Tag: geography

50 Really Cool Online Tools for Science Teachers

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July 15, 2010
by Mark

Picture 2.jpgEducation is certainly taking its place amongst the realms of the internet. From classroom blogs to fully fledged courses, it’s not just a place for school’s to advertise their wares. One place that allows participants to complete courses via cyberspace is Online Degree Programs. Here’s something from their ‘About Page’

If you are considering going back to school and don’t have the time for a traditional campus life, or if you just desire your education delivered in a different format than in overcrowded lecture halls, then online education is the solution for you. Online Degree Programs is here to help you achieve your higher education goals by sorting through the best schools with the best online programs so you don’t have to.

With everything from entertainment to communication to business going online, it is only natural that education follow suit. Online education is just the thing to bring many people back into higher education, especially those with demanding schedules that do not fit into rigid classroom presence requirements.

However, it’s not just students that they attract or target. Online Degree Programs also have features for educators. One nice resource that they have for Science Teachers is a compilation of 50 online tools. Divided into categories they cover;

  • Science tools to use with students
  • AP tools
  • Websites and resources for Science Teachers
  • Calculators
  • Online Games
  • Google Earth

You can find the complete listing here, as well as a short paragraph of each of the tools offered. A terrific resource, and one that should be shared amongst science faculties of both elementary and secondary schools.

Popularity: 5% [?]

: Resources
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WallWisher

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February 15, 2010
by Mark


wallwisher

Application: Wallwisher

Wallwisher is an online application that is easy to use, setup and lends itself to some great applications in the classroom. It is essentially an online noticeboard, that uses the ‘sticky note’ format for messages. Easy to set up, there is no need to have an account; although signing up does give the user some advantages in managing multiple walls. To enable you to ‘dip’ your toes in, there is a demo wall, which you can write and play with the tools without any consequence. wallwisher3

When writing on the wall, you are limited to 160 characters (nods to Twitter and SMS) but you can add images, video, music and links to web pages, so you can add a lot more content than just the usual text. And that’s what helps make it so practical for the classroom. I have been in touch with @missbrownsword in the UK via Twitter. She has used it for her Year 6 geography classes. Sarah tells me;

I’m using wallwisher with my year 6 geography classes (I have 2). Our topic is ‘How are you connected?’ and we’re looking at our connections to other countries. Last year I got them to list 5 countries they’re connected to, write them down and bring them in but this year I’ve asked them to post their lists to wallwisher. I’ve set up 2 so the classes have one each http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/6sgeog and http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/6ageog , feel free to have a look. The children were really excited today when I told them what they’d have to do and it’s definitely improved motivation, some of them have already done the homework! Also I think it will make it much easier for us to discuss and compare our connections to different countries in the next lesson as I can dispay the walls on my IWB. Next the children will be plotting the connections onto maps and after that choosing one country to do a presentation on, I’m planning on introducing some more new things for them during that part too.

Being the end of year here in Aus, I haven’t been able to use it for and extended curriculum, but I did use it to send messages to a student who had recently been in hospital.   Some students made her a physical card, but I got all of my students to write to a message to her. I was able to edit and correct any errors, and students could upload pictures and link to movies. We then emailed her the link, and she was able to join in from home. I agree with Sarah, it certainly helped motivate students and provided a novel way of keeping in touch with my students.

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With options to create your own URL link, 12 themes and controls over who can post and edit notes there’s some great potential for teachers in the classroom to use this tool. It’s not just for glorified sticky notes to yourself to pick up some milk – although that application can work too.

Being a firm believer in ‘learning by using’ I’d encourage you to have a look yourself (http://wallwisher.com) and contact Sarah @missbrownsword if you need some further ideas or help. I’m sure too, that if you are on Twitter and put out the call to your PLN for some advice or ideas they would help.

* I originally wrote this article in December last year, and looking through my drafts, realized I hadn’t published it.

Popularity: 29% [?]

: IWBs, Literacy, Tools
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School’s Around The World

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February 8, 2010
by Mark

haiti.jpg

As educator’s we often get caught up in the very small world of our own classrooms, or that of a colleague across the hallway. Finding Education however is encouraging teachers to move outside of their own walls and consider what other educator’s are experiencing. The tag ‘schools around the world’ on their site is one worth following and regularly checking. So far they have featured school’s from Iran, Haiti and Liberia.

Here’s the tag for you to follow and add to your bookmarks: http://blog.findingeducation.com/assignment/tag/schools-around-the-world/

Popularity: 9% [?]

: Reflections
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My Wonderful World – Geography Awareness Week

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November 16, 2009
by Mark

What: Geography Awareness Week

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When: November 15 – 21, 2009

Theme: Get Lost In Mapping

Website Link: My Wonderful World
Just highlighting the fact that this week is Geography Awareness Week, ‘powered’ by National Geographic. The event, held every third week of November was launched in 1987 with Presidential backing. Their theme for this year is Get Lost in Mapping: Find Your Place in the World. Their website lists activities and resources for educators, parents and students. Well worth the visit. I hope that the resources linked are still available after the campaign because it would be a great resource for educators to explore at any time of the year. The great thing about this website is how to incorporate the latest technology into teaching – such as using satellite imagery and GPS tracking. I recommend that you have a look and see what exciting things you may be able to do with your cohort of students this week.

Popularity: 2% [?]

: Resources
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Earth Album

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October 5, 2009
by Mark

Application: Earth Album

Came across this little gem of a site late last week. Earth Album is no fuss mashup site that is low on the pretty graphics (the header is a plain text image) but high on the content. And it works well too. Using Flickr, it’s a world map that integrates with the photos tagged in certain areas. A very good thing if you are teaching geography. There’s also a CoolIris plug-in for those who are using Firefox or Flock.

Earth album is a simpler, slicker Flickr mash-up that allows you to explore some of the most stunning photos in the world courtesy of Google maps and Flickr. To begin your journey, just click somewhere on the map, e.g. “India”. Note– since the top Flickr images are used, the images change every few weeks; bookmark this site and check back for a different experience in a month!

There are a few ways of navigation. You can click on any country or place around the world and 12 images will appear. Below is the screen that appeared when I clicked on Australia.

sydney.jpg

Clicking on any one of those images will then display a more detailed photo and information window as shown. Clicking on the hyperlink will take you to the image on Flickr

sandydesert.jpg

The other option of navigation appears in the top menu bar (shown below) labelled ‘Jump to’ of which the web author writes;

earthalbummenubar.jpg

I placed the “Jump to place” bar in the upper right-hand corner of the page. You can type in pretty much any kind of address in the bar; it uses Google’s reverse-geolocation functionality to jump you to the right place in the world. For example, you can type anything from “Egypt” to “Hawaii” to “Sydney” to a particular address in the world. Based on what you type, it will try to guess whether what you typed is a country or a city and jump you to that place automatically.

I typed in my home town of Melbourne there and got this enhanced view of Victoria. As you can see there’s still some issues of relevancy (I’m not sure Melbourne = Cat), bit I do like that 9 of 10 it’s pretty close.

melbourneearthalbum.jpg

Classroom Use: Teachers of geography will see an immediate use for this in their lessons, particularly with an Interactive Whiteboard. Alternatively, any lesson on location or countries of the world will benefit from this site, as will students of all levels doing a project on a particular local. I’m impressed with the way the site narrows in on a location, very good for a student perspective of who they are in the world – especially with the more junior levels.

Popularity: 10% [?]

: IWBs
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