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RING
IN A NEW YEAR WITH TECHNOLOGY RESOLUTIONS
by Martha
E. Beagle
 A
new year is just around the corner.
It is a time when most of us are thinking
about resolutions based on looking at
our past, but more importantly, looking
to the coming year. It is a time to
seriously think about changes we want
or need to make, and make decisions
to carry through on those changes. Based
on this, and thinking about how you
used technology during the past year,
I have decided to provide some examples
of web sites to broaden uses of technology
in your educational settings.
The first
list provides kid friendly and relatively
safe search engines; the second list
provides sites for helping your students
create clever and creative presentations
and projects; and the third list provides
free web site creation.
Search
Engines
Sweet
Search (http://www.sweetsearch.com/)
- this search engine only searches the
approximate 35,000 web sites that have
been evaluated and approved by a group
of teachers and librarians. The site
enables students to find the most relevant
results from a list of credible resources,
finding primary sources quicker and
easier than with mass search engines.
Spam sites and marginal sites that may
appear well read and authoritative are
excluded.
Topmarks
(www.topmarks.co.uk/)
- this search engine is one of the largest
educational web sites in the United
Kingdom that was designed by a group
of teachers. The aim of the site is
to provide the best free educational
resources, as well as a safe environment
for children to use the World Wide Web
effectively for learning. The site is
continually reviewed by qualified teachers.
AskKids
(http://www.askkids.com/)
- this search engine is designed for
children age six to twelve. It provides
a safe, fun, and free way for children
and their parents to quickly and easily
research a variety of school topics
that is safe and age appropriate. The
editorial team of Ask.com
determines the age appropriate relevancy
of the search index.
KidRex
(http://www.kidrex.org/)
- this search engine is fun and safe
for all kids, and its uniqueness is
the design by kids. This site emphasizes
searches for kid related web pages across
the entire web. The site is powered
by Google
Custom Search and uses Google
SafeSearch technology.
Famhoo
(http://famhoo.com/)
- this search engine is family friendly.
Its intent is to find everything good
the Internet has to offer, filtering
out all the bad. It sorts the results
in a way that effectively finds the
most applicable websites that are being
searched for.
Student Creativity
Google
Tools for Educators (http://www.google.com/educators/tools.html)
- students can work together in real
time to create slideshows, drawings,
documents, and much more that can be
found on the web and easily included.
There are various free applications
that make working together and design
simple.
VoiceThread
(http://voicethread.com/)
- group conversations can be collected
and shared, in one place, from anywhere
in the world with no need for software
to be installed. This tool allows collaboration
through a multimedia slide show that
holds images, documents, and videos.
Others can view the slides and leave
comments by voice, text, audio file,
or video.
Glogster
(http://www.glogster.com/)
- this site provides an opportunity
to design a digital poster and unique
ways of communicating. Backgrounds,
shapes, and characters from a clipart
library, text, videos, photos, and music
can be added to blend together an expressive
bundle of ideas.
Zoho
Shows (http://show.zoho.com/login.do)
- this is an online presentation tool
that is accessible from anywhere in
the world. It offers pre-designed themes,
clipart, and shapes joined with features
like drag and drop.
Empressr
(http://www.empressr.com/)
- this is a free online visual storytelling
and presentation application that allows
uploading of video, images and audio.
Cool slideshows can be created with
impressive effects.
Web
Site Creation
Weebly
(http://www.weebly.com/)
- this is a good site for creating a
classroom website or blog. The drag
and drop interface provides ease in
design, and the capability to password
protect is an added bonus.
Google
Sites (http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html)
- this is a great way to design a group
website because of the collaborative
tools imbedded. Predesigned templates
are available; however, opportunities
for personally customizing web pages
are possible. Videos, documents, spreadsheets,
presentations, photo slide shows, and
calendars can be inserted.
Webs
(http://www.webs.com/)
- this web site tool allows for you
to create a web site, but also connect
to similar web sites by way of rings.
Visitors to your web site can contribute
to your content by posting their own
photos, videos, and comments.
Webstarts
(http://www.webstarts.com/)
- this web page design provides the
freedom to change every element of the
web page. Images and photos can be uploaded
and placed wherever you want them to
appear on a page. Just about anything
can be added to a page - audio, video,
forms, slideshows, widgets, and text.
Edicy
(http://www.edicy.com/)
– this web page design claims
that a web page can be built and posted
within minutes. Everything that is needed
is available online with no additional
software required. Choices of designs
are available and only involve the addition
of text and images.
Begin 2011
by incorporating something innovative
with technology into your classroom!
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