BP12_2009123_Tool#5Kideos

My fourth site was http://www.kideos.com/. I like the colors and the graphics on the site. As I read the about section, I teared up. The site was created for a family's daughter who was hospitalized. They were sick of clicking on video after video and finding inappropriate sites for the child. The video's are streamed through an advisory council to determine if the videos are up to standard before putting on the site.
There are several educational videos appropriate for the classroom as well as enjoyment. Teachers can use this for all subjects. I found a ton of videos on animal behaviors and educational songs. The age range is up to 10 years old. If you were studying birds of flight, there is a great video in slow motion of an owl's flight.
I have to add at the bottom was a link to Game Classroom, my other tool.

BP12_2009123_Tool#6CiteULike

CiteULike is a free site that allows you to tag articles and share them with other people. The site has become a social network for users within similar fields. It is similar to other tools in which you can access it from any internet equipped computer and your information is stored there online. But, the articles are peer reviewed and cited, so you don't always have to do the hunt and search all day. There are groups you can join, tag articles, and suggest them to others.
This site could be used in higher education for research and also teaching students how to research. As a peer taught me to find this site!

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Images and screenflow from Educational games, worksheets, and homework help for kids, parents, and teachers-gameclassoom. (2009). Big Purple Hippos, LLC. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.gameclassroom.com

BP14_2009123_PeerReview#2JLourenco

BP12_2009123_Tool#4WatchKnow


[Image 1. WatchKnow]
WatchKnow is my selected Web 2.0 tool of the week. Videos for kids to learn from.
WatchKnow is a collection of short, quality educational and informational videos, categorized according to subject and educational level. WatchKnow was created for teachers, parents, and students. The current count of the collection is at 13, 140 and growing.

Educators are encouraged to collect, create, and share these free video resources that explain every educational topic in any language. The committee’s goal is to offer more than 50,000 videos by the end of 2010. A media review panel reviews all videos before they are added to the WatchKnow.org collection.


WatchKnow combines educational videos from some well-known sites to educators, such as, TeacherTube, YouTube, SchoolTube, eHow, Howcast, Internet Archive, 5min Life Videopedia, Slideboom live presentations, Graspr, Google videos and National Geographic. While the YouTube selections may be blocked for elementary schools at your district, this tool allows viewers optional educational clips from the various other sources. This directory greatly reduces search time for teachers when searching for materials to reach the auditory and visual learners. What a wealth of information in a supplemental format to use as an extension of textbook. Parents can look to WatchKnow to provide a tutorial for homework help or even as a review for their own knowledge.


WatchKnow is a wiki, a new kind of wiki that allows users to drag and drop videos from category to category and can be logged and tracked like most other videos. Users can rate the videos, which is important and helpful when trying to select a video for your students or own children. Another valuable feature for teachers and parents is that these videos can be selected by various search options including an age filter option.

Users can feel confident this site was designed with the experience and expertise of Larry Sanger, who is the executive director of WatchKnow. If this name sounds familiar, Larry Sanger is an American Ph.D. philosopher, co-founder of Wikipedia and founder of Citizendium. Additionally, Mr. Sanger shares tutorial videos on the WatchKnow website for ease of site navigation and features.

I am pleased to direct my colleagues to this site for supplemental materials for their classroom. Budget cuts have limited purchases for many libraries and so WatchKnow couldn't have been released at a better time. I believe educators around the world will appreciate having this free library at their fingertips.

References
Current Site of the Week - Wikipedia co-founder launches YouTube-like web site for children. (n.d.). eSchool News. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/site-of-the-week/current-site-of-the-week/index.cfm? i=61846
WatchKnow - Videos for kids to learn from. Organized. (2009). WatchKnow - Videos for kids to learn from. Organized. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.watchknow.org
Posted by Joan M Lourenco at 9:52 AM
1 comments:

Joy said...
Wow, Joan I can't wait to visit this site. I know what you mean about budget cuts. I love introducing new internet resources for the teachers and the few parents who have the internet ability to visit sites such as these. I know that the children to do visit the public library and while there they can take their list of sites to visit over the holidays and I will add this! I like the fact that the medias are reviewed by a board. Thanks Joan!

December 12, 2009 3:26 P

BP13_2009123_PeerReviewTK00Readthewords

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2009
BP12_20091203_Tool#5 (Read the Words)


Read the Words

A useful Web 2.0 is one that speak text from the written word. Both Macs and PC's have internal voices that get old after a short while. Read the Words offers 15 different voices in English, Spanish, and French, to read text from just about any document. This is very useful for students who struggle reading, students who need to learn new vocabulary, students learning a foreign language, and anyone looking for voice dubbing or ducking for videos or other presentations. The creation of a downloadable mp3 file is great because the user can then embed the file in PowerPoints, Keynotes, iMovies, GarageBand files, and host of other applications. If the user does not profit, he/she can also embed the mp3 in a web page, similar to the visual message below.

It sort of makes Fred and Alex jealous (they are standard voices on an Apple Macintosh). Please listen to our new friend, Elizabeth, as she briefly describes this Web 2.0 tool.
Read the Words is located at:

http://www.readthewords.com
Posted by tk at 7:46 AM
1 comments:

Joy said...
Despite all the work we are doing as students, I am enjoying what all of us are discovering. Tom, I can use this tremendously for my students to hear and put the words in context. I will have to talk to my tech guy, no not you, at school. I am going to visit this site as well.
Thanks
Joy
December 12, 2009 1:53 PM

BP12_2009123_Tool#4GameClassroom

"All of Game Classroom's educational content has been created by professional educators with over 200 years of teaching experience, and has been outlined using state educational standards. We hope you (and your kids) enjoy Game Classroom and find it a fun place to learn and play games!" http://www.gameclassroom.com/whatis
I decided to continue exploring educational tools for the classroom. I came across the Game Classroom site, and decided to explore. I feel I am too old for these games. The kids have better hand to eye gaming reflexes than me. This is a very educational website for grades 1-6. I would encourage my students to play the games during the free computer time and at home. I searched by the topic multiplication and the results were phenomenal. They matched NCTM standards to games for skill and mastery. As well as my students, my fellow professional teachers should use this site.

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