Category: Middle/High School

Share Tabs

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Share Tabs2504 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.

International Childrens Digital Library

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on International Childrens Digital Library3918 views

 

What it is:  The International Childrens Digital Library (also known as ICDL) is an online digital library for children of all ages.  The mission of ICDL is to “ excite and inspire the world’s children to become members of the global community – children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online.”  When students visit the ICDL website they are brought to a simple search area where they can choose different options for finding a book.  They can narrow down results by age (3-13), fiction or non-fiction, book length, award winners, language, picture or chapter books, subject matter, and even what colors that cover has in it.  When students choose a book they can read the book in its entirety online.  I learned about this site in the iTunes store, they have a free iPod Touch and iPhone application for downloading books from the ICDL in addition to their online content.  So neat!

 

How to integrate ICDL into the classroom:   The ICDL website reminds me a lot of LookyBook.  The search options are extremely user friendly and allow even the youngest readers to find a book they are sure to love.  Students can register for the library (free) and then leave an online review of the book.  I like the idea of digital libraries for students because it opens up a number of books to them that they may not otherwise have access to.  If a story is started during school, students can finish the story when they get home from any Internet connected computer.  The ICDL is nice for reading groups.  All students can be reading the same book from school and from home without setting aside a large budget for group sets.  The search is a wonderful way for students to discover what types of literature they enjoy.  Many of the books featured are from different cultures and languages, these would be perfect to bring into a foreign language classroom.  ICDL books provide a fun way for students to gain global awareness.  Books in other languages could also be used as a starting point for student created stories.  Students can do picture walks through the online books and then compose their own story to accompany the pictures.  ICDL is a great way to read with the whole class.  Connect your computer with a projector and students can read the story along with you, everyone will be able to see the pictures as you discuss the story!  

 

Tips:  One thing that I really appreciate about ICDL is the ability to view the books full screen and zoom in and out of the pages.  The site is easy to navigate and this feature makes it even more user friendly.  

 

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

Aviary Toucan

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Aviary Toucan2340 views

 

What it is:  Aviary is a website on a mission to make creativity more accessible.  They do this by making powerful image software available online (no download required) and with free versions of the online software.  Aviary has four different offerings: Peacock, Phoenix, Toucan, and Raven.  Because each tool does something different, I am going to break it down into four posts.

 

Toucan is the third application in the Aviary suite.  Toucan is a color palette chooser. It is a simple tool but combined with the other Aviary applications is pretty powerful for the creativity process.  Choose colors for your palette and then adjust hue, saturation, hue, light, CMYK, and RGB.  The color palette helps students learn about relationships between colors on the color wheel.  As students manipulate and choose colors from the color wheel, they can save to the clip board.  When color palettes are in the clipboard, students can filter out colors in their palette or expand colors.  There is also an image chooser where students can choose an image and then pick colors directly from the image.  The last cool tool in Toucan is a color deficiency tool where you can see what people who are color blind might see when they are viewing your color palette (especially helpful for website creation!).  After you create a color palette, it can be imported into Pheonix or Peacock.  In the color chooser in Pheonix, you can click a special button to import your swatches from Toucan.  Neat!

 

How to integrate Toucan into the classroom:   Aviary Toucan is a wonderful addition to any art or science class studying color.  The color wheel and adjustment options make it easy to see and understand color relationships as well as concepts like hue, tint, and saturation.  This would be a great tool for students to explore individually, recording observations about hue, tint, saturation, etc. as they discover how each affects color.  Toucan would also be useful for whole class instruction on color with a projector.  The ability to create color palettes is a great tie in for the other Aviary applications as well as for website design.  I love the color deficiency tool that allows you to see what the colors in your color palette look like to someone with color blindness.  This is a nice way to teach students about color blindness and useful when creating websites, advertisements, etc.  

 

Tips:  Aviary Phoenix, Peacock, and Toucan are both in beta right now.  Be sure to check out the Toucan overview video to learn more about how Toucan works.  The video breaks down the application nicely.  

 

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

Aviary Peacock

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Aviary Peacock1665 views

I hope that you all had a blessed Christmas!  What I learned this year is that even though I take a break from posting, spammers do NOT break for holidays and other bloggers tend to blog MORE when they have a break to do so.  This means that #1 I have a lot of spam to sort through and #2 it has taken me a long time to get through my Google Reader!  I am finally getting around to a post that I intended to do several days ago (actually 3 posts) all on the Aviary creative suite of tools.  So, without further ado- here it is…

 

 

 

What it is:  Aviary is a website on a mission to make creativity more accessible.  They do this by making powerful image software available online (no download required) and with free versions of the online software.  Aviary has four different offerings: Peacock, Phoenix, Toucan, and Raven.  Because each tool does something different, I am going to break it down into four posts.

 

Peacock is a “visual laboratory”that lets students experiment with pixel based images in fun ways.  Students can create pixel images applying filters (this will feel similar to other image editors such as Adobe).  Students can also blend several pixel based images together to create images.  These pixel images would make great backgrounds for other documents, web pages, or other Aviary tools.  Students can also upload “resources” or pictures from their computers or other sources to manipulate in Peacock.   Peacock easily integrates with the other Aviary tools switching images quickly between the applications.  This makes the possibilities for creativity endless.  

 

How to integrate Peacock into the classroom:   Aviary Peacock is a neat way for students to explore and experiment with visual arts.  The application really does feel like a laboratory.  Students start out with one image of their choosing and can manipulate the image with different filters, blenders, etc. to come up with completely new images.  It is interesting to experiment with the different ‘ingredients’ to see how an image can be transformed.  Peacock can be used to create backgrounds for web pages, documents, or other Aviary creations.  Peacock can also be used to help students understand cause and effect as they manipulate images.  

 

Tips:  Aviary Phoenix and Peacock are both in beta right now.  Be sure to check out the Peacock overview video to get an idea of how Peacock works.  

 

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

Aviary

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Aviary2503 views

 

 

What it is:  Aviary is a website on a mission to make creativity more accessible.  They do this by making powerful image software available online (no download required) and with free versions of the online software.  Aviary has four different offerings: Peacock, Phoenix, Toucan, and Raven.  Because each tool does something different, I am going to break it down into four posts.  Phoenix is an image editor and the first Aviary tool I will review.  Phoenix is an image editor that allows for basic image editing or complex effects, it has many of the same features as that expensive software suite (Adobe) but has the benefit of being based online and free! 🙂  There is a rich tool set with features familiar to graphics and image programs like brushes, and blend modes.  Just like the more expensive software, Aviary allows students to work on projects in layers with an intuative, easy-to-use, drag and drop interface.  Images can be imported from other popular sites like Flickr, Facebooks, and Picasa.  Any creation in Phoenix can be imported and used in other Aviary tools.

 

How to integrate Aviary into the classroom:  Aviary Phoenix is an awesome tool for classroom image editing.  This is a great alternative to expensive image editors, but looks and works enough like the ‘big dogs’ that students who learn how to use Aviary will be able to easily transfer the knowledge if and when they need to.  Aviary currently has 62 Phoenix tutorials.  Students can work through the tutorials and teach themselves the program.  I like this method of self discovery and teaching,  it is an important skill for students to learn that we don’t teach enough in the classroom.  Ask students to create brochures, advertisements, or other graphic media to illustrate concepts in the classroom using digital art.  Aviary is a nice introduction into graphic arts and digital media.

 

Tips:  It is fun to look through creations that others have made and try to figure out how they used Aviary Phoenix to create.

 

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

App Shopper

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on App Shopper2063 views

 

What it is:  The iPod Touch has opened up a whole world of portable education to schools.  Several of the Applications in the iTunes Application store are free!  App Shopper is a website that makes it simple to find free education applications for the iPod Touch (or iPhone).  Select your category, free, and enjoy browsing through great, free applications for your students!  

 

How to integrate App Shopper into the classroom:  Use App shopper to easily find free applications for your classroom iPod Touch(es).  I like the way that App Shopper shows an icon of the program and gives a description of the application.  Applications can be downloaded right from App Shopper or from iTunes…these are free to use, who doesn’t appreciate free classroom tools?!

 

Tips:  The second edition of the iLearn Ezine is coming soon with a great section on iPods in education and a review of the best free education apps.

 

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

The Week in Rap

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on The Week in Rap2726 views

 

 

What it is:  I remember being forced to pay attention to current events when I was in high school for class assignments.  I know that my teachers were trying to get me to pay attention to what was happening in the world; but, to be perfectly honest, I hated watching an hour of news.  My mind would wander and local news left a lot to be desired (why did I care about the dog who dialed 911 for its owner?).  The Week in Rap brings students current events on their level in a fun and entertaining way.  Every Friday a weeks worth of news is posted in video form.  The entertaining piece comes in the way that the recap of the weeks headlines is presented, in the form of a rap.  The videos will hold your students attention while they keep up to date with what is happening in the world.  The lyrics for each rap are posted below the video.  This free website was created by Flocabulary which makes rap videos about a number of subjects.

 

How to integrate The Week in Rap into the classroom:   The Week in Rap is a good way for your students to get involved with current events.  Use the videos as a launching point for further discussion, a beginning point for research, or have students write a blog post in response to the video.  Students can read more about each story mentioned in the weeks rap by clicking on the link for the news story in the lyrics.  The few that I clicked on brought me to PBS.  

 

Tips:  Since current events are posted every Friday, this site might make a good end of the week fun activity.  

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Week in Rap in your classroom.

Wikipedia School

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Wikipedia School13443 views

 

What it is:  Wikipedia is often the first place students head when faced with a research project.  While Wikipedia can be an excellent resource, content can be vandalized and is not always student appropriate.  Wikipedia School is a free, hand checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia.  It has about 5500 articles and is the volume of a twenty volume encyclopedia.  It will fit on a DVD and can be downloaded for free thanks to the SOS Children’s Villages website.  Topics were chosen that would be of interest to students and in accordance with the UK National Curriculum (but are appropriate for any English speaking country).  

 

How to integrate Wikipedia School into the classroom:  Wikipedia School is a nice alternative to using the Wikipedia website in a school environment.  The ability to download Wikipedia School to DVD means that it can be used on computers that don’t have Internet access.  Students can search freely and you will have the peace of mind knowing that with Wikipedia School, students won’t stumble on inappropriate content.  Subjects for search include: art, business studies, citizenship, countries, design and technology, every day life, geography, history, information technology, language and literature, mathematics, music, people, portals, religion, and science.  There is an outstanding selection of articles and pictures for each subject!

 

Tips:  Wikipedia School can be accessed online or offline when downloaded.

 

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

Woopid Video Tutorials

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Woopid Video Tutorials3118 views

 

 

 

What it is:   Woopid is one of the best sites I have seen for technology training video tutorials.  You can find a video about nearly every gadget or computer question you may have.  The videos are very easy to search by category or keyword.  Video categories include Hardware, Internet, Mac, and Windows.  Each category has a number of sub categories, I am amazed at the number and quality of videos here! Don’t see the tutorial you need?  Send in a request and Woopid may choose your suggestion for the next training video.

 

How to integrate Woopid into the classroom:  I can’t tell you how much I learn through online tutorials like these.   The computer skills that I have did not come from a classroom, I generally learn from interacting with video and written tutorials.  I love these videos because they are easy to follow and understand.  I think teaching students how to teach themselves is a valuable skill and Woopid helps you do that.  Give students a few resource sites like Woopid, then give them a task.  Don’t teach them how to complete the task, let them use the resources to find the information they need and teach themselves.  You will be amazed at what your students can accomplish when they learn how to learn!  Woopid is also a great site to pass onto colleagues!

 

Tips:  Parents may benefit from Woopid at home, many times parents don’t know how to set up filters and parental controls on their  personal Internet, Woopid can help out!

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