Web Tools for the Social Studies

Michigan Digital Learning ConferenceMacomb Intermediate School District

Sheila MajaskChippewa Valley Schools

Are your students bored???

Who wants to see more technology in the classroom?

Tools & Resources for Teaching

Edmodo

www.edmodo.comEdmodo provides teachers and students a secure place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications.

Prezi

http://prezi.com

Prezi’s zooming canvas opens up the classroom to active learning and interactivity, making lessons understandable, memorable, and fun.

Prezi Tips• Have students research important points before

introducing Prezi• I like to have groups of 2 research 20 – 25 facts from

categories that they must cover

• Show tutorial videos supplied by Prezi. These videos are good background on how to use the program.

• Encourage students to list each point individually for the most interesting presentations

• Search Google images for 3D images related to the topic

Glogster

http://edu.glogster.com

Create glogs - interactive posters loaded with text, graphics, music, videos, and more

Example: http://www.glogster.com/schsap/revolutionary-war/g-6obi9qaidr73ju6o3omqr27

xTimeline

www.xtimeline.com

Example: http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/Roman-Republic--510-27BC-

xtimeline is a free web-based timeline. Easily create and share timelines with pictures and videos

Dipity

http://www.dipity.comDipity is a free digital timeline website. Users can create, share, embed and collaborate on interactive, visually engaging timelines that integrate video, audio, images, text, links, social media, location and timestamps.

Examples: http://www.dipity.com/TheAgenda/Iran-Timeline/

Weebly

www.weebly.com

Weebly is an easy to use web based web page creator where teachers can easily create a classroom website and blog, manage students’ accounts, accept homework assignments online and keep parents up to date.

Wikispaces

http://wikispaces.com

Wikispaces is a space on the Web where you can share work and ideas, pictures and links, videos and media — and anything else you can think of. Wikispaces is special because we give you a visual editor and a bunch of other tools to make sharing all kinds of content as easy for students as it is for their teachers.

Wikispaces - Ideas

• Photo Gallery • Find 10 pictures of an event (Civil Rights)• Give it a title• 3-5 Description of image related to event

• Collaborative Study Guides• Content Management System

Popplet

Example: http://popplet.com/app/index.php#/489

http://popplet.com

Popplet delivers an interactive way to create concept maps, mind maps, and options to brainstorm or storyboard right along with peers. The “popplets” can be constructed, moved, color coded, typed in, drawn in, and have images or videos inserted

Fakebook

http://www.classtools.net/fb/home/page

Woodrow Wilson Example - http://www.classtools.net/fb/56/WmNKhC90 Second video tutorial - http://vimeo.com/25366185

"Fakebook" allows teachers and students to create imaginary profile pages for study purposes.

Wallwisher

http://wallwisher.comYou get a blank page (a wall). You put anything you want on it, in the form of repositionable post it notes.

Wallwisher - Ideas

• Pre-reading/reading questions• Exit Slips• Opinion Sharing• Ice Breakers

DocsTeach

Educators can “find and create learning activities with primary source documents that promote historical thinking skills.” Use the more than 3000 original documents from the National Archives to create rich, online learning experiences for students.

Tip: Use the interactive learning activity tools to help students “think like historians.”http://docsteach.org/activities/7785

http://docsteach.org/

DocsTeach – Common Core

Visit this link for DocsTeach aligned to the Common Core Standards:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7impFZuDi9mZ1RhdHkwR19XbjQ/edit?pli=1

iWitness

Over 1,000 online video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses are housed in this website maintained by the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation Institute.

http://iwitness.usc.edu/SFI/

History Pin

Historypin, in partnership with Google, is a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history. Upload pictures, audio, or video, and pin them to a satellite map.

http://www.historypin.com/

Tagxedo

http://www.tagxedo.com

Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.

Tagxedo Examples

EPals

http://www.epals.com

A Learning Community of Teachers, Students and Parents From Over 200 CountriesClassroom-Ready Projects and ActivitiesCollaborative Learning Tools such as Blogs, Wikis and Media GalleriesQuality, Standards-Aligned Content from Respected Educational BrandsShowcase of Outstanding Teacher and Student Work

Distance Learning & Electronic Field Trips

TWICE: Two Way Interactive Connections in Education

http://www.twice.ccTwo Way Interactive Connections in Education (TWICE) is Michigan's organization for

videoconferencing in K-12 education. TWICE promotes and supports collaborative connections for the benefit of all students.

TWICE: Two Way Interactive Connections in Education

Skype in the Classroom

https://education.skype.com

A free and easy way for teachers to open up their classroom. Meet new people, talk to experts, share ideas and create amazing learning experiences with teachers from around the world.

National Park Service

http://www.nationalparks.org/our-work/programs/electronic-field-trip

Each Electronic Field Trip consists of two components: a televised broadcast from a national park featuring National Park Service Rangers and youth hosts a website featuring downloadable lesson plans for teachers and interactive games for students. The broadcast and the website complement each other and teach with rich imagery and content in three different modalities.

Colonial Williamsburg

http://www.history.org/history/teaching/eft/index.cfm

http://www.history.org/media/videoPlayer/index.cfm?cat=vodcast&file=WhatsanEFT#

Colonial Williamsburg’s EFT is an interactive multimedia educational program that focuses on themes and stories drawn from American history. It includes a live television broadcast (also available online via live video streaming) and a companion website with student activities and teacher resources for use in the classroom.

Video Conferencing in Education: Tips

• Plan ahead!• Test Equipment – Seek help of your IT coordinator• See if money is available in your district for

distance learning• Write a grant!• Review lesson plans and materials that

accompany conference. Great information is included to prepare and wrap up distance learning event

Video Resources

You Tube Time Machine

YTTM is a sweet little tool that lets you search for video primary sources by year. Grab the slider and pull it to a specific year. YTTM then displays a series of videos from that year. You do have a few filters to increase or limit the number of videos - commercials, music, current events, sports, etc

http://yttm.tv

Horrible Histories (via Youtube)

http://youtu.be/-fadCAHjN-s http://youtu.be/tsnH8WX1MHY

Crash Course World History(Via Youtube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vufba_ZcoR0&feature=share&list=PL46F97FC8C3FCBC4B

Khan Academy

http://www.khanacademy.org

http://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/us-history

With a library of over 3,500 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history, and hundreds of skills to practice, Khan Academy is on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.

WatchKnowLearn Video

WatchKnowLearn has indexed over 33,000+ educational videos, placing them into a directory of over 3,000 categories. The videos are available without any registration or fees to teachers in the classroom and to students at home 24/7.

www.watchknowlearn.org

YouTube EDU

http://www.youtube.com/education

Free lectures from more than one hundred colleges and universities.

TeacherTube

Like YouTube, but for teachers.

www.teachertube.com

Animoto

http://animoto.com

Turn your photos, video clips, and music into stunning video masterpieces to share with everyone. Fast, free, and easy!