Now more than ever, teachers are looking for ways to make learning more authentic. We need to differentiate learning for students of all learning styles, and we need to appeal to our students’ interests. These tasks sound daunting, but the web has many tools available to help us accomplish these goals.
Students can become published authors with the website www.Lulu.com. Budding writers will find new reasons to write when their work is available for download via Lulu’s free eBook maker, or publish a printed copy of their works for just pennies a page. Imagine the delight of your students when you present them with a paperback copy of the story they wrote and illustrated? How about creating a classroom or school anthology that students have to compete to get into? How hard would reluctant writers work for the “honor” of being included in a hardcover anthology?
Whether you are a teacher of history, literature, or CAD, you’ll have to appreciate the free tool from Google called Google Sketchup. Download it free from http://sketchup.google.com/download. There are hundreds of free 3D models available for students to download and explore, or they can create their own models using this tool with little or no experience drawing. Imagine taking your students on a virtual tour of the Parthenon, or giving them the experience of walking the grounds of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Allow your students to design and build the setting of the novel you are reading as a class project, or let your art students go wild designing their own fantastic structures or machines. Want to take it to the next level? A plugin available from InGlobe Technologies http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/en/new_products/arplugin_su/info.php allows students to experience what is known as Augmented Reality. With the help of this plug-in and a web camera, students can virtually hold their 3D models for presentation or further exploration. Be sure to check out the demo on InGlobe’s website.
Students love multimedia. Why not let them create their own presentations? What a great way for students to showcase what they are learning or reading! Some easy-to-use websites where students can create free multimedia presentations include www.Animoto.com and www.Stupeflix.com.
What about animations? There are many free tools out there to help students design and create their own animated “movies”. My favorite is www.Xtranormal.com, but students can also make animated movies at www.GoAnimate.com. Teachers can use this as an engaging replacement for a traditional lecture. Instead, consider dividing your students into teams and having them animate a lesson for the class.
Need more tools? Kevin Honeycutt lists hundreds in his teacher toolbox. Find them at http://web.me.com/khoneycuttessdack/kevinhoneycutt.org/Central.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment