Featured Sites Week of: Mar 26, 2017 -

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

 

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Asana - Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein

Grades
K to 12
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Asana is an easy to use tool for organizing projects and tasks as a team or group. Register with your work email address to be connected as a team. If ...more
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Asana is an easy to use tool for organizing projects and tasks as a team or group. Register with your work email address to be connected as a team. If you don't have a work email, no problem, use your regular email address. Once registered, create a project and divide into tasks. Assign tasks to team members and set due dates. Follow updates and progress in real time. Free accounts offer unlimited tasks and projects for up to 10 team members.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (129), organizational skills (90)

In the Classroom

Create an account to use with students as a tool for organizing and collaborating on group projects. Asana makes it easy for all users to view overall progress on each task. Use Asana to help students remain on track with project deadlines; encourage older students to create their own account and set up groups for projects. Use this tool to collaborate with colleagues for use with professional projects such as unit planning and long-term scheduling.

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Rambox - Ramiro Saenz

Grades
K to 12
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Rambox is a free download for organizing online messaging services into one convenient place. This service allows access to several services in one place and also offers the availability...more
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Rambox is a free download for organizing online messaging services into one convenient place. This service allows access to several services in one place and also offers the availability of the included mobile apps onto your desktop computer. Some of the services include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Voxer, Linkedin, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and much more. Not finding the service you need? Add it manually. Follow links to download Rambox onto your computer, then choose from provided services to enable them. Personalize each of the setting notifications to meet your needs.

tag(s): communication (123), organizational skills (90)

In the Classroom

Download Rambox to organize content into one location, and see everything at a glance. Rambox works well for busy people who receive communications from many different messaging applications.

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Animaker - Srinivasa Raghavan

Grades
6 to 12
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Animaker is a web-based animated video creation tool that allows students and teachers to design cartoons, presentations, and short videos using ready-made templates and drag-and-drop...more
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Animaker is a web-based animated video creation tool that allows students and teachers to design cartoons, presentations, and short videos using ready-made templates and drag-and-drop features. With the free plan, users can create projects using built-in characters, backgrounds, text, and voice tools, including basic lip-sync and simple animations. The free version limits the number of exports per month and may include watermarks, but it still provides enough features for classroom projects, storytelling, and presentations. Animaker provides tutorial videos on YouTube to help users learn the tools, so access to YouTube may be needed in some school districts to view the help guides.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): animation (62), creativity (86), movies (51)

In the Classroom

Animaker is an online animation and video creation tool that can be used on any device with internet access, making it a good choice for BYOD or blended classrooms because no software download is required. The free plan allows students to create animated videos using templates, characters, text, and voice tools, but it limits the number of exports per month and may include a watermark on finished videos. While paid plans include additional collaboration and workspace features, the free version still works well for individual or small-group projects in the classroom. Students should have some basic understanding of how to use the editor, so creating a class video together on an interactive whiteboard or projector before assigning independent work is helpful. Animaker can be used to extend learning by having students create commercials, science project previews, animated summaries, infographics, or short videos in any subject area, such as advertisements for an organism, a literary character, or a travel commercial for a country being studied. Sharing finished videos on a projector or interactive whiteboard allows students to present their work to the class.

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Web Whiteboard - Henrik Kniberg

Grades
K to 12
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Web Whiteboard is a free, collaborative, online whiteboard that doesn't require registration. All collaboration takes place in real-time; share the URL with collaborators. Just click...more
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Web Whiteboard is a free, collaborative, online whiteboard that doesn't require registration. All collaboration takes place in real-time; share the URL with collaborators. Just click the link to begin using the whiteboard tools; boards expire after 24 hours. Web Whiteboard also includes a direct link to create a whiteboard using Miro, reviewed here. Web Whiteboard tools include templates, sticky notes, text, and drawing options. When integrated with a Miro account, many other resources are available, including Google Drive, Adobe Express, and Unsplash images.

tag(s): charts and graphs (181), collaboration (116), graphic organizers (58), iwb (29), mind map (33), Whiteboard (12)

In the Classroom

Allow students to create collaborative drawings as responses to literature. They can map out the plot or themes, add labels, create character studies, and more. Share the finished products on an interactive whiteboard, projector, or your class website. Have a group of students create a drawing that another group can use as a writing prompt. Use Web Whiteboard as a brainstorming or sketching space for groups or the class to share ideas for a significant project or to solve a real-world problem. Use this site with students in a computer lab (or on laptops) to create a drawing of the story's setting as it is read aloud. As a creative assessment idea, have students draw out a simple cartoon with stick figures to explain a more complex process, such as how a democracy works. If you are lucky enough to teach in a BYOD setting, use Web Whiteboard to demonstrate and illustrate any concept while students use the chat and drawing tools to interact in real time. If you are studying weather, have students diagram the layers of the atmosphere and the processes that occur during a thunderstorm. Introduce this tool to students who are working on group projects. Alternatively, have students use this to work with partners or in small teams to complete complex math problems or equations. Give students a problem by typing it on their board. Then have them work through it together, noting all their reasoning and steps along the way.

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Intergalactic Mobile Learning Center - Intergalactic Mobile Learning Center

Grades
K to 9
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Intergalactic Mobile Learning Center is a set of six mobile apps for use in elementary and middle school collaborative learning situations. The apps include a spreadsheet, word processor,...more
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Intergalactic Mobile Learning Center is a set of six mobile apps for use in elementary and middle school collaborative learning situations. The apps include a spreadsheet, word processor, KWL tool, PDF, Flipbook, and a mind mapping tool. Two or more students work together using their own devices to collaborate on any project either face to face or from a distance. In addition to the apps, the site also offers a few starter activities, called Roadmaps for download. Apps use Google logins and work best in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browsers. The demonstration videos reside on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): collaboration (116), mind map (33), spreadsheets (21), Teacher Utilities (218)

In the Classroom

Be sure to watch the videos on the homepage for an overview of the apps in action. Download Intergalactic Mobile Learning Center for use in your class for any collaborative project. Ask students to work in small groups to draw landforms or the water cycle in science class, gather data and create a spreadsheet for math, work together to write a story summary or share information on a KWL before the start of a new unit.

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Delightex (was CoSpaces) - Delightex GmbH

Grades
4 to 12
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Build your own 3D spaces using Delightex (was CoSpaces), then view them in virtual reality. Choose from the large library of items to include in your creation, including characters...more
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Build your own 3D spaces using Delightex (was CoSpaces), then view them in virtual reality. Choose from the large library of items to include in your creation, including characters and objects. To get a sense of how this works, visit the gallery to view creations built by Delightex members. Register to create your account to start building your own 3D space. Be sure to visit the section for educators, which offers many lesson plans and ideas for using Delightex in the classroom. Tutorials for Delightex reside on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): augmented reality (7), coding (109), creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (129), digital storytelling (166)

In the Classroom

Recreate scenes from books or use Delightex (CoSpaces) to retell any story with 3D images. Encourage creativity and ask students to develop virtual exhibitions of artwork, animal habitats, or landforms. Have older students create infographics featuring data collections, for example, comparing Internet availability across different American towns.

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ClipGrab - ClipGrab.org

Grades
K to 12
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Does your school block YouTube and other video sites? Download and save online videos with ClipGrab. Download the app to your computer to save videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe,...more
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Does your school block YouTube and other video sites? Download and save online videos with ClipGrab. Download the app to your computer to save videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, and more. When downloading, choose the original format for best quality or convert to MP3, WMV, MPEG4, or OGG file formats.

tag(s): conversions (37), movies (51), noregistration (74)

In the Classroom

Use this service to backup your videos from YouTube and other sites. Use to download and save videos at home that you wish to show to students, especially if the school or district blocks them. Users must be able to find, copy, and paste the URL of the video to be downloaded. Once the program starts, you will be prompted to save it. If you want to use the video at school, you would save it to a USB stick. No registration or login is required. This should primarily be a teacher resource. If using with students, discuss appropriate and inappropriate uses of the technology as well as choosing necessary videos.

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