Sunday, September 30, 2012
Explore the Great Barrier Reef: Google Wonders Project
The Google Wonders Project is an interactive website that allows visitors to discover many of the wonders of the world. Virtual visitors can get off the beaten path and explore wonders from 6 continents up close through Google's amazing street view technology. Virtual visitors can find factual information, stunning images, 3-D models and YouTube videos right on the page, which makes the World Wonders Project an amazing teaching tool.
The newest addition to the collection takes visitors on an underwater tour of the Great Barrier Reef. Divers used the world's first tablet-operated underwater camera to capture high-definition panoramic images of the reef to create stunning content.
The underwater expedition is part of a larger scientific study which aims to help bridge the gap between scientific awareness and public knowledge. Google has partnered with The Catlin Seaview Survey for a major study of the world’s reefs and has made images from from coral reefs in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii available through Google Maps. There will also be a dedicated YouTube channel for project-related videos. It's probably only a matter of time until Google assembles more packages of teacher-friendly content from the underwater expeditions and makes them available through the Google Wonders project.
Visit the Great Barrier Reef on the Google Wonders Project
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Spin Xpress: Search for Creative Commons Images
Spin Xpress - Search for CC Licensed Media
Spin Xpress is a website that allows people to collaborate and share media. One of the features offered is a search engine that allows users to search for media by CC license type. After teaching students about CC licenses, this is a great tool for students. Embed it into your blog, wiki or website and provide students with quick and easy access to images that have CC licenses.  |
| Discover more cool tools for searching on GettingSmart.com 10 Free Tools for Everyday Research |
Monday, September 17, 2012
Electing a President - An Interactive Graphic
I created an interactive graphic to provide students and their teachers with flexible paths to learn about electing a president and the electoral college. The image was created with ThingLink. I used some of the new storytelling icons to identify different types of resources.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Common Core Connections: Unpacking Academic Vocabulary
Are you wondering where to begin to adopt the Common Core Vocabulary Standards? While there are many specific vocabulary standards clearly listed in the K-12 Language strand, it's helpful and important to look at Academic Vocabulary from the big picture view known as Shift 6. Let's unpack it.
Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary
Overview: Three Tiers of Vocabulary
- Tier 1:
Words acquired through every day speech, usually learned in the early grades - Tier 2:
Academic words that appear across all types of text. These are often precise words that are used by the author in place of common words. (i.e. gallop instead of run). They change meaning with use. - Tier 3:
Domain specific words" that are specifically tied to content. (i.e. Constitution, lava) These are typically the types of vocabulary words that are included in glossaries, highlighted in textbooks and address by teachers. They are considered difficult words important to understanding content.
Understanding: Watch a Video by EngageNY
It's clear that identifying the Tier 2 Vocabulary words in a passage can be both challenging and time-consuming for teachers. While it is important for the teacher to be the decision-makers about identifying Tier 2 Vocabulary, and it's understood that a digital tool is no substitute for human decision-making, it's helpful to have a tool to jump start the process and provide a starting point. Wordle, a simple word cloud generator can be a handy tool for this task.
Digital Tools to Help Identify Tier 2 Words
Wordle
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| First 3 Paragraphs of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address |
The Find Tool
Taking this one step further, I returned to the original text and used the Find Tool (control + f) to find occurances of the word, dedicated. This was helpful for jump starting the process of examining the important word and how it is used in context.
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| Use the Find Tool to Identify Tier 2 Vocabulary in Context |
I performed similar experiments on other significant documents, including Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. The tool does appear to be helpful as a starting point for identifying significant words, but again, it is no substitute for human decision-making.
Digital Tools for Helping Students Construct Knowledge about Tier 2 and Tier 3 Words
If you are looking for digital tools to help students build deep meaning of vocabulary words, there are quite a few that are well-suited for the task. I have created a MentorMob playlist of tools to guide the journey and exploration through some previous blog posts with more information about the tools.Create your own Playlist on MentorMob!
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Google Docs New Integrated Research Tool
Google Docs has many useful features for helping students develop writing skills. When I recently opened a Google Document to plan a teacher training on Using Google Docs to Facilitate a Writing Workshop I was pleasantly surprised to find a new and powerful integrated research feature which couldn't be easier to use. Just pull down the Tools menu, click on Research and search for information in the research pane that appears on the right side of the screen. Users never have to leave the page.
A basic search yields results relevant to your document and displays a variety of information beyond text. Narrow your search with the click of a button to find images, scholarly information and quotations accompanied by buttons that allow users to do more. Here are some of the highlights found in features of the research pane:
- Web results display a relevant snippet of information with citation information and a link to the full website. Select the Insert Link button to include a link to the full website in the document or select the Cite button to include a footnote citation in your document.
- Maps are displayed in the search results when searching for geographic locations. Edit maps by zooming in and out and choose Insert to add the map to your body of your text.
- Search for quotations with the click of a button, then choose the Insert button to include a properly formatted quotation in the document.
- Choose Scholar to access a link showing the number of times an article has been cited and a list of sources that have cited the article. View the full website and insert a footnote citation into a document by selecting Cite.
- Select your default citations format by clicking on Settings in the research pane. Choose from MLA, APA or Chicago.
In addition to the obvious ways to use the new integrated research tool, it can also be useful for checking for plagiarism. Just copy and paste a few sentences of text from a document directly into the search box of the research pane and the search will lead directly back to any article from which text has been plagiarized. I like to teach students how to do their own plagiarism check before turning in their work to help them understand the importance of creating original work.
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