iLearn Technology – Page 85 – Integrating technology in the classroom

The Story Home

August 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment13834 views

What it is: The Story Home is a collection of classic and original children’s audio stories. Every other week a new story is added by storyteller Alan. All audio stories are FREE!! The stories can be listened to right from The Story Home website or by subscribing to The Story Home on iTunes.

How to integrate The Story Home into the classroom: Students will love listening to audio stories on The Story Home. Set up a listening center in your classroom where students can listen to stories. As they listen to stories, students can practice comprehension strategies like visualization. If you have an iPod program at your school, load up the iPods with stories that students can listen to from home. Find stories that correspond with your classroom curriculum and introduce new concepts with an audio story. Use The Story Home to teach students Story Telling strategies.

Tips: Introduce parents to The Story Home so they can use it at home with their children. I learned about The Story Home from multiple tweets on Twitter. If you aren’t a part of the Twitter education community yet, sign up today!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Story Home in your classroom.

The Potato Story

August 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments10021 views

What it is: The Potato Story is a great interactive from the UK that teaches students about food (specifically the potato) and how it gets from field to fork. The story focuses on how the potato is grown and harvested and it’s journey from the farm to the table where kids eat it. It also teaches the nutritional values of the potato and the part they play in a balanced diet. The interactive for kids is spectacular, but the accompanying resources for teachers is truly incredible. The first lesson of the Potato Story is the life cycle of the plant. Each lesson comes with instructions for the teacher, the interactive portion for the student, additional educational weblinks, and pdf worksheets, quizzes, and printable lesson. The second lesson is a simulation where students can grow their own potatoes and learn about healthy root systems and plant needs. The third lesson teaches about plant growth and the plant life cycle. The final lesson is all about making healthy eating choices and nutrition.

How to integrate The Potato Story into the classroom: The Potato Story is a fantastic interactive that takes students on a journey of the food they eat. Students learn about plant life cycles, necessary elements for growing a plant, and nutrition. The Potato Story interactives are perfect as a center in a science class, completing individually in a lab setting, or completing as a class with an interactive whiteboard.

Tips: Be sure not to skip the teacher section on this site, there are SO many great ideas and extension activities included.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Potato Story in your classroom.

Live Binders

August 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely6 Comments7096 views

What it is: Live Binders is a website that allows you to view links like pages in a book instead of URLs on a page. PDF’s and Word Documents can be combined with links within a binder. Links and documents can be organized into tabs and subtabs. Live Binders are easy to share from the Live Binder website, on desktops, or embedded on blogs or other websites.

How to integrate Live Binders into the 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: I learned about Live Binders from @McTeach on Twitter, she uses Live Binders to keep recipes organized, thanks Karen! Karen is one of my favorite educators to follow, she is always tweeting great edu tips and ideas!

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

Simply Box

August 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2638 views

What it is: Simply Box appeals to my inner organization enthusiast. Simply Box is a web tool that allows users to capture content from any web page and put it into a box. I love the visual interface of Simply Box. Inside a box is the collection of resources that you have collected from around the web. You actually see the website (this is a huge deal for people who see a lot of websites each day), I may not remember a website by its title or description but I will most certainly remember it by its picture. Within a box you can rearrange websites by clicking and dragging them to a new place on the screen. Boxes can further be organized into containers. For example I may have a math website container with boxes inside such as virtual manipulatives, games, videos, etc. Simply Box has a very user friendly interface that lets you drag and drop to organize containers, boxes, and materials. Simply Box makes collaboration easy. Send your Simply Box to another Simply Box user and each of you can comment and add to boxes. A non-simply box user will be able to see all of the content but will not be able to add to it.

How to integrate Simply Box into the classroom: Simply Box is an outstanding way to keep the online classroom resources you find organized. Share your boxes with colleagues and collaborate about resources you find and how they might be used in the classroom. Use Simply Box to build guided lessons for students. Collect all the resources (websites) they need to complete a project. Create an Internet scavenger hunt for students to complete in a safe, more controlled online environment. Students can also use Simply Box. Students can work together on class projects, collecting research and other materials together. Assign Simply Box as homework and include students in the creation of the next-day lesson. Assign a topic, the student’s job is to find a few quality websites on the subject and add them to the class Simply Box. The next day go through the students finds as a class to learn about the new topic. As you continue learning about the topic, new finds can be added to the Simply Box. When it comes time to complete a project or study for a test, all of the resources are gathered in one place for students. You could essentially create your own ‘textbooks’ with the help of students.

Tips: Simply Box requires an Internet plugin to work. If you need a tech admin to install a plugin on classroom computers or your work computer, get the request in so you can organize your school year from the start.

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

Nota

August 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3508 views

What it is: Nota is an incredible online collaboration tool that allows students and teachers to collaborate almost instantaneously on a shared whiteboard space. Instantly create and share any kind of document, presentations, notebooks, report, artwork, etc.. Nota makes any type of document and media work together seamlessly. The Nota interface is extremelly intuitive, it is quick to learn and use. Materials can be shared and edited simultaneously making it a truly incredible collaborative experience. Materials can be uploaded or added from sites like Flickr, YouTube, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and more. The Nota drawing tools work with any media or document in Nota. Public or private notebooks can be created. Collaborate with one or a hundred people on Nota and create as many pages as you want. Finished work can be stored, printed, or embeded. Best of all Nota is totally free!

How to integrate Nota into the classroom: Nota is the ultimate in online collaboration. It reminds me a little bit of a glog but Nota goes way beyond Glogster in so many ways. Nota can be used to complete group projects between students. The instant collaborative abilities mean that students can see each group members contribution instantaneously. Imagine using Nota to work on difficult math problems, create science diagrams, compare and contrast historical figures, create a character sketch of a character from a classroom novel, etc.. The possibilities are endless for collaborative learning. Work on a common notebook for whole class projects where each student is responsible for a contribution to the Nota. Make interactive whiteboards a truly interactive experience by combining with Nota. Throughout teaching, have students add their new learning to a common Nota notebook. At the end of teaching, use the interactive whiteboard to view the Nota and add any additional information and resources to it. Print out or send the Nota to students as a study guide that they helped create. Nota creates an impressive mashup of media and documents and allows users to collaborate and combine knowledge. When students work together to construct knowledge, they end up with a greater, more complete understanding of material.

Tips: Nota works with any web browser making it ideal for the classroom setting where students may not have the same computing platforms or Internet browsers at home.

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

Pictogram Graph

August 9, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1963 views

What it is: Most elementary math curricula include lessons on graphing with pictograms. This online version of the Pictogram Graph lets teachers and students create and learn about pictogram graphs in an interactive environment. The Pictogram Graph website makes it simple to add titles, descriptions, choose a picture and a color, choose what value each picture is worth, choose the number of rows/columns, and enter a value on the graph.

How to integrate Pictogram Graph into the classroom: This interactive website is a great way to teach graphing with pictures. Use Pictogram Graph with an interactive whiteboard for whole class graphing. This site would also make a great math center in the classroom. Groups of students can visit the center and graph collected values.

Tips: In addition to the Pictogram Graph site, there is a link at the bottom of the page to a farm animal pictogram which changes the look of the webpage. The farm animal pictogram would be ideal for the kindergarten and first grade classrooms.

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

Tangram House

August 5, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2056 views

What it is: I love tangram puzzles, so when I found Tangram House I was thrilled. This online version of the Chinese puzzle lets students select a puzzle to complete and work with 7 tans (shapes) to fill the puzzle. The tans can be rotated, flipped, and dragged into place. The puzzles can be completed online or downloaded for free as an offline game.

How to integrate Tangram House into the classroom: The format of this website would be appropriate for an interactive whiteboard activity. Split students into teams that will take turns at the board forming the tangrams. Encourage the students who are not at the board to help out with good directions and clues for the student working on the puzzle. This is a good way for kids to practice giving and receiving quality instructions and descriptions. Tangram House could also be used on classroom computers as a math learning center or individually in a computer lab setting.

Tips: Play online or download for free and play offline.

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

Ecybermission

August 4, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment1934 views

What it is: Ecybermission is a free, web-based science, math, and technology competition for students in sixth through ninth grade sponsored by the US Army. Students compete in regional and national awards by working to solve problems in their community. The goal of the competition is to help students understand how science, math, and technology work in the world today. Each team needs 3 or 4 student members. The team members must register and join the team by December 18, 2009. Each team also needs 1 adviser this could be a teacher, coach, club leader, etc that is at least 21 years old. There are four mission challenges that a team can choose from: sports and recreation, 2009-2010 scenario challenge, environment, or health and safety. Students will research the problem they are seeking to address, write a hypothesis, and conduct experiments. An online Team-Talk allows students to meet with each other online using discussion forums, chat rooms, and instant messaging. Students can answer questions in an online mission folder that allows them to attach files such as photographs, survey questions, or a website. At the end of the competion the mission folder is submited (before February 26, 2010).

How to integrate Ecybermission into the classroom: Why not make Ecybermission a portion of your schools science fair? Students could gather into teams competing in the competion, solving real-world problems. My guess is that this competition would be a much richer learning experience than the typical volcanoes, and planet mobiles that usually show up to science fairs. As students work to solve a problem, they will build communication, collaboration, innovation, critical thinking and scientific process skills.

Tips: Get your students signed up today, registration is open from now until December 18, 2009. I would think the more time you can provide your students the better! Need an added bonus? Any team that registers with Ecybermission gets Brian Pop for free!

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

The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits

July 31, 2009July 31, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4209 views

What it is: The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits is a fun, interactive website where individuals or groups of students can learn about circuits. There are 5 sections to the Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits. Section 1 teaches students about what makes circuits work, section 2 teaches about conductors and insulators, section 3 teaches about switches, section 4 teaches about changing circuits, and section 5 teaches about circuit diagrams. Each section includes a teaching portion, an activity, and a quiz. If students answer all of the questions in the quiz correctly, they get a special bonus activity after they have completed each section. The “Blobz” characters explain each section with pictures, animations, and text.

How to integrate The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits into the classroom: The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits is a fun way to teach students about circuits, conductors, insulators, switches, and diagrams. Students could work on this website individually, in small groups as a center activity during an electric circuits unit, or as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard. The information section might be good to go through with the whole class for some guided practice and instruction. Students could complete the activities and quizzes individually or in small groups as a center after instruction.

Tips: This site is British so some of the vocabulary may be unfamiliar (for example a flashlight is called a torch).

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits in your classroom.

UDL Book Builder

July 29, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4132 views

What it is: UDL Book Builder is a site where you can create your own interactive digital stories. The books have built in coaches that can support diverse learning needs. The coaches direct student learning even when students are working independently. The digital books can include text, images, audio, glossary terms (that are linked within the story), and coaches that can provide hints, prompts, and modeling. The published books can be viewed online, downloaded to a computer, saved to a CD, or shared with others in the UDL library. Both teachers and students can use the UDL Book Builder to create interactive digital stories.

How to integrate UDL Book Builder into the classroom: Use the UDL Book Builder to create interactive stories for your students that meet their specific learning needs. Include students and familiar locations in your stories to boost reading motivation. Students love starring in their own stories. As you are creating a book in the Book Builder, be sure to devleop the coaches within the book. The coaches can offer reading hints, strategies, and model good reading. Start a school library of teacher created digital books. As the digital library is devleoped, be sure to note which reading skills are being emphasized so that other teachers can quickly sort through books that will match their students learning needs and interests. Students can also create digital books from their writing. The writing should be ready to publish (correct spelling, grammar, etc.). These stories can easily be shared online with other students in class, in the school, and with pen pals. UDL Book Builder would be a great tool for creating stories as a class using the interactive whiteboard.

Tips: The UDL Book Builder site has a great section with tips for authors and illustrators using the Builder. These tips are helpful for any adults creating a book, but are also worth sharing with students using the tool.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using UDL Book Builder in your classroom.