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TECHNOLOGY: New and Improved By Julie Thompson

A guide to cool, indispensable Web sites

As educators, we spend hours upon hours searching for great Web sites that will make a difference in our classrooms. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone else did the searching? That’s exactly what we’ve done. Read on for a guide to some terrific sites.

Boost your curriculum
MarcoPolo continues to provide high quality standards-based content and professional development for K-12 teachers and students. You can access lesson plans, student activities or Web sites from one central location. Specific content areas include gems such as Kennedy Center’s ArtsEdge, National Council for Teachers of Mathematics’ Illuminations, International Reading Association’s ReadWriteThink and National Geographic’s Xpeditions.
The George Lucas Educational Foundation funds the Edutopia Web site, which remains the premier stage for success stories and information about project-based learning.
With the increased implementation of mobile computing and PDAs in the classroom, Memoware is a great place to find new materials. You can download genre-specific text from more than 28,000 free titles. Classic texts abound in this eclectic collection — from Shakespeare to Beatrix Potter.
If your students have trouble completing a research project or need some how-to advice, send them to Noodletools. The site provides a curriculum collaboration tool kit as well as an easy-to-search database and expert answers to the trickiest citation questions.
United Learning began in the 1950s with the creation of 16mm films. It now provides more than 22,000 streaming standards-based video clips and more than 2,200 full video-on-demand titles, all available online. Newcomers to this service of Discovery Education qualify for a 30-day free trial.

Expand your world
Sending photos, music or other large files has been a snap since I found YouSendIt. What a great product — and no account sign-in is required! It's easy, it's fast and it's free.
Feeling a little cramped in your classroom? Several free tools allow you to play amateur architect and visualize a virtual redesigned space. Scholastic’s Class Set-Up Tool enables the user to rearrange and set up mock classrooms and map out virtual seating charts without ever moving a chair.
Another fascinating creativity tool is Google Sketchup. This easy-to-learn 3-D modeling program enables users to explore the world in 3-D. With just a few simple tools, you can create models of home additions, woodworking projects — even space ships. You can place your models in Google Earth, post them to the 3-D Warehouse or print hard copies.

Improve your skills
Would you and your students benefit from software tutorials? Take a minute to download and install Wink. The free, open-source program is a great way to learn how to use software through animated tutorials.
One of the coolest online sites I’ve encountered in a long time is Zoho Sheet. This site provides a Web-based alternative to traditional spreadsheet applications, such as MS Excel. It provides basic spreadsheet functionalities coupled with Web-based features such as sharing, tagging, publishing and more.

Communicate with your students — or with the world
You can create your own online forum with ActiveBoard, a dedicated, reliable, secure and simple-to-use free forum-hosting service. You can be up and running in minutes.
Nuvvo is another free and easy resource for teachers to build engaging courses, enroll students and track their progress. This is a great way to deliver online professional development. You can even publish your course to the Courses Market, “where the world comes to learn.”
Wikis and blogs are the new buzzwords in education. A wiki is a Web site where everyone may contribute content to the site; a blog is an easy-to-use site where authors can quickly publish thoughts, interact with readers and more. With SeedWiki, Blogger, Xanga or Classblogmeister, you can set up a classroom blog or wiki in a few uncomplicated steps — absolutely free.
Podcasting is a new technology that seemed to come out of nowhere and now has been widely adopted in classrooms across the nation. At Podomatic, the barriers have dropped for people interested in producing podcasts. It’s a free "one-stop shop" for everything a podcaster needs.
A tool to administer a quick survey to your faculty or class is the Survey Monkey. Using only a Web browser, create your survey, collect responses and analyze results with the click of a mouse. Collecting meaningful information has never been easier.
Another excellent free online resource is Moodle. This course-management system comes in the form of an open-source software package that uses sound pedagogical social-constructivist principles to help educators create effective online learning communities.
For a minimal fee, a district can subscribe to another eLearning and collaboration solution software, Elluminate Live! Users can share whiteboards and applications while adding real-time interaction to distance learning.

Visit the MSTA Web site at www.msta.org/publications for links to these sites. Let the adventure begin!

Where to find it




Julie Thompson is a middle school computer instructor for the West Plains R-7 School District. The eMINTS National Center is a collaborative program developed by the University of Missouri, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Department of Higher Education.