The Rearview Mirror 6/30/2012

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

Kerpoof, a website owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company, is all about having fun, discovering things, and being creative.

Tuesday

Most people believe the periodic table is the most important chemistry reference there is. All the known elements are arranges in an informative array. For that reason, the Los Alamos National Laboratory offers the Periodic Table of Elements: A Resource for Elementary, Middle School, and High School Students.

Wednesday

Physion is a free 2D physics simulation software that can be used to easily create a wide range of interactive physics simulations and educational experiments.

Thursday

LectureTools, a free iPad app, is a student response system that also allows students to take notes linked with the slides and videos presented in class, answer instructor-generated questions, and ask the instructor questions.

NOTE: EDge21 will be on break next week and will return Monday, July 9.

COD - 6/28/2012 - LectureTools [Tools]

LectureTools, a free iPad app, is a student response system that also allows students to take notes linked with the slides and videos presented in class, answer instructor-generated questions, and ask the instructor questions. 

LectureTools provides an interactive presentation tool that includes an innovative student response system, a two-way student inquiry channel, and convenient study tools.

All notes, questions and activities are instantly synchronized with the LectureTools web application where instructors have uploaded slides, videos, and interactive questions. Students can use the LectureTools iPad app or the LectureTools web application to participate in class. 

Watch a video introduction to Lecture Tools

LectureTools has been independently shown to increase student engagement, especially in large classes, and can be integrated with most Learning Management Systems.

Instructors and students can try LectureToolsfree for their first two lectures with no payment information needed. LectureTools was developed at and is licensed from the University of Michigan.

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COD - 6/27/2012 - Physion [Physics]

Physion is a free 2D physics simulation software that can be used to easily create a wide range of interactive physics simulations and educational experiments.

Physics teachers may find Physion useful as a virtual physics laboratory which they can use to demonstrate some basic physics concepts in the classroom.

Users can create various physical objects such as circles, polygons, and gears and joints (eg. springs, pulleys, and so forth) that obey the laws of physics. Scenarios can be created which may be either simple physics experiments or complex structures or mechanisms.

Physion can also be a friendly tool for introducing students to programming. Physion allows users to execute their own JavaScript scripts/programs with the results of the commands being visualized immediately.

Watch a Physion general tutorial

Physion is available in English, Greek, Russian, Japanese, German, Spanish, and Indonesian. 

Note: Physion runs on Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Linux (x86 and x86_64) operating systems.

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COD - 6/26/2012 - Periodic Table of Elements [Chemistry]

Most people believe the periodic table is the most important chemistry reference there is. All the known elements are arranges in an informative array. For that reason, the Los Alamos National Laboratory offers the Periodic Table of Elements: A Resource for Elementary, Middle School, and High School Students.

When you open the file of any element in thePeriodic Table of Elements, you will find a small table with some basic information about that element, such as atomic number, symbol, and weight.

Watch a video demo of Periodic Table of Elements

Originally created by Robert Husted at Los Alamos National Laboratory about 1992. Periodic Table of Elements was given a face lift during 2002-03 by Mollie Boorman, then again in 2011, by Maida Trujillo.

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COD - 6/25/2012 - Kerpoof [Creativity]

Kerpoof, a website owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company, is all about having fun, discovering things, and being creative. 

Kids worldwide are using Kerpoof's multimedia software to create original artwork, animated movies, stories, greeting cards, and more. Elementary and middle school teachers can meet a variety of educational standards while using Kerpoof to enhance classroom activities.

Here are a few things that kids can do with Kerpoof:

• Make artwork
• Make an animated movie
• Earn Koins which can be traded for things in the Kerpoof Store
• Make a printed card, t-shirt, or mug
• Tell a story
• Make a drawing
• Vote on the movies, stories, and drawings that other people have made

The teachers' area, called Kerpoof Scholastics, offers content such as teacher accounts, lesson plans, classroom ideas, educational standards, a newsletter, and FAQs. Teachers with accounts can register students and arrange them into classes. Students may chat with each other, post creations on a moderated class message board, and collaborate in real-time on projects. Kerpoof activities have been cross-referenced with related state and national standards.

View the KerpoofTeachers' Guide (PDF)

Take a video tour of Kerpoof

All basic Kerpoof content directed to in-school use is entirely free. Some optional things require a monthly membership fee.

Note: Kerpoof requires an up-to-date version of Flash.

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Highlight And Share Specific Web Page Content Using InFocus

inFocus is a handy tool that makes it easy to share a specific portion of a web page. You can click a bookmarklet (best method) in your browser's link bar or paste the URL of the page into the inFocus website. Then select the area on the page you want to highlight. You'll get a URL sent to your clipboard that you can then share using email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

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The Rearview Mirror 6/23/2012

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

Working Math is a collection of 90 activities designed to help students in career and technology schools retain basic, practical, everyday math skills with activities that have been placed in a meaningful context.

Tuesday

EconEdLink is a leading source of online economic and personal finance lessons and resources for educators, students, and after-school providers.

Wednesday

Jump$tartis a national coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards, and educational resources. Jump$tart strives to prepare youth for life-long successful financial decision-making.

Thursday

Spellosaur, an iOS app, touts itself as a fun and effective way for kids to learn their spelling words.

COD - 6/21/2012 - Spellosaur [Spelling]

Spellosaur, an iOS app, touts itself as a fun and effective way for kids to learn their spelling words.

Spellosaur is designed to makes learning words more fun with a set of games to help progressively learn each spelling - listen and choose the correct word, complete the word by adding the missing letters, plus re-arrange the letters to make the word.

With Spellosaur, you enter the words the student wants to learn - this can be a weekly spelling list, or just a set of words that have been troublesome to learn. Select from two voices, English and US English, or record your own pronunciation if you wish.

The learner can also get quizzed on a word list just like at school - listen to the word, then spell it, then the app will report which words were spelled correctly and incorrectly at the end of the quiz.

Spellosaur is free in the iTunes App Store. You have the option to upgrade to the premium version of the app so you can:

• Have multiple users, each with their own word list.
• Have as many words as you like in the list you are learning.
• Save your words for future reference and testing.

Spellosaur requires iOS 5.0 or later.

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COD - 6/20/2012 - Jump$tart [Economics]

Jump$tart is a national coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards, and educational resources. Jump$tart strives to prepare youth for life-long successful financial decision-making.

Founded in 1995, Jump$tart is now a partnership of about 150 national organizations and entities from the corporate, non-profit, academic, government, and other sectors. These coalition partners include such familiar organizations as Bank of America, Capital One, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Equifax, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Education Association, and many more. These partner organizations generally conduct and/or support financial education or offer financial education tools and materials.

Jump$tart also includes a network of 49 affiliated state coalitions.  Each state coalition is an independently governed and operated non-profit organization, united with the national Jump$tart Coalition through an affiliation agreement and a desire to advance Jump$tart’s mission of financial astuteness for students. Jump$tart's state coalitions are operated predominately by volunteers.

Jump$tart’s strategic role is to provide resources that complement and enhance the individual and collective work of its partners and to take on activities that advance the financial literacy effort on behalf of all of its partners. Jump$tart’s online Clearinghouse is the nation’s most comprehensive collection of financial education resources suitable for students in pre-K through college, reviewed for appropriateness, and based on the National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education.

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COD - 6/19/2012 - EconEdLink [Economics]

EconEdLink is a leading source of online economic and personal finance lessons and resources for educators, students, and after-school providers.

EconEdLink provides classroom-tested, web-based economic and personal finance lesson materials for K-12 students and their teachers. Teachers can use as many of the nearly 750 lessons as they would like and as often as they would like.

All of the EconEdLink lessons are web-based and free to everyone. They are targeted at Kindergarten through grade 12 (ages 5-18). Each lesson, designed to be delivered in a variety of formats and classroom settings, includes a student's version as well as a teacher's version.

The Professional Development page features three types of resources to help you become a better teacher and get credit for PD:

• Use the Events calendar to see upcoming events from the Council for Economic Education and other educational organizations.
• The Multimedia Library contains videos and presentations to further your professional development.
• The Council for Economic Education presents free professional development Workshops for teachers all around the country.

Watch a video overview of EconEdLink

MyEconEdLink is an optional feature that lets you save lessons, take notes, and receive updates specific to the grades you teach. Select your state, and EconEdLink can tell you which lessons and state standards match best.

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Delivering the Catch of the Day

For some time I have been delivering the Catch of the Day post at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. That drops it in North America in the mid to late afternoon, but in the UK, late evening, even later in Europe.

I was thinking of changing the delivery time to 2:00 PM ET. That would roll out in North America about mid-day and mid-evening in the UK and Europe.

I would really appreciate your feedback.

THANKS :-)

COD - 6/18/2012 - Working Math [Math]

Working Math is a collection of 90 activities designed to help students in career and technology schools retain basic, practical, everyday math skills with activities that have been placed in a meaningful context.

Most of the activities in Working Math have been designed so that a student can complete the task quickly with minimal teacher intervention. Each activity is contained on a single page. The Working Math activities are meant to review and reinforce fundamental mathematics that the student should have learned previously.

Working Math is available as a downloadable PDF ebook. To use a Working Math activity, you can print as many copies of that page as are needed and distribute to your students.

Once the Working Math ebook has been purchased and downloaded, you are allowed make as many copies of the activities as you want for classroom use. 

There is also an annotated companion to the Working Math ebook that includes solutions to all the activities as well as teaching notes.

The complete Working Math ebook is $79 USD, the annotated companion is $99 USD, or bundle them together for $149. However, you can download a free sample of ten selected Working Math activities.

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The Rearview Mirror 6/16/2012

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

IdeaLabs are online dynamic, interactive student tutorials that bring the Smithsonian to life. Based on Smithsonian collections and research, IdeaLabs give your students an online opportunity to explore American history, science, and culture.

Tuesday

Annenberg Learner's Bridging World History is a set of multimedia materials designed to help learners discover world history.

Wednesday

ClassroomWindow is based on a simple premise: teachers are the real experts and no one knows better than they do what works – or doesn’t work – in the classroom.

Thursday

Teacher's Wire is an application for iOS devices that allows teachers to visually document student learning and report to parents via email.

COD - 6/14/2012 - Teacher's Wire [Tools]

Teacher's Wire is an application for iOS devices that allows teachers to visually document student learning and report to parents via email.

Use Teacher's Wire to take photos of your students in action or of your students’ work, attach a previously entered learning standard, and then email the information to the children's parents. It makes the reporting process more efficient for teachers and provides parents with up-to-date information regarding their child’s progress.

The developer of Teacher's Wire is a primary school teacher who has a particular interest in how technology is utilized in the classroom by both student and teacher, believing that technology used effectively can be a valuable tool to assist in the teaching and learning process.

Watch a video demo of Teacher's Wire

Teacher's Wire is available from the iTunes App Store for $4.49 (US).It has been featured in the Top 100 Educational Apps- Australian iTunes Store.

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COD - 6/13/2012 - ClassroomWindow [Sharing]

ClassroomWindow is based on a simple premise: teachers are the real experts and no one knows better than they do what works – or doesn’t work – in the classroom.

ClassroomWindow is a place where teachers' voices can be heard by publishers, product developers, and district decision makers. Teachers may share their expert opinions about the books, curricula, and tools they use daily.

ClassroomWindow taps the practical experience of potentially millions of educators working with classroom products on a daily basis, combining the breadth of crowd-sourcing with the depth of expert analysis and evaluation, finally allowing purchase decisions to be made based only on the effectiveness of educational products and services.

ClassroomWindow hopes the transparency created via their site will heighten competition among education vendors, leading to more effective products that better meet the needs of today’s classroom.

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COD - 6/12/2012 - Bridging World History [History]

Annenberg Learner's Bridging World History is a set of multimedia materials designed to help learners discover world history.

Inquiry-based, integrated, and interactive, Bridging World History uses video, text, and web materials to provide a total learning experience. The materials provide a complete world history course. Bridging World History enhances critical thinking skills while providing a source for historical and cultural contexts of world history through the use of primary source materials.

Bridging World History aspires to help learners:

• Develop a dynamic conceptual framework for the study of world history, its theory, and its practices.
• Establish a grasp of the peoples and cultures that comprise world history in the context of time and place.
• Make insights into thematic relationships that shape our understanding of world history.
• Bridge the gaps between what learners comfortably know and what they need to comprehend.

Bridging World History includes 26 complete units. Each unit consists of a 30-minute video and an online text chapter. The chapters include journal articles and other readings, an overview of the unit, and a course guide chapter that provides a structure for course sessions, learning activities, and homework assignments.

The organization of Bridging World History acknowledges both thematic and chronological approaches to the study of world history by following a loosely chronological order, while developing a series of themes that are woven throughout the units.

The World History Traveler is a thematically-organized interactive that helps you learn more about the patterns and processes that make up world history. Follow Thematic Pathways to explore a particular topic, or use the Bridges to make connections across time and space.

Bridging World History is intended for a broad audience, including introductory material suitable for AP study or beginning college students, while also including a depth and breadth of content appropriate to any adult learner.

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COD - 6/11/2012 - IdeaLabs [Science, Social Studies]

IdeaLabs are online dynamic, interactive student tutorials that bring the Smithsonian to life. Based on Smithsonian collections and research, IdeaLabs give your students an online opportunity to explore American history, science, and culture.

There are nine IdeaLabs for students:

Scientists @ The Smithsonian. Watch videos of scientists at work in jobs ranging from tracking killer bees to measuring the moon.

Sizing Up the Universe. Students choose ordinary objects, like a basketball, to represent objects in the universe and use these to explore relative sizes in outer space. 

Prehistoric Climate Change. Use fossils as a thermometer to read temperatures 55 million years ago. 

U.S. Rationing during World War II. An introduction to primary sources as well as to life on the home front. Students examine a ration book, morale posters, and an Office of War Information film to learn how Americans lived in a time of sacrifice.

Digging for Answers.  A question-and-answer game on subjects ranging from Mickey Mouse to the moon landings. With every question, students have the option of racing against the clock to find the answer on a web search.

Smithsonian Kids. From among the 142 million objects in the Smithsonian, students can find something fast, fun, cool, scary, patriotic, and beautiful, zoom in on the objects, learn facts, and send e-cards to their friends.

Walking on the Moon. Students take a  journey back in time to experience the Apollo 11 mission. Interviews with the astronauts, life inside the command module, and more.

Kids Collecting. Explore the riches of the Smithsonian’s collections. Students learn how to start their own collections, and young collectors are showcased.

Mr. President. Facts, portraits, and quotes from each of our nation’s presidents. It’s a great place for browsing, research, or homework help.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies has a mission increase the Smithsonian Institution’s influence as a national educational organization. 

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The Rearview Mirror 6/9/2012

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

italki is an online tool for foreign language learning, linking people from everywhere in the world in a community to learn from each other.

Tuesday

Duolingo, currently in private beta, allows you learn a language for free while simultaneously helping to translate the web.

Wednesday

Livemocha blends traditional learning methods with online practice and interaction with native language speakers from around the world. The aim of Livemocha is to create "a world in which every human being is fluent in multiple languages."

Thursday

Three websites that each offer substantial compilations of language learning resources.: Word2Word, Learn a Language, and Open Culture.

Sophia Offers Flipped Classroom Certificate, More Tutorials [Update]

Sophia is an academic community where everyone has access to learning that encompasses and supports the traditional classroom in an ad-free environment. Sophia was first mentioned on EDge21 in February of this year.

Sophia has recently augmented its social teaching and learning platform to include more than 25,000 absolutely free tutorials on math, science, English, and more.

Sophia also now offers a free professional development certificate for teachers who are interested in learning how to flip their classroom. You'll get a Flipped Class Certificate and a Sophia t-shirt. The Flipped Class Certificate is endorsed by Capella University and was developed in collaboration with School of Education faculty.

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COD - 6/7/2012 - More Language Resources [Languages]

Just in time for summer travel, EDge21's Catch of the Day this week featured a number of online resources to support foreign language learning, wrapping up with these three websites that each offer substantial compilations of language learning resources.

Word2Word provides links to free online language courses in the hope of all people developing a better understanding of others through the use of language. They have attempted to place as many online courses at your disposal as possible. The courses vary widely in quality and the quantity of material presented. 

 

Learn a Language is an extensive, free website providing resources to learn languages including hundreds of free language-learning lessons, games, and activities. You can learn over 1,400 words for free. There are interactive audio/visual flashcards to help you learn. You can also learn important phrases like greetings, survival expressions, and slang words in the language of your choice.

 

The Open Culture collection features lessons in 40 languages, including Spanish, French, English, Mandarin, Italian, Russian and more. Most are available as downloadable audio lessons for your computer, iPod, or other audio player.

Go to previous EDge21 posts about language learning sites

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