http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/04/15/the-best-sites-for-learning-about-the-volcano-in-iceland/
5 Resources for Learning About Volcanoes
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kilimanjaro/
Volcano Above the Clouds is a NOVA program that chronicles an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro by a group of climbers and scientists. In addition to the video, Volcano Above the Clouds offers a large collection of materials and teaching guides for learning about volcanoes, glaciers, and climate change with Mount Kilimanjaro at the center of each lesson. As Mount Kilimanjaro is one of the Seven Summits of the world, NOVA provides a slideshow of the Seven Summits which puts Kilimanjaro into perspective relative to those other summits
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/forces-of-nature.html
Forces of Nature is a feature of National Geographic's website. There are four sections to the Forces of Nature. The sections focus on tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, and earthquakes. There are six parts to each section. In the last part of each section students can create their own natural disaster using the knowledge they've gained from the previous five parts about how a natural disaster is formed. The Forces of Nature also offers photo galleries and interactive maps about tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, and earthquakes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7533964.stm
The BBC has a series of interactive guides that explain how natural disasters are caused. Included in this series is a twelve part animated explanation of volcanic eruptions. The series also includes explanations of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis.
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/volcano_natures_inferno/
National Geographic's film Volcano: Nature's Inferno follows scientists as they explain what causes volcanoes to erupt and as the scientists try to predict when volcanoes will erupt. Watch the film for free on Snag Films.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/index.html
The PBS Series Savage Earth offers animations how volcanic eruptions happen. The series also contains animations that explain earthquakes and tsunamis.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7533950.stm
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/15/g35/earthquakes.html (lesson plan)
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/watch/violent_earth/
Learn about where and when the next mega disaster will strike
Google Earth virtual tour of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/virtualtour/
Learn more about earthquakes: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/
Animations of earthquakes: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/animations/
Chile's earthquake: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/27/chile.quake/index.html?hpt=T1
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Running for Office, Politics, Government
Vote Easy - Which Candidates Match Your Opinions
In another example of my PLN helping me improve my lessons, Diana Laufenberg shared a great resource with me via Twitter. Diana shared Vote Easy which I immediately knew that I could use in my Civics class. Vote Easy is an interactive map designed to help voters identify the Congressional candidate that most closely aligned with their views on a selection of twelve issues. Answer each question then specify how important that issue is to you. Based on those responses Vote Easy will indicate which candidate in your Congressional district is most closely aligned to your views.
Applications for EducationI used Vote Easy in my Civics class this afternoon as a tool to get my students thinking about the twelve issues (including Afghanistan, Health Care, and Education) presented to them. After my students answered all of the questions and found out which candidate was most closely aligned to their views, I had my students take it again to see what type of answers it would take to be aligned with the other candidates.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:The History of Credit Cards in the United States
9 Resources for Learning About US Presidents
How to Use C-Span's Video Library in Your Classroom
How Do I Become President? - Infographic Contest
Kids.gov and Challenge.gov together are hosting aninfographic creation contest for kids. To enter the contest students have to create an infographic that explains the process of becoming President of the United States. The contest appears to be open to all K-12 students. The winner of the contest will receive $2,500 and the winning infographic will be reproduced for distribution to schools across the US. The deadline for entries is November 3. Read all of thecontest rules and requirements here.
Thanks to Cool Infographics for the notice about this contest.
Applications for EducationThe How Do I Become President infographic contest could be a good opportunity for teachers of Social Studies and teachers of graphic design to work together.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Is It Better to Rent or Buy? Interactive Infographic
Teaching With Infographics
Insightful News Infographics
Transcript Of President Obama’s Speech To Students Today
The White House has released the transcript of the speech the President will make to students today.
It seems fine — nothing earthshaking.
I think these passages might be useful a useful addition to a lesson I do on the importance of effort, as opposed to “natural” ability:
I know some of you may be skeptical about that. You may wonder if some people are just better at certain things. And it’s true that we each have our own gifts and talents we need to discover and nurture. But just because you’re not the best at something today doesn’t mean you can’t be tomorrow. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a math person or as a science person – you can still excel in those subjects if you’re willing to make the effort. And you may find out you have talents you’d never dreamed of.
You see, excelling in school or in life isn’t mainly about being smarter than everybody else. It’s about working harder than everybody else. Don’t avoid new challenges – seek them out, step out of your comfort zone, and don’t be afraid to ask for help; your teachers and family are there to guide you. Don’t feel discouraged or give up if you don’t succeed at something – try it again, and learn from your mistakes. Don’t feel threatened if your friends are doing well; be proud of them, and see what lessons you can draw from what they’re doing right.
You can read how I used his speech last year here.
Vote Easy - Which Candidates Match Your Opinions
In another example of my PLN helping me improve my lessons, Diana Laufenberg shared a great resource with me via Twitter. Diana shared Vote Easy which I immediately knew that I could use in my Civics class. Vote Easy is an interactive map designed to help voters identify the Congressional candidate that most closely aligned with their views on a selection of twelve issues. Answer each question then specify how important that issue is to you. Based on those responses Vote Easy will indicate which candidate in your Congressional district is most closely aligned to your views.
Applications for EducationI used Vote Easy in my Civics class this afternoon as a tool to get my students thinking about the twelve issues (including Afghanistan, Health Care, and Education) presented to them. After my students answered all of the questions and found out which candidate was most closely aligned to their views, I had my students take it again to see what type of answers it would take to be aligned with the other candidates.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:The History of Credit Cards in the United States
9 Resources for Learning About US Presidents
How to Use C-Span's Video Library in Your Classroom
In another example of my PLN helping me improve my lessons, Diana Laufenberg shared a great resource with me via Twitter. Diana shared Vote Easy which I immediately knew that I could use in my Civics class. Vote Easy is an interactive map designed to help voters identify the Congressional candidate that most closely aligned with their views on a selection of twelve issues. Answer each question then specify how important that issue is to you. Based on those responses Vote Easy will indicate which candidate in your Congressional district is most closely aligned to your views.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:The History of Credit Cards in the United States
9 Resources for Learning About US Presidents
How to Use C-Span's Video Library in Your Classroom
Applications for Education
I used Vote Easy in my Civics class this afternoon as a tool to get my students thinking about the twelve issues (including Afghanistan, Health Care, and Education) presented to them. After my students answered all of the questions and found out which candidate was most closely aligned to their views, I had my students take it again to see what type of answers it would take to be aligned with the other candidates.Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:The History of Credit Cards in the United States
9 Resources for Learning About US Presidents
How to Use C-Span's Video Library in Your Classroom
How Do I Become President? - Infographic Contest
Thanks to Cool Infographics for the notice about this contest.
Applications for Education
The How Do I Become President infographic contest could be a good opportunity for teachers of Social Studies and teachers of graphic design to work together.Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Is It Better to Rent or Buy? Interactive Infographic
Teaching With Infographics
Insightful News Infographics
The White House has released the transcript of the speech the President will make to students today.
It seems fine — nothing earthshaking.
I think these passages might be useful a useful addition to a lesson I do on the importance of effort, as opposed to “natural” ability:
I know some of you may be skeptical about that. You may wonder if some people are just better at certain things. And it’s true that we each have our own gifts and talents we need to discover and nurture. But just because you’re not the best at something today doesn’t mean you can’t be tomorrow. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a math person or as a science person – you can still excel in those subjects if you’re willing to make the effort. And you may find out you have talents you’d never dreamed of.
You see, excelling in school or in life isn’t mainly about being smarter than everybody else. It’s about working harder than everybody else. Don’t avoid new challenges – seek them out, step out of your comfort zone, and don’t be afraid to ask for help; your teachers and family are there to guide you. Don’t feel discouraged or give up if you don’t succeed at something – try it again, and learn from your mistakes. Don’t feel threatened if your friends are doing well; be proud of them, and see what lessons you can draw from what they’re doing right.
You can read how I used his speech last year here.
It seems fine — nothing earthshaking.
I think these passages might be useful a useful addition to a lesson I do on the importance of effort, as opposed to “natural” ability:
I know some of you may be skeptical about that. You may wonder if some people are just better at certain things. And it’s true that we each have our own gifts and talents we need to discover and nurture. But just because you’re not the best at something today doesn’t mean you can’t be tomorrow. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a math person or as a science person – you can still excel in those subjects if you’re willing to make the effort. And you may find out you have talents you’d never dreamed of.
You see, excelling in school or in life isn’t mainly about being smarter than everybody else. It’s about working harder than everybody else. Don’t avoid new challenges – seek them out, step out of your comfort zone, and don’t be afraid to ask for help; your teachers and family are there to guide you. Don’t feel discouraged or give up if you don’t succeed at something – try it again, and learn from your mistakes. Don’t feel threatened if your friends are doing well; be proud of them, and see what lessons you can draw from what they’re doing right.
You can read how I used his speech last year here.
9 Resources for Learning About US Presidents
Here's a short list of resources for teaching and learning about US Presidents and the office itself.
Electing a President
The Living Room Candidate is an online exhibit of Presidential Campaign commercials from 1952 through 2004. The Living Room Candidate is part of a larger project called theMuseum of the Moving Image. Visitors to The Living Room Candidate can view the commercials from each campaign from both parties. A written transcript is provided with each commercial. Provided along with each video is an overview of the political landscape of at the time of the campaigns. Visitors to the website can search for commercials by election year, type of commercial, or by campaign issue.
NARA, the US National Archive and Records Administration, has built a great website for students and teachers. The teacher page offers links to detailed lesson plans. The lesson plan titled the Tally of 1824 is one of the most thorough Electoral College lesson plans that I have seen anywhere. The Tally of 1824 lesson plan addresses not only the basic process of the Electoral College, it also includes the ideas of faithless electors and the possibility of losing the popular vote but winning the election.
Common Craft's Electing a US President in Plain English does a nice job of explaining how the Electoral College system works.
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Inaugurating a New PresidentVideos of every inaugural address from Eisenhower through George W. Bush is available through Hulu.
Governing Dynamo has built a gallery containing the text of every US President's inaugural address(es). In addition to the text, the gallery includes a Wordle of every address and an image of the President who delivered that address. Finally, Governing Dynamo hosts a video overview of the Wordles in the gallery.
The Chronology of US Presidents
The video embedded below depicts the 44 US Presidents in 4 minutes. This video includes the dates of the time in office for each president.
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This video is a bit dated as it ends with Clinton's term, but it's educational and entertaining.
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The Lives of the Presidents
The Miller Center of Public Affairs hosts a very good reference resource about US Presidents. The Miller Center's reference, American President, provides personal and political biographical information about every US President. Each profile links to dozens of essays about various aspects of each President's life and work. Each profile also contains images of each President. Some profiles also include audio files and video of the President.
American Presidents Life Portraits is a C-Span series that originally aired a few years ago. The series profiled each of the US Presidents. The profiles were very well produced as each one struck a good balance between profiling the politics of each president and profiling the personal details of each president. (If you enjoyed HBO'sAdams series, make sure you also watch C-Span's profile of Adams). Most of the original profiles can be watched online using Real Player. Each segment is also available for purchase.
C-Span also has a few great activities that students can explore on their own or with teacher guidance. Career Paths to the Presidency lets students examine the various routes that presidents took to the White House.Shaping the Nation and the Presidency highlights eight key events that shaped the United States. Each of the eight events contains a video clip explaining the event's significance. The American Presidents timeline quiz is a fifty question interactive quiz.
Interactive Activities About US Government
The Center on Congress at Indiana University has a good collection of interactive, role-playing activities for learning about how the United States' government functions. Each activity allows students to experience the roles and functions of different members of Congress.
One of the activities that my Civics students have really enjoyed in the past is the "How a Member Decides to Vote" activity. In "How a Member Decides to Vote" students take on the role of a Congressman or Congresswoman for a week. During the simulated week, students receive phone calls from constituents, read newspaper headlines, meet with constituents, meet with lobbyists, and attend meetings with other Congressmen and Congresswomen. The "How a Member Decides to Vote" activity makes students account for their personal feelings as well as the influence of constituents and lobbyists.
9 Resources for Learning About US Presidents
Here's a short list of resources for teaching and learning about US Presidents and the office itself.
Electing a President
The Living Room Candidate is an online exhibit of Presidential Campaign commercials from 1952 through 2004. The Living Room Candidate is part of a larger project called theMuseum of the Moving Image. Visitors to The Living Room Candidate can view the commercials from each campaign from both parties. A written transcript is provided with each commercial. Provided along with each video is an overview of the political landscape of at the time of the campaigns. Visitors to the website can search for commercials by election year, type of commercial, or by campaign issue.
NARA, the US National Archive and Records Administration, has built a great website for students and teachers. The teacher page offers links to detailed lesson plans. The lesson plan titled the Tally of 1824 is one of the most thorough Electoral College lesson plans that I have seen anywhere. The Tally of 1824 lesson plan addresses not only the basic process of the Electoral College, it also includes the ideas of faithless electors and the possibility of losing the popular vote but winning the election.
Common Craft's Electing a US President in Plain English does a nice job of explaining how the Electoral College system works.
Popout
Governing Dynamo has built a gallery containing the text of every US President's inaugural address(es). In addition to the text, the gallery includes a Wordle of every address and an image of the President who delivered that address. Finally, Governing Dynamo hosts a video overview of the Wordles in the gallery.
The Chronology of US Presidents
The video embedded below depicts the 44 US Presidents in 4 minutes. This video includes the dates of the time in office for each president.
Popout
This video is a bit dated as it ends with Clinton's term, but it's educational and entertaining.
Popout
The Miller Center of Public Affairs hosts a very good reference resource about US Presidents. The Miller Center's reference, American President, provides personal and political biographical information about every US President. Each profile links to dozens of essays about various aspects of each President's life and work. Each profile also contains images of each President. Some profiles also include audio files and video of the President.
American Presidents Life Portraits is a C-Span series that originally aired a few years ago. The series profiled each of the US Presidents. The profiles were very well produced as each one struck a good balance between profiling the politics of each president and profiling the personal details of each president. (If you enjoyed HBO'sAdams series, make sure you also watch C-Span's profile of Adams). Most of the original profiles can be watched online using Real Player. Each segment is also available for purchase.
C-Span also has a few great activities that students can explore on their own or with teacher guidance. Career Paths to the Presidency lets students examine the various routes that presidents took to the White House.Shaping the Nation and the Presidency highlights eight key events that shaped the United States. Each of the eight events contains a video clip explaining the event's significance. The American Presidents timeline quiz is a fifty question interactive quiz.
Electing a President
The Living Room Candidate is an online exhibit of Presidential Campaign commercials from 1952 through 2004. The Living Room Candidate is part of a larger project called theMuseum of the Moving Image. Visitors to The Living Room Candidate can view the commercials from each campaign from both parties. A written transcript is provided with each commercial. Provided along with each video is an overview of the political landscape of at the time of the campaigns. Visitors to the website can search for commercials by election year, type of commercial, or by campaign issue.NARA, the US National Archive and Records Administration, has built a great website for students and teachers. The teacher page offers links to detailed lesson plans. The lesson plan titled the Tally of 1824 is one of the most thorough Electoral College lesson plans that I have seen anywhere. The Tally of 1824 lesson plan addresses not only the basic process of the Electoral College, it also includes the ideas of faithless electors and the possibility of losing the popular vote but winning the election.
Common Craft's Electing a US President in Plain English does a nice job of explaining how the Electoral College system works.
Popout
Inaugurating a New President
Videos of every inaugural address from Eisenhower through George W. Bush is available through Hulu.Governing Dynamo has built a gallery containing the text of every US President's inaugural address(es). In addition to the text, the gallery includes a Wordle of every address and an image of the President who delivered that address. Finally, Governing Dynamo hosts a video overview of the Wordles in the gallery.The Chronology of US Presidents
The video embedded below depicts the 44 US Presidents in 4 minutes. This video includes the dates of the time in office for each president.
Popout
This video is a bit dated as it ends with Clinton's term, but it's educational and entertaining.
Popout
The Lives of the Presidents
The Miller Center of Public Affairs hosts a very good reference resource about US Presidents. The Miller Center's reference, American President, provides personal and political biographical information about every US President. Each profile links to dozens of essays about various aspects of each President's life and work. Each profile also contains images of each President. Some profiles also include audio files and video of the President.
American Presidents Life Portraits is a C-Span series that originally aired a few years ago. The series profiled each of the US Presidents. The profiles were very well produced as each one struck a good balance between profiling the politics of each president and profiling the personal details of each president. (If you enjoyed HBO'sAdams series, make sure you also watch C-Span's profile of Adams). Most of the original profiles can be watched online using Real Player. Each segment is also available for purchase.C-Span also has a few great activities that students can explore on their own or with teacher guidance. Career Paths to the Presidency lets students examine the various routes that presidents took to the White House.Shaping the Nation and the Presidency highlights eight key events that shaped the United States. Each of the eight events contains a video clip explaining the event's significance. The American Presidents timeline quiz is a fifty question interactive quiz.
The Center on Congress at Indiana University has a good collection of interactive, role-playing activities for learning about how the United States' government functions. Each activity allows students to experience the roles and functions of different members of Congress.One of the activities that my Civics students have really enjoyed in the past is the "How a Member Decides to Vote" activity. In "How a Member Decides to Vote" students take on the role of a Congressman or Congresswoman for a week. During the simulated week, students receive phone calls from constituents, read newspaper headlines, meet with constituents, meet with lobbyists, and attend meetings with other Congressmen and Congresswomen. The "How a Member Decides to Vote" activity makes students account for their personal feelings as well as the influence of constituents and lobbyists.
Fascinating Infographic On U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings
GOOD Magazine has published a fascinating infographic on U.S.Supreme Court confirmation hearings (and the word “fascinating” is not one used to typically describe those events) titled Supreme Questions
Inside the FBI - Interactive Display
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
Inside the FBI is an interactive feature created and hosted by CBS News. Inside the FBI features diagrams of the FBI's organization, stories of the FBI's successes and failures, and a timeline of the FBI's history. Through the interactive display students can learn about what the various divisions of the FBI do.
“The Changing Political Landscape” Infographic
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
Who’s Coming and Who’s Going? The Changing Political Landscape Of The 20th Century is an excellent infographic that shows some of the major political/geographical changes over the past one hundred years.
It’s not complete by any means, but it does show some of the major changes that took place, and it’s quite accessible.
This is an incredible self-guided learning experience. Students will learn about our democratic system in depth by completing this activity. The Road to the Capitol is really best experienced by individual students in a computer lab setting where they have plenty of time to research and complete each stop along the campaign trail. If you don’t have access to a computer lab, the activity could be completed as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. To make The Road to the Capitol a more in-depth project, have students take campaign notes along the way in a word processing program. They can later sum up what they learned and recorded in their notes by copying the notes and pasting them into a word cloud program like Wordle. Students could create short campaign commercials based on the commercial they created in the game. These can be recorded with PhotoBooth on a Mac or with a video camera. Students could also create a campaign poster using a word processing or publishing program. From http://www.ilearntechnology.com/
Branches of Government interactive is a good way for students to familiarize themselves with the branches of government. The activity is a simple one, students are given a leaf and must decide which branch of government it best describes. Students receive immediate feedback about their answer. If students dragged the leaf to the correct branch, it will stick. If not, the leaf returns to its original location at the base of the tree.
From http://www.ilearntechnology.com/
Our Courts - Interactive Lessons on US Civics
http://www.ourcourts.org/play-games
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
Our Courts is a web-based resource designed to teach students about US Civics and the US Supreme Court. Our Courts was developed by a partnership of Georgetown and Arizona State universities to carry out Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's vision for improving civics education.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1857458,00.html (From Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the day) “Night of Broken Glass” in 1938 when Nazis attacked Jews in Germany.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/running-for-office/
The political cartoons in this exhibit, drawn by renowned cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman, illustrate the campaign process from the candidate’s decision to run for office to the ultimate outcome of the election. Although many political procedures have changed, these cartoons show that the political process has remained remarkably consistent; Berryman’s cartoons from the early 20th century remain relevant today
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Internet Safety
Think Before you Post Online
This is a great image to share with students to help them consider what they are doing online. Think before you post anything on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, a blog, or even email or text message. That information could end up being seen by anyone.
Google Family Safety Center - help promote safety online.
Google Family Safety Center is a resource for parents and educators that has ideas, advice, and tips on how to keep kids safe online, tools to select what the children can see online, and much more.
With all the issues and concerns about internet safety, Google Family Safety Center offers a free resource for parents and teachers. We need to teach children how to be safe online, both at home and in school.
For tools, Google offers SafeSearch and YouTube Safety mode, as well as video tips, advice from partner organizations, and links to other resources.
Share this with the parents and teachers you know so that they can help make their children safer online.
Own Your Space - Online Safety Ebook for Teens
Own Your Space is a free, sixteen chapter ebook designed to educate tweens and teens about protecting themselves and their stuff online. This ebook isn't a fluffy, general overview book. Each chapter goes into great detail explaining the technical threats that students' computers face online as well as the personal threats to data that students can face online. For example, in the first chapter students learn about different types of malware and the importance of installing security patches to prevent malware infections. The fourteenth chapter explains the differences between secured and unsecured wireless networks, the potential dangers of an unsecured network, and how to lock-down a network. Download the whole book or individual chapters here.
Thanks to Steven Anderson for the link to Own Your Space.
Applications for Education
Own Your Space could be a great resource not only for twees and teenagers, but for their parents as well. Before sending a tween or teen off to school or to a friend's house with their new laptop or mobile device consider going through Own Your Space with him or her to educate both of you about protecting the device and the person online.
Google Family Safety Center - A Resource for Parents
Keeping kids safe online is a top priority for every parent and teacher. To help parents and others learn about strategies and tools for keep kids safe online, today Google launched the Google Family Safety Center.
The Family Safety Center introduces parents to and shows them how to use Google's safety tools including safe search, safe search lock, and YouTube's safety mode. Google has partnered with a number of child safety organizations to develop educational materials for dealing with topics like cyberbullying, strangers online, protecting personal information, and avoiding malware online. Finally, Google's Family Safety Center contains a collection of videos featuring Google employees sharing the strategies they use with their own kids for teaching online behavior and keeping their kids safe online. One of those videos is embedded below.
Popout
Applications for Education
My school is issuing netbooks to every student this week. One of the concerns that some parents have regarding their students bringing the netbook home is that they aren't sure how to make sure their children aren't doing something unsafe online. While not a comprehensive resource yet, Google's Family Safety Center will provide a nice primer that will educate those concerned parents.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Phishing Detection Education
A Thin Line - Digital Safety Education for Teens
Learn Internet Safety with Garfield
Think Before you Post Online
This is a great image to share with students to help them consider what they are doing online. Think before you post anything on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, a blog, or even email or text message. That information could end up being seen by anyone.
Google Family Safety Center - help promote safety online.
Google Family Safety Center is a resource for parents and educators that has ideas, advice, and tips on how to keep kids safe online, tools to select what the children can see online, and much more.
With all the issues and concerns about internet safety, Google Family Safety Center offers a free resource for parents and teachers. We need to teach children how to be safe online, both at home and in school.
For tools, Google offers SafeSearch and YouTube Safety mode, as well as video tips, advice from partner organizations, and links to other resources.
Share this with the parents and teachers you know so that they can help make their children safer online.
Think Before you Post Online
This is a great image to share with students to help them consider what they are doing online. Think before you post anything on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, a blog, or even email or text message. That information could end up being seen by anyone.
Google Family Safety Center is a resource for parents and educators that has ideas, advice, and tips on how to keep kids safe online, tools to select what the children can see online, and much more.
With all the issues and concerns about internet safety, Google Family Safety Center offers a free resource for parents and teachers. We need to teach children how to be safe online, both at home and in school.
For tools, Google offers SafeSearch and YouTube Safety mode, as well as video tips, advice from partner organizations, and links to other resources.
Share this with the parents and teachers you know so that they can help make their children safer online.
Own Your Space - Online Safety Ebook for Teens
Thanks to Steven Anderson for the link to Own Your Space.
Applications for Education
Own Your Space could be a great resource not only for twees and teenagers, but for their parents as well. Before sending a tween or teen off to school or to a friend's house with their new laptop or mobile device consider going through Own Your Space with him or her to educate both of you about protecting the device and the person online.
Keeping kids safe online is a top priority for every parent and teacher. To help parents and others learn about strategies and tools for keep kids safe online, today Google launched the Google Family Safety Center.The Family Safety Center introduces parents to and shows them how to use Google's safety tools including safe search, safe search lock, and YouTube's safety mode. Google has partnered with a number of child safety organizations to develop educational materials for dealing with topics like cyberbullying, strangers online, protecting personal information, and avoiding malware online. Finally, Google's Family Safety Center contains a collection of videos featuring Google employees sharing the strategies they use with their own kids for teaching online behavior and keeping their kids safe online. One of those videos is embedded below.
Popout
Applications for Education
My school is issuing netbooks to every student this week. One of the concerns that some parents have regarding their students bringing the netbook home is that they aren't sure how to make sure their children aren't doing something unsafe online. While not a comprehensive resource yet, Google's Family Safety Center will provide a nice primer that will educate those concerned parents.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Phishing Detection Education
A Thin Line - Digital Safety Education for Teens
Learn Internet Safety with Garfield
Spread the Word About Cyber Bullying & Help Prevent Kids from Becoming a Statistic.
from SimpleK12 Blogs
We’ve taken the time to collect hundreds and hundreds of internet safety resources to help educate and protect kids. There are numerous resources for cyber bullying as well as other internet safety issues such as protecting kids from online predators, identity thieves, inappropriate sites, and more. If you find these resources valuable, all I ask is that you pass it along to friends, parents, colleagues, etc…and start (or continue) educating others about how we can prevent kids from becoming a statistic.
Free Tutorial: Keep Kids Safe from Cyberbullies and Harassment
Do you know what signs to look for?
Are you helping prevent, discourage, and stop cyberbullying?
Please enjoy this free lesson from SimpleK12:
Click here to launch your free lesson.
If you are interested in learning more about our full content offering, you may click here for individual use or visit our website here for school or district implementation.
PS: Did I mention all of the internet safety content is included in the yearly EdTech UNconference membershipas well as hundreds of other topics?
Think U Know Cyber Cafe is a virtual environment where students can practice their online safety smarts. In the cafe, students will help virtual kids make good choices when using email, texting, instant messaging, web browsing, creating an online personal space, and chatting in a chat room. Students are guided through a variety of scenarios where they must help the virtual kids make the right decisions about using the Internet.
http://www.ilearntechnology.com/
Phineas and Ferb http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/commonsense/ are popular Disney channel characters. They have a new short video to help students learn cyberspace rules and online safety tips. Disney, together with Common Sense Media, created this fun short film to get kids thinking about cyber safety. Tips in the video include: Be careful what you put online, you never know who is going to see it; just because it’s online, doesn’t mean it’s true; not everyone is who they say they are; if you wouldn’t do it in person, you shouldn’t do it online; and get outside and spend time with real friends. These are great tips, but delivered by Phineas and Ferb they will be remembered by your students.
Computer Games
from The Interactive Classroom by Hall Jackson
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/connections/games
Cisco have a whole slew of computer games both flash and downloads that actually teach people about the internet, networks, routers, and network security. Obviously there is Cisco branding but these games look like a lot of fun and mare more arcade style than a simple flashcard memory game.
Cisco games arcade
So if you are teaching higher level networking or you want a fun way to teach primary school students about the internet - Peter Packet is a good one. This would be a fun engaging way to get students into the subject without all the dry explanations and topology diagrams
http://www.ikeepsafe.org/
http://www.brainpopjr.com/health/besafe/internetsafety/
http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/
http://www.wildwebwoods.org/popup.php?lang=en
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/08/02/the-best-sites-for-learning-online-safety/ (great site!)
From the presentation at school in February:
Detective Rich Wistocki: wistockiR@naperville.il.us
http://www.besureconsulting.com/
Go to the website above for discounts on these products:
http://www.spectorsoft.com/ (Recotrds detail of computer internet activity)
http://www.mymobilewatchdog.com/ (Monitor your child's cell phone)
http://www.thelost.org/ (to report an incident (crimes against children)- cybertipline)
http://www.infinitelearninglab.org/
Internet Safety with Professor Garfield is offering lessons on online safety, cyberbullying, and coming soon: fact or opinion and forms of media. Each lesson is composed of three parts, watch, try, and apply. In the “watch” section, students watch a video starring Garfield and his friends. The video teaches an important Internet safety lesson. In the “try it” section, students are given a chance to play a game that checks for understanding and redirects thinking if students missed a concept. In the “apply it” section, students help a character from the video to make wise Internet safety decisions.
Get your web license - question/answer about internet http://pbskids.org/license/
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/08/02/the-best-sites-for-learning-online-safety/
http://sjbrooks-young.com/id13.html
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Disney's Healthy Kids
Disney’s Healthy Kids site provides a lot of good information on healthy nutrition.
http://adisney.go.com/healthykids/
http://adisney.go.com/healthykids/
Free Online Surveys
Answer Garden
Answer Garden is an excellent new tool for a person's website. AG is a gadget that can be embedded into a site (similar to a poll) that people can use to answer question that you create. These answers then get displayed in a visual brainstorming/tag cloud view w/ the top choices standing out as more bold and bigger font (think Wordle).
Answer Garden can be used by teachers to get feedback from students, bloggers for self analysis, etc etc.
I highly recommend checking out Answer Garden by clicking here!!
Thanks to the wonderful blog Zarco English for the tip!!!
MicroPoll - Web Polls Made Easy
Yesterday, I gave a run-down of nine survey tools that teachers and students can use. Today, I came across another survey tool that should be added to that list. MicroPoll makes it very easy to create a poll, customize it, and embed it into your blog or website. To use MicroPoll just enter your question, enter answer choices, and enter your email address. After completing those first three steps you can preview your poll, change the theme (look) of your poll, and get the embed code for your poll.
Answer Garden
Answer Garden is an excellent new tool for a person's website. AG is a gadget that can be embedded into a site (similar to a poll) that people can use to answer question that you create. These answers then get displayed in a visual brainstorming/tag cloud view w/ the top choices standing out as more bold and bigger font (think Wordle).
Answer Garden can be used by teachers to get feedback from students, bloggers for self analysis, etc etc.
I highly recommend checking out Answer Garden by clicking here!!
Thanks to the wonderful blog Zarco English for the tip!!!
Answer Garden can be used by teachers to get feedback from students, bloggers for self analysis, etc etc.
I highly recommend checking out Answer Garden by clicking here!!
Thanks to the wonderful blog Zarco English for the tip!!!
Yesterday, I gave a run-down of nine survey tools that teachers and students can use. Today, I came across another survey tool that should be added to that list. MicroPoll makes it very easy to create a poll, customize it, and embed it into your blog or website. To use MicroPoll just enter your question, enter answer choices, and enter your email address. After completing those first three steps you can preview your poll, change the theme (look) of your poll, and get the embed code for your poll.Nine Survey Tools for Teachers and Students
On many occasions in the past I've written here and shared on other forums that I think placing a survey or poll on your classroom blog or website is a great way to get informal feedback from your students. I usually put a survey on my class blog a week or so before any formal assessment that my students are going to take. That feedback helps me identify the areas that my students need more help and or clarification on.
Here are nine tools that you can use to put a survey or poll on your class blog.
Using Yarp you can create a simple one question survey or one line event invitation. To create a Yarp survey select "survey" on the homepage, type a question, then select your answer format. All answer formats present only two options along the lines of "true or false" or "yes or no." Yarp invitations use the same format styles as Yarp surveys.
Vorbeo is a free service for creating polls for your blog or website. To use Vorbeo just type your question, enter your answer choices, select a background color, and specify the width of your polling widget. Then copy the embed code provided by Vorbeoand paste it into the html editor of your blog or website.
Urtak is a free and simple polling service that can be used on any blog or website. The polls you create can have multiple questions, but they must be "yes or no" questions. But Urtak isn't that limited because visitors to your poll also have the option of writing in their own questions. You can get started using Urtak in seconds by registering with your Twitter or Facebook account. You can also use your email address to create an account with Urtak. Urtak polls can be embedded into your blog or you can direct people to your poll by sharing the unique url Urtak assigns to your poll.
Buzz Dash is a free polling service that allows anyone to create a poll to use on any blog or website. There are a lot of survey and polling widgets that you can use on your blog (in fact, Blogger has one built-in), but what I like about Buzz Dash is that your poll results instantly update whenever someone votes. The update happens without the need to refresh your page in order to see the new poll results.
Obsurvey gives you the flexibility to create multiple choice surveys or open-ended surveys. Setting up a survey with Obsurvey is an easy process. To set up a survey simply select your question format and then edit the questions and answer choices using the text editor. The video here shows you how to set-up Obsurvey.
Fluid Surveys is a good tool for quickly creating surveys that offer multiple response formats. Many free survey programs only allow one type of response format, multiple choice or text. Fluid Surveys allows you to combine both formats in one survey. The drag and drop interface is so easy to use that you can build a survey in less than a minute. Watch the video here to see how easy it is to use Fluid Surveys.
Stellar Survey offers free surveys that teachers and school administrators can use to get feedback about courses and instructors. Users can select from a predefined template and questions or create a survey from scratch. The free, basic account only allows 50 responses per survey so it is not ideal for large classes, but for most teachers 50 responses will adequate.
Polldaddy is one of the most recognized platforms for online polling. The free Polldaddy plan allows you to create polls or surveys containing up to ten questions. Poll/ survey results are displayed in real-time.
Poll Everywhere is a poll/ survey service that allows you to collect responses via text messaging. Post your question(s) on your unique Poll Everywhere survey and the audience can voice their opinion(s) using their cell phones. Survey results are available instantly. The free plan allows you to collect responses from up to thirty respondents.
Here are nine tools that you can use to put a survey or poll on your class blog.
Using Yarp you can create a simple one question survey or one line event invitation. To create a Yarp survey select "survey" on the homepage, type a question, then select your answer format. All answer formats present only two options along the lines of "true or false" or "yes or no." Yarp invitations use the same format styles as Yarp surveys.Vorbeo is a free service for creating polls for your blog or website. To use Vorbeo just type your question, enter your answer choices, select a background color, and specify the width of your polling widget. Then copy the embed code provided by Vorbeoand paste it into the html editor of your blog or website.
Urtak is a free and simple polling service that can be used on any blog or website. The polls you create can have multiple questions, but they must be "yes or no" questions. But Urtak isn't that limited because visitors to your poll also have the option of writing in their own questions. You can get started using Urtak in seconds by registering with your Twitter or Facebook account. You can also use your email address to create an account with Urtak. Urtak polls can be embedded into your blog or you can direct people to your poll by sharing the unique url Urtak assigns to your poll.
Buzz Dash is a free polling service that allows anyone to create a poll to use on any blog or website. There are a lot of survey and polling widgets that you can use on your blog (in fact, Blogger has one built-in), but what I like about Buzz Dash is that your poll results instantly update whenever someone votes. The update happens without the need to refresh your page in order to see the new poll results.Obsurvey gives you the flexibility to create multiple choice surveys or open-ended surveys. Setting up a survey with Obsurvey is an easy process. To set up a survey simply select your question format and then edit the questions and answer choices using the text editor. The video here shows you how to set-up Obsurvey.Fluid Surveys is a good tool for quickly creating surveys that offer multiple response formats. Many free survey programs only allow one type of response format, multiple choice or text. Fluid Surveys allows you to combine both formats in one survey. The drag and drop interface is so easy to use that you can build a survey in less than a minute. Watch the video here to see how easy it is to use Fluid Surveys.Stellar Survey offers free surveys that teachers and school administrators can use to get feedback about courses and instructors. Users can select from a predefined template and questions or create a survey from scratch. The free, basic account only allows 50 responses per survey so it is not ideal for large classes, but for most teachers 50 responses will adequate.No list of survey tools would be complete without mentioning the following two very popular services.
Polldaddy is one of the most recognized platforms for online polling. The free Polldaddy plan allows you to create polls or surveys containing up to ten questions. Poll/ survey results are displayed in real-time.
Poll Everywhere is a poll/ survey service that allows you to collect responses via text messaging. Post your question(s) on your unique Poll Everywhere survey and the audience can voice their opinion(s) using their cell phones. Survey results are available instantly. The free plan allows you to collect responses from up to thirty respondents.Obsurvey - Create Custom Surveys
Online Survey Sites (from: http://digitaltoolsforteachers.blogspot.com/)
http://www.freeonlinesurveys.com/
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/
http://www.surveymonkey.com/
http://fluidsurveys.com/
Professional Use
This can be a great tool to use with staff to:
• Collect feedback about an event, activity or resource
• Find out professional development needs of staff
• Gauge interest in an upcoming event
• Find out teacher expertise in different fields
Survey Students
This is a very useful way to collect information from your students to help you with your planning. It could be used for:
• Finding out about students’ interests
• Gauging students’ prior knowledge for the next unit of work
• Collecting feedback about a unit of work to evaluate its success or how it could be improved.
Students create their own surveys
Students can use online surveys to
• collect data for an assignment
• collect feedback on something they have created
• Students can then analyse and reflect on their results by interpreting the graph. These results could be used to make further decisions or to reflect on their learning.
Educational Outcomes
•When students create their own survey they must have a good understanding of the content and the task in order to form the correct questions.
• They must also decide on the information they want to collect and pose appropriate questions which will retrieve this information.
• Students can gain an understanding of how to interpret graphs. This activity could be extended further by asking students to create their own graphs.
• This is a great way for students to reflect on their learning and evaluate their achievements.
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