Online Tribute to Nelson Mandela

Information on the Nelson Mandela Memorial is available at mashable.com, where you can also see many world leaders who paid tribute to Mandela.

Best Learning Games of 2013

Larry Ferazzo, of Edublogs, lists what he considers the best learning games of 2013. They include World Geography Games, Inca Investigation, The China Games, Plan It Green Live, Broken Picture Telephone, Jay Is Games, Earth Picker, Lifesaver, Room Escape Maker, GR8CTZ—Great Cities of the World, and LocateStreet. This is the second of the 2013 lists. The first list features Wonderground, Pursued, GeoGuessr, Depression Quest, The Republica Times, Breakaway, Quandary, and Review Game Zone. The Edublog includes links to the recommended games. You’ll also find links to the best games of previous years.

Interactive Languages: Digital Courses

eSchool News offers the white paper, “Bringing World Language Education to Everyone”. You can download the paper free, but you’ll need to sign in/sign up. The paper tells how Weybridge Elementary School in Vermont brought Spanish into its curriculum. Leaders in the school knew that early language learning was key to language learning but were worried about the expense of bringing such programs into their school in addition to the availability of teachers. Weybridge teamed with Middlebury Interactive to provide a language-learning program that could be accessed both at home and at school.

For schools interested in other languages, Middlebury Interactive offers Chinese, German, Latin, and French as well as Spanish. In a Johns Hopkins Center for Research and Reform in Education study of Middlebury Interactive programs, feedback from teachers was “overwhelmingly positive” and the courses were said to be “very successful in promoting cultural awareness and appreciation and growing language proficiency. A free demo is available.

Time-Traveling App

Back in Time, an IOS app that can be used with all ages, is described as best for Grades 6-12. The site TeachThought calls in an innovative educational app, and although it comes at a high ($7.99) price as apps go, it is sure to capture your interest and that of your students. It includes all subject areas. With a clock as a time-machine, it takes the user on a journey through history. TeachThought says that it “visualizes the mind-numbing scale of history.” There’s a trailer you can watch to determine if you want to purchase Back in Time and then travel with your students through time whenever you want.

Hispanic Culture & History Resources

In its latest newsletter, PBS LearningMedia features resources related to Hispanic culture and history. The content is designed to help students gain a deep appreciation of the Hispanic culture and history while building Spanish language skills. Some of the digital resources include salsa music, bilingual science discussions, Hispanic names like Nevada and Montana in the United States, Latino family ancestry, gender, and race as part of an understanding of history, and revolutionary art featuring the Mexican Muralist Movement.

3D Virtual Field Trip Simulation

Maria Harrington, an Assistant Professor at Slippery Rock University, is working on the development of 3D, high fidelity virtual experiences in which people learn by entering a virtual environment. Her company, Virtual Field Trips LLC offers “simulations for exploration, discovery, and intrinsic learning designed for the young child in all of us.”  Public schools qualify for the company’s educational license.

Harrington’s first field trip features the Trillium Trail, an area in Fox Chapel, PA. Students at the O’Hara Elementary School in Fox Chapel piloted the program. With the software, they took off on the virtual trail learning as they went while enjoying a scientifically accurate 360-degree view of their surroundings. Armed by the learning they gained on their virtual trip, the students hiked the trail in real life. According to those who have experienced “Trillium Trail”, it is like “walking into a painting” and others say it is “more real than real.”

Shout: Social Responsibility

Microsoft Corp, the Smithsonian, and TakingITGlobal are partnering to create Shout, a global network that will challenge students to collaborate online as they try to solve environmental problems facing our world. Shout will feature project-based learning activities designed to promote social responsibility and will help teachers use technology to enhance students’ problem solving skills. Although, work on the Shout network is still in progress, you can preview content from the Environmental Education Online Conference with Smithsonian experts.

ALA Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2013

The American Library Association, always a trusted source for recommendations, provides a list of apps that it considers “of exceptional value to inquiry-based learning . . .”  These are apps that encourage students to be innovative and creative as they engage in collaboration with others. Categories on the list include: Books, STEM, Organization & Management, Social Sciences, and Content Creation. A few of the apps on the ALA Best App List are: Shakespeare in Bits, Got to Have Music, Operation Math, SimplePhysics, Tinkerbox, Dropbox, Evernote, Socrative, News-O-Matic: Daily for Kids, GarageBand, and Educreations. There are links to all the apps on the list.

Fun With Language Arts

The Children's University of Manchester in the United Kingdom hosts a very nice language arts site for students and parents. On the site, you'll find an introduction to words, a world language map, jigsaw puzzles, and fun with nouns, adjectives, pairs, and much more. There's even a timeline of the English language. —And, if you don’t know what an EPONYM is, you should head to this very nice site, which also includes fun with history, science, and art and design.

The Amazing 2013 Vultures Rock Competition

The Halloween Vultures Rock Poetry Competition is open once more for entries. This competition focuses on the plight of vultures, whose numbers are dropping around the world mainly because people know so little about them and why they need to be protected.  To honor the job that vultures do in cleaning up our world, children, ages 8-12, are invited to submit original poems that describe how they think vulture’s rock. Poems, which do not have to rhyme, are to be submitted to the Vultures Rock website by October 18^th, 2013. Winners will receive iPod Shuffles.

The competition is an excellent way to help students learn about the importance of vultures in our world and celebrate the fall season. Be sure to check the rules for entry on the site.