The Rearview Mirror 3/31/2012

For those of you who may have missed a Catch of the Day or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

Monday

The mission of soon-to-be-launched TED-Ed is to "capture and amplify the voices of great educators around the world."

Tuesday

LearnZillion provides easy access to quality video math lessons, assessment items, and progress reporting. Get practical teaching resources, create playlists for your class, track homework, and deliver lessons to your students in a timely manner.

Wednesday

Smithsonian's History Explorer is a full-featured search tool for all the educational resources from the National Museum of American History. History Explorer was developed by the museum to offer K-12 teachers and students hundreds of free, innovative online resources for teaching and learning American history.

Thursday

Shelfster is a free tool designed to collect resources and place them all at your fingertips when creating a document. Your ideas and sources of inspiration are gathered together in one place, no longer lost or scattered in different locations.

CK-12 Flexbooks: Next Generation of Flexbooks

CK-12, first mentioned here in July 2010, is working to establish the development and distribution of quality educational content that can be used as core texts as well as to provide a flexible context for learning.

In June, CK-12 Foundation is introducing the next generation FlexBooks system. In addition to the current FlexBooks functionality, the new system introduces learning in the form of concepts, small units of content that can be used to learn or review a particular topic.

Friends of CK-12 are invited to explore their new system and help them improve by providing feedback. The system is a work in progress and regular updates will be made based on this feedback.

Click here to get started with the beta quick start guide and create an account. Existing CK-12 accounts are not a part of the new system yet, so an account specific to this new system will need to be created.

In other news, CK-12 Foundation and Encyclopedia of Life are joining forces to produce Understanding Biodiversity - a FlexBook for secondary level students, created by secondary level students.  Understanding Biodiversity will consist of species pages describing organisms studied in the life sciences.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

 

COD - 3/29/2012 - Shelfster [Writing]

Shelfster is a free tool designed to collect resources and place them all at your fingertips when creating a document. Your ideas and sources of inspiration are gathered together in one place, no longer lost or scattered in different locations.

Shelfster is sort of a hybrid of Evernote on the capturing and collecting side and Google Docs on the document creation side.

Shelfster's capturing tools let you clip text, capture all or parts of screens, bookmark sites, take notes, save online images, take snapshots, and record audio.

Features of the ShelfsterOnline Document Creator:

• Create new documents with everything easily at hand
• Access captured information and previous documents
• Drag-and-Drop images into documents
• Share documents and get feedback
• Export to PDF or HTML, download, or print documents
• Organize captured information and documents

Watch the videoShelfster - tools for writers

Try out the Shelfsterdemo

There are Shelfster desktop apps for both Mac and Windows, mobile apps for iOS and Android, browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, and a convenient bookmarklet for any browser.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

COD - 3/28/2012 - History Explorer [History]

Smithsonian's History Explorer is a full-featured search tool for all the educational resources from the National Museum of American History. History Explorer was developed by the museum to offer K-12 teachers and students hundreds of free, innovative online resources for teaching and learning American history.

The resources found at History Explorer focus on learning history by "reading objects for the stories they hold about the nation and its many peoples." Artifacts selected from over 3 million items in the museum's collections are featured in the learning activities that draw on the knowledge and skills of the Smithsonian Museum's curatorial staff.

Search the resources of History Explorer by keyword and filter your results by grade level, resource type, historical era, and cross-curricular connections.

The Interactives & Media section includes a complete listing of all the standards-based educational resources that include audio, video, and interactive resources. Many of these resources are designed to be used independently by the learner, thus facilitating differentiated instruction.

The How To Use This Site section includes several tools to help you get the most out of the site. You can also download a brief tutorial to help you start using History Explorer.

Learners can participate in Smithsonian's History Explorer online community and interact with other users in a dialog about American history.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

COD - 3/27/2012 - LearnZillion [Math]

LearnZillion provides easy access to quality video math lessons, assessment items, and progress reporting. Get practical teaching resources, create playlists for your class, track homework, and deliver lessons to your students in a timely manner.

Teachers can get practical teaching resources from LearnZillion. You can watch lessons on the topics youʼre about to teach, even hear the rationale behind a lesson with the “directorʼs commentary” edition. Then download the accompanying lesson plan and slides to use with your classes. Each lesson highlights a Common Core standard starting with math for grades 3-9.

Create a playlist by dragging in the standards you are teaching that week, then assign that playlist to your whole class. A short quiz after each lesson can be used to track student progress. LearnZillion scores it and automatically updates each studentʼs profile. Use LearnZillion for homework and all the scoring and tracking is done for you.

Sign up for a free LearnZillion teacher account and get access to hundreds of video lessons that you can use to create a customized learning experience for each class or for individual students.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

COD - 3/26/2012 - TED-Ed [Video]

 

The mission of soon-to-be-launched TED-Ed is to "capture and amplify the voices of great educators around the world."

TED-Ed pairs extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a library of videos meant to fuel the spirit of inquiry. The site featuring these new TED-Ed Originals, as well as some powerful new learning tools, is expected to launch early next month.

In the meantime, TED-Ed's YouTube channel features all of their new videos.

You can sign up to get TED-Ed news by email or follow @TED_ED on Twitter to keep informed of new developments on the site.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

 

The Rearview Mirror 3/24/2012

For those of you who may have missed a Catch of the Day or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

Monday

Scholastic Storia is a free e-reading app for iPad created by the people at Scholastic. The design of Storia is intended to help kids learn to read in a fun and interactive way.

Tuesday

Classroom Products Warehouse (CPW) is an educational and supplemental instructional materials supplier providing premium math and science products at discount prices.

Wednesday

Coursekitis a free online tool that enables instructors to manage their courses and engage their students by combining robust tools like a gradebook, file management, communication, and calendaring with social networking features.

 

Thursday

TimeSearch is a search engine devised for anyone interested in history. The raw material of TimeSearch is events of any kind, whenever they may have happened.

EDge21 Weekend Poll

Poll Everywhere Adds Most Requested Features

Poll Everywhere, the subject of an earlier post, is a tool that uses cell phones and other mobile devices to create stylish real-time response experiences. They have just added their two most requested features: images and seamless Mac support.

You can now have students vote on pictures, including equations created with LaTeX.

The newest version of the Mac Presenter Application now offers:

• Automatic hiding and showing of polls according to slide notes.
• Simple insertion or deletion of a poll in the slide notes.
• Ability to create basic, ad-hoc polls without ever leaving the Mac Presenter.
• Floats on top of Keynote or PowerPoint slideshows automatically.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

COD - 3/22/2012 - TimeSearch [History]

 

TimeSearch is a search engine devised for anyone interested in history. The raw material of TimeSearch is events of any kind, whenever they may have happened.

By delivering events in the form of timelines, TimeSearch introduces the element of serendipitous discovery. Unlike a conventional search engine where you need to have some idea of what you are looking for, with TimeSearch you only need to indicate broad areas or themes that interest you and at what period in time.

A previously unknown event may be just the thing you were looking for. TimeSearch currently has nearly 10,000 events in its timelines and it is growing. Search results come with links for related text searches, images, links, and/or maps for each event in the timeline.

TimeSearch was developed by Bamber Gascoigne and Ian Henghes, who are fellow directors of the educational website HistoryWorld.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

 

COD - 3/21/2012 - Coursekit [Tools]

Coursekit is a free online tool that enables instructors to manage their courses and engage their students by combining robust tools like a gradebook, file management, communication, and calendaring with social networking features.

Coursekit has a vision of what an online class should look like. Instructors and students are provided with tools to manage their courses and easily interact with one another.

Coursekit has been designed to be easily and quickly set up and implemented. Students and instructors can post links, videos, and files; start discussions; write a blog post; or ask about an assignment.

More features of Coursekit:

• You can make a copy of your Coursekit for another section or semester.
• Export grades as CSV files that can used by MS Excel.
• You can make your course (or parts of it) public or only accessible to the students enrolled in it.

Watch a video demo of Coursekit (no audio)

Coursekit is a totally free, cloud-hosted service.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

COD - 3/20/2012 - Classroom Products Warehouse [Supplies]

Classroom Products Warehouse (CPW) is an educational and supplemental instructional materials supplier providing premium math and science products at discount prices.

Classroom Products Warehouse offers over 1400 products meant to make the K-12 math/science classroom experience more fun, engaging, and meaningful for teachers and students.

CPW applies modern methods and practices to better serve the evolving needs of their customers, providing teachers, students, and parents with access to high-quality educational tools.

A new free item is offered each month, as well as a selection of free products always available with purchases over $200 (US). You can qualify for free ground shipping on orders exceeding $100.

Classroom Products Warehouse, a division of A. Daigger & Company, was founded in 2000 as SAFE-T Classroom Products to bring safer geometry tools to math classrooms. The name was changed to Classroom Products Warehouse In 2006.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

COD - 3/19/2012 - Scholastic Storia [Reading]

 

Scholastic Storia is a free e-reading app for iPad created by the people at Scholastic. The design of Storia is intended to help kids learn to read in a fun and interactive way.

Scholastic Storia comes with five free books and access to a collection of children’s digital picture, chapter, and interactive books that are appropriate for ages 3 to 14.

Parents are able to set up individual bookshelves for each of their children, purchase new books for their children, and track each child’s progress through each book. Kids can customize their bookshelves and use a variety of features that help them read in an independent and engaged way.

The editors at Scholastic carefully curate a wide and growing selection of books of all topics, so that kids can find the books that are just-right for their reading levels and interests. The Scholastic Storia app meets the reading needs and levels of each child, providing age-appropriate features that help develop reading enjoyment and proficiency:

• audio narration and pronunciation tools
• phonics and vocabulary activities
• word games, story interactions, and animations
• customized, age-appropriate embedded dictionary

More proficient readers can take notes, highlight text, and access contextual videos.

Scholastic Storia's Parent Tools allow tracking of each reader’s activity and progression through each book with information such as what new words were learned, how many pages were read, and how long was spent reading each day.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

 

Car Talk and Learning Math

One of my favorite pastimes is listening to the Car Talk NPR radio show podcasts with Tom and Ray Magliozzi. I especially enjoy the weekly puzzlers (well, most of them).

When I listen to the callers and the questions they pose to Tom and Ray, I am frequently astounded by how little some people understand about the inner workings of their cars and trucks. Even though they can operate their vehicles, many of them haven't the foggiest idea what makes it work or why sometimes it doesn't work as expected.

But, then, this isn't really much different from how many people function mathematically. In many cases, they may know a rule that gets them a "right answer," But they have no idea why it works. Further, if the conditions vary from the expected and the "recipe" fails, they are totally unable to reason a resolution to their problem on their own.

I used to do an activity with middle-schoolers in which I placed 24 markers of some sort on the overhead projector and asked someone to illustrate 24 divided by 3. Invariably, the first volunteer would remove all but 8 of the markers, because 24 divided by 3 equals 8.
After some coaxing and cajoling, someone would eventually realize that dividing 24 by 3 means that 24 is split into 3 equal groups of 8 (or 8 groups of 3). 

Now, there is some understanding of what division means. Not just that there is a memorizable fact, 6/3=2, but WHY you get 2 when you divide 6 by 3.

Eight divided by 3 means to split 8 into 3 equal groups. Of course, this isn't possible without either allowing leftovers (a remainder) or using fractional pieces. Kids can see division as a physical process and what the logical consequences of that process might be. What would happened if you divided 5 into 2 equal groups?

Using this concept it is much easier to explain why division by zero is not valid. How do you group several things into 0 groups, or into groups of 0? It's nonsensical to try to do so!

I very strongly believe that kids need to see and represent mathematical concepts visually with drawings and diagrams and physically using objects and models. They need to ”dirty their hands” with math if they are to get a feel for the way it works.

The Rearview Mirror 3/17/2012

For those of you who may have missed a Catch of the Day or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

Monday

My Life In Numbers displays curious statistics, fun facts, and other interesting numbers updating live in real-time.

Tuesday

Children can draw, use photos, record voice, type, and then send their finished creations to family and friends using the My Story iOS app.

Wednesday

Use ClassPager to instantly message every student's phone and to run real-time classroom polls.

Thursday

Zopler is a social network where writers, authors and students can easily collaborate on writing stories together as a group.

COD - 3/15/2012 - Zopler [Writing]

 

Zopler is a social network where writers, authors and students can easily collaborate on writing stories together as a group.

Zopler members help each other write stories. Start new stories with a title, synopsis, or first line. Then watch your story unfold as others contribute to it. And, you can contribute to other user's stories, too.The idea being writer's block will never be an issue and there will always be helpful motivation to finish your story.

The unique Zopler story pages allow new paragraphs to be inserted within the storyline between existing paragraphs, not just at the end. Writers can also upload graphics and images to illustrate each paragraph. Users can vote for great stories and rate other member's contributions.

Watch the Zopler Introduction video

Zopler membership is free and there is no limit to the number of stories you can write.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

 

COD - 3/14/2012 - ClassPager [Tools]

Use ClassPager to instantly message every student's phone and to run real-time classroom polls.

Add your class name to the ClassPager system. A free ClassPager code for your classroom is generated. Share this unique code with students and parents. Anyone who texts ClassPager with this unique code will be "enrolled" in the class.

Any messages that you send from ClassPager will go to everyone who has enrolled. Replies can start an individual conversation. As a teacher, you only see the name and never the phone number.

Some things you can do with ClassPager:

• Broadcast updates to parents and students.
• Engage any student on any device both in and out of school.
• Ask and answer questions, individually or with groups of students.
• Assess everyone's understanding.
• Incorporate modern technology in your teaching safely and easily.

A free ClassPager account allows unlimited texting with up to 25 students in one class. Paid accounts that allow more classrooms and more students start at $10 (US) per month.

ClassPager protects everyone's phone numbers while you manage everything from the web. Students will never see your phone number.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

COD - 3/13/2012 - My Story [Digital storytelling]

Children can draw, use photos, record voice, type, and then send their finished creations to family and friends using the My Story iOS app.

My Story helps kids expand their art skills and self-expression in a new way, giving parents and teachers another tool to help develop these kinds of literacy skills.

My Story's drawing tools include multiple size-adjustable brushes and a pallet of 20 colors from which kids can choose. Add photos from the iPad's photo library or take a new photo from within the app (iPad 2+).

An easy-to-use button lets you start and stop voice recording on every page of your book. Voice recordings remain intact when your book is shared or published to iBooks. Kids can type words on each page of the book.

Watch a video introduction to My Story

You can create an unlimited number of My Story books. The finished book can be read right inside the app. Share your story book by email with anyone who has an iOS device. Stories can be published to iBooks.

Note: My Story - Book  Maker for Kids is $1.99 (US) in the iTunes App Store.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

ACLU-MN Guide to Students' Social Media Privacy

This document was created by ACLU-MN

Social Media Rights for Students

COD - 3/12/2012 - My Life In Numbers [Data]

 

My Life In Numbers displays curious statistics, fun facts, and other interesting numbers updating live in real-time.

My Life In Numbers measures the numbers related to all sorts of events, in several different ways. For instance, they are currently counting down to the London 2012 Olympics in tube passengers and spam emails sent. Other examples are measuring the distance travelled by light since Thomas Edison was born, the number of lightning strikes since the iTunes App Store opened.

Visitors can create their own personal events so you could measure how many seconds you've been alive, how many marriages there have been since you met your partner, how much money the David Beckham has earned since you started your job, or how many flights there will be until you go on holiday.

There is also a free MyLifeInNumbers iOS app currently available from the iTunes App Store.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0