Just like freerice.com, people are much more likely to think of the social networking site facebook.com as a procrastination tool than an educational helper. And ok, when it comes to facebook, they're right. The site exploded among college students, then high school students, and eventually everyone was welcome. College students found it particularly helpful to keep in touch with friends at different schools and back home. After all, it's much easier to write a quick note on someone's "wall" then to call them, which has the potential to interrupt at a bad time or to last a long time and work as procrastination in its own right.
It's facebook's communicative properties that make it both a detraction and a help for students. It is common for students working on group projects together to friend each other on facebook and communicate about the project there. I've also seen class sections create groups where members of the class ask questions and offer tips and advice. Students using Facebook for academic purposes just have to exercise strong willpower not to click away from their homework help and go looking at a friend's profile instead.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Freerice.com
As a college student, I find lots of ways to procrastinate. Facebook, email, tetris, and most recently, freerice.com. Free Rice is a fairly new website that tests your vocabulary. For every word that you correctly match to the meaning, sponsors donate 20 grains of rice through the UN to help end hunger in developing countries. It's a triple win situation; not only are you entertained, but you're also challenged to reach a higher vocabulary level and you're helping a legitimate charity end world hunger.
I never thought to bring Free Rice into the classroom, but it would be an awesome tool for any level of student. At the lower levels, Free Rice uses very simple words, like "mama" and "sea". It would be perfect for children just learning to read or English language learners. As students learn, they move up through the levels; the site automatically adjusts to challenge any student. Compassion is also a great lesson to learn, and the children will feel accomplished not only because of their vocabulary level, but also because they can see how much they are doing for people in need.
I never thought to bring Free Rice into the classroom, but it would be an awesome tool for any level of student. At the lower levels, Free Rice uses very simple words, like "mama" and "sea". It would be perfect for children just learning to read or English language learners. As students learn, they move up through the levels; the site automatically adjusts to challenge any student. Compassion is also a great lesson to learn, and the children will feel accomplished not only because of their vocabulary level, but also because they can see how much they are doing for people in need.
Askkids.com
The problem with using a regular search engine such as google.com in a classroom is that you never know what will come up. Even with a filter, a student's search might reveal inappropriate topics. That's why its great to see a search engine made just for kids.
Askkids.com is an offshoot of the popular search engine ask.com. In addition to the regular search, askkids.com offers helpful homework, movie, games, video, and image links. You can even doodle on the side of the main page!
Besides the basic search engine, the most helpful tools are probably the homework links, known as "Schoolhouse". It has links to encyclopedias, almanacs, and lots of math help sites. You can also categorize the sites by grade level (kids, teens, and advanced teens).
One problem with search engines that have blocks like askkids.com is that kids might be missing useful info. For example, I've heard of people not being able to search for breast cancer because there are blocks on the word "breast". Hopefully, any student who needs information that might not come up on askkids.com is mature enough to use a broader search engine.
Askkids.com is an offshoot of the popular search engine ask.com. In addition to the regular search, askkids.com offers helpful homework, movie, games, video, and image links. You can even doodle on the side of the main page!
Besides the basic search engine, the most helpful tools are probably the homework links, known as "Schoolhouse". It has links to encyclopedias, almanacs, and lots of math help sites. You can also categorize the sites by grade level (kids, teens, and advanced teens).
One problem with search engines that have blocks like askkids.com is that kids might be missing useful info. For example, I've heard of people not being able to search for breast cancer because there are blocks on the word "breast". Hopefully, any student who needs information that might not come up on askkids.com is mature enough to use a broader search engine.
www.thinkature.com/
Not every classroom has an interactive white board or Smartboard, but with www.thinkature.com, a teacher can have the next best thing!
Thinkature.com is a website that starts with a blank slate. The user can freehand draw, add "cards" (like text boxes), connect cards and ideas with arrows, and colorcode. The teacher could use this tool in class and have the students participate in creating the page, or the teacher can produce a chart before class. The account is free, and you can share any workspaces that you create, making it ideal for students to plan out group projects out of class. It even has a user-created wiki instruction manual!
From looking at the thinkature.com forums, it looks like there are some glitches with loading, saving, and erasing. Hopefully the site has fixed or will fix these problems, since thinkature.com's tools could be incredibly useful for students and teachers!
Thinkature.com is a website that starts with a blank slate. The user can freehand draw, add "cards" (like text boxes), connect cards and ideas with arrows, and colorcode. The teacher could use this tool in class and have the students participate in creating the page, or the teacher can produce a chart before class. The account is free, and you can share any workspaces that you create, making it ideal for students to plan out group projects out of class. It even has a user-created wiki instruction manual!
From looking at the thinkature.com forums, it looks like there are some glitches with loading, saving, and erasing. Hopefully the site has fixed or will fix these problems, since thinkature.com's tools could be incredibly useful for students and teachers!
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