Featured: 2-18-2014 TimelineJS

TimelineJS is an open-source tool that enables users to build visually rich interactive timelines. Create a timeline using nothing more than a Google spreadsheet.

 

Make your own interactive timeline in four easy steps:

1. Build a new Google spreadsheet using the TimelineJS template. Drop in dates, text and links to media.
2. Publish the Google spreadsheet to the web to generate a URL.
3. Copy and paste the spreadsheet URL into the generator box on the TimelineJS site.
4. Copy the resulting embed code and paste it into your site where you want your timeline to appear.

Media from a number of sources can be used with built-in support for Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Wikipedia, and more.

 

 

 See a video walk-through of TimelineJS

 

TimelineJS works on any site or blog. All modern browsers are supported (as well as Internet Explorer 8+). It is available in 40 languages.

  

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

Featured: 10-28-2013 SodaDB

Sodadb is a free online alternative to Microsoft Access, File Maker Pro, and other conventional database software.

Sodadb is a downsized, simplified, but still very powerful online database. Intuitively create an online database quickly, no manual needed.

Add, edit, delete up to 10,000 records in a grid-like interface with inline editing. Sodadb allows an unlimited number of users and unlimited number of databases, only a maximum number of records.

Click on a template to create a new database or design your own. Access your database using a private URL. Easily share your database by simply sending out your secret URL. You can also grant access to your database by adding sub-users and setting rights. Another way to share your database is to embed it in your website.

Upload images or documents to Sodadb and attach them to your records. Existing data can be imported into Sodadb from .csv files. You can export to .txt and .csv.

Sodadb is donationware. If you like it, you are asked to make a donation. You can become a supporter ($3.49 (US)/month), unlocking more functionalities.

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

Extra: eQuizShow

eQuizShow is a free online tool designed for teachers to create and play their own free educational quiz shows using templates.

With eQuizShow, show students questions and answers to review. There have been more than 2200 templates created by and for teachers. No Powerpoint or registration is required.

eQuizShow was created by New York City high school junior Henry Wilson as a winter break project, but turned into a more ambitious endeavor.

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

Catch of the Day - RIBIT - 10 Nov 09

Today's fresh catch is RIBIT, the Reusable Internet-Based Inquiry Template

RIBIT is a tool designed to help teachers create inquiry-based learning curriculum using the Internet. RIBIT is easy to use, it stores the Internet-based inquiries (IBIs) that users create and it's free. RIBIT is rooted in constructivist thinking, which argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences.

RIBIT Home Page

RIBIT is a tool that teachers can use to help students learn to think. Use the RIBIT template to build Internet-based-inquiries: activities that ask students to make sense of raw materials such as photos representing the elements of the water cycle, videos of ballistic tests, historical sources pertaining to an event.

Sample RIBIT IBI

The RIBIT philosophy …
"Our students need to practice thinking. Much of K-12 education is about learning facts and concepts and then being able to demonstrate this knowledge. That's fine, but this alone does not prepare students for life in a complex world where circumstances are ever changing and often unfamiliar... where the ability to recognize patterns, ascertain forces and draw conclusions -- in a word, to think -- are the required skills for success."

RIBIT offers workshops on inquiry-based models of teaching and using RIBIT. John Raymond, creator of RIBIT, is an educational technology developer and professional development consultant.

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

Catch of the Day - The History Lab - 10 Aug 09

The History Lab™, an inquiry-based approach to teaching history, is the catch of today


The History Lab™ is an interactive site where teachers can build primary-source based lessons and activities for use in their classrooms.

The History Lab™ offers an online lesson template that is based on the belief that the learning of history should focus as much on inquiry, reflection, interpretation and constructing hypotheses as on acquisition of canned knowledge. It provides a framework to help educators teach history using the educational power of primary sources, the raw materials of history, in an effective, pedagogically sound way.


In a History Lab™, as in its equivalent in a science lab, students deal directly with real materials (documents, artifacts and images on one hand; chemicals, plants and bacteria on the other). They invest thought in the dynamics, qualities, quantities and relationships of these materials according to one or another methodology. They interpret or draw historical meaning from them. Whether history or science, students are engaging in doing an activity - not merely reading about it or taking notes on a lecture. In the same way that science labs provide students an opportunity to study a topic in depth, so too history labs balance out the superficiality that often characterizes history courses.

A Sample Lab

The History Lab™ is free for use by all K-12 teachers and university professors. Teachers can store their lessons in the History Lab database and retrieve or modify them at any time.

Thanks to @ShiftParadigm on Twitter

Building a Syllabus

Knowing the basics of how to put together a syllabus for a course of study is an essential teaching skill and can have a profound effect on how well material is applied in the classroom.

I've collected a number of resources to help ease the process of creating a syllabus for each course you teach. In addition to an excellent video, Preparing an Effective Course Syllabus from Northern Illinois University, there are guides to building a good syllabus, some downloadable syllabus templates, and even an interactive online syllabus creation tool.



Guides:

• How to Build a Syllabus - communityhigh.org
• Building a Useful, Complete Syllabus
• Stephen Irwin, Sample Syllabus, Auburn HS

Templates:

• Interactive Online Syllabus Template
• Microsoft® Office Online Word Syllabus Template
• East HS, Salt Lake City,UT Syllabus Template
• Syllabus Templates - englishraven.com
• Syllabus Templates in RTF, Word, and Excel - University of Texas at Dallas
• Syllabus Template - Columbia College Chicago