Archive for the Category ◊ Information Technology ◊

26 Mar 2010 Google Maps Icons
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Geography, Information Technology  | Leave a Comment

Google Maps Icons is a great resource for geography teachers using Google Maps in their classroom. It is a collection of 900 free and description map markers that can be added to represent various locations in Google Maps. There is a transportation icon pack, a tourism and nature icon pack, a store icon pack, a weather icon pack, a sports icon pack and many more. They are nice replacements to the standard map markers included in Google Maps. These collections are available on Google Code.

20 Mar 2010 What’s Your Story
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Internet, Technology  | Leave a Comment

“What’s Your Story” is a website dedicated to Internet Safety. It takes the form of a video context in which student are encourage to upload their own video about being safe and smart online. Although the contest ends on April 30th, 2010, there are many information useful on this website once the contest is over including sample stories and videos from students, a video gallery and tips for kids and families on how to stay safe while surfing on the Internet. It addresses the issues of cyberbullying, sexting, scams and spam. It encourages students to keep a good rep online, to stay clear of unwanted contact, to access content that’s age-appropriate and to keep the cybercriminals out.

06 Feb 2010 ChartGo
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Mathematics  | One Comment

Charts are an excellent way to present data, but unfortunately many traditional applications used to produce them in the classroom are difficult to use. My students have used Microsoft Excel or Corel QuattroPro in the past to build charts, but unfortunately, these applications have so many features not related with charts that students get totally lost. ChartGo is a solution on the Web that makes the process really easy. It is a very simple web application and it is totally free. The student has to select from one of the four main types of charts (bar chart, line chart, pie chart or area chart). Then he or she can enter a title, labels for the x-axis and y-axis, the data and a few options and voilà. A nice chart is created for the student all in colours. After the chart is created, the student can even change the type of chart or modify the date. The chart is available as a PNG image file, so it can easily be imported in any other application such as a word processor or a website. It even includes a URL to access this chart again from the website and a URL to share the chart with friends.

28 Jan 2010 Primary Games Arena
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: English, Foreign Language, Geography, History, Information Technology, Kindergarden, Language, Mathematics, Music, Physical Education, Reading, Science, Social Studies  | One Comment

Primary Games ArenaIf you are looking for a very large collection of on-line education games, Primary Games Arena has to be one of the largest I have ever seen. It is a compilation of hundreds of Flash based education games about Math, English, Science, Physical Education, Music, Spanish, German, French, Religion Education, ICT, History, Geography, Art and Design, Citizenship and Technology. All the games are also sorted by grade levels (based on the UK educational system) or game types. The games are not necessarily hosted by the Primary Games Arena, but they link to only kids-appropriate games. The API let game developers feed scores from their games straight onto Primary Games Arena. I strongly recommend this site if your students need to learn while playing.

04 Jan 2010 Teaching Videos
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Multimedia  | One Comment

This is a new service our of the UK compiling great teaching videos available on YouTube, Vimeo or Google Video. Teaching Videos allows you to see videos which other teachers have recommended as suitable for education. All the videos are classified by subject and also by age groups. As a teacher, you can browse and search videos submitted by other teachers, or you can submit videos that will become available for the rest of the community. It is a great way to ensure that only educational videos are available in your classroom. There is a way to rate and comments on the videos. Teaching videos also includes the Permalink and the Embed Code.

07 Dec 2009 Edufire
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Foreign Language, Information Technology, Multimedia, Technology  | Leave a Comment

Edufire is a great platform for tutors, teachers and students to meet. If you are a teacher with special skills (e.g. you speak a foreign language, you know how to cook, you know how to program iPhone apps, you have special interests) and you want to teach them on Edufire, you can get paid for doing so. If you have in interest in learning, you can find a tutor on Edufire or you can sign up for the various classes offered on the site. Some of them are totally free, some of them you have to pay a very small amount (usually around $5-10). If you want to have access to many of the classes in an “all you can eat” format, you can also register for the Superpass. They even have channels with classes in various categories such as Languages, Business, Tech, etc.

07 Nov 2009 Keyboarding Practice
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Technology  | Leave a Comment

Keyboard_smThis keyboarding practice website is a set of 17 drills to help you improve your keyboarding technique and speed. Students can practice directly from the website, or they can print a PDF of the exercise and practice on their own in a word processor or text editor. Each exercise focuses on one specific skill. The activities are not interactive and time and errors are not taken into account. It will not replace your professional keyboarding practice application, but it is a nice and free way to acquire those skills.

26 Oct 2009 Boolify.org
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Computer Science, Information Technology, Internet  | One Comment

boolifyBoolify.org is a very cool little tool to help your student learn about boolean searches. There are lessons including a YouTube video about boolean operators as well as Microsoft Words documents about Using Basic Boolean Search Operators, Refining search results, Using Advanced Google Features and Evaluating Websites and other information sources. Then the student can use a nice drag and drop interface to create his or her own boolean search using AND, NOT, OR and URL. A great tool for librarians or computer science teachers.

23 Oct 2009 100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Internet  | One Comment

This website is a nice collection of tips on how to use Google services in a school context. These tips have been compiled by “On-line colleges” and include tips for searching, tips for Gmail, tips for education, tips for Google Docs, tips for Google Mobile, tips for Google book and many Google services and apps. Did you know that you can use Google SketchUp to do 3D design with your students, or blogger to produce your own classroom blog, or Google Notebook to take and organize your notes?

17 Sep 2009 Bubbl.us
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Lesson Planning  | Leave a Comment

bubblus

Bubbl.us is a free web application to produce mind maps for brainstorming or to help students organize their ideas. It is very similar to Smart Ideas  or Inspiration except that it is 100 % free and available as a web application instead of a desktop app. The application is a bit difficult to use at first, but once your realize what all the little icons mean, it is a pleasure to build a mind map. The help file is a great way to know how to use the interface. As you hover over a bubble, the help section will actually change the content based on where you are. You down have to open an account just to build a mind map, however, by creating an account you will be able to share and work with friends, embed your mind map in your blog or website, email and print your mind map and save your mind map as an image.

02 Sep 2009 Tux Typing
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Technology  | Leave a Comment

tux-typingTux Typing is a totally free application to help your students learn to type on a keyboard. The lessons are presented as games with Tux, a funny penguin (totally influenced by Linux). The application is actually available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Unfortunately, the Mac version is only available for PPC processor. However, with Rosetta, you can easily run it on an Intel machine with no problem. In addition to the lessons, the games include fish cascade and comet zap. The application is developed by Tux4Kids, a company that develops high-quality software for kids. All their applications are open source and can be installed on as many computers as you want in your school.

28 Apr 2009 Presentations ETC
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Computer Science, Information Technology, Internet  | 2 Comments

presentationsAre you getting bored with the few backgrounds and templates that are included with Microsoft PowerPoint or with Apple Keynote? Presentations ETC might just be the website you need to spice up your presentations. This site is totally free for teachers to use and the  license agreement is very friendly. On this website, you will find over 20,000 background to use in your presentation in both 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 formats. Categories include nature, metal, architecture, stone, texture, technology and urban.

If you prefer to have a full template instead of just a simple bacgkround, you can also find one on this websites. It includes over 30 templates for both PowerPoint for the Mac and Windows. If you are using Apple Keynote, it also includes over 30 templates compatible with Keynote. The website is Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (College of Education, University of South Florida)

26 Mar 2009 Study Stack
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Internet, Lesson Planning  | Leave a Comment

study-stack-enToday, this resource is a little treasure for your students who need some help with studying. Both students and teachers can use it. Study Stack is a website that lets you enter data that you need to memorize for a test (or just because you want to remember it). Once the data is entered, you can easily produce flashcards, study stack, study table, matching exercise, hangman game, crossword, word search game, unscramble game, fill in the blank and a bug match game. The best thing is that you can even export the data and games for various portable devices such as the iPhone or the iPod. You can also get embed code of the flashcards to include them on your website. Your Study Stacks are available to other users and you can access the Study Stacks produced by other users. You need to create an account to produce your own data, but the site is compatible with Facebook connect. Students can access your content without creating an account. On the picture to the left, I created a Study Stack about the Canadian provinces capital.

22 Jun 2007 Powerpoint templates
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Information Technology, Lesson Planning  | Leave a Comment

If you are the kind of teacher using multimedia presentations a lot but you find the background included with PowerPoint to be a bit boring, this website is for you. It includes tons of new PowerPoint templates (backgrounds) that you can include in your multimedia presentations. Categories include business, creative, education, finance, humour, holidays, social, spots, science, technology, abstracts, frames, textures, etc. All backgrounds are available as pictures so you can use the Format Slide Background menu to change the picture. Instructions are included with each package on how to do it in PowerPoint. In total, there are 720 new backgrounds on this website.

08 Jun 2007 Worksheets To Go (by Discovery Education)
Author: Dominic Tremblay |  Category: Arts, Foreign Language, Health, Information Technology, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies  | One Comment

The discovery channel offers a worksheets generator on its education website. The worksheets are available in many different categories including : Arts, Mathematics, Science, Health, Social Studies, Information Technology and Foreign Language.

All worksheets were created by teachers. Worksheets are organized by category and listed by title and grade level. In each category there are many sub-categories. Each sub-category has many exercises. Worksheets include matching exercises as well as scramble exercises. They are formatted in HTML so the layout is not the best when printed.

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