Middle/High School – Page 46 – iLearn Technology

Wiglington & Wenks Virtual World

January 13, 2010February 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely20 Comments13551 views

What it is: I absolutely love when I learn about a new site, especially those that I immediately know will be a winner with students. You know the sites that have incredible graphics, are easy to use, and involve kids in the story (instead of just drill and practice). Wiglington & Wenks is one such site. One of the creators of the site @aldricchang alerted me to the new site today via Twitter.

Students are dropped into the middle of a story where they become world travelers to places around the real-world, meeting historical characters, playing brain games, building culture inspired houses, exploring secret locations, and solving ancient mysteries. There are 100 educational real-world and imaginary places for students to visit from the past, present, and the future. Wiglington and Wenks was originally a children story book series written by Johan Bittleston. It has exploded into an online world where students can learn and explore.

Wiglington and Wenks is so much more than your standard virtual world, it has a rich story line with well developed characters, plot, mystery, and quests. Students are dropped into the story and invited to participate, learning through exploration, problem solving, and critical thinking. The world highlights famous real-world landmarks, historical figures, inventions, culture, nature, and wildlife. Students are motivated to learn more about each as they complete a series of quests.

The story behind the virtual world is about two water rats from England, Wiglington and Wenks, who are in search of a legacy left by Wiglington’s great explorer ancestor. A series of magic maps guide them as they travel through time and space. Through a series of events, a time portal was accidentally created that transported famous figures from the past to the future. All of the historical figures seem to have forgotten who they are. Students embark on a quest to help Wilington and Wenks find the famous missing characters and recover their lost memories.

Wilglington and Wenks are the main characters of the story. They are the heroes. There are a host of other characters that further enchant students as they solve the mysteries of this virtual world.

Carto is the map creator who created the magic maps that keep track of geography, cultural evolution, and climate change over time. Fragments of the map piece together to form a complete real-world map.

Sir Ordy Nace is the curator of the maps at the British Museum.

Filo rat is the head of the Traveling Academy in the town. He is an inventor, code breaker, and skilled strategist- a genius in every way. He loves a challenging game of sudoku or master mind.

Scuttle Butt is a search engine. Ask him a question and he provides a useful list with the most relevant information at the top. He is Filo Rat’s assistant. (This is an awesome way for students to familiarize themselves for using search engines to solve problems!)

Chacophonous is a crab who also happens to be a conductor. He is reportedly connected by an ancestor to Beethoven. He introduces students to classical music.

Walpole the whale makes cross-ocean transportation possible. He has a terrible sense of direction so students have to give him directions and help guide him.

Every story needs a villain and the Count is the villain of this story. He is known for using his knowledge of the magic maps for the destruction of the environment along with his side kick Warrior Wolf.

Historical figures include Thomas Edison, Alexandar Graham Bell, Cleopatra, Confusious, Copernicus, Damo, Emperor Quin, Galileo Galilei, Issac Newton John, Marco Polo, John Rolfe, Nostra Damus, Pocahontas, Wilber Wright, Orville Wright, Vlad Dracula, and many more.

How to integrate Wiglington & Wenks Virtual World into the classroom: The rich storyline alone makes this site one to bring into your classroom. Students can do character studies, learn about plot, mystery, and suspense. Use this site to teach your students about environmental issues such as global warming, forest preservation, protection of marine life, and endangered animals. This is an immersive learning environment where your students will learn by doing. As students travel the virtual world, they will learn geography, cultural differences, history, and inventions. Students are encouraged to think creatively to solve the issues facing the world today. Wiglington & Wenks would be a great site to introduce to students at the beginning of the year that is used throughout the year for learning. Make it your goal to solve the mysteries of the magic maps before the end of the year. Throughout the year students can visit the virtual world, learn about historical figures, famous inventions, and geography. Hang up a world map in your classroom and keep track of the places that have been visited. Encourage students to create character cards as they learn about new historical figures, and story characters. Each student can have their own account but keep track of progress as a class. Create PSA posters for the classroom as students learn about environmental issues. Explore more about the inventors and inventions that students come across in the virtual world. Have students keep a journal of discoveries (on or offline) as they discover new clues. Have students write newspaper articles about the happenings of the virtual world and it’s characters. This site can be tied into your curriculum for the year in a variety of ways.

I love the way this site encourages discovery of knowledge, teamwork, and critical thinking. This site will have your students excited about learning the whole year through. Fridays would make a great day of discovery each week and give students something to look forward to. Create a single class account and explore Wilington and Wenks as a class each week (or a little each day) using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Give each student the opportunity to be the navigator of the world. The other students can take observation notes in a journal about what they see and learn. If you have classroom computers, cycle your students through the virtual world as a center activity. In this model each student can have an account. If you have access to a 1 to 1 environment (one computer for each child) or a computer lab setting on a regular basis, students can each have their own account and solve the mystery individually. Form small groups where students can discuss their findings and give each other tips and tricks. (Hint: these groups will form whether or not you create them…it is that engaging!)

Wiglington and Wenks is the way that learning should be!

Tips: Read the Wiglington & Wenks books (Amazon link) as a class…the tie into the virtual world will have your students eager to read these books to learn more!

Your students will catch on to the virtual world environment quickly and know more about the characters, games, etc. than you could ever hope to learn. There is a great guide that will clue you into everything the world offers so that you can keep up with your students. Check it out here.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Wiglington & Wenks Virtual World in your classroom.

Nasa Interactive Timeline

January 11, 2010January 14, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments13726 views

What it is: Nasa has hundreds of great online tools for the classroom, their Interactive Timeline is the one of the most impressive. The multimedia timeline begins in 500BC and follows the search for extrasolar planets to modern discoveries. Students can “autoplay” the timeline for a journey through the history of space discovery or explore at their own pace. Students can search the timeline by key milestones, technology, discoveries, or by thought and culture.

How to integrate Nasa Interactive Timeline into the classroom: The Nasa Interactive Timeline is a great way to teach students about the history of space discovery and thought. Students can gain an understanding about historical figures, key events, and key discoveries. At any point, the timeline can be paused for discussion. Nasa’s Interactive Timeline would be well used as an introduction or anticipatory set for further exploration. View the timeline on autoplay as a class using a projector or interactive whiteboard, or allow students to explore the timeline on their own during center time on classroom computers or individually during lab time. Assign students a key historical figure or time period to learn more about. Students can present their findings to the class when their time period or figure comes up on the timeline.

Tips: The Interactive Timeline gives basic information. Encourage your students to find additional resources and information about each event, historical figure, or time period.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Nasa Interactive Timeline in your classroom.

Volunteer Spot

January 6, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3471 views

What it is: Volunteer Spot could be just what you need to coordinate classroom helpers and volunteers. No more messy sign up clipboards, endless reply-all emails, reminder phone calls, phone tag, and weeks of scheduling to get parents actively involved in your classroom. Coordinating volunteers is easy, just schedule activities, invite volunteers, volunteers sign up with a simple click, and send reminders. You can easily schedule one day events like field trips, or multi-day sign up options for extended volunteer opportunities. You can specify if your need is a supply that needs to be brought or donated, or the need for a helper. Did I mention this is a completely FREE service?

How to integrate Volunteer Spot into the classroom: Volunteer Spot is an excellent time saver for your classroom or school events. It makes communication with potential volunteers simple and keeps you from back and forth communication that can zap your time. Setting up activities and volunteer events is simple and intuitive. It is much like setting up and sending an Evite. Volunteer Spot will even give you a unique URL that you can display on your classroom or school website. Inviting parents and community members into the classroom can be extremely enriching. It gives your students a sense of the importance of education when others are involved. Using Volunteer Spot makes it painless to coordinate volunteers in your classroom, no more excuses!

Tips: Be sure to tell your homeroom parents, coaches, and office staff about Volunteer Spot. It has the potential to make their lives easier and makes you look good in the process! 🙂

Leave a comment and share how you are using Volunteer Spot in your classroom.

Math Snacks

January 5, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4625 views

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What it is: Math Snacks is my new favorite teaching resource for math! Math Snacks are animated videos and games that help students understand math concepts. Each “snack” offers a math concept that students can learn, review, and practice. The snacks are available online or can be accessed for free on a mobile device like the iPhone or iPod. The snacks focus on math concepts that are appropriate for 5th-8th grade. Print materials are available that can be used to help students in applying their conceptual understanding to math problems. Concepts on Math Snacks include ratios, proportions, scale, number line properties, equality and order on the number line, tables, graphs, measurement, and equations.

How to integrate Math Snacks into the classroom: Math Snacks is a fun way for students to visualize difficult to understand math concepts. There are short humorous videos that demonstrate the math concept in action. These videos can be viewed as an introduction to a new concept or as practice and review of learning. The videos can be paused for class discussion about the concept and for solving of problems. All videos are available for viewing online and can be downloaded to an iPod. Some of the iPod downloads also include subtitles. Each video also comes with a learner and teacher guide. Print these guides to direct you in discussion throughout the video and activities.

Tips: A huge THANK YOU to @summersj who introduced me to Math Snacks via Twitter!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Math Snacks in your classroom.

Safe Share TV

January 5, 2010Kelly Tenkely16 Comments13777 views

What it is: Safe Share TV is a fantastic way to share You Tube videos with your students. Safe Share TV removes all distracting and offensive elements that surround a video on You Tube and allows you to share the video with a unique link. Safe Share TV also gives you the option to crop videos before sharing them.

How to integrate Safe Share TV into the classroom: I love the way that Safe Share TV eliminates all of the related videos, comments, links to other videos, etc. from a You Tube video and makes it available with a unique link. You Tube has some excellent videos to use in the classroom on demand. The problem? You Tube can share too much with your students. Related videos may be inappropriate for the classroom, or comments left by others may be offensive. Just today I was searching for a School House Rock video for one of our first grade teachers. I found the video on You Tube but shared it via Safe Share TV so that the distracting content would be excluded. This is the perfect way to share You Tube videos with students on a projector, interactive whiteboard, or as part of a center activity on classroom computers.

Tips: Safe Share TV includes cropping capability for You Tube videos, it is simple to crop videos down to the exact clip that you want to use with students.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Safe Share TV in your classroom.

National Geographic Image Collection

December 11, 2009December 11, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3651 views

What it is: National Geographic is known for their poignant images. Now, those images can be viewed online in the National Geographic Image Collection. There are more than 11 million images that chronicle the world from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century. Students can also view the history of photography from daguerreotypes to digital through an interactive time line. The image collection includes images related to exploration, wild life, people and cultures, and science and climate change.

How to integrate National Geographic Image Collection into the classroom: The National Geographic Image Collection is an impressive set of images from around the world. The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” proves to be true. These images are indeed worth a thousand words or more. Use these images to help you tell the story of our world as you teach students about history, science, wild life, and world culture. These images will help to connect your students with learning in ways that a textbook can’t. Use the Image Collection for creative writing prompts. Allow your students to choose an image from the collection to tell a story about. The interactive time line can be used to teach students about the history of photography.

Tips: I learned about this site from a Tweet by @McTeach a few weeks ago on Twitter, thanks Karen!

Leave a comment and share how you are using National Geographic Image Collection in your classroom.

Typing Olympics

December 8, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments4290 views

This year I am teaching 3rd- 5th grade only. My remaining time is spent helping teachers to integrate technology in their classrooms effectively and supporting our new Promethean boards. I see my students once a week for 35 minutes. Any of you that teach a specials class know that at least 5 minutes of class is spent getting students ready to learn after the hallway transition. This leaves me with 30 minutes with my students. In that 30 minutes I have to teach a lesson and give students an opportunity to practice it on the computer. In a school year I see my students a total of 24 times (that is if we never have a snow day, or lose a day due to field trips or special events). I love teaching my students how to use technology as a tool to help them learn. I do not want to spend my time with them typing. Although typing is a valuable skill for them to learn, there is SO much more than our brand new iMacs can do. My other hang up with spending computer class focused on typing is that I still only see my students 24 times in a school year. Even if we spent every class typing, I don’t feel like this is adequate time to really learn and build touch typing skills.

My solution was to come up with a typing competition that will take one class period. I call it the Typing Olympics. I make a BIG deal out of this day. We have opening ceremonies, olympic fanfare music, and even paper doves. Students compete against each other to find out who is the fastest touch typist with the greatest accuracy in each class. There are two gold winners, one boy and one girl. The winners receive a gold medal in the closing ceremonies along with a break dresscode pass (these are like gold to our students!). There are also silver and bronze winners who receive medals. The students know that the Typing Olympics happens in the spring. We talk in class extensively about how hard athletes like Michael Phelps have to train before the Olympics. At this point I give students the goal to train for our Typing Olympics. This year I decided to create a special website for the training and created a Typing Training Club. Students can visit the site for links to websites that will help build their typing skills. There is also a blog page where I give students suggestions about which keys to practice each week building up to the Typing Olympics. This helps break down practice into a manageable skill each week. We type in class one day prior to the Olympics. The rest is up to them. For my students, a break dress code day is enough incentive to practice typing on their own time. Obviously, some students will take this more seriously than others. For our situation, I think this is our best option for building touch typing skills. I have some students who can type at 53 WPM and some at 8 WPM, but at least we have learned more during the year than just touch typing. I suspect I would get similar results even if we used the 24 classes in the year for typing practice.

What are you doing at your school to build touch typing skills?

Animated Atlas: The Growth of a Nation

December 7, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2252 views

What it is: Animated Atlas: The Growth of a Nation is an animated video that teaches students about American expansion. The video allows for interaction as it plays. Students can click on any state to learn more about when and how it became a state. There is also a great interactive timeline at the bottom of the animation that students can explore more in depth. I really like the look of this website, it makes me nostalgic remembering the computer activities I used as a kid. I can’t guarantee that our students will get such a kick out of the graphics. 🙂 The ten minute presentation takes students from the original 13 states and shows them the gradual expansion. At any point students can click on a territory or state for more information. The timeline pointer moves along with the presentation but students can click on a date for more information. The interactive timeline goes from 1790 to 2000.

How to integrate Animated Atlas into the classroom: This interactive is a good one for helping students to visualize the expansion of the United States from the original 13 colonies. The site is packed full of information with the ability to learn more about a time period, state, or territory. Use this site as an overview of the growth of America. If students aren’t loving the graphics, have them gather information and create a 2009 (almost 2010!) version of the site. This site could be used whole class with an interactive whiteboard but I think it would allow for more exploration as a center activity or individual computers.

Tips: When you play Animated Atlas you have several options: play all the way through, 1789-1853, The Civil War, and Post Civil War. This makes it easy to chunk the lesson or split students into groups.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Animated Atlas: The Growth of a Nation in your classroom.

Big Huge Thesaurus

November 23, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3083 views

What it is: Big Huge Thesaurus is a must add to your classroom publishing center. The tag line of Big Huge Thesaurus says it all: “synonyms, antonyms, and rhymes (oh my!)”. Big Huge Thesaurus goes beyond other online thesauruses by giving students a wealth of synonyms (for each part of speech), words that sound like the original word, and rhyming words. When students find a word that they are curious about, they can click the link and it will send that word through the Big Huge Thesaurus.

How to integrate Big Huge Thesaurus into the classroom: If you have classroom computers, set up a writing/publishing center where students have all the resources they need to write. Big Huge Thesaurus should be one of those resources. Students can visit the writing center to add richness and interest to their stories, poems, and other writing. This Thesaurus does an excellent job of breaking down words. Use Big Huge Thesaurus on an interactive whiteboard or projector when learning new vocabulary. Type in the vocabulary word and have students construct its meaning using the synonyms that are generated.

Tips: I learned about Big Huge Thesaurus on Twitter this morning from several of my PLN. If you aren’t on Twitter with other educators, I highly recommend joining and following the fine folks I follow!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Big Huge Thesaurus in your classroom.

Track My T

November 19, 2009Kelly Tenkely5 Comments28300 views

What it is: Track My T is a truly impressive website that I learned about from @dianadell on Twitter. Track my T lets students type in the unique lot number on their t-shirt and then go through an amazing interactive journey tracking their t-shirt from its very beginning as a cotton seed on a farm, to every step before they bought it. Students can track their actual t-shirt or choose a random t-shirt to follow. On their journey students will learn about picking cotton, the cotton gin, yarn spinners, textile mills, cut and sew factories, and distribution centers. This is an incredible journey that teaches students the process that goods go through before they end up in the local store. Each stop on the journey includes video, images, and information about what happens during that part of the t-shirt creation process. In addition, students will learn about and encounter historical figures like Eli Whitney. At the end of the journey students can check out their custom T tag, learn more about the screen printing process, and learn how to reduce their carbon footprint.

How to integrate Track My T into the classroom: Track My T is an amazing site. From beginning to end your students will be engaged and enthralled with this website. The ability to track their actual t-shirt is really something! Use this activity as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard, as a center activity in the classroom, or individually in the computer lab setting. As a follow up activity, have students put placemarks on a Google Earth map on the location where their t-shirt/pants/shoes were made. This activity could easily be expanded to the geography classroom (perfect for national geography week which is this week!). Students could do additional research about the country where their t-shirt originated from. To expand the activity even more, have students Tweet about their findings, see if they can get a response from someone that lives in that country.

Tips: Be sure to take a look at the accompanying lesson plan on Track My T. The lesson teaches students all about fair trade.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Track My T in your classroom.