website – Page 2 – iLearn Technology

FlipSnack: Turn a PDF into an embeddable Flash Flip Book

May 27, 2011Kelly Tenkely8 Comments3545 views

What it is: FlipSnack lets students turn PDF documents into embeddable Flipbooks quickly and easily. Students upload a PDF (or multiple PDFs) to be included in the book and FlipSnack instantly transforms it into an interactive flippable book. In order to login to FlipSnack, students will need an email address (this can be a temporary email such as Tempinbox or Mailinator). Students can also login using a Twitter account, Facebook connect, Google connect or MySpace connect. FlipSnack has some neat options available that other pdf to embeddable book services like Issuu do not have. Students can choose a template for their Flip including classic, hardcover, coil bound and interactive. Student also have the ability to customize the background, size and buttons included in their embed. Students can share their FlipSnack with a unique url, on social media sites and email, or embed it in another website. The free version lets students embed the finished FlipSnack on a website or blog with a FlipSnack watermark.

How to integrate FlipSnack into the classroom: FlipSnack is a neat way for students (and teachers) to share pdf documents online. Students can save their work as a PDF and upload into an interactive book that can be embedded on a blog, wiki or website.

Use your classroom computers as a student created library. Students can upload original stories to a class FlipSnack account to create a library of student work. During silent reading time, give students the opportunity to enjoy their peers as authors. This is perfect for an elementary classroom that may not have the email addresses for each student to sign up for a separate account.

Create custom books for your students by combining PDF documents into one customized text-book. These can be embedded on a class blog, website, or wiki for students to access from anywhere they have internet access.

Upload school handbooks, resources etc. to the classroom and school website for easy access by students and parents.

One of the features I enjoy about FlipSnack is the ability to view statistics for the flip books. Find out how many views a Flip has had by day, month or all time.

Tips: I often use Issuu to share and embed PDFs. It has been my go-to favorite for personal use. I hesitated to use Issuu with students because of the collection of ALL user publications on the home page of the website. Sometimes these were inappropriate for elementary students. I like that FlipSnack doesn’t share user-created publications with little eyes.

Take a look at the FlipSnack I created for my new school, Anastasis Academy, embedded below:

Please leave a comment and let us know how you are using FlipSnack in your classroom!

LiveBinders: Chemistry!

December 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2682 views

What it is: LiveBinders is one of my favorite ways to quickly gather and share information with others. Whenever someone asks me for a collection of resources, I immediately start gathering them in a LiveBinder. I have written about LiveBinders in the past, you can read those posts here and here for ideas of how to use LiveBinders in your classroom. A few days ago a friend asked if I had any good Chemistry websites I could recommend. I had a few but thought I would call on my Twitter network for their favorites. This Chemistry LiveBinder is the result. Thank you PLN for all of your help and recommendations, as usual they were spot on!

How to integrate LiveBinders: Chemistry into your curriculum: If you teach Chemistry (or have a friend who teaches Chemistry) this binder is a great one to pursue! I separated resources into videos, periodic table, games, simulations, and websites.

Don’t teach chemistry but are interested in using LiveBinders? Here are some ideas for using LiveBinders in your classroom:

Live Binders can be used as online digital portfolios for students. Any Word or PDF documents that they create can be added to a binder along with any web content that they create. The binders are easy to keep track of and share. Each tab can represent a year in school and each subtab can represent a subject within the school year. The Live Binder can easily be used from year to year creating a digital portfolio. Live Binders can be placed on desktops so that students don’t have to type in long URL’s to access a website. Everything can be organized and easily updated in a Live Binder for students to access the web through. This is a great time saver for the computer lab or classroom computers. Create your own ‘textbooks’ for students to access as a Live Binder. You can easily add content to it and students can access the materials from any Internet connected computer. Create an assignment Live Binder with all worksheets and classroom materials. Students can access any classroom materials from home, no more lost papers! Students can create Live Binders to keep themselves organized as they complete research projects. Students could turn in a final project as a Live Binder that includes all of their web research, notes, and final written work. Live Binders would be a great way to go paperless at your school. Create a binder with important school information, meeting notes, calendars, etc. for school staff to access.

Tips: Educators are making some really fantastic LiveBinder collections, if you are looking for a specific subject or topic, search LiveBinders, someone may have already created the perfect go to guide!

Yep, that is my smiling face you see in the banner at the top of LiveBinders, I am going to be joining LiveBinders and Dean Mantz on January 12 on learncenteral.org for a live podcast. I hope you will join us too!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using LiveBinders: Chemistry in your classroom!

Interactive book from Google: 20 Things I Learned

November 18, 2010Kelly Tenkely7 Comments3463 views

What it is: Google has done it again with a new online e-book called 20 Things I Learned. This interactive e-book is your guide to how browsers and the web work, how the World Wide Web has evolved, cloud computing, and what we need to know to navigate the web safely. The book has an enchanting quality with its humorous approach to the web (love the titles) and fun illustrations. This guide-book is one you will want to share with all of your colleagues, relatives, friends, students…you will want to dive into it yourself.

How to integrate 20 Things I Learned into your curriculum: This handy little online book is a great one to share with students. Share an individual chapter (called a thing) or the whole book. Here your students can learn all about the web, how to keep themselves safe, and will know the difference between cloud computing and a web app. 20 Things I Learned is also a must share with your co-workers, neighbors, mom, grandpa, and the rest of the crew that is constantly calling you for your tech expertise.

Tips: Each page has a little red bookmark that drops down, scroll over the bookmark to share the thing on Twitter, Facebook, or printout.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using 20 Things I Learned in your classroom!

National Geographic Kids Animal Jam Virtual World

July 16, 2010July 19, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3506 views

What it is: National Geographic Kids is a constant source of excellent activities but their new Animal Jam virtual world is above and beyond my favorite. My students love virtual worlds, they enjoy being immersed in a story, sent on a mission, and interacting with each other to complete adventures and learn. Animal Jam lets them do all of these things while providing a virtual world where they can discover real-world plant and animal information and follow a rich storyline that has National Geographic’s multi-media content built in. Cool huh?! Animal Jam does something else, it excites students to learn more about the real world around them, so when they aren’t playing in the virtual world, they will be excited to learn more about the world they live in. The virtual world is an easy one for students to pick up on and learn, it is perfect for young students and caters to their specific levels of play and developmental stages. Animal Jams will be one of those environments that is as appealing to fourth grade students as it is to first grade students. The online environment is safe and monitored so you can feel comfortable introducing it in your classroom. Each portion of the sign up process is narrated so it is easy for even young students to sign up. The site requires a parent’s email address to sign up, the email is required but does not have to be verified before play can begin. In a classroom setting, a teacher or classroom email address could be used for sign-up. The email address allows an adult to monitor and adjust settings in a child’s game.

How to integrate National Geographic Kids Animal Jam into the classroom: After students sign up, they are entered into the magical world of Jamma where they are introduced to the world. Each portion of the game is narrated making it accessible to early readers, struggling readers, and English language learners. As students explore the world of Jamma, they will find embedded learning about different kinds of plants and animals along with incredible National Geographic images. Animal Jam is a nice environment to let your young students practice what they are learning about online safety and netiquette. As students explore Jamma, they will learn about links, navigation with mouse and arrow keys, and learn fun facts in the process.

Every primary curriculum that I have seen carves out time for students to learn about plants and animals. Animal Jam is a fun place for them to discover this learning within the virtual world. Send your students on expeditions and adventures to find these learning opportunities. As they play in Animal Jam, students can keep an observation journal where they record the plants and animals they are discovering like a scientist would. Ask your students how many of the plants and animals they can find in real life around their homes. If you are learning about ecosystems and environments, ask students to count and name the different ecosystems they can spot in Animal Jam. This site is ideal for the computer lab setting, make sure to at least begin the game in the computer lab where each student has a computer. After the kids are signed up and familiar with the world, it could become a center activity for your classroom computers throughout the year.

Tips: Right now Animal Jam is in Beta. The world is free to join and play in but premium accounts are also available to students.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Animal Jam in your classroom.

Trick.ly

June 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely11 Comments3728 views

What it is: There are several url shortening tools out there that let you shrink down a cumbersome url into something more manageable for sharing. Trick.ly is a url shortener with an added feature: it can be password protected. When you share the url, you can add a clue and a password that has to be used in order for the shared website to be accessed. You may be wondering why you would want to password protect a url in the classroom, I’m glad you asked…

How to integrate Trick.ly into the classroom: I am constantly sharing shortened url’s with my students, it makes it easy to get all my students to the same website quickly. Trick.ly adds the ability to password protect the url. This could add a layer of learning and fun to accessing websites in the classroom. Give your students a Trick.ly shortened url with a secret clue that helps students “unlock” the website. For example, if you are using National Geographic Maps website with your students, don’t just send them to the website, give them a clue that is related to the website such as “Capital of Colorado”. Students have to correctly solve the puzzle to unlock access to the game. The password “Denver” would provide students with access to the website. Create Trick.ly shortened url’s with math, geography, history, spelling, vocabulary, science, or foreign language problems built in. Make the clue to solve related to the end website that students will access. Kids enjoy solving problems, adding a puzzle to a website gives students a sense of anticipation for the activity they will be completing. Trick.ly urls take just seconds to create, they are a fast, easy way to direct your students to a website.

Tips: Trick.ly would be a great way to share websites and web pages that you create for your classroom. We have a school Facebook and Twitter account. If I wanted to share pictures I took of our school carnival, I could share them with Trick.ly, adding a layer of protection.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Trick.ly in your classroom.

RCampus

April 13, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2718 views

What it is: RCampus is a collaborative environment that is a one-stop shop for everything school related. RCampus utilizes Open Education Management system that makes it easy to build personal and group websites, manage courses, eportfolios, academic communities, build rubrics, connect students with tutors, and a book exchange. All of these tools are FREE for students and faculty. This would be a great place to organize your classroom life and keep your students organized. Everything is integrated making management very simple. Students stay well informed and communication opportunities grow with RCampus.

How to integrate RCampus into the classroom: This is an outstanding place to keep your classroom organized and easily managed. Eportfolios are a great way for students to showcase learning, RCampus makes it easy to communicate, assess, and assist througout the year as students build their portfolios. Set up courses where you can manage everything from one central location. Grade, communicate, and keep yourself organized with the RCampus integrated learning and course management. Rubrics are fast and easy to create and can be printed out or used with the RCampus click to grade system that lets you grade students from the gradebook with just a few clicks. Students can use RCampus to find an online tutor and teachers can sign up to be tutors on RCampus. Trade books with no fees using the RCampus book exchange. This is a great place to swap books with other teachers and students. RCampus has excellent tools for communicating with parents, students, grading, and organizing your classroom, check it out!

Tips: RCampus is free and open access, easy and quick, highly secure, collaborative, life long, cross campus, comprehensive, and user centric. It is the total package for classrooms and schools!

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

Wizlite

February 17, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2203 views

What it is: Wizlite is a handy little web tool that lets you highlight text (just like you would on paper) on any page on the Internet and then share it with others. Wizlite uses a a Firefox extension or a bookmarklet to show and store selections. It is free and easy to use!

How to integrate Wizlite into the classroom: Wizlite is a handy tool for directing your students to specific information while they are learning on the web. Use Wizlite to teach your students to find the main idea on a webpage. Students can create groups on Wizlite and share pages with their highlights with other students. Wizlite is also very useful for sharing portions of webpages with your colleagues quickly and easily.

Tips: Wizlite does require you to install an extension. This is easy to do and the Wizlite site walks you through the steps.

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

Share Tabs

January 5, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2243 views

What it is: Share Tabs is a simple, but very neat, website that allows you to share several links with one web address. Teachers can enter a list of websites they want students to visit into Share Tabs. After entering the links, you create one Share Tabs URL that will open all of the links as separate tabs in a web browser. So cool!

How to integrate Share Tabs into the classroom: Share Tabs is an awesome way to save time in the classroom when using multiple websites. Instead of waiting for kids to type in several URL’s to get to the days activities, they type in one URL and share tabs does all the work. I know in my classroom, I don’t want to spend 15 min typing in web addresses. I would rather that students have that time to spend on the web activities. Share Tabs is perfect in the computer lab setting or any time that you want students to visit multiple websites for a lesson. Use Share Tabs for virtual field trips through cyber space without spending time creating a webquest. Share Tabs also makes sharing sites with colleauges a snap. As you are finding resources for a lesson, put them into Share Tabs and send one link. Your colleagues will thank you!

Tips: Use Share Tabs on Twitter instead of updating 5 times with each separate URL you are exploring, update once with a Share Tabs link!

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

Animalia

December 2, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3427 views

What it is: The Animalia website is based on the popular book and television series written and illustrated by Graeme Base. The website is just as impressive as the book with amazing illustrations and activities for students. On the Animalia website, students are introduced to the characters of Animalia, the goal of the Animalia site, Animalia news, and games and activities. The Animalia site brings students on a wonderful adventure where their goal is to collect all of the “core spores” to restore the Core of Animalia. Students collect the core spores by going on several adventures where they will play learning games, discover, and follow directions. Games and activities include logic puzzles, memory skills, code cracking, map reading, and listening skills. The listening game is called Toucan Talk (which I learned about on Larry Ferrazlo’s blog) and asks students to listen to a message in the wrong order, and change the order of words or sounds so that the message makes sense. The site is extremely interactive. Students will love becoming part of the adventure.

How to integrate Animalia into the classroom: Animalia is like a giant online scavenger hunt where students solve problems to advance in the game. This site would be a great one to use to teach following written and oral directions, logical thinking, and problem solving skills. These aren’t skills that we generally focus on in isolation but the Animalia site does a wonderful job of weaving a story around a problem and inviting students along on an adventure to solve the problem. Because students are problem solving, this would be an excellent site for students to work on collaboratively as a team. Students can be split into teams to see who can collect all of the “core spores” first through problem solving. What I love about watching my students interact with each other on this site, is the way that one team would solve a problem and then teach another team how they did it. Nothing better than kids teaching kids! For younger students, the game could be completed as a whole class with a projector or interactive whiteboard. The clues and games will have to be more teacher directed but your students will quickly catch on and be ready to play!

Tips: This site is highly interactive including video clips, highly interactive games, and sounds. You will need a high speed connection for this site. Bring on the bandwidth!

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

Mrs. P’s Magic Library

November 25, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3292 views

What it is: I heard about this wonderful website from Larry Ferlazzo on his blog last week and have been exploring it ever since. Mrs. P’s Magic Library is a free website for kids that celebrates reading and books. Mrs. P is the librarian at the Magic Library, she brings story time to life with video stories and read-alongs. Her library also features fun animated games and lots of crazy characters that students will love. When students enter this virtual library they will have access to Mrs. P reading them a story, fun interactive games, and videos (lots more to explore!!). The whole idea behind the library is to introduce students to great literature read to them in classic story-time style (not just listening to an audio book). This virtual library is about as close as you can get to the real thing! Your students will love Mrs. P.

How to integrate Mrs. P’s Magic Library into the classroom: Mrs. P’s Magic Library is an outstanding addition to any classroom. Use Mrs. P.com as a place to begin silent reading one day a week. Use a projector and speakers so that Mrs. P can read to your class before they begin their silent reading time. Mrs. P’s excellent storytelling abilities will have even your reluctant readers eager to read. Tell parents about Mrs. P so that students can enjoy the virtual library from school or home. Mrs. P’s Magic Library makes a great reading/ listening center and the options to read along or listen make it ideal for any students ability level.

Tips: Mrs. P’s Magic Library requires high speed Internet access because of all the video and interactive games on the site. This one may eat up some serious bandwidth in a computer lab setting!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Mrs. P’s Magic Library in your classroom.