http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and  free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who  needs them. Their name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and  'wiki' which is the technology they are using to make education universally  accessible.

It is a great place to find and post classroom activities and course curriculum.

"Curriki’s mission is to eliminat the

Education Divide – the gap

between those who have access
to high-quality education and
those who do not – in the US and
around the world."

Enjoy

A teacher shared these web sites today during a photo editing training workshop.  Both Wigflip - toys and tools for the web and BigHugeLabs: Do fun stuff with your photos offer a variety of online tools.  I have not had time to investigate any of them, but the teacher was thrilled with the work she had done using some of these online tools.  If anyone tries any of these tools, I'd be interested to know what you think.

Lynne

Hi Christine,

I would be interested in the title of the book using photos for writing.  I just taught a Digital Camera class and a Photo Editing class to teachers.  I'm always looking for great resources to pass on to educators.  I used Google's Picasa 3 (a good program for beginners and intermediates) and Gimp 2.6 (almost as good as Photoshop CS) as free photo editing downloads during my training.  The teachers couldn't believe they could get this much software for free.

Thanks,

Lynne

There are a few online tools that I have recently stumbled upon that I really LOVE -

www.gapminder.org - "Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based view".   The main feature of the site is the interactive graph - that supports the analysis of life span, socioeconomic status, country/location and population over time.  It also hosts some teaching materials and integration ideas.

http://www.tagxedo.com/ What www.wordle.net did for word clouds, tagxedo does for word shapes - imagine the text of Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech, assembled in his image - or a paper on photosynthesis in ferns, presented in the shape of a fern..... - really neat potential - another presentation option for kids.

www.google.com - Google Wonder Wheel (after you search, select more options under the search bar - and click on wonder wheel in the left hand column.) - Your search is now displayed in an organized,  graphic format - and easy to navigate!  My other Google fav is http://www.google.com/squared.  Google Squared takes a category and creates a starter 'square' of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web.  You can basically create a matrix, categorizing information and images from the web.  - Check out the samples provided....it is well worth the time!

Greatest discovery in the past several months is Kidblog.org.  If you are new to blogging, it is one of the simplest ways to blog for teachers and students.  Sets up in minutes, unlimited classes and student accounts, and great controls for teachers.  Very simple format, but the perfect way to get started with blogging, especially with younger students.  Students can easily use their own blogs and comment on others, post video, photos, and hyperlinks.  They can even embed HTML to showcase their work on the web.

Edu.Glogster.com is awesome.  Very simple way to build an interactive, multimedia "poster" online.  I have used it with students as young as 1st Grade.  Teachers are creating Glogs to use in instruction.

I second Marc's recommendation of USTREAM. It's fun to implement and the families just love it. You can video stream your class day or a special event. You can record it for later viewing if you wish. Grandparents across the country love to be a fly on the wall and feel more connected to their families. This year I streamed our Open House, a few regular class days, a Valentine party, the hatching of duck eggs (with the webcam in the incubator!) and ducklings in the brooder.

All it takes is an inexpensive webcam. Many laptops have a camera built right in now. Today I streamed the action at my bird feeder on the back deck. Only of interest to my family and me but fun to do all the same. It also gave me a chance to check out the laptop's built-in camera.

A couple of things worth mentioning here.

• Be sure you post a sign on your classroom door warning visitors that live streaming is going on.
• Move away from the audio source for private conversations.
• Be ready to shut it down at a moments notice if trouble should arise.
• Recheck the viewing angle from time to time as it can move on you.
• You may need to shut off the monitor if your students start aping in front of it. Some kids are real actors.