Technology Offers a Novel Way to Teach Writing

The time is finally here for my annual list of favorite sites of the year. This year I decided to up my post to the top 100 instead of 25 because of the number of sites that I reviewed and the popularity of the post. I tried to cover a wide range of sites, from flash-card creators to digital storytelling, and of course social networks, which really stood out in 2011. I hope everybody enjoys the list and has as much fun reading it as I did creating it.

1. Conduit Mobile: Without a doubt the coolest, most innovative site i came across this year. ideal for bloggers, Web designers, and schools in one-to-one environments looking to create a great-looking mobile app free (could be a great way to share news or homework in a mobile environment).

2. Gnowledge:One of the best collaborative quiz/test-creation sites around. this excellentlooking site should be a mainstay for years to come.
3. Google+: A great social network and alternative to Facebook. It really shines with its control and visually stunning video-chat (hangouts) features.
4. WatchKnow: An excellent place to find free educational videos for students. An easy site to navigate, as everything is categorized by subject and rated for ageappropriate levels.
5. muvee Cloud: A redesign of the popular video/presentation site shwup. easy to use, has a nice, polished look, and is great for creating projects with photos and videos. Best of all, muvee Cloud is free to educators and students.
6. StudyBlue: A great site for making flash cards and notes. Also, because of its newly designed mobile app, it makes studying a treat because you can study anywhere, anytime.
7. YouTube Teachers: A wonderful site designed to help teachers use educational videos in the classroom.
8. PrimaryWall: A site similar to Wallwisher, designed and built for schools. A paid account filters the “walls” (interactive bulletin boards), which are easy to create. Also, there are lots of free educational resources to use for lesson plans and ideas.
9. Skype in the classroom: Designed for education, this site brings together teachers, projects, and resources from around the world. It is also a free site intended for videoconferencing and global learning.
10. TXTNLRN: An innovative site that teaches through text messaging. Even enrollment is done via a text message. it’s great for those wanting to learn at their own pace and try something new.

Click here to see 11-100

The Google Art Project includes digital images from 17 of the world’s greatest museums. View artwork with incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.
http://www.googleartproject.com/

The Reel app helps you quickly upload and share presentations. Each presentation is given a unique URL which allows the creator to poll an audience for their impressions.
http://www.reelapp.com/

The Bounce app is an easy way to critique websites. Bounce instantly takes a screenshot of any website and allows the user to add notes on the image – which then can be saved or shared through Facebook and Twitter.
http://www.bounceapp.com/

The Spur app is a “fun and easy way to critique your visual design.”  Just paste a URL (or upload an image) and you’ll be able to use seven different tools to help you find what’s working (and what isn’t!).
http://www.spurapp.com/

Scribble Maps use the Google Maps database to create instant maps that teachers or students can customize, draw on, and share.
http://scribblemaps.com/

PrimaryWall is a web-based sticky note tool designed for schools that allows pupils and teachers to work together in real-time. Create an instant digital wall to toss up notes or use as an instant discussion tool.
http://primarywall.com/

Aww is a web whiteboard, which is also touch-friendly, that allows you to easily draw sketches, collaborate with others and share them with the world.
http://awwapp.com/

Bookboon’s free online textbooks for students are focused and to the point. They are all written by highly respected professors from top universities in the world and cover topics such as economics, statistics, IT, engineering and natural science.

The site also features free books for business professionals and free travel guides. There are more than 500 Textbooks, Business Books & Travel Guides in their collection.

http://bookboon.com/en/textbooks

From Dan Rezac and Scott Meech of the EdReach.us crowd (great podcasts for those interested in the professional side of education), a thunderously cool effort to get teachers to share the small and large victories each day via Twitter (hashtag #eduwin):
http://whatisyoureduwin.com/

For you art folks, here’s a rather amazing tour of the Sistine Chapel.  I was captivated.
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/index_sistina_en.htm

From GCT buddy Chris Clementi, a link to a visualization of how color is perceived culturally:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/colours-in-cultures/

On the techno-artistically moving videos front, see the award-winning “World Builder,” suggested by David Zach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzFpg271sm8

Another gallery is the Gallery of Parks in Google’s Street View, which can be a great way to take a quick trip when you don’t have time to jump on a plane, train, or horse:
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/gallery.html#parks-of-the-world

Also very cool from Street View is the opportunity to explore places like Pompeii and the Amazon in order to wildly enhance a lesson:
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/08/street-view-goes-to-amazon.html

Think it’s important for kids to understand computer science concepts in our changing world?  Here’s an effort to provide resources for teachers teaching with and/or about technology (it’s going on this week!):
http://www.csedweek.org/ 

The STEM Video Game Challenge is up and going!  Entries close March 12, 2012.
http://www.stemchallenge.org/?tr=y&auid=9869358 

Superlibrarian Meg Omainsky has launched her homage to the Google Demo Slam for the coming semester.  It’s called STEM Slam, and encourages students to make videos telling about STEM concepts in their daily lives.  You can make one video that could compete in both this and one of Next Vista’s contests – what a deal!
http://www.stemslam.com/index.html

Looking for math videos on sites other than NextVista.org?  Check out this great wiki, which was nominated for a 2011 Edublog Award:
http://studentmathmovies.wikispaces.com/

From Peggy Zegley, a great site combining vocabulary for English language learners and an effort to address hunger:  http://www.freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/

Still on the change-the-world front (a front we know well), there is ChangeEducate, a non-profit initiative that seeks to educate students on issues of poverty: http://changeeducate.org/

For those interested in editing media online, take a look at OneTrueMedia (the free version is limited, but does give you the chance to try it out, with reasonable prices if you go premium):
http://www.onetruemedia.com/

Need 12 dozen places to educate yourself online?  If so, this next link is certainly for you.  Lots of sites, broken down by categories, for classes, open courseware, etc.  The only flaw I saw is that they are missing NextVista.org.  Perhaps it’ll be 145 sites next year!
http://www.marcandangel.com/2010/11/15/12-dozen-places-to-self-educate-yourself-online/

MERLOT, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, rates lots of online textbooks and course resources (over 2000, if I’m reading it right) at this site:
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?materialType=Open%20Textbook&sort.property=overallRating

For you folks interested in possibilities of tablets and other mobile devices, from Med Kharbach we get the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning site:
http://educationaltech-med.blogspot.com/

Michigan dynamo John Sowash has a site covering all sorts of issues on iPads in Your Classroom:
https://sites.google.com/a/sowashventures.com/gpad/

The folks at Escondido Unified have gathered info on iOS apps.  They’re not impressed with the difficulties of the volume licensing arrangement Apple has, so only list free ones.  Makes sense!
https://sites.google.com/a/eusd.org/eusd-iread/ipod-apps

Many of you, like me, are interested in Android-powered tablets, and there is an interesting review on such things (a comparison of the iPad2 and Xoom, specifically) at the following link.  Thanks to Palo Alto teacher Roni Habib for this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml_gaCCUyVs

David Andrade has posted some great Android resource sites in the Tech & Learning pages:
http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3448

Those of you in Michigan already know how cool the MACUL organization and conference are, but the good news for everyone else is that membership in MACUL is now free!  Crazy good deal, that.  You can sign up at: http://membership.macul.org/account/register.aspx

Still on the Michigan and conferences theme, you might want to consider the conference with the best name of any I’ve known, Wildly Exciting Education Conference, which will happen at Grand Valley State (Allendale, MI) in August (discount for those registered by Jan 15th):
http://www.gvsu.edu/coe/wildly

Lucy Gray and Steve Hargadon ran another fantastic Global Ed Conference this year, and you can use this link to get to the session archives (webinars on all manner of topics, uses Blackboard Collaborate, formerly Elluminate):
http://globaleducation.ning.com/page/2011-conference-quick-links?xg_source=msg_mes_network 

When talking about webinars, one might also think of how to record an online conversation, and here’s a post about doing exactly that with Skype:
http://community.skype.com/t5/General-Discussion/Recording-Skype-Calls-and-Video-Calls/td-p/169088

There are amazing stories of work going on in the poorest parts of the world, stories that may not make the sensationalist news outlets, through a beautiful project called Under-Told Stories.  Find out about it at:
http://undertoldstories.org/

A similar site with a goal “to create cinematic narratives that speak to the heart of the human condition” is MediaStorm.  Thanks to Guven Witteveen for pointing me to this one.
http://mediastorm.com/

Ever needed public domain historical footage for a video project?  The Prelinger Archives is a wonderful site for exactly that: http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger

Educational consultant David Kapuler of Tech & Learning released his “Top 100 Sites of 2011,” and for those who found the preceding not enough, cut loose here:
http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3467

To finish, here’s one you might know about, but is way too fun not to mention: The Period Table of Videos (University of Nottingham).  Notable is the rocking ‘fro on the main prof, which you can see in this one for Argon
http://www.periodicvideos.com/videos/018.htm

It turns out said professor has a wikipedia page, which is cool, though no mention of his hair.  Was tempted to edit the page to celebrate the epic coiffure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyn_Poliakoff

To utilize any or all of these site,  use the links provided below to go to the website. From there, you can sign in using your SPACS email address and password. No need to create a new account. And it automatically gives you all of the educator’s account features!

As additional sites become available, I will add them to our account and send a notification.

BrainPOP

Log in to the popular educational website, featuring animated movies, quizzes and more!
http://www.brainpop.com/openid/sso/index_s.php?from=google&domain=spacs.k12.wi.us

SlideRocket

SlideRocket is a web-based tool that allows you to create and share presentations.
http://app.sliderocket.com/app/GoogleSSO.aspx?domain=spacs.k12.wi.us&listing=2

EasyBib

Automatic works cited and bibliography formatting for MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian styles
https://easybib.rpxnow.com/openid/start?openid_identifier=spacs.k12.wi.us&token_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.easybib.com%2Fauth%2Foauth%2Ftoken

Feel Free To Download Document To Use While Reading: Transforming-a-lesson-with-technology

1. Locate that special lesson – Find that successful lesson from the past that you wish to transform. This can be one single lesson or may include a project filled with several lessons. While the  form provided has been built for single lessons… multiple forms could be incorporated for an entire unit.
2. Declare your standards – After all, why are you doing the lesson? What standards in the curriculum are you trying to reinforce?  Feel free to name more than one… but do keep it simple. Perhaps you wish to cover a power standard or a core standard. Remember that you may wish to complement your curricular area with a standard in another area. This is a great way to provide relevance to students and possibly even collaborate with another teacher. You may even wish to use technology and collaborate with another teacher outside of your school, district, state, or country. Most importantly, start with the standards! Remember, integrating technology means just that… a powerful way to engage and facilitate student competence with curricular content.
3. Incorporate at least two 21st century skills – You may wonder why I state two. First, I don’t think it will be difficult… and 21^st century skillsare so important to our student’s futures.  You may actually find your project will incorporate a large number of these important skills.  Second, in using two 21st century skills, you will be sure that one is measurable on a rubric. Research indicates that the three easiest 21st century skills to measure include critical thinking/problem solving, communication, and collaboration. Critical thinking and problem solving can be measured using tests, quizzes, presentations, reports, discussion, and observation. Communication and collaboration can be measured by observation, journals, seminars, and self/peer assessment.  Third, one of those skills should be one that may be harder, due to difficulty, to determine whether or not it is evident in the student work.  In fact, the  rubric may be recorded simply as  preset/not present, or a statement of “developing”…” evident”… “excels”. These 21^st century skills include creative thinking, innovation, empathy, inquiry, intrinsic motivation, and meta-cognition. I think it is fair to assume that technology is already a part of the lesson.
4. Develop a fun and engaging title – This title should provide a hook for students bringing out items of interest. It should provide relevance while being molded to appeal to the 21^st century learner. Have fun, and include it on worksheets, wikis, parent newsletters, class web site, and everyday references to the lesson.
5. Outline the technology you are going to incorporate – Make sure you keep it simple at first!  You do not want the technology to steal the importance of the content standards and 21^st century skills being emphasized. Technology can include Web 2.0 applications, Mega Websites, Software, various devices… phones…cameras…GPS…. Flip Video (remember… not all technology is a computer). The preceding sentence has links to some of these topics with resources found in my 21centuryedtech Wiki. Please take a look. Remember that any technology used may require some instruction. This instruction can be lecture, on-line tutorials, peer assistance, and/or handouts. Wow, an opportunity for more 21^st century skills! Try to incorporate more than one technology and remember that the technology could be used for differentiation.
6. Include an advance organizer in your lesson –  An advance organizer can be anything that assists students in applying their past knowledge and connecting it to the new knowledge that you are trying to teach. It may be a step by step instruction sheet, a graphic display to understand, a picture, a short filmstrip, a tutorial, or a simple discussion.  An advance organizer provides structure and meaning to students. In fact, you may have the lesson be a advance organizer for an entire unit.
7. Incorporate formative assessment in the lesson -  It is the formative assessment in a video game that is powerful in engaging students. In a game, playesr understand where they stand and where they need to improve. In the classroom, formative assessment can be regarded as check points before the final lesson is completed. Formative assessments can be check off sheets, a conference, teacher observation, and/or discussion. Don’t forget that formative assessment can also include peers as students collaborate and critique each other through formal or informal methods. Last, formative assessment should include self-evaluation that can be one of a number of methods including self -checks, reflections, and journals. Most of all, remember that the role of formative assessment is to give quality to the final outcome, support the standards, and support real learning.
8. The final product or outcome – The final outcome must be able to be assessed using a rubric, support the content standards, and facilitate 21^stcentury skills. It could be large, but may also be small. Technology must be integrated in a useful manner while complementing the curriculum. Also, the final project must be understandable to students. If possible, it should have the ability to be shared beyond the audience of the students’ teacher.
9. Make a timeline for lesson– Perhaps the lesson is one period or spans multiple periods. Create a timeline that includes major points including introduction, pre-organizers, lesson, work activities, formative assessment, tutorials to scaffold learning, and submission of the final work. The teacher should have an idea and it may even be appropriate to include student input. This time line can be made in increments of minutes, hours, or periods. It is also important that students be aware of the timeline and be held accountable. Once again technology can be used to support the timeline.
10. Assessment rubric – The assessment rubric should include a measure of content and 21^st century skills.  Decide on a percentage for each. Many teachers often use a 70% content and 30% 21^st century skills. Remember when grading 21^st century skills that the easiest to assess is critical thinking/problem solving, communication, and collaboration. It may reflect individual and group work if appropriate. When working in a group it is effective to have individual component grades in the rubric. The rubric can also contain points of formative assessment and metacognitive activities.  Last, you may wish to include technology integration in the rubric including such tools as RubiStar Rubric Maker.

So there you have it! I hope you have enjoyed these ten steps that will transform those awesome lessons that you have used for years, and bring them into the 21^st century. Please feel free to download my Transforming-a-lesson-with-technology document to help you convert your project. Please continue to join me … future posts will also contain resources on Digital Curriculum,  evaluating web resources, Project Based Learning, STEM, Web 2.0, and so much more on 21st Century Learning. Please give this article a retweet if you scroll to the bottom! It’s a great way to spread the word and I appreciate your support. Remember to follow me on Twitter at mjgormans and subscribe to my blog at 21centuryedtech. Thanks, and until next time…  take a moment to look through your files and begin transforming that jukebox to iPod! I am sure you will make a great selection. Have a wonderful and transformative week! – Mike

Originally posted on Tech & Learning, http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3317

http://www.agoogleaday.com/

Publishing content online in eye-catching formats is easier than ever. Use these easy-to-use tools to publish, share and celebrate student work.

Students love to publish their projects online and share with their family and friends. Use these easy-to-use tools to publish, share and celebrate student work. For example, in the article Harvest time, a season for learning, several project ideas were mentioned for cross-curricular integration of the fall season. The following web 2.0 tools would be perfect to showcase these types of student projects.

Online content publishing (leaving out the massive blogging category) falls into two broad categories.

1. Some convert publications created solely in other applications, such as Microsoft Word or in PDF format, into an interactive online format. This works well to transform existing student work into an online portfolio.
2. In other websites, the creation is accomplished on the site itself. The text, images, etc. are added to each page and the final product is a virtual book.

Keep these two types of online publishing in mind when you are designing student projects.

Check out these sites to publish student work:

• Yudu: Lets you upload all sorts of content including Word documents and PDFs. It will quickly convert the documents into an impressive virtual magazine with flipping pages. Account creation is optional but an email address is required. You can also set privacy settings to public or private.
• Flipsnack: Very similar to Yudu and is extremely easy to use. The only caveat is the document you upload must be in PDF format. If you have a copy machine at school that scans into PDF, load it with student work, create a PDF and convert it into a virtual book.
• Issuu: Pronounced “issue”, is another option to upload almost any document format and transform it into a virtual flipping book. Of course, you can share and or embed the resulting creation. For example, you can embed the book on your classroom homepage or wiki.
• Tikatok: Aimed at younger students and is a wonderful tool for story creation. Students begin with story starters or a completely blank book. Text, images and imagination are added and an amazing digital book is created. The final product can be viewed online and a print copy can be ordered.
• Mixbook: Very similar to Tikatok but features some sophisticated editing tools perfect for middle or high school students. The site includes numerous templates and images to ensure a professional-looking book. Mixbook also offers accounts designed for teachers.
• Epubbud: Allows you to convert and existing document into an e-book or create the book on the site itself. The difference is that it converts the book to the epub format, which is compatible with numerous readers and tablets. The user interface is not as elegant as some of the other website choices but is an efficient way to generate an epub format book.
• Lulu: Like a combination of Epubbud and Mixbook. You have the ability to upload a document and convert to epub format. In addition, the site contains photo book tools very similar to Mixbook. Add images and text to tell a story. Tools are also available for creating poetry books and digital portfolios.
• Scribd: Arguably the best known online publishing site. Upload any file or even import from Google Docs. One drawback for the school setting is the number of advertisements.
• YouPublish: YouPublish is similar to Scribd. Upload virtually any type of file, including video, and it will be viewable and shareable. It’s very easy to upload content and this site works well for older students.