Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Interesting Skeleton/Bone Interactive Site

After reading a few technology blogs, I ran across kind of a neat site called "ESkeletons" where you can interact with the skeletons of several primate species. You can zoom in the skull, the arm, or whatever you want to see in more detail. You can go back and forth from the human arm to the baboon arm to the lemur arm. Very interesting to see the differences. If you are doing a unit on bones, skeletal systems, or evolution, this might be a site to use in class or have the students mess around with. Good luck!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

To-do Lists for Teachers or Anyone

I recently started using a To-Do List called Tadalist.com. Another task manager type site is called Wunderlist. I have not used this one, but I have heard it is really, really good. If you are a person who struggles using a planner, a calendar, sticky notes, or whatever (this is me). And if you are around your computer, cell phone, Ipod, or email fairly regularly in the day, these sites might be good for you. Here are the links to each of them. Try them out and see what you think. I have enjoyed using it so far!



Popplet is a great Timeline or Presenation Making Site!

So...I had a blast playing around with this Popplet site. I have not used Prezi before, but I am thinking this is kind of similar to Prezi, maybe just a simpler form and a more basic form. Making my practice Popplet that you can view and play with below, I realized that Popplet might be a good site to make timelines, make notes using a web pattern, or do as a project to show learning of some sort. It was pretty easy to use. Grabbing and adding the pictures was a little tough because you couldn't just pull from the web without saving them first and uploading them. You could pull from Flickr though, so that might be an option. Either way, the site was super easy to use and kind of fun. I think students would catch on to this site right away.



Here is my Popplet:



Corkboard: A Wall Where Students Can Post Their Thoughts and Answers

If you have tried Wallwisher and liked it, you will like Corkboard too. I have not used either in class, but I would like to try using one in class sometime. Corkboard also has a chat function where all viewers/users can chat as they either post to the board or work on other materials. What again would you use a site like this for? I see myself having students open up my class Corkboard page and as they work on their project, they can post questions, thoughts, concerns, or anything else that comes to mind to the board. I can post answers to their questions and the whole class can see these answers. Unlike a verbal answer, my written "post-it" answer is always visible right on their screen. Hmmm....makes me think of the many possibilities sites like this offers. I guess I simply need to test it out. (As I type, I am thinking about a corkboard for parents that I could send to them and see if they post their answers or questions). Lots of possibilities.....

Give it a try and make your own Corkboard by clicking here! Here is mine:

Play the News Might be Fun for Some!

Catching up on my blog reading, I ran across a short entry from Larry Ferlazzo and his blog "Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day" where he mentions his #1 game of 2008 is back online. So, I thought I would give the site a try. Sure enough, it is pretty interesting and was easy to do. The website or game is called "Play the News" and is sort of "fantasy sports" version of the news. I liked it for the fact that you can really research an issue from all different points of views. And in the end, you have to decide what will happen next. Then, you actually get to watch in the real world what truly will happen next. If the game happens to be covering a topic that you are covering in class, I think the class would love it. You have to have an email to register before you play, so either all students would have to register or the teacher could register and do the activity as a class. Technically, the students can do all the research and read about the issue, they just can't vote if they are not registered. If you teach social studies or just have an interest in current events and predicting what will happen next, this site is great for you. Give it a try!