Quietube - No Nonsense YouTube Viewing

Quietube is a handy little browser extension that removes all the clutter from YouTube allowing you to view only your selected video. Quietube removes all advertising, sidebar content, comments, and ratings. Installing Quietube requires nothing more than dragging the Quietube button to your toolbard. Then anytime that you're on YouTube click the Quietube button to remove all of the clutter and just watch your selected video. The images below show the difference between YouTube and Quiettube.

Without Quietube.














With Quietube.

















Applications for Education
If you're fortunate enough to work in a school that allows you to use YouTube in the classroom, Quietube is a handy little tool to have. On occasion I've wanted to show a YouTube video but I had to find an alternative because something in the sidebar or comments wasn't appropriate to display in the classroom.

If YouTube is blocked at your school, you may want to try one of these alternatives.

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The Week in Review - Most Popular Links

It's Friday afternoon in Maine, USA. The weather is becoming more Spring-like by the day, students are getting antsy, and Free Technology for Teachers continues to grow. A big welcome to all of the new subscribers this week. And a big thank you to all of the subscribers and loyal readers who have helped to make Free Technology for Teachers grow by sharing links and telling your colleagues about the blog.

Here are the seven most popular items of the last week.
1. Meet Me at the Corner - Educational Videos
2. Save the Words, Adopt a Word
3. Howard Zinn's A People's History in a Free Digital Format
4. Award Winning Google Earth Lesson Plans
5. Photovisi - Quick, Simple Collage Building
6. Sounds of the Opera in 1907
7. The Importance of Play

If you're new to Free Technology for Teachers please explore the links listed above and also take a minute to browse the archives. If you find the contents of the blog useful, please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or the daily email feed. You can subscribe to the RSS feed here or subscribe to the daily email feed here.

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The Very Hungry Catepillar Turns 40!

You may have noticed that the Google symbol features a caterpillar today. That is to mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a book that I loved as a child and I'm glad to see that children are still reading it.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the book, the author Eric Carle has released a video of himself talking about the creation of the book. Eric Carle's website also has a list of public events including book readings marking the 40th anniversary. Some of these events are being held at Borders bookstores.

Eric Carle's website has some good videos and pictures that students might enjoy exploring. There are videos describing the process Eric Carle uses to create his drawings and images from the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

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Financial Glossary for Students

Through Jeffery Hill's English Blog I've learned that CNN Student News has a good resource to complement all of the recent Student News Videos that have contained stories about the economy. The CNN Student News Financial Glossary contains words commonly used in stories about the global economy and terms commonly used in personal finance stories.

Applications for Education
This glossary is a good resource to have when designing lesson plans dealing with micro and macro economics.

Here are some related resources that I've previously reviewed and may be of interest to you:
Kid's Economic Glossary
Saving Money in Plain English
The History of Credit Cards in the United States
The Crisis of Credit Visualized

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Create and Share Games on Sharendipity

Sharendipity makes it possible for students and teachers to quickly create and share simple video games. Sharendipity's drag and drop creation tools can be used to create a game in as few as four steps. For new Sharendipity users the tutorials provide clear directions and helpful game ideas. Games created on Sharendipity can be embedded in your blog or website.

Sharendipity offers galleries of games created by users. The galleries include strategy games, matching games, and education games. The education gallery currently has 18 publicly shared games.

Applications for Education
Sharendipity could be a good tool for introducing students to game design. You could have students design games based around a topic that they have studied in class.

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Math Links You Might Have Missed

Free Technology for Teachers has recently seen a spike in the number of subscribers and daily viewers so I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the more popular links in various subject areas. I'm going to start this "links you might have missed" series with Mathematics links because I received an email today asking for some recommendations for using technology in the Mathematics classroom.

Math TV - Video Mathematics Lessons (blog review) (direct link)

Ghost Blasters, Math Blasters (blog review) (direct link)

Math Factor Podcast (blog review) (direct link)

Math Moves U (blog review) (direct link)

Math A Tube (blog review) (direct link)

The Numeracy Project (blog review) (direct link)

Who Wants Pizza? (blog review) (direct link)

Mathway - Step by Step Math Help (blog review) (direct link)

Mudd Math Fun Facts (blog review) (direct link)

Mathematics in the Movies (blog review) (direct link)

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