TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Mar 15, 2020
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
url List - Burke Holland and Cecil Phillip
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark url List to use whenever you want to share a group of links. For example, gather all of your online resources for any unit into one list for your personal use or to share with students on your class website for easy access at all times. Create an account at the site to keep track of your bookmark lists and edit as needed. Ask students to use this site when doing research projects and ask them to include their URL list as part of the final project.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Netboard - netboard.me
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): bookmarks (47), bulletin boards (14), collaboration (85), communication (136), curation (35), images (270)
In the Classroom
Use Netboard to curate and collect resources for any subject. Create a new board to share with students for each unit, for example, when teaching a unit on fantasy in literature share resources to examples of fantasy writing, student examples of writing, images to inspire fantasy writing, and more. Have students create a Netboard to accompany any research project and ask them to include a link to all resources they used as part of their research.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Weje - Webjets Ltd
Grades
K to 12tag(s): digital storytelling (142), microblogging (18), organizational skills (90)
In the Classroom
Use Weje to organize and curate content for any unit. Share video and website links, upload notes, and create mindmaps for student review. Ask older students to create their own Weje to organize information for large projects and when collaborating with other students. Weje is perfect for creating and curating career research information. Include a link to a curated Weje board as part of a larger multimedia project shared using a digital storytelling tool like Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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3x3 Links - Federico Elles
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
3x3 Links is an excellent tool for efficiently managing online resources in your classroom. For younger students, use this site as the home page on classroom computers. Add direct links to sites for student use or create folders for each subject. This site allows the creation of multiple grids, create a grid for each content unit or semester. Use the embed code to add the grid to your class webpage. For older students, this site is perfect for organizing and sharing resources for study or research projects. As an example, if your students are doing a research report on a state, ask them to create a grid to include folders linking to different topics including famous people, population information, geography, and history. Although there is an option to create up to 9 cubes in your grid, it isn't necessary so the number of cubes can be suited to fit your needs.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wakelet - Jamil Khalil
Grades
K to 12tag(s): bookmarks (47), collaboration (85), communication (136), curation (35), DAT device agnostic tool (143), multimedia (43), news (229), personalized learning (9), playlists (10), social media (53), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
The possibilities for using Wakelet in the classroom are endless! Create collections with tips for writing in different genres, current events, information about specific countries or cities, math games, and much more. Have students set up their own wakes as part of a research project. Put together a wake scavenger hunt to introduce a new unit or as a review at the end of a unit. Share wakes on your class web page for student use at home to review and practice class content. Having the ability to have a cover image and background for your wakes makes them much more interesting and easily identifiable, especially for young or visual students!Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Reddit - Reddit.com
Grades
9 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): microblogging (18), news (229), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
Use Reddit to show the uniqueness and value of topics by the upvotes and downvotes. Also discuss the thinking behind the upvotes and downvotes. Comments to the posts offer more detailed information to portions of the topic that can lead to different points of view, deeper analysis, and discussion of related topics. Since the average person and professionals use Reddit, students can ask a question to get crowdsourced answers such as "How to write a better term paper?" View the various topics that have high or poor ratings and determine whether the ratings are based upon facts or opinion. Students can find various topics for term papers or research by viewing the Reddit topics. Reddit is also popular for finding peer review journals and tutorials.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Google Photos - Google
Grades
K to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (143), images (270), Storage (6), video (256)
In the Classroom
Create a classroom Google account for students to upload video projects or images for projects. Share raw materials for student multimedia projects, such as photos of lab experiments or local historic sites. Share classroom projects privately and easily from your Google account. In elementary classrooms, teachers can use this tool to share photos from field trips, assemblies, project presentations, and other special events. Share the password with parents only. Have older students create their own Google account for collaborating on multimedia projects.Comments
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Papaly - Papaly
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): bookmarks (47), collaboration (85), news (229), social media (53), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
Create an account to keep track of bookmarks to share with students in your class. Papaly bookmarks can be viewed on any browser, anywhere. Create separate boards for the various projects and units in your class. Add information that is useful for student understanding and application of concepts. Keep the boards and bookmarks throughout the year. Consider creating a board for student current events or happenings. Use this for access to information on various topics such as food issues, diseases, political information, cultures around the world, and more. Create a board with more challenging topics for your gifted and advanced students. Students can create a board of links from the web on a certain topic to share with other classmates. Create a professional development board to share with other teachers. Challenge your middle and high school gifted students to curate a board for themselves on a topic of individual interest. For example, a student interested in rocketry can locate and add blogs from rocket scientists, NASA feeds, and more. Talented writers may want to collect links to literary publications and author blogs. Consider creating a login that all students can use in order to add bookmarks that they find useful.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Raindrop.io - Mussabekov Rustem
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): bookmarks (47), collaboration (85), curation (35), DAT device agnostic tool (143)
In the Classroom
Use Raindrop.io to create a bank of resources for each content unit within your subject or your class. Have students download and use the materials you provide via Raindrop to make their own projects, complete webquests, or to learn independently. Create a separate class account for students to curate their own lists of bookmarks and resources. Use this tool to compile web treasure hunts to learn or introduce any topic within your content area. Collect links to informational texts for students to read "closely" a la CCSS. With younger students, create collections of audio books for children to view and listen to. Share simple interactives teaching colors, numbers and more for a computer center. Have students create their own Raindrop as a place to store links for a project and ask them to attach it to attach it to their final project. Share a link to your Raindrop on your class webpage. Save pictures of class activities with a Raindrop collection to share with parents. Encourage your gifted students to curate collections of media and articles above the level of current curriculum or for individual research on related topics they are interested in. Share these "advanced" collections with all students to spark personal learning.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Listly - Shyam Subramanyan and Boomy Labs
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): bookmarks (47), curation (35), organizational skills (90), polls and surveys (46)
In the Classroom
Listly is useful for polling students for their suggestions and votes on any topic: MOST important reason why the colonists revolted, BEST example of a sonnet, best book for science lovers, etc. School library/media centers can share lists of favorite books or best places to learn about a specific topic and allow students or classes to edit/re-rank the lists. Listly requires individual logins to vote. The best solution to greenhouse gasses? Favorite math site? The best resource for learning about pollution... best anything! Create a list to collect parental input on field trip ideas, class t-shirts, or many other topics.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Diigo - Education - Diigo, Inc. 2010
Grades
1 to 12This tool can be used as a basic bookmarking tool, simply allowing YOU to save, sort, and access your own bookmarks from ANY computer or mobile device (once you are logged in). You have the choice whether your bookmarks are public or private. You can gradually ease into more advanced and interactive features: highlight parts of sites and save or share those annotations, add sticky notes to parts of websites, pictures, screen-shots, documents, audio, and more. Do group collaborative research. Organize your bookmarks by tags. Unlike sorting bookmarks into file folders, adding tags permits you to put multiple tags or "labels" on one site. The same site you tag for book reports could also be tagged for biographies, for example. Additional Diigo features include groups (a way to share and exchange bookmarks with a certain group of Diigo users), messaging, and search features. You can search all the public bookmarks made by others and discover other people with similar interests, already bookmarked and ready for you to mark as your own. There are many groups you can join, such as those with a specific teaching interest or hobby. See "Tools" for many helpful options, including bookmarklets to make bookmarking instant on multiple devices. Bookmarklets drag directly to the toolbars on your computer and are well worth it. It goes beyond simple bookmarking and adds options like highlight, capture, send, read later, comment, search bar and Diigo message options. You decide your own level of use and desired tools to be shown on the bar. If choosing not to install the toolbar, then there is an applet called Diigolet that will be used in its place. It is not as strong a tool as the toolbar, but will work well if the toolbar installation is not possible. Check our sample group. You can also install a widget on your blog (or class web page) that will show your bookmarks there.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): bookmarks (47), collaboration (85), curation (35), DAT device agnostic tool (143), forum (2), organizational skills (90), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
Teachers even in very early grades can use Diigo simply to share links with students and parents. To get more ideas on the potential education uses of this site, see this SlideShare powerpoint here. Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have.Assign students a research topic and allow them to use Diigo collaboratively to collect and share resources. Share teacher-selected options (complete with comments or directions) easily using Diigo. The research and conversations created through highlighting and annotating what they read can greatly enhance both their research skills and their online interaction on academic level skills. Or use Diigo to post discussion assignments on specific articles or even parts of articles using the highlighting tool. Find a relevant article for your subject, highlight the part that you want students to read. (If students are younger, keep it short to reduce the intimidating reality of too much information for kids.) Attach a sticky note with a discussion question for the students. Have them comment on the link in a "class discussion" as a homework assignment. If you are fortunate enough to have all students with computer access in your class and at home, such as in one to one laptop program schools, you can organize many assignments using Diigo. Use this site to help all of your students stay organized. Share this resource with your (not so organized) gifted students to help them manage projects and not "lose" the information they "found somewhere." Post assignments, readings, online interactive labs, and more. The site even allows students to submit responses by adding a comment. Of course others will see what they said, so you may not want the comments to be the only thing they do! If you assign gifted students to do projects beyond the regular curriculum, consider having them curate and annotate a collection of resources on a higher level topic. For example, extend your study of World War II by having them collect web-based primary sources showing the propaganda leading up to the war, political cartoons during the war, and advertisements from the time. Have them annotate the collection explaining each artifact and how it reflects the sentiments and biases of certain groups. That same collection could provide other students a class opportunity to interact with "objects" from the time. If you have contact with other teachers of gifted students, they could collaborate across different schools or classrooms.
Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mix - StumbleUpon
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): bookmarks (47), evaluating sources (28), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
Use Mix for your personal research and professional development. Visit Mix occasionally to find new ideas and new sites for teaching. Create and share collections of websites to share with students for use with research projects. For example, as you prepare to teach a science unit on plants, create a collection containing news articles, explainer sites, and online games for students to use as a virtual resource for supplementing classroom lessons. Include documents, slide presentations, and more from your Google Drive for student access from any device. Another use of Mix is to create collections when teaching students how to evaluate online resources. Create a collection from a variety of different resources based on the same topic and ask students to reflect upon the validity of the information and the source. Ask them to use a presentation tool like Sway, reviewed here, to share their findings by including links to the information along with supporting evidence. Another idea for using Mix is for students to create collections to share as part of multimedia projects as a virtual bibliography. In addition to websites shared, ask them to add their written work, images, or other creations. Mix is an excellent tool for creating an online portfolio for students to use when applying to college. Show students how to easily create new collections using their work, but personalized to individual college applications.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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