Week 7

Delicious
This website acts like a bookmark bar. It reminds me of Pinterest because this is how I use Pinterest sometimes: I find a website that I want to remember, and I "Pin" it so that I can come back to it for reference. Sometimes, it's hard to Pin things with Pinterest, especially educational resources because they often don't have any images. With Delicious, you can bookmark any resource. Similar to Pinterest, you can access your account with any device (computer, iPad, Android device, etc.) thus have access to your favorite websites. I think this would be great for any teacher to use. Actually, anyone in any profession that requires they have access to websites could benefit from Delicious.  The reason that I can see it working in the classroom is because I previously worked in a district that blocked Pinterest. I would "Pin" sources to use (lesson plans, worksheets, etc.), only to have them blocked. I would have to login on my phone (secretly because even though it was for technology and before school, my principal wouldn't have been happy were he to find me with my phone out) and email the pinned link to myself. This was a 10 minute process that should have taken about 30 seconds to login to Delicious, click on the bookmarked page, and wait for it to load. I will definitely be sharing this resource with my colleagues at our next PLC!

HistoryPin
HistoryPin was the next source we reviewed.  I love this concept! Basically, it is a map (associated with Google maps) that has thousands of photos pinned to locations throughout the world. You can pin photos from the same locations, which enables you to compare the past to the present.  You can look at your neighborhood (assuming that there are photos of it) from back when it was a corn field and compare it to the way it looks today with lots of houses.  I kept thinking of this subdivision in Scottsville, which is where I grew up.  The Extension agent took a photograph of this gigantic farmhouse that sat on top of a hill. It was surrounded by farmland and woods. The main road (Bowling Green Rd.) out of town went by this farm, and everyone in the entire county knew the house. The photograph was on the cover of the county survey book (I don't remember exactly what it was called, but we used it in high school ag classes all the time). Taken just 10 years earlier, it looked completely different than the same location did when it was used on the cover.  If you had stood exactly where the photographer stood, you would have seen about 50 houses completed, and a dozen more being built.  That was 10 years ago. Now, there are even more houses.  I am sentimental, so I really enjoy comparing things now to how they were. I also think about how things could be destroyed due to fire, water damage, or fading (Epson printers didn't offer 100 year fade-resistant photographs in the 1920's). By putting the images online, it will provide a way to preserve the history for generations.  Also, it provides a more realistic example of a specific place than just reading about it. I think this website would be great to use in a social studies or science classroom.  Math teachers could even use it to demonstrate population growth.  Language Arts teachers could do unlimited free writing prompts based on the photographs and how they have changed over time.  The photographs featured on HistoryPin have stories/captions with them. The people uploading the images can put as much information as they want to include in them, so it's like a mini-history lesson (a great way to review bias/author's purpose, too!).  I highly recommend this site! 

Talking Calculator
Next, we viewed Talking Calculator.  I wasn't impressed at first; I thought the voice was very obnoxious, and I pictured having 26 kids using the calculator at the same time and broke out in hives. Ha! In all seriousness, I can see that the calculator would be great for primary grades where they are just learning basics like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Even younger students could benefit from hearing the numbers read aloud (although, there are much better apps for that like Monkey Mathschool Beach). Once I investigated the website more, it's a great resource for young primary students.  CyberChase is ran by PBS Kids, and it's packed with fun educational games, videos, and activities. This would be a great tool in any primary classroom!

Big Simple Talking Calculator
One thing that I noticed instantly was that this calculator read the number exactly as it would be spoken. Instead of saying, "Nine Four Two Six," it says, "Nine thousand, four hundred and twenty six."  This would be wonderful for students learning to read large numbers aloud. I remember my niece having a lot of trouble with this skill, and I know that my sister-in-law would have loved having access to this to help!  The calculator would help with ESL students, as it speaks in several languages.  Also, for those of us who hate the thought of 28 calculator voices going at once, it has a mute button. 

2write4math
The first math wiki we reviewed was 2write4math. It is a wiki that is made for math teachers and is aimed at helping incorporate writing skills in the math classroom.  It is very easy to navigate and has lots of great resources to be used in the classroom.  There are even math poems that I could use in my poetry unit! I think that this is a resource that could be very helpful in any math classroom (particularly upper primary/middle grades). It's free to view, so be sure to check it out!

PicLits
This website is amazing! I can see it being used in an ESL/ELL classroom frequently. PicLits provides an image and a list of words categorized by their part of speech.  The image I saw first was a closeup of a hawk's face. There were words pertaining to the bird, and words that you had to use your imagination to make them fit.  The goal was to choose the right words to describe the picture and compile a sentence that tells the story of the photo. It would be a great bell ringer to use for review of parts of speech during any language arts class. I can also see it being used in an art class.  My favorite part of the website was the definition for edutainment, which was found under the FAQ's section. Edutainment is the act of learning through a medium that both educates and entertains.  In this definition, learning is the key. I think that this definition embodies the entire core of this class, and it should embody our views on utilizing technology within our classrooms.  



Web 2.0 Tools: Grammarly
My extended language arts students have been doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) since the middle of October.  The main purpose of NaNoWriMo is to publish a novel/novella. My students have worked independently, and they have done an excellent job.  The main problem I have had so far is that it is SO time consuming to edit the novels.  Part of the students' assignment is that they peer edit, but for many students, grammar isn't a strength. That's where Grammarly comes in.  As a language arts teacher, this is one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools.  Students simply copy and paste part of their novels into the box and click, "Check your text." It's that simple. Grammarly checks the text for over 250 types of mistakes There are over 3 million users, and it's been featured and recommended by Wall Street Journal, TIME, FOrtune, U.S.News, and Forbes.  It's $29.95 a month if you do independent months, or $11.66 per month if you pay for an entire year. There is a 7-day free trial, which is what we used in my class.  However, it would be worth $140 a year to not have to check all of the papers myself! One of the main challenges I faced using this tool is that it is somewhat advanced. Several of the grammatical errors it listed were way above my students' heads (parallelism isn't really a 7th grade concept). However, for checking basic usage and mechanic errors, it's great. Grammarly also checks for plagiarism, and it can work within Microsoft Office apps, so you can check while you type. I know that I am awful about ignoring the "suggestions" made by Word because they often are incorrect. It would be great if Grammarly provided mini lessons for their suggestions; that way the students could add to their independent learning logs while using the site.  Overall, I definitely recommend Grammarly for the free 7 day trial, and I think it would be worth the money if you were dealing with a lot of papers; my time is definitely worth $140 a year!