Free tools to use in the classroom

David Andrade has put up a very useful slideshow which features 25 tools you can use in the classroom to enhance the thinking and learning. These are free resources from Discovery Education.

There are many resources here which although are aimed at science can be used for other curriculum areas as well.

Future tools

An article in our local newspaper last week discussed the findings of some research done relating to ICT in the classroom. One of the findings the researcher suggested was that schools will be adding an iPad to the children's stationery lists as these will be tools that they need to be using for their futures.

As this researcher and many others have said we are preparing children for jobs that are not there yet using tools that have not been invented yet. I therefore wonder if using an iPad is the way to go. Some of the private schools here are already doing this but how long will these be the tool to be using - it is not beyond the realms of feasibility that children will need several different tools during their schooling.

Here these are around $800 which is a lot of money for many of our families. I am sure that in the higher socioeconomic areas that it will not be a problem but it will be in the lower socioeconomic areas. This is widening the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'.

I wonder how other countries are getting on with this type of thing - does the government provide these, the school, the family??

Using Classroom Tools

On the Classroom Tools web site (which has so many great things for teachers) was a video showing some children using the web site to reinforce their learning about fractions.




The children are working in groups and are showing obvious excitement about their learning - isn't that we all strive to do - enhance their learning and make it fun. You will find other videos on their web site to help you using some of their tools in your classroom.

I have used Embed Plus to just show a small snippet of the video on this blog post (another great tool for teachers.

VoiceThread

VoiceThread has an interesting presentation about using Web 2 tools in the classroom. There are some great ideas in here. There are several different slides to the presentation so make sure you look at them all. You might like to make some comments on different pages especially if you have had experiences in with the tools.

Voicethread 4 Education wiki has some great ideas for using VoiceThread in the classroom.

Making elearning books

I have been making an elearning book using ClassTools. You can then embed these into your blog or wiki. A big positive is that you do not need user names, passwords etc. Unfortunately the book needs to be under 10 pages. However what a great tool to use in the classroom. As well as the obvious curriculum area of literacy it could be integrated into any curriculum area. There are some really great templates such as fishbones and timelines for example - have a look. You can also create educational games and activities. These are all done using Flash. It is free!!

Click here for full screen version

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Sqirlz

I am not sure if many people use Sqirlz to animate water reflections from a still image. Here is a great example.

It is a simple programme to use in the classroom. Once the reflection is complete you have the options of saving as a gif, swf or avi.

I have used this programme for some time now and find it great to create water effects. The completed files can be used in PowerPoint, web pages for example.

I have often used this with my students when they are making a multimedia presentation as it is so quick and easy.

100 useful web tools for education

A great place to find different web tools to use for all the different styles of learning. Christina Laun has written this to enable teachers to find tools that are best suited to different learners. You will find tools for mind mapping, charting and diagrams, video and photos, podcasts, presentation tools, audio tools, text readers, audio books, note taking tools, bookmarking, interaction and collaboration.