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the super book of web tools for educators a comprehensive introduction to using technology in all k-12 classrooms there are teachers around the world who want to use technology in their classrooms but they re just not sure where to start that s why eleven prominent bloggers teachers and school administrators got together to create this free ebook introduction pages 2-3 an administrator s view pages 4-7 elementary school pages 8-25 middle school pages 26-35 high school pages 36-42 esl/ell pages 43-46 teaching online pages 47-50 connect via skype pages 51-61 elementary school blogging pages 62-65 alternative ed tech pages 66-68 social media for educators pages 69-71 1 contributors steven anderson adam bellow richard byrne george couros larry ferlazzo lee kolbert patrick larkin cory plough beth still kelly tenkely silvia rosenthal tolisano

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introduction the times they are a-changing bob dylan this is probably the most overused yet most relevant quote on the planet the times they are always changing and although the world continues to change with it some educational practices have become stagnant walking through classrooms you can still see students lined up in rows writing solitary exams while the world continuously pressures us to shape collaborators thinkers and innovators education should be a-changing right along with society here is something that hasn t changed though the best teaching is always built upon relationships think back to your own favorite teachers they were probably people who knew quite a bit about and made you feel that you were a unique and special individual the fact of the matter is that they did this probably for most students they encountered they were people who you felt believed in you and inspired you to do great things maybe even to become a teacher they always seemed to go the extra mile to ensure that you knew your strengths and cared deeply about your passions no matter what technology comes into our classrooms nothing will ever replace a good teacher nothing now take that good teaching and equip it with the advancing technology we now have at our fingertips this is the game changer for educators preparing our students not only to be digitally savvy but leveraging these technologies to help them create communicate connect and collaborate will prepare them to be contributing citizens to their future when we were in school bringing the tv to the classroom was one of the best days ever now we have the opportunity to bring the world to the classroom every day i would be excited to have this opportunity as a learner but i am even more excited as an educator we have the means to create this revolution in learning where our students not only learn but connect with people around the globe here is a problem you may not feel comfortable with this technology that s okay because there are probably people in your school that are and those people are willing to help to get you started if they are not in your school they are sitting here and waiting to jump into your classroom from miles away we all became educators to do what is best for all kids not just a small group of kids if you don t feel comfortable with the technology though i have three words for you get over it this is not about you this is about our kids we have to do everything to empower our students for their future not our past or even our present 2

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introduction aliquam lacinia what is your goal to have students become successful at school or successful in life don t be scared to take risks and screw up this is what you tell your kids everyday in school and we are meant to be their role models live your words in front of your students my advice when the screen pops up to click any of these words accept next and ok i promise you that you will not wreck anything but the rewards on the other side of these words are worth the risk go for it image credit kevin bluer flickr.com/photos/kevinbluer the best thing about this technology is that it is built upon the same premise of good teaching relationships social media is about connecting and learning from people getting to know about other cultures and perspectives sharing and empowering our students to connect not with computers but with people the biggest reason to use this technology is not about the cool factor that wears off it is about learning from people by opening access to your students you are opening their minds to perspectives and experiences that go far beyond the four walls of the classroom be the facilitator of these opportunities so that our students can learn in a safe and meaningful way when they grow up you will be held in the same regard to them as your teachers were to you provide opportunities and create change i know that the learning in this book will help you to prepare your students for their future so that they will not only contribute to it they will lead and define it your students are going to use this technology either because of you or in spite of you i know which reason i want to be how about you george couros george couros is currently a school principal at forest green school and connections for learning located in stony plain alberta canada the schools serve ages k-12 learn more about george in the about the authors pages at the end of this book 3

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technology in schools an administrator s view editor s note patrick larkin is the principal of burlington high school in massachusetts where he is in his 14th year as a high school administrator and seventh as a building principal under his direction burlington high will become a 1:1 school next year learn more about patrick in the about the authors pages at the end of this book as school leaders we have a choice do we pull up the shades and look at what is going on outside our school walls or do we continue to insulate our schools from the evil distraction of technology with the ongoing misconception that what we have been doing for decades is still good enough here are a few of my thoughts we are so fortunate to be educators living in this time where the number of tools available to us to engage our students in meaningful activities grows by the minute in this amazing era where we can increase our educator toolbox exponentially with the use of technology it is the schools that allow their staff and students access to these tools who will have a distinct advantage we need to think long and hard about the fact that we are preparing many of our students for jobs that do not exist yet in order to do this successfully we need to break out of the model that was put in place to create assembly line workers this is truly an overwhelming thought for educators to ponder however if we open our eyes and our minds just a bit and do something that is not encouraged often enough in our schools and think outside of our classroom and school doors i think we will see how we can accomplish our challenge we will see clearly how the embracing the opportunities inherent in web 2.0 tools will allow us to create students who can think critically problem solve and work collaboratively in my eyes the starting point is control or better yet the false perception of control that many of us in schools cling to this is not to say that we should not spend significant time setting up policies procedures and guidelines that help us function in a more organized fashion the point here is only that schools claim control in some areas and all that really is in place is a mirage of control while the policy may exist in words in some school handbooks we need to be honest in regards to what we are really accomplishing 4

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technology in schools an administrator s view here is one example of what i am talking about from my school thanks to the work of our student newspaper staff on the devil s advocate at burlington high school our wake-up call came back in the early part of 2009 http burlingtonhigh.blogspot.com/2009/01/mobile-technology-wealth-of.html when the students were pushing for a change in our strict policy that prohibited the use of cellphones within the school building despite our policy at the time the devil s advocate reporters uncovered the following statistics from a homeroom survey of students · · just under 100 sent or received at least 3 text messages in school each day 85 sent or received more than 15 texts each day we clearly had a decision to make when these results were published there were two possible options one possible response would have been to tighten our death-grip on our traditional approach to running our school we could have upped the ante with our punishments for cellphones in the school and kept our minds closed to the idea that there might be some constructive use for cellphones in our school we could have increased the amount of time and energy that we wasted on this issue with our students and produced results that probably would have differed little from those cited above from our students newspaper fortunately we chose a different response one that took into account our mission of producing responsible citizens and centered around the idea that allowing cellphone use in school could have positive implications additionally we began to recognize the fact that in the real world people function with cellphones in the workplace and we needed to help our students learn how to do this in a responsible fashion surprisingly our change in policy was accomplished without too much debate the reason for this was that we focused it on placing trust in our teachers our policy changed from no cellphones being allowed out in our building during the school day to one that allowed cellphone use in classrooms at the teacher s discretion the whole point here is not just the resolution to the cellphone issue the larger point is surrounding the idea of trust 5

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technology in schools an administrator s view we cannot move forward without creating environments within our schools that trust teachers to make decisions on which tools are appropriate for their students administrator need to hire the best educators they can find and then give them the freedom to do the job they were hired to do there is a clear trickle-down effect when we as administrators create structures that limit teachers and do not allow them to take risks with new tools frustration will occur when we stifle our talented staff and we will never see the levels of creativity in our students that we strive for in the words of chris lehmann we have incredibly caring teachers in a system that stinks it is up to administrators to rewrite outdated policies and/or remove prohibitive structures that stifle staff members and create school cultures that allow and encourage educators to think outside the box without fear of reprisal again in the words of chris lehmann we need to be willing to be transformed we cannot transform students if we are not willing to be transformed ourselves one simple step to start this process of change is to alter the way you do professional development for anyone following the happenings in education world via twitter it is quite clear that the unconference model started by a few passionate teachers in philadeplhia http voicethread.com q.b819044.i0.k0 holds great promise if we look at bringing it into our schools in my opinion the unconference is all about teachers getting together and saying we can do this better on our own let s set up structures in our schools so teachers can have this type of learning during school time in my district we have jumped on the bandwagon and the feedback from teachers has been overwhelmingly positive http burlingtonhigh.blogspot.com 2010/09/professional-development-day-that.html again the solution centered around our mission statement does your school s mission mention the development of life-long learners do you think it is important to instill a sense of curiosity and a love of learning hoping that it is a given to answer yes to the previous question i can state confidently that we will not develop students who are passionate about learning if we do not allow our staff to take the lead with their own learning first we need classrooms that encourage and provide opportunities for learner to take the lead in their learning and as long as we do professional development in the traditional one-size-fits-all model we will not get where we need to be 6

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technology in schools an administrator s view as john carver the superintendent of schools in van meter iowa stated we need to get away from teacher-led classrooms and create classrooms that are learnercentered in this model superintendent carver describes teachers and students are learners together there are no more experts in the classroom things are just moving to quickly outside of our schools for that to be the case speaking of the world outside of our schools parents live there and this whole web 2.0/social media conversation confuses and scares them in order for schools to move forward effectively and to lessen anxiety on the part of parents we need to provide training for parents as well hold technology nights write blog posts create wikis and show parents how these tools can enhance their lives as well as those of their students i have yet to meet a parent who did not want his or her child to have every possible advantage by teaching our children to use these tools well will give them an advantage over those who are schooled in communities where access is limited or denied there is a moral imperative involved here that cannot be overlooked dean shareski makes this point so eloquently in his k12 online conference keynote http k12onlineconference.org p=610 where he talks about the fact that the ability to teach and share beyond our classrooms is moving from nice to do to necessary to do in conclusion dean shareski summed up the whole case for creating environments where we share knowledge and allow our students to connect with other passionate learners by utilizing web 2.0 and mobile technologies quite well this past summer at november learning s building learning communities conference sharing and sharing online specifically is not in addition to the work of being an educator it is the work teaching is sharing without sharing there is no education online is simply the best and most important distribution channel it s not the only one but to ignore or deem it superfluous is nearing educational malpractice for me i would rather fail miserably trying a new model than maintain the status quo 7

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the best resources for elementary schools introduction to elementary school tools web 2.0 applications are a fantastic addition to any classroom because of the way they invite information sharing and collaboration students become creators of content in a virtual learning community web 2.0 gives students an audience and a community to learn with the web 2.0 experience is often ongoing and the learning continues as dialogue unfolds in the elementary classroom federal laws such as the children s internet protection act cipa and the children s online privacy protection act coppa must be taken into account before using web 2.0 tools these laws are designed to protect students from receiving inappropriate materials or from having their personal data shared inappropriately sites created specifically for children under 13 years old generally include terms of use that require parental consent parental consent can be gained through a permission slip sent home or an email confirmation some web 2.0 applications specifically state in signup that you must be 13 or older to register to use the site this doesn t put these web 2.0 application out of reach for the elementary classroom but it does change their use always check a sites terms of use and privacy policy before using it with your students what follows are my favorite web 2.0 applications for the classroom next to each application i will share some ideas for use and indicate if the site is for students 13 and under or 13 and older when a website asks for an email address for registration i use temporary inboxes such as http mailinator.com or http tempinbox.com these are particularly useful when the email address is only part of the registration process and the site does not rely on the email address for communication kelly tenkely kelly tenkely is an educational technology and curriculum design consultant who was previously a 2nd grade classroom teacher and a k-5 technology specialist/teacher you can learn more about kelly on the about the authors pages at the end of this book 8

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the best resources for elementary schools wiggio http wiggio.com wiggio is a free online toolkit that makes it easy to work with and coordinate groups it is simple to use and has an intuitive interface that makes it easy for students parents and teachers alike wiggio is a place to share and manage files manage a group calendar poll your group post links set up conference calls including voice webcam shared whiteboard space and screen sharing chat online send out mass text messages and send voice or email messages to the entire group wiggio can be used to create a class group with students and families each year keep families up-to-date with the latest happenings in your classroom volunteer opportunities and class projects that will need parent support share all the important documents videos and resources that you use in your classroom for easy access at home live meeting opportunities mean that you can hold a virtual parent university where you can catch parents up on the new math/reading/science/writing curriculum teach parents everything from reading strategies to use at home to working through math problems together offer virtual conference opportunities for parents who are unable to make it for a live conference due to long-term illness job travel or in multiple parent homes create student groups where you keep your students up-to-date with classroom happenings and resources offer your students a study hour where they can meet with you virtually for a little extra support or mentoring remind your students of upcoming assignments by creating to-do s collect digital assignments using wiggio files students can create study groups of their own for collaborative projects as they work together they can meet virtually share resources and links and create a schedule to keep themselves on task wiggio is a great platform for connecting multiple classes within a school or around the world students can collaborate on a project with all resources and communication housed in one location sign up for wiggio as a teacher students can join without sharing any personal information making it appropriate for students 13 and under with a permission slip 9

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the best resources for elementary schools symbaloo edu http edu.symbaloo.com sharing the web with students can be a challenge websites can often have urls that feel unending students can copy down a url incorrectly students type with different speeds or characters show up in the address that they are unfamiliar with complicated urls can single-handedly persuade the elementary teacher to ditch a wonderful web resource for something easier to manage like a worksheet sharing websites with your students doesn t have to be a challenge symbaloo was created with educators in mind it lets you gather all of your favorite online tools and sites into a webmix about the topics you teach symbaloo web mixes can be published and shared with colleagues students and parents symbaloo can be used by students or teachers to create a personalized learning environment with symbaloo folders can be created that contain sites and resources that are related symbaloo can be used yearlong just continue adding sites and resources for your students through the year everything that you have used all year will be in one easy place for students to access symbaloo can also be used by students to create their own textbooks as students search the web for resources based on subjects or inquiry questions they can save what they find and create a virtual e-book of sorts symbaloo can also be used by students to organize all of their working in one place students can add links to the slide shows documents videos images etc that they create online symbaloo becomes an e-portfolio of sorts when used this way teachers can also use symbaloo to create a customized textbook for their students complete with articles web games maps videos images and interactive content teachers can create a webmix for students to access using a unique url with no registration required to create their own web mix students under the age of 16 must have parental consent this could be a permission slip 10

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the best resources for elementary schools weblist http weblist.me weblist lets you pull together and organize content on the web create a list of urls centered on a theme and combine them into one easy to navigate url weblist the list can be saved s a bookmark or a homepage weblist is particularly useful a for the primary elementary classroom because of its visual aspect each website is saved as a snapshot of that website with the website name and a description below the visual organization is perfect for younger students who may not be able to navigate links designated by text alone weblist is wonderful for quickly sharing a collection of sites with students they are fast and easy to create you don t even have to login and register first students can easily travel from one site to another because the web page is embedded in the weblist the url never changes allow voting in your weblist to collect students opinions on the websites they are using during learning weblist doesn t require any registration or personal information students under 13 can use this site to view or create weblists dushare http dushare.com dushare is an incredibly easy way to share files it lets you transfer files by way of a web browser as fast as you can upload the site could not be easier to use just pick your file decide if you want it password protected to download and then share the file dushare requires no login or registration to use while the transfer is in progress you can chat with the person you are transferring the file to over dushare file sharing just doesn t get much easier dushare is a great way to quickly share files with students parents colleagues or twitter friends in a computer lab setting quickly share a file with all of your students by way of a unique url if they can access a website and have downloading privileges they can access the file students can use dushare to quickly turn in work or send in work that needs a quick review because dushare requires no login or registration it is appropriate for students under 13 11

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the best resources for elementary schools answer garden http answergarden.ch answer garden can be used as an online answer collection tool or be embedded into a website wiki or blog question creation is fast and easy just enter the question and click create there is no login or registration required students can post answers to questions by entering their own text answer or by clicking on and submitting existing answers answers are represented as a word cloud twenty-five answers are visible per garden but as students submit the same answer as another student that word will grow bigger answer garden is a fun way for students to brainstorm plan and work together pose open-ended thinking questions on your classroom blog website or wiki for students to answer use answer garden to host a classroom poll create a geography garden that gives students a place that they can describe the state or country they are learning about answer garden can be used during reading as a place for students to reflect on different characters plots settings and themes in history give students a date range event or historical figure and let them add words to the garden that describe it practice phonics by typing in a phoneme combination and have students submit words that fit the phoneme rule create a garden to recognize vip students in your classroom where each child can answer with a character quality that they appreciate about the student because answer garden requires no login or registration it can be used with students under 13 kerpoof http kerpoof.com kerpoof is a necessity in any elementary classroom this free online creativity center lets students create their own pictures drawings storybooks movies and practice spelling the kerpoof studio provides students with scenes characters and props students can use these tools to create pictures stories or movies that they can write and direct these can be saved directly to the kerpoof website or downloaded as a jpeg file to student computers as students create with the kerpoof pictures info bubbles pop up above the pictures denoted by a question mark these info bubbles teach students a fun fact related to the picture students can learn everything from who wrote treasure island to learning the national animal of australia the kerpoof interface is extremely user friendly students will pick it up in no time kerpoof is a creativity tool that can bring student work to life students can practice writing fairy tales poetry collaborative stories fables math based stories illustrated science journals and nonfiction books kerpoof offers the freedom of creativity students only limit is their imagination it makes an excellent publishing center where students can illustrate their stories or create a movie out of their own writing the site provides students with basic movie making skills and makes a good precursor to more robust movie creation tools such as imovie apart from publishing student writing kerpoof can be used to teach character education have students create stories or movies that show emotion and solve problems teach the life cycle of a butterfly using kerpoof s butterfly pavilion scene kerpoof can be used to retell a fiction or nonfiction story history or science experiment kerpoof has a teacher center where classrooms can sign up to use kerpoof students are given a nickname password and class id to login with kerpoof can be used with students younger than 13 12

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the best resources for elementary schools game for science http www.gameforscience.ca game for science is a virtual world for kids dedicated to getting them excited about science and technology students can explore various virtual islands where they will learn about health aeronautics genomics environment engineering and more students can learn about science careers what scientists do play games learn interesting facts and explore science photos and videos students can play game for science as a tourist without registering or they can register for an account this requires an email address with confirmation game for science is an outstanding way for kids to get excited about science and technology as students travel through the virtual world they can collect neurons smart stars by answering questions and playing games the neurons can be used to buy items for their avatar game for science is a great way to introduce new science topics or areas of science the virtual world will capture interest and keep students wanting to learn more about each topic if you teach primary students without an email address visit the virtual world as a tourist or as a class using an interactive whiteboard or projector give each student a turn to direct the journey through game for science the rest of the class can jot down observations in a science notebook that can be used in later learning and experiments students who can read independently can visit the site individually on classroom computers as a science center or in a computer lab setting if they don t have a school email address they can visit as a tourist without registering this is a fun site for students to just explore and interact with however for use in the classroom you can direct students to specific islands to study game for science can be used by students younger than 13 using a tourist account or a class account skype an author network http skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com the skype an author network provides k-12 teachers and librarians with a way to connect authors books and young readers through virtual visits classes can video chat with authors while they are reading books written by the author there are two types of visits the first is free and is a 10-15 minute author session the second option is an in-depth visit the length and fee of visit are determined by the individual authors there is a growing list of excellent children s authors joining the network set up a virtual visit in your library or classroom today be sure to test skype on your school network prior to setting up the visit students under 13 can participate in a skype the author session using a teacher or class skype account 13

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the best resources for elementary schools zimmer twins http zimmertwins.com edgar and eva zimmer are 12 year old twins who appear normal but have developed psychic powers strange things began to happen when the twins adopted a black cat named 13 on the zimmer twins website students can create their own cartoon movie endings to a story starter or create their own animated movie from scratch starring the edgar eva and 13 students can create and edit movies solo or collab-o-write and work together on creating a collaborative movie your students will love this site they can direct and produce their very own animated movies the easiest way to start using zimmer twins in the classroom is to use it as a story starter students can watch a starter video and finish the story however they would like the first time you introduce the site complete a video as a class after your students are familiar with the zimmer twins website they can start a story from scratch students could direct screen plays of their writing as a way to publish their finished work zimmer twins would make an excellent alternative to the traditional book report students could create a movie where the main character is being interviewed the story is being summarized or retold students could also create movies about historical events describing a science experiment or concept in math as a story problem to demonstrate understanding of character education or for vocabulary practice create a zimmer twins original yourself to introduce a new topic to your students zimmer twins can be used without registration however students will not be able to save their creations creating an account requires an email address if your students do not have access to a school email address you can create a classroom account that every student logs into and saves their videos on students will need to include their first name or a class number in the title of their video to differentiate it from others in the class you could also set up an account for each student using your email account you will have to check this email account to provide students with their passwords zimmer twins states that it is designed to encourage the participation of children ranging in age between 8 and 17 if your students are younger than 8 send home a permission slip to be signed by parents 14

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the best resources for elementary schools neo k12 http neok12.com neo k12 is a comprehensive collection of educational videos lessons and games for students in grades k-12 neo k12 believes that kids learn best by `seeing the real world they have created this site with that belief in mind neo k12 has cataloged the best free online education videos from the internet and brings them together in one place each video is watched and reviewed by k-12 educators to ensure their accuracy and appropriateness for students subjects include physical science life science human body earth and space social studies math english including phonics stories and grammar and fun videos such as time lapse slow motion arts and crafts learn magic music lessons and sports lessons along with videos neo k12 has web 2.0 tools the school presentation tool is a mashup of flickr and wikipedia and allows students to create and share presentations online to create a presentation students choose pictures for their presentation from flickr read an article about the subject from wikipedia and then add text to their presentation when the presentation is finished it can be printed or viewed online as a slide show quizzes games and puzzles on neo k12 are an interactive way to improve learning teachers can create and share video playlists complete with notes and instructions for their students videos provide excellent opportunities for learning they make it possible for kids to visualize and build a model in their minds this helps them to better understand key concepts and can stimulate curiosity in a subject when students or teachers search a subject they are given a list of related videos quizzes games and puzzles when a teacher creates an account they can create a complete assignment within neo k12 that includes instructions and notes for the students students can complete the assignment by watching videos playing related games and creating a school presentation that demonstrates understanding the presentations are easy enough for even young students to create primary students can skip reading the wikipedia article and just choose pictures and add some captions about facts they learned from a video they viewed these videos are a great way to introduce new learning expand on previous learning or spark creativity in a topic many of the education games and puzzles can be used whole class using an interactive whiteboard or completed individually in the computer lab or on classroom computers the jigsaw puzzles can be used as teasers to introduce a new topic the jigsaw puzzles use incredible images from flickr have students take turns coming up to the interactive whiteboard or computer connected to a projector to put puzzle pieces together students waiting at their seats can take guesses about what new learning you will be doing in class neo k12 requires an email address to sign up students don t have to register to view your dashboard that can be shared with a unique url but they will have to register to save presentations students younger than 13 can have a parent or teacher sign up on their behalf or create a class account and have students save their work with first name or number included in the title 15

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