Weaving History

Weaving History is a new (beta) site that is great for making timelines based on history. This is done by matching "factlets" and "threads" and linking them to maps. Factlets are people, places or things and threads are factlets that are strung together. Once you start making a timeline you'll begin to understand.

Below is a pic of a Napolean timeline...




Give Weaving History a try by clicking here!!

For a much more detailed review check out Free Technology 4 Teachers.

For my top 10 timeline creators click here.

Concept Board

Concept Board is a german site that is ideal for creating an online interactive "whiteboard". This is a great place to collaborate and not only share ideas but documents and files as well. Also, there are many features that make this an attractive option such as: screen capturing, ease of use on mobile devices etc etc.

I recommend checking out Concept Board by clicking here!!

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo's review for the tip!!

For a similar site check out Board 800.

Swiffy

Thanks to the amazing blog iLearn technology by Kelley Tenkley, I was able to find out about Google Lab's, Swiffy. Swiffy is a great way to turn SWF (flash) files into html5. This is ideal when dealing w/ those stubborn video files that you can usual download from a free video site/app.

For example, I used to use Alice Storytelling quite a bit w/ 7-8th graders for digital storytelling. The final product would be an SWF file, which would be a pain to convert. Now w/ Google's Swiffy any flash file can be converted for free.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, think of all those mobile device users of Apple's iPad/iPod, they can now have all their flash content played right through Google, very nice!!!

Give Swiffy a try by clicking here!!

Tildee

Tildee is a wonderful site for creating a tutorial and then sharing w/ others. This is done by creating text, uploading pics or videos and then clicking on share. A unique URL is then created for these tutorials that can be shared w/ others. Also, a person can view the public tutorials of others to find self help information as well.

I highly recommend checking out Tildee by clicking here!!

For a more detailed review check out Richard Byrne's award winning blog.

Check out my top 10 list of self help sites for technology by clicking here.

Cite Bite

Cite Bite is a site I just found out about from, Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is site that is designed for creating links to specific quotes on a web page. This is very easy to use, just copy/paste the text you want to use and then a URL and Cite Bite takes care of the rest creating a link to that text.

I highly recommend checking out Cite Bite by clicking here!!!

Notes.io

Notes.io is a neat/easy site to use for creating notes. All a user has to do is click on the notebook and start typing notes. A unique URL is then generated for sharing.

Give Notes.io a try by clicking here!!

Thanks to Free Technology 4 Teachers for finding this site!!

My top 10 sites for taking notes, click here.

iGrade Plus

iGrade Plus is a wonderful online gradebook application that I wanted to briefly mention. It has many of features found in most gradebook applications such as: grade management, attendance, student/parent notifications, etc etc. It reminds me a lot of Powerschool. Also, there are different subscription based rates which make it nice in choosing what options you can afford.

I recommend checking out iGrade Plus by clicking here.

Survey Proof

Survey Proof is a great site I just found out about from one of my wonderful readers (John). This sites is 100% free for students and has a bunch of wonderful options such as: variety of question types, unlimited # of question per survey, etc etc.

I highly recommend checking out Survey Proof by clicking here!!

My top 10 sites for creating surveys/polls, click here.

21st Century Teacher

The 21st Century Teacher is a new social network that intertwines nicely w/ Facebook and Twitter. This social network is brand new and slowly growing and is a nice alternative to other great teacher network such as Classroom 2.0 or Educator's PLN.

This network has a bunch of groups to join such as Instructional Technology Specialist to iPads in Education. Another nice feature is the community blog and the easy in which one can share and post documents.

I highly recommend checking out 21st Century Educator by clicking here!!

Feed

I decided to do something a little different w/ this post and that is do a review of book that contains technology. I will do this from time to time w/ movies and books that I feel have a good amount of technology in them. Why? Well, I thought it would be a fun thing to do and I'd love to hear feedback from readers who share some of the same tastes as I do.

Feed is a book by Mira Grant and is the first book in the Newsflesh Trilogy. I like to compare this to a cross between Dawn of the Dead meets Primary Colors. Being a huge horror fanatic, I was super excited to be reading a book about zombies. However, that is just a small part about what this book is about. It is more about the political race of claiming a new president and the conspiracy of incomprehensible proportions.

What I really like about this book is how it treats "amplification" or the process of turning into a zombie. It treats it as a virus and how it spreads and so on and so forth. Now, this book does take place in the future so there is a lot of technology to be found. Most importantly how technology covers the news and that blogging is now the main source of finding out the most current and truthful news.

Anyone who is interested in blogging or has a blog of their own, should really give this book a chance as they will be fascinated at how blogging has evolved from the present day. It is very detailed and highly entertaining.

On a scale of 5 stars I would give it 4 1/2.

Other books filled w/ technology that I highly recommend and might review in the future are: Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, and the Stieg Larsson trilogy, Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo, Girl who Played w/ Fire and the Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest.

Click here for more info on Feed.

Kids Like Blogs

Kids Like Blogs is a site that I had the pleasure of just finding out about. It's a site that was created around teacher, Jon Schwartz and how he implemented blogging into his Elementary school class. Not only is it a very interesting read it is very inspirational as well. It talks about his effective implementation of blogging to his students (safely too) and how it has increased their love of learning as well as their technology literacy.

I highly recommend checking out this site and contacting him if you are interested in collaboration w/ your students, by clicking here!!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a free iPhone app that shows the news of the future. This is built by the same people who brought us Zapaday, a new and cool news engine.

Dowonload Tomorrow by clicking here!!

Folder Boy

Folder Boy is a new site for organizing and sharing ideas. This is done by creating folders and then sub-folders that you can share w/ others. Once another person has accepted the email invitation t he collaboration can begin.

I recommend giving Folder Boy a try by clicking here.

For a more detailed review check out Richard Byrne's amazing blog.

Literature Map

Literature Map is a fun site that I just found out about from the excellent blog, iLearn Technology. This is a great site to find out similar authors by typing in an authors name and watching as the cloud forms.

Below is an example of a Literature Map of Stieg Larsson...



Once the map is created, a user can click on another author to form another map from that author.

Give Literature Map a try by clicking here.

For other fun sites w/ books check out Book Lamp or Book Seer.

Mr Printables

Mr Printables is a site I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is great for finding printable resources such as: flash cards, games, and puzzles. This site is designed more for El Ed aged students, but educators can find a lot here to like.

Click here to see all that Mr Printables has to offer.

Trap.it

Trap.it is a new site that is designed for gathering information on the web. These folders aka
"traps" are organized in a visual way and then can be shared w/ others. I'm not sure how safe this would be for students yet as their is no filtering process going on, but I would think teachers could find some benefit of it.

For more detailed information check out Larry Ferlazzo's excellent blog.

Give Trap.it a try by clicking here.

My top ten list of digital magazines/newspaper creators can be found here!!!

Top 30 Edtech Books

I'm re-posting on a blog post I came across from an email I received from Online Degrees. This is a nice list to look at as you should recognize a few of the authors of these books (ie David Warlick). These books are found in different categories such as: teaching w/ technology, ed tech leadership, etc etc.

I highly recommend checking out these beneficial booksl by clicking here!!!

BTW, I have #2 on the list and it was a very good read although a bit dated.

Live Binders Top Ten

This is a special blog post on a collaboration between myself and Jennifer Petras. She came up w/ a very cool idea to turn my top 10 lists into a Live Binder. This makes it very useful and easy to navigate and see all of my links in a visual innovative way.

I want to thank Jen for doing all of the hard and tedious work and welcome all of you to visit her blog and especially the wonderful job she did on the Live Binder.

Jen Petra's blog click here.

Be sure to check out the Live Binder below....

A "Top Ten" Teacher's Guide to being a "Cyber Hero"

Gnowledge

Gnowledge is a new (beta) free site designed for creating and taking tests/exercises. This is a wonderful web 2.0 site that is very innovative and very beneficial to educators and students. Once a test is published it can be shared w/ others and the results are available as well. Tracking progress is key when trying to measure growth and knowledge in a subject. Another nice feature is how user friendly this site is and every thing can be searched by subject or grade level. Also, there are some nice features for rating a test and then sharing w/ your favorite social network.

I highly highly recommend checking out Gnowledge by clicking here!!!!

Evaluating Web Pages

Edgalaxy a wonderful blog in it's own right has released a gem of a find on how to evaluate a website. This is something which is very useful to have in education when learning how to browse the web and determine which information is valid.

Click here to access this beneficial site to educators!!!

Top 10 Lists Haven

Twice a year I like to mention this wiki I created that has all my top 10 lists. I figure it probably is a good idea to keep these all in once place in case somebody wants to reference back to them. Right now there are 33 lists to choose from.

Click here to access the wiki and feel free to join!!

Top 10 Educational Apps for Facebook

With the evolution of the web and social networking in particular I decided to compile a list of educational apps for the most popular social network in the world, Facebook. The use of Facebook in education usually brings about some controversy but there is no denying the impact it has on collaboration for it's users. While Facebook might not be allowed in most districts there is definitely an educational benefit that students and teachers can gain alike.

Top 10 Educational Apps for Facebook

1. Send Files - An easy way to send all different types of files up to 2 MB.
2. Study Hall - A great whiteboard app that is ideal for displaying a bunch of different content, also works on a variety of mobile devices.
   
3. Slideshare - An excellent way to share any style of presentation.
4. Flashcardlet - A nice fun app for creating flashcards to study on Facebook.
5. Quiz Monster - A simple and fun way to create quizzes.
6. Zoho Onlione Office - A nice way to use the comple Zoho suite, w/ a nice drag-n-drop interface.
7. Webinairia - A great way to create screencasts through Facebook, very innovative.
8. Booktag - An app for sharing and commenting on books w/ others.
9. To-Do-List - A nice easy app for creating lists to get things done and then making them public or private.
10. Typing Test - A fun way to practice your typing skills and then share your results w/ others in a friendly competition.
    

FooPlot

FooPlot is a nice online graphing calculator that allows users to do 2D-3D plotting.

Give it a try by clicking here.

Minigroup

Minigroup is a new (beta) site for creating a safe/private environment to share items (pics, videos, documents) to other members of a group.

I highly recommend checking out Minigroup by clicking here!!

For a more detailed review check out the award winning blog by Larry Ferlazzo.

Wikihood

Wikihood is a mash-up of Google Maps and Wikipedia. This is a very nice site when wanting to not only find out details/information about a place but where it is located on a map.

I highly recommend checking out Wikihood by clicking here!!



For a more detailed review check out Free Technology 4 Teachers.

Image Embellisher

Image Embellisher is a site I just found out about from Richard Byrne's excellent blog. This is a site similar to iPiccy for adding special effects to images. All a user has to do is select their effect upload their image and decide on the demensions that they want.

I recommend checking out Image Embellisher by clicking here.

Top 10 Teaching Based Movies

W/ the start of summer upon us I decided to have a little fun and compile a top ten list of one of my favorite things, movies. There are are many top ten lists on a number of different topics surrounding movies but to keep in style w/ this blog I decided to focus mine on teaching. I'd love to read feedback and what movies you think should be on this list or in which order. The one film I which I'm sure to garner a lot of praise that I omitted on this list is, Mr Holland's Opus and that's because I've never seen it.

Enjoy....

Top 10 Teaching Based Movies

1. Remember the Titans - A Movie about HS football but so much more. Denzel Washington gives a memorable performance of a football coach who teaches more then just the fundamentals of football but life as well.
2. Lean on Me - A powerful movie that stars Morgan Freeman as he tries to help a HS school from destroying itself.
3. Finding Forrester - It's hard not to like this film that focuses on a teen writer who is mentored by Sean Connery.
4. Freedom Writers - A film about a young HS teacher who helps turn student's lives around through their writing, starring the great Hillary Swank.
5. Stand & Deliver - Based on a true story one of the most famous films on teaching.
6. Dangerous Minds - A strong film starring Michelle Pfeiffer about a teacher who turns around her HS class located in a poor neighbor in the city.
7. Dead Poets Society - A great film about an English teacher who teaches his students the joy and power of poetry.
8. Good Will Hunting - Another film starring Robin Williams as a psychologist who helps Will find his path in life, filled w/ great dialogue.
   
9. Music of the Heart - A true story that shows a teacher's struggle to teach violin to students.
10. Lions for Lambs - Not mainly based on teaching, but the scenes w/ Robert Redford as a professor as he inspires his students to think are breathtaking.

Spiffles

Spiffles is a site I just found out about from another tech on Plurk, Karen Beil. This is a great site for younger kids that has lots of activities to choose from. Spiffles is a combination of 3 popular children's website: Free Kids Music, Light Up your Brain, and the Coloring Spot.

I highly recommend checking out Spiffles by clicking here!!!

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is wonderful site that has gotten quite a bit of press as of late. This site is designed to teach lessons in a number of different subject areas. It is done at a user's pace and has over 2100 educational videos.

I highly recommend checking out Khan Academy by clicking here!!

Click here for my top 10 list of self help sites.

Eduify

Eduify is a new (beta) site for helping students write. This is a very nice online tool that focuses on a lot of aspects for writing such as: citing sources, preventing plagiarism, store and sharing documents, etc etc.

I highly recommend checking out Eduify by clicking here.

Below is a demo video...



For a much more detailed review check out the wonderful, iLearn Technology!!

Scriffon

Scriffon is a new site that I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a site designed to publish writing on the web. This is very easy to use and all a user needs is an email address. Once the writing is finished a unique URL is giving to share w/ others or come back to edit. Also, a user can create a pseundoym for publishing under a private name.

I recommend giving Scriffon a try by clicking here!!

Study Jams

Study Jams is an innovative site for teaching math and science. This is done through the use of video and music and the songs can be sung along in a karaokee style.

I highly recommend checking out Study Jams by clicking here!!

For a more detailed review check out Free Technology 4 Teachers.

Web 2.0 for Schools ebook

A few months back I posted on a slideshow that I created called, Web 2.0 for Schools. Since then a number of new web 2.0 sites have come around that can also be used by schools. I decided to create this as a free digital book that people can view/embed/download. I've added 7 new sites since the presentation for those that have already viewed that.

I feel that web 2.0 is a popular resource in education and I plan to continually update my resources on this as frequently as possible. For that reason I decided to add it to my box account as well that you can download on the right menu screen of this very blog.

Download and view the ebook below...

Stencyl

Stencyl is a site that I found out about from the innovative/award winning educator, Richard Byrne. This is a site that reminds me a lot of Alice Storytelling and Scratch, in the way that it teaches programming skills for making games. This is done in a drag-n-drop interface by snapping blocks together (ie, Scratch).

I highly recommend checking out Stencyl by clicking here!!!

Below is a demo video....

Educaplay

Educaplay is a new (beta) site that is flash based designed for creating multimedia activities for students. There are a number of different type of activities that can be created such as: maps, riddles, crosswords, etc.

I highly recommend checking out Educaplay play by clicking here!!

For a more detailed review, check out the award nominated blog from educator/author, Larry Ferlazzo.

19 Pencils

19 Pencils is a new (beta) site that I found out about from the great, iLearn Technology. This site is ideal for creating and sharing resources such as, quizzes and websites. Also, teachers can track student progress through a unique URL that is generated. Finally, this is a very easy site to use w/ a nice polished/innovative look.

I highly recommend checking out 19 Pencils by clicking here!!

Creativity Games

Creativity Games is a wonderful new site for educational games. These games are used to stimulate creativity in a number of different ways. There are games focused on memory, words, organization, etc etc.

I highly recommend checking out Creativity Games by clicking here!!!

Top 10 Sites for Creating Outlines

"An outline is a list^[1] of the main features of a given topic, often used as a rough draft or summary of the content of a document.^[2] Ahierarchical outline is a list arranged to show hierarchical relationships, and is a type of tree structure. (wikipedia)" Outlines are used all the time in education and everyday use to organize content and show relationships among items. While creating an outline is nothing new there are websites dedicated to increasing this skill and taking it to the next level.

Top 10 Sites for Creating Outlines

1. Webspiration Classroom - From the creators of Inspiration, a wonderful graphic organizer that now allows for online collaboration and one of the best visual outline creators on the web.
2. Quicklyst - A free user friendly site for creating outlines. Quicklist also integrates w/ a search engine and dictionary for enhanced note taking. Study queues can be made as well.
3. Knowcase - Create collaborative outlines w/ this easy to use site that features a drag-n-drop interface.
4. Thinklinkr - A real time collaborative outline creator that has a nice built in chat feature to engage in project development.
5. Checkvist - A great collaborative online outliner that has an abundance of features such as: gmail/browser integration, mobility, and nice import/export features.
6. CRLS Outline Maker - A very easy to user outline creator that takes you through a step by step process.
7. Read Write & Think Outline Maker - A very easy to user outline creator that teaches how to create outlines.
8. Loose Stitch - A nice fun site for creating collaborative outlines that can the be exported to a blog or website.
9. Wisemapping - More of a mindmapper then pure outline creator but still a great visual site that teaches the basic concepts of creating an outline.
10. Mindmeister - A fun site for realtime collaboration that is ideal for creating brainstorms, mind maps, and outlines.