Thing # 6: iTouch Apps (11.5 Things)

My daughter graciously loaned me her iTouch and I was able to "play around" with it. I found some great educational apps that were in the "top free" games under the education category. It was easy to do and fun to search for. Each app gives a brief description and an age the game would be appropriate for. I found ten great ones which I will describe below:
1. Catch and Count: this is a simple and fun interactive game for young children to learn numbers. They move a truck along the bottom of the screen with their finger and catch falling Easter eggs. As the eggs are caught a voice counts out loud the number. My youngest daughter (4) played this one and liked it. She kept wanting to drag the truck up into the sky to catch the eggs, but soon got the feel for moving it along the bottom.
2. Memory Match: This is a memory game where the player has to match all pairs of animals. It is great entertainment and good at developing fine motor skills. My daughter really liked this one and had no problem catching on.
3. Math Drills Lite: This game helps the player learn basic math skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It allows the player to explore solutions using number lines, wooden blocks, facts, and hints the full version even lets the teacher track student progress for accuracy and speed. The teacher can set the number of problems for reviews, practices, and tests.
4. States & Capitals Free: This app has flashcards for each of the 13 original states containing its capital and flag, voice pronunciation of each state and capital, and a link to Google maps for each state. Students can check their memorization skills by playing the timed game mode with 10, 20, 30, and 50 questions which are recorded in the scoring table to track progress. The full version has all 50 states, but you have to buy it.
5. iWriteWords Lite (Tracing Game) : This app teaches young children handwriting while playing a fun and entertaining game. The child has to help Mr. Crab collect the numbers in sequence by dragging him with their finger - and drawing the letter at the same time. Once all the letters in the word are drawn properly, a cute drawing appears. When the itouch is tilted the letters slide into the rotating hole and the child is advanced to the next level.
6. Animal Fun: This is an animal learning program for children. They learn about animals by seeing and hearing the sounds an animal makes. It combines an easy-to-use interface and fun sound effects to entertain children while they learn. It gives the nam, sound of the animal, and spells it too. They are like interactive flashcards. My daughter loves to hear the animal sounds on this one.
7. Numbers Memory Match: Great for improving memory and cognitive skills by matching numbers and colors. Each time the card is flipped, the number of the flipped card is spoken. Players have to match the same number and color in order to receive points.
8. VocabWiz SAT Lite: A tool used to improve vocabulary and boost test scores. Features 200+ frequently tested SAT vocabulary words. Need to purchase the full version software which contains over 4700 words. Example sentences given that demonstrate proper usage of each word. Correct pronunciation of each word, quiz mode, and easy self-assessment. Great for middle and high school students!
9. Pop Math Lite: A fun way to practice basic math. You have to pop bubbles of the same fact families. Only addition is offered in the lite version. Full version features addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, including the choice to practice a given operator for even better drills.
10. myHomework: Simple and easy app for students to use in order to keep track of their homework, classes, projects, and tests while. It resembles a notebook, the sections are separated by colorful "sticky pads" that mark the page. Students can quickly enter their class schedule and use it to differ between HW assignments. myHomework will also notify them when they have upcoming assignments by numbering them on their app icon. This seems to be a great app for middle school and up ages.

Thing # 5: Microblogging (11.5 Things)

I found the small scale form of blogging known as microblogging absolutely fascinating. I really got into Facebook and setting that up for the past few days...did I say days....yes I did! I have gotten in touch with people I have not seen nor heard from since we graduated high school so many moons ago! What an awesome way to reconnect and stay connected! As a teacher, this would be cool to have a Facebook students could get to. I don't know how that would work though...my daughter had a 5th grade teacher who had a web page a few years back and I thought that was awesome! It was a great way to stay connected with what was going on in her classroom. She posted HW assignments, announcements, and even photos! I know Facebook is very popular with the young crowd and when used correctly and respectfully can be a valuable tool for them! Cyberbullying is a dangerous thing and kids need to be educated as to the effects of it on others. Anyway, I am straying.....
Now about twittering....this I have not explored as in depth, but seems like another great tool to stay connected. I really liked Laura Walkers article "Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter". I like the fact that you develop your own list of people to follow and you have to express yourself in 140 characters or less - that takes self-discipline! Overall, Mrs. Walker sums it up very well by saying, "We need to be able to speak the same language as our kids in order to motivate and relate to them".
Now on Back-Channeling....I do not see this working in my classroom setting, but definately in a college/lecture setting or at a large teacher inservice or conference.

Thing # 4: Video Hosting (11.5 Things)

I checked out YouTube, TeacherTube, and SchoolTube. They all are terrific resources for both teachers and students. I like the fact that SchoolTube promotes being SAFE . FUN . FREE. Like I have said before the world of technology today has opened up so many doors of opportunity for our students it is unbelievable! In our classroom we have accessed all three of these resources for our units of study. We have found some fantastic physics clips that we downloaded and imbedded in our powerpoint presentations to our class. There is great stuff out there, it just takes time to hunt for it. As far as students creating videos and uploading them to these sites, we have not gotten that far yet. The directions on how to do it were very simply laid out and seem to be quite user friendly. As I said earlier, I tried to upload my Animoto and you have to purchase the full length video in order for it to be able to do it. Anyway, I am so excited to be learning all about this stuff and to be able to understand it once and for all. I can actually have an intelligent conversation with my 14 year old daughter!!

Thing # 3: Like Skype (11.5 Things)

I can see Skype being useful in the classroom with classes talking to other classes from all over the world about an endless number of topics. Videoconferencing is so popular now. Its on Oprah and almost every television talk and news program. It is inevitable that this ends up in the classroom. I went ahead and set up my account and began to add contacts (only have one so far). Anybody want to send me their username? Anyway, it was very easy to do and I went ahead through the steps to change the privacy settings so I would not forget. Just sounded too scary to leave it open for just anyone to contact you. It would be so cool to talk to kids in other parts of the country and see what they are learning about physics. Or what other teachers are doing. Skype is such a great opportunity to open up your classroom to the entire world and share with others what you know and what you want to know. I also think it is a cool way to conference with parents when they are unable to make it up to school or when Dad is off on a business trip and can't make it in person, we can still include him with Skype. The possibilities are endless!!

Thing # 2 Image Generators 2 (11.5 Things)

I have been playing around with Wordles and Animotos for a while, they are so much fun! Wordles would be great for our students to use as a review for what they have learned during all of our units of study in 4th grade. We study physics the entire year and the students could make a wordle on one of the three laws of motion or one of the many other topics of physics we study that interest them. The one I posted below I created using the main objectives we teach in physics.

Animotos were a lot of fun too! I made one for my daughter who graduated from 8th grade. It was cool to have the music playing in the background. The choices of music were pretty reasonable. The one thing that disappointed me was the fact that you only get a 30 second clip and you cannot email or upload the Animoto Shorts unless you pay for a full length video.

In the classroom animotos could work if students worked in groups and had one student taking pictures of what was going on in the group and then they collaberated to make an animoto for the group. Another option would be for the teacher to take random shots of the class in action and surprising them with an animoto of all the pictures. We have flip cameras now which we can use and it is the same concept without the price tag. Overall though, animotos would be another resource to show students and they possibly could use it from home.

Glogster.com/edu was interesting to learn about. It kind of reminds me of facebook (even though I do not have one yet), but from what I have heard it does. I like the idea of it being an interactive poster that students can access and be part of. I can see how this would really keep them engaged in the learning process and make it fun. Teachers are able to monitor their students' posters and thus maintain the role of facilitator allowing the student free reign of where they want to go and learn.

Bookr is a fabulous tool for students, teachers, and really anybody. I love it! This could easily take the place of a research paper or power point presentation. A terrific product option for students. Teachers could use this to introduce a lesson - what a fun set!

Thing # 1: The Networked Student (11.5 More Things)

With the way technology is heading, I think the Networked Student just "makes sense". I love the idea of connected learning - a student is able to connect with new contacts and learn effectively from those he already knows. The most impressive opportunity I found for students would be podcasts. Students are able to subscribe and listen to lectures by college professors from prestigious colleges without stepping foot on the campus. Now that is cool! "Mom I'm going to Berkley today to listen to a lecture by Professor X on the topic of cross cultural communication". Teachers are still important however (I like that!) in order to help the student build their network and to offer guidance and support. Teachers are vital also in order to show the student how to differentiate between good info. and propeganda.