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• Quest to Learn makes gaming central to its curriculum: http://bit.ly/dCkFAs #

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

It’s a fact that some video games have been shown to have beneficial effects for developing minds. The merger of video games and educational instruction has been coming for quite some time now, and at one particular school in New York City, it’s already happened.

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BY AARON FOWLES

This article also appears on LEARN NC.

If you’re a teacher, you’re probably familiar with the life cycle of a computer in a typical classroom. The first two weeks are magnificent. The computer works wonderfully and performs all its tasks very quickly. Shortly after the honeymoon, though, things go sour. Internet Explorer won’t load a website. The computer begins crashing frequently. A student managed to get a virus on the computer. The icons on the desktop are all messed up. The computer then spends a few years in this semi-usable state: It won’t run the newest applications or even load a YouTube video. Eventually, it won’t turn on at all. The computer ends up either unplugged in the back of the room or sitting in a closet.

It doesn’t have to be that way. There is a way to invigorate those old computers and turn them back into machines that power teaching and learning. This method is totally free, relatively painless, community-supported, very stable, constantly updated, and secure. What could this magic solution be? The Linux operating system.

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BY AARON FOWLES

Have you ever scrambled to find a game or activity for your students to use to practice a particular skill?  Mr. Nussbaum, created by a 6th grade teacher in Virginia, is home to dozens of free games, activities, and online stories that will solve that problem in no time.

When you enter the site, you can choose from casual games, academic games, online storybooks, and activities sorted by subject. The activities are colorful, engaging, and fun for students.

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

The origins of words and phrases from the English Language gets a nice twist with Etymologic, a fun online quiz that can be difficult to master. The site consists of a series of questions with two to four possible answers, most of which seems plausible. You have to show an uncanny knowledge of English (or be incredibly lucky with your educated guesses) to get all the questions correct.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

Many of us are fascinated by robots. I mean, who doesn’t wish for a robot that will cook, do laundry, and clean the toilets? Some of us are scared by robots and would like some robot insurance. No matter which emotions robots inspire for you, learning more about them is probably a good idea, just in case they become our overlords. One site you can do that is at Learn About Robots.

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

Let’s say you have an audio file but you only want a piece of it, not the whole thing. How do you remove just a few seconds of audio from a larger file? Online MP3 Cutter does exactly that, and does it well.

Online MP3 Cutter allows you to quickly and easily take an MP3 file and cut a section out of it. The entire process takes about 10 seconds, and best of all, you don’t lose an iota of sound quality in the process.

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

For the past few years, the United States Library of Congress has been aggressively pushing its archives online through such sites as Flickr and others. This wealth of resources that was previously hidden away in stacks somewhere can now be utilized by educators thanks to the technological revolution. The latest push from the Library of Congress is its new App for iPhones and other Apple devices. The Library of Congress Virtual Tour is free for download at the iTunes store (I’m not sure if an Android version is coming in the future) and features galleries of exhibits along themes such as the Bible, Creating the United States, and Exploring the Early Americas.

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RT @rmbyrne: 7 Sources of Free Sounds for Multimedia Projects via Free Technology for Teachers … http://tinyurl.com/24s9ab6 #

Turn your to-do list into a role-playing game with the Epic Win iPhone app. http://bit.ly/cnyQif #

The State of Things on WUNC talks about the pros and cons of summer vacation. http://bit.ly/a1OgC5 #

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Step back in time and read the most popular Instructify articles from one year ago.

Five great online tools for art teachers

Try these great outdoor games at recess

Find great elementary resources at e-Learning for Kids

Free Language Learning Resources from Universitiesandcolleges.org

Take a look at the past with historical maps on Google Maps and Google Earth

Connect students through Dweeber

Two blogs for a science teacher’s Google Reader

Science IS for girls! – Women’s Adventures in Science

Budget, schmudget. Take your students to the Smithsonian (virtually) with History Explorer

Take a virtual tour of America’s national parks via the National Park Service’s multimedia collection

BY KEVIN HODGSON

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say most people now understand there is a wealth of valuable and interesting videos on YouTube. Of course, there is a wealth of not-so-great content, too, and often the good and the bad sit next to each other. Kideo Player is a website that showcases fun and educational videos for very young viewers by filtering out content inappropriate for young eyes.

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BY DAN FROELICH

With the budget issues that have plagued schools over the past two years, educators have found themselves without opportunities to attend education conferences. Sadly, they miss out on the perspective of subject-area experts that can reinvigorate one’s teaching. Thankfully, a group of dedicated individuals decided to create the K-12 Online Conference. The 2010 conference, as with past conferences, is FREE, run by volunteers, and open to everyone. Co-convener Wesley Fryer is an adjunct instructor at the University of Central Oklahoma and blogger for “Moving at the Speed of Creativity.”

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BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

Ever watch Pop-Up Video? Or have you noticed the first-down line that magically appears when you watch football on TV? These are examples of augmented reality — adding information to enhance a real-world view. Thanks to efforts like the American Civil War Augmented Reality Project, the concept is making its way into education. A few Pennsylvania teachers plan to use this technology to help visitors understand Civil War battlefields.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

At Interactives at Learner.org, you will find interactive activities in the content areas of math, science, language arts, history, and the arts. Within each activity there is a combination of text, animations, pictures, and interactive material. I used this one on the rock cycle with my students last year.

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BY JACKIE REGALES

I’m no fiction writer, but if I had created characters as legendary as Long John Silver or Mr. Hyde, I’d be pretty satisfied with myself. Of course, I would also be Robert Louis Stevenson, the namesake of robert-louis-stevenson.org, who wrote Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Kidnapped and A Child’s Garden of Verses, making me a prolific (and dead) Scotch poet, essayist, novelist, and composer of pieces for the flageolet. Now that you have learned what a flageolet is, consider yourself smarter than you were yesterday.

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