@justinreeve made an interesting tweet today about a service called Pixton, and said that he could see students using it to demonstrate knowledge. After checking it out, I totally agree. Pixton is another comic book creator type website, similar to others around. But, I like this one a lot better. It seems as if everything is a lot more customizable and simple. Clicking on parts of the body brings up tools that will help you move and animate them, while clicking on objects gives you different sets of tools. Just …

Google has had an option now in Google Earth that allows for exploration of the night sky through Google Sky, but Microsoft’s new Worldwide Telescope may be a stronger player in the game.
Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope offers students, teachers and astronomy buffs a chance to seemelessly explore the night sky through a virtual telescope. It allows you to choose from several options including views from the Hubble, Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, Spitzer Space Telescope or others. But one of the greatest features that I have seen are it’s tours. The application …

As attendees of one of BrainPop’s presentations were discussing some of the cool ways that they were using BP in their classrooms, I had a chance to pick up an awesome tip. Monica Nahas, an Instructional Technology Specialist, mentioned that Readwritethink.org has a tool for creating your own comics, and it could be used to create your own BrainPop styled comics.
Taking this tip, I decided to check it out. The tool is simple, and probably best for younger students, but I could imagine that even …

Frequently, I find myself going to Google to solve this or that. – maybe too frequently. Needless to say, I’ve got it down to an art. The question is whether or not spending a few minutes here or there to answer questions like “What was the name of GI Joe’s arch nemesis” and “Who played the dulcimer in Aerosmith’s Pump album” is worth it. You bet it is. Not only has it gained me the answers to some of life’s most troubling questions, but it has also given me a …

A couple of weeks ago I received an email telling me about a site that offered up video content from the likes of the University of California that combined trusted video content with a sort of social media twist. And to be honest it has taken me quite some time to really dig into their site to really see what they had to offer. I liked it!
The videos that Veezyon offers are indeed trustworthy as they come straight from content partners that are notorious for being solid research institutions, which …

An interesting(yet amazingly long) article found on Wired about a program called Supermemo has some interesting ideas for harnessing the brains ability to remember facts. The idea behind the software rests in an algorithm based on the rate of memory decay. Let’s take a look at the impact of such an algorithm in the classroom.

We’ve talked before about the incredible movies that Brainpop has to offer for a very wide selection of topics and content areas. But we have failed to mention one feature that places Brainpop above being just a place for good educational movies. Other than providing quizzes and the soon-to-be-added lesson plans, the site offers a way to view a list of all of their movies aligned to the State Standards for all fifty states. This feature takes all of the guess work out of selecting when and what to …

The following post may be a little too cutting edge for some, and still old news for others, but it at the very least shows a potential resource that could be tapped to reduce the strain on low budget schools needing more computers with internet connection. Rules and guidelines will still need to be hashed out, and key figures will need to be made believers, but the possibility is out there. With that said… here is the post.
I had an interesting experience this week that challenged a lot of what …

I came across this site today and was blown away by the model they are using. Though it doesn’t seem comprehensive as of now, and I am in the works of contacting the creator, it does seem to offer quite a bit or promise. The site offers interactive quizzes for keyboard, theory, and song analysis. Each test will reveal the correct answer, provide an explanation, and send results to the teacher’s email. Being a music teacher, I feel that this site has the right ingredients, and with further development, it …

If you are unfamiliar with HotChalk, it’s a free, web based course management solution that allows teachers to create dynamic lessons and content in a online environment. Beyond just allowing teachers to create their own lessons, HotChalk also lets you share lessons in their Swap Shop. Meaning that teachers can access many quality lessons created by educators in the same field of study.  Some of the other features available on HotChalk include;
Creating Lesson Plans
Making Web Based Quizes
Management of quizes and assigments through their built in grade book
Easily communicate with students …