Wiggle & Stomp - A Fun App for Learning About Animals

Shutterbugs Wiggle and Stomp is an educational game produced by the Smithsonian. The purpose of the game is to help children recognize the movements of animals. In the game children move through a virtual zoo with a zoo keeper. As they go through the virtual zoo the zoo keeper will ask students to take pictures of animals who are demonstrating running, jumping, stomping, and other movements. Shutterbugs Wiggle and Stomp can be played online, as a free iPad app, and as a free Android app.

Applications for Education
Shutterbugs Wiggle and Stomp can be a fun little game for pre-K and Kindergarten students. The game reads the commands displayed on the screen to help students learn to read the words they're seeing. At the conclusion of the game students can print out coloring pages of animals they took pictures of during the game.

ClassHook's Pause Prompts Let You Add Questions to Existing Videos

ClassHook is a great service for finding video clips to use in your classroom. ClassHook clips come from well-known movies and television shows. You can search for those clips according to subject area and topic.

Earlier this month ClassHook introduced a new feature called Pause Prompts. Pause Prompts are questions that pop-up and pause a video in progress. The prompts are meant to be used for facilitating classroom conversations or to give students time to take notes at an important point in the video.

What makes ClassHook's Pause Prompts different from services like EDpuzzle is that Pause Prompts aren't intended to be homework assignments or individual assignments.

Applications for Education
Pause Prompts could be useful for giving students time to jot down some notes from a video. You could also use Pause Prompts to give students time to answer or ask questions in small groups.

ClassHook's search feature could save you time the next time that you're searching for a video clip to support a point in your lesson plan. It can also be helpful in finding a video to build a flipped lesson upon.

Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp FAQs Answered

Earlier this month I opened registration for the 2019 Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp. The super-early registration discount ends next week. If you've been wondering what it's all about and if it's for you, take a look at the following video in which I answered some of the FAQs about the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp.


Here's an overview of things to learn and things to do at the 2019 Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp.

Register here by February 28th to get the super-early discount.

eMammal Lite - Practice Identifying Animals and Learn Where They Live

eMammal Lite is an online activity based on the wildlife photographs on the Smithsonian's eMammal site. eMammal was previously known as Smithsonian Wild. All of the pictures on both sites were captured by camera traps. Camera traps are wildlife cameras that are triggered by motion when an animal walks in front of a sensor.

On eMammal Lite you scroll through pictures of animals that were photographed at camera traps. You then have to use some context clues to identify the animal in the picture. You identify the animal by making a selection of one of three choices displayed next to the picture. Once you've made your selection you will be told if you're wrong or right. If you're right, you'll see a map that shows where the photograph was taken. If you're wrong, the photograph will go back into the rotation of pictures that you have to identify.

Applications for Education
eMammal Lite could be a good activity for elementary school and middle school students to do to practice using their knowledge of animals and their ability to use context clues.

eMammal Lite does offer the option to register for an account. Registering for an account will let you keep track of your progress. You can also use eMammal Lite as an unregistered guest.

Ten Things You Can Learn at the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp

This year’s Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp is designed for two purposes. First and foremost, it is intended to give K-12 teachers, tech coaches, and administrators two days of hands-on learning about educational technology. The second purpose is to provide a professional development experience in a setting that isn’t a generic conference center or uncomfortable classroom in midst of a summer maintenance project. Check-out this post to learn more about the setting. Review the following list to learn more about the content of the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp.

1. Helping students develop better search skills.
2. Using augmented reality in education.
3. Using virtual reality in education.
4. Infusing technology into outdoor lessons.
5. Making videos with students.
6. Producing podcasts with students.
7. Interactive digital storytelling.
8. Crafting meaningful formative assessments.
9. Creating a plan to make the most of the technology you have in your school.
10. Workflow hacks to free up time to take care of yourself throughout the school year.

This is a preliminary list it may be modified based on the interest and expertise of those who register. Speaking of registering, the super-early discount is available for one more week. Register in the next seven days to get in at the lowest rate.