MIT OpenCourseWare materials that are most useful for high school students and teachers.

MIT OpenCourseWare (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has over 1800 online courses to be viewed and freely participate in.

There is now a resource area called MIT OpenCourseWare: Highlights for High Schools that helps to support science, technology, engineering and math instruction at the high
school level.

One example is a guitar building project where students learn about the "physics principles by examining the physics responsible for producing music with electronic stringed instruments, while building, testing, and playing their own electric guitar. Students will design their own Guitar bodies, construct their own pick-ups, assemble their own guitars, tune them using a chromatic tuner, and use them to play a simple song."

National Geographic: Educator Resources

The National Geographic Education website supports educators and students with many web resources.

Explore lessons, maps, photos, news, video, audio and much more.

For students....there are exciting opportunities to participate in student expeditions. Travel with the National Geographic team in July and August to 12 possible locations:

• Peru
• Equador & the Galapagos
  
• Costa Rica
• Belize
• Caribbean
  
• Mali
• Tanzania
• China
• India
• Ireland
• Spain
• Iceland

British Film Institute: BFI - Because Films Inspire - Art

BFI - the British Film Institute website is full of archives, cinemas, festivals, films, publications and learning resources.

BFI Education publishes a growing range of teaching packs, teaching guides (many of which are free)and resources to support the use of moving image media in schools. 4 different categories: primary schools, secondary schools, film and media studies and curriculum online resources are available for educators to explore.

16+ student guides (some available for free). These are student guides that help senior media students with their "research that cover topics from censorship to Shakespeare."

Navigating the waters to find out information on various USA universities can be tricky

College Navigator is a great website that brings together all of the USA universities and colleges to help people choose a school that they may want to go to.

Picking up on the "personalized" aspect we usually see in social networking sites, this website allows the users to personalize their search. With things such as building a list of favorites for side-by-side comparisons; interactive maps that will pinpoint school locations; exporting your results onto a spreadsheet; saving your sessions to go back to for further investigation.

The site is sponsored by National Center for Education Statistics offers over information on approximately 7,000 postsecondary institutions in the USA. There is a wide range of resources available on this website to help a student narrow down a choice for a postsecondary institution from finances to housing.

Innovation in Education....futurelab

If you haven't discovered the futurelab website.....now is the time.

A colleague from the UK had sent me the link to futurelab last year and I have read through many of the intriguing articles and projects from this not-for-profit organization in the UK.

What does futurelab do? "Futurelab is passionate about transforming the way people learn. Tapping into the huge potential offered by digital and other technologies, they develop innovative resources and practices that support new approaches to learning for the 21st century."

The list of projects (that I encourage you to explore) futurelabs have helped come to fruition are exhaustive. One of the latest projects is MobiMission - "a location-based, social, mobile phone experience for young people aged 16-18 that enables players to engage with their environment and community in new ways."

Explore the list of resources .... some may even challenge your thinking and beliefs in the development of digital technologies and education.

If you are a teacher, instructor, professor, administrator - a member of an education community.....you need to read and explore this website with an open mind!

Attending school on the high seas

Who said a classroom had to be on land?

The Scholar Ship is a "recognized academic program aboard a transformed passenger ship hosting students on semester-long voyages around the world."

Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia has been "designated to award academic credit and issue academic transcripts to students who successfully complete The Scholar Ship program."

Other charter members are:
Al Akhawayn University, Morocco
Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Fudan University, China
Macquarie University, Australia
Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
University of California, Berkeley, USA
University of Ghana, Ghana

The program is built around 4 key elements:

1. an onboard classroom learning environment;
2. a multicultural residential and social community;
3. an experiential-oriented port program; and
4. a strategic research initiative.

Specifications of the ship:

• Registry: Bahamas
• Length Overall: 201 meters (660 feet)
• Breadth (beam): 26.57 meters (87.17 feet)
• Draft: 8.56 meters (28.08 feet)
• Gross Tonnage: 28,891
• Cabins: 389
• Passenger Capacity: 778
• Crew Capacity: 417

Facilities

• Academic staff library
• Academic support center
• Convenience store
• Dining rooms & cafés
• Fitness centers (2)
• Laundry Service
• Learning resource center
• Lecture rooms
• Medical clinic
• Recreation and activity rooms
• Religious observance spaces
• Sports deck
• Staff lounge
• Student pavilion
• Swimming pools (2 outdoor, 1 indoor)
• Theatre
• Wireless network throughout ship, including in cabins

Further Links:
Academic Program Onboard
Programs in Port
Voyages
Research Institute
English Program

What an exciting way to study, see the world and make lasting friendships!

Access free archived webpages, moving images, texts, audio, software and more

Internet Archive (a non-profit) "is a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public." June, 2007 the Internet Archive officially became a library according to the State of California.

The Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections.

Presently in the archive there are:

• 81,652 movies
  
• 41,948 concerts (live music archive)
  
• 167,691 recordings (audio)
  
• 239,925 texts
  
• 85 billion pages (archived webpages)

This collection is growing everyday!

Text, for example, can be available in a variety of formats: PDF, DjVu, B/W PDF, TXT, Flip Book, and via FTP.

Great tool for research and presentations:

Whether you are looking for a video or audio files for a presentation/assignment there are an amazing collection of media files to download.

NOTE: As this website is based on "free speech and free access to all" there may be content on here that is not appropriate for young children. Please be sure to check through web content prior to using in a classroom with students.

Adobe releases new curriculum: Career & Technology Education for K-12 & Higher Education

Anuja Dharkar (Adobe Worldwide Education Manager, Curriculum and Professional Development) worked with the global AEL team and members of ISTE's NETs Refresh to develop the new Adobe Career & Technology Education curriculum for K-12 & Higher Education.

Visual Design: Foundations of Design and Print Production - website
Visual Design is a yearlong, project-based curriculum that develops career and communication skills in print production and graphic design, using Adobe tools.

Digital Design: Foundations of Web Design - website
Digital Design is a yearlong, project-based curriculum that develops IT career skills in web design and production, using Adobe tools.

Digital Video: Foundations of Video Design and Production - website
Digital Video is also a yearlong, project-based curriculum that develops career and communication skills in digital video production, using Adobe tools.

Free to download! The new curriculum will also ship automatically with any of the new CS3 K-12 School Site Licenses or can be ordered separately on DVD from your local education reseller (small charge).

BBC Languages Web Resource

One thing I always hear from my colleagues that teach languages is there are never enough resources for their programs. The BBC Languages website is full of great ideas and resources for language programs.

French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Greek (along with some other languages) are focused on this website.

Podcasts available to download, games and quizzes to help improve your listening skills, lists of radio stations and television shows (in that particular language) are just some of the resources available.

Whether you are an adult learner brushing up on your vocabulary or teaching a language program you will find this website a great resource.

Periodic Tables that will suit a variety of learners

Ever wanted to find out what super hero was made up of gold or mercury?

The Periodic Table of Comic Books is a great website that has been developed by two teachers from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky. With almost all of the elements there is at least 1 superhero comic available to download that discusses or makes reference to the element.
___________________________________

Another website to check out (linked from the Comic Book site) is WebElements Periodic Table. This website has a very in depth view on periodic tables. With video, audio, images, etc...

Give both of these a look...great resources for your science program.

An interactive "maths dictionary for kids"

"A Maths Dictionary for Kids 2007" is an amazing site designed and developed by a teacher from Australia...Jenny Eather. Along with every definition there is an interactive exercise/example for the students to explore so they have a clearer understanding of the maths concept. I have seen a lot of educational websites that claim they are interactive....but this one is absolutely fabulous.

Jenny has also designed another maths website for K to 7 called Rainforest maths. This is based on Australian maths standards but is a great one to also check out.

There is no end to this teachers talents....Writing Fun is another site Jenny has created. All these sites have been designed using Adobe Flash.

Great to use in the class and for students to access at home for review. Great job!

Human Anatomy Online

Human Anatomy Online is full of information of the inner exploration on the study of anatomy of the human body. With animations, graphics, information and descriptive links for 10 different systems to choose from:

• skeletal
• digestive
• muscular
• lymphatic
• endocrine
• nervous
• cardiovascular
• male reproductive
• female reproductive
• urinary

Web Cam Sites for Kids

EarthCam for Kids a collection of webcam sites from around the world. From New Zealand Volcano cameras to Polar Bear projects in Northern Canada.

A growing collection of webcam sites for students with topics such as: adventure cams, amazing animal cams, creative & fun cams, naturally nature cams, out of this world cams, people cams, smart cams, weather or not cams, and weird-o-rama cams.

Great supplement to any lesson - great for all ages.

Smithsonian Education

In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist willed that his estate should go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” Several years later saw the first Smithsonian Institute Museum now expanding to 19 museums, 144 affiliate museums and 9 research centres. In 2005 there were over 24 million visitors in 2005 and housing 136 million collections it is a treasure for any educator.

Smithsonian Education is geared towards educators, students and families. There is a free Smithsonian Education e-newsletter you can sign-up for that has links to various lesson plans, stories within the website, professional development for educators, etc...

The educator section is full of teaching resources. For example February is Black History Month and there is a whole section dedicated to this topic.

The Smithsonian Magazine is available online or in print with sections on: history, the arts, science & technology, travel, nature & wildlife and people & cultures. An interesting article in this months is on "Faces of War".... journey of WWI soldiers whose faces were disfigured from the war and the artists and sculptures who came to their aid creating face masks.

Video Producion

Kids' Vid is a website to give teacher and students the tools to implement video production into the classroom.

The site is broken down into: scripting, making, editing and showtime.

There is also a theatre area where kids can share their work.

The Digital Kids Club by Adobe is a wonderful resource for teacher and student for digital video and digital photography.

Digital Kids Club is full of lesson ideas, templates, galleries, and collaboration areas where teachers can share and learn about what other media teachers from around the globe are doing.

Videomaker.com has posted an article title "5 Steps to Great Video Production." It lists and briefly describes the steps that students should know that are required to produce a video.

Videomaker.com also has a lot of other topics related to video production. Another article describes what is necessary to setup your videography.

Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is an educational community that has been around since 1997.

Membership is free and the aim is for members to share their work through a community portal. MERLOT has over 16067 available online materials with 42056 members. The arts, business, education, humanities, mathematics & statistics, science & technology, and social sciences are categories for learning materials.

There are also educational portals in the areas of: biology, business, chemistry, engineering, health sciences, history, IT, mathematics, music, physics, psychology, statistics, teacher education, teaching & technology, and world languages.

An example of what the portals contain for world languages:

• tips for teaching
• contacts to other people teaching/involved in world languages
• learning materials
• professional associations
• showcases

Phys.Ed & Health Web Resources

Using technology in physical education, health education, and athletics.

• some promotion of products to sift through but a good insight into what is new for use in this curriculum area. Tips on using various software applications and new resource links each month. You can sign up and subscribe for free to this newsletter.

The Educational Technology Clearinghouse.

• a clearing house for PE resource links (lesson plans) for PreK - senior students. (Note: there are also lesson plans for dance, music, theatre, visual art, languages, health, language arts, mathematics, science and social studies.)

The University of Waikato: Resource Library for Health and Physical Education.

• quite an extensive range of web resources from nutrition to sports media.

Another online resource website that you can subscribe to: Blue Web'n. Every month 5-10 new sites are added and sent to you via email. They have an extensive "idea bank" of lessons and resources for teachers in a variety of grades and curriculum areas.

• Health and Physical Education links

Science and Technology in the Classroom

Discovery Science Connection has been launched by Discovery Education .

Science Connection is designed to help educators (especially middle school) in areas such as Physical Science, Life Science and Earth and Space Science. The website includes interactive content for students, multimedia resources and formative assessment.

The NewScientist.com offers a huge podcast archive available for download. Podcast downloads go back to 2005 and topics vary from deep space, metacognition in the animal mind, discovery on how we recognize faces, mars is it dead or alive - are just a few of the topics covered.

You can subscribe to the podcasts on the website so it will automatically update through your iTunes.


Infoplease has developed an interactive periodic table. Clicking on any of the elements brings up more information on each element.

Chemsoc is another science website with a lot of classroom resources on it. Chemsoc has a great interactive periodic table designed using Flash.

Dida Delivered

Dida Delivered is an interactive website for students that was designed by a talented group of UK designers/educators. One member of the team is also an Adobe Educational Leader - Diane Nolan. This site just won the e-Government Excellence: Education Award in the UK - congratulations!

Check it out it has some great tutorials for students all related to ICT.

Exploratorium

"The museum of science, art and human perception."

Exploratorium museum was founded in 1969 by a physicist and educator Dr. Frank Oppenheimer. Located in San Francisco's landmark Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium is a collage of hundreds of interactive exhibits in the areas of science, art, and human perception.

The Exploratorium magazine has been in print since 1977 and published a quarterly until 2003. It has now moved to an online version to support the published magazine. There are a lot of great activities and articles to use in the classroom. One of the activities in the latest version is students creating self-portrait silhouettes using photographic paper.

Some of the back issues that are available online are:

• Learn all about paper.
• Where do languages come from?
• The mystery of space.
• Explore the science of chocolate.
• Better hair through chemistry.
• Understanding aging memory.