Eclectic Technology

Thanks to Richard Byrne for sharing this website. This film provides a look at climate change over the last 800,000 years in 2.5 minutes! The movie has graphs, images and narration and there is a text version that you may access that provides information on the sources. If your class is looking into climate change this is a great resource to use.

Check out Google Tips to learn more about the many products that Google offers. One you find a tip that interests you and click on it you will find a short description, "stuff you need" (typically a Google account and perhaps a short amount of time based on what I viewed) and a presentation that walks you through steps. This is geared more to beginners and may be a great tool for students whom may be trying new tools.

Curiyo looks like a great tool for students but it does require Chrome or Firefox as a browser. Quickly download the app and Curiyo is installed. As you read articles you will find that some items may have dots below them. If you click in these areas information will pop up that provide additional information and this may include information from news sources, Twitter, YouTube, Wordnik and more. You can "long-click" a word which requires you to hold your mouse button down over the word for one second and information will also pop up. By moving off the window that has popped up the information will close. Consider how this might help students researching new topics.

Richard Byrne has explored Lucidpress, a new tool from the creators of Lucidchart (which is one of the best deals around for educators for creating mindmaps) and states "I look at Lucidpress as being the best of Apple's Pages and the best of Google Documents combined into one slick service."

Like Lucidchart this tool is built for collaboration. The site states “receive feedback from coworkers…collaborate with anyone on any browser, anywhere. With live chat, document presence, and commenting, you’ll never have to compile scribbled feedback…”

Educators will be pleased to hear that free accounts are available.

To go directly to the video click through to Richard Byrne's post. To go directly to Lucidpress: https://www.lucidpress.com.

This new website provides a tool that will allow students compare constitutions from various countries and find similarities and differences. You will also find tags, over 300 of them, so you may choose to search by a specific tag such as "right to privacy" (found in 156 constitutions) or "right to bear arms" (found in 5 constitutions).

This site may be a great resource for history and social studies as courses in government.

Richard Byrne updates his information on creating quizzes by sharing the steps to inserting a video into Google Forms. He states that this will work for people using a personal gmail address but not a Google Apps for Ed account.
He shares a number of screen shots that walk you through the process and briefly discusses the other three new features.

Google forms provide a way for you to collect data on your students and use it as a form of assessment to help improve your teaching, one of the requirements of Common Core.

Check out this site the next time you need to find pictures for multi-media presentations. It only searches for images in the public domain (and that are Creative Common licensed). Please note that the photos at their website are free to use but they also provide access to photos from Fotolia which may require some payment.

Richard Byrne has updated one of his most popular posts, on creating comics in the classroom. As well as providing information of five tools to create comics  he also provides two slideshows (by B. Hendy). The first slideshow looks at strategies for using comics in the classroom. The second slideshow provides a quick look at how comics have the potential to have students use higher order thinking skills as well as providing materials on other sites that help to create comics.

Richard Byrne provides a comparision chart comparing five blogging platforms in eight key elements in this post. If you are considering starting a blog for yourself or your students this post will provide information that may help you in making the best decision.

Richard Byrne shares six science games that are available online through Rice University. The games include:

* CSI Adventure - six adventures that allow students to become forensic scientists and solve a crime.

* Cool Science Careers - students may explore five STEM-based careers. Students take an interest survey and their adventure will be guided by their interests.

* MedMyst - learn about microbiology with a focus on infectious diseases and how they spread.

* Reconstructors allows you to "gather evidence and data to solve drug-related cases." (3 games)

* Virtual Clinical Trials - become a research scientist and help develope treatments for spinal cord injuries, depression and brain injuries.

* N-Squad - "investigate the effects of alcohol on the digestive, circulatory, and nervous systems."

These games are geared to middle and high school students and these adventures are also available in Spanish!

Richard Byrne discusses how to create audio slideshows in YouTube, providing excellent directions as well as screen shots.

Why choose YouTube? It is free. You can create slideshows up to fifteen minutes in length. You can choose how long your slides are displayed. You can annotate each slide. And if you are a Google Apps school students may use the same log-in.

Check out this new tool (to me) that Richard Byrne posted on his blog. Word Sense provides students with another way to learn and reinforce vocabulary words. Not only does it show definitions of the word as you mouse over and click on  other words you will see their devitions. It will also tell you the part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.). The About section  on Word Sense states:

Learn new words, see words in context, gain a better understanding of vocabulary, find new descriptive words...what do you think your students might do with this site? How might you use it within a lesson?

Here is a tool you might want to try with students whom have difficulty reading complex passages. Rewordify rephrases passages (simply cut and paste text into a "yellow box" or type directly into it). Users may select setting so they only see the "easier version" (although they may see the more difficult words as they mouse over the word) or have this option in reverse. You may also enter in a website and have them rewordify the site. There is much additional information on the site including a teacher and student demo. The site is free, and also works on tablet and smartphones. As we move to more informational text and more complex (think Common Core) this site may be quite valuable for many students.

Richard Byrne shares two excellent videos in this post that will help students (and teachers) become more aware about what to look for when evaluating websites. The first video is from Common Craft. The second one he located on YouTube and was creataed in Xtranormal. Both provide provide accurate information and will engage students.