A seemingly simple question
This seems like a seemingly simple question for teachers:
Could you identify 10 excellent web sites for your grade level / subject area?
Scott posted this a couple of weeks ago, and got a lot of people thinking about what web usage really is and really means. He ended it with a follow up post that included the following statement.
I’ll take them at their word and say that perhaps I overestimated the quality, if not quantity, of the online resources available to K-12 teachers. If so, this paucity of high quality online resources for educators is pretty sad given the longevity and history of the Internet as well as the ability of any educator to now easily have an online presence. via
Hmm. Dan and others don’t agree that there are 10 sites that are worth using regularly for pedagogical purposes. In the couple of weeks since this posting by Scott, I have been tracking my web usage to see if I have 10 that I have used regularly. Here they are.
Google Reader. I use it every day. I follow about 145 blogs currently on Reader, and read about 20% of the articles. Indexed, and Graphjam are daily, as well as Dan’s and many many more. That counts as FOUR. Have you seen Indexed? Amazing graphs that really, when selectively used, gets learners interested in the content of the graphs. Same with GraphJam. Those learners who say, “I hate graphs” don’t say it any more after a little graphjam action.
Google Docs. I use google docs in one of my courses. Learners are required to share their assignments with me, not turn them in on paper. Love it. Full tracking for accountability purposes, and very well done.
Google Maps. Hmm, I see a pattern. Have you used Google maps to do problems? I have. Thanks to Dan.
Stats Monkey. If it wasn’t for this website, I would not have made it through my first year of AP Stats.
College Board’s AP Central: Same reason. Very important for me.
Qipit: Every teacher has been there. Some profound thing written on a whiteboard, a fellow teacher with eraser in hand to erase and move on. One click of the camera on your cell phone, text the picture to Qipit’s number, either the black and white number or the color number, and BOOM, you have a PDF in your email within a couple of minutes. Yes, I use this regularly. Even with the technology in my classroom, the board still gets used.
Forums like the Physics Forum and My Math Forum. You know, sometimes you just need to ask someone anonymous your stupid question about some advanced math topic.
And how about YouTube (another google product, blocked at school, but I download things to my iPod), Vimeo (not blocked, used at school), TED.com, Annenberg Media, Geogebra (used for math, similar to Geometers Sketchpad, but FREE and easier to use), Tracker (used for analyzing the math in videos, FREE).
I have used every single one of these in my classroom over the last year. That is more than 10, and I still didn’t really go into my Reader list. Art, Design, Finance, Statistics, Technology, Science, Physics, Education, Mathematics, Political, News, Lifestyle, Comics, and Presentation are all folders in my Reader. Blogs count. Some of the best ideas I have gotten over the last year have been posts by other bloggers. Tag them with something relevant. Share them through Google Reader. Subscribe to each other’s sharings.