Tools help you create something original or accomplish a task. Some examples include:
Hardware:
Digital cameras, scanners, printers, video cameras, CD burners, DVD players, etc.
Software:
Word Processors, Spreadsheets, Presentation Software, Web Page creation software, etc.
Internet:
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/index.html
This site is a wonderful tool to help you create all kinds of word puzzles
and mazes.
http://www.tripod.com
This site provides free web page hosting space and also gives you all the
resources you need to create web pages, even if you are a novice.
http://www.bluemountain.com
This web site lets you create free greeting cards that you can send to a
person’s email.
http://www.kodak.com/go/play/
At Kodak’s Picture Playground you can take scanned or digital images from
your hard drive or from the Internet and manipulate them or even get rid of that
pesky red-eye. Then you can email
your creations to your friends and family.
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/
At Filamentality you can create your own online activities and it will even
publish them on the web. Better yet, this site is free!
We will explore this one a bit…
http://www.backflip.com
At Backflip, you can create your own bookmark tool that is housed on the
Internet. Now you don’t have to
worry about which machine you are on, your bookmarks follow you!
http://www.quizsite.com
This site will allow you to create a quiz, it will grade it for you after
the students take the quiz online, and then send it to your email.
The site itself is a bit busy looking with a lot of advertising, but this
could be a handy tool. You can even choose to show the feedback to the
students or not.
http://www.zoomerang.com
This is a free site that will allow you to create a survey that students
could fill out in order to find out their opinion about an idea - such as the
opinionaire we did in class. The survey only lasts 30 days.
http://www.shakespeare.com/poetry/
Magnetic poetry online using Shakespeare’s words.
http://www.myschool.com
Educational site that allows teachers to create their own web sites for
their classes.
Resources are sites that provide information, but are not comprehensive. They usually focus on a specific type of topic. Hotlists, which are websites that list links about a specific subject would be included in this category. There are tons of these sites on the Internet; here are just some of the examples:
Software:
CD programs that focus on one subject, DVDs, etc.
Internet:
http://www.cnn.com
The news channel -- online. This
one includes lots of data and interactive searches.
http://www.biography.com
This site is again sponsored by the Biography channel and it has an
exhaustive list of biographies from anciently dead people, to people still alive
and kicking!
http://www.ncrel.org/ncrtec/picture.htm
The Amazing Picture Machine provides free, stock photographs that you can
use without worrying about copyright infringement.
It also helps you to pick just the right picture.
http://www.camscape.com
Website that has links to webcams all over the world. This could be
used to talk about setting and to reinforce the core-curriculum standard of
viewing and interpreting.
http://www.ditto.com
A search engine that looks for titles of pictures and then shows all the
pictures that come up for that search word. A graphical search engine.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/photo/index.html
The Washington Post's site for photos. This site is excellent for
viewing activities or for students to create a scrap book.
http://tech-two.mit.edu/shakespeare/search.html
Search engine that focuses on all of Shakespeare’s works or a specific
play for words. Excellent for
focusing on motif or language use.
http://www.vrd.org/locator/subject.html
At Ask A+Locator, you can find an expert online for just about any topic.
Again, this is free. This is
an excellent resource for email and discussions with classes.
http://www.ncteamericancollection.org
This is an American Literature website that includes resources, lesson
plans, activities, collaborative projects, databases, and more.
It is created by teachers for teachers.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/index.html
The Library of Congress' site for the American Memory project. Tons of
primary source information, pictures, old movies, music, stories, etc. An
exhaustive site!
http://www.poetry.com
A database of poems -- all kinds. Good for students to be able to
search for different types of poems, etc. Also has a rhyming dictionary
online.
http://www.favoritepoem.org
Web site created by Robert Pinsky to collect Americans favorite poems read
by Americans. Very extensive!
http://www.cartoonbank.com
Touted as the Internet’s largest searchable cartoon database and the only
online source for New Yorker cartoons.
http://www.coedu.usf.edu/~morris/edulinks.html
This is an incredible hotlist of educational bookmarks.
I am talking – huge!
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/index.html
Kathy Schrock has been doing this a long time… and she has the site to
show it. Her site focuses on
education-related sites on the Internet including an exhaustive list of lesson
plans!
http://www.about.com
This site is like a search engine but it has real people who create hotlists
on their specialties. There are
hotlists for just about any topic you can possibly imagine.
A great example would be http://7-12educators.about.com.
http://www.google.com
Monitored search engine.
http://www.dogpile.com
Meta-search engine – lots of hits, but requires a lot of sifting.
http://www.about.com
Monitored by cyberguides. Subsites
that focus on specific issues.
Email
There are tons of free sites that will give you a web address where you can
send and receive messages from anyone who has an email account and your address.
Chat
Real-time discussions using text (usually).
Messaging
Like a beeper for the net. Also
provides ways to transfer files, chat with text and often voice, and find out if
your friend is online.
Listservs
These are moderated discussion groups that are done over the email format.
You can choose to just watch the talk, or you can choose to join in. Just
search at one of the search engines for listservs and the topic you are
interested in.
References provide comprehensive often exhaustive and sometimes even unbelievably detailed information. This category would include:
Software:
Encyclopedia Software, Reference CDs, DVDs, etc.
Internet:
http://www.m-w.com
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary online.
http://www.britannica.com
Britannica Encyclopedia online… huge and free!
http://www.ipl.org/ref/RR/
This is the Internet Library online.
http://www.refdesk.com
Internet Reference Desk online and extensive.
These are usually active learning experiences with goals and outcome focused. Besides this website, this category would also include:
http://www.learn2.com
This site has online tutorials for the steps to tying a tie to how to create
a web page.
http://sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html
Web based tutorial on evaluating Internet resources.
http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
A site that reviews information about grammar and then provides online
quizzes for students to test their knowledge acquisition.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
OWL - Online Writing Lab from Purdue University has lots of information on
the "stuff" of writing. Handouts, exercises, etc.
Activities are active learning experiences with broad goals and outcomes. They are usually short in duration (1-3 days). Some examples include:
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
Another wonderful site sponsored by Pacific Bell.
Here are many excellent activities and projects created by teachers to
help students learn using the Internet.
http://artsafari.moma.org
This web site uses images from the Museum of Modern Art that students can
view and then write stories about.
http://members.nbci.com/pmartin/liberia/homepage.htm
"Deep in the Bush, where people rarely go" is a site that students
and teachers can use to investigate folk tales about Africa. Created by a
Peace Corps volunteer from his stay in Liberia.
Projects are similar to activities in that they are active learning experiences with broad goals and outcomes, but they are usually of longer duration (several months). Some examples would include:
http://www.thinkquest.org
This is the premier site for providing excellent online projects and
activities that were created by students and teachers.
This site also includes a contest where students and teachers can try to
win top site! Resources are free
and the site also includes lots of information.
http://quest.classroom.com/america2000/
This project was to investigate the Southwest of America. The students
can help direct the course and there are a lot of facts. This project is
geared towards elementary students, but it gives an idea of what a long-term
project could be like.
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/
A wonderful site where students are taken step by step through Joseph
Campbell's framework of the hero story. The students learn about the
steps, see comparisons with famous stories and then create their own hero story
that is online. A new twist on the writing workshop theme.
These are most of the general formats currently being used in classrooms. Of course, this list is not exhaustive… but definitely a good start.
Hotlists are web-based lists of links that focus on a particular subject. Students use these as a source for more information.
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/China/hotlist.html
Scrapbooks are similar to hotlists, but they gather multimedia web sties that have photos, graphics, text, facts, sound, video, etc. around a particular subject. Students use these to create a focused collage, presentation, newsletter, bulletin board, etc. They find the multimedia objects that they want to include in their product, save them and then insert them to their product requiring synthesizing of the information they have discovered.
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/democracy/scrapbook.html
Treasure Hunts are activities that have 10-15 links (specific pages) which each have a key question. The students have to answer the questions, which culminate to the synthesizing of the newly acquired concepts into an answer to a “big idea” question. Students gain solid knowledge about topic.
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/BHM/hunt.html
Subject Samplers connect students to the topic and builds up their interest in the topic. They are similar to treasure hunts but instead of focusing on new knowledge, they focus on the students creating and building their own connections with the ideas through questions that ask for their opinion or for an experience that relates to the web resource. These usually have only 6 links.
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/democracy/sampler.html
Web quests allow students to focus on the hard questions about topics and concepts such as the reasons behind different perspectives or their opinion about an idea through the investigation of the topic where they can then draw their own conclusions. Students are faced with a problem, task or scenario. All members in the group share background knowledge and then break into smaller groups. Each member of the group takes on a different role in the group with a different task to focus on. Then the students create a summary or solution to the problem and publish or present it to a wider audience. Let’s look at the steps of creating a web quest.
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/LessonTemplate.html
http://www.ozline.com/webquests/prewrite.html
http://www.4teachers.org/projectbased/checklist.shtml
Websites created by
Rancocas Valley Regional High School teachers:
http://rvhouseonmangostreet.tripod.com/english/webquests/definingjustice.htm
This is a web quest about defining Justice that I created for my Sophomore
Honors English class. The students have been investigating the definition
of justice and injustice, as well as the people who are often affected by
injustices. Now is the time for them to begin to think of ways in which
injustice can be defeated. Each group will create a mission statement for
the human race that will give their views about justice / injustice and the
treatment of all people. The group will work together to brainstorm ideas
that are essential (according to your group) for the world to follow in order to
bring justice to all. Each of the individuals in the group will have a
specific task that will enable the class to clearly understand your mission
statement.
http://www.geocities.com/lhillclasses/webquests/justicemustbeserved.htm
Scout has been trying to figure out life and the major issues that it has
to offer. As my Sophomore Honors English class has been investigating To
Kill a Mockingbird and the themes of injustice and courage through this
novel. The students will work together to create an extension play.
http://rvhouseonmangostreet.tripod.com/
This website was created by Lara’s Freshman Honors English class in 1998.
http://rvhouseonmangostreet.tripod.com/mangohunt.htm
This is a site that allows students to review the information on The House
on Mango Street site created by Lara and her fall 1998 English 1 Honors class.
A good way to review for final assessment.
http://rvhouseonmangostreet.tripod.com/witchhunt.htm
This treasure hunt was created by Roger Budd, Debbie Gilmore, Jan Walker and
Lara so students can get background information on witch hunts.
http://www.geocities.com/hillsenior2_spring2000/zalankorossy/czk.html
Example of student's senior research project.
For more information regarding this site please contact Lara Hill at lhillclasses@prodigy.net. To visit my main site on education and technology, click on http://lhillclasses.tripod.com. Thanks for stopping by!
This page was last updated Thursday, October 03, 2002 .
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