The Ten Most Popular Blog Entries of 2008

In 2008 I wrote more than 1000 blog entries. The following list contains the ten most clicked on items of 2008. Thank you to everyone that continues to read Free Technology for Teachers, I'm looking forward to writing another 1000 entries in 2009.

Open Zine - Collaborative Magazine Creation
Ten Teachers to Follow on Twitter (This is also the most commented-on post of the year)
National Atlas Map Maker
20+ Educational Alternatives to YouTube
Five Resources for Fun Spelling Games
34 Ways to Use RSS
170+ Intelligent, Educational YouTube Videos
Great Timeline Builders
Grading Student Blogging
An American Teacher in China

World Sunlight Map on Google Earth

The Google Earth Blog is a great place to find interesting and educationally useful KML files. Today, on the Google Earth Blog, a KML file that displays and automatically updates the where in the world it is night or day. The updates occur every thirty seconds. The file also includes a layer displaying and automatically updating cloud cover around the world. You can access the file here.

Applications for Education
This KML file could be useful for showing students how daylight changes as the world rotates. The file could also be useful for science teachers teaching meteorology lessons to let students observe shifting cloud patterns.

Langwitches Blogging Unit Available As a Download

Silvia Tolisano writes the great Langwitches blog. In the past she has put together an excellent series of blog posts about digital storytelling. Recently, she has put together a series of blog posts outlining the process of using blogs in the classroom. Today, Silvia posted all eight of the blog posts as one unit available as a download. If you've been considering starting a blog to use with your students, I highly recommend visiting Silvia's blog and downloading the unit about blogging.

A Calendar To Help Elementary Teachers Plan

I'll start this blog post by saying, if you're not following Angela Maiers on Twitter, you should be. Everyday Angela posts useful resources for teachers including this one, the Teacher Planning Calendar, from Scholastic. On the topic of Twitter, if you're looking for educators to follow, check out this list.

The Teacher Planning Calendar from Scholastic lists holidays, historical events, and other teachable moments for each month of the year. Each weekday within the month is linked to a lesson resource for that day.

Applications for Education
The Scholastic Teacher Planning Calendar could be a useful resource for elementary school teachers that are looking for Social Studies lessons resources.

SqoolTube - Free K-8 Videos

SqoolTube is video resource designed for K-8 teachers and students. I originally looked at SqoolTube a few months back and at the time it did not have nearly as many video choices as it does now. SqoolTube offers ten categories of videos and dozens of sub-categories of videos. Visitors to SqoolTube can find videos for everything from learning to count to Algebra lessons and from basic spelling lessons to Spanish lessons. The only problem that teachers might encounter in trying to use SqoolTube is built upon videos hosted on YouTube so if your school blocks YouTube you will have to download the videos away from school to use them. You can read more about what to do when YouTube is blocked by clicking here.

Applications for Education
SqoolTube could be used in the classroom by students working independently or as part of a group lesson. A more effective way to use the videos might be to post them on your class blog so that parents can also watch them and discuss them with their children. Posting the videos on your class blog where parents can view them with their children is one way to keep parents involved and informed with what their children are learning in your classroom.

Capitol Words - Just What is Congress Saying?

Capitol Words is an interesting way to look at what your Senators and Representatives are saying in Washington. Capital Words creates "word clouds" based on key words used most often in Congress. The words in each cloud are pulled from the Congressional record. There is a national word cloud as well as word clouds for each state.

Applications for Education
Capital Words could be a good way for students to see which topics are most frequently discussed in Congress. Students can track how the word clouds change from week to week or month to month. Another activity using Capital Words would be to have students compare the word clouds of their own state with those of other states. As a continuation of the comparison, students could research and investigate the reasons for the differences between the word clouds of each state.

College Crunch - Resources for College and Career Planning

College Crunch claims to be "the best college resource online ever." I don't know if it's the best ever, but it is good. College Crunch features college reviews, college profiles, tips for navigating the logistics of college financing, and career planning advice. The career planning advice includes lists of salaries by career. Not all aspects of the pages on College Crunch appear to be functioning yet, none-the-less the concept of College Crunch is good.

Applications for Education
College Crunch could be a good resource for students that are planning to go college or have questions about applying to college. The advice offered by College Crunch is fairly generic, but it should make a good resource for students that represent the first generation of their families to go to college.

Another college planning resource worth exploring is My College Calendar.

Four "Year-In-Review" Quizzes

It's the time of the year when major news outlets create year-in-year slide shows, videos, and quizzes. I shared some year-in-review slide shows last week. Larry Ferlazzo and Jeffrey Hill have assembled some good lists of year-in-review slide shows that you should check out. Today, I found some year-in-review quizzes worth checking out and sharing with your students.

MSNBC has put together a twenty-five question year-in-review quiz that they call the Super Tough 2008 News Quiz. The quiz has a good mix of US news stories and international news stories.

News Day's 2008 Trivia Quiz is a twenty question quiz about US news with a sprinkle of entertainment/ pop-culture questions thrown in.

The BBC offers a short, ten questions, quiz about international news stories. The BBC's In Pictures section is also a good place to find week-in-review and year-in-review image collections.

Info World has put together a twenty-five question quiz centered around technology news stories. This quiz might be a good resource for people that teach computer courses.

The History of Credit Cards in the United States

The CBS News Sunday Morning show is one of my favorite weekend shows because of the variety of topics that are covered. Every episode covers stories from the world of news, entertainment, and the peculiar. Yesterday, the Fast Draw segment explained the history of credit cards in the United States. I've embedded the two minute video below.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Applications for Education
This video provides a good introduction to teaching a lesson on personal economics. To find ideas for personal economics lesson plans try Biz Ed or the Buck Institute for Education.

A Great Example of a Student Built Website

Last week I posted a review of the free website creation service Synthasite. This morning when I logged in to moderate comments, I found a comment from a middle school teacher in Omaha, Nebraska sharing a link to a project that his students created using Synthasite. These students created a website as the culminating activity for a unit of study about recycling and going green. The website is called Green Monkey Homes. I checked it out and found that it is an excellent piece of work that these students and their teachers should be proud of. Green Monkey Homes has practical tips for recycling, green living, and energy cost savings. Beyond those pages, Green Monkey Homes has an interactive quiz for visitors to check their knowledge and learn.

Free Boardmaker Boards, Activities, and Tutorials

I've previously shared that the excellent blog Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs is one of the best blogs for special education teachers to subscribe to. Today, Kate posted an update to the list of Free Boardmaker Boards, Activities, and Tutorials. The list now includes more than 60 free resources. If you use a Boardmaker Board, check out the list.

Prepare for the SAT - Enter the BrainyFlix Contest

Brainy Flix is holding a video creation contest designed to help students prepare for the SAT. This contest, sponsored in part by MIT's Alumni Association, asks students to make short videos that will help students remember the meanings of words from the SAT vocabulary list. The most popular video, chosen by voting that begins on March 1st, wins $600 for your school. To further encourage participation, one free iTunes download for every five videos submitted. The contest begins on January 1, 2009 and runs through February 23, 2009. You can see the full contest rules here. I've embedded a sample video below.



Applications for Education
The Brainy Flix SAT contest could be a fun way to get studentst to prepare for the SAT. If your students are too young to take the SAT, you can still enter the contest. The excercise of creating videos for the contest could be a good way to get students to learn new vocabularly words.

Study Stack - Build Your Own Review Games

Study Stack is one of the better review game creation tools that I've tried. Study Stack allows teachers and students to create flashcards, crossword puzzles, matching games, word searches, and other classic study games for any subject area. You can create a game using any type of numerical or text data. Once you're data is in your account, you can use that data to create multiple games. For example I used the same US Civil War information to create flashcards and a matching game. All of these games can be shared via email or embedded into your blog or website. I've embedded a stack of flashcards below the "applications for education."

Applications for Education
Study Stack provides a useful service for all teachers and students regardless of grade level or content area. You can have students create their own study games or you can create a game and post it on your classroom blog. The games can even be exported to iPods or Blackberries for students to study on the go.

Knowtes is a similar service that impressed me back in March.

More flashcards, word search, and hangman provided by StudyStack.com

Tekzilla's Top Ten Computing Tips of 2008

Tekzilla is a short daily show that features tips, tricks, and shortcuts for improving your computer's performance and improving your Internet user experience. Today's episode highlights the ten most popular tips of 2008.


Applications for Education
Tekzilla is a good show for those that teach computer applications classes. Due to the tone of some of advertising that occasionally appears on the show, I can't recommend it as something to have students watch, but it is a good show for your own professional learning.

An Interactive Look at 2008 in Review

When students return to school after this vacation we will be in the year 2009. The first day back to school might be a good time to have students look back at some of the biggest stories of 2008. Here are three places to find "year in review" activities including some interactive quizzes and timelines.

MSNBC, as I shared last week, has some excellent year in review slide shows featuring pictures and cartoons for news, sports, and entertainment. Within the last week MSNBC has added a bunch of additional year-in-review resources including quizzes and videos. One of my personal favorites from MSNBC is the Top Viral Videos of 2008.

CBS News has put together some excellent resources for reviewing the year in news, sports, and entertainment. On the CBS 2008 in Review site you can find quizzes and timelines that students can use independently. You will also find audio, video, and pictorial reviews of 2008. Were it not for the occasional, annoying pop-up ads for "health products" this would be my top pick for year in review resources.

CNN, in addition to the Student News Semester-In-Review, has a number of videos reviewing the year in news, sports, health, science, and entertainment. CNN has also aggregated the top iReport videos of the year. iReport is CNN's citizen journalist page.

The Week in Review - Five Most Popular Posts

I hope that by now everyone is enjoying a restful and relaxing holiday vacation. I know that most teachers are on vacation next week, but I will continue to post new free resources for teachers.

This week Free Technology for Teachers surpassed the 1700 subscriber mark for the first time. Thank you to everyone that has subscribed via RSS or via email for following and sharing Free Technology for Teachers with your friends and colleagues online and in person.

Here are the five most popular blog posts of the last week.
1. Wow! Thank You For Your Support
2. If You're A Special Education Teacher
3. My 12 Favorite Resources of 2008 - Part I
4. My 12 Favorite Resources of 2008 - Part II
5. Turn PDF's and Images Into Interactive Documents

If you find Free Technology for Teachers useful, but haven't subscribed to the email or RSS feed yet, please consider doing so. Subscribing takes just a moment, but can save you a lot of time during the week as Free Technology for Teachers comes to your email inbox or RSS reader.

To subscribe via RSS, please use this link.
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Learn a Language Through Open University

iTunes can be a great place to find free education resources. Earlier this week I found a couple of good mathematics podcasts and today, through Teaching and Learning Spanish, I learned about Open University's foreign language learning programs on iTunes University. Open University has podcasts available to help students learn beginner's level Spanish, French, Welsh, Italian, and German. These are short podcasts designed to supplement regular course work.


Applications for Education
As I mentioned above these podcasts aren't designed as stand-alone courses, but they would be good supplementary materials for foreign language teaching.

Just for Fun

My mother clipped this cartoon for me. If you've ever proctored a standardized test, you'll appreciate it.
I promise, the next blog post will be serious. If you like this one, you can find more here.

Seven Things

Beth Still tagged me to participate in this meme in which you're supposed to list seven things readers might not know about me. The purpose of the exercise is to get to know the people in your PLN on different level. So here it goes:

1. In 1996 and 1997 I was a member of the USOC's Junior Elite Archery Team. In 1999 I set a world record archery score that stood for all of about 15 minutes until it was broken by my good friend David Cousins.

2. I love to hike, ski, and fly fish.

3. Prior to becoming a teacher I worked for FedEx for almost seven years. At times I miss the money from those days, but I don't miss the work.

4. I love the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, but I still can't really root for the Bruins because I grew up as fan of the now defunct Hartford Whalers.

5. I'm the oldest child of four. Two brothers and one sister.

6. I have a wonderful girlfriend, Denise, who thinks I'm an uber-geek for spending so much time writing this blog.

7. I dream of climbing in the Himalaya.

Here are seven people that I would like to see participate.
@JimBurkeMaine
@wickeddecent Jeff and Dan
@skipz
@mspahr
@teachakidd
@pirategirl12

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff has been around for while, in fact it's now been watched more than four million times. For those that are not familiar with it, The Story of Stuff is a twenty minute video that examines the cycle of production and consumption that exists with most consumer goods. The video is centered around questions examining how consumer goods found at discount retailers are produced at a low cost. The video is embedded below the "applications for education" section.

Since I first watched The Story of Stuff last winter there have been some additions to the website including video annotations, multiple translations, fact sheets, and a glossary of terms.

Applications for Education
The Story of Stuff is a good video to start a lesson about economics and or the environmental impact of consumerism. One way to make the story more relevant to students would be to have students identify the products within your classroom that have usable shelf-life of one year, two years, or five years.

Free Stuff for Everyone

If you love free stuff as much as I love free stuff, check out Go To Freebie. On Go To Freebie you can find free samples of everything from bath and beauty supplies to toys and school supplies. Go To Freebie has forums and feedback to share experiences and tips about the freebies.

Applications for Education
Go To Freebie could be a good resource for teachers that are looking for simple "prizes" to give away to students as recognition for levels of achievement. Something that I do with free samples at the beginning of each school year is give out free notebooks, pencils, and other school supplies as prizes in ice-breaking activities.

Exploring US History Through Images and Documents

George Mason University has posted online four units of study for US History. Each unit is based on images and primary documents. The units are divided by century pre-18th, 18th, 19th, and 20th. Each unit has a selection of images and or documents that are the focus of a series of inquiry based questions. Each item in each unit offers resources for additional study.


Applications for Education
These units could be used as individual student assignments or as group discussions in high school classrooms.
A related resource that could complement the units of study from George Mason University is the Picturing America series from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

My 12 Favorite Resources of 2008 - Part II

7. Animoto - Animoto's tagline is "the end of slide shows" and while Animoto has not stopped the creation of boring slide shows, it certainly has provided a great alternative to slide shows. Animoto allows students to create great looking videos without the need for any editing skills. The process of using Animoto is simple, select images, select music, click go, and Animoto does the rest. You can read my initial review of Animoto here and two additional ideas for using Animoto in the classroom here and here. Make sure you check out Animoto for education and register as a teacher because that will allow you to create videos longer than 30 seconds for free as opposed to paying the fee Animoto charges customers.


8. Viddler - Viddler is a user-generated video website that I would like to see more teachers be able to use in 2009. Viddler is an excellent alternative to YouTube for a number of reasons, not the least of which being they seem to strictly enforce their rules against posting innappropriate and copyrighted material. There are some technical reasons that I think Viddler has great potential in education. First you can record and post videos directly to your Viddler channel using a web cam. Second, the commenting system on Viddler allows users to comment on videos directly within video. For example, while I was watching this video of Chris Lehman I was able to post a comment in response to something he said, exactly where he said it in the video. Using Viddler's easy recording service and commenting system could help teachers and students create an online video discussions to supplement classroom discussions.

9. Snag Films - The collection of free high-quality documentary films on Snag Films continues to grow every month. The total is now up to 510 films. Since Snag Films launched in the (Northern Hemisphere) summer of 2008 I have been able to watch dozens of NOVA and National Geographic films that I otherwise would have had to buy or rent. As I wrote in my initial review of Snag Films, Snag Films can solve two problems for me. The first problem is overcoming a limited budget. The second problem is providing a way for a student that is absent from class to watch the film I showed in class without having to lend out a dvd. My personal favorite film on Snag Films is this movie about Reinhold Messner.

10. The Kids Know It Network - The Kids Know It Network makes my list of favorite resources because of the variety of educational videos and educational games it provides for elementary school students. Teachers and parents can find games and videos for mathematics, history, science, and language arts.

11. Real World Math and Math Dictionary for Kids - When I talk with my colleagues that teach mathematics about technology integration, they always mention how difficult it is to incorporate technology and real-world problems into instruction. Real World Math, created by Thomas Petra, incorporates Google Earth into mathematics problem solving. You can read more about some Real World Math projects here. Math Dictionary for Kids makes my list because of clear and concise visual and text explanations of mathematics terminology.

12. Twitter and Education Bloggers - The twelfth resource on this list really should have been the first because as I was looking back over the year I realized just how much I learned from my network of connections on Twitter and in the edu-blog-o-sphere. Without Twitter and without all of the great teachers writing blogs, I wouldn't have learned nearly as much as I have this year. I'm looking forward to learning more from all of you in 2009. Happy Holidays and best wishes for a great New Year.

Turn PDF's and Images Into Interactive Documents

Adam, which has the clever url adamsapp, is a service that makes it possible to turn static documents and images into active documents. Through the use of Adam you can insert videos, music, and links. To use Adam simply upload a document or image and select a portion of the document into which you would like to insert a video, music clip, or link. Once you've made your selection simply past in the html code (like an embed code from YouTube) and save your work. You can now link to your active document on your blog or share your new document via email.

Applications for Education
Adam could be used in a couple of different ways in education. My first thought was that Adam could be used by teachers that posted lecture outlines to make those outlines active documents.
The better way to use Adam in the classroom is to organize a reading activity around a document loaded into Adam. Put a news article, a story, or a scholarly article into Adam and have students insert videos or links to match the content of what they've read.

My 12 Favorite Resources of 2008 - Part I

1. Drop.io - The first time I saw Drop.io I knew that it would be a very useful tool for teachers. Drop.io was launched in the fall of 2007 and continuously add new, free, features throughout 2008. Some of things that I've done with Drop.io in the last year include recording podcasts, posting slide shows, posting lecture outlines, posting rubrics, posting links for my students, leaving voice messages for my students on the days that I'm out of the classroom, and collecting students' assignments without cluttering my inbox. Getting started with Drop.io is extremely quick and easy. In fact, it's easier than setting up a blog. To read more about how Drop.io can be used in the classroom click here, here, or here. To see just how useful Drop.io can be when you're short on time read How Drop.io Saved My Morning.

2. Google Docs - I used Google Docs off and on last year as a collaboration tool with my co-workers and administrators last year. Then my hard drive unexpectedly failed (it was less than six months old) in May taking a lot of files with it. That's when I decided that I trust Google's servers a lot more than my local hard drive or my school district's servers (which failed the prior year and took a lot of my files with it). Since May, every document that I have created has been created in my Google Docs account.

Many of my students are now using Google Docs for their word processing tasks. I encourage all of my students and colleagues to use Google Docs because it eliminates the "I forgot my flash drive" and "my printer is broken" excuses.

Here are a few previous posts about using Google Docs in education.
Eight Ways to Use Google Docs
Bibliography Templates for Google Docs
Projects Using Google Docs

3. Zoho Show - Zoho Show is part of a suite of free web based tools offered by Zoho. There are many free slide show creation tools available on the Internet and I've tried a lot of them, but every time I need to create a slide show, I find myself using Zoho Show. I find myself using Zoho Show because it offers more editing options and templates than those found on Google Presentation. Zoho Show presentations can easily be embedded in a blog or shared via email. I also like Zoho Show because my students can work collaboratively to create group presentations. Interestingly, when my students have to create a presentation I give them the choice of Google Presentation or Zoho Show and most end up using Zoho. Click here or here to see a couple of previous blog posts about Zoho Show.


4. Jing Project - Jing is a free screencasting tool available for Mac and Windows. Jing allows me to make short screencasts to explain to students and colleagues how to perform a function on the computer. I used Jing numerous times this year to produce screencasts for my colleagues that had to learn how to use Mac.

5. Google Maps & Google Earth - As a Social Studies teacher I teach and have taught history, geography, and economics. Google Maps and Google Earth can be used to teach all three of these topics. Google Maps and Google Earth can be used by students to create content like virtual tours or as research tools. A few of my favorite uses for Google Maps and Google Earth can be found here, here, or here.

6. Zamzar - Zamzar is a free resource that allows me to convert YouTube videos into a number of different formats to download, save, and playback on my local computer. This is a particularly useful tool if you're in a school district that doesn't allow access to YouTube. You can download videos at home, save them on your laptop, flash drive, or email them to yourself to use in the classroom. You can read about Zamzar and other ways to save YouTube videos in Can't Use YouTube? Try This.

Synthasite - Build a Great Free Website

Synthasite is another entry in the free website builder market. Synthasite is one of the better entries into this market not only because it has great templates and great design flexibility, but because it offers very good help pages for first time users. Another outstanding aspect of Synthasite is that not only is your website free, it is advertising free (unless you want advertising), and remains free regardless of how much content you add to it. This is a good thing if you plan to post a lot of audio or video content as some website builders and hosts begin to charge once you reach a certain volume content.

Applications for Education
Synthasite can be used to create a website for your classes. If you decide later on that you also want to have a blog for your classes, you can add that as an element of your website. Synthasite could be used by students to create websites as a way to display what they have learned through a research project or during the course of a unit of study.

Here are a few other very good, free website building tools and hosts.
Snap Pages
Weebly
Free Webs

Newsweek's Year in Cartoons

Last week I posted a link to MSNBC's year in cartoons and year in pictures slide shows. This morning I was reminded, by Jeffrey Hill's English Blog, of another year in cartoons resource. Newsweek has a collection of political cartoons featured in their magazine throughout the last year. Most of the cartoons are based on US politics with a healthy dose of global economics and global affairs thrown in.

Applications for Education
Those of you that are still in school today, may want to use the MSNBC and Newsweek year in cartoons and year in pictures as the basis for a discussion of the year's top news stories. Those of us that are on vacation until 2009 may want to use these slide shows as a way to remind students of the past year and have them make predictions for the coming year.

A related resource that you may want to consider using in your classroom is The Week in Rap.

Small Update for Email Subscribers

If you subscribe to Free Technology for Teachers by email, you will see a small change in the next update. The emails will now come from an email account addressed as "my name" at freetech4teachers.com. Nothing else has changed, you do not have to do anything unless you don't see an update from me tomorrow, in which case just check your junk mailbox.

If you're not subscribed to Free Technology for Teachers via email and would like to receive a daily email containing the newest content, you can subscribe to the email here.

Sticky Screen - Your To-Do List Homepage

There are a lot of reminder services and sticky note services available on the Internet. Sticky Screen might be the simplest of them all. Sticky Screen lets you put three short notes on a sticky placed in the center of your screen. Make sticky screen your Internet browser's homepage and your reminders stare you in the face every time you open a window or tab.


Applications for Education
Reminder services don't get any simpler than Sticky Screen. If getting on the Internet is a daily occurrence in your classroom, consider making Sticky Screen your students' homepage. Students can then quickly check their to-do list and update it accordingly.

Here are some other reminder and sticky services you might want to consider if Sticky Screen is too basic for your needs.
Postica
Stixy

1 + 1 = 2 Mathematics Podcasts

The Math Factor podcast is a podcast that I discovered today while exploring Alltop's mathematics section. Math Factor is series of short (10-15 minutes) podcasts produced by University of Arkansas professor Chaim Goodman-Strauss and Kyle Kellams. Each episode presents a mathematics problem for listeners to ponder. Each episode gives an explanation of the solution to the previous episode's problem.

Another mathematics podcast that I discovered today is the West Virginia Math and Science Initiative's video podcasts. These video podcasts, available on iTunes, give short demonstrations and explanation of mathematics concepts. Visitors will find video podcasts for Algebra, Statisitics, Trigonometry, Contemporary Math, and Chemistry. You can access the podcasts here.

Applications for Education
The Math Factor is a good podcast for the "math team" student that is interested in finding interesting and challenging mathematics problems. Math teachers may also want to play the podcast in class then have students discuss and work on solutions to the problems.

The West Virginia Math and Science Initiatives's podcasts could be useful for high school mathematics students that need a visual explanation of mathematics concepts. These podcasts could be helpful when for students when they get stuck on a homework problem.

TED 2009 Presenters List

Every year the TED Conference brings together some of the most influential figures from business and academic fields to give twenty minute talks about their work. The conference costs $6000 to attend in person or $900 to attend virtually so, needless to say, I won't be attending this year. Even though I, like 99% of public school teachers, am not able to attend, I am able to watch the videos of presentations from previous conferences. Knowing that eventually I'll be able to watch the TED 2009 presentations, I am intrigued by this year's list of presenters which includes Bill Gates, Seth Godin, and Herbie Hancock.

Applications for Education
The videos of previous TED presentations are engaging and informative. Letting students explore previous TED presentations is a good way for students to explore topics they're interested in on their own.

Nibipedia, which I've written about a couple of times here and here, has added all of the available TED videos to their database. Nibipedia matches Wikipedia references to the topics and terms mentioned in each TED talk. Watching TED presentations through Nibipedia makes the videos a great independent learning resource.

You can read more about TED here.

This Library is Awesome!

Today while searching for some US History resources, I came across the Awesome Library. The Awesome Library is a collection of more than 36,000 educational resources organized by academic category and sub-categories. For example, if you click on the "teacher" category you can then select from nine sub-categories about teaching. Or try selecting the "technology" category where you will find guides for using technology including this Internet guide for beginners.

Applications for Education
The Awesome Library could be a good reference resource. The categorization scheme is easy to navigate which may be helpful for students that have difficulty refining general Internet searches.

Projects Using Google Docs

This afternoon the official Google Docs blog posted a collection of eleven academic projects that incorporate the use of Google Docs. All of the projects in the list were developed by practicing educators. There are projects for science and social studies. Teachers will also find ideas for rubrics and evaluation forms in the collection.

Here are some additional resources and ideas for using Google Docs in the classroom.
Bibliography Templates for Google Docs.
Eight Ways to Use Google Docs from Tom Barrett
Give An Old Lesson New Tricks

Tutsearch - Find an Online Tutorial

Tutsearch is a recommendation service and search engine for online tutorials. Tutsearch has indexed more than one hundred tutorial websites. If what they have indexed doesn't offer what you need, try the tutorial search engine. On Tutsearch you can find tutorials for everything from writing html code to improving your command of the English language.

Applications for Education
Tutsearch could be a useful resource for teachers that are looking for websites that students can use for independent learning. If you're a computer science teacher, Tutsearch is especially handy for quickly finding tutorials in html and CSS.

Get Students Involved in Government Through Twitter

One of the great things about living in this digitally connected age is that information and news is so readily available. The Internet also makes it much easier and faster to communicate with just about anyone. (See old high school friends connecting through Facebook after 20 years for an example). Combine the ease of information finding with the ease of communication and it was only a matter of time before Tweet Congress was developed.

Tweet Congress is a registry of members of the US Congress that are on Twitter. Whether or not it's the actual Congressman/ woman or their PR office that uses the account is debatable, but none-the-less Tweet Congress makes government more accessible to the citizenry. If you're not sure who your representative is, enter your zip code in the finder and Tweet Congress will tell you.




Not to leave out my friends in the UK, Tweet Minister is the UK version of Tweet Congress.

Applications for Education
Tweet Congress and Tweet Minister could be engaging tools for your students to use to track what their representatives in government are saying. Depending on how responsive your representative (or their office staff) is, both services could be used by students to ask questions of their representatives.

Free Math Help

Every time I find a website like Free Math Help I wish that the Internet had been readily accessible to me as a high school student because my mathematics grades could have used the free help. Free Math Help, as the name implies, offers students free mathematics tutorials. Tutorials are available as text based lessons or narrated video lessons. Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, and Statistics tutorials are available for free to students. If, after watching the tutorials students have more questions, students can head over to the message boards to ask clarifying questions.

Applications for Education
Free Math Help is a good resource for middle school, high school, and some undergraduate students to find mathematics help when you're not available. If you're a mathematics teacher, Free Math Help is a good website to link to your class blog or website.

Take Your Kids On An Antarctic Expedition

Right now there are a number of expeditions to the South Pole in progress. One such expedition is the South Pole Quest expedition sponsored by an organization called Impossible to Possible (I2P). The South Pole Quest expedition is producing fantastic educational materials for students and teachers. The expedition members are posting updates, answering questions from students, posting audio podcasts, and updating their progress on an interactive map. There are some introductory videos available on the website and soon videos from the expedition will be available. By visiting the South Pole Quest website students can find out all kinds of information about the physical and life science of Antarctica. Here's a question to get your students thinking about life in Antarctica, why is this man eating a block of butter?











Applications for Education
The South Pole Quest is producing great educational content to use in a science class. The education page of the South Pole Quest website has fifteen complete learning modules available as PDF files.

Beyond the obvious uses of the South Pole Quest's website in a science class, having students visit the website might inspire a student to learn more about adventure expeditions. A reluctant reader may decide, after listening to the podcasts or reading about this expedition, that he or she wants to read a book about Antarctic expeditions. In which case you may want to recommend a book about Shackleton's expedition.

Here are some other web resources about Antarctic exploration.
Shackleton Centenary Expedition
South Pole.com
NOVA - Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance
American Museum of Natural History - The Endurance
Cool Antarctica
British Antarctic Survey

A Tour of the Solar System

Nine Planets.org is a large collection information and images designed to be used as a virtual tour of the solar system. The information on Nine Planets.org is organized by planet working progressively away from the sun. Nine Planets.org also provides information and images on smaller bodies in the solar system.

Applications for Education
Nine Planets advertises itself as a virtual tour, it's not the type of tour that will instantly engage students. Nine Planets is best used as a reference resource as the content itself is excellent although the layout is not great. Teachers should find the lesson plan links quite useful.

If you're looking for more space science resources take a look at Celestia, SkyServer, and Microsoft's World Wide Telescope.

Wow! Thank You For Your Support

I just got home from a Christmas party and to my surprise discovered that I had won the 2008 Edublog Award for Best Resource Sharing Blog. I really did not expect to win, in fact, I told someone today that I expected Larry Ferlazzo to win. Larry's blog is excellent and I learn a lot from it every day. The fact is, every blog on the list is excellent and deserving of attention. You can see the full list of nominees here. To see the list of winners in every category, click here.

Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for Free Technology for Teachers. I started this blog thirteen months ago as a simple way to share information with my colleagues after my principal asked me run a couple of technology workshops. I never envisioned it getting as big as it has. It's a lot of fun for me to write this blog and I'm glad that so many people have found it useful. As long as people continue to find Free Technology for Teachers useful, I'll keep adding to it.

Google Offers New Image Search Parameters

This afternoon Google announced that it has made it a little easier to refine image searches. Until now, if you entered a search term in Google Images you would get all kinds of images including photographs, drawings, paintings, and clip art. Now you can refine those results by selecting "faces," "clip art," "line drawings," "photo content," or "news content" from a drop down menu.







Applications for Education
Google calls the new image search options search-by-style, I call it just plain helpful. Any tool that can help students focus their searches is useful in my book. Less time struggling to find appropriate search results can translate into more time spent thinking, writing, and creating.

The Week in Review

It's Friday afternoon here in Maine which means it's time to post the five most popular Free Technology for Teachers items of the last week.


1. Ten Resources for Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism
2. Creative Commons Explanations and Teaching Materials
3. The End to Copyright Confusion
4. TimeRime Multimedia Timeline Builder
5. Free Digital Photo Watermarking Tool

Last Friday I bought and registered the domain freetech4teachers.com. Along with registering the domain I created two new feeds to deliver content to readers via RSS and email. The original feeds still work although this week they didn't seem to be as reliable or as quick as the new feeds.

To subscribe to the new RSS feed, please use this link.
To subscribe to the new email feed, please use this link.

Thank you to everyone that has subscribed, visits regularly, and shares the content with others. I started this blog thirteen months ago as a way to help teachers find free things to use in their classrooms and as long as people keep finding it useful, I'll keep writing.

The Day/ Week / Year in Cartoons and Pictures

MSNBC has some excellent resources for use in the social studies classroom. The Week in Political Cartoons and the Week in Pictures are useful for reviewing the week's news stories with students. Both of these sections of MSNBC's websites are also running reviews of the year in cartoons and pictures. All of the cartoons and photographs are displayed in slide show format. Some of the slide shows are narrated.

Applications for Education
After viewing the slide shows, students will have a model for creating their own "week in review" presentations. Rather than just duplicating what they find on MSNBC, have students create a week in review of local news stories that weren't covered the by the national and international media outlets.

If You're a Special Education Teacher...

If you're a special education teacher with an interest in integrating technology into your instruction, there are two blogs that you should visit. Paul Hamilton's Free Resources From The Net For Special Education, is one blog that I've been following for about eight months. Teaching Learners With Multiple Special Needs is a blog that I've been following since Paul Hamilton recommended it on his blog. Both of these blogs offer great strategies for using technology in the special education classroom. What I like about both of these blogs is that even when they write about the same resources that I find, they offer a different perspective, a perspective that only a special education teacher can offer.

Simple Science Videos

In my never-ending quest to find educational videos online, I recently discovered Simple Science Videos on Vimeo. I picked this one up on Twitter although I can't remember who posted it. If you're the one, thank you. These videos are produced by Simple Science.net. The aim of each video is to give a clear explanation of science topics that elementary and middle school students can understand. A video about various types of rocks and their uses is embedded below.


3D Rocks Video from Simple Science on Vimeo.

Applications for Education
Simple Science's videos are entertaining and informative videos for introducing a new topic to your students. The collection of videos is also good for independent learning by students. These videos could be included in slide presentation that students may give as part of research assignment.

The Semester in Review from CNN Student News

Today's episode of CNN Student provides a short review of the top news stories of the last semester.


Applications for Education
The semester in review is a good way to get students to think about the events of the last four months and discuss which events seemed important at the time and which events are still important.

The Week in Rap - Weekly News Summaries

The Week In Rap is a current events website that I discovered through iLearn Technology. The Week in Rap is produced by the same people that produce Flocabulary. Each Friday The Week In Rap posts a weekly news summary in the form of a rap music video. I've embedded last week's video below.


The Week in Rap 12-12-08 from Week in Rap on Vimeo.

Applications for Education
The Week in Rap is a great way to get students interested in current news stories. Each video can easily be embedded into your class blog or website. Embedding the videos in your class blog or website could be a great way to get parents and students to discuss the news together.

A couple of good companion resources to The Week In Rap are the BBC's In Pictures series and Ten by Ten.