20 Online Tools to Make Learning Fun

by Karen Schweitzer
Looking for a great way to engage and stimulate students in even the most tedious subjects? There are many online tools, games, activities, learning aids, and even web apps designed to make learning fun. Here is a list of 20 sites to try when the new school year begins:
Games and Activities
History Detective Kids [...]

21st Century Students need 21st Century Teachers

I’m recycling a couple of videos that I have posted in the past, mostly because I believe that they’re worth watching again.  These videos – the original higher ed version of “A Vision of Students Today” by Mike Wesch, the spin-off , called “A Vision of K-12 Students Today”, and “The Networked Student”, created by [...]

A Teacher’s Guide to Twitter

Twitter is apart of my life almost every day because:
-    It’s a great source of news.
-    There are rich conversations among educators and edtech people.
-    People post entertaining, interesting, and very useful links.
-    I enjoy the easy interaction with others from around the world.
Most people start off in a rocky relationship with Twitter.  It doesn’t [...]

Bloom’s Taxonomy 2.0

Over the few months that I’ve been blogging, my post on Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy has been the biggest hit.  And, what interests my readers interests me.  Here’s more on the subject:
Probably every classroom teacher in this country has at least come across Bloom’s Taxonomy at some point.  Most of us can recite the ‘level’s by [...]

The Beauty of Personal Learning Networks

If you’re reading this, chances are that you’ve already begun building your personal learning network.
Here is a clever video called The Networked Student about how students are doing it these days, and how this new approach to learning will enhance their 21st century skills.  Highlights include using iPods to listen to college lectures posted on [...]

Bloom’s Taxonomy for the Digital Age – Integrating Technology

Integrating technology into curriculum has been a popular topic in the blogosphere for some time now.  I’m starting to find more and more concrete, applicable ideas that have the potential to be easily integrated – thank goodness for collaboration.  I feel like we’re getting somewhere.
Check this out -    Andrew Churches’  “Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy v.2.12“.

Integrating Technology into the Curriculum – Web 2.0

There’s an older article on the Edutopia website called ‘Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons Are Many‘. I love this quote:
“Effective technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and transparent and when technology supports curricular goals.”
The comments are much more useful than the article, itself, in terms [...]

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

I’m coining a new phrase: “spelinking”, def: the act of exploring links.
I came across this video by looking at Bill Graziadei’s glog, which I heard about from Elizabeth Koh who bookmarked it to the Classroom 2.0 group on Diigo.
This is oddly similar to Mike Wesch’s ‘A Vision of Students Today’, the focus of which was [...]

Nelson’s “How to Use Blogs in the Classroom” – Education 3.0 in action

While I’ve been thinking about how teachers can put web 2.0 to work for them and their students, many other people have been, too. Just came across this post by Charles Nelson about “How to Use Blogs in the Classroom“, something I hadn’t mentioned in my previous posts.
He’s got some great links about [...]

Part 4: Action! Let’s get Web 2.0 into our classrooms!

As a former teacher, I know how hesitant we can all be when trying new things in the classroom. There’s always someone telling you why (shiny new object) is going to “improve” things even when, 9 times out of 10, those new things ended up creating more problems than they solved.
Not in the [...]