Woopid

Woopid is a great site that I believe will be of great assistance to all of the teachers out there who have a bit of a learning curve when it comes to new applications on the computer.  Woopid is a comprehensive video library of tutorials, just like my YouTube Channel, but with even more videos and much better organization.  Videos cover topics such as PCs, Macs, apps, software, hardware and more.  Videos are easily searchable and Woopid even suggests similar videos that are more basic or more advanced than the one you are watching.

Now What?

This is a tremendous resource for teachers everywhere but also for students who are struggling with using the computer.  Another great feature is the ability to suggest a video tutorial that they do not cover.  For other great tutorial sites check out GCF Learning, ThinkTutorial and Learn It In 5.  How about taking it a step further and having your class create computer tutorials for the students and faculty at your school?

YouTube for Teachers

I recently checked in on the YouTube Teacher Channel to see if there was anything new and what I found is something very useful for teachers using YouTube in their classroom.  On the YouTube Teacher Channel you can now search by subject and grade level to find videos that will fit with your curriculum standards and class lessons.  Check out the image below to see how nice and easy it is to find videos that have been hand selected by teachers for your classroom.  In addition to the video library, users can also access content about how to start a YouTube channel as well as other tips for getting started with YouTube in the classroom.

Now What?

You may not be ready to start recording your lessons and "flipping" your classroom but YouTube is a great resource for bringing concepts to life and engaging your digital natives.  If you are using YouTube already, be sure to check out "A Cleaner YouTube" which is a Google Chrome extension for removing the clutter around your video.

Math in Movies

Mathematics in Movies is a website developed by Oliver Knill who is a Harvard Mathematics professor.   While browsing around Mathematics in Movies I was surprised to see the size of their collection of movie and television clips.  For each clip there is the title of the show/movie and a quick link to a math concept.  The clip that immediately stood out to me was Oscar from the The Office explaining to Michael the definition of a surplus.  Click here to check it out.

Now What?

Mathematics in Movies is a great site for introducing a concept or reinforcing a concept after it has been taught.  I could also be a good way for students to review by browsing the library of clips.  What's nice about this site is that they also provide a link to the .mp4 version which you can download and show offline.  You can even concert that file to a .flv and use it in Smart Notebook.  For more on that click here.

Explania

Explania is a site that I like a lot for learning about a topic that is new to me or that I don't fully understand like "How does the digestive system work?"  I also used to use it quite often in class to teach about a computer related topic that wasn't already explained by Common Craft.  The videos are short (usually 3-4 minutes or less) and do a nice job of explaining the topic in clear and understandable terms.  The fact that the videos on Explania are animated also make them more enjoyable to watch.

Check out the animated explanation for Twitter below to get a better idea of the videos on the site:



What is Twitter? - Explania

Now What?

Everyone can benefit from using Explania because they have so many animations on such a wide variety of topics.  The videos are short and you can even embed them onto a website if you wanted to share them with an entire class.  If you are looking for other sites that offer video explanations of academic subjects you can also check out Qwiki and Common Craft.

Ted Ed

Ted Ed is a collection of educational lessons created by educators and then animated by professionals.  These lessons can be searched by theme (e.g. inventions that shaped history) or subject (e.g. mathematics, social studies).  In line with the idea of the flipped classroom, all videos are accompanied by a lesson which the students can watch prior to coming to class in order to be prepared for the activity or discussion.  With registration, you can share lessons with your students and then view their progress or as student you can track your learning from lesson to lesson.  Each video lesson on Ted Ed is accompanied by a Quick Quiz with multiple choice comprehension questions, a thinking question which is open-ended to help students think more critically about what they have watched, and further resources which help students to explore the topic further.  One great feature of Ted Ed is the ability to "flip" the lessons by changing up any of the associated content including quiz questions and resources.  You can even grab a video from YouTube (including your own) and create a lesson using the Ted Ed site.

Now What?

Ted Ed is a great extension of the original Ted Talks website where innovative ideas are born and bred.  Using Ted Ed teachers can create an environment for their flipped classroom or self-created videos.  Although the site is new, there are plenty of lessons already to search and with the ability for users to add to the community it promises to only get more and more impressive.

Periodic Table Videos

I recently discovered a great site created by the University of Nottingham in the UK called The Periodic Table of Videos.  On this site you can click on each individual element and watch a video about that element and it's characteristics.  All of these videos can also be access on their YouTube site which also has other videos about scientific stories as well as their latest creation The Molecular Videos which are focused on molecules and compounds.

Now What?

The Periodic Table of Videos is a great site to use while teaching about the different elements and what makes them special.  The videos on their channel are very short (for the most part one minute or two) and very informative.  While we are talking about elements, you can check out this interactive period table which allows you to sort them in all different ways and this visual periodic table which has some great information about each element.  Ready to test your knowledge...check out these games by Sheppard Software broken out by knowledge.

Sponge Lab

Sponge Lab is a beta site which has been developed by a group of scientists, teachers, animators, artists, and programmers passionate about science education. The purpose of Sponge Lab...make available cutting-edge technology and stunning interactive media for everyone, regardless of fiscal constraints.  Exploring around the site as a guest, I found Sponge Lab to be easy to use and full of resources.  The content available for searching includes graphics and images, games and simulations, animations and video, case studies, lesson plans, and quizzes.

Watch the short trailer below about Spongelab Interactive...




Now What?

Sponge Lab looks to be an excellent resource for science teachers as well as students completing a project or looking for some information about a variety of science topics.  I liked the ability to search by subject area as well as by topic.  Sponge Lab is kind of like Googling for information without having to Google it because everything you are looking for is in one place for you to explore.  One of the resources that I found previously and bookmarked was the Build A Body simulation which is great for students learning about the body's systems.

Jelly Cam

Every time I see a stop motion animation video, I think how cool it looks (Common Craft) and then wish that I was creative enough to do it.  If you are like me, there may be hope for us yet.  Jelly Cam is a simple application built for taking images and making them into a flash animation.  To get started you simply download the picture uploader from Jelly Cam and then upload your images.  Once your images are into the editor, you can add a soundtrack and have some fun.  Unfortunately, Jelly Cam cannot take the photos for you (unless you use your webcam) so that part could take some time but ultimately this is a great way to create a nice flash animation using your own images.  Below is an example of a short video creating using Jelly Cam by an elementary student:




Now What?


Jelly Cam is an excellent site for students who are into video production and this easy to use application would work well with students of all grades.  Time lapse photography is a great way to show change over time (plants, outdoor scene) or explain a concept like Common Craft does with it's series "Plain English".  Another great stop motion animation site to check out is SAM Animation which is a similar download with more features.

BrainPOP GameUp

After receiving this month's BrainPOP newsletter, I was prompted to go back and check out their newest addition to the site called GameUp.  If you haven't noticed...kids likes playing video games and there has been a growing faction of educational pundits advocating for the use of instructional gaming which could be the next big push in educational reform.  The GameUp site currently offers instructional gaming in the areas of math, science, social studies and health.  Their newest offerings include Flower Power where you learn to grow and harvest flowers through decimals and fractions, geometry lessons in Pyramid Panic, Master Mines which teaches about different minerals, and Coaster Creator which focuses on potential and kinetic energy.  For more games and to search by subject you can head over to GameUp to see what else is available.

Now What?

While checking out the newest educational games, be sure to stop off at the BrainPOP Educators site which has lots of resources including lesson plans and searchable academic standards.  If you or your school is interested in purchasing a license with  BrainPOP, which will allow you access to all of their content, you can use the code teacher_appreciation_12 when prompted and receive 20% off of your subscription through May 31st.  Also, if you have a classroom website you can check out BrainPOP's embeddable content like widgets and the movie of the day.

Walk Me

Walk me is a great new site which offers website owners (like teachers) to create walk through videos for their sites so that their end users (students) will have an easier time navigating the site or completing a requested action.  Creating an account on Walk me is free and will give you the ability to embed three walk through videos on your site.  If you would like the ability to include more than three videos you can check out their pricing tiers.  In order to create your video you will need to download their software which allows you to create your videos while viewing your website.  Check out the video below to see this application in action...





Now What?

When I was in the classroom, I remember students asking me questions about the class website and where they could find certain items and resources.  Using the three free Walk me videos I bet I could have made things easier for myself and my students.

Gooru

Gooru is a fairly new website which is a useful for math and science teachers looking for some great resources for their classes.  Once I created my free account I found that there were lots of different types of resources available including videos, interactive displays, documents, diagrams, and quizzes.  These resources are broken out by topics so you can find what you are looking for quite easily.

Once you create an account on Gooru you can browse and use the free resources saving them to your "resources folder" on the site.  You can even grab the browser extension which will allow you to save content from other sites into your Gooru folder.

Now What?

Gooru is a great resource for finding new content and lesson plan ideas for teachers of math and science.  Students can even use Gooru to find materials for review or to take practice tests on the available subjects.  For those teachers with interactive whiteboards, Gooru makes it very easy to find interactive websites which will work with your boards.

Present Me

Present.Me is a new beta website where you can upload your PowerPoint presentations and then record audio and video using a webcam to present your presentation.  I think Present.Me is a pretty cool site if you are into the whole flipped classroom thing.  Present.Me could also be a great tool for use in the differentiated classroom where you have students working in small groups on different mini lessons.  Creating a presentation on the site is very simple.  First you upload your PPT file and then you record your slide by slide narration using your webcam.  I really found this site to be easy to use and like the idea of creating a lesson that students could follow independently.  Check out the "presi" that I created on primary and secondary sources below...





Now What?

If you are someone who doesn't mind being in front of the camera like me you can really get into the idea of presenting your presentations for students to view inside or outside of school.  Present.Me is a great way to help students who miss class and also a time saver for you as a teacher once you have your lessons created.

Snack Tools

I recently received an e-mail from Snack Tools about their newest addition called File Snack which is a file sharing site that does not require registration and immediately gives you the link to share the file with others with out having to log in.  This is great for those situations when you want to share a file (or several) with someone but your e-mail client does not support large file sizes.

While checking out File Snack I noticed that  Snack Tools has been busy since I last visited their site and wrote about it.  In addition to their File Snack application, they also have a number of other great free resources for educators such as a banner maker, video playlist creator, flip books, and (what I used originally) a quiz creator.  I also noticed that they have a website creator in the mix which will be coming soon.  If it is anywhere near as easy to use as the other tools it is going to be awesome.

Now What?

As an educator it is nice to not have to learn a number of different tools from several sites.   Snack Tools is a one stop shop for you to create and add widgets to your class website or create other useful media for your classroom lessons.

Common Craft

Common Craft is a great website that I have used countless times in class to explain a topic for the first time or review something that students have already learned.  The videos on Common Craft are created using stop motion animation which is simple to follow and fun to watch.  The premise of Common Craft is to create videos "in plain English" so that they are easy to understand.  Check out the list of videos below (click to see larger image) as well as an example video on CFL light bulbs.

Now What?

Head over to Common Craft and check out some of the videos that fit with your classroom curriculum.  There are also some great videos that you can use to help yourself to better understand some of the new emerging technologies and websites.

Cleaner YouTube

If you are using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Sarari you have to check out this app created by a Cleaner Internet.  In short...it takes a convoluted YouTube video page and cleans it up leaving just the video (you can choose to show comments, etc.).  You can even dim the lights to focus on the video itself and my favorite feature which is to share a link to the cleaner video for other users.  Check out the difference below:

YouTube Homepage

YouTube Homepage with Clea.nr

Video View on YouTube

Video View with Clea.nr

One True Media

One True Media is a great website for creating video projects using images, video clips and text.  I got an e-mail recently from them asking me if I wanted to keep my old videos (forgot I had created any) which prompted me to visit the site and review it...again and I was really glad that I did.  This site is crazy for a free video editor.  You can upload a variety of images and video clips in many different formats (including .3gp which is mobile phone video) and then create your free video using lots of styles, effects and transitions.  Some of the features that I liked the most on One True Media were the ability to upload your own music, customize EVERTHING, HD style packages, and the ability to create text slides and customize captions.  You can even share your project with others so they can upload video and images.

Now What?

One True Media is a great site for creating digital stories in all content areas.  Have your students create a public service announcement to raise awareness about a pressing issue or current event.  You can also use a digital story assignment to have them explain something that you have covered in class using the caption features.

Google Search Stories

It's official...you can create a story about anything...yup even your Google searches using Google's Search Story Creator.  This is a very exciting idea for digital storytelling.  Instead of having your students write a story why not have them narrate it through Google searches?  Before creating the story, it is important to think about how it will start and how it will end.  You can only have seven searches in your story which will give you a 30 second clip.  This max helps to focus the story and keep it moving.  The final product gets uploaded to your YouTube account for sharing with the world.  Check out my story below about buying a house...





Now What?

This is a great little activity for your students to complete.  Why not have them tell their next story through a Google search rather than explicitly on paper.  You can also include images and maps content into your search story which is all set to background music.

Chill | Find and Share Video Playlists

Chill is a website similar to Pinterest where you can search for videos grouped together by subject.  On the Chill website you can create an account with Facebook and then start creating folders of video to share with the world.  As a teacher this would be a great place for you to go looking for new video content to share with your students.  Currently Chill supports YouTube, Vimeo, VEVO and Hulu but I also found videos from the Huffington Post as well.  Take a look below for a screenshot of a search results page...

Now What?

The next time you are looking for some video for your classroom give Chill a shot.  This could also be a great place for you to start curating the web and collecting playlists of video that you want to share with your students for each unit.  I'm still wondering how they were able to secure the domain chill.com in the year 2012!?!

CNN Student News

CNN Student News is a great website for social studies teachers at the middle and high school level or for any teacher looking to incorporate thought provoking current events into their classroom.  Each day on CNN Student News there is a ten minute broadcast produced by the educators at CNN.  On the CNN Student News website there are even transcripts for the show, daily discussion questions and various other additional support materials to help students better understand the news.  You can even subscribe to the daily podcast and receive each new episode automatically.  Below is an example from a recent episode:




Now What?

CNN Student News is a great place to integrate current events into your classroom in an understandable language.  If you don't have time in the day, you can assign an episode for homework and discuss it the next day.  You could even have your students create their own broadcast using the show as a model.  For back episodes check out their archive.

The Futures Channel

Have you ever been in a class before and said to yourself (hopefully not out loud) "When am I ever going to use this stuff?"  We have all been there.  For those students you can now supply a full assortment of videos to compliment your instruction using The Futures Channel.  On this website there are many free (some paid) short videos that demonstrate the application of classroom concepts.  I watched a video where Easton was testing it's aluminum baseball bats for durability and performance.  The video was fun to watch and it even offered a lesson plan on angles, measurement and statistics including a lab activity for students.  The Futures Channel has a lot of great videos for free and it will ultimately engage your students and provide them with the answer to their question "When will I ever use this stuff?".

Now What?

The Futures Channel is an excellent resource when planning a new lesson or wrapping up one in progress.  Students are engaged by video (YouTube is a testament to that) and The Futures Channel blends video with the concepts that you are teaching in your classroom to provide students with a more authentic look at what they are learning.  A good assignment toward the end of the year would be to have students look on the site and find a video that relates to a concept that was learned.  They can then talk about the connection in class and show the video.