Showing posts with label bookmarks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bookmarks. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Draggo


Draggo is a bookmarking tool for those websites you want to remember or use on a regular basis.  You can group your bookmarks with topic specific tabs and then into various categories on each tab.  Bookmarks can be moved and edited as needed.  A couple years ago I created Draggo accounts for each school building (except Westside - sorry) in our district in an effort to provide links to tools and websites that the students would use regularly - or for a specific teacher - throughout the course of the school year.

In the elementary buildings, teachers have their students set the building Draggo page as their homepage whenever they get on the Internet.  This makes it easier and faster for students to access the websites they need during class.  Students have no need to log into Draggo.  They just choose the tab they need and find the bookmark in the category given to them by their teacher.  Here are the links to each building Draggo page:


I have encouraged teachers to take ownership of their building Draggo page by giving them the log in information so they can add and remove links, categories and tabs.  I do ask if a specific grade or teacher has a tab that you not edit or remove their tab.  We are limited to seven tabs, so if we are running out of tabs, let me know so I can assist in making some modifications.  If you never received the log in information for you school's Draggo page, please email me and I will send that out to you.

Draggo is not the only bookmarking tool available, but at the time it was highly recommended.  If you are interested in exploring other visual bookmarking tools to use with your students, you might check out:

"How-To" Edit Draggo







Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Website Wednesday

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Website Wednesday

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Website Wednesday



Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Symbaloo: Visual Bookmarking

I love bookmarking sites so I can get back to them easily, but it is a real issue when I use a different computer or even a different browser.  I either have to set-up those bookmarks again or just do a Google search for the website.  I have used some online bookmarking sites in the past like Diigo and Draggo and even blogged on the topic.  I like both of these sites for certain reasons, but they just weren't fitting my need for those everyday websites I use both at work and home.  Last year I found a new bookmarking tool called Symbaloo.  The biggest difference with Symbaloo is the visual appeal to the site.



I can create my bookmark links manually or with a bookmarklet, but I can also add the name of the site, an icon and color code it for my page.  I can also create various webmixes, which are tabs to help me group my bookmarks.  For example, I have one with daily links, web tools I use regularly and how-tos for quick reference.  I can move the links around on my webmix page or I can move it to another webmix.  I can also customize the background for each webmix.  The best feature about Symbaloo is I can use any computer, any browser and access my essential bookmarks at one website.

If you love to have websites at your fingertips, I encourage you to try out a bookmarking site like Symbaloo, Draggo or Diigo.

Website Wednesday

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Website Wednesday

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Website Wednesday

Website Wednesday is back!  For those of you new to our blog, I compile a list of 5-10 websites that can be used by educators for student multimedia projects, lesson plans, professional development and more.  Use what you can and push the rest to the side.  You can always come back later if you feel like you missed something.

Don't forget, you can access and search all the sites bookmarked for Website Wednesdays at https://www.diigo.com/user/gwenlehman.  Search by Tags, lists, titles or URLs.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The Truth About Pinterest


Pinterest was a hot topic last year in the tech integration group I attend each month. Of course the group consists mostly of females, so the men in the group gave us a hard time about "girlie" Pinterest. Last spring, I wrote a post on Pinterest giving a brief descriptor and links to ways it is being used in education. When I attended the iPad training at Essdack this past Friday, I learned that Pinterest is also popular in Europe, but an average 85% of the users are men and they are mostly business men! I was shocked and a little skeptical of this statistic, so I decided to do a little digging on this matter. I discovered an interesting infographic comparing Pinterest use in the US vs. the UK.  I found some amazing facts:
  • The male and female usage ratio in the UK is fairly even (56% to 44%), while the US is top heavy on female users (83% to 17%).
  • The top audience interest in the UK is Venture Capital; in the US crafts is the top interest.
  • UK users of Pinterest are wealthier than US Pinterest users.  (Makes sense seeing as their main interest is capital and ours is crafts.)
After exploring some of these differences, I wondered what changes have taken place since last spring in the usage of Pinterest in education. This infographic grabbed my attention as it even shows how colleges are using Pinterest both inside and outside of the classroom.


Here is another resource I found in my perusing today - Pinterest Cheat Sheet
“{12 Days: 12 Tools} Tool 8 Pinterest Cheat Sheet” by Dr. Kimberly Tyson was originally published on Learning Unlimited.



Personally, I like the visual aspect of Pinterest.  The boards and images appeal to my visual learning style.  It is a good tool for sharing information and ideas.  If I were still teaching English or in the library setting, I would definitely use this tool to share new books, websites for projects or research, student projects and more.  I do, however, have two frustrations with Pinterest.  The first is the number of clicks to takes for me to actually get to a pinned website.  I click on the image, but then a little window pops up with the image and comments.  I have to click the image again if I want to go to the actual website, providing the pin is linked to the website.  The second is I can't embed a board onto my blog or website.  Will I stop using Pinterest?  No.  It serves the purpose of sharing information in a visual format and for some of my teachers this works best for their learning style.

To view my Pinterest boards, go to http://pinterest.com/socdownload/

How are you using Pinterest to help you in the classroom?  Post a response in the comment box below.


Friday, June 29, 2012

Chrome Everywhere

Imagine opening a web browser, signing in and accessing all your bookmarks, settings and apps/extensions on any computer and any device.  Well, let me introduce you to Chrome.


You might be thinking, "So what's the big deal about that?"  Picture this.  You've bookmarked some of your favorite sites to use at work, but then lightening strikes and fries your computer.  You hope the tech department can revive the poor machine and at least recover your bookmarks.  Sadly, your computer cannot be resuscitated and the funeral will held right after school today.  Now you have to hope your memory holds up and you can remember all those websites you had bookmarked.  Good luck with that.

Now let's imagine that you have been using Chrome as your browser.  You sign in, save your bookmarks and add your apps.  Then lightening strikes.  But you don't care because even if the tech department can't revive your computer, they will just get you a replacement.  You'll open up Chrome, sign yourself in and all your bookmarks and apps will be available to you again.  No problem.  The other benefit in using Chrome is you can access your bookmarks from any computer or device once you sign in on Chrome.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Website Wednesday

  • Article focusing on non-fiction text structures in relation to the Common Core Standards. Provides an understanding of the text structure and resources for teaching text structures to students.
  • Provides an article with several close-up photos and video you could use in the classroom. Also has a coloring pages for students.
  • Create customized one-page maps of the world, continents and countries. Maps can be downloaded, emailed or printed. This beta site was created by National Geographic Education.
  • Students can practice their work on measure and estimate with angles through this sailing gaming. It gives them practice in placing and reading a protractor. Appropriate for elementary students.
  • Create you own Jeopardy game from a template or by creating your own template.
  • Practice your spelling and audio skills with this resource from Oxford English Dictionary. Listen to words and try to spell them from one of 3 difficulty levels. Choose between British and American English. Appropriate for 6-12 grade students.
  • Listen and follow along as author's read their children's poems. Search poems by themes, forms or poets OR checkout the "Ask the Poet" section to learn more about poetry writing.
  • Select your topic and chart name. Then print a poster of that chart to display in the classroom OR save it as a pdf & display the chart via your computer project for a class lesson. You could even link this site to your webpage or wiki as a reference tools for parents and students at home.
    tags: math charts
  • A YouTube channel featuring over 400 science experiments that you can use in class. Instructions are easy to follow.
  • Free sound clips that can be imported into Garageband to ehance your project. When you find the sound you want, click the MP3 file for downloading. You can simply drag and drop the file into Garageband; however, don't through the download away until you have finalized your project and shared it with iTunes.
  • This BBC site offers 200,000 digitized paintings from various artists including Degas, Warhol, Bacon, Picasso and more. When completed, the site will show the enter UK national collection of oil paintings and the stories behind the paintings. If you scroll down on the main page, you will find a section for teachers which offers lesson plans and ideas for utilizing these paintings in art, history and more.
  • Encourage digital storytelling with the Zimmer Twins movie making site for kids (suitable for elementary students). The site is monitored on a daily basis for content appropriateness. Students will need to create a free account if they want to save their movies. (A parent or guardian email is required for creating an account, but students could use their school email address if they have one.)
  • Article listing and describing some tools for helping tech with the Common Core Standards.
  • A collection of over 100 play scripts for elementary children. A great resource for engaging students in reading. The plays are short and may be used and performed, but you may not modify or adapt the plays without written consent.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Website Wednesdays

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Website Wednesdays

Assessment tools for online content, presentations, mind maps and more. Great tool so you don't have to re-invent the wheel.

*Disclaimer - If you come across a link on the sites listed above that is blocked, please let me know via email.  Thanks!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Website Wednesdays

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Website Wednesdays

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Pin It

Pinterest allows you to visually "bookmark" all those great articles, ideas and thoughts you find out on the Internet.  Users create pinboards that help them organize their collection for ease of searching and sharing.  You do have to receive an invitation to join Pinterest.

Once you start using Pinterest, you can create you own boards, follow other people's boards and even collaborate on a board with other Pinterest users.  Educators have started using this new to collect bulletin board ideas, classroom decor and organization, lesson plans, virtual field trips and more.

There have been some copyright issues recently connected with Pinterest, so make sure you read this blog post - Do You Have Permission to Pin? - before you start pinning and sharing.

Here are some additional resources to get you started and give ideas on how educators are and should be using Pinterest:
Pinterest 4 Education
37 Ways Teachers Should Use Pinterest
30 Inspiring Pinterest Pins for Teachers


Here are some Pinterest boards that you might want to check out:
Common Core Standards Board
iPads
First Grade Common Core Math
Classroom
Education
Technology - How it Relates to Education
Teaching Ideas and Apps
iPad Apps for Administrators

*I have been told that Pinterest is a "girly" site.  There is a more masculine site that works similar to Pinterest called ScoopIt!  You do not need to be invited to join this site.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Website Wednesdays

  • Free online World History Atlas.  It contains maps, timelines and narratives that work together to give students a better understanding of history.
  • Recommended Facebook privacy settings for teens. Contains charts you could share out.
  • This site provides free video resources for class or individual use in math, science, history, government, economics, psychology and religion. Narrow your topic and look at the video, video text, lesson plan and additional links. Great for high school students.
  • Site provides information about teaching reading comprehension to students of all ages. Provides specific reading comprehension lessons for grades K-6. It also includes details on Lexile scores, teaching strategies and more.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Website Wednesdays

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Website Wednesdays

  • Helps students practice and master their grammar and writing. Students can learn on their own or teachers can set-up a class and assign lessons & quizzes. You must create an account, but they are free.
  • Create interactive 3-D pop-up books with sound. It has limited stock photos, but you can upload your own. You can also use a webcam to make your students part of the story.
  • Resources for teaching various biology concepts so they can be understood by a high school Freshman. Includes videos that could be used to enhance your class lessons.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.