Lance began with e.ggtimer.com for the classic times for classroom use. Yasiv lets you enter a book and you get a visualization of related books. The visual organizer is animated and a very useful tool, despite grade level. Copyright and Creative Commons, explained by the folks of Common Craft. For simple explanations in Plain English, you want to subscribe to Lee LeFever’s channel on YouTube. This site is a great way to introduce any tech concept and Common Craft has a large video library so it bears visiting.
Check this video:
Agoogleaday is the perfect challenge for informational literacy skills. This site lets you share a geographical location by description, images that lead you to a site, given clues. Cool tool. Screenr is simple, elegant, and free. It lets you show students a quick tutorial by adding information into a box. Textthemob is a quick survey for a phone; its title belies what it is, but texting a response couldn’t be easier.
A(ct), E(motion) I(interest),O(H)! Um! Live information explained non-verbally digitally, think Discoverystreaming Plus videos. Lance showed us a segment from the Discovery Science Techbook, which DEN STARS now have for a full year preview. From Rita Mortensen’s class, we viewed a movie trailer her students made with Macs using a movie trailer template in iMovie. Simple project after viewing and discussing a Discoverystreaming video. Their How To series invites students to explain a silent video after viewing, since you’ve muted the sound. Very useful summative reflection and puts the onus on students presenting.
Paper slide videos from Dr. Lodge McCammon is a back-to-basics collaborative effort for storyboarding and creating. There’s no editing involved; if you make a mistake in filming, you re-film. For instructions, you can visit this blog post as well. Paper slide videos let students take ownership instantly. Take the video challenge with your students and you could win a visit from Lodge McCammon, along with prizes.
Yet another clever idea is to go to Discovery images and zoom in to show a different view to ask students to identify. It’s a good way to review yesterday’s lesson, especially if you are working in a block schedule with alternating days on a 6-day schedule.
In the Teacher Center, you can push out content from within Discovery. Go to My Builder and use the Writing Prompt. You can add images, links, videos from within Discovery’s content. How very unique to have students write from non-verbal prompts. Lance mentioned that math teachers use this concept very successfully. Superlame is really simple; it lets you upload an image and a short text. Think of this as a story starter, and you could upload it into the Writing Prompt. Toondoo lets you import Discovery images to create a clever comic strip.
PhotoPeach lets you import images but you can embed quiz questions into your creation. Simply intuitive, this is a cool tool for any age level. Lance noted that using Discovery sounds is a great way to enhance visualization. Have students close their eyes to visualize, then use whole-group discussion. Go into Sound Waves and assign with a refined list for your grade level. You can do this by sending information to the Student Center.
Lance’s ending: Is our brain full yet?
Matt Strine, Director of Instruictional Technology from Propel Schools in Braddock Hills, PA is sharing links and information here: http://ow.ly/1G7XuY