Instructify

BY KEVIN HODGSON

There are plenty of resources to turn to if you want to learn how to do something with technology. But there are just not enough places to learn more about the rationale behind the use of technology for learning, and what it means to bring new media and new tools into the classroom. By delving beyond the nuts and bolts of using a tool, we teachers can really start to envision the learning and teaching possibilities in this changing technological environment. The National Writing Project has launched Digital Is, a project that showcases teacher reflections on how technology is changing teaching practice.

The Digital Is site is divided up into areas that include Art/Craft, Teach/Learn, Provocations and Community, and within each of these areas, a designated “curator” pulls together various strands of resources around a single theme. For example, the curated collection entitled “Digital Tools for Change” highlights not only curator Cliff Lee’s insights on how technology can be used for social action by students, but Lee also points us to a handful of projects that demonstrate his point. The various resources at Digital Is were developed by teachers in the National Writing Project network and the Digital Is site is funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

You can browse through the resources on the site in a variety of ways: through curated collections, through search queries, or even through tag clouds. Topics run the gamut from digital storytelling to digital portfolios to movie making in the classroom. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the National Writing Project and a contributor to the Digital Is site.)

Digital Is

National Writing Project

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BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

The National Archives has recently combined an interactive approach with their extraordinary collection of primary-source documents. The result is called DocsTeach and U.S. history teachers will soon be flocking to it.

Perhaps the best feature of DocsTeach is that it lets teachers take the lead. The Archives provides the documents; teachers create and share the activities. There are a variety of activity templates that encourage critical reading and allow you to work with the documents in a way that fits your teaching. In Finding a Sequence, the dates of documents are hidden and students have to put them in chronological order. Mapping History challenges them to pin documents on a map. Pictured here is weighing the Evidence, in which students put documents on one side or another to support a position on an issue.

The documents themselves are impressive because they are not presented as text, but images of the originals. With every pen mark, stamp, and crease visible, the documents tell compelling stories.

Though DocsTeach is new this year, there’s already a considerable amount of teacher-created activities available. You can give your students a link directly to a specific activity, and they can use the email feature to send their work to you. If you don’t find the activity you want, what a great excuse to create your own!

DocsTeach

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U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian

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Break into the vaults at the National Archive Experience

BY KEVIN HODGSON

Jane Hart does her best to keep herself and her blog readers up to date on the latest technology tools, particularly as they relate to social media. While her blog is certainly worth following, it is her annual list of 100 Tools for Learning that you should check out first. Culled from a variety of sources, including her own readers, the list of 100 tools runs the gamut from multimedia production to practical tools that may simplify a task. Jane notes that there were more than 500 people sharing ideas with her this year. That’s a great pool of knowledge.

One thing I like is that Jane does more than just share the tools. In her Winners & Losers analysis, she also notes which tools have been dropped from the previous year, and which tools seem to be gaining more ground. (And, I should note, she makes it clear which sites are free and which cost money.) Her Best in Breed list breaks down the list into categories, such as microblogging, e-learning, and productivity tools.

The Top 100 Tools for Learning

Jane’s Slideshow on Slideshare

Winners & Losers

Best in Breed

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 JACKIE REGALES

If your students are anything like mine, then they will always salivate (figuratively, I hope) at the chance to make something, whether on poster board or a program like Photostory. In today’s classrooms, though, whipping out scissors and glue sticks can seem a little old-fashioned. Enter Smilebox, which offers slide-show and scrapbook-creation options, as well as the ability to make invitations, collages and greeting cards. Fair warning: on some of these pages, music will begin playing automatically, and it’s exactly the kind of digitized music you think it is.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Sometimes I struggle to find quality educational multimedia elements. They either aren’t well made or don’t have much tangible educational value. This, however, is not the case over at nature.com in their multimedia section. You’ll find video presentations here on everything from self repairing rubber molecules to a study of honey bee genomes. (more…)

BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Let me just say it: I love PBS. From the documentaries, to the quality children’s programming, it’s one of my favorite channels to watch. But my love of Cookie Monster aside, did you know that PBS had developed a top-notch web resource for teachers? If the answer was no, then you owe it to yourself and your students to spend a planning period looking at the PBS Teachers website.

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