Instructify

Encyclopedias are a great place to start researching a topic, as they provide broad, top-level information on just about anything. But encyclopedias can be so… static. It’s the 21st century, people! Our encyclopedias should have videos and audio, and we should be able to interact with and possibly even contribute to them!

Well, Encyclopedia Britannica is jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon and just launched a new version of its web site that is both interactive and full of new media resources. With the redesign, Britannica now offers broader and more relevant information — including more photos, videos and multimedia — and incorporates an online community for scholars, experts, and non-expert contributors to connect, interact, and share information.

In the community, scholars and experts are given an online home that lets them promote their work and services, publish and share the work they’ve created outside of the encyclopedia, and interact with other scholars around the world in an academic setting. Readers and users are also invited into the community to suggest changes and additions to the content and to actually publish content on Britannica’s site. Interested users will have the opportunity to prepare articles, essays, and multimedia presentations on subjects they’re interested in and Britannica will help with research by allowing them to easily use text and non-text material from the encyclopedia. The final products will then be published on the site, credited to the people who created them.

And, Britannica is offering a “reward system” to encourage and motivate both experts and readers to contribute and suggest text changes, photos, videos, citations, links and other  improvements to Britannica itself. They don’t specify what the “rewards” are, but if you end up publishing content with them, let us know! — LAUREN FROHNE

Encyclopedia Britannica

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It’s a good thing they didn’t let me design the Instructify site. We probably would’ve ended up with a generic graphic of a chalk board on a background of brown and light blue, one of about three color schemes I know looks good.

If you have art students as inept as I at choosing colors, LaurenMarie at Creative Curio reminds us that picking good color combinations is as easy as looking at your trusty color wheel. I felt pretty foolish when the article reminded me that you can find complimentary colors simply by looking at opposite sides of the color wheel.

This is helpful advice for students in your painting class or who are experimenting with Web design. If you’re not an art teacher, it’s equally handy for choosing which color of paint matches your couch, or just trying to put an outfit together when you get dressed in the morning.

The problem with everybody having access to programs like Photoshop is that it convinces artistically talentless folks like myself that they’re graphic designers. Maybe if more of us n00bs learned the basics of color and design, the Web would be a better looking place. -BILL FERRIS

The Color Wheel and Color Theory via Creative Curio

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Students with special needs or disabilities present a bevy of challenges for teachers. In the age of the interweb, though, you can find all sorts of resources for special needs education. The nice folks at Teaching Tips.com have assembled a big list of them in The Ultimate Guide to Special Needs Teaching. Here you’ll find more than a hundred sites and resources for students who are blind, deaf, autistic, physically handicapped, terminally ill, and most other afflictions imaginable. They also list ESL resources, as teaching special needs students who also don’t speak English can create a whole new set of challenges, but these can probably be used by anyone teaching students learning English as a second language. However special your students’ needs are, you can probably find a way to meet them on this list. -BILL FERRIS

The Ultimate Guide to Special Needs Teaching: 100+ Resources and Links

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I’m completely fine with a writer who bends the rules. There’s a little thing called style, right? I’m sure that as an educator you’ve no doubt had a student try to pass off errors as style. I know I tried when I was in school.

As they grow and mature as writers, it’s necessary for your students to crawl before they can walk. They should at least know the ground rules before they start breaking them in the name of style. And as we all know, there are plenty of rules. There is one rule—out of a whole set of rules about the use of quotation marks—that can be very effective in conveying irony, sarcasm and subtlety. Or, it can be very effective in unintentionally looking ironic, sarcastic and boldly unusual. That rule is the use of quotation marks around words and short phrases.

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks is a great site that features the abuse of quotation marks and the amusing results. While this site is intended to show the humor of misinterpreting other peoples’ bad punctuation, you can use it as an effective tool to demonstrate to your students what not to do. You might even want to mention that anyone can submit a photo to this blog. It could give your students a strange motivation to pay attention to punctuation as they walk around in their day-to-day lives. What sort of strange world would that be? –NICK YINGLING

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks

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Relive Sesame Street’s 50 Best Moments
If you’re a sucker for nostalgia like me, you’ll probably enjoy viewing these again yourself. Just try not to cry when you watch “Mr. Hooper Isn’t Coming Back.”

Five Tools to Liven Up Art Class
You want me to draw a picture for you? Well, I’ve got the programs to do it. Who doesn’t want more self-expression? Who has longed for something more interesting than MS Paint? Here, dear readers, are alternatives!

Say it Right the First Time with Pronounce Firefox Extension
With this extension, just highlight the word that’s giving your kids trouble, right click and choose “Pronounce” from the menu. Firefox will then speak the word out loud with correct English pronunciation.

How to Easily Create a Claymation Movie Class Project
Thanks to the low cost and high availability of digital technology, you can create your own claymation movie with only a computer, digital camera, tripod, and clay.

Keep Students in the Loop on their Grades with GradeMate
GradeMate’s features include managing your classes and setting up reminders, but the most useful by far is keeping track of student grades. That revelation shouldn’t make your mind explode - the site is called GradeMate, after all. You can add multiple assignments, exams, and projects, then set weight amounts and enter scores.

Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Briny Deep? Monsters of the Deep Sea
True to the site’s name, Monsters of the Deep Sea is swimming with ocean life that looks like it belongs on the Saturday night creature feature.

Cook up Plastic out of Milk in Your Very Own Kitchen
Okay, have you ever wanted to make something out of plastic, but didn’t know how? Instructables has a nifty video for making plastic with milk and vinegar.

Sandra Day O’Connor Presents Our Courts
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PWN Your Social Network with GoCrossCampus
Like Risk, the goal in GCC is to recruit and position your armies to take over your opponents’ territory. Unlike Risk, the territory consists of college campuses, or U.S. cities and states, and your armies consist of you and your friends.

Want to take your class on a trip to the Grand Canyon to see the Colorado River? How about a trip to New York City or Paris, France? Can’t afford the gas you say? Well not to worry. With Google Earth 4.3 you can take your students to any location on the globe without leaving the comfort of your classroom, or filling up your gas tank!

If you haven’t used it before, Google Earth is a Web-based program that uses satellite imagery to show places all over the world. All you need to do is download the free program and you are ready to get started. If you have used Google Earth before, version 4.3 has some great new features to take advantage of as you travel around the world. Some of these include photo-realistic buildings, swoop navigation from space to street-level, numerous layers that can be turned on to show anything from locations of volcanoes to the weather. With Google’s new street view, you can place your students virtually on almost any main street in the country. You can show your students how day and night work on our planet by using the dawn to dusk views with the sunlight feature. Take your students to any landform and not only see the 3-D image, but also view all the sight-seeing pictures and information provided by numerous professional organizations to help make this learning experience more memorable.

The new Google Earth 4.3 is out of this world - and if that is your next destination, just click on the outer-space feature and you can explore our solar system in the same way you explored our planet. -MONIQUE ST. LOUIS

Google Earth 4.3

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I hope you’re all enjoying your summer vacation. Maybe you’ve got some plans for the Independence Day weekend. Then again, with gas prices shooting into the stratosphere, maybe you don’t.

In these days of pricey petrol, you’ve got to get a little creative to save money on gas. That’s why you should head over to SmartPlanet and read their post, Top 10 eco driving tips to beat fuel rises. These tips include common sense (car pooling), hypermiling (get into second and fourth gear quickly), and some tips that are actually more convenient than conventional wisdom (at high speeds, crank the A/C and keep those windows rolled up to reduce drag).

The list is packed with useful advice and charming Britishisms like motorway, lift, and complaints about how “unleaded’s now 112.6 pence per litre,” whatever that means. So don’t let high fuel prices keep you cooped up this holiday. Read this advice and hit the road! -BILL FERRIS

Top 10 eco driving tips to beat fuel rises via SmartPlanet

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The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is in the process of launching Carolina on iTunes U, which uses iTunes software to provide a common platform for the entire University to share digital media.  When the project launches, the entire campus community can share lecture podcasts, video tutorials, and other media-based course material for free.

The initiative blurs the boundaries between the classroom and the campus at large, and allows students to get their neuroscience lectures from the same place they get the latest top ten hits.  It’s an extension of iTunes U – a part of the Apple iTunes store filled with free educational audio and video content.  The material is available to anyone with iTunes software, allowing Joe Schmoe and Joe College alike to access fascinating material from museums, PBS stations, and universities.

The Apple website proposes iTunes U as a way for students to “go right on learning while they grab a meal, walk to class, or work out at the gym.”  When I’m on the treadmill, I need something with a more forceful beat than a dactylic hexameter – but if Longfellow’s Evangeline really gets your heart pumping, knock yourself out. Workout preferences notwithstanding, the possibilities offered by iTunes U are nearly limitless, for colleges and K-12 communities.

Bonus: Warner Music won’t sue you for sharing that French and Indian War lecture with your friends. -EMILY JACK

Carolina on iTunes U

Are you ready for your close-up shot? Are your students? If so, there are a couple of video contests out there to show off your filmmaking skills. First up is AFI ScreenNation: Claim to Fame Challenge which is open to students 13 and older to write about their hometown’s claim to fame. Requirements are that the film is five minutes or less, and that you interview at least three people. The prize? A Sony DCR-SR45 ~ HDD Handycam Camcorder w/ 30 GB Hard Disk Drive, Tripod.

Next up, a slightly different contest. From WatchKnow.org, make a video from a list of topics from K-12 education. The idea of this project is to build a library of instructional materials - sort of like this blog. Material submitted will be available under a creative commons license. Right now the project is in beta, and they are looking for input, but it should start in full force in the fall. -ALICE MERCER

WatchKnow.org
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Photo credit: kino-eye on flickr.

Sandra Day O’Connor Presents Our Courts
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Discover the Undersea World with Ocean Explorer
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Cook up Plastic out of Milk in Your Very Own Kitchen
Okay, have you ever wanted to make something out of plastic, but didn’t know how? Instructables has a nifty video for making plastic with milk and vinegar.

Beware of the 20 Deadliest Plants on the Planet
You’ll find the usual suspects like hemlock and deadly nightshade, some wolves in sheep’s clothing like the angel’s trumpet, plus a couple surprises - I knew poison ivy makes you itchy, but I had no idea if you burned it, the smoke can kill you if you breathe it in.

If you or your students ever take a walk in the woods on a field trip, it’s a good idea to know the potential dangers. I’m not just talking about bears, either. You can find a lot of plants that can harm humans through ingestion, or even by simple touch.

Before heading into the wild, arm yourself by reading this list of the 20 Deadliest Plants on the Planet. You’ll find the usual suspects like hemlock and deadly nightshade [editor’s note: that’s a really cool name for a plant], some wolves in sheep’s clothing like the angel’s trumpet, plus a couple surprises - I knew poison ivy makes you itchy, but I had no idea if you burned it, the smoke can kill you if you breathe it in. Don’t miss the doll’s eyes plant, which looks a lot like what it sounds like. The berries are chock full of cardiogenic toxins which can give you a heart attack, but the fact that the berries look like eyeballs will probably be enough to dissuade even the most curious (or hungry) eaters. -BILL FERRIS

20 Deadliest Plants on the Planet via PurpleSlinky

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Ever wanted to make plastic? Okay, have you ever wanted to make something out of plastic, but didn’t know how? Just curious? Instructables, recently mentioned here, has a nifty video for making plastic with milk and vinegar. This makes a “plastic” called casein (I think it makes a nifty knitting needle).

The nice thing about Instructables are the related videos, which have extensions like making “green” plastic toys. There are also comments, which with this video helped to explain some of the science behind the process. Teach your kids, and yourself something new with Instructables. -ALICE MERCER

Homemade Plastic via Instructables

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Sure, your phone plays music, surfs the Web, sends email, and has GPS capability (and you can, you know, talk to people with it, too). That stuff is cool, don’t get me wrong, but we’ve only scratched the surface of what these handheld powerhouses can do. Now, with one simple download, you can give your phone some extra power you can use in the classroom thanks to gWhiz.

gWhiz is a suite of mobile learning tools that includes a powerful graphing calculator, a personalized reference library, and a flash card application. If Little Johnny wants to email his friends the graph of a tricky equation, he can do it straight from his phone. Create custom reference guides for an upcoming test on state capitals. Students will be able to get a lot of mileage from these apps, and they’ll always be within easy reach.

Now, the bad news. Right now, gWhiz is only available for BlackBerry phones. They’re working on adding more phone compatibility, though, including Google’s upcoming Android mobile phone platform. Maybe by the time summer vacation is over I can add gWhiz to my Motorola Razr (or maybe not). If you don’t have a BlackBerry, you may want to check back in a few months to see when gWhiz will be compatible with your phone.

Schools can really benefit from enhanced phone technology, since these devices are small, increasingly powerful, and within the price range of many students’ families. Applications like gWhiz can leverage this technology to create a powerful learning tool within the palm of every student’s hand. -BILL FERRIS

gWhiz

No longer will you take hours and hours to put together picture presentations for Open House, awards ceremonies, or end-of-the-year graduations. Liven up any presentation with the use of Photo Story 3 and your digital pictures. The program is so easy you can have a professional-looking presentation in just moments.

Photo Story 3 is a free download for Windows users. All you do is import your digital pictures into the program with the click of the mouse and you are ready to go. The program instantly assigns a different transition to each photo to give it that made-in-Hollywood look, and you’re done. The small file size makes it easy to send your photo story in an e-mail.

If you’re not happy with your initial story or need to edit something, it’s not a problem. The program allows you the freedom to move pictures around once you have imported them to help tell your story or sequence your presentation just right. With just a click of the mouse you can touch-up, rotate, change the assigned transition, or crop your pictures. You can also liven up your presentation by adding music or personal narration. You can help tell your story by adding titles or captions. Once you have completed your photo story you can view it on your computer, TV, or a Windows Mobile-based portable device.

Throw out those boring old book reports and let your students use this program to create movie trailers to tell about the books they’ve read. Initiate lessons and inspire students in the areas of science, social studies, and reading. Allow your students to create a multimedia project to present what they have learned from thematic units you have taught.  You don’t need to spend a million bucks to make your presentations look like a million bucks. -MONIQUE ST. LOUIS

Photo Story 3

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Do your students need to study more? Okay, probably a dumb question. How about this one - do you have students who need to learn how to study? Some kids are better at studying than others. Fortunately, by imparting study skills, you can teach kids more effective ways to learn. A great place to start? How-to-Study.com.

Note: make sure to include the hyphens, as howtostudy.com is a much different site (I haven’t reviewed it, so I couldn’t tell you if it’s better or worse).

At How-to-Study.com you can find strategies for overcoming the most tricky subjects students face, including word problems in math, long spelling words, writing research papers, as well as abstract skills like setting goals, time management, and good listening skills. All the study strategies are thorough and free.

With How-to-Study.com, your students can learn to take more effective notes  so they’ll be ready for your upcoming multiple choice test (the site has strategies for those, too). -BILL FERRIS

How-to-Study.com

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