Do you feel like you are in a technology rut? Maybe your school doesn’t have the latest gear. Or maybe you just don’t know where to start. Whatever the issue, the best answer is to spend some time exploring the internet. Practically every time I begin a lesson, I start searching around to find different ways to introduce and practice ideas. I’m constantly discovering neat new websites that offer interactive elements and conversions from old to new (i.e. online storyboards, flashcards, visuals) formats. Just consider, students enjoy opportunities to be highly creative, and asking them to create a visual display using artskills.com , notaland.com , or gliffy.com is probably much more appealing to their computer savvy minds.
This Bloom’s Taxonomy chart gives some great suggestions as to what websites aid in what skills. My person favorites include:
Prezi- bored with PowerPoint? These presentation templates will energize your material. prezi.com
Schooltube– the chart lists Youtube, but sidestep it for Schooltube. The content is more focused, student-friendly, and a site less likely to be blocked than Youtube. schooltube.com
WolframAlpha- this is a perfect search engine for the student who needs horse blinders while looking at Google or Wikipedia. WolframAlpha is a pared down, simplistic World Almanac of information. It also does computations, which is handy. wolframalpha.com
Footnote- ignore of the somewhat misleading name, here you find historical documents- records, photos, government treaties. There is a fee for full access, but it can still be useful for free. footnote.com
Flashcardexchange- out of the many flash card sites out there, this one is user friendly, offers existing card sets created by others, and the cards can easily be downloaded and printed. flashcardexchange.com
When I first found the Bloom’s graphic, I spent an hour or so looking at all the websites I wasn’t familiar with- some I’d never even heard of. No one is a born pro, so constantly try to educate yourself. Seek out new tools just by taking the time to surf around!
Also take a look at the ALA’s Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/bestwebsitestop25.cfm
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