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Instructional Tools and Ideas
Digital content and websites for teaching and learning are listed below. Lesson portals, as well as social studies, language arts, science, and math ideas are also available.
A Vision of K-12 Students Today
This video was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills.
This site allows students to create videos. The students upload photos and music, or they can choose some from the site. It also has the option to add your own video clips. Teachers at Eminence Middle and High Schools (Eminence, KY) use Animoto for a variety of lessons. Language arts teachers have students retell a story using all the elements of plot. The work is done as a group. High school English teachers have students create poems through video. Some make a video as a book project instead of writing a book report. The school librarian has students create video book reviews, which are available for all students to view. The reading teacher has students act out vocabulary from a book that was read in class.
The Annenberg Learner, from the Annenberg Foundation, is a collection of classroom resources sortable by discipline and by grade. From step-by-step lesson plans on a variety of topics from the Wild West to neuroscience to literature to multimedia resources, there is something here for all types of teaching and learning styles. Some of the resources here are free; to access complete programs, purchase is necessary.
Brainpop and Brainpop Jr
These sites have many lesson plans, games, activities, animated videos, graphic organizers, and more resources linked to content standards.
Edutopia's Digital Learning Day: Resource Roundup
Edutopia offers a compilation of many useful resources on digital learning to help teachers and students celebrate Digital Learning Day.
ETS's Cognitively Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning
ETS's CBAL (Cognitively Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning) is a research initiative intended to create a model for an innovative K–12 assessment system that documents what students have achieved (of learning); helps identify how to plan instruction (for learning); and is considered by students and teachers to be a worthwhile educational experience in and of itself (as learning). Get an overview of the CBAL research program, including how the CBAL assessment prototypes are being used in the classroom and reactions from students, teachers and school administrators.
Exploring Computational Thinking
These lesson plans and resources introduce problem-solving skills and techniques that software engineers use to write programs that underlie the computer applications you use such as search, email, and maps.
Florida Virtual School® Literacy Instructional Support Center
This center offers a number of resources, including support for English language learners, Web 2.0 tools, literacy links, literacy connections, the ABCs of literacy and more. The site also includes a virtual library open to the public that contains the Classroom Cache, a repository of hundreds of graphic organizers for use in the classroom.
Florida Virtual School® Student Literacy Resource Center
This center includes sections on virtual reader support, vocabulary for success, note taking made easy, a guide to Jings and videos, and PowerPoint presentations. It also contains a list of best practices for students to follow while reading. This website is student friendly and easily navigated.
Glogster is an online animated poster. Students can be creative by uploading music, pictures, and videos along with adding graphics and text. Students can even add links to the pictures and videos. At Eminence Middle and High School (Eminence, KY), reading students introduce themselves at the beginning of the year by creating and sharing a glog. A middle school student had to write a report on a country in Europe; instead of a handwritten report, he created a glog. This student had to use prewriting to plan the components that needed to be in the glog. He also had to write some parts that were uploaded. Links to certain websites about that country were included. The student also downloaded the country's national anthem to play. The glog was also used in a middle school math class. He created two survey questions for his class. The student collected the data, created charts and graphs from the data, and then analyzed and recorded the data. Everything was uploaded to the site and graphics were added.
Google Earth and SketchUp
Google Earth, Maps, and SketchUp have been identified as a powerful learning toolkit that can help students conceptualize, visualize, share, and communicate information about the world around them.
JogNog Learning Game for Grades 2 – 8
JogNog is designed to meet teachers’ needs for teaching the state and national standard curricula for grades 2 – 8. It provides more than 40,000 educator-created review questions to its players. You can also create your own quizzes. Reports provide you with detail about your students’ strengths and weaknesses. “Try Something New on Digital Learning Day” by having your students play "1st Tower State Facts and Capitals” (free). The state which has the most students play JogNog on Digital Learning Day will be celebrated on the JogNog blog that week. Also from JogNog are mobile apps, the Everyone.Smarter blog, which features topics in digital learning research and commentary, and the JogNog video library, which features videos about digital learning and about JogNog.
Online teachers who are also experienced classroom teachers discuss how online learning makes a difference in the learning and lives of students.
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators contains links to websites and best practice in using digital sources.
The Kids Lab offers resources for kids, parents and teachers. The website aggregates games by age and skill area so that adults can search for the games that will be the best fit for their kids. Parents and teachers can also search the game library by familiar and trusted PBS KIDS series. Additionally, the site helps parents and teachers learn how the games support learning by providing details on the games’ curriculum-based content.
LearningMedia is a free service for all teachers, students and families nationwide. It is a rich public media library with thousands of resources for use in the classroom and with home-schoolers. The digital resources include videos and interactives, including lessons for the Interactive Whiteboard, plus audio and photos, and in-depth lesson plans.
Polleverywhere
Poll Everywhere is a web technology that allows teachers to gather live responses from students via text message. This technology can be used in a number of different ways, including brainstorming, grading in-class quizzes, and taking suggestions and feedback from students.
Readwritethink.org (IRA, NCTE)
Along with lesson plans and information for teachers, this site has many interactive graphic organizers and tools for students to use.
Teacher A to Z List of Online Sites for Creative Uses of Technology
This site provides teachers with ideas to gradually introduce the use of technology into their teaching and learning.
This resource lists multiple websites for using technology in the classroom. It includes a presentation illustrating everything.
Thinkfinity allows individuals to search lesson ideas, activities, video clips, and more from a variety of partner sites by grade level, content area, resource type, and with a specific keyword search. Partner sites searchable include: ARTSEDGE, EconEdLink, EDSITEment, NCTM Illuminations, Literacy network, National Geographic Education, ReadWriteThink, Science NetLinks, Smithsonian's History Explorer, Wonderopolis, and Xpeditions Archive.
Virtual labs are used as a center in a chemistry class at Eminence High School (Eminence, KY). Half of the students use Dell netbooks in groups of 2-3 while the other half is doing the actual lab with the teacher. The students will have academic dialogue in groups and whole class comparing and contrasting both kinds of labs. The lesson can be found at the teacher's website.
Voicethread allows students to post pictures or video clips while commenting and/or annotating on each slide. Some lessons that were used at Eminence Independent Schools (Eminence, KY) include the following:
- Students post pictures that represent their poem. They record their voice reciting and reflecting on the poem. Some middle school students wrote haikus and illustrated a picture with it. They were scanned into Voicethread, and the students’ recitation and reflection on their haikus were recorded.
- An art teacher took pictures of African pillows that were made by her students. The students were recorded describing why they created their designs.
- A math student created a math project of real world examples of the real number system. His voice was recorded explaining each example.
- A biography student used Voicethread for a report. Instead of recording his voice, he used a webcam to describe the pictures.
- A math student taught a math lesson to the rest of the class using Voicethread. Because he was shy, he did not have to stand in front of the class. His voice was recorded explaining all the steps.
The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies produces this for the Top Tools 2011.
Multiple teachers use wikis for students to post work and collaborate. The link above is from a high school math teacher at Eminence High School (Eminence, KY). Her students use flip video camera to create math lessons for others to view. Sometimes the students create math songs and they are videotaped. On the wiki, the teacher can post a question or reflection for the students to comment on. You can view other sample lessons on the teacher's web page.
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