Waffle Bytes

Finding good web resources can be the hardest part of the job for an educator.  With all the demands on a teacher's time, who has time to spend searching?  If this is you, here are some resources you may found useful.  Please feel free to share with others! General - 10 Video Websites That Are Like YouTube for Kids “[T]en of the best online video websites that offer entertaining and educational videos that kids will love. If you are a parent looking for an alternative to television for your kids, or you're a teacher looking for appropriate content for the classroom, this list can help.” Language - 50 Great Ways to Use Graphic Novels in the Classroom Not being an ELA teacher, I don’t know how many people use graphic novels in the classroom.  However, many ideas on this list are applicable to other works of literature as well. Math - Survivor Algebra The site is one teache...

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the educational technology conference #MACUL11 at Detroit, Michigan.  What a great use of three days!  It was a busy, hectic time with over 4,000 people in attendance, and included such featured speakers as Hall Davidson, Leslie Fisher, Kevin Honeycut, Rushton Hurley and Anne Truger (there were more, but these are the ones I managed to hear speak).  Additionally, there were literally hundreds of other sessions to attend that were offered by educators from all over the state. I thought it worth taking a few minutes away from playing catchup to share three ideas that teachers might find useful in their classroom.  While there are many more I could share, I am going to stick to that magic number of three items that people take away and remember! Advanced twitter search : find all kinds of cool resources, websites, quotes, etc.  You don't have to be a twitter user to use it! ~from Leslie Fisher's session "Twitter, Twitter,...

There are so many sites that now allow you to embed their content onto your own website! Since Moodle is web-based, you are able to add any of this embed content right onto your Moodle page.  Some of the items that are often embedded onto Moodle pages: Current local weather RSS feeds from news sites YouTube videos You can use embedding code from any place that provides its.  You will probably want to note any restrictions or advertising that is included in using it. So, where in Moodle can you add code?  Basically, anywhere you have access to the HTML toolbar! However, before you go extending the front of your course to kingdom come (otherwise known as creating the "scroll of death"),  there are some locations to add it that might be better than others: HTML block Add a new website resource Any activity directions Directions for adding embed code: Go to the site with the embed code (in my example I am adding a YouTube video) and locate the embed code H...

Leslie Fisher handouts Hall Davidson handouts (Hall) FREE Webcam and/or Document camera:  use old broken camcorder that video feed still works; you don't need to worry about tapes, etc as only using video feed. (Lesie) Sony NEX: compact camera with interchangeable lenses, with tilt screen; also does video, and photo stitching on the the fly to create panoramic (10 frames per second). Pogoplug: hooks in WiFi or Ethernet, choose devices (camera, etc) that backup media to Pogoplug then can set share settings for content, which is sorted into folders. $99 (Hall) Google Placemarks for Field Trip: how-to is in handout; use Jing to screencast students talking about locations along way, and add to placemarks to create trip. Google LitTrips: precreated "trip" using Google Earth using placemarks to add details, resources, etc.  (Leslie) Google Shared Spaces: create a shared space in your Google account (Hall) Wordle/Chromakey: (Mac) put Wordle in background of Photoboo...

Finding good web resources can be the hardest part of the job for an educator.  With all the demands on a teacher's time, who has time to spend searching?  If this is you, here are some resources you may found useful.  Please feel free to share with others! General - Speaking Image Upload an image, make it interactive and then share it with others. Language - 10 Sites for Reading Children’s Stories Online From the MakeUseOf.com site, 10 sites students can access, listen to, read and watch children’s stories. Math - InterMath "[A] professional development effort designed to support teachers in becoming better mathematics educators. It focuses on building teachers' mathematical content knowledge through mathematical investigations that are supported by technology. InterMath includes a workshop component and materials to support instructors." Science - Molecular Workbench S...

Occasionally situations arise that require the restoration of a Moodle course from a zipped backup file.  Some of these situations include: receiving a course that was shared by another person, recovering a course that had become corrupt, rewinding to a previous version of a course that had been updated, moving the course from one server to another, or creating a new course from an older course. Moodle makes restoring courses from a backup relatively simple to do within the browser interface, so little to no server access is needed. Uploading the zipped course backup (you can skip this step if the backup is one for the existing course you are in) Log in to Moodle and enter a course. Go to the Administration Pane and click on the course files: Click on the backupdata folder: Upload the zipped backup to the folder, clicking on “Upload a file,” then browse to find and select the backed up course file. Restoring the course materials Click on the button in the Admini...

On a delay from Friday, here's the latest edition of Friday Finds! Finding good web resources can be the hardest part of the job for an educator.  With all the demands on a teacher's time, who has time to spend searching?  If this is you, here are some resources you may found useful.  Please feel free to share with others! General - Free & Legal Music Downloads Site where users can access and download music that has been shared through Creative Commons licensing by its creators. Language - Planet Read There are currently two areas:  Bookbox, where audio-visual books for young children are available in languages from around the world; Same Language Subtitling, an area with activities, research, and information about same language subtitling. Math - Visual Math Learning Online math tutorials that utilize games, puzzles, interactive diagrams and computer animated manipulatives...