examples of a style or design element and annotate them with the drawing tools. Create political "ads" in history class, depicting a candidate's stand on key topics. Make a whole-class NOTA in your elementary class about the school year, including digital images of important events or field trips. Create with friends near or far. Students in collaborative groups can present content or projects quickly and easily. “Nota” allows multiple users to create in the same space at the same time.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for the more adventurous technology user. Share and collaborate on data for projects using this online collaborative spreadsheet tool. Group projects can share their data as they collect it, such as students who do animal counts in their backyards or water analysis in various locations. If you prefer to use it in class, students can all enter data from an experiment they do in the lab so you can compile a larger aggregation. Join for free. You can also see and collaborate with other schools a nd people ( be careful to protect student identities and location). Find interesting ideas by playing with the "search spreadsheets" feature. 7246
In the Classroom: Skills needed: join the site (free) using YOUR teacher email or a yahoo or gmail account. This editor has an email account used strictly for memberships to such sites and uses the same user name and password for all. Set a username and password. Tools are very mush like Excel. Remember your user information. Students can use it or you can set up accounts for student groups so you can monitor their activities, if your district policies suggest this.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. This online tool lets you and your students create a collaborative "space" online in any subject, allowing as many people as you want to edit, make changes, add new content, etc. You may be familiar with wikipedia, but wikis can be so much more! A recent poll of "high tech" educators cited wikis as the one web-based tool they could not live without! If you have not tried a wiki yet, visit the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through for a detailed, step-by-step explanation and starter help, including dozens of ideas for ways to use a wiki in your classroom.
If you are not sure which wiki tool is best for you, see our detailed TeachersFirst review of PBWorks (formerly PBWiki) features, pros, and cons(done as part of the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through).Ignore the persistent and pervasive suggestions that you upgrade to a fee-based membership! 9006
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Click through the first two steps to create a free wiki, including the name (which becomes part of the wiki URL). Be sure to select "education" as the answer to "What is this wiki for?" Wait for your confirmation email (may take a while...check junk mail folder). After the email, choose whether your wiki is public or private (visible to members only or to the public). Set a "key" (password), if you wish. Bypass the offer to PAY. Use the Quickstart steps to configure the wiki just the way you want it or simply play to learn the Clickable editing toolbar. Add and edit pages, invite new members, explore the three template options and a few options for "skins." You may want to become familiar with the tool as a teacher-created site at first so you know its capabilities before turning students loose.
Safety concerns: Students need email accounts to have individual log-ins (consider using one GMail account you own, with separate sub-accounts). Note: with this wiki tool, you do not have the option of "locking" certain pages or setting different "levels" of users. You and your students have equal access to make changes, once you make them "members." There are also "plug-ins' (widgets) available from the toolbar, some of which may connect you to sites with unmonitored content. Decide ahead of time what you policies are concerning use of the "plug-ins."
Teacher's First Edge Review: Good for even a beginning technology user! This site allows you to upload photos, create captions, and add music to a slideshow in minutes. It is fun and easy to use. Check out the reviewer's sample here. Shows can be shared or embedded into other social networking type sites. 11325
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Create an account where an email is required but it does not need to be confirmed. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
You also must be able to locate files on your computer to upload. Follow onscreen instructions to create a project. The instructions are very easy to understand. In a few short steps, there is a finished product. Share the finished show by URL or embed code (for those who know how to copy/paste this code).
Safety/security concerns: Students will need email accounts to create an account on this site. However, it does not need to be verified so they will not need to access their email in school. There is a "creators" section that show cases other user shows. You may want to ask students to avoid that area. Keep them focused on their homepage and the creation at school.
Possible uses: Use this site in science class to make a slideshow of a completed lab as an alternative to a laboratory report. Use this in history class to create short videos about different people and places in history. Use in math to have students explain a word problem or complex algebra problems in a slide by slide (step by step) manner. In lower grades, use a whole class account to create a slideshow about a class project or special event such as pumpkin day and all the calculations you do with pumpkin seeds, the weight of pumpkins, etc. Share the slideshow as an embedded object on your class web page/wiki or share the link with parents so they can ask their child about the activity and reinforce the concepts simply by having him/her talk about it at home.
If students create their own shows using images from the web, be sure they are using Creative Commons licensed photos or images without copyright restrictions, sine the products are shared online. Of course you will want to require a credit for any photo used to be included in the show.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous users. Create instant collages of photos using this free site. No sign-ups are required to use. Choose a collage style and upload photos from your desktop or import from a flickr photo stream (read about Flickr here). Here is a sample collage created by our editors: 10073
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Users will need to be able to locate pictures on their computer or identify a flickr photo stream. Choosing a collage type is important and users will need to already have an idea of the number and orientation of the pictures in order to choose the right collage.
Safety/Security: Several text advertisements appear along the top and students should be cautioned to not click on these. Check your school's Acceptable Use policies on whether student work may be displayed online and then enforce that policy with your students.
Possible uses: Students can use the collage picture as part of a presentation to the class in order to guide their discussion. This would be great to use on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this to create a picture collage in order to get students thinking or brainstorming about a topic or unit of study.
TeachersFirst Edge Review: For adventurous technology users. Hop into the "2D physics sandbox" to play with objects and physical processes by tweaking the environment and the objects. Download of Phun is required. Versions are available for Win, Mac, or Linux. Download options also include ten different language translations. Join an online community for troubleshooting and ideas. Currently in Beta, Phun will become even more "fun." 10585
In the Classroom: Skills required: Users must be able to download and install the application for the specific platform being used. Check with your IT department for ability to download and install on district computers. Learn to use Phun by playing with the application. (Suggestion from the editorial staff: allow the students to just play for a bit. Students learn from each other and it is the best way to introduce an interactive application.) If that isn’t an option, an interactive whiteboard or projector is another way to introduce this site. Maybe offer extra credit to students who want to explore on their own time then offer a how-to “lesson” to the class. Your gifted or “techie” students might enjoy such an opportunity.
Safety/security: Registering for the site is not required. Use the forum (registration required) or the wiki for examples, suggestions, and troubleshooting. All items created remain on the computer where they are created.
To use: For help, view the video on the site for a simple how to. Other examples exist on You Tube by searching "Phun." Play by unleashing imagination and building objects to see their interaction. Change objects, the environment, and continue building to view more interactions. What is surprising about Phun? View the sometimes unexpected outcomes of the interactions of your objects with the environment though the physics of simple interactions are what you would expect. Draw and create objects and the environment;press the "play" button to watch objects collide, fall, bounce, or other movements. Change and manipulate object movements through a simple right-click of the mouse (or control-click on Mac.) Use the toolbar of simple actions and objects found on the left hand side. Choose from objects such as planes, squares, circles, springs, chains, and hinges. Change object properties such as level of bounce, density, and levels of collision as well as environment properties such as gravity and air resistance. Create unbelievable and ever changing possibilities with this open ended game.
In the classroom: Create increasingly complex and interactive environments that demonstrate a multitude of physics processes. Use as an ongoing lab to uncover physical processes. Isolate these processes using the simulation and reinforce with additional activities or labs to understand each separate process. Unleash student creativity and use as an end activity that ties multiple processes together. After students create a simulation, allow others to view, review, and write up an explanation of what has happened. Present simulations to the class using a whiteboard or projector for student comment and explanation.
Safety/security: Registering for the site is not required. Use the forum (registration required) or the wiki for examples, suggestions, and troubleshooting. All items created remain on the computer.
To use: For help, view the video on the site for a simple how to. Other examples exist on You Tube by searching "Phun." Play by unleashing imagination and building objects to see their interaction. Change objects, the environment, and continue building to view more interactions. What is surprising about Phun? View the sometimes unexpected outcomes of the interactions of your objects with the environment though the physics of simple interactions are what you would expect. Draw and create objects and the environment, press the "play" button to watch objects collide, fall, bounce, or other movements. Simply change and manipulate object movements through a simple right click of the mouse (or control-click on Mac.) Use the toolbar of simple actions and objects found on the left hand side. Choose from objects such as planes, squares, circles, springs, chains, and hinges. Change object properties such as level of bounce, density, and levels of collision as well as environment properties such as gravity and air resistance. Create unbelievable and ever changing possibilities with this open ended game.
In the classroom: Create increasingly complex and interactive environments that demonstrate a multitude of physics processes. Use as an ongoing lab to uncover physical processes. Isolate these processes using the simulation and reinforce with additional activities or labs to understand each separate process. Unleash student creativity and use as an end activity that ties multiple processes together. After students create a simulation, allow others to view, review, and write up an explanation of what has happened. Present simulations to the class using a whiteboard or projector for student comment and explanation.
Teacher's First Edge Review for moderate technology users The title says it all: "Inspired Picture Writing!" Use this free drag and drop literacy tool to create great sentences inspired by beautiful pictures. Or add inspirational or humorous captions to pictures.
NOTE: Our editors regret that PicLits occasionally allows advertising on their home page to include images that are not classroom-friendly. Teachers should preview to determine whether or not your students can ignore the ads.
"Learn It" provides learning opportunities and examples for creating captions, compound sentences, or paragraphs. Advanced lesson plans for teachers are viewed in the "Learn It" tab as well. "View the Gallery" to see already-created PicLits as well as comments and ratings. After selecting a picture (or using the one they provide) and dragging a word onto the screen, choose different forms of the word by using the drop-down menu next to the word. Move your words anywhere on the screen for creative writing. You can also click “freestyle” instead to type in your own words instead of choosing from their list. Word lists change, depending on the image selected. Note: Advertisements run alongside the PicLits screen. Caution students to ignore these. Here is an example: See the full PicLit at PicLits.com 9822
In the Classroom: Skills Required: Join the site (requires email but does NOT require that you wait for confirming mail to arrive so jump right in!). Users of PicLits must be able to navigate tabs on sites, manage logins, and use URL's and embed codes to share results on websites and blogs. Play to learn the tools before or after joining. Help also provides a short-and-sweet text explanation of the tools.
Safety/Security concerns: Registering for a PicLits account requires the use of an email address. PicLits can be used without an account but users are unable to save or blog about their creation without an account. This site allows outsiders to comment on created PicLits.
Many school policies prohibit such interaction, so be sure to check your school policy. Teach about proper “netiquette” and making appropriate comments as students use this site. Set specific written class rules and consequences for interacting with outsiders. If you wish each student to have an individual account, they need to create it with an email address. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. A class account can be created instead. However, it does not show which work is attributable to which student. You may want to require that students initial their contributions in order to get credit. All work on the site can be seen without a login. All projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online. Written permission is always a good idea.
Management suggestions: You may want to create a word doc, Favorites folder, or other “collection” of the URLS to all your students’ projects in one place for easy work at grading time. Some teachers use a class wiki or blog with links to all projects from there. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your
younger students or simply use a whole-class account.
Possible Uses: Share a PicLit on your interactive whiteboard at the start of a grammar or writing lesson to discuss word choice, figures of speech, or vocabulary. Use the visual picture prompt for journal or blog writing, allowing each student to compose a unique poem or haiku. Even science classes can write about concepts illustrated in the many nature photos. Emotional support teachers will love the chance to discuss feelings and how to describe facial expressions in the pictures. Make a collection of PicLits for a curriculum topic or as a literary magazine online. ESL students can create PicLits to learn new vocabulary. Have students create PicLits for special occasions and special people (mom, dad, grandparents, school nurse, or others). Use the embed code to place your creations on many other sites, including your class wiki or blogs. Share your PicLit by using a URL or code for an embedded widget.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. Fancy photo editing for no cost—that’s what Picnik is all about. You can even do simple fixes, such as removing “red eye” or cropping the tree trunk off of your head! No downloading is required, and there are no tools to install. In fact, you don’t even need to register. However, if you want to manage your photos, you will need a quick registration. Also, for non-English speakers, choose from a list of language options in the drop-down menu at top right. It’s very user-friendly, so the techno-babies will feel right at home.
As with most high-tech sites, there is a premium level for a cost, but you don’t need to pay for some truly cool features. After you create your ‘new’ photo, you will be asked if you want to apply it to merchandise, such as mugs, key chains, magnets, etc. (This, of course, will go to an outside site which costs money.)
Picnik works on Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. This site allows you to access your Picnik photos from Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Picasso, Webshots and Photobucket. If you really want to get intimately acquainted with Picnik, check out their blog and read about their featured photo makers (click on ‘blog’ at bottom of the page). This blog features photos and products designed by ordinary people like you, but the outcomes look like they were designed by highly-paid design artists! Also, if collages are what you need, click on the Collage button and go through similar easy-to-use options as the above.
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In the Classroom: Skills needed: You need to know how to locate and upload photos from your computer. You can also get images from anywhere on your computer, the web, webcam, your Flickr, Facebook, or other photo storing account. Click on Get Started Now or click on the Start Picniking tab in the upper right corner.
Click on Upload or find your photo(s) that you would like to fix. Now the fun begins. Click on any of the tabs to change your photo. Click Edit to adjust the contrast, color, size, ratio, etc. of the photo. You are allowed to play around with the photo, and if you don’t like what you have done, simply click on ‘reset’ to bring it back to its original state. Once you click ‘apply’ you can not reset to its original. Click Create to apply artsy, fun or serious new effects to your photo. Click on Text, Shapes, or Frames add those features. It works just like a word processor. You can minimize the shapes or apply different fonts, colors and sizes to the photo. All of these fun effects won’t be saved until you hit Apply, so play around with the features all you want.
Once your photo is finished, click on Save and Share. Rename your photo and click on Save Photo. Once it is saved, you can manage your photo by clicking on Manage History. This feature allows Picnik to access this photo from your files whenever you desire it.
This tool would work well with a student “expert” in your class becoming the go-to helper, since most students (and the teacher) will not need all the features all the time. If one student becomes more experienced out of interest, let him/her help you—and others!
Safety/security concerns:
The only safety concern is if you are uploading photos of students to remain on the Picnik site or other photo sharing sites and this is not permitted under your school policies. If students are to use this tool, be sure you have parent permission for them to be using any photosharing sites, as well. You may want to simply work from your own local photos if sharing sites such as Flickr are not permitted. If you decide to have Picnik “keep a copy” of your picture, membership is required. Avoid this by saving your photo back to your computer, and no one has a copy but you!
Possible uses: Teachers, you can create professional posters for your classroom, gifts, scrapbooks for projects, bound books, and of course, advanced, professionally-doctored photos for any occasion by using this site. Your school (or your classroom) can raise field trip money by creating products with customized photos from this site. Middle school and high school art or computer teachers will enjoy a teaching unit on this no-cost site. It has similar functions of high-cost photo doctoring sites yet it is FREE. Have students/groups create a photo collection to illustrate a curriculum concept, such as “habitats” or “repetition in nature” by editing their own digital images to emphasize the concept. Share the finished work on your class wiki or student blogs so others can comment.
Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Looking for a kid-friendly comic strip generator? Use this easy to navigate site to create comic strips (free) and even t-shirts and other items that can be purchased. Use photos from your computer or the Internet (ethically obtained, of course). Add captions, word bubbles, icons, hats, glasses, and more to customize the pictures. Alter the pictures by stretching, cropping, framing, and even coloring to make a unique creation. Once finished, other users can comment and rate it. Share using a social networking site or embed in a wiki, blog, or site. Note that ads do appear on the site and students should be cautioned about these. 11240
In the Classroom: Skills required: Users must be able to find and upload local computer pictures or find suitable pictures on the Internet. It is wise to use your own pictures or those pictures online that are copyright free. Follow the very easy to use tools and directions on the site. Click create to begin and create a login. Though an email is required you can begin using without any problems. Follow the screens to complete the customizing of your comic strip.
Safety/security: Students should be taught the basics of commenting and what is considered appropriate. All creations appear in a gallery and can be commented on by others. The home page of this site includes changing “featured” content contributed by the general public and may not be suitable for the classroom (however, no instances of such has been found by this reviewer.) You may want to send students here via a direct link to the log-in page instead. This site allows outsiders to comment on and rate your projects. Many school policies prohibit such interaction, so be sure to check your school policy. You will want to discuss these features in the context of Internet Safety or establish specific written class rules and consequences for interacting with outsiders. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Consider creating a class account that all students log in to and use. Create specific titles that students remember are theirs. All projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online and explain to parents that only those who know the URL can find the projects. Written permission
is always a good idea.
In the classroom: Instead of writing boring summaries, why not summarize through a comic strip? Make a class book of the comics created throughout the year. That book will become the most read classroom book of all in an elementary classroom. Use comics to show sequencing of events. When studying about characterization, create dialog to show (not tell) about a character. Another idea - why not use the comic strips for conflict resolution or other guidance issues (such as bullying). Sometimes it is easier for students to write it down (or draw the pictures) than use the actual words. World language and ESL/ELL teachers can assign students to create dialog strips as an alternate to traditional written assessments. Use to outline steps in a science experiment. Reinforce vocabulary by having students create strips with characters using the new words.
Teachers First Edge Review: for very slightly adventurous technology users. This free, beta site is a useful photo editing service. No registration or login is necessary. Edited pictures are saved on the computer and are not public for viewing. Use this site to create montaged images, resize photos for emailing or use on wikis, etc, or simply because your camera files are too big to store.
There are public comments on the main page. You may want to preview the comments before sharing the site with your students. At the time of this review, one of the comments did have an inappropriate word. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. 9568
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Know how to browse to find files saved on your computer and be willing to “play” with the tools and menus, if you are unfamiliar with photo-editors.
How to use: Click Jump In to access Photoshop-type tools. Select an image saved on your computer or your desktop or create a new one. Currently, pictures cannot be accessed from online photo storage sites. The top menu contains almost any option the average user would need to edit and manipulate pictures. The menu is easy to navigate and read. Help is minimal at this time. The site is easy to use, and users of other paint and editing applications will be at ease using this site. Students will love the filter options for altering pictures. Multiple images can be edited or “montaged.” When editing is complete, save the image by specifying an image name and file type (JPEG or PNG). Click "OK," and the file will be downloaded to your machine. The simple interface and fast site makes this a great editing application to try.
Classroom use: Use this site to add information to pictures for class and student projects and creations. Add attributions (copyright info and sources) directly to the photo. Add student responses to pictures of class experiments. Create artistic effects with student pictures. The ideas for picture taking, creating, and sharing are endless. Make this a link from your class wiki so students can cut down file sizes before uploading large photos or make edited composites to communicate their message visually. As you study propaganda, have students create propaganda images to share on a class wiki or classroom bulletin board. Art teachers will love the ability to teach photo montage without expensive software. Make creative bulletin board displays from multiple digital pictures of special events, adding text and captions right into the photo. ESL/ELL, language, and special ed teachers can ask students to label images with sentences including correct vocabulary and grammar. Have students in your reading class create visual idiom images using digital pictures.
Keep this tool handy as a link from your teacher web page for quick access any time!
Teacher's First Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users. At this site, students can create, share, and "remix" comics. The "remix" link allows students to add their own twist to ready-made comics. Students can read comics created by others and also make comments on them. Other highlights of the site include a featured author and blog. The free version of Pixton is open to the public. There is also a fee-based version for schools (with teacher and student registration levels and safety tools) with a 30-day free trial period available. Be aware: the Pixton for Schools (if continued after 30-days) will cost $1 per student. See an example created by the TeachersFirst Edge team. 9280
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: Register and watch “trailers” or play with the simple tools to choose a situation (template), color, graphics and symbols. Then enter dialog. Make changes with simple tools alongside each block of your comic. Save your work to come back later or you may "publish" right away. You have a choice about whether others are allowed to “remix” your work. You also have the option to edit work or embed it in a website, blog or wiki. Comics can also be shared by URL (copy it from the address bar) or sent via email.
Safety/Security Concerns: Registration requires an email address.
You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. There are some safeguards in place to be sure students use appropriate language and actions. It would be wise to preview whatever you wish to share with your students, however, since the general public can create comics with their own ideas. Students should submit their work without identifiable names and location, according to your school policy, perhaps using their newly-assigned Gmail address and account (monitored by you, since you own the master account). You will also want written parent permission before allowing students to create comics that can be seen online.
Possible Uses: Use comics to write summaries of current events, responses to reading assignments, expressions of teen problems, and creative works of humor. With younger students, use an interactive whiteboard or projector to create a class comic on a current topic of study, such as the life cycle of the frog or ways to conserve energy. Use this site to integrate an art and writing lesson. Why not have students create comics to demonstrate a concept in science or social studies, rather than a traditional paper/pencil quiz? World language teachers and ESL/ELL teachers will love the chance for students to demonstrate written language skills in the “context” of their comic situations.
TeachersFirst Edge Review: For ANY technology user -- an EASY way to try making your own online content for the first time! At this site, students get practice using Google Maps’ satellite technology and user-created hints to locate a place from a Place spotting “quiz,” as pictured with a Google map. A world map below the “quiz” location image allows them to explore the globe and zoom in to pinpoint the location shown in the “quiz” map. Students use hints to narrow their search area. Be aware, MOST of the hints are in English, but there are a few in other world languages.
Once students or class find the map location, they can choose to try other maps or send a map ”quiz” to others. The real power of Place Spotting is that students, teachers, and whole-class groups can also create their Own Place Spotting “quizzes” with accompanying hints using the "Create" page. Here is a sample made by the TeachersFirst review team. This site also includes a blog and search option (i.e. to find maps in specific languages).
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In the Classroom: Skills Needed: this site requires few "skills" and no membership to operate. Click Create to create your own place spotting “quiz” for others to solve. The simple steps have numbered directions. Be sure to enter the security “code” and click “Store” for your quiz to be saved. Note that you may decide whether to make it “private” (invisible to others except by invitation). Share the quiz you create by copy/pasting the URL that shows after you click “store.” You can always find it again using the search tool, but knowing the URL allows you to give it to others as a link. You might want to “collect” your class Place Spotting links in a Word document (for safe keeping) or on a class wiki.
Security/Safety Concerns: The only safety concerns are if kids write questions or use places that might lure people to their school or identify themselves (their own house, for example). Check the box to make the quiz private if it is so revealing that you want to keep it only for those you know (GET THE URL and be sure the teacher keeps the list. Private ones cannot be found using the search!). Kids can use them to quiz each other if the teacher/kids shared the group of "private" ones as links on a teacher web page, class wiki, or in a word document (clickable).
Possible Uses: Use this site when studying the concept of satellite imagery and map skills. Contrast this site's technology with that of a hand held GPS device. Discuss the map skills needed to use it, including the comparison of the ZOOM tool with a map scale. This is a great activity for ESL and ELL or weaker readers since there is little language involved! Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector for a daily "map challenge" or as an anticipatory set/activator at the start of any place-related lesson. Choose places as a class and create your own maps, or have students work in cooperative learning groups to create their own maps about places in their community, landmarks of local history, or cultural sites of countries they study in world languages (be sure to mark private, if they are maps that reveal too much information). Classes could build a community treasure hunt of local history or a landform "find-it" on their wiki, simply by including the URLs -- even add digital pictures of the actual location with each "quiz." You will want to us the areas with higher-resolution images for landform study! Older students can put links or embed the quiz on their blogs or wikis, too. Literature lessons could include Placespotting quizzes for major sites in the stories (assuming they are real) or important places in the author’s life. You may want to list this site on your class website; families could map out vacation spots, countries of ancestry, and more.
Teachers First Edge Review: For very adventurous technology users and bloggers. Plurk is a microblogging platform for quick 140 character “plurks” about what you are doing, thinking, or mentally asking. Plurks show as a timeline along with those of your friends. Comments to plurks are attached to the original and conversations are easy to track and continue. Plurk brings interconnectivity between friends and is more like a social network than a blog. Registration with an email is required and managing login and password is necessary. Instant messaging and mobile blogging options are possible. 9485
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: Plurk is free, and no download or installation is necessary. Users must join (email required). This site is not difficult to navigate. Left click on the timeline to drag it to earlier posts. Unread plurks and replies appear as a number beside each plurk and in the timeline. Along the top of the timeline are user controls. “My profile” contains your contact information and details. Upload a photo, customize the colors of your outline, or add a widget to your blog or site that contains your plurks. Use “My friends” to invite friends, create cliques that allow you to segregate who sees certain plurks, and blocking other users. “Alerts” contain friend requests sent to you. Click on “Interesting plurkers” to see plurks from everywhere which you can customize to gender, age, city, state, or country. Use “My account” to change privacy settings and set up instant messaging. Create your plurks below the timeline and use the dropdown to change your verb from “is” to “says,” wishes,” “feels,” and many others. Hover over a person’s picture or name to send a private plurk. Plurk messages can be edited but replies cannot. Pictures, images, and links can be added as well. Also below the timeline are tabs to see plurks from you and your friends, your plurks alone, and private plurks. View your Karma -- which increases with plurks and friends and unlocks new features. Use “Embed your Plurk widget” easily to your blog by simply entering your login information.
Safety/Security: Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You should also check policies on using a social tool, perhaps sharing your rationale and practices pro-actively so your administration understands what is happening in your classroom. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Managing and remembering of login and password information is also a concern. Be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” Create a written and signed classroom policy that outlines necessary privacy settings and actions that would be considered misuse. Check these regularly and take appropriate actions to enforce rules when needed. Students need to be guided in how to safely blog and share information. Students may come across questionable content if reading through the “interesting plurkers” tab. As with all social networking sites, students need to be aware of proper ways to communicate at school and at home. Teachers should be a part of all student groups to monitor use.
Possible uses: Students can use Plurk to discuss group work on a project, create study groups, ask for help, or communicate with those who can mentor their class or subject they are learning. Many students will find success with sending bits of information at a time and letting the conversations evolve from there. Literature teachers may want to require students to plurk their thoughts within small groups as they read chapters or acts of longer works for homework, generating discussion and active reading. Social studies teachers could assign a similar task as students read about history. Math teachers may want to encourage “plurking” as students work on longer, more complex problems. Those writing lab reports for science class may find that plurking will help them collaborate in interpreting data. Consider setting up a regular class “plurk time” in the evening on certain nights of the week or for snow days.
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: for slightly adventurous technology users (NOT difficult!). This VERY simple tool lets you or your students make simple, folded small booklets that fit in a pocket. You choose what will appear on each page: from blank space to lines to calendars or checklists. Then print the single sheet (and run copies!) for a student "organizer" useful for homework assignments, long-term project deadlines, checklists, even student-made study guides. Students use the booklets the old fashioned way: by WRITING in them; but the clever, customizable format lets you teach organizational skills in a way that works. REQUIRES FLASH!
In the Classroom: Skills needed: go to PocketMod and follow simple drag-and-drop visual screen to create the PocketMod from their many organizer options. Print and fold (NO Acrobat Reader required). More skilled users should consider downloading the free "PDF to PocketMod" converter that will take any pdf document and format it to the small, foldable format. If you have handouts in pdf format or can make them from your scanner/copier, you can make ANYTHING into a PocketMod. The converter assumes you have Acrobat Reader.
Possible uses: have students design their own study guides before a chapter test or maintain a project checklist to be submitted along with the completed project to build better organizational skills.
Warning: Students will quickly learn that PocketMod is a great way to make CHEAT SHEETS. Be forewarned of student cleverness!
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: for moderately adventurous technology users. Create simple audio podcasts using this online tool and the free space they provide. Simply put, this tool lets you create and place sound recordings online for people to listen to and/or download from a web site. There are MANY free podcasts in a variety of subject areas (art, health, technology, music, business, and more). The site itself is a "web 2.0," social networking style site, so some schools may have it blocked. Ask about unblocking just YOUR teacher account so you can have students access it while at school and under your supervision.
What can it do? You can record sound directly with the microphone built or plugged into your computer and make it available for people to listen to online or download to their MP3 player. See and hear a sample we made for you. 8094
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site (free); Membership requires email. Then attach a mike or use your built-in computer mike; create the podcast by clicking a record button,(you may have to tell your computer to "allow" nonsecure items over and over). Choose a background for your podcast page. Share it with others using one of several sharing options on the "My Podcast" tab, including copying the link to paste in an email or newsletter or embedding the podcast in your class web page or wiki.
Safety/Security: Podomatic does not allow memberships for those under 13. Teachers using this tool with younger students should do so under supervision and with a teacher-controlled account. The site is a "general public" site, so the home page has links to recent podcasts that may not be appropriate for the classroom. Discuss this possibility and tell students NOT to click on other's work or simply avoid sending students into the site on their own. Be sure you have parent permission and check school policies before allowing students to post work online. Carefully select or SKIP many sharing mechanisms for safety's sake. Limit any identifiable information within the podcasts. You may want to share the links to class podcasts only with your students and parents. If you have students record pod
This section of Nik Peachey's Learning Technology Blog for ESL/ELL teachers offers 20 ways to use web cameras for classroom activities. There are videos, blog entries, reviews of some GREAT sites, and more. These suggestions include things such as diaries, dictation, class research, poetry, having a tip of the day, questions, guessing games, news, and student support. If you are not a techie, he has also made suggestions about which type of web cameras work and how to use them. This is a great tool to learn about some new online tools. Be sure to check out TokBox, mentioned in this blog and 
A fantastic and complete site that tells you all you need to know about making digital stories with students. The wide grade level range shows the versatility of the site for use with any student based upon his readiness to tell stories. The site includes everything from goals to resources to the step-by-step process used to create the stories. An example is also shown. Adobe Acrobat is necessary to see some examples.
