Spicy Nodes - Concept Map Presentation Tool

Spicy Nodes

Spicy Nodes is a concept map presentation tool that allows the users to link and embed pictures, websites, and more into the overall presentation. Easy to use and fun to show, Spicy Nodes is whole new way to present your information.
SpicyNodes provides an innovative means to add excitement to almost any area of study. As students become enamored with the presentation of their ideas, they increasingly focus on the quality of their work and develop the critical thinking skills necessary for the digital age.

Teaching Guide: http://www.spicynodes.org/what_are_they-teaching_guide.html

Here is a Spicy Node ABOUT Spicy Nodes - This will give you a sense of how it works:
http://www.spicynodes.org/nodes.html

Edmodo

Edmodo

Edmodo is a secure social learning network for teachers and students. Edmodo gives libraries and classrooms a safe and easy place online to connect and collaborate, offering a location to share ideas and content, as well as access homework, grades and school notices.

Edmodo gives teachers a safe and easy place online to connect and collaborate, offering a location to share ideas and content.   It is the perfect forum for developing a relationship between  two schools or just within your classroom.

Some Suggested Ideas on using Edmodo:

• Have students introduce themselves and post a short biography. From the biography, discuss internet safety and digital citizenship by talking about the items that we should and should not put online about ourselves. Focus on being responsible and safe on the internet in practice in the closed and safe environment that Edmodo provides.

• Teach book reviews and have students write their own reviews. Students also suggest books to read as well.

• Students create top ten lists. Top ten books, top ten video games, top ten authors. Host a book club. Once a month the book club can take place in person and then for the rest of the month discussions can take place on Edmodo. This creates an intimate reading community. Even if a student moves they can still take part in the reading group from wherever their new location is based.

• Connect with students over the summer. Have a summer online book club. Students can sign up. Post a new book every three weeks, have new questions and new discussions.

• Edmodo now has badges where users can create a special badge for their team or grade. Use the ones that Edmodo has in their selection or create your own. Educators do have the option to turn student comments on and off if there are any inappropriate comments. This is another way to reinforce online responsibility and good digital citizenship. Edmodo does have a gradebook for educators to use. It has a poll feature, and other assessment tools that can be used to the educator’s advantage. There are iPad and iPhone apps to make this site even more versatile for users.

Flickr -

http://www.flickr.com/

What is Flickr?

Flickr is the best way to store, sort, search and share your photos online. Flickr helps you organize that huge mass of photos you have and offers a way for you and your friends and family to tell stories about them.

Take the Flickr Tour:

http://www.flickr.com/tour/

How many photos and videos can I upload for free?

When you have a free Flickr account, you can upload 2 videos and 300MB worth of photos each calendar month. If you need or want more each month, you may purchase a Pro Account for about $25/year.

Flickr is probably known to most of us...

 Give it a try or re-visit!

Learn the Periodic Table - 5 Resources for Students

And here are five resources for helping students
learn the Periodic Table.

Glaxo Smith Kline's Active Science offers fifteen interactive games covering a range of science topics. The Interactive Periodic Table is a game designed to help chemistry students practice identification of the elements. To play the game students are given some clues about an element's properties. Using those clues the student has to place the element in the correct place on the table.

The Elements is an interactive periodic table on which students can click an element and learn about that element. Clicking on an element describes all of the element's properties and the common uses of that element. If students just need a snap shot of information, simply placing their cursor on an element reveals a snap shot of information at the top of the page.

The Periodic Table of Videos is produced by The University of Nottingham. The table features a video demonstration of the characteristics of each element in the table. Each element in the Periodic Table displayed on the home page is linked to a video. The videos are hosted on YouTube, but don't worry The University of Nottingham provides an alternative server through which you should be able to view the videos.

The Periodic Table of Comic Books is a project of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. The idea is that for every element in the Periodic Table of Elements there is a comic book reference. Clicking on an element in the periodic table displayed on the homepage will take visitors to a list and images of comic book references to that particular element. After looking at the comic book reference if visitors want more information about a particular element they can find it by using the provided link to Web Elements.

The Dynamic Periodic Table is a good resource for science teachers and their students. The Dynamic Periodic Table works like this, click on an element and a window will pop up to tell you more detailed information about that element. The pop up windows cover properties, orbitals, isotopes and more. There are even links to more information, like the history of each element, for each element.

JeopardyLABS





JeopardyLabs allows you to create a customized jeopardy template without PowerPoint. The games you make can be played online from anywhere in the world. Building your own jeopardy template is a piece of cake. Just use the simple editor to get your game up and running.  Not interested in building your own jeopardy templates? Well that's cool too. You can browse other jeopardy templates created by other people. It doesn't get any better than this!

I tried Cosmetology, Dental, Surgical and found jeopardy games already created!  Try your Lab or area of study first and see if there is a jeopardyLab already created. 

Everyone may use this website for free.  Browse the jeopardyLabs already created or create your own.  One drawback...If you want to be a member, you have to pay at least $1.00 to sign up to use JeopardyLabs through PayPal.  When signing up for an account, they automatically put in a $20 amount, but you can change this to $1 - I did try $0 - did not work, must be at least a $1.

BUT think of all the jeopardy games you may create or use some of those that are already created for your SMART Board!!!

No fees

No registration

No PowerPoint

Pasted from <http://jeopardylabs.com/>

Comic Strip Builders - Bitstrips & Comic Life

Bitstrips
Create your own cartoon characters and comic strips using the items included in the drag-and-drop builders, with quite a bit of flexibility in what you can make, i.e. scenes, facial expressions, body langauge, cartoon panels, etc.
And it is FREE....

_____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

Comic Life http://comiclife.com/education

Making comics is fun for everyone, and Comic Life makes it easy. Teachers and students will find Comic Life a very useful software tool, and now it's available for both Mac and Windows platforms.

Technology not only changes how we write, but it also changes what writing is. Education will need to re-evaluate which writing skills teachers should pass to their students. Digital graphic writing is one genre students need to be fluent. Comic Life is the "word processor" of digital graphic writing.

Inexpensive

Schools often don't have money to buy expensive software. At $19.95 for a single license, however, any teacher will find Comic Life a bargain, and administrators will find the cost of licensing Comic Life for labs affordable.

Comics in the Classroom:
100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers:   This link is to a page on TeachingDegree.com where Using Comics in the Classroom is discussed with many other links!
http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/07/05/comics-in-the-classroom-100-tips-tools-and-resources-for-teachers/

Welcome Back!!

New School Year...exciting!

Next week, Tuesday, September 20, I will start posting to this blog every Tuesday.

We will explore more Web 2.0 tools that will engage our students.

This summer, I did expand the Labels to include English, Social Studies, Math, Science and Career & Tech Labs.  When you click on one of these labels, you will see which of the Web 2.0 sites I recommend for each group.

Hope your school year is the Best!
See you next week.

Have a Fantastic Summer!!!

This summer I hope to put more tags on the Web 2.0 sites we already have . . . mainly academic tags, such as Science, Math, Social Studies, and English.  Then you will be able to click on your subject area and find only those Web 2.0 tools I recommend for your discipline.

Tech*Knowledge*Y Tips will return in September 2011 with a new Blog each week.  Thank you for your suggestions and comments!

FreeRice

FreeRice
http://freerice.com/
is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. The site has two equally important goals. To provide education to everyone for free and to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. Students answer vocabulary questions and for each one they get right, rice is donated to feed the hungry. This is a great way to study vocab and help Change the World at the same time.

Just a website that we should not forget . . .
Use in the classroom the last 5 minutes!!!

Got Brainy - SAT Prep / Vocabulary Builder

Got Brainy
is a vocabulary building site with a twist. Students and teachers can create or view mock-motivational-posters or videos for vocabulary words that often pair ironic or sarcastic images with a word and definition. This site might be best used with an upper-level High School English class studying for standardized tests. (SAT/ACT) However, it can be used for ESL students as well to pair images with new vocabulary words and simple definitions.

http://www.gotbrainy.com/