Gooru

Gooru is a fantastic online community for educators/students to share and create learning resources.  This is a great place for teachers to go to find educational resources that are aligned to Common Core Standards that have been reviewed and rated.  Also, educators can create custom collection and share them w/ others and students as well track/assess all students progress.  Finally, educators can create courses and share, view, and customize all resources to meet their needs.

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

Leo's Pad: Preschool Kids Learning Series

Leo's Pad is a wonderful series of interactive iPad apps that are ideal for Preschool aged kids.  This fun app has students playing along and develop emotional and cognitive skills appropriate for their age.  The stories follow along a young Leonardo Da Vinci as he goes on adventures and playing educational games.  The best aspect of Leo's Pad is the Parent's Pad that educators/parents can use to assess their students/kids and track what they are learning.  The Parent's Pad will track how their child is learning in over 80 different learning dimensions and help educators/parents focus on areas to help their child/student become better learners.

I highly recommend checking out Leo's Pad by clicking here!!!

Below is a brief demo...

Parent's Pad from Kidaptive on Vimeo.

Slidebean

Slidebean is a new (beta) site for creating stunning looking presentations.  It reminds me of a cloud based version of PowerPoint but a lot more polished looking and very easy to use.  This is a great place for educators to create presentations for their class/parents and can even use it to Flip a Lesson or Project Based Learning.  Best of all a finished product can then be embedded into a site or blog.

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

Below is a brief demo...



For my Pinterest board on Slideshows/Presentations click here.

Quick Key

Quick Key is an excellent free iOS app that allows educators to scan a paper test/quiz and then has the app do the grading.  The way this works is by snapping a pic of the quiz/test/survey (up to 30 questions long) and then app does the grading/assessment right on the mobile device.  It can then be exported into any electronic grade book and a teacher can track student/classes as well.

I highly recommend checking out Quick Key by clicking here!!!

For my Pinterest board on Educational iOS Apps click here.

Lightbot

Lightbot is a excellent iOS app for teaching kids how to programming by playing through a fun puzzle game.  The way this works is by having a player guiding a robot through puzzles using different programmable commands such as: procedures, loops, etc.  This game has 50 puzzles and 20 stars for players to collect while trying to complete the game.

Also, check out Light-bot Hour of Code for a simpler version to introduce kids to programming and ideal for K-12.

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

For a more detailed review check out Graphite by clicking here.

For my Pinterest board on Programming/Coding click here.

Squify

Squify is a new search engine that was just released today.  This is a unique engine that show page results n a 3D wheel.  A user can turn the wheel to get to the page they want.  It has a nice visual and helps to be able to see the page before clicking on it.  However, I recommend using caution if you are going to use this in a school setting as there is no built in filter.

Check out Squify by clicking here!!!

For my Pinterest board on Search Engines click here.

Top 40 Web 2.0 Sites w/ Educational Portal

A while back I compiled a very important list of Web 2.0 sites that can be used in education.  The reason for this was a lot of sites that are beneficial for education require that a student has an email account to login.  This is very frustrating for educators that have to worry about district policy and CIPA/COPPA compliance to maintain student safety/privacy.  So, I compiled a list that had a educational portal that allowed an educator to create a student account or that is safe for use in education.  Since then, a number of new sites have been released that accomplish this as well persuading me to create a new updated list.

*This list is in alphabetical order.

Top 40 Web 2.0 Sites w/ Educational Portal

1. Animoto Plus - One of the most popular web tools/apps for creating slideshows w/ free educational portal for schools.
2. Answer Pad - A fantastic Student Response and Assessment System that uses an innovative graphical interface to help turn a teacher's classroom paperless (by doing testing on mobile devices) and assess students on any number of subjects in real-time using a free mobile app w/ digital portfolio capabilities.
3. Been for Education - A innovative site  for collaboratively browsing the web w/ your class to incorporate different styles of teaching (i.e. Guided Instruction, Blended/Flipped Learning, etc.)  Best of all, educators create/monitor all student account activity.
4. Biteslide - A fantastic site where educators create student accounts for making stunning slide book presentations that are ideal for Project Based Learning.
5. BoomWriter - A terrific site for grades 3rd-8th that has students collaboratively writing a story/book while voting chapter by chapter on which one should be included.  Educators get to create the student the accounts and a finished product can then be published online and ordered.
6. Buncee for Education - A wonderful site/app for creating beautiful/interactive presentations that can be embedded into a site or blog and educators can make and track the student accounts/assignments.
7. ClassDojo - Widely used in classrooms throughout the world ClassDojo is an excellent free site/app that allows educators to manage student behavior and notify parents via the computer or mobile devices.
8. Diigo - A very popular social bookmarking/annotating site that allows educators to share links w/ students for Guided and Project Based Learning.
9. Drawp for School - A wonderful drawing app that integrates w/ a web portal where educators can create student accounts and share assignments/projects via the cloud or iPad.
10. Edmodo - A safe learning environment for teachers and students.  A great all-in-one solution for education.
11. EDpuzzle - One of my favorite safe site that does not require a student email to take a digital video and "make it your own".  This can be done by editing, cropping, adding a voice, etc.  Educators also have the ability to embed a quiz into the video for assessment and Flipped Learning.
12. Flocabulary - A interesting site that allows teachers to share an educational account which allows access to educational hip-hop videos for learning and assessment.
13. Gaggle - A great platform designed to making the web/mobile devices safe for students through built in filtering and more.
14. Glogster EDU - A popular Common Core Aligned digital platform that allows educators to create student accounts for making interactive posters, signs, presentations, etc.
15. GoAnimate for Schools - A excellent COPPA compliant site for making animated videos in a safe/secure environment.
16. Google Apps for Education - nuff said...
17. Kidblog - Quite simply the best blogging platform for students that does not require a student email to sign up.
18. Kubbu - A great site for educators to make quizzes, crosswords, and puzzles and then analyze results w/out the need of student email addresses for accounts.
19. LessonPaths - Formerly known as MentorMob EDU,  a fantastic site for creating learning playlists that can be use for Project Based/Guided Learning, a Flipped Classroom, and more.
20. Little Bird Tales - A fun site/app for digital storytelling w/ lessons that are aligned to Common Core Standards.
21. Metta - A fantastic site that can be used by students w/out the need of an email address for digital storytelling/presentations.  Educators can use it to Flip a Lesson or for Blended Learning by embedded a poll or quiz into a video.
22. Mixbook for Educators - The educational portal for the great site for creating all types of digital/real books (i.e. yearbooks, scrapbooks, calendars, etc.).
23. Musicshake Edu - A great way for students to create legal, copyright music right from the browser.
24. Nanoogo - A fun site where students can create presentations, artwork, and more in a safe environment.  Also, educators can monitor all student/class activity but a parent's email address is needed for a student to sign up. 
25. Myths & Legends - One of my favorite sites for digital storytelling in a safe environment set to a fantasy theme.
26. PhotoPeach - A nice site for creating interactive slideshows where educators create/manage the student accounts and control all privacy settings.
27. Pixton for Schools - A nice/safe site for students for creating digital comics where they login w/ a unique code.  This is a fun tool can be used for any curriculum for any grade level.
28. Primary Access - A cool site for creating digital presentations that can be embedded into a site/blog w/out the need of a student email address.
29. Scrawlar - A cool new web whiteboard/word processor where students don't signup and can share/save/collaborate via the cloud.
30. SideVibe - A innovative site that takes bookmarks and turns them into lessons where teacher creates the class and students join via a unique code.
31. Socrative - A wonderful Student Response System that students use for educational games and exercise on mobile devices.
32.  SpellingCity - The best site around for Spelling/Vocabulary w/ educational portal and where educators can integrate word lists into educational games.
33. Storybird for Schools - A terrific Literacy tool that educators can use to engage student's Reading/Writing skills.
34. StoryJumper - A nice site for digital storytelling where students login w/ a unique code and even oder a copy of their book.
35. ToonDooSpaces - A great site for digital storytelling in safe/private environment.
36. Verso - A innovative site/app where educators can create Flipped Lessons that students can respond to.
37. VoiceThread - A very popular Web 2.0 resource for educators and students to create dynamic presentations w/ narration and then embed them into a site.
38. Weebly - One of if not the most popular site for students to create web pages in a safe environment where teachers manage their accounts.
39. Zimmer Twins - A fantastic site for digital storytelling in a fun cartoon style site; that offers lots of options for how to use w/ student accounts.
40. Zoho Wiki - A great resource for students to create a wiki or for educators to create online courses, lessons, presentations, and more.