ICT Tip: The Biography website features over 25,000 on-line biographies

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The Biography Channel website (www.biography.com/search) contains thousands of on-line biographies for your students to consult.

How can it be used in the classroom: Even though The Biography Channel is a commercial entity, it maintains a free-to-use website. Students can search for biographies by person’s name, alphabetically, keyword, or browse by category (i.e – inventors, athletes, physicists) in the search bios section. Certain biographies contain more information than others, depending on the celebrity level or historical importance of the individual being searched. In the bio’s best section, students can find special features dedicated to topics such as black history and notable women in history.

ICT Tip: GoogleLitTrips allows your students to explore books in a whole new way!

This ICT tip could be applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The Google Lit Trips (www.googlelittrips.org) website uses Google Earth mapping technology to explore and expand upon real-world places featured in books and classic literature.

How can it be used in the classroom: Using this website, you can download various “Google Lit Trips” that have been pre-prepared by other teachers.  The majority of Google Lit Trips contain a teacher’s guide and Google Earth “placemarks” that allow students to explore the far away places that are described in a book. For example, Jerome Burg, creator of the site and an English teacher from Livermore, California, has prepared a Google Lit Trip with various “placemarks” for locations that the character Amir visits in the book The Kite Runner. To describe how Jerome uses Google Lit Trips with The Kite Runner, I’ve quoted an article featured on the Edutopia website:

“.. By clicking on a placemark, students open a pop-up window embedded with supplementary information. One window shows a photo of a bazaar, accompanied by a passage from the novel describing a musty marketplace. Another explains the cultural history of the Pashtun people and has links to additional information about Shia and Sunni Muslims. Most pop-ups include photos, maps, drawings, or text but also have questions to encourage students to think about the story. Exploring the placemarks involves active engagement that Burg compares with using manipulatives for hands-on learning in math. It puts the kids right in the middle of the story,” Burg explains, “rather than at a desk as the teacher teaches the story at them. Students can also add their own placemarks, highlighting locations or links that add to their understanding.”

Video Tutorial: Here’s a video I prepared that demonstrates what’s possible with Google Lit Trips and an overview of how it works:

ICT Ttip: In order to use the Google Lit Trips site, you need to install Google Earth. For more information on using and installing Google Earth, refer to my blog posting at (www.tinyurl.com/ict-earth)  In addition, if you’re technically adventurous, the Google Lit Trips site provides a guide to create your own Google Lit Tips.

ICT Tip: Google Street view allows you to virtually walk around the streets of Canadian cities!

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: Google has finally brought their groundbreaking “Street View” technology to Canada! This amazing technology allows your students to virtually walk around the streets of Canadian cities and experience them as if they were really there.  It’s EASY to use, no special software required, and is free. Works even better on a Interactive Whiteboard, such as a SMARTBoard.

How can it be used in the classroom: Using a digital projector, this technology can be used to take your students on a virtual tour of famous Quebec landmarks that the class may not otherwise have been able to travel to in person. French second language students can use this site to verbally describe various landmarks or buildings found in their own neighborhoods. In addition, this technology can be used as a starting point to bring up a class debate regarding privacy in the Internet age.  Would your students be comfortable having others look up their home addresses?  What would the pictures show?  (i.e – Can you see what was in the garbage that day?  Who was parked in the driveway?)  Ultimately, do your students feel this technology is an invasion of our privacy or a beneficial technology?

Video Tutorial: To see an on-line video of Google Street view, please click the large play button below:

ICT Tip: Ask your students to create digital slideshows quickly and easily with Photo Story!

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A free application that allows your students to create a digital sideshow with copyright free music and their own digital photos.

What does it do? Photo Story allows you or your students to easily create a “digital slideshow” out of images taken with a digital camera or images from the Internet. Photo Story (www.tinyurl.com/4f869) can even generate copyright free music for the slideshow, no musical talent necessary! Due to popularity of this ICT application, I’ve created an updated video tutorial (September 2009) that explains how to use this software step-by-step, please see the video below.

How can it be used in the classroom? Nancy Peterson from the Pontiac Adult Education and Vocational Training Centre (WQSB) showed me how she used Photo Story in conjunction with a class field trip.  Her class took digital pictures during a “sugaring off” field trip and once they got back to the classroom, they pooled together all their digital images and imported them into Photo Story. The students then took turns adding their own vocal narration for each slide. Once complete, they exported the digital slide show as a PC movie file. Nancy was really impressed with the results and so was I!

Video Tutorial: In order to explain step-by-step how a Photostory is created, I’ve created an on-line video tutorial which can be viewed below:

Technical note: Photo Story is a desktop application. This means in order to use Photo Story, it must be downloaded and installed locally on a Windows computer.  If you do not know how (or have the rights) to install software in your computer lab, you can ask for help from your IT department. The digital slideshow files that Photostory 3.0 produces (.WMV files) can be played on any Windows computer, even if Photo Story is not installed.

ICT Tip: Google News Timeline website – A new way to search the past!

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A website that allows your students to search for specific keywords (i.e – people, places, events, quotes) in old newspapers and magazines. Think of searchable digital microfiche, updated for the web, and free!

How does it work? The Google News Timeline website (newstimeline.googlelabs.com) displays search results in a chronological, graphical timeline. The search history can be set to display days, weeks, months, years, or even decades. In fact, some archived newspapers go back as far as the early 1800’s!  For more recent decades, Google News Timeline will search through more contemporary news sources (web, wikipedia) but it can be disabled in your search preferences, if desired.  

How can it be used in the classroom: While many of our students tend to rely on Wikipedia for their historical research (not always a good thing) they could be instead encouraged to use Google Timeline to look through archived print media. Google News Timeline is like visiting the library all over again.. a truly fascinating site, definitely worth a look! (Source: Susan van Gelder, LEARN)

Video Tutorial: To see an on-line video overview of how the Google News Timeline site works, click the large play button below:

Note: If you are interested in a website that will allow your students to read through current newspapers, please consult my other ICT Blog posting featuring the Newseum website.

google news timeline is a web application that organizes search results chronologically. It allows users to view news and other data sources on a browsable, graphical timeline. Available data sources include recent and historical news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores, and information about various types of media, like music albums and movies.

ICT Tip: Comprehensive, ready-to-use EFL/ESL lesson plans based on current world events

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: Ready to use EFL/ESL lesson plans based on current world events. Each lesson contains reading and listening exercises. There is a new lesson added every three days.

How can it be used in the classroom? The Breaking News English website (www.breakingnewsenglish.com) offers your students an opportunity to read and listen to current news items on-line. Each comprehensive lesson plan contains a news article, pair work, discussion, communication activities, reading and vocabulary exercises.

Technical info: The lesson handouts are available in Word and PDF document formats.  You are encouraged to print and use the lessons with your students.  Podcasts (an audio recording of the lesson) in MP3 format are available on the site too. If you’d like to know more about PDFs, MP3s, or Podcasts, please consult my ICT Blog Terminology section.

Highlights:

• The lessons are free.
• There is a new lesson every three days.
• All lessons are based on stories currently in the news.
• As the world’s news breaks, teach it!
• All lessons are also downloadable in Word and PDF formats.
• Listening files can be downloaded as MP3 audio files.
• Listening files can also be subscribed to via a podcast.
• Classroom handouts are readily reproducible.
• There is a graded listening with each lesson.
• Teachers can copy/paste parts of the lessons they want to use.

(Source: Lise Demers, Place Cartier Adult Education Centre, Lester B. Pearson School Board. Certain parts of the “Quick Overview” description have been paraphrased from a description provided to me from Lise Demers. As well, certain parts of the “Highlights” description have been paraphrased from the Breaking News English about section.)

ICT Tip: Snapshots of over 700 newspaper front pages from around the world, updated daily!

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The Newsuem site (www.tinyurl.com/newseum) allows your students to read the front page of different newspapers from all over the world. The newspapers are updated every morning.

How it can be used in the classroom: As a teacher, the Newseum website could be a great ICT resource to keep in your “back pocket” for a day when a worldwide news event happens. Using the Newsuem site, do your students find that newspaper headlines in one country minimize or emphasize this big news event? Is the news event positive in one country and negative in another? In addition, the content on this site is about as real life as it gets and could be a great way to incorporate ICT into a real life Learning Situation.

Other useful links on the site: There’s also an archive section on the Newsuem site (www.tinyurl.com/newseum-archive) that highlights recent events of historical significance. However, due to legal reasons, the Newseum site is not authorized to archive newspaper front pages from other prior dates. If ever you find the newspaper text hard to read, be sure to click on the “readable PDF” link found with each newspaper front page for a higher resolution image. Last but not least, teachers should keep in mind that only the front page of each newspaper is provided. However, a web site link is available for each newspaper so that students can visit their websites to read more.

Additional note for FSL teachers: While the Newseum website interface is in English, there are many French language newspapers available too. For FSL teachers who may want to compare different French language papers, you are best to use the following link (www.tinyurl.com/newseum-regionlist) and use the “sort papers by region” drop down box to locate French language newspapers from specific countries. (Source: Susan Van Gelder, LEARN)

ICT Tip: Information for students that clearly outlines their rights and responsibilities as Quebec citizens. Great for Learning Situations!

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The Éducaloi website provides “hundreds of questions and answers” about the rights and responsibilities of Quebec citizens. The information on the website is presented in clear, concise, and easy to understand everyday language. Available in both English in French.

How can this be used in the classroom: The Éducaloi site contains a vast amount of on-line resources that Quebec adult learners may encounter in their everyday lives. There is a wealth of information regarding employment, consumer rights, renting, civil matters, government, and health – all specifically in relation to the province of Quebec! If you’re developing Learning Situations for your students that touch any of these topics, this site could help them learn pertinent and accurate information about their rights and responsibilities as a citizen in our province. The content on the site has been compiled and organized by a non-profit organization named Éducaloi. Highly recommended! (Source: Nancy Sher, CDC Vimont Adult Centre, SWLSB)

Links: The link to the French version of site is at (www.educaloi.qc.ca) and the link to the English version site is at (www.educaloi.qc.ca/en)

ICT Tip: French and English Visual Dictionaries

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: An on-line “visual dictionary” that defines everyday objects with the aid of beautifully detailed pictures. Available both in English and French. Highly recommended!

How can it be used in the classroom: Students can look up words and see the actual objects. Visual Dictionary definitions can be also browsed by categories (i.e – house, animals, sports, etc.) An added bonus is that that images are often broken down into their related components. For example, if a student looks up a “tree” they will not only see an image of a tree but they will discover the images and vocabulary for bark, leaves, roots, etc. Great sites for visual learners! These sites be used by fluent mother tongue speakers or second language students alike. (Source: Tina La Rosa, Galileo Adult Centre, EMSB)

Links: Please note that this ICT Blog posting features two separate websites. The first visual dictionary website is in French (www.ledictionnairevisuel.com) and the other visual dictionary is in English (visual.merriam-webster.com).

ICT Tip: A list of easily confused English words (i.e. – sea, see, incite, insight) spoken out loud and explained in context

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A comprehensive list of easily confused English words. Students can click on a “confusing word pair” to obtain a definition, read an example of how both words can be used in the context of a sentence, and in certain cases – hear a recording of how each word is pronounced!

How can it be used in the classroom: This on-line resource (www.tinyurl.com/755ynn) can be used to help students improve their English writing skills. Good for beginner and intermediate English learners. If you intend to use the audio portion (i.e – the recordings of pronunciations) of this website in a class with multiple students, headphones are recommended. At the time this article was written, some word pairs on this site did not yet have sound recordings associated with them. (Source: Lise Demers, Place Cartier Adult Education Centre, Lester B. Pearson School Board)

ICT Tip: World Clock “odometers” of world statistics (births, deaths, consumption, etc..)

This ICT tip could be applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The World Clock website (http://tinyurl.com/5bqgdx) provides “odometers” of world statistics. This site is similar to the Worldometers website that I highlighted in an earlier ICT Blog posting, however, the World Clock site allows students to change between daily, monthly, or yearly world statistics. It also offers a different set of statistics.

What does it do? The World Clock website allows your students to see “real time” world statistics updated every second. This includes statistics such as births, deaths, consumption, etc.

How can it be used in the classroom? This site can be used to stimulate a real life discussion in regards to statistics in a math class or a math Learning Situation. It can also be used as a source of inspiration in a language class to bring up a discussion on environmental awareness or carbon footprints.

ICT Tip: Public domain English short stories, novels, poetry, and historical texts.. read out loud with a REAL human voice!

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The Loudlit.org site (http://www.loudlit.org) contains hundreds of easily accessible English short stories, novels, poetry, and historical texts .. read out loud with a real human voice!

What does it do? The LoudLit.org site is committed to delivering public domain literature paired with high quality audio performances. Putting the text and audio together, students can learn spelling, punctuation and paragraph structure by listening and reading masterpieces of the written word. Read and listen via your web browser or download onto your mp3 player. Regardless of how you enjoy the audiobooks, they are free!

How can it be used in the classroom: There are two ways of using the site. The first way your students can read along with the spoken text at the same time. In order to do this, you or your students would locate a short story and click on thebuttons found on the LoudLit site. It’s important to note that if used in a classroom or lab with many computers, each student should be given (or use their own) headphones! The other way for the students to use this site would be for them to click on thebuttons to download the audiobooks in chapters (audio only) to listen to on their iPods and MP3 players as a podcast. (Source: Lise Demers, Place Cartier Adult Education Centre, Lester B. Pearson School Board)

Note: Sections of the “What does it do” is parahphrased from the About section of the LoudLit site.

ICT Tip: An on-line English “pronouncing” dictionary with over 115,000 pre-recorded words, read by a human voice!

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: An on-line English Dictionary that contains over 115,000 English words that have been pre-recorded by a real person with a clear sounding voice.

What does it do? Using the Howjsay (www.howsjay.com) website, students type in English words they would like to hear pronounced. If they click on a word and it has a recording associated with it, the word will be colored pink. This means the word can be clicked on and it will instantly be read out loud with the correct pronunciation. As with any other audio ICT application, headphones are recommended if used in a class with multiple students.

How can it be used in the classroom? To help English or Literacy students with their pronunciation. (Source: Tina La Rosa, Galileo Adult Centre, EMSB)

ICT Tip: On-line videos of world famous speakers to spark discussions in your classroom

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A website containing over 200 on-line videos of inspirational talks by the “world’s greatest thinkers and doers”. A great site to get class discussions going!

What does it do? The TED website (http://www.ted.com) is an annual conference that features over 50 speakers who are “challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less”. TED is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. The TED site allows you to search by themes such as technology, tales of invention, storytelling, business, history, unconventional explanations, education, and so on.. The “sweet and short” 18 minute format works great in a classroom environment and is one of the reasons the site is popular with educators across the world.

How can this be used in the classroom: As a teacher, you could search the TED website a video of a “talk” related to your classroom curriculum. Afterwards, why not show this video to your class in order to spark a debate or discussion? This can be accomplished by bringing your class into a computer lab and exploring the site together with on a digital projector. Alternatively, you could ask the students to visit the site from home or at school, watch a particular video, and then write an essay on one of the speakers. (Source: Ninfa Spagnolo, Galileo Adult Centre, EMSB)

ICT Tip: On-line English Dictionary and Thesaurus

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: An on-line English Dictionary (www.dictionary.com) and Thesaurus (www.thesaurus.com). Both are easy to use and quick to search.

How can it be used in the classroom: If your students ever need to use a paper dictionary or a thesaurus in your classroom, try sharing this resource with them. By enabling them to access this information more quickly, it may encourage them to look things up more often. Even if you’re a new teacher to ICT, you’ll have no problem explaining how to use these two sites. One simply types in a word and then clicks “search” to look it up – that’s it! An added feature is that if your student’s spelling of a word is off, a few possible suggestions (of what they were possibly looking for) will pop up.

ICT Tip: Wordle Word Clouds

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The Wordle website (wordle.net) allows you or your students to copy text from any document (Word document, web page, student essay, etc..) and paste it into the Wordle website. With a click of a button, Wordle will generate a cloud of word poetry (see below image) that places more importance on the most frequently used words form the source document.

How can it be used in the classroom? For students that are visual learners, Wordle could be used to break down a short text and allow your students to literally “see” the most predominant words (i.e – themes) used throughout the text. As an ICT suggestion for the upcoming Canadian and US elections, your students could paste speeches from different candidates into Wordle and see which words come out the most and then initiate a class discussion. Below is an intresting example of pasting Martin Luther King, Jr’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech into Wordle:

(Source: Steve Quirion, RECIT Univers Social)

ICT Tip: Using Google Maps in a language class

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A tip for using Google Maps in conjunction with a written novel to enhance the student’s experience of a book.

What does it do? Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) is a website that allows your students to view satellite maps and roads throughout the world.

How can it be used in a classroom? This particular teacher I found on the web (Tom Woodward) uses Google Maps/Earth in conjunction with a novel that the students read in the class. He basically uses Google Earth to point out various important plot points on an actual map. I think it’s a great idea to get your class more interested in a novel they are reading! Be sure to check it out the class map at: http://tinyurl.com/476j4w

An excerpt from the teacher’s website: The novel is Whirligig by Paul Fleischman- very powerful book that’s a quick read. It’s a great novel for this type of project (fiction but almost all real locations). The main character travels to the four corners of the U.S. (on a Greyhound Bus) as an act of atonement for killing a young girl in a DUI accident.

I’ve got the main locations mapped (some real specific information in Chicago) as well as most of the route. It will continue to expand as the students progress through the novel. Now, what makes this useful? I figure you’ve got two options.

1. You use it as a ancillary material to help get the students more involved in the novel. Let them explore the map and get them involved in explaining things and interacting with the information- otherwise it’s just a fancy map.
2. You have the students add the information for the placemarks in Google Earth. Let them decide what is important at each location.

(Original Source, Tom Woodward at http://bionicteaching.com/?p=235)

ICT Tip: Sparknotes study guides (aka Coles Notes)

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: On-line study guides for students. Similar in concept to Cole’s Notes but free and on-line.

How can it be used in the classroom? The Sparknotes website (www.sparknotes.com) contains comprehensive study guides for English Literature, History, Film, Math, Biology, Shakespeare, etc. Even if on-line study guides aren’t useful for your particular class, you may still want to be aware of this site. Why? Like any other on-line resource, some students may often choose to go here as an easy way to plagiarize information.

ICT Tip: Create a Photo Roman comic book in Word

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A tutorial to create a comic book with photos using Microsoft Word.

What does it do? A “photo roman” consists of a series of photos presented in a way where it creates a comic-book style story. The term “photo roman” translates to a “photo novel” in English. Your students can create their “photo roman” using Microsoft Word.

How can it be used in the classroom? Using Microsoft Word (available in most school computer labs) your students can import photos from a digital camera and create a “comic book” of any given topic assigned by the teacher or picked by the student that is related to the class subject. As a picture is worth a thousand words, you can see the end result below: (Source: Marc-André Lalande, RECIT FGA)

Video Tutorial: Want to know more?  I’ve created a step-by-step video tutorial which will instruct you how to create a “Photo Roman” below:

ICT Tip: Venn Diagrams

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A website that allows your students to create printable Venn Diagrams.

What does it do? The ReadWriteThink.Org site (http://tinyurl.com/3huews) features an on-line Venn Diagram creator page. Using this page, your students can quickly create Venn Diagrams and then print them.

How can it be used in the classroom? Here’s a great definition from the Schools of California, Online Resources for Education (SCORE) website: “The Venn Diagram is made up of two or more overlapping circles. It is often used in mathematics to show relationships between sets. In language arts instruction, Venn Diagrams are useful for examining similarities and differences in characters, stories, poems, etc. It is frequently used as a prewriting activity to enable students to organize thoughts or textual quotations prior to writing a compare/contrast essay. This activity enables students to organize similarities and differences visually.” (Source: Vince Jansen (LEARN) Cool Tools Duel workshop)

ICT Tip: Scrapblog, on-line multimedia scrapbooks

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A website that allows your students to make an on-line “scrapbook” of their photos and share them with other users around the world.

What does it do? Scrapblog (http://www.scrapblog.com) allows your students to make snazzy on-line scrapbooks and is very easy to use. Unlike a traditional scrapbook, students can add music or videos if they wish. The best part is that no artistic ability is required to make great looking scrapbooks!

How can it be used in the classroom? For teachers familiar with Microsoft Photostory 3.0 (see my blog entry) this web application is very similar but has a little more flair. In addition, since Scrapblog is on-line, the final product can be seen by any other students with an internet connection. (Source: Sharon Peters (LEARN) Cool Tools Duel workshop)

ICT Tip: Wikimapia – Collaborative comment mapping

This ICT tip could be applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: Allows your students to explore and make comments on satellite maps.

What does it do? Wikimapia (http://www.wikimapia.com) is a website that allows your students to explore maps in great detail (using Google Maps technology) but will also allow them to collaboratively create comments on the map.

How can it be used in the classroom? Your students may be interested in a class group activity about exploring places in their own community. First, they could research certain buildings or historical places in their community using resources such as Wikipedia. Second, using Wikimapia they could provide comments on the map that relate to these historic places or buildings in their neighborhood. At the end of the activity, the entire class could collaboratively look over the comments (perhaps on the teacher’s computer connected to a digital projector) that were made by the students and other Internet visitors on Wikimapia.  (Source: Sharon Peters (LEARN) Cool Tools Duel workshop.)

ICT Tip: VozMe – Text to sound converter website

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: Transforms written text into speech files that can be played on portable music players.

What does it do? In a nutshell, the VozMe (http://www.vozme.com) website is a “text-to-MP3″ converter. The term “Text-to-MP3″ means that one can copy and written text (i.e – Word files, content of web pages, etc..) and then paste it into this website. The result will be a spoken sound file, meaning it will be read aloud by a synthesized voice.

How can it be used in the classroom? Your students can take these spoken sound files (MP3s) and then listen to them on their iPod or digital music player at their convenience, similar to an audio book. This could be a great tool for students with learning difficulties who are better at listening to course materials instead of reading them! (Source: Vince Jansen (LEARN) Cool Tools Duel workshop)

ICT Tip: Worldometers – World statistics updated every second

This ICT tip could be applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: A website that provides “odometers” of real time world statistics.

What does it do? The Worldometers (www.worldometers.info) website allows your students to see “real time” world statistics updated every second. This includes statistics such as births, deaths, food consumption, etc.

How can it be used in the classroom? This site can be used in conjunction with student projects on carbon footprints or mathematical statistics. It can also be used as a source of inspiration in a language class to bring up a discussion on environmental awareness. (Source: Vince Jansen (LEARN) Cool Tools Duel workshop)