IMC Catalog
WorldBook
Tutoring
Visual Thesaurus
Information Literacy
Inquiry Based Learning
Software
Higher Order Thinking
Tech for Tomorrow
Essential Learning Resources |
Information
Literacy & Technology
Essential Learning Resources
Engaging Learners with High Quality Electronic Learning Resources
- Ed1Stop
Your one stop login for all of our essential learning resources. FSUSD now has districtwide access for all teachers to: Discovery Streaming, Learn360, WorldBook Online, Visual Thesaurus, Thinkfinity and BrainPop. All sites have Textbook Connections. Secondary sites (grades 7-12) have AP Multimedia Image Archive and Soundzabound.
- BrainPop
Highly engaging Flash based movies. Provide context for your teaching in all subject areas. Available in English and Spanish plus BrainPop Jr.
- Discovery Streaming
Exceptional collection of over 40,000 video clips. Easy to search and sort. Supplemental materials provided. Typically accessed through Ed1Stop. All FSUSD schools now have site licenses for all staff and students.
- Thinkfinity (formerly Marco Polo)
This is a extraordinary collection of free educational resources developed by seven partner sites, each focusing on a different curriculum area.
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InfoLit Resources
Searching the Web for information.
Resources:
Academic Tools & Technical Help:
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Electronic Learning Resources
Inquiry Based Learning
- Knowledge
Network Explorer
ATT (formerly SBC) maintains Knowledge Network Explorer.
- Bernie
Dodge's WebQuest site
Fabulous compilation of already-completed WebQuests
by the person who began it all. The site is hosted by San Diego
State University. Since this site is developed using "frames,"
you must click on the WebQuest Portal link. If
you click on Top, then it will take you to the
"Matrix of Examples" of the top rated WebQuests. If
you click on Middling, it will take you to the
matrix of "middling" sites. The New
link will take you to WebQuests not yet reviewed.
- Schrockguide
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is hosted by Discovery School. Schrock maintains a list of approximately 2000 excellent Internet resources organized by Subject Access. It is extremely easy to navigate. You will also find Teacher's Helpers and Kathy's own new picks of the month.
Tools and Software for Higher Order Thinking
- Inspiration
Inspiration 8.0 software is the leader in visual learning.
It is concept mapping software that can be used
from 3rd grade through high school. Our district already has over
1,200 licenses, so that the cost for a new license is $17.80 per
seat, and upgrades are only $9.50. They provide a number of free
resources and templates, and now you can match to State standards
as well. You may download a free 30-day trial. For grades K-2,
try Kidspiration
2 .
- SMART Technology
- Interactive
Thinking Tools
Intel Corporation's education division has developed some exceptional,
free tools that support higher order thinking.
- Visual
Ranking
- Use an online tool for ordering and prioritizing items
in a list.
- Help students analyze and evaluate criteria for their
decisions.
- Compare reasoning visually to promote collaboration
and discussion
- Seeing
Reason
- Use an online tool for mapping cause-and-effect relationships.
- Help students analyze complex systems.
- Communicate understanding visually and promote collaborative
work
- Showing Evidence
- Use an online tool for hypothesizing and supporting claims with evidence
- Help students analyze and evaluate criteria for their decisions.
- Communicate understanding visually and promote collaborative work.
- Apple Education:
- Pinnacle
Do you want to make a movie? Try Pinnacle Studio version 10. The three-step process is extremely easy: (1) capture, (2) edit, and (3) make movie.
- Virtual Field Trips
Tramline offers online education both inside and outside the classroom. The Virtual Field Trips section provide a number of free, structured educational experience for your students. (Ignore the ads.) They give you all of the support materials. You can even create your own Virtual Field Trips with their TourMaker software - for a modest $25 cost per computer.
- Bloom's
Taxonomy
What is higher order thinking? We constructed a Google search
on the topic, and we found quite a bit. The introduction page
will give you a quick overview. This Acrobat PDF document can
be used as a standalone document. It was created with the full
version of Adobe
Acrobat Professional.
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Technology for the Future
The Engines that Could
- INTEL
Intel Corporation makes all kinds of hardware, but they also host
Intel Innovation in
Education. After developing the Teach to the Future
program, they created Interactive Thinking
Tools like Seeing Reason and Visual Ranking. Learning
About Technology provides an excellent view of Emerging
Technologies as well as a Journey Inside: Engaging Technology
to Explain technology. It is very cool, and it is all online.
- APPLE
This may be a PC world (that's personal computer, not politically
correct), but Apple pioneered computing in education. Check out
the Apple Learning Interchange.
- MICROSOFT
Microsoft is the 800 pound software gorilla sitting on our couch.
Fortunately for K-12 they host the superb Microsoft
Education. Check out Instructional
Resources, Education
Programs, and more.
- MACROMEDIA
Learn to weave the Web. FSUSD has standardized on Macromedia Studio
8 (replaces MX 2004). It is a suite of web authoring tools:
Dreamweaver,
Fireworks
and Flash.
They have become the standards in the industry. Contribute
is a new program that an average teacher can use to update web
pages. See Macromedia Showcases, check out free online Tutorials,
and visit the K-12
Education site. For those using Studio MX, download from the
K-12
Staff Development Guide.
- ADOBE
Adobe's PhotoShop has set the standard for photographers and digital
art for many years. Now PhotoShop
Elements is available for the average user who wants
to tweak their digital photos, or add some very cool effects.
Everyone who reads documents on the Web has used the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader. What many teachers are discovering is the
power of the full version of Acrobat
Professional: You can create your own PDF files from
Web pages as well as from Word and Excel documents. Educational
versions of PhotoShop Elements and Acrobat Professional are extremely cheap
(contact Ed Tech).
The Search for Tomorrow
- EDUTOPIA
When George Lucas created the Star Wars saga,
he helped shape a new American mythology. He has since founded
the George Lucas Educational Foundation. It offers a window into
how to use multimedia to engage, enlighten and teach. There are
numerous case studies complemented with streamed video.
Check out the story on Geo-Literacy.
It began here in FSUSD, folks!
- CIRCUITS
New York Times on the Web provides its news articles
over the Internet. The Times also provides a number of photo and
multimedia resources that are excellent for the classroom. Circuits
is the famous Technology Column (you'll find David Pogue there).
Register
to receive the Times on the Web; it is free.
- FROM NOW ON
Jamie McKenzie publishes the Educational Technology Journal,
otherwise known as "FNO." Often irreverent, but always
insightful, From Now On asks how we create conditions for engaged
learning. It even has cartoons.
You may subscribe
to FNO for free.
- MIT MEDIA LAB
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) maintains the Media
Lab. Check out some of their Research
projects and programs. MIT's Blogdex
also tracks the activity of "blogs" to determine the
"most contagious information currently spreading in the weblog
community." The nature of communication and information dissemination
is changing as we speak.
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