Learn with Sophia

Sophia is a free social teaching and learning platform that offers academic content to anyone, anywhere, free of charge. The website, which has been described as a mashup of Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube that is focused solely on education, also lets educators supplement their instruction with tools to create a customized learning environment in a private or public setting. http://www.sophia.org
Sophia.org has enhanced its social teaching and learning platform to include more than 25,000 free tutorials on math, science, English, and more—all in an ad-free environment. What’s more, the site has become a key destination for teachers who are looking to “flip” their classrooms, its makers say.

Wesley Fryer has long been one of my resources for what is right in education.  He recently shared an introductory professional development workshop in Yukon, Oklahoma, titled, “Apps and Clouds: An Introduction to Internet Resources.”  Here are his slides -

Apps and Clouds: An Introduction to Internet Resources

View more presentations from Wesley Fryer

Chemistry for Middle School

This new site puts a curriculum at the hands of students and teachers.  Chemistry for the Middle School complete with Lessons and activities.
I think that this could be a great differentiation tool for those teachers without time for individual lesson planning.  The student that wants the extra piece of 8th grade Science - or needs a refresher on the Periodic Table - or misses a section due to illness.  The possibilities are endless.

Since it is from the American Chemical Society, I am assuming the facts do not need to be vetted - and it should be modern knowledge.

Why do we need books with this type of online curriculum?  just a netbook, laptop - or tablet and connectivity.


Technorati Tags: middleschoolchemistry, ACS

Skype launches dedicated teacher network

Many teachers already use Skype to connect with other classrooms around the globe, bring in guest speakers without asking them to travel, and take virtual field trips. Now, Skype is making it easier for them to do so.

The company launched Skype in the Classroom, a dedicated teacher network, on Tuesday. Using the platform, teachers can create profiles that describe their classes and teaching interests. They can also search a directory of teachers from all over the world by student age range, language and subject.

• Collaborate on projects

• Connect with other teachers

• Discover new teaching inspiration

From their opening page: Skype in the classroom is a free community to help teachers everywhere use Skype to help their students learn. It’s a place for teachers to connect with each other, find partner classes and share inspiration. This is a global initiative that was created in response to the growing number of teachers using Skype in their classrooms.

There is no better way to bring the outside world into a classroom than direct communication.

Technorati Tags: skype

Run PHotostory 3 in Windows 7

The teachers in my district have been quite bummed that Photostory would no longer run on our new laptops (Windows 7).  Today, one of the technology teachers discovered you just need to install under compatibility mode.
Yippee - Here are her directions:

1. Download the Photo Story 3 and save it on the hard drive.
2. Right click on the setup file, click Properties, click Compatibility tab, under compatibility mode, check mark “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and select “Windows XP (Service Pack 2)” from the drop down list. Click Apply and then click ok.
3. Under “Privilege level”, click “Run this program as an administrator”, click apply and then click ok.
4. Install the program and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
Thank you, Connie!

Technorati Tags: photostory, windows7, compatibility mode

Synch the View

Synchtube allows you to create public and private rooms where you can watch synchronzied YouTube videos with up to 50 people. Everyone views the same video at the exact same time!
This means you could discuss a video in a distance learning class watching it together.  You can drag the bookmarklet to your bookmark bar and immediately take your YouTube video into your room.  Send the link off and view / discuss together.

iClippy away

Your online clipboard. Capture any area on the screen using a Quick Area Capture system. It intercepts windows copy and cut operations (unless told to sleep). It captures from a scanner - iClippy lets you paste your clipped screenshot into email, twitter and more.  And there is a Beta for imaging via Google Apps tray and sidebar.  It is however, only for Windows at this point.  and free for 100 images.

Technorati Tags: iClippy, screenshots

Moodle for Learning

Joyce Seitzinger, author of the Cat's Pyjamas blog, has published a great one sheet guide for Moodle using teachers.

I am especially impressed with her Column headers which directly relate to learning:
Information Transfer; Assess learning; communication and Interaction; Co-create content; Bloom's

I will be adding it to our Teacher Intranet Resources and using it for a starting discussion point during Moodle training sessions.Technorati Tags: joyce_seitzinger, cat's_pyjamas, moodle

Distancing myself in Facebook

In the last few days, I have deeply restricted my Facebook presence.  Tweaking all my settings and dropping Zoo World, too.  The latter due to the fact that it won't work on my iPad which I am attempting to test.   The former because of the horrible changes that FB is making in extending knowledge across the Public sector.  Here is a good place to start if you want to curtail also.

A short guide to the best way to manage how much information you share via Facebook.
from the BBC News.

Check http://deletefacebook.com for more complete instructions.

If deletion seems too serious a step, then it is possible to deactivate an account which does not remove information but stores it in case you want to go back and start using the social network again.

Technorati Tags: facebook, privacy, bbc

For every math teacher

About this talk

Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. At TEDxNYED, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think.

Thanks to @rmbyrne, Richard Byrne (Teacher and Web apps junky. )Google Certified Teacher and his tweet today:  

Technorati Tags: TEDtalks, danmeyer, math

Social test prep

Grockit is the must-have social network for learning

Is this the answer to student collaborative learning?  Grockit uses the concepts of gaming, social networking and practice to help students prepare for standardized testing.
SAT, ACT, GRE and GMAT all have their own links for groups and learning.  Points are earned, friends are made - and hopefully learning occurs.

The latest announcement is their "Summer Enrichment Academy" - don't lose what you know over the summer months. 

As much as I disagree with standardized testing - it is part of the lives of our students.  Until we move away from it and more into true achievement monitoring - here is another method to make the preparation more "21st century".

You be the judge - http://grockit.com

Technorati Tags: grockit, testprep

BLOSSOMS of learning

Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math Studies,
Initiative of MIT LINC
from the site homepage:
The vision of BLOSSOMS is to begin to develop a large, free repository of video modules for high school math and science classes created by gifted volunteer teachers from around the world, seeded initially by MIT faculty members and by partnering educators in Jordan and Pakistan.
and from their newsfeed:  Lebanon to become fourth country partner in BLOSSOMS.


As an open source and blended learning advocate, this seems like one of the nicest cross cultural higher-ed / high-school collaboratives to be published in a long time.  I tried to preview the video: "How Small is Small" by Fadwa Odeh, Assistant Profeswsor of Physical Chemistry from the University of Jordan.  Unfortunately at this time it is only in Arabic - hummm.   Language learning?

So, I went to "Classifying Animals by Appearance Versus DNA Sequence by Megan E. Rokop, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Broad Outreach Program.
This lesson has a Teacher's Guide, worksheets and slides as well as Challenge Lesson extensions. 
Extend your student's learning!  check out BLOSSOMS today.

These videos are all published under the Creative Commons 3.0 license and are downloadable for those slow connections.

Technorati Tags: Blossoms, MIT, opensource, openeducation

Make online music - alone or together

The sound editing portion of Aviary is a great tool for online music editing and podcasting - and LOVE its single sign on with Google Apps for Education.
But - today I got a tip via Twitter for another upcoming tool:
OHMSTUDIO
OHM STUDIO expands the ability to make music / podcasts / etc. online to collaboratively make music / podcasts / etc. online. I am not a musician, but have signed up for the Beta Test - looks interesting.

Technorati Tags: aviary, ohmstudio, musiceditor

Free Google Guide for Teachers

He has done it again - Richard Byrne put together a great tool for teachers jumping into Google Applications in their classrooms.  A Google Certified Teacher, Richard shares all his wonderful work with the rest of the teaching world.

This guide is posted on both YUDU and DocStoc for your convenience.
Thank you again, Richard!


Richard Byrne's newest Guide

Google for Teachers -










Technorati Tags: richardbyrne, freetech4teachers, googleapps

Writing Music Online

Compose and arrange music online!  anytime anywhere creativity!
Noteflight - a new online service that lets written music take full advantage of the web!
and its FREE!
Embed it, share it - be a Mozart 2.0!

Integrates seamlessly with web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) products such as Moodle. Create courses using your chosen LMS, and your users will be automatically signed into Noteflight Learning Edition for access to all their music.Technorati Tags: noteflight, music_composition

Mashing Wordle

I saw a nice post about mashing wordle images using Photoshop today.
Thought I would try it in GIMP -
I copied the words from Elie Wiesel's 1999 speech in Washington D.C. on "The Perils of Indifference" into Wordle.
Then I set some vibrant colors through the Custom Color options.
Saved the image and opened it in GIMP.
I removed the background by adding an alpha layer.
Took the image of Elie Wiesel and opened it as a layer
Added one more layer and added a gradient.

I could  have done a better job with the colors - but I can see so many uses for this as creative additions to student research - and there was NO COST!
Use of web 2.0 and open source wins the day.
My example:

Technorati Tags: eliewiesel, sharonbetts, GIMP, wordle

Mathemagic - TED talk from 2007

Having fun with videos today - another old one that I haven't seen for awhile. As an "older" math teacher, this one makes me smile.

About Arthur Benjamin

Mathematician and magician Arthur Benjamin combines his two passions in "Mathemagics," a mind-boggling presentation of lightning calculations and other feats of mathematical agility.

YouTube Math and Science Videos

Just got this tip from Twitter. The Khan Academy has now posted on YouTube over 800 videos (find a complete list here) that will teach students the ins-and-outs of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, finance, physics, economics and more.

Here is an example from the Brain Teasers thread.

Technorati Tags: khanacademy, math, youtube, sharonbetts