By Technology

Create a Multimedia Canvas

November 16, 2012

Edcanvas is a free web tool that allows teachers to create multimedia-rich lessons and share them with their students. These lessons may include YouTube videos, slides, files, text and images that you can download either from the web or from your computer. To start creating your lesson on Edcanvas, you will need to sign up for a free account. You can also use your Google account or Facebook account to sign in. Once logged in, click on “create a new canvas”; a short video will show you how to create your first canvas. With Edcanvas, you have the ability to arrange all lesson items in one board that…

A Look at the Life of a Typical Roman Teenager 2000 Years Ago

November 16, 2012

Take a look at this detailed lesson on the life of a typical Roman teenager 2000 years ago. A Glimpse of Teenage Life in Ancient Rome is a new TED-Ed lesson developed by Ray Laurence from the University of Kent. The video and its associated questions feature Lucius Popidius Secundus, a 17-year-old living in Rome in AD 73. His life is a typical one of arranged marriages, coming-of-age festivals and communal baths. Click Here to Access Free Video Lesson

Spread Great Educators’ Great Ideas

November 16, 2012

TED-Ed’s commitment to creating lessons worth sharing is an extension of TED’s mission of spreading great ideas. TED-Ed’s videos aim to capture and amplify the voices of the world’s greatest educators. Within the growing TED-Ed video library, you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which represent collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform. The “Flip This Video” button allows you to turn any useful educational video, not just TED’s, into a customized lesson that can be assigned to students or shared more widely. You can add context, questions and follow-up suggestions. You can distribute your…

Take a Seat in the Oval Office

November 1, 2012

Do your students know which president the Teddy Bear is named after? Or which president got stuck in a White House bathtub? Students can learn everything they ever wanted to know about the American presidency with Disney Publishing’s new iPad app—Disney American Presidents: Unofficial Oval Office Scrapbook. Developed by the Disney Learning team together with a producer from The Daily Show and Colbert Report, the app features more than two hours of hilarious—and historically accurate—presidential profiles for each of the 44 US presidents—from George Washington to Barack Obama. Each president receives his own spread, with interactive elements linked to key decisions, notable characteristics and historical…

Encourage Critical Thinking and Questioning

November 1, 2012

Through engaging interactions and gameplay geared toward learning, Ansel & Clair’s Adventures in Africa (for children aged 4 to 10) is designed to leverage the multisensory experience of the iPad. The original characters—Ansel, a friendly intergalactic travel photographer from the planet Virtoos, and Clair, a brilliant Virtoosian robot—explore three interactive locales: Nile Valley, Sahara Desert and Serengeti Plains. The app encourages children to think and inquire through Ansel’s critical questioning. It is available for $4.99 in the iTunes App Store. Click Here to Visit iTunes App Store This information is provided as a courtesy for BISD teachers and inclusion here does not…

Track a Typhoon—in Real Time

November 1, 2012

The Living Earth – Clock & Weather app for the iPad and iPhone includes a live 3-D simulation of our planet at our current moment in time, with global weather forecasts and world clock for millions of cities around the world. Students can observe the changing seasons throughout the year and view snow and ice coverage as well as other seasonal changes on our globe. They can view live global cloud patterns and explore and experience amazing weather dynamics with real-time 3-D weather maps of temperature, humidity and wind velocity, along with typhoon and hurricane tracking. The app is available in the iTunes App Store at…

Turn Outlines into Mind Maps

November 1, 2012

Text 2 Mind Map offers a way for users to turn typed outlines into mind maps. To create a mind map, users type an outline in the textbox and then click “Draw Mind Map” to create their map. If, after creating the mind map, they need to add more elements, users just add the information in their outline and click “Draw Mind Map” again. The mind map can be downloaded as a PDF or PNG file. The map can also be shared via email, Facebook or Twitter. Click Here to Access Free Online Mapping Tool This information is provided as…

Hack Your School Green

November 1, 2012

Sponsored by Youth Rock the Rebuild and Architecture for Humanity, the Guerrilla Green Sustainable Showdown invites teams of middle school and high school students across the United States to submit their ideas for making their school more eco-friendly. Ideas may range from a small change in a school garden to a new, crazy window system. However, this is not just an ideas competition; it is also an implementation initiative. Winning teams will be given cash to build or organize their ideas. The competition has three rounds. In round 1, The Elite Eight (best plan) will receive $1,000; in round 2, The Final Four (best implemented…

Connect with a Virtual Volunteer

November 1, 2012

Digital Wish, the nonprofit technology-integration organization, now offers Virtual Volunteers, a new service on its website that allows teachers to post classroom projects and ask for a virtual volunteer who can serve via video conference; it also allows volunteers to sign up, describe their various capabilities and volunteer to help with a class project. Throughout the school year, the organization will recruit for volunteers in corporations, entrepreneur networks and scientific associations to encourage members to help educators with their class projects. Digital Wish emails profiles of newly posted expert volunteers to teachers who are members, and volunteers will receive email newsletters…

Get the Q&A Started

November 1, 2012

What was a hot hairstyle for the founding fathers? What does the famous poem “The Raven” have in common with a scientific text about mollusks? How can you tell when the writing is on the wall? Questions like these can come alive for you and your students at the Smithsonian Institution’s Seriously Amazing website. Click Here to Visit Website This information is provided as a courtesy for BISD teachers and inclusion here does not indicate an endorsement by the district. It is important to thoroughly evaluate a website before using it with students. For help with this please contact the Learning Technologies…