COD - 8/30/2012 - Math Pro [iOS]

Math Pro is an iOS app from Math Pentagon, which was started in 2011 with a goal of making math learning fun, interactive, exciting, and inspiring for the students.

At the same time Math Pro helps teachers and parents engage, motivate, collaborate, and communicate with the students. 

Math Pentagon has the largest collection of math worksheets for the iPad including hundreds of thousands of questions geared for grades 4-12 (ages 9-16) in topics like algebra, pre-algebra, trigonometry, geometry, statistics, fractions, ratios, decimals, and much more.

Features for teachers:

• Administer their individual student circles.
• Assign worksheets, view students’ completed worksheets, provide feedback
• View scratch work to help in error analysis and following students’ thought processes.
• Student-specific reports to help understand progress, and prepare for further learning.
• Differentiated learning allowing teacher to work with one group of students while another is completing an assignment or exploring.
• Remedial practice for students who need help, and enrichment for students ready to move forward more independently.

With Math Pro, students can write, draw, and solve problems by writing directly on the iPad and can save their results for later review. Learning math can become fun with the help of technology that students love, engaging them with teachers and motivating the students to enjoy math.

Math Pro is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iOS 4.3 or later.

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COD - 8/29/2012 - Mathway [Math]

Mathway provides students with the tools to solve their math problems, with tens of millions of problems already solved.

Type problems into Mathway in an ordinary textbox. You can insert special math symbols and expressions using the Toolbar, and/or manually enter in common expressions using the keyboard. A preview of the mathematically formatted problem appears underneath the textbox.

After a problem has been entered and a topic has been selected, click the "Answer" button. 

Mathway solves problems from the following subjects:

• Basic Math
• Pre-Algebra
• Algebra
• Trigonometry
• Precalculus
• Calculus
• Statistics

Mathway provides answers free of charge, and there is no charge for signing up for a Mathway account. However, if you want step-by-step solutions you will need to upgrade to a premium account. There are several paid account options available ranging from a single day account for $4.99 up to a full year for $49.99 (USD).

Mathway Classroom Edition allows teachers to easily provide all the powerful features of Mathway to their students.

The student management features available in your Mathway account will allow you to sign up your students and distribute premium access to their accounts. You can organize your students by class, and turn on/off access to their premium features when needed. You can also save pages from your Notebook to your student's Notebook with the click of a button, so you can instantly provide review problems to any or all of your students.

Watch a video introduction to Mathway

There are free optimized Mathway apps for iOS, Android, and Kindle, or you can open Mathway in any mobile browser at m.mathway.com.

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COD - 8/28/2012 - Knowmia [Video]

Knowmia is a learning website featuring short video lessons from real teachers. It is a personal, affordable, and efficient way to find what you need to be successful in high school.

Knowmia crowdsources and organizes video lessons from actual teachers and makes it easy to find what you need. Knowmia can help you prepare for an upcoming test or new course, understand challenging topics, and find the right teacher for your learning style.

Currently Knowmia is in a beta version, but users can already find more than 7,000 free video lessons with more being added daily. Coming soon are KnowmiaMini-Courses − teacher-curated sets of lessons of less than one hour, sourced from Knowmia's library, that include teacher comments and quizzes to measure progress.

Registered credentialed teachers may post their video lessons on Knowmia at no cost. They also get access to the free Knowmia Teach iPad app to create their lessons.

Ariel Braunstein and Scott Kabat,two leaders from the team that launched the familiar Flip Video pocket camcorders, have joined forces to create Knowmia.

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COD - 8/27/2012 - InstallFree Nexus [Tools]

InstallFree Nexus enables users to access common office applications on almost any device with a user experience optimized to the device.

InstallFree Nexus is a cloud-based platform that enables real-time access to office applications using HTML 4/5, and connects them to cloud-based storage services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Skydrive, and Box.

Users of InstallFree Nexus can access Microsoft Office and/or Libre Office on desktops, laptops,  iPads, Android tablets, and any other device with a modern web browser.

InstallFree Nexus is a solution with no infrastructure to deploy. It is highly scalable, retains user customizations and settings, and is high performance. It is a highly flexible client supporting almost any device with a web browser. It includes device-specific optimizations, as well as being optimized for touch devices.

You can use InstallFree Nexus to share full-featured web-based viewers for your office and other documents, and you can use it to broadcast your application sessions to colleagues in real time.

Watch a video overview of InstallFree Nexus

InstallFree Nexus Includes the word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation components of Libre Office 3 free, and when you sign up, you get a 60-day free trial of MS Office 2010. Adobe Reader X is used to view PDF files, and Paint.net to edit image files.

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The Rearview Mirror 8/25/2012

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

Socrativeis a smart student response system that makes teachers able to engage their students with educational exercises and games. Socrative apps are simple and run on tablets, smartphones, and laptops. It takes just seconds to login.

Tuesday

Arcademic Skill Builders is a large collection of online educational video games for learning basic math, language arts, vocabulary, and thinking skills in grades 1-6 (ages 6-11).

Wednesday

PlagTracker.com benefits teachers, students, writers, bloggers, and anyone else interested in protecting their writing.

Thursday

Kno is a reader for digital textbooks. With over 60 features to facilitate reading, studying, note taking, and organization, Kno can do everything a physical textbook can do and much more.

COD - 8/23/2012 - Kno [ebooks]

Kno is a reader for digital textbooks. With over 60 features to facilitate reading, studying, note taking, and organization, Kno can do everything a physical textbook can do and much more.

Kno is easy to use. Simply get your college or K-12 textbooks from Kno.com and read them using the Kno iPad app, Kno.com website, or the Kno for Facebook app. Apps for Android and Windows are expected soon.

Features currently available in all Kno platforms:

• Flashcards instantly converts terms from your textbook into flash cards.
• Search for any words in your textbook or PDF.
• Highlight any text on a page.
• Create stickies for a highlight or any page.
• Course Manager organizes all your textbooks, PDFs, and content in one spot.

Additional features available in the free iPad app:

• Zoom in on any picture by double-tapping.
• Smart Links maps instructional videos, images, and photos to formulas and concepts in your book.
• Preview any page from an entire book.
• Journal lets you create a digital notebook by clipping images and text from your textbook.
• Pen lets you write directly on the pages of your textbook or PDF and in Journal.
• Quiz Me turns any diagram in a book into a multiple choice quiz.
• Kno 3D brings chemistry figures to life in select titles.
• Share with classmates right from within your book.
• Dropbox allows you to easily import PDF class materials by dragging and dropping right into Course Manager.

Visit the KnoYouTube channel

You can organize all of your textbooks and class materials using the KnoCourse Manager. Adding a new class only takes a few seconds.

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COD - 8/22/2012 - PlagTracker.com [Tools]

PlagTracker.com benefits teachers, students, writers, bloggers, and anyone else interested in protecting their writing.

PlagTracker.com, the product of two Ukrainian computer scientists, guarantees that anything you write can be thoroughly checked by their plagiarism software to ensure that your texts are unique.

The process of checking your work for plagiarism is accomplished in three simple steps:

1. You upload your paper or enter the content in the text box.
2. PlagTracker.com scans it for plagiarism by checking all internet pages and their own database of more than 20 million academic works.
3. You will then receive the plagiarism report containing information about sections of the text that need to be cited and a list of sources.

Students can also benefit from PlagTracker.com by having their essays or research papers checked for any plagiarism that may have been committed in their work. Even if you commit plagiarism unintentionally, it is still viewed as plagiarism.

PlagTracker.com supports English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Romanian.

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COD - 8/21/2012 - Arcademic Skill Builders [Games]

Arcademic Skill Builders is a large collection of online educational video games for learning basic math, language arts, vocabulary, and thinking skills in grades 1-6 (ages 6-11).

The often intense engagement between players and arcade and video games inspired the development of Arcademic Skill Builders. Their goal is to "make aspects of classroom instruction as effective in creating persistence and involvement as observed in video game players."

To achieve student learning through increased time-on-task and engagement, Arcademic Skill Builders games combine video game features and instructional research. Through fun and focused repetitive practice, spontaneity and fluency can be achieved more quickly.

Watch a video demo of Arcademic Skill Builders

Arcademic Skill Builders strives to assure students are safe while playing the games. No one outside your class can contact a student while playing the games. If a student starts a 'private' multiplayer game, then only players that know the student-created password can join the game. If a student starts a 'public' game, then any player from outside can join the game, but there is no contact between outside players and the student.

Originally a project in the research department of the University of Kansas School of Education, Arcademic Skill Builders learning tools are now used by millions of teachers and students each month.

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COD - 8/20/2012 - Socrative [Tools]

Socrative is a smart student response system that makes teachers able to engage their students with educational exercises and games. Socrative apps are simple and run on tablets, smartphones, and laptops. It takes just seconds to login.

Teachers login to Socrative using their device and choose an activity. Students simply login with their devices and interact in real time with the content. Student responses are visually represented for multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions.

Teachers can view reports online as a Google spreadsheet or receive an Excel file by email.

The Socrative student response service is free for everyone, with no restrictions, as part of their beta product launch. There is no registration or usage fee, and no credit card details are required.

Watch a video introduction to Socrative

The Socrative browser-based solution supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome browsers running under any OS. The mobile apps are supported for iOS and Android.

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The Rearview Mirror 8/18/2012

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

Full of tips and ideas that will inspire and inform your writing projects, Writing Forward is a blog dedicated to creative writing.

Tuesday

Zamzar is a single location where you can convert your songs, videos, images, documents, and more into a multitude of different formats. 

Wednesday

Old Maps Online is a user-friendly gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. Old Maps Online is for anyone interested in old maps and what they can tell us about the past.

Thursday

QwertyTown teaches an essential aspect of literacy for today's students, keyboarding. QwertyTown reinforces skills through safe online communication, addresses Common Core literacy standards, is entirely web-based, and is customizable for learners with different abilities.

COD - 8/16/2012 - QwertyTown [Keyboarding]

QwertyTown teaches an essential aspect of literacy for today's students, keyboarding. QwertyTown reinforces skills through safe online communication, addresses Common Core literacy standards, is entirely web-based, and is customizable for learners with different abilities

Reasons educators use QwertyTown:

• They understand the importance of keyboarding skills.
• They can control student communications.
• Students appear highly motivated and excel at digital assignments.
• It’s easy to track student progress.
• Lessons move at the student's pace.

Teachers and administrators are able to oversee and guide their students’ experiences in QwertyTown. Teachers can view full transcripts of their students’ Qmail messages and chats. They can add or remove individual students’ access to features of the Chatterbox, and can regulate who their students add to their Friends Lists.

Schools may sign up to try out QwertyTown with a free 30-day trial that includes one free teacher account and thirty student accounts. QwertyTown runs in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and IE7+ and requires Adobe Flash Player 10 or newer.

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COD - 8/15/2012 - Old Maps Online [Social Studies]

Old Maps Online is a user-friendly gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. Old Maps Online is for anyone interested in old maps and what they can tell us about the past.

Old Maps Online aggregates information about digital map images from different libraries and host institutions in a universal search interface. You won’t need to know where a map is held to be able to locate it. Find maps held by different institutions showing the same geographical area so you can better decide which is most relevant to your needs.

Search Old Maps Online by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow the results by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the host institution's website.

Old Maps Online is a free, open-access search portal with no need for downloading, registering, or subscribing.

OldMapsOnline is a collaboration between The Great Britain Historical GIS Project and Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland. It succeeds a project lead by the Moravian Library in the Czech Republic between 2008-11. The portal is based on the MapRank Search technology originally developed for the Kartenportal project in Switzerland. 

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COD - 8/14/2012 - Zamzar [Tools]

Zamzar is a single location where you can convert your songs, videos, images, documents, and more into a multitude of different formats. 

The aim of Zamzar is "to provide high quality file conversion for as many file formats as possible."

Click here to see a list of all the file types supported by Zamzar.

You can convert files from your computer on Zamzar's main conversion page by clicking the "Browse" button, browsing to your file, selecting the desired conversion type, entering your email address, then clicking the "Convert" button. The email address will be pre-filled for users with a Zamzar account and the converted file will be placed in your Zamzar inbox as well as being sent to your email address. 

You can also convert files directly from other websites (including YouTube). Go to Zamzar's Download Videos tab and paste the URL of the video to convert.

You can also convert files using email. Attach the files you want to convert to a new email, or forward an existing email. You can attach as many files as you want within the size limits.

Converted files may be downloaded as many times as you like. However, the files of free users are deleted from the system after 24 hours.

Watch the video Converting files easily with Zamzar

The free Zamzar service currently allows you to upload a maximum of 100 MB of data allocated among up to 5 different files. Those with a Zamzar account can upload files up to 1 GB in size.

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COD - 8/13/2012 - Writing Forward [ELA]

Full of tips and ideas that will inspire and inform your writing projects, Writing Forward is a blog dedicated to creative writing.

Writing Forward includes posts on grammar, good writing habits and practices, and numerous writing prompts and exercises to stimulate your writing.

Among the featured topics are Better Writing, Creative Writing, Journal Writing,and Writing Exercises, Prompts, Tips, Ideas, and Resources.

The mission of Writing Forward is "to share helpful and inspiring creative writing tips to benefit the greater writing community and to advocate on behalf of all writers and artists."

The winner of several honors and awards, Writing Forward launched in September of 2007, and is sustained by Melissa Donovan, the author of 101 Creative Writing Exercises.

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The Rearview Mirror 8/11/2012

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

Lectrio is a free and simple way for educators to share course materials with students. Upload almost anything you like to this intuitive LMS.

Tuesday

Web English Teacher is a library of K-12 English Language Arts teaching resources such as lesson plans, videos, e-texts, technology integration, and classroom activities.

Wednesday

Apple now allows all K-12 teachers to create private iTunes Ucourses for their students using the free iTunes Course Manager web app.

Thursday

Two chemistry apps for iOS are being featured today, JR's Chemistry Set and ChemCalc.

COD - 8/9/2012 - JR's Chemistry Set / ChemCalc [iOS]

Two chemistry apps for iOS are being featured today, JR's Chemistry Set and ChemCalc.

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JR's Chemistry Set is a handy and powerful reference tool for all ages and all levels. It contains an interactive periodic table based upon the innovative Rota Period that allows you to combine elements into compounds and display the formation of these compounds using Box2d Physics and the accelerometer.

Detailed information about all of the elements is provided including:Atomic Number, Atomic Weight, Melting Point, Boiling Point, Heat of Fusion, Heat of Vaporization, Heat of Atomization, Ionization Energy, Electrical Conductivity, Electronegativity, Ionic Radius, Van der Waals Radius, Density, Class, Valences, Orbitals, State, Radioactivity, and Year Discovered.

JR's Chemistry Set also includes a game feature called Mad Scientist that challenges you to make valuable compounds like Water, Sodium Hydroxide, and Hydrogen Peroxide. A series of scenes called Evolution uses chemistry and particle physics to describe the universe from the Big Bang to Black Holes, providing the link between chemistry, physics, biology, and astronomy.

JR's Chemistry Set is $1.99 (USD) from the iTunes App Store and works on iPhone 3GS or higher, iPod Touch (3rd/4th generation), and iPads using iOS 5.1 or higher.

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ChemCalc is a convenient chemistry tool for students and professionals to calculate molecular mass (molecular weight) of compounds and learn basic properties of chemical elements on iPad.

Main features of ChemCalc:

• Unique elements keyboard and digits keyboard are used to input a chemical formula and then calculate its molecular mass. 
• User can also search an element and use it to build a chemical formula.
• Tapping on the number of H2O to change its value for hydrate.
• Long pressing on an element key to display the basic properties of the element.
• Provides English pronunciations of the names of all elements.
• Provides common ions, acids, and bases reference

ChemCalc is $0.99  (USD) from the iTunes App Store and requires iPads using iOS 5.0 or higher.

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