Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Week 10: From Mike to Me to You

One of the benefits of my job is that I occasionally (okay, often) get sucked into the Internet and usually end up discovering something worthwhile. This is a common scenario: Mike sends me an email with a link to something cool he read or found online (yes, many of my best ideas are really courtesy of Mike Maryanski--thanks, Mike!). I check it out when I find a window of time. From there anything can happen. Today, it started with a interactive site where news is hosted by ants. (Yes, you read that right: ants.) I played around with it for a bit, then I forwarded it to some of our primary teachers for their review and possible use. Then, I revistited the blog where Mike had found the reference to the ant anchors, and  that's when I found this little gem (actually it's a pretty big gem, I think) for you: Interactives, produced by Annenberg Media (they are bigwigs).

To quote Kelly Tenkely's review at the iLearn Technology blog: "Interactives is a truly amazing website for teachers and students. Interactives provides educators and students with strategies, content, and activities that can enhance and improve students’ skills in a variety of curricular areas including math, literature and language, science, history, and the arts. The site has great webquest/interactive activities on a variety of subjects for first through twelfth grades." Interactives is part of the Annenberg Media Learner.org site which offers "Teacher professional development and teacher resources across the curriculum" (to quote them). After spending just a few minutes clicking around, I realized there's a wealth of high quality resources here for teachers and students.

So check it* out and add your two cents' worth below. Did you find something you can use? What?
*By "it" you can choose Interactives, the iLearn Technology blog, or the Learner.org site.

For those of you who won't be able to resist emailing me to get the link to the news-reporting ants: http://www.whatsyournews.com/index.html

How about that? An entire post with no reference to Google. :) Have a good week!
Posted by Kimberly Allison at 7:54 AM
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Gavin's avatar

Gavin · 781 weeks ago

I've just worked my way through the Language Arts section of Interactives and was not at all impressed. The first of the High School activities was essentially clicking through a story and then reading text on different elements of literature - the only "interaction" was clicking the next button each time - pretty much just an online worksheet. The other activity on cultural context was certainly more interactive, but the actual content was so thin as to make it almost useless.

This kind of material may have okay 10 years ago, when the very act of using a computer in school was a novelty and focused students. Now that tech and learning are becoming so integrated, though, I want activities that exploit the types of learning that can only be done online (ie. the stuff we've been covering on this blog for the last 10 weeks) not just "tech for tech's sake".

To end on a positive, let me share an amazing resource I found last week: Khan Academy - over 1200 videos on primarily science and maths, but it's a great demonstration of "take away" learning through tech (hat-tip to Reddit.)
2 replies · active 780 weeks ago
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Tom Milligan's avatar

Tom Milligan · 781 weeks ago

The topic I chose most related to Health and Fitness was DNA. There were some interesting points, but most of the geneology facts presented were typical. I like the support of tech with the site for students, but would hope the info would surpass the, "if your mom is color blind, what's your chances of being color blind" info. Digging deeper towards genetic altering to find cures for diseases might provide prompts for questioning with classes.
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Marie Page's avatar

Marie Page · 781 weeks ago

Of the three choices that were given, I like the Interactive site the best. I would use the Rock Cycle in my Soils unit. It was fun and I know my students would get into the learning with the use of the interactive tools. The Learner.org site was then the second best. It was okay, but I just enjoy sites where I can learn immediately and my students can get something out of the site too. The Learner.org site did have videos to purchase or rent, which I thought was useful, but I doubt that I will use it. Finally, the one I found the least useful to me was the ilearntechnology blog. Just wasn’t into that one. It was more confusing for me and more difficult for me to use. I need user friendly sites. All in all, I loved the Interactive site and will be using this one with my students. ~ Marie
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Kelly Kim's avatar

Kelly Kim · 781 weeks ago

I loved the Interactives site the best. I looked at the part teaching about 3-D shapes as it could be useful in my math classes as I teach some basic geometry concepts. What I really liked were the animations. They showed a shape as three dimentional (rotating it and everything) which is often times hard for students to visualize. The animation was colorful and very appealing visually. I think students could learn a lot from this website. It is a bit wordy and some students may be turned off by all the reading they have to do, but overall I think it would be a great way to incorporate technology into the math curriculum.
1 reply · active 781 weeks ago
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suzanne's avatar

suzanne · 781 weeks ago

the ants did nothing for me but i really liked the annenberg site. usually there isn't too much for the arts on many of the sites. Annenberg had some interesting sites with actual streaming videos that i can use in class. the one i spent the most time on was on "the Body". i will use that with my advanced classes with the disclaimer about nude statues. "close your eyes!" i saved it into my favorites. the body site will be good when we do gesture drawings. i really liked it. i also browsed through some of the history on the renaisance and the plague. you could go forever.
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Hilary Hall's avatar

Hilary Hall · 781 weeks ago

I didn't find much that I could use in French class, except for possibly the Interactives section on the Renaissance. I'd be able to use this as a review or intro into a cultural unit on the Renaissance. I'm also going to keep checking out the iLearn blog, there might be something that pops up at some point that I could use.
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Rich Young's avatar

Rich Young · 781 weeks ago

I spent about half an hour looking for something useful, but like Gavin, didn't find anything that impressed me. I had hopes for a Scholastic site called The Stacks, which seemed to indicate that it was a place for students to write reviews and share what they were reading. I did a quick search for some of the books that I had just introduced for Readers' Workshop books. I found some of them, but the reviews weren't overly impressive, and there really didn't seem to be a place to "chat" about the books, just leave reviews. While it might be useful to refer students to the site as a place to check out what others are saying before they choose their books, I'd rather have them read some quality reviews.

Thanks for finding potential sites for us, Kimberly. My problem is that it still takes a lot of time to find interesting worthwhile sites, and with stacks of assignments to grade, that time just doesn't exist very often. It's one of the reasons I think teachers find it easier to "reinvent the wheel" in some respects. I can spend an hour working on an idea, or I can spend three hours searching. Which one do you think wins? :)
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Dan Nelson's avatar

Dan Nelson · 781 weeks ago

I too must agree with Gavin - the InteractivesI checked out weren't that impressive but I soldiered on and found an interesting sight on ilearntechnology called Virsona. I think it is best suited for Junior High or Middle school but basically it seemed pretty cool for this age group. Virsona has students answer a series of personality based questions, then create a visual avatar (which can answer questions from other students or avatars) and also allows a "virtual" dialogue with some famous person from the historical or literarary past. The historical/literary figure will respond to questions in a supposedly accurate manner. While I'm a bit uncertain about the student avatar portion, I like the idea of a virtual conversation with a historical/literary figure. Imagine the dialogues your student could write or the present day issues which could be discussed.
Overall, I had to dig a bit this week but I think Virsona is a gem, at least for the above mentioned age groups.
2 replies · active 781 weeks ago
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Nathalie Norris's avatar

Nathalie Norris · 781 weeks ago

Well, we had 3 websites to browse and peruse ... and I had 3 distinct experiences doing so.
1. Because I had read my colleagues' posts before strating, I had a preconceived idea that I would not get much from the Interactives websites... and I didn't. Teaching French, I found it was too culturally flat. I did not find something I could use, even at the thrid-year level.
2. I lost myself in the ilearntechology blog. From the ant news to Google Stories and Virsona, I kept adding the sites to my MyDelicious and jotting down ideas on how to integrate those in my classes. The only challenging step is to figure out how to use them with beginning-levels of French (at that stage, students are like elementary students linguistically but not in their thought-process so it becomes tricky to use online tools that are geared towards elementary students (like the Build-a-Word) and yet engaging for teenagers). I was disappointed that the Virsona characters, although French for many, did not understand French. Coming soon I hope.
1 reply · active 781 weeks ago
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thehurt 17p · 781 weeks ago

Like Gavin, I was disappointed with the English options in Interactives, but fortunately I noticed that there was a "Cinema" interactives under art, so I figured I'd check it out to see if it would work for our film lit unit in 9th grade. I was please with what I found, but I think this site would be better in a blended classroom - it essentially asks students to read a lot of text and do some little application activities (which are pretty neat). I should add that I really like Annenburg (I have a great book by them, called unSpun).
I looked at the other sites very quickly, and both were pretty neat.
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Bill Cooper's avatar

Bill Cooper · 781 weeks ago

Bill Cooper
On a personal note I like "EPublish Yourself". I write historical fiction as a hobby. This could give me an outlet to see my work in a finished form and, hopfully get some constructive feedback.
1 reply · active 778 weeks ago
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Penny Blair's avatar

Penny Blair · 781 weeks ago

I spent some time on the ILearn Technology blog. I still want to read and ponder several entrys, especially Dream Education. I had a blast on Bomomo and shared it with students at the end of computer lab time with the purpose of having some cool "paper" to make a background or cover with for their project. It was a blast.
I could get lost in several of these.
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lgranger's avatar

lgranger · 781 weeks ago

I looked at the Learner.org site. It actually has a very good series on statistics. It is definitley 80's which would make my students laugh but the video on inferencing with the mean was very thorough. The narrator and the graphics that went with it were easy to understand. I could see myself using this for an intro to a lecture or when I need to have a sub.
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Patty S.'s avatar

Patty S. · 781 weeks ago

I looked at the interactive site. It had a visual way of showing surface area in their math interactives for 6-8 grade. It talked about wrapping a present and determining how much paper you would need to have to cover the surface area. Then it showed the box unfolded, so you could determine the surface area. It look like it only had one set of dimensions which was disappointing. I have taught surface area this year and will be reviewing it over the next few weeks so I thought it was worthwhile. I also went to the history sectionn and looked at what they had available for ancient civilization. It took it me to a site that I had found through thinkfinity.org earlier this month. It was interesting, but I don't think it would work well with our curriculum.

It was very friendly website to navigate though.
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Joelle's avatar

Joelle · 780 weeks ago

I could use the interactive sight to go through and share with the students the layers of the earth and how earth is changing. I think any thing could help spice up that topic and this seems to help some. It would be nice if they had their own computers to navigate through and locate answers.
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Laurie's avatar

Laurie · 780 weeks ago

Looking at the Interactives, I didn't see anything right off that I could use for SS (our historical topics had activities but they were all listed at a high school level). I think the Middle School science teachers may be interested in the Rock Cycle activity - it looked pretty cool. I also really liked some of what I saw on the iLearn Technology Blog - especially the interactive timeline. The jigsaw activity that was featured this week and the suggested activities that go with it could also be something to consider using for the beginning of the year, like during GO Time!
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anne hobson's avatar

anne hobson · 780 weeks ago

I quite agree with Melissa and Gavin on the Interactives site. I looked at all of the resources under Language Arts. A patient student (or teacher!) might read through all of the information, but the literary analysis portion was like an overdecorated living room -- pretty to look at, but no substance.
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Kathleen 's avatar

Kathleen · 780 weeks ago

Okay colleagues, I love the websites. Having to wear so many hats (being familiar with science, history, STEP, ELL, English Lit) I found the websites most useful. I particularly liked the Interactive and Learner.org. I really appreciate the information on the ELL population through Interactive. I need to explore the iLearn Tech blog. I see myself using the above websites as a resource to expand my knowledge within the content areas so that I may effectively assist my ELL’s.
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Laura Bennett's avatar

Laura Bennett · 780 weeks ago

I think that the site has some good potential and covers a lot of the topics that we cover in class. However, I think my definition of interactive is a bit different than the sites. I guess I figured it would be more about kids exploring and learning for themselves, and less about just clicking on one option as opposed to the other. The site about the Renaissance is one that I have used in the past, but as far as an engaging, interactive site for the kids to learn on their own, it doesn't really do that.
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Renee Stroup's avatar

Renee Stroup · 780 weeks ago

I agree with Laura, my definition and their of interactive is different. There were some ok. Agree also with those before not as much for english as I would have liked but I'll keep looking. I did find one on story elements that was a little young but covered info well- it might be a great tool for struggling students that need a refresher on these (they could even do it at home, well I could encourage them do it at home). Kimberly, gottta tell you I did miss google this week!
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Barbara Gholston's avatar

Barbara Gholston · 780 weeks ago

I am always trying to find ways to engage the students in literature and writing. I really wasn’t too impressed with what they had to offer for literature. The site that offered training videos for teachers about writing might be beneficial. Honestly, my 7th grade students would love the ants reporting the news.
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Lora Gillingham's avatar

Lora Gillingham · 780 weeks ago

I checked out the ePub Bud which is sort of like a YouTube for online publishing of children's books. I tried to download a book but it was published in a specialized file type (epub) that wasn't supported by my computer. I moved on to the Annenburg Media site and perused the Literature and Language Arts section. The "Developing Writers: A Workshop for High School Teachers" was very good! The short video on "audience" would be helpful to me if I were a Language Arts teacher. The whole program was interesting even from a writer's perspective. I am noting it for future reference, perhaps this summer, when I have more time to write and think about writing.
1 reply · active 778 weeks ago
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Abby Smith's avatar

Abby Smith · 780 weeks ago

I looked through feedback from others before checking out the sites, and like Nathalie, I went into looking at the Interactives site not thinking I’d find anything too interesting. I did find a fun unit on historical and cultural contexts, which looked good, and had quizzes, but there seemed to be no way to track student progress based on the passages. This was disappointing because it would have been a good tool to use at the beginning of the year with a historical fiction novel I use.

When I checked out the iLearn tech site, I was overwhelmed with interesting activities. I especially like the games/activities where students can work on parts of speech and develop Ideas for writing prompts. I really would like to peruse this site more over the summer and maybe during some of the ten tech time at the end of the year. I like that this site has a variety of materials for a wide age range of students. Specifically, on iLearn I liked Scholastic Stacks and the ecological footprint section/Ollie’s World might be nice to include during a time when there is just a little bit of time left to generate a class conversation.
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Kimberly's avatar

Kimberly · 780 weeks ago

The comments this week have been so interesting. First, I want to apologize for not more thoroughly checking out the Interactives site. I think it's interesting (and good) that we expect more robust and engaging options when we see the word "interactive." I'm actually quite pleased that so many of you refused to fall for "if you can click on it, it must be interactive" school of instructional technology integration. I'm also glad at least a few of you stumbled upon some worthwhile options. I think Renee was right--I should have stuck with Google. :)
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Rhonda Ham's avatar

Rhonda Ham · 780 weeks ago

I must admit I didn't spend a lot of time on any of these sites because they weren't as engaging to me as some of the other sites that Kimberly has had us look at. I thought some of the math and history games on Interactive might be useful for some students who find classroom work difficult to connect to and the game for Science in ilearn techonogy might be somewhat fun for younger kids - older kids I think might consider it a bit elementary. I did appreciate that the iLearn site discussed how to integrate the info and activities into the classroom.

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