Technology Resources

Firelands Elementary Library

Technology

Creating a Web Site | Digital Cameras| Electronic Field Trips | Global Projects | Inspiration | Integrating Technology | Keyboarding | Miscellaneous | Podcasting | SMART Boards | Technology Infusion | Videos | Web 2.0 | Webinar |

Creating a Web Site

Building a School Web Site - This site gives you simple basic information on building a school web site.

Cool Text - Is a free graphics generator for web pages and anywhere else you need an impressive logo without a lot of design work. Simply choose what kind of image you would like. Then fill out a form and you'll have your own custom image created on the fly.

Jottit makes getting a website as easy as filling out a textbox.

Snip URL allows you to take the ugly long URLs all over the web and snip them into a snipurl that is short, snippy, secure, memorable, and easy to share.

At Tiny you can make a short and memorable URL, plus find the best traffic stats on people that clicked your tinylink.

Weebly allows you to create a free website or blog in minutes by using a simple drag and drop interface. There are no ads and the site was listed as one of Time's 50 best websites of the year.

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Digital Cameras

Digital Gadgets - This site from Kathy Schrock offers a wealth of technical and practical information about the use of digital cameras in the classroom.

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Electronic Field Trips

Students can learn about wildlife, biology and other subjects through firsthand accounts and field reports provided by researchers and scientists on Field Trip Earth, a Web site created by the North Carolina Zoological Society. The Web site provides a type of virtual field trip where students read articles and view photos and videos.

The virtual field trips here at Tramline were developed with the goal of making the best use of the web in the classroom. These annotated trips take students to some of the best web sites on each trip subject. We have a Trailhead (Intro) and Teacher's Resource that set the stage for most of our trips. The Tour Maker field trips format makes learning fun, and makes using the Internet in the classroom simple, efficient and focused. You will find virtual field trips on science, literature, social studies, and other topics.

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Global Projects

Global School Net Collaborative Learning Center offers tools and resources for online collaboration, tutorials, and project lists.

Making Global Connections using Glogster allows classrooms all over the world to share digital posters about their communities. This could be a great project for a teacher who wants to try out using Wikis and Glogster in their classroom. This is for grades K-8, for the school year 2010/2011

At Operation Ruby Throat students are asked to observe the hummingbird and share information with peers across North and Central America.

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Inspiration/Kidspiration

Kidspiration was created for K-5 learners. Kidspiration^® develops thinking, literacy and numeral skills using proven visual learning principles.

Inspiration^® is the essential visual thinking and learning tool students rely on to plan, research and complete projects successfully. With the integrated Diagram and Outline Views, learners create graphic organizers and expand topics into writing.

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Integrating Technology into the Classroom

In Time offers 400 video vignettes of pre K–12 teachers using technology in language arts, math, science and other subject areas. A conceptual model for analyzing the use of technology in instruction is among the tools and information on the site. A transcript of each video vignette is available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Swahili, Russian, Romanian, and Chinese. Under the Build a Case Study link, you will find suggestions for designing activities using the video vignettes.

International Society for Technology in Education - ISTE standards for students, teachers, and administrators help to measure proficiency and set aspirational goals for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to succeed in today’s Digital Age.

Teaching with the Internet provides new literacies that are especially important to the effective use of content area information on the Internet. They allow us to identify important questions, navigate complex information networks to locate appropriate information, critically evaluate that information, synthesize it to address those questions, and then communicate the answers to others. These five functions help define the new literacies that your students need to be successful with the Internet and other information and communication technologies.

ECB Surf Report provides classroom web resources.

Filamentality shows how to create web-based learning activities.

Evaluating Internet Resources helps students sort out what information is good and what isn't on the web.

Best Practices of Technology Integration in Michigan provides lesson plans that have been written by practicing teachers and have been "kid tested" to work in the classroom. They are examples of how technology can be used as a valuable tool in your classroom.

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Keyboarding

Elementary Keyboarding is a guide for teachers working with elementary students on keyboarding.

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Miscellaneous

Have your students ever wanted to learn how to program a computer? Let Alice show them how. Alice is an innovative 3-D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game or creating a video to share on the Web. In Alice, 3-D objects (people, animals and vehicles) populate a virtual world, and students create a program to animate the objects. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.

Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights. Tell your story now digitally.

Lulu.com is a free self publishing program that lets you publish and sell print-on-demand books and e-books, online music and images, and custom calendars. You can share your work or keep it personal. You can do photo books, calendars, CD’s and DVD’s, eBooks, cookbooks, poetry books and yearbooks. It is a very user friendly program and publishing fees are very reasonable.

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Podcasting

LearnOutLoud.com is your one-stop destination for audio and video learning. You can browse over 20,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos.

At Podcasting students and teachers from all over the world are learning from audio and video programs on desktop computers, laptops, iPods, netbooks, and other devices. Hundreds of free educational programs are available online. Here are some examples: Grammar Girls Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, English Idioms and Slang, Storynory: Free Audio Stories for Kids, MathGrad: Everyday Mathematics Explained, and First Amendment Minute.

Podbean is a Podcast Publishing and Social Subscribing site. Publishing your own podcast is fast, easy and free. It is an ultra simple podcast publishing solution, containing everything you need.

Radio WillowWeb is produced by students and teachers at Willow Dale Elementary School. Learn more about podcasting from Tony Vincent, the developer of Radio WillowWeb.

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SMART Boards

Dabbleboard is an online collaboration application that’s centered around the whiteboard. With a new type of drawing interface that's actually easy and fun to use, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw.

Interactive Whiteboards is a web quest that helps you use whiteboards in the classroom.

The educational technology company Promethean has partnered with the National Geographic Society in the development of Young Explorer ActivLessons— a series of interactive whiteboard lessons in reading, science and social studies aimed at students in kindergarten and first grade. For use on any brand of whiteboard with a free download of Promethean software, the lessons are tied in with National Geographic Society’s Young Explorer magazine and include a guide for teachers, classroom activities and printable worksheets.

Scribblar offers simple, effective online collaboration with a multi-user whiteboard, live audio, image collaboration, text-chat and more.

Scrib Link is your online whiteboard.

SMART Board Tools shows you how to use a SMART Board in your classroom.

Teq is the nation’s largest provider of interactive classroom technology and support services. We offer educators the complete technology solution, from SMART products and digital content to installation services and technical support. In addition, our training division offers a variety of Professional Development services designed to help schools make the most of their technology purchase.

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Technology Infusion

Classtools.net provides free, customizable flash templates to embed into blogs, wikis and websites. There is no signup, no passwords, and nocharge.

Hand Break is an open source, GPL-liscensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcorder, available for Mac OSX, Lilnux and Windows.

Internet for Classrooms helps teachers use the internet effectively.

Kids’ Video Production helps students create work in a new and exciting way. This is a place for serious fun. Kids’Vid is an instructional website to help teachers and students use video production in class to support project based learning.

Media Converter allows you to convert your audio and video files from your hard disk, by url/stream (http,ftp,mms,rtsp) or directly from websites like Facebook or Youtube.

Screencast-O-Matic is the original online screen recorder for creating screen capture video recordings (aka screencasts) with free hosting all from your browser with no install! It includes step by step screen shots.

Tammy's Technology Tips for Teachers is full of fantastic ideas for technology integration.

Technorati provides real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. It also provides popularity indexes.

Voice Thread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.

Use Yodio to add your stories to your photos or presentations, and share these narrated photos with your friends and colleagues.

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Videos

Watch free Documentaries Online at TopDocumentary Films. The site includes annotated links to online documentaries on a wide variety of topics, including September 11, biographies, the supernatural, sports, technology, conspiracies, wildlife, and more.

Kideos is a video portal for kids that includes many educational and literature related videos such as schoolhouse rock and Dr. Seuss.

Teacher Tube is an online community for sharing instructional videos

Watch Know offers videos for kids to learn from. It was developed by a consortium including Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger.

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Web 2.0

BibMe is a Web-based bibliography tool with a streamlined automated interface to create a properly formatted bibliography.

Go2 Web 20 lets you find all Online tools and applications on one page, get a short description, compare, read reviews, see what people are saying about each one on the web.

Pageflakes is a personalized desktop that allows users to set up their favorite Internet applications.

Web 2.0 from Ajax Projects, is your guide to the read/write internet that allows users to manipulate, share and create content.

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Webinar

Vyew is a web-conferencing service that allows users to host live conferences and work collaboratively on content.

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Using the Internet Safely

CyberSmart! Curriculum is a free K-8 curriculum empowering students to use the internet safely, responsibly and effectively.

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Updated: November 30, 2011

	Building a School Web Site - This site gives you simple basic information on building a school web site.
	Cool Text - Is a free graphics generator for web pages and anywhere else you need an impressive logo without a lot of design work. Simply choose what kind of image you would like. Then fill out a form and you'll have your own custom image created on the fly.
	Jottit makes getting a website as easy as filling out a textbox.
	Snip URL allows you to take the ugly long URLs all over the web and snip them into a snipurl that is short, snippy, secure, memorable, and easy to share.
	At Tiny you can make a short and memorable URL, plus find the best traffic stats on people that clicked your tinylink.
	Weebly allows you to create a free website or blog in minutes by using a simple drag and drop interface. There are no ads and the site was listed as one of Time's 50 best websites of the year.


	Digital Gadgets - This site from Kathy Schrock offers a wealth of technical and practical information about the use of digital cameras in the classroom.


	Students can learn about wildlife, biology and other subjects through firsthand accounts and field reports provided by researchers and scientists on Field Trip Earth, a Web site created by the North Carolina Zoological Society. The Web site provides a type of virtual field trip where students read articles and view photos and videos.

	The virtual field trips here at Tramline were developed with the goal of making the best use of the web in the classroom. These annotated trips take students to some of the best web sites on each trip subject. We have a Trailhead (Intro) and Teacher's Resource that set the stage for most of our trips. The Tour Maker field trips format makes learning fun, and makes using the Internet in the classroom simple, efficient and focused. You will find virtual field trips on science, literature, social studies, and other topics.

	Global School Net Collaborative Learning Center offers tools and resources for online collaboration, tutorials, and project lists.

	Making Global Connections using Glogster allows classrooms all over the world to share digital posters about their communities. This could be a great project for a teacher who wants to try out using Wikis and Glogster in their classroom. This is for grades K-8, for the school year 2010/2011


	At Operation Ruby Throat students are asked to observe the hummingbird and share information with peers across North and Central America.

	In Time offers 400 video vignettes of pre K–12 teachers using technology in language arts, math, science and other subject areas. A conceptual model for analyzing the use of technology in instruction is among the tools and information on the site. A transcript of each video vignette is available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Swahili, Russian, Romanian, and Chinese. Under the Build a Case Study link, you will find suggestions for designing activities using the video vignettes.
	International Society for Technology in Education - ISTE standards for students, teachers, and administrators help to measure proficiency and set aspirational goals for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to succeed in today’s Digital Age.
	Teaching with the Internet provides new literacies that are especially important to the effective use of content area information on the Internet. They allow us to *identify important questions, navigate* complex information networks to locate appropriate information, critically evaluate that information, synthesize it to address those questions, and then communicate the answers to others. These five functions help define the new literacies that your students need to be successful with the Internet and other information and communication technologies.

	ECB Surf Report provides classroom web resources.

	Filamentality shows how to create web-based learning activities.

	Evaluating Internet Resources helps students sort out what information is good and what isn't on the web.

	Best Practices of Technology Integration in Michigan provides lesson plans that have been written by practicing teachers and have been "kid tested" to work in the classroom. They are examples of how technology can be used as a valuable tool in your classroom.

	Elementary Keyboarding is a guide for teachers working with elementary students on keyboarding.

	LearnOutLoud.com is your one-stop destination for audio and video learning. You can browse over 20,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos.
	At Podcasting students and teachers from all over the world are learning from audio and video programs on desktop computers, laptops, iPods, netbooks, and other devices. Hundreds of free educational programs are available online. Here are some examples: Grammar Girls Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, English Idioms and Slang, Storynory: Free Audio Stories for Kids, MathGrad: Everyday Mathematics Explained, and First Amendment Minute.
	Podbean is a Podcast Publishing and Social Subscribing site. Publishing your own podcast is fast, easy and free. It is an ultra simple podcast publishing solution, containing everything you need.
	Radio WillowWeb is produced by students and teachers at Willow Dale Elementary School. Learn more about podcasting from Tony Vincent, the developer of Radio WillowWeb.

	Dabbleboard is an online collaboration application that’s centered around the whiteboard. With a new type of drawing interface that's actually easy and fun to use, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw.
	Interactive Whiteboards is a web quest that helps you use whiteboards in the classroom.
	The educational technology company Promethean has partnered with the National Geographic Society in the development of Young Explorer ActivLessons— a series of interactive whiteboard lessons in reading, science and social studies aimed at students in kindergarten and first grade. For use on any brand of whiteboard with a free download of Promethean software, the lessons are tied in with National Geographic Society’s Young Explorer magazine and include a guide for teachers, classroom activities and printable worksheets.
	Scribblar offers simple, effective online collaboration with a multi-user whiteboard, live audio, image collaboration, text-chat and more.
	Scrib Link is your online whiteboard.
	SMART Board Tools shows you how to use a SMART Board in your classroom.
	Teq is the nation’s largest provider of interactive classroom technology and support services. We offer educators the complete technology solution, from SMART products and digital content to installation services and technical support. In addition, our training division offers a variety of Professional Development services designed to help schools make the most of their technology purchase.

	Classtools.net provides free, customizable flash templates to embed into blogs, wikis and websites. There is no signup, no passwords, and nocharge.


	Hand Break is an open source, GPL-liscensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcorder, available for Mac OSX, Lilnux and Windows.
	Internet for Classrooms helps teachers use the internet effectively.

	Kids’ Video Production helps students create work in a new and exciting way. This is a place for serious fun. Kids’Vid is an instructional website to help teachers and students use video production in class to support project based learning.

	Media Converter allows you to convert your audio and video files from your hard disk, by url/stream (http,ftp,mms,rtsp) or directly from websites like Facebook or Youtube.

	Screencast-O-Matic is the original online screen recorder for creating screen capture video recordings (aka screencasts) with free hosting all from your browser with no install! It includes step by step screen shots.
	Tammy's Technology Tips for Teachers is full of fantastic ideas for technology integration.
	Technorati provides real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. It also provides popularity indexes.
	Voice Thread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.
	Use Yodio to add your stories to your photos or presentations, and share these narrated photos with your friends and colleagues.

	Watch free Documentaries Online at TopDocumentary Films. The site includes annotated links to online documentaries on a wide variety of topics, including September 11, biographies, the supernatural, sports, technology, conspiracies, wildlife, and more.

	Kideos is a video portal for kids that includes many educational and literature related videos such as schoolhouse rock and Dr. Seuss.

	Teacher Tube is an online community for sharing instructional videos

	Watch Know offers videos for kids to learn from. It was developed by a consortium including Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger.

	BibMe is a Web-based bibliography tool with a streamlined automated interface to create a properly formatted bibliography.
	Go2 Web 20 lets you find all Online tools and applications on one page, get a short description, compare, read reviews, see what people are saying about each one on the web.
	Pageflakes is a personalized desktop that allows users to set up their favorite Internet applications.
	Web 2.0 from Ajax Projects, is your guide to the read/write internet that allows users to manipulate, share and create content.