06:38 PM in Education | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Welcome to the educators enrolled in a Dimensions in Technology and Learning with Ed Bianchi from Southern New Hampshire College. Our learning resources for today can be found at
http://sites.google.com/site/learningwithlucie/Home/june22
and will help you prepare for using Google Tools when working with today's students.
10:42 AM in Education | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
At this years FOSSVT Conference featuring (Free and Open Source Software in Schools) I presented a session that demonstrated how to tweak three open source tools to make them truly useful classroom tools.
1) Tux Paint:
2) Type Faster:
3) Open Office:
I've attached two zip folders from my presentation (Tux Paint Starter Files, and Open Office Gallery Config Files for WP Clipart) at http://sites.google.com/site/opensourceineducation/Home
Check out more ideas about using Open Source in Education at http://k12opened.com/
03:27 PM in Education | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Historic Inaugurations
Download Inaguration Jeopardy
Barack
Obama will go down in history as being the first African American to be
inaugurated as President of the United States.
Check
out this National Public Radio Slide Show of other “First” for Inauguration
Day.
http://www.npr.org/multimedia/2008/12/inaugural_firsts/
Or challenge someone you know to Play Historical Inauguration Jeopardy.
I added content to this PowerPoint Game from http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/PPT-games/.
The questions are challenging for even those who've been around for a while. So you might want to modify the rules to engage your students by teaming them with adults who have seen a few Inaugurations. Here are some ideas for playing this Jeopardy Game.
I also created a Voice Thread that can be used by educators to help student express their voice around this historic day. You can find a copy of this along with a few other last minute gems relating to Inauguration in my latest Infinite Thinking Machine Post.
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2009/01/inauguration-2009.html
12:22 AM in Education | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
This week's Friday Five expand on those with interactive sites aimed at classroom teachers and students relating to the Inauguration.
Inauguration 2009 (and related Web Sites for Educators and Students )
1. http://web.me.com/elemenous/NKO_Inauguration/NKO_Inauguration_Celebration.html
Looking for some Writing Prompts relating to the Inauguration. Check
out the blog part of this website from a Middle School near Barack
Obama's Chicago Home. I can help your class participate in a safe
way.
2. http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/5a2b.html
All the Presidents's Children – A short trivia game about children who
have lived in the White House.
I overhead some of our student's talking about this very topic in the
hall this week."Whose dog was a gift from the Soviet premier? Whose nickname was
Dynamo? Discover fun facts about past presidents' children with this
interactive activity from Smithsonian's National Museum of American
History."3.http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/factsandfirsts/index.cfm
Video (So Help Me God)
Along with a fun list of "first and facts" regarding Past Inauguration
4. The American Presidency – A Glorious Burden
An online exhibit from the Smithsonian (great demonstration of a timeline)
Click on Site MAP (first) to get a quick overview of everything on this site.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/PRESIDENCY/home.html
5.http://thinkfinity.com/Inauguration.aspxA whole collection of websites (some recycled from the Election
Collection) organized for educators, parents, students, and after
school program. '
(Including some of the ones listed below)
-------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/politics/index.cfm
For Science Class:
President-elect Barack Obama has said he would like to make the White
House more of the "People's House" again by inviting guests to the
White House to discuss many different issues, including science.Which science topic would you like to see discussed at the White House?
Vote now!
http://readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=726
Read Write Think collection of Lesson Plans and Activities that can be
used or related to the Election of Barack Obama
Understanding the Issues
The candidates might disagree on the solutions, but they both agree on
the country's most pressing issues. Learn more with Thinkfinity
resources.The Economy
National Budget Simulation Lesson from EconEdLink
Interactive Simulation of National Budget from NCEEThe Environment
The Human Footprint website from National Geographic
http://foundation.verizon.com/about/press/newstory_verizon_lroom.shtml
Curated and hosted by Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room
Candidate offers more than 300 commercials from every presidential
race since the start of television campaign advertising in 1952. The
redesign and relaunch of The Living Room Candidate website are made
possible through a $435,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation.Lessons
National Budget Simulation (EconEdLink)
The Economics of Voting: What Do You Mean My Vote Doesn't Count? (EconEdLink)
Propaganda Techniques in Literature and Online Political Ads (ReadWriteThink)
Getting Into the Electoral College (Illuminations)
The Art of Democracy (ARTSEDGE)
Where Were the US Presidents Born? (Xpeditions)
Science and Elections (Science NetLinks)
Will the Best Candidate Win? (Illuminations)
Electing America's President (EDSITEment)
Vote for Me! Developing, Writing, and Evaluating Persuasive Speeches
(ReadWriteThink)Voting! What's It All About? (ReadWriteThink)
Interactive Exhibits & Simulations
National Budget Interactive Simulation (EconEdLink)The Machinery of Democracy
(Smithsonian's History Explorer)The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden (Smithsonian's History Explorer)
Multimedia Resources
Human Footprint (Xpeditions)All About Elections from the Chatting About Books Podcast Series
(ReadWriteThink)News for You Online Newspaper (ProLiteracy)
Activities
Election Day Activity (ReadWriteThink)
Letters to the Next President (National Writing Project) (ReadWriteThink)
Bonus Site:
And to keep really current, check out:
07:31 PM in Education, FridayFive | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This weeks Friday Five comes from Patricia Aigner from Rutland School District, submitted through Vermont's School IT List Serv
1. http://inaugurationday2009.com/broadcast.html
2. This is from the NPS:
http://www.nps.gov/whho/historyculture/inaugural_events.htm
3. From the Senate:
http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/factsandfirsts/index.cfm
4. http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/index.cfm video of Reagan,
Kennedy and other historical inauguration facts
5. From the District of Columbia:
http://inauguration.dc.gov/index.asp
6. Library of Congress
07:30 PM in Education, FridayFive | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
I thought we could all start the new year with Inspiration, so this week's Friday Five brings you inspiring words from the T.E.D. Conference archives.
For those of you who are wondering WHAT is TED. Check out:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/5
These range from 3 minutes to 20 minutes each. I
tried to pick some that speak to my passion as an educator as
introduction to the TED conference.
1. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for
creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines)
creativity.
2. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/gever_tulley_on_5_dangerous_things_for_kids.html
Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, spells out 5 dangerous
things you should let your kids do. From TED University 2007.
3. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html
Why do people succeed? Is it because they're smart? Or are they just
lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews
into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.
(Great one to share with students)
4. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html
Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and
helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension,
our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new
connections. (Can be applied to any educator's passion)
5. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html
Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, author Dave Eggers asks the TED
community to personally, creatively engage with local public schools.
With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia
tutoring center inspired others around the world to open--
07:27 PM in Education, FridayFive | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
This week's Friday Five is filled with tutorials and tools for turning
data into graphs for both the primary classrooms and advanced data
users along with this Bonus Link.
Bonus Link: 5 lesson series covering several mathematics concepts
relating to data and graphs
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=U151
Along with some tools you can use for these and other lessons that
include charting data
1. http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=63
Very basic bar graphs maker
2.http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspxThis graphing tools is a Kid friendly web interface for creating
different types of graphs (pies, line, bars, columns, etc)
3. http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/applets/controller/query/query.htm?qt=chart&lang=en
The popular virtual manipulative site has many tools and related
activities for turning data into graphs
4. http://www.fgcu.edu/Support/office2000/excel/charts.htmlThe most common way to create graphs is to use spreadsheet's chart tools.
These tutorials cover how to do this using Microsoft Excel
5. http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/charts/
For those of you who use Open Source Tools - Open Office CALC is the
equivalent of Microsoft Excel. It's graphing features were a little
cumbersome until version 2.4 and 3.0. This site has some tips and
tutorials from Solveig Hauglaud
07:25 PM in Education, FridayFive | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
This week's Friday Five will benefit any of you who have students who
use music in their school projects.
1. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Comics
This is a must have comic to help you and your understanding of
copyright and the NEW creative commons license will does allow you and
your students to use photos, music, and other materials besides
copyrighted materials in their presenation.
2. http://edtechgoldrush.blogspot.com/2008/09/multimedia-and-music-remix-reuse.html
Nice short blog post on sites to use for remixing music for project.
3. http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/fair_use_in_online_video/
The Center for Social Media makes the case for remix and reuse of
copyright-protected media in their publication "Code of Best Practices
in Fair Use for Online Video."
4. http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-resources.html
Royalty Free Music section provides you with the resources you need to
complete a variety of educational, personal, and non-profit projects. Make sure you are on the FREE page. Some of the music is royalty free, but you have to buy the rights. They do have ONE free page that they use to rotate free music in and out of. Recently, we've had to log in to do it, so we created one school log in that we share with classes that need 'quick and easy' free music. We find this a good starting point when you need music quickly initially. Later the kids can explore other sites.
5. Other sites with music you and your students can use legally. (You
can do a Google Search for any of these and more.
Freesound http://www.freesound.org/
Soundsnap http://www.soundsnap.com/
Free-Loops http://www.freeloops.com/ http://free-loops.com/
Looperman http://www.looperman.com/
Glooped http://www.glooped.com/
iBeat http://ibeat.org/
Samplenet http://www.samplenet.co.uk/
Ccmixer http://ccmixter.org/
07:22 PM in Education, FridayFive | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Sorry I forgot to post last week's Friday Five on Friday, but the
wealth of resources you will find on this first website will make it
worth your wait!
1. http://www.midgefrazel.net/wqthanks.html
There are two major Web pages filled with Thanksgiving Resources.
Incredible collection.
Each part contains resources for the history of the Pilgrims,
primary resource materials, Thanksgiving facts and myths plus plenty
of activities to use in all classrooms. Don't miss the Web
presentation and WebQuest in Part 1 to get your adventure off to a
good start!The next 3 sites are all from the Library of Congress. If you have
not discovered the wealth of information available to you through this
site, this is a perfect time to explore it.
2. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/thanks/thanks.html
Thanksgiving in American Memory including a Thanksgiving Timeline from
the Library of Congress
3. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/thanksgiving/timeline/1939.html
4. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/start/index.html
Library of Congress Learning MaterialsThe Learning Page is designed to help educators use the American
Memory Collections to teach history and culture. It offers tips and
tricks, definitions and rationale for using primary sources,
activities, discussions, lesson plans and suggestions for using the
collections in classroom curriculum
5. .The last Friday Five is a place to get some specific Thankgiving
related Clipart and Templates for Microsoft Office.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/HA102415181033.aspx#16
Thanksgiving Clipart and Templates (Recipe Cards, etc)
07:19 PM in Education, FridayFive | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

