In this blog post I review the following four websites and seek to determine which sites evaluate the largest number of titles, are most recently updated, include reviews submitted by site visitors and the site I would personally use to learn about software I was considering for my students.
SERB EvaluTech http://www.evalutech.serb.org/ is a bad URL use http://www.sreb.org/page/1168/evalutech.html instead.
While this website contains a wealth of information I found it difficult to navigate. The site claims to have more than 10,000 software reviews but you must know the title of the software for which you wish to read the review. While I was not able to access them at this point and found this website to be of little help for the purpose of obtaining software reviews, today, I would use this site to research individual titles which I was considering to use in my classes.
California Learning Resource Network http://www.clrn.org/home
This site is well organized and has 3,110 software reviews available in all subjects. Most recently reviewed items vary greatly, however. For examle software reviews in the performing arts subject ranged from 10/15/2009 until 1/31/2011. While the mathematics subject area had two software reviews dated 11/01/11. Reviews are performed by the CLRN staff based on the criteria which they list on their page, http://www.clrn.org/home/criteria.cfm. I would use this website as a source in detemining whether or not to purchase software for use in my classroom.
SuperKids http://www.superkids.com
This website is easy to use but appears to be designed more for parents and students than educators. A strength of the site is that SuperKids allows teachers, parents and students to submit reviews. The site is well organized and easy to navigate. A decided weakness, however, is that science is all lumped together instead of broken out by subject, and their seemd to be limited options for grades 9-12.
Education World http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/
This site allows reviews of classroom teachers and educational technology coordinators. This is a helpful website as a resource for teachers but less so as a software review website. The reviews are done by teachers but seem woelfully out of date ranging from 2003 to 2005. I would not use this site as a source for software reviews.
In Summary, the site which evaluates the largest number of titles is SERB EvaluTech. The site which has software reviews that are most recently updated is CLRN. SuperKids is a website that includes reviews submitted by site visitors. I would you use CLRN and SERB EvaluTech to learn about software which I was considering for students in my classes.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Friday, November 4, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
Web 2.0 Resources Provide Teachers Improved Tools to Reach Students
There are many interesting technologies available to assist teachers in getting the attention of their students. One reason why teachers should utilize these Web 2.0 resources is that by by doing so teachers are able to take advantage of using the technologies which most of their students already utilize and enjoy. These technologies are also fairly easy to use, even by teachers who are not the most technologically savvy.
One Web 2.0 technology is www.bubbl.us which can be used to generate concept maps. Below is the concept map I will use to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all life.
Another Web 2.0 resource is available from anamito.com. On this website video clips of 30 seconds or less may be produced. The process is simple. You can use pictures from the website or upload your own photos. I very easily uploaded some pictures I had taken while vacationing in Monterey, CA this past summer to make my video which you can view below. I plan on using this video to introduce the the diversity of life discussion I will have with my class as I introduce the taxonomy lesson in my Biology class this January.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
The animato website was very easy to use. I think students could make their own video's easily. I plan on asking them to make a video using eight pictures which they take of various life forms during the classification section of biology.
Another example of a Web 2.0 resource which is easy to use and will catch the eye of students is glogster.com. Glogster, which is a completely new take on the classroom bulletin board or poster. Your glogster poster can have traditional text but much more. You can embed video clips and URL links. The animated graphics also help teachers draw attention to content by using the proverbial "bells and whistles.".
I found glogster easy to use, although embeding the video took some time, primarily because the tutorial video I viewed was not based on the current website's design.
The ability to construct computer games with content which you provide is also available from classtools.net. I have discovered that many student's will work hard to compete in a game who seldom study for exams. This Web 2.0 resource allows teachers to input their own content into various game formats for teachers to use to build games with which to challenge their students.
You can also use your own content and help students study and improve their quiz scores on this website as well utilizing flash cards.
I found each of the Web 2.0 resources rather easy to use, after taking time to familiarize myself with each website. I will utilize them in the future to transfer some of my class lecture content into formats that I will include on my class's website. I will also give my student's assignments to complete using these Web 2.0 resources, especially glogster, for various units in our curriculum. I recommend these resources to other classroom teachers.
Other Web 2.0 resources which teachers may find helpful include:
One Web 2.0 technology is www.bubbl.us which can be used to generate concept maps. Below is the concept map I will use to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all life.
Another Web 2.0 resource is available from anamito.com. On this website video clips of 30 seconds or less may be produced. The process is simple. You can use pictures from the website or upload your own photos. I very easily uploaded some pictures I had taken while vacationing in Monterey, CA this past summer to make my video which you can view below. I plan on using this video to introduce the the diversity of life discussion I will have with my class as I introduce the taxonomy lesson in my Biology class this January.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
The animato website was very easy to use. I think students could make their own video's easily. I plan on asking them to make a video using eight pictures which they take of various life forms during the classification section of biology.
Another example of a Web 2.0 resource which is easy to use and will catch the eye of students is glogster.com. Glogster, which is a completely new take on the classroom bulletin board or poster. Your glogster poster can have traditional text but much more. You can embed video clips and URL links. The animated graphics also help teachers draw attention to content by using the proverbial "bells and whistles.".
I found glogster easy to use, although embeding the video took some time, primarily because the tutorial video I viewed was not based on the current website's design.
The ability to construct computer games with content which you provide is also available from classtools.net. I have discovered that many student's will work hard to compete in a game who seldom study for exams. This Web 2.0 resource allows teachers to input their own content into various game formats for teachers to use to build games with which to challenge their students.
You can also use your own content and help students study and improve their quiz scores on this website as well utilizing flash cards.
I found each of the Web 2.0 resources rather easy to use, after taking time to familiarize myself with each website. I will utilize them in the future to transfer some of my class lecture content into formats that I will include on my class's website. I will also give my student's assignments to complete using these Web 2.0 resources, especially glogster, for various units in our curriculum. I recommend these resources to other classroom teachers.
Other Web 2.0 resources which teachers may find helpful include:
- VoiceThread http://voicethread.com/
- Tikatok http://www.tikatok.com/
- Google Lit trips http://www.googlelittrips.org/
- Big Huge Labs http://bighugelabs.com/
- Blabberize http://blabberize.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)