Rural Education Network

ConnectSafely is a website for parents, teens, educators, advocates - everyone engaged in and interested in the impact of the social Web. The user-driven, all-media, multi-platform, fixed and mobile social Web is a big part of young people's lives, and this is the central space – linked to from social networks across the Web - for learning about safe, civil use of Web 2.0 together. The forum is also designed to give teens and parents a voice in the public discussion about youth online safety. ConnectSafely.org is a project of Tech Parenting Group, nonprofit organization based in California, and Utah. http://www.connectsafely.org/

This wiki contains a lot of ideas and applications to support social networking in the classroom, but also contains background information that speaks directly how social networking can benefit to learning and student engagement. http://socialnetworking4teachers.wikispaces.com/

The Vocational Information Center website is an education directory that provides links to online resources for career exploration, technical education, workforce development, technical schools and related vocational learning resources. This is a huge site and well worth the visit. http://www.khake.com/

This website, Calculator.net offers a large number of free, on-line calculators for public use. There is also a snipped of code you can insert on your own website to include sample calculators. http://www.calculator.net/

Calling all K-12 teachers and students and schools from across the globe! Are you and your students using technologies in innovative ways? Would you like to engage your students with new technology in the classroom? Are you interested in connecting your school and classroom with the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games? (Like to see some examples ?). Pending approval by the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC), all submissions will be posted and hosted on the VANOC Education's Featured Showcase website page. Could your school use a cash prize of $2,010? Then take the Global Minds Challenge and share your experiences and ideas with classrooms everywhere. Tell the world how you are creatively using digital technologies. The UBC Global Minds Challenge will award up to five (5) prizes of $2,010 (CAD) to schools that submit projects that are: original, exciting, and pedagogically significant applications of learning technologies in a K-12 school context; and inspirational to a theme of...

The British Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has identified a great list of 100+ ways to use social media for learning http://c4lpt.co.uk/handbook/examples.html

From our friends over at the DE Tools of the Trade blog: ORISINAL is a free online games site with a number of simple, kid friendly games. It’s Friday! Time for something just a little frivolous, like ORISINAL. As gaming sites go, this one is both extraordinary and mundane. The games themselves are relatively generic but fun and easy to play. Even pre-schoolers can handle most of ORISINAL’s offering but that’s not why I included them here. It’s the graphics and music. All the games appear to have been created by a children’s story book illustrator. They have that lush, rich, appealing look common to a well crafted children’s book. Here’s an example. The game involves moving a bar back and forth to help the deer cross the stream. Not particularly difficult as games go but beautiful to look at. Check it out at: http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/ This page allows you to view a coffee bean and then zoom in to compare the size of other sized organisms and particles. For more genetics links, go to their main page at http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/ .

http://en.childrenslibrary.org/index.shtml The goal of this project is to: To create a collection of more than 10,000 books in at least 100 languages that is freely available to children, teachers, librarians, parents, and scholars throughout the world via the Internet. The materials included in the collection reflect similarities and differences in cultures, societies, interests, lifestyles, and priorities of peoples around the world. The collection's focus is on identifying materials that help children to understand the world around them and the global society in which they live. It is hoped that through a greater understanding of one another that tolerance and acceptance can be achieved.

Quick and Dirty Tips : Probably best known for the Grammar Girl podcast, Quick and Dirty Tips offers short and snappy content on a range of other topics, like nutrition, public speaking, investing, and even dog training. LearnOutLoud : I’ve been a fan of The Philosophy Podcast for a while now, but LearnOutLoud has a lot more to offer. In fact, the site claims to have “the Internet’s first directory for podcasts you can learn from .” LearnOutLoud also has a great selection of learning resources for kids . MindBites : This company’s site offers a large and growing collection of video “instructionals” on topics ranging from sewing to calculus to baby sign language . Radio Lingua Network : Radio Lingua offers the popular Coffee Break Spanish and Coffee Break French podcast series as well as “My Daily Phrase” and “One Minute” podcasts for a number of other languages. iTunes U (Opens in iTunes : iTunes U is the place for great free content from top universities and other educatio...

Check out this flash-based dictionary of math terms. This Australian site contains some good illustrations and activities. http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/maths/dictionary.html

This site contains a number of graphical representations of statistics as they relate to baseball trivia. There are a number of great examples of graphs and charts here. http://www.flipflopflyin.com/flipflopflyball/index.html

Spezify is a search tool that presents results from a large number of websites in different visual ways. They take web searching further, away from endless lists of blue text links and towards a more intuitive experience. They want users to get a good overview of a subject, find useful information and be inspired. Spezify mixes all media types and makes no difference between blogs, videos, microblogs and images. Everything communicates and helps building the bigger picture. http://www.spezify.com/

Here is a great story of a teacher in Colorado who is using Skype to communicate with her students who are at home sick with H1N1: I had a few students take me up on the offer to Skype into class yesterday and today. The students have different computers at home with two capable of using a webcam and microphone and the other just being able to listen and text/chat back to class. What was really impressive was that the students’ willingness to be connected back into our class when they are at home feeling crummy. They want to participate, they want to stay in touch, they want to continue to learn and aren’t letting the flu get in their way. Watching my other students react to the webcam in our classroom and then being able to watch the girls and boy connect into class, many of the students thought about what an amazing use of technology they were witnessing. We were truly extending the walls of the classroom to homes in Littleton doing our own part, along with the number of hand saniti...

Here is a nice collection of free web-based tools ; the authors write: There are new web 2.0 tools appearing every day. Although some of these tools were not originally meant for use in the classroom, they can be extremely effective learning tools for today’s technology geared students and their venturesome teachers. Many of these teachers are searching for the latest products and technologies to help them find easier and efficient ways to create productive learning in their students. More and more teachers are using blogs, podcasts and wikis, as another approach to teaching. We have created a list of 100 tools we think will encourage interactivity and engagement, motivate and empower your students, and create differentiation in their learning process. Tools are organized into the following categories: Interactivity Engagement Motivation Empowerment Differentiation

Rouxbe (pronounced roo-bee) is the web’s first-ever online cooking school. We are currently teaching home cooks in 180 countries around the world. Their goal is to help budding chefs become a better and more confident cook by teaching you basic to advanced cooking skills and techniques – the same things that chefs learn in a professional cooking school – so you can be free from being a slave to just recipes. Unlike other online cooking sites that focus on recipes, celebrity chefs and short technique videos, the Rouxbe Cooking School is a fully integrated experience that mirrors an actual culinary curriculum, complete with instructional cooking video lessons, practice video recipes, culinary chef exercises, progress reporting, cooking quizzes, and personal chef support. Rouxbe is a complement, not competitor, to other cooking and recipe resources. If you have a favorite cookbook, culinary magazine, television food program or other online food site, that’s great, keep it. Come to Rouxbe...

Wordle.net is an interesting way to create word clouds from text you or your students provide. The presentation below by Tom Barrett is well worth the look.

The sheer amount of new tools being released on the Internet makes it difficult to stay up to date with what’s new and what can apply best to your specific discipline. Instead of wasting hours randomly searching for new things when you have a spare moment, try some of the instructional videos prepared by Russell Stannard. He runs a great site called http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/index.html . Already he has a multitude of great videos, including videos on topics like: JING-Fantastic Screencasting Tool Easy podcasting Introduction to Moodle Make on-line surveys Downloading from YouTube How to use Blogger All about Delicious Photoshop basics All free for you to use. Russell Stannard is a principal lecturer in Multimedia/ICT at the University of Westminster in London England and his academic focus is on English language teaching. He has taken the time to create several videos outlining tools and websites that are specifically useful to English language teaching, such as: Amazing 3D...

This is a place to find and list subject-specific , P-12-oriented blogs that are worth sharing with others. http://movingforward.wikispaces.com/Education+Blogs+by+Discipline

1. Let students create a cartoon version of the book they have just finished. 2. Let students create a short video clip about the book. 3. Create a virtual poster advertising the book. 4. Encourage students to create their own virtual bookshelves with Shelfari http://shelfari.com. 5. Book Adventure http://bookadventure.org is an online reading motivation program. 6. Bookcasting is a recorded audio podcast about a book. 7. Allow students to create a timeline of events in the story they just read in an online timeline. 8. Wikis are an excellent place for students to share book reviews. 9. Excite and motivate students to read with Book Wink http://bookwink.com. 10. Voice Thread http://voicethread.com is an amazing site that allows students to create web 2.0 slide shows that become interactive and collaborative. From: http://www.theapple.com/benefits/articles/8529-10-technology-enhanced-alternatives-to-book-reports

Here are some new training modules to Goodhue Public School's Online Teacher Technology Training program. The following are free training modules anyone can use. Goodhue Teachers get a stipend for completing a set amount of these modules. So far this model of technology training has been fairly successful. Feel free to use and share: 1.1 - Understanding File Properties 1.2 - File Formats & File Extensions 1.3 - Hooking up a Periphials 1.4 - Burning CDs and DVDs 1.5 - Backing Up Your Files 1.6 - Wireless vs Ethernet 1.7 - Dealing with a frozen computer 2.1 - Search engines 2.2 - Language Translators 2.3 - Databases – ebsco, Google Scholar 2.4 - Anatomy of a URL 2.5 - Netiquette & Internet Safety 3.1 - Fair use 4.1 - Google Docs & Spreadsheets 4.2 - Zoho 4.3 - Presentation Programs 4.4 - Online Storage 4.5 - Emailing Large Files/Batch Files 5.1 - Digital Cameras + Digital Image Basics 5.2 - Digital Image Software (Gimp, Photoshop, Picassa, Splashup, Picnik, etc.) 5.3 - Im...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/sciencemusic/ Music can make the driest scientific concepts entertaining, or even hilarious. Catchy tunes about DNA blend genetics with jokes. Ballads about the heart and pi bring dull facts to life. Here are some videos that show how hard science rocks. Also check out Top 10 Amazing Biology Videos Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos Top 10 Time-Lapse Videos Show Nature at Work 10 Fantastic Marine Biology Videos Top 10 Amazing Animal Videos

http://www.animatedengines.com/ Here you'll find animated illustrations that explain the inner workings of a variety of steam, Stirling, and internal combustion engines. Enjoy.

http://www.dailymotion.com has a number of videos that zoom in on a number of common, everyday articles. Check out this video below to zoom in on a tooth - over 24 million times magnification. Zoom into a Tooth Uploaded by Weird_Weird_Science . - Explore more science and tech videos.

This blog entry contains a number of interesting Internet videos that would be appropriate for lessons and presentations, or personal research, related to technological and media literacy. Here are 80+ videos organized into various sub-categories. These videos are of varying quality, cross several genres, and are of varied suitability for classroom use. 80+ Videos for Tech. & Media Literacy

As you may know, there is a new search tool on the block; Wolfram/Alpha . First released May 15, this search tool is still in its fledgling stages, but many are looking to Wolfram as a viable alternative to Google . It's not a search engine. Though widely compared to Google , Wolfram/Alpha does not try to match queries against a list of indexed documents. It attempts to compute answers to questions based on established facts. To help understand this site, check out the range of examples they've posted. As you click through the examples, there is a description of the type of search that can be conducted in the search box based on the topic you have chosen. This is a great way to help users to learn the most appropriate use of the tool and the proper syntax for searches.

The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, a group out of Eugene Oregon, has published two documents for schools to send home to parents. Cyber Safe Kids: A Guide for Parents Cyber Savvy Teens: A Guide for Parents

This is a fabulous video that provides an overview of our consumption-driven wasteful economy and describes it as a system in crisis. It comes from an American perspective and the NY Times says , "it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution." This video, though simplistic (as is necessary when describing a global system in 20 minutes) is essential viewing. It is an essentially accurate representation of the problem we face as a global society. And it represents one of the key ways in which technology in the classroom can have a beneficial and sustaining effect on society as a whole. The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

This site contains a great flash animation that illustrates the components and growth of the International Space Station. http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm USATODAY.com feature

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo .

SpanishConnects.Us is an audio blog that documents student discussions with native Spanish speakers in distant parts of the world to better understand each other’s culture and share perspectives on local events impacting the world today. http://www.spanishconnects.us/?page_id=51

If you're a science teacher trying to explain magnetism, you could do a lot worse than showing this beautiful animated film produced for Channel 4 with Arts Council England . As the blurb says: "Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?" Plenty of other videos for scientists, geographers, writers over on the Vimeo site . Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo .

Drawing a blank on how you might use a blog in your own classroom? Here's a list to jump start your creativity. By no means is this list exhaustive; there are as many ways to use blogs in education as there are to use paper. :) Remember, blogs are a medium, not a genre . Web 2.0 in the Classroom: 33 Ways to use blogs in your classroom and in the educational setting

Do you enjoy strange and seldom-used words? Check out this fun site powered by the people from the Oxford Dictionaries. Save The Words

The SciTech Journal is a richly informative project. As its name and the catch line suggest, it attempts to answer various questions arising in common man's mind relating to science and technological phenomena. It is said that knowledge is power. I would like adding to it. Power is the knowledge of right things. And the aim of the STJ is empowering minds. Today, the human race thrives on science and technological developments. Hence it becomes highly imperative for one as a human to be aware of things happening around, keep updated on the developments, and most importantly, good and bad effects of them. The STJ covers all of it -- and much more may follow. Just browse through it. It speaks for itself. Even if you are not a student of science and tech., you will find it surprisingly delightful. That's a promise! So keep checking in for new posts regularly. Suggestions for better explanation of points are appreciated. Ask questions, or com...

Ideas, tools, and resources for teaching art and design in a post-digital age. This blog attempts to address the question, “How can we use the new tools and capabilities of the Web to enhance or even transform art education practices in schools?” the art teacher’s guide to the internet

This is a great site of book reviews by kids for kids. Check out this site and read some of the great reviews from students of all ages…such as this one: A review of Cinderella , by Shanie, age six: One day there was going to be a fancy ball. Cinderella wasn't going to get to go, but then something very exciting happened. I liked to read this book because I like fairy tales. I also like to read about evil people. It's exciting and a little scary. I would recommend this book about Cinderella to my mom because she likes to do chores. Spaghetti Book Club - Book Reviews by Kids for Kids!

Blog2Learn is a wiki used to teach teachers and others about blogging to improve literacies. Check out the links in the sidebar – there are some good examples of how blogs can be used in a variety of educational applications: Language Arts Examples ESL and EFL Examples Math Examples Social Studies Examples Science Examples Reflective Edubloggers Blogmeister blog examples for 2007 Workshop Guidelines and Responsibilities Shaping Pedagogy through Blogging Significant Comments Evaluation and Reflection Relevant Posts Flickr Fun Finding images for your blog Web Tools 4 Teachers Web Tools Used in 2007 Workshop Slide Show Slide Show GaETC Slide Show KSU Workshop 2007 Additional Links for Educators Voices Looking Ahead Credits http://adavis.pbwiki.com/

YouTube has launched a new channel dedicated to videos from colleges and universities. There are probably 75 colleges and universities represented. If you ever wanted to go to MIT, here’s your chance. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Welcome to BiologyInMotion! Here you will find animations, interactive activities, and cartoons designed to make learning biology a richer, more engaging experience. After years of teaching biology in various colleges and universities, this site's creator began developing his own graphics and multimedia, mainly for in-class presentation. New additions will include interactive tutorials, quizzes, and other activities, in addition to updated versions of the many biology cartoons in his portfolio. Biology in Motion

This Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning (HETL) has been designed as a resource for educators planning to incorporate technologies in their teaching and learning activities. Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning - Emerging Technologies for Learning

This tutorial is intended to help students understand the important components of constructing an essay. This essay, "What I Have Lived For" is an encapsulation of some important elements of an essay. If you are able to follow and/or reproduce the elements of this essay, you will be over a major hurdle most students have in writing papers. Electronic Essay Writing Tutorial

Check out these online games that help students learn about phonics, grammar and other reading skills. GameGoo - Learning that Sticks!

Whether you're looking for a place to share group portfolios, to publicize culminating performances, or to encourage students to post personal learning histories, it may be well worth your while to become familiar with one or more of these tools: Posterous : Thanks to the fact that students and teachers can post content by simply emailing all manner of media to their custom blog address, this tool is now at the top of my list. Automate the embedding of audio files, documents, and recorded video on your custom site. ScrapBlog : In using the concept of electronic 'scrapbook', this tool may be the easiest for your charges to understand. Rich templates professionalize the photo and video work of students, and the results can be shared in many ways. PBWiki : The humble wiki can play a lead role in allowing students to gather their work either individually, or as members of a group. Through a universally understood edit and share format, a variety of wiki t...

This relatively new blog  is from a Languages Teacher and Community Link Coordinator at St Margaret’s C.E High School in Liverpool, England. The blog provides material to teach French at Primary level and is updated weekly. French in Primary

This wiki contains ideas, resources, guidelines and instructional applications for using cell phones at school and for digital storytelling. Cell phones are rapidly becoming ubiquitous in many school communities, but their presence in the classroom is commonly viewed as disruptive and unwanted. Modern cell phones offer a variety of capabilities, which are being used effectively by educators in different schools to support curricular learning objectives and boost student achievement. Explore reasons some school districts are embracing the use of cell phones for learning both inside and outside the classroom and examine specific guidelines school districts are utilizing for student cell phones. Explore specific applications of cell phones for learning, including use as electronic response systems, data access, media recording, homework tracking and social networking. Teach Digital: Curriculum by Wes Fryer wiki / cellphones

Build Your Wild Self is a collaborative project between the New York Zoos and Aquarium and the Wildlife Conservation Society. It allows users to build wild creatures by selecting from a wide variety of attributes. There are some great choices even if you choose to have the computer choose some random bits. BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF

This site has sections on student and youth leadership, community leadership, team leadership and others. Whether you want to work on standing out as a leader or just want to improve your confidence and charisma for all aspects of life, you can find some great guidance and advice on the Internet. These bloggers, some of whom are well-known writers, CEO’s and business professionals, can help you discover the leadership potential that exists in you so you can be more successful, productive and happy in any role in your life. Top 100 Leadership Blogs Best Universities

This post by Dean Shareski, a teacher in Moose Jaw, reminded me so much of the work of Russell Bishop's work. What was formerly seen as nice, but not necessary, must now be first and foremost: teachers who care and relate to students . Teachers who will seek out what specific needs each student has and leads them in the right direction. What great lectures and content can never provide is relationship and caring.  I don’t necessarily define caring and relationship as a seen in the movies , but rather someone who recognizes that their job is to create opportunity for students to not only learn content but pursue and find their passions.  While that may seem like rhetoric, to me it’s become my mantra. I see all my students as desiring to be teachers,  I see all the teachers I work with as teachers desiring to be better.  I realize that may not always be the case, but that’s the premise I begin with. Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech » Blog ...

From the Media Awareness Network Lessons on Cyber Bullying for Grades 5-12. To help educators address this issue in their classrooms, Media Awareness Network has developed a series of lessons, in English and in French, to give students a better understanding of the ethical and legal implications of cyber bullying and to promote positive Internet use. This group has included lessons intended to support and enhance school-based anti-bullying and empathy-building programs.

In this day of high-stakes testing and frequent complaints from teachers that they “don’t have time to use technology” in the classroom, this wiki seeks to bridge the gap to help teachers see that technology doesn’t have to be an add-on that distracts them from focusing on the curriculum. Rather than accepting an either/or mentality, we can begin to connect technology to the accepted “best practices” that our districts expect to see in our classrooms. Readers and contributors will learn and share information about specific Web 2.0 tools that can be used by teachers, and strategies that can be used with those tools that align with and support research-based effective instructional methods. Reference will be made to specific instructional strategies and a variety of examples will be shared covering all content areas from K-12 to college/university levels. Main Page - Web 2.0 That Works: Marzano & Web 2.0

From our good friends at Edutopia - the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Links include: GLOBE at Night Find easy-to-follow instructions for participating in this project at this site, where students can also record their observations of the night sky. Prior to the star-hunting event, students can log on to learn about Orion's role in Greek mythology, star magnitude, and other topics. International Year of Astronomy 2009 A list of global projects designed to promote awareness of astronomy and dark skies. Some activities are too advanced for elementary school students. The GLOBE Program Abundant resources for integrating related lessons about such topics as atmosphere and climate, clouds, and hydrology. 400 Years of the Telescope Information about a new documentary that follows astronomical discoveries starting from Galileo's first peek through the telescope. The site offers a viewing schedule and "Profiles in Astronomy...

This wiki collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively.  Whether you need software to help you manage citations, author a multimedia work, or analyze texts, Digital Research Tools will help you find what you're looking for. They provide a directory of tools organized by research activity, as well as reviews of select tools in which we not only describe the tool's features, but also explore how it might be employed most effectively by researchers. digitalresearchtools / FrontPage

Saskatchewan Career Resource - this may be of some interest to your students involved in making career decisions. What other resources do you use in your school to help students with career choices? Relevance Magazine: Career Options for your Future

It's new and it is in a 'beta' state; however, Academic Earth is something to keep your eyes on. Currently, it offers thousands of post-secondary lectures from authorative sources - all free. The creators of this repository have worked hard to integrate features into it that make it extra useful. Each lecture has a side bar with a selection of special options, such as a download to iPod option, a citation option, an 'embed' option that gives you code you can copy and paste into your website (this means that you can distribute the video to your students without having to host the video on your server. Nice!). Each lecture is rated by registered users of the website (registration is free!). So over time, the most highly rated lecture will float to the top. While in the 'beta' state, Academic Earth strongly encourages users to leave feedback on any bugs you find as well as to make suggestions on how to improve the service. At the time of launching, it is b...

The National Film Board of Canada has launched a new project to allow Canadians to see its films through online streaming. Oscar winners such as 1952's Neighbours , 1977's I'll Find a Way and 2004's Ryan are among the more than 700 films now available for screening online at NFB.ca. The online screening room was created as part of a $1.3-million project to digitize the NFB's collection of historic films. Check out http://www.nfb.ca/ to see their Online Screening Room and view a great diversity of Canadian film. NFB makes films free online

Thinking Guides are tools or frameworks for thinking through an issue and considering different aspects or perspectives. They can help to develop thinking skills. This website has a number of templates that students can fill in to help organize and communicate their thinking on a particular topic. There is a free registration option which allows the completed template to be customized, saved and forwarded to others. If you do any mind mapping or employ organizational tools in your classroom, check this out. Exploratree - Exploratree by FutureLab

Have you ever wondered how teachers are using cell phones for educational purposes? This collection of links illustrates a wide variety of applications. Cell Phones in Education

I found this site with over 100 free audio books available for download or streaming. There are many great resources here. Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free Open Culture Jan 28: another site is http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/ . Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format.

From http://zaidlearn.wikispaces.com/ Here is the initial quick list: Learning 2.0 Programme This blog has been set-up as part of PLCMC's Learning 2.0 project to encourage staff to experiment and learn about the new and emerging technologies that are reshaping the context of information on the Internet today. An Introduction to Social Learning (Jane Hart) Provides you with a practical approach to getting started with using social media for both formal and informal learning - either in the form of best-of-breed stand-alone tools or in an integrated suite of social media tools. ELearning T4T (WikiEducator) eLearning Training for Teachers is a project node for the collaborative development of "just-in-time" tutorials to help educators implement eLearning successfully. WebTools4u2use The purpose of this website is to provide a place for K-12 school library media specialists to learn a little more about web tools that can be used to improve and enhance school library media pr...

These are great Java-based simulations you can either download to your computer or run off their website. Check out these great applications to help students visualize a number of science concepts. PhET: Free online physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and math simulations

Check this out - a place where budding authors can create and share their work. See the full PicLit at PicLits.com PicLits.com - Create a PicLit