Want to see some neat things that are happening online with NASA?Then check out these 10 cool applications!

I was browsing through an older issue of Learning & Leading with Technology (September/October 2007) when I found an article titled, Improving Student Research by Catherine Tannahill and Leslie Ricklin. The authors break the research process into four steps, the first being investigation. In this step students should identify the type of information needed and available to them. They recommend that educators teach, model and reinforce basic and advanced Internet search techniques so that students [...]

Each issue of EDTECHMAG.com has a lot of lesson plan resources worth exploring, adapting, and making your own. The latest issue features these two: Digitizing History: Students explore great moments in the past and build web skills along the way. [Elementary] Cellular Superheroes: Students use computers to create comic book characters that bring the parts of the cell alive. [9th Grade Biology] Each lesson plan has a description, a subject area focus, a list of [...]

Do you want to quickly and easily generate vocabulary lists for your students? Well, say no more, VocabGrabber is here! Get your list in three easy steps! Copy text from any document Paste the copied text into the box Grab your vocabulary words! More details from the web site: “VocabGrabber analyzes any text you’re interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just [...]

Have you heard about this? Google Squared is an experimental tool that takes a category (like US presidents, roller coasters, or digital cameras) and attempts to create a starter “square” of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web. You can modify your square by removing rows and columns you don’t like–or by adding new rows and columns and having Google Squared attempt to fetch the relevant facts. Verify and correct the facts [...]

A colleague wanted to create a course survey for students and sought my assistance. I recommended using Google Docs since he wanted to manipulate the survey results and create various charts and graphs for data analysis. After creating his spreadsheet we went through the process of creating a form that feeds the responses right to his document. He was so amazed with the tool, process and results that he wanted to share the survey with [...]

Ways to Use Wordle in Your Classroom – Jen Wagner http://www.slideshare.net/JenniferW/wordle-ideas 19 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the [Elementary] Classroom http://www.slideshare.net/katygal/19-interesting-ways-to-use-wordle-elementary 25 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom http://www.slideshare.net/rjensen/twenty-five-interesting-ways-to-use-wordle-in 38 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom – P Pappas http://www.slideshare.net/zoomer777/thirty-eight-interesting-ways-to-use-wordle-i

Christmas morning this year was quite an experience. In addition to the enjoyment of having a 3-year old who was too excited to look at what he had just opened because there were other wrapped presents just waiting to be uncovered, and a 6-month old who just wanted to chew on the discarded wrappings, Daddy, for the first time, had to take one of the toys online. Now I remember getting a Mattel hand-held basketball [...]

In the latest issue of TECH & LEARNING magazine, Gary Stager offers some suggestions for student writing that I found to be very clever. He writes: “Why should kids write book reports when they can review books on Amazon.com and have their reviews actually help others? Alternatively, ask students to write reviews of their favorite books and place those recommendations on your class Web site, blog, or wiki; If you become an Amazon.com Associate and [...]

When I was teaching a leadership class many years ago, we always spent some time of the process of goal setting, both for individuals and for organizations. Somewhere I came across the acronym of “SMART” for teaching this skill. Specific – Goals should be specific and not general. Measureable – If goals cannot be measured, how can one determine if they were reached? Achieveable – Can this goal be accomplished? Realistic – Is the goal [...]