iLearn Technology

What it is: Neo K12 is an outstanding online collection of educational videos, lessons and games for students in grades k-12.  Neo K12 believes that “kids learn best by ‘seeing’ the real world.”  They have created this site with that belief in mind.  Neo K12 has cataloged the best free online educational videos from the Internet in one place.  Each video is watched and reviewed by k-12 educators to ensure their accuracy and appropriateness for students.  Subjects include physical science, life science, human body, earth and space, social studies, math, English (including phonics, stories, and grammar), and fun videos such as time lapse, slow motion, arts and crafts, learn magic, music lessons, and sports lessons.   In addition to videos, Neo K12 has Web 2.0 tools.  The  School Presentation tool is a mashup of Flickr and Wikipedia, and allows users to create and share presentations online. To create a presentation, students choose pictures for their presentation from Flickr, read and article about the subject from Wikipedia, and then add text to their presentation.   When the presentation is finished, it can be printed or viewed online as a slideshow.  Quizzes, games, and puzzles on Neo K12 are an interactive way to improve learning.  Teachers can create and share videos playlists complete with notes and instructions for their students. 

How to integrate Neo K12 into the classroom: Videos provide excellent opportunities for learning, they make it possible for kids to visualize and build a model in their minds.  This helps them to better understand key concepts and can stimulate curiosity in a subject.  When students or teachers search a subject, they are given a list of related videos, quizzes, games, and puzzles.  When a teacher creates an account, they can create a complete assignment within Neo K12 that includes instructions and notes for the students.  Students can complete the assignment by watching videos, playing related games and creating a School Presentation that shows understanding.  The presentations are easy enough for even young students to create.  Primary students can skip reading the Wikipedia article and just choose pictures and add some captions about facts they learned from a video they viewed.  These videos are a great way to introduce new learning, expand on previous learning, or to spark curiosity in a topic.

Many of the educational games and puzzles would be great for an interactive whiteboard as whole class activities.  They could, of course, also be used as classroom center activities, or completed individually in the computer lab. The jigsaw puzzles can be used as teasers to introduce a new topic.  The jigsaw puzzles use incredible images from Flickr.  Have students take turns coming up to the interactive whiteboard to put puzzle pieces together.  Students waiting at their seats can take guesses about what new learning you will be doing in class.

Tips: Create a free Neo K12 account, you will receive a dashboard where you can store videos, games, presentations, quizzes, and add notes and instructions.  You get a unique URL for your dashboard to share.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Neo K12 in your classroom.

What it is: Kerpoof is one of my favorite creation tools for elementary students, it allows them to draw, create pictures, cards, books, and even movies.  My original post about Kerpoof can be found here. Kerpoof has added some new features that make it worthy of another post.  Students can now save their pictures, cards, stories and drawings locally (on their computers).  On each canvas is a JPEG icon that will allow any picture to be saved to the computer locally.  They are working on making it possible to download the movies locally soon.   Kerpoof also introduced info bubbles.  In the Make a Picture object library, students can drag out a picture onto the canvas.  Now there is a new question mark button that shows up on an object.  When students click on the question mark, a little bubble of information pops up.  Students will gain all kinds of information from these little fact bubbles.  They can learn everything from: who wrote Treasure Island, to learning the national animal of Australia.

How to integrate Kerpoof into the classroom: Kerpoof is an outstanding creativity program for the classroom.  With there education accounts and these new features, it is even more useful in the classroom setting.  Now that students can save their pictures created on Kerpoof locally, they can use their Kerpoof creations in new ways.  Upload the saved JPEG to the class website, blog, or wiki, or add illustrations to a word processing program.

Use the new information bubbles to start a Kerpoof scavenger hunt.  Ask students specific questions ahead of time or instruct students to research broader topics like “dinosaurs” or “Mexico”.  After students have found answers to their assigned questions, they can do more in-depth research using library or Internet resources.  After research is completed, students can come back to Kerpoof to create a picture, story, essay, or movie including information that they learned.

Tips: Be sure to check out Kerpoof’s lesson plans, they have just added a new lesson called “Programming Wizards” designed to teach students about how computers work and how to build, design, and test a program.  Very cool.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Kerpoof  in your classroom.

What it is: PBS Kids has a new video player.  This is the most kid friendly video player I have seen.  Students click on the PBS character that they want to watch video clips for.  Then, they can select the episode clip they would like to watch.  Students can watch clips of Curious George, Super Why, Dinosaur Train, Sid the Science Kid, Sesame Street, Martha Speaks, Clifford, Arthur, Mr. Rogers, Steve Songs, Word World, Between the Lions, Lomax, Dragon Tales, and more.  Each video grouping has an accompanying website that has fun learning activities and games for kids to complete.  Videos can also be browsed by their topic.  This makes it easy to find a video that relates with what students are learning in class.

How to integrate PBS Kids Video Player into the classroom: This collection of videos is appropriate for the primary classroom (prekindergarten to first grade).  Use these videos as an introduction to new units as an anticipatory set.  All of the PBS materials are high-quality and educational.  Super Why and Word World are especially great for literacy and language building.

Colorado is currently in deep freeze mode (it is cold!).  As a result, we have a lot of indoor recess days ahead of us.  These videos would be great to show during those recess times with the classroom computers set up with the matching games and activities.

Tips: Be sure to take a look at the website that accompanies each video group.  The websites are full of fun games and activities where students can practice reading, math, and science concepts.

Leave a comment and share how you are using PBS Kids Video Player  in your classroom.

What it is: KidZui is a site I have written about in the past.  The KidZui network has added some sites to the network that I just learned about.  ZuiTube is a kid friendly You Tube portal.  It is the largest collection of kid friendly videos online.  New videos are added to ZuiTube daily.  All videos are approved by parents and teachers before being posted on ZuiTube.  Students can watch educational videos, funny videos, movies and movie clips, silly songs, and music.  There is also a special section on ZuiTube just for videos related to Thanksgiving.  The Thanksgiving collection includes everything from the Turkey Dance to videos about Native Americans and Pilgrims.

How to integrate ZuiTube into the classroom: ZuiTube videos can be used as an introduction to new teaching (on nearly any subject), to add some humor to the classroom, or to reinforce teaching.  Videos are a wonderful way for students to make connections to new learning.  I have found a video that correlates with nearly every part of our curriculum.  I even found a great Berenstein Bears video for character education…gotta love that!  With all the snow we get in Colorado, there are bound to be some indoor recess days for the kids.  ZuiTube is a safe place to find kid friendly videos that students will enjoy while they are staying dry and warm inside.

Tips: I often have parents asking me what they can do at home to keep their kids safe online.  KidZui is an excellent recommendation, the parent reports are a great way to keep parents involved in their children’s online activities.

Leave a comment and share how you are using ZuiTube in your classroom.

What it is: Kideos is a collection of kid friendly videos.  Each video featured on Kideos has been carefully screened by the Kideos Video Advisory Council (made up of a select group of parents and educators).  The videos are categorized by age range (from 2 to 10) and by category.  Categories include Baby Einstein, Barney, Book Characters, Cartoon Characters, Cute Animals, Disney Channel Programs, Disney Movies, Dr. Seuss, Educational Videos, Fairy Tales, Kids, Mickey Mouse and Friends, Muppets, Nursery Rhymes, Sesame Street, Songs, Teletubbies, Trains and Machines, and Wiggles.  If you register with Kideos, you can set it up to only view your own selection of ages and characters.  The videos are streamed from You Tube and placed inside a Kideo player .

How to integrate Kideo into the classroom: Kideo is a great elementary alternative to YouTube.  While Kideo streams YouTube videos, you can be rest assured that your students will not be exposed to inappropriate content.  Because Kideos can be set up for a specific age group and category, it would be simple to create a Kideos channel specifically for your class.  You may choose your students age range and limit videos to educational and book characters only.  Many of the videos would be appropriate in the classroom as an introduction to learning or part of a center activity.

Tips: I am continually amazed when my first grade students come in telling me about a YouTube video they watched (on YouTube).  Suggest Kideos to parents as an alternative to YouTube for their little ones.  Kids will be able to find all of the content they are looking for without any of the inappropriate comments and suggested videos.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Kideos in your classroom.