Edudemic

Edudemic is a wonderful site that reminds me a lot of Technology & Learning & Edutopia. It's a cross between an online community/magazine/social network. It is a great place to find lots of information on technology, education, and integration.

I highly recommend checking out Edudemic by clicking here!!

Thanks to David Andrade and his wonderful blog for the tip!!

Top 25 Sites of 2010

With the end of the year right around the corner I decided to dedicate a post to my favorite websites of the year. At first I wanted to do a list of 10 choices, but after looking through the 100's of posts that I've done throughout the year I had to up that total to 25. Depending on feedback I might even do a top 100 or 50 if there is a demand.

Top 25 Sites of 2010

1. Kidblog - A great way for schools to have kids blog. No student email is required and everything is monitored before being posted online.
   
2. Sweet Search - Excellent search engine for students as everything has been reviewed by educators before hand.
   
3. Cacoo - A nice site for creating online charts/graphs w/ a built in chat feature for collaboration.
   
4. 21 Classes - A nice way to get student's blogging in a safe/secure environment.
   
5. Story Jumper -Excellent site for digital storytelling that has lots of educational resources for teachers.
   
6. Middlespot - Is an innovative website for social bookmarking that allows users to collect sites in a visual way.
   
7. Education Eye - Is a fun site for brainstorming w/ this visual search engine.
   
8. Kizoa - A great site for creating animated slide shows w/ lots of different content to choose from.
   
9. Drag on Tape - A very user friendly site that uses a drag-n-drop interface to edit/mix video.
   
10. Shwup - Is a great site for making collaborative slide shows.
    
11. PreZentit - Very similar to Shwup this is a nice looking site for making collaborative slide shows.
    
12. Quintura for Kids - A search engine for kids that acts a bit like a tag cloud where results can be embedded into a site.
    
13. TodaysMeet - Create a real-time, private, back channel chat that brings in tweets from Twitter.
    
14. MeMoov - A very user friendly site for digital storytelling that allows users to record their voice for narration.
    
15. Wordia - Brings words to life through the use of video.
    
16. Encyclomedia - A video encyclopedia where results can be embedded into a site.
    
17. Zooburst - A great site for for digital storytelling where a user can make an online 3D pop-up book.
    
18. Jay Cut - A site similar to iMovie that allows users to edit or create a video.
    
19. Splashup - Looks like Photoshop and is a great way to edit photos and manipulate layers/effects.
    
20. Comic Master - A fun site for digital storytelling that has a drag-n-drop interface.
    
21. Knowcase - Create collaborative outlines w/ this easy to use site.
    
22. Cloud Canvas - A great site for photo editing and drawing/painting similar to Splashup.
    
23. Magic Studio - A great mult-media site for uploading photos/documents/video and then editing them.
    
24. Googlios - A way for students to create digital portfolios online using Google Tools.
    
25. We are Teachers - A social network for educators where lots of ideas and lessons can be found.
    

Super Teacher Tools

Super Teacher Tools is a great site for teacher resources where everything as free and includes: games, downloads, and other helpful tools that can assist educators in their teaching. All that is needed to use this site is Flash which allows students/teachers to play games, create seating charts, and even generate names in a random order (much better then picking names out of a hat).

Give Super Teacher Tools (check out classroom tools) a look by clicking here.

25 Apps

I'm going to attempt something new and that is post something (verbatim) from a "guest" user, Karen Schweitzer. Karen is a very nice person who has a passion for writing & education. While some of these sites I have seen (Edmodo, ProPofs, Thinkfinity, etc.) and possibly reviewed (Writewith), I highly recommend checking them out because there is a lot of a valuable information to be found.

Enjoy....

25 Free Quizzing, Grading, and Teaching Resources

The Internet is rich with free resources designed to save teachers time and money. From grade books and web apps to lesson plans and quiz makers, there are online resources to fit nearly every teacher's needs. Here is a list of 25 sites worth exploring:

Quiz Makers

ProProfs - ProProfs Quiz School offers tools for teachers who want to create, share, and grade quizzes online. The free quiz generator is perfect for creating professional quizzes, tests, exams, and trivia.

ClassMarker - This online testing tool can be used to create multiple choice tests, essay exams, and other types of quizzes. Once quizzes are taken, ClassMarker corrects them automatically and emails answers to the appropriate party.

EasyTestMaker - EasyTestMaker provides tools to generate a wide assortment of tests. The site gives you the ability to divide tests into sections and insert instructions.

Charles Kelly's Online Quiz Generator - This online quiz generator is an extremely simple way to create multiple choice quizzes. Simply input your data, choose your format, and this program quickly creates your quizzes.

Javascript QuizMaker - The Javascript QuizMaker creates quizzes and generates code for online classes.

Online Grade Books and Tools

Engrade - Engrade is a suite of online classroom management tools that allows teachers to connect with students and parents 24/7. Tools include an assignment calendar, secure messaging, a grade book, attendance book, and progress reports.

GradeConnect - More than 100,000 teachers use GradeConnect to manage their classroom online. The site features messaging, online grade books, attendance reports, and more.

SnapGrades - SnapGrades offers a free online grade book for entire districts or single classes. This site also features a low-cost paid premium version with more options.

HotChalk - This online class management tool saves teachers 5 to 45 minutes a day by automating daily functions. HotChalk can be used to manage lesson plans, assignments, notes, and grade books.

Chalksite - Chalksite expands your classroom to the web with an online grade book, assignment tracker, messenger, and discussion forum.

Lesson Plans

Teachers.net - Teachers.net features over 4,000 lesson plans for all grades and subjects. The site houses lesson plans created for teachers by teachers and even offers original ideas.

TeAchnology - With over 30,000 free lesson plans online, TeAchnology is a great place to find lesson materials. This expansive teaching site covers all grades and subjects as well as holidays, current events, and interdisciplinary topics.

Thinkfinity - Thinkfinity, an educator's site created by the Verizon Foundation, offers teachers lesson plans, interactives, and more.

FREE - Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) provides several free lesson plans and resources for teachers, including free animations, primary documents, photos, and videos.

Educational World - This educator's website provides original lesson plans and articles by educational experts.

Classroom Activities

PBS Teachers - PBS Teachers offers several resources and activities for teachers, including activity packs that cover a wide variety of subjects.

Xpeditions - This National Geographic site features an array of activities for students at all levels. Activities include online and offline missions, maps, and interactive features.

Discovery Education - This educational site from the Discovery Channel offers a variety of free online activities for the classroom in addition to worksheets, brain boosters, and lesson plans.

Scholastic - Scholastic provides activities for all grades and subjects. This site also features a rating system for specific activities other teachers enjoyed.

BBC Learning - This learning site features worksheets, activities, and games for K-12 students. BBC Learning is a great place for teachers to find a wide assortment of activities for all subjects.

Web Apps

Edmodo - Edmodo is a private micro blogging site for students and teachers. It can be used to communicate assignments, lists, and reminders out of the classroom.

LectureTools - This teaching aid makes lectures interactive. Students can synchronize notes with slides, pose questions electronically, and interact with the lecturer in other ways

FlashCardExchange - FlashCardExchange is a free flash card creation web app that allows you to create and share flashcards online or for print.

WriteWith - Teachers can use this free web app to oversee a group writing project. WriteWith allows teachers to upload documents, assign tasks, and track everyone's progress.

Empressor - Empressor is a multimedia tool that can be used to create media rich presentations. Completed presentations can be kept private or shared with others.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online colleges and universities for OnlineColleges.net.

Pixton

I learned about this comic creator site from the well-heralded Free Technology 4 Teachers blog. This site is one of many where you can create comics online and then share them (Toon Doo, etc.) However, what sets this site apart from others is the educational section to it.

There are a ton of features that is designed specifically w/ schools in mind such as: private rooms/URL's, teacher to student messaging, a "lesson bank" to share/upload lesson plans, etc etc. Another nice feature is that it will easily interact w/ any CMS. For example, you can set your page to private so nobody can get in w/out a password or you can set individual permissions for students to make sure that nothing inappropriate gets posted up online.

I would think w/ these features in place it would abide by most CIPA/COPPA compliance rules. For more info click here.

Below is a Time-Lapse video of Pixton in Action



Coming soon... Pixton comics now animated... I'll post my example soon after... click here.

Technology Projects

I created this repository of Technology Projects for teachers so they can generate ideas on how they can incorporate it in their teachings. Keep in mind this is for a WI Middle School so they standards you see listed is for that. However, these projects can be applied for K-12 as the "skill sets" are the same. You'll notice that these projects include anything from: Keynotes, to Stop Motion Animations, to Storybooks made in iPhoto.

I hope you'll find this page to resourceful to you!!!

For more info click here.