Free Survey Creator “Obsurvey”

This past week as our semester came to a close I began looking to create a survey to see what my students are thinking about the year so far. I have always found these types of surveys to be very reveling and enlightening and because of this have made them a regular part of my classroom routine.

The issue every year is what service to use? Survey Monkey is the most well known but like many other survey creators they require a monthly fee and since I am only creating 3-4 surveys a year a monthly fee of $20.00 is just not worth it. Many of the survey sites do offer a free version but only allow a certain amount of questions or responses which will not work for me either since I have almost 200 students. So I began the search to find a survey creator that is simple to use and unlimited in it application for free.

The best thing was I found one “Obsurvey”. Obsurvey is a great survey creator. It is very simple to use and has a wide variety of questions types to ask such as multiple choice, short answer, essay and others. It provides many different ways to present your audience with the survey by providing code to embed the survey, a link or in a java application. It has many other options like pass wording your survey and a print version as well. You can also print your results in an organized easy to read PDF document. So if you are a teacher on a budget and looking to create a survey for your students at no cost check out “Obsurvey”.

Click here to take a look at their site.

Related articles

• SurveyMonkey joins the $1 billion club (tech.fortune.cnn.com)

Don’t Forget You Need a Foundation!

Image via Wikipedia

Education is in a state of flux all across the country. Districts are looking for new ways to improve learning and meet the state and federal guidelines for education. As districts look at these different techniques and technologies, what is often overlooked is the foundation.

There is a great story about the famous basketball coach John Wooden. One of his first lessons that he taught his college players when they came to UCLA was how to put on their socks and shoes. He told them that this game requires you to move and change directions quickly and if your shoes and sock are not on correctly, you could get blisters or your shoe could come untied. In both cases you are then out of the game. If you are out of the game, you cannot be successful.

Today in education teachers are often overlooked as these new approaches and techniques are implemented in their schools. As districts mandate these techniques, they do not consult the fundamental aspect of their educational process, their teachers. Techniques do not teach kids, teachers do and they can often can provide valuable assistance on implementation of these new techniques.  When districts overlook the fundamentals in applying new techniques and programs, they are often met with failure and frustration adding to the dilemma of education today. True change in education today cannot be successful unless it has been built on a good foundation.

Locating Primary Resources for Students

Over the past week my students began our states Classroom Based Assessment known as a CBA for the state of Washington called Digging Deep. This project requires them to do the following:

1. Develop a historical question.

2. State a position on the historical question.

3. Provide reason(s) for your position that include:

• An explanation of how two or more primary sources support your position.

• Additional evidence from one or more of the following social science perspectives:
  • geographic
  • cultural
  • political
  • economic
  • sociological
  • psychological.

4. Make explicit references within the paper or presentation to three or more credible sources that provide relevant information AND cite sources within the paper, presentation, or bibliography.

One of the biggest stumbling points for my students was locating resource that they could use to find primary sources to support their position. So as the students worked I began collecting resources that they found to be useful in locating primary sources. This is not an exhaustive list by any means but was one that allowed my students to find the needed information on many different topics. As always if you know of a great resource that I have not mentioned please drop me a line and let me know so I can add it to the list.

Searchable Primary Sources Sites

These sites can be used to search for primary sources on American History.

1. Yale University-Three ways to search for Primary Source Documents at Yale University.
2. Library of Congress collections and searchable database.
3. New Deal Network collection list and a searchable database.
4. Northern Nevada Primary Source Catalogue Search.
5. Smithsonian Institute search for primary source documents.

Primary Source Site Lists

These links provide you with many resources to locating primary sources on a variety of topics.

1. Here is another great Primary List Resource for the Library of Congress thanks to Julie
2. Primary Source Sets – Each set collects primary sources on a specific topic, all as easy-to-use PDFs, with historical background information and teaching ideas.
3. Primary Sources by State – Selected primary sources for each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.
4. Browse by Topic in the Library of Congress- Easy browsing for primary sources across all the digital collections of the Library of Congress.
5. Web Guides – List of primary documents arranged by topic.
6. From Revolution to Reconstruction: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/usa.htm
7. The University of Oklahoma Law Center: A Chronology of US Historical DocumentsThis site offers a great set of historical documents from pre-colonial days to the present. http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/
8. Repositories of Primary Sources great list of primary sources.
   1763-1815: Primary Sources: The American Revolution and the New Nation
9. 1815-1860: Primary Sources: National Expansion and Reform
10. 1860-1877: Primary Sources: Civil War and Reconstruction
11. Primary Source Documents: A very extensive list of Primary Resource websites. Treasury of Primary Resources pertaining to early American History.
12. Top 100 links for Primary sources
13. American History Primary documents categorized list of documents by era in American History.
14. Historical Scene investigators 13 topics and primary resources on each topic.
15. The Valley of the Shadow searchable database for the Civil War.

 Other Primary Source Helpful sites

1. Historical Scene investigators 13 topics and primary resources on each topic.

Copyright Free Image Resources for History Classes

Image via Wikipedia

This past week as my students began working on their latest project. I noticed many were having a hard time locating images to use that were not copyright protected. After reminding them to endure that they use images that are not copyright protected they hummed and hawwd and said that they could not find any images. So like most teachers I began looking up resources that they could use and began compiling a list for them.

As many of my readers know I have written on this topic before and you can read that post here.  16 Great Image Resources For Projects But as I looked at those resources they often did not provide students with historical images for a history class. So I went back through those resources and others and the following list provides better images for students to use in a history class. This is not an exhaustive list so if anyone knows of a site that would fit the bill please send me the link. In the meantime take a look at the following resources and let me know what you think.

Searchable Topic Specific

• StockVault : Very well-known, and very good of course. Is searchable for specific images of places people and things.
• DeviantArt : Another well-known site with images, photo and Photoshop brushes. This is a great searchable image website.
• OpenStockPhotography : More than a million images. This is a great searchable image website with many different types of photos. Does have historical photos as well.
• EveryStockPhoto : Nice site, nice content. This is a very good searchable image website with many historical photos.
• MorgueFile : A site everyone should have in their bookmarks!. Has many historical photos.
• Flickr : You already know it, right? Has many different photos on many different topics.
• FreeRange : Another well known site. Great site with historical images.
• FreeStockPhotos : Lots of great images and many historical photos.
• BurningWell : Many images limited historical photos.
• PhotoPin: Great Searchable website or images.
• Pictoral America is a site focused on American History. This site has been created by the Library of Congress and has some great American History images.
• Library of Congress on Flickr: Library of Congress on Flickr. Many different image collections on American history.

Historic Specific Photos

• Smithsonian Institute: Great site for historical photos and is searchable.
• Internet Archive: Historical movie clips This site provides usable historic video clips that are great to use in projects.
• Picsforlearning Great historical photo collection.
• Library of Congress: Another great image resource focus on history.
• Library of Congress Photos: Great site.

Related articles

• How to source copyright free images (marketing.yell.com)
• 9 Sources for Historical Images, Documents, Videos, and Audio (freetech4teachers.com)
• Keep it legal: Copyright and privacy best practise for online video (marketing.yell.com)
• morgueFile.com Unveils New Groundbreaking Photo Website (prweb.com)
• Images without guilt (ask.metafilter.com)

10 Free Video Editors

Free Video Editors

Image by Sean MacEntee via Flickr

Over the course of the year I have been looking for a simple free video editors that I can use with my students. In the process of reviewing the many different options I decide to post my results to save everyone the time looking at the variety of options out there.

If you know of any others please let me know and I will post them here as well.

Free Video Editors: Editors that are free to users.

1. Animoto Easy to use and creates great looking videos. Students have really enjoyed this application. However, you can only create 30 second videos for free and you are limited in editing in the free version. You must register to use the free version as well. Animoto will provide educators with a free code to allow their students to create full length videos for FREE for 6 months otherwise this application only has free 30 second videos.
2. One True Media Easy to use and creates nice looking videos. Charges for anything more than 30 seconds and limited to 15 minute of finished video per month. Must register to use free portions of this application. They do have a mobile app for the pay version. This application only has free 30 second videos.
3. Flixtime This site also is easy to use and you are able to create 60 second videos. However you have limited resources and are unable to add transition, voice and create HD videos. This application only has free 60 second videos and are limited in effects.
4. YouTube This editor allows you to do the basic editing effects to videos upload to YouTube. You can add text, audio and voice, transitions, trim clips and combine YouTube videos. You must have a YoutTube account. Difficult to use ion schools since it is often blocked. This application is FREE!
5. Stroome.com Easy to use video editor. Allows you all of the basic video editing features and share with many different social networks but does not provide ability to download file or upload to YouTube. This is a free application.
6. Creaza This is a free editor and allows you to upload directly to YouTube. As far as I can tell there is no real limitation to the free version however if you upload your video to YouTube using the free video it will place a Creaza logo in the lower right corner. This is a limited free application.
7. Masher Very simple and easy to use video editor. Has a good collection of videos to use from the BBC. Easy to add and edit with the basic features. Can embed videos and email but can not upload to YouTube or download them. This is a Free Site at this time.
8. Stupeflix This is a great web-based editor. Simple to use and has many options that are easy to apply to your videos. It even includes an option to integrate to your webcam. This site offers free one minute video. This is a partially free website.
9. FileLab This site allows you to edit video and audio and share them on the web. This is a free site and quite simple to use. Can only be used on a Windows machine.
10. Magisto Simple free video editor. It has limited transition and effects but is very simple and organized well. Does a lot of the editing and transitions for you.

For more information of video editors and other resources check out my video project resource page at the following link. Click Here

Take the Oath: “Teach Students to Search the Web”

Image via CrunchBase

Often times students are told to look up information on the web for an assignment or project.  Since we live in an age were students are active on the web through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social media the assumption is often made that they are tech savvy and are able to conduct a basic web search. This could not be farther from the truth.

Over the course of the last few years I have noticed that many students have never been taught how to conduct a basic web search. So when they are faced with this task in the classroom or at home they search for a minute or two and then I hear the inevitable words, “Mr. A there is just nothing on the web on my topic. I have looked every where and have found nothing.” Their frustration is so high that this can kill an assignment or project. So like many teachers I began providing a list of sites that they can use so that they can find the needed information. However, I began to wonder if this is not just masking the problem and that students are still missing out on a valuable skill that they will need in the future. So I have sworn an oath to teach all my students every year how to conduct a proper web-search and not just Google It.

Here are some great sites that can provide valuable information to assist you and your students in developing the necessary skills to teach and complete good web-searches.  If you have an excellent resource that is not listed here please drop me a line and share it so I can pass it on.

Lesson Plans

1. Google Basic Search Lesson Plans
2. Video Lesson Plan 
3. Just Google it
4. Basic Search Lesson plans
5. Jeri Schneider Portfolio University of Michigan

Resources

1. Five Steps to a more Accurate and Effective Google Search: Some quick search tips.
2. The Google Guide: Extensive information on search and how Google works.
3. Google Features: Some resource provided by Google to help you find information.
4. Google Infographic: A Great graphic showing how to search.
5. Google Search Cheat Sheet: Google search tips and shortcuts PDF cheat sheet.
6. Free Technology for Teachers
7. How to tweak your search when Google does not give you what you want.
8. Kathy Schrock’s guide for educators
9. Common Craft Web Search Strategies

AR Your Worksheets

Worksheets have been a big part of school for years.  They can be found in virtually all subjects and in every school in America. With the advent of Augmented reality you can now make your paper worksheets interactive and more engaging for students. In the following video Johnny Kissko demonstrates what a worksheet can look like with this new technology.

Are Educators Doing The Right Thing?

As I watched the following video this morning, I wondered, as an educator are we truly preparing our students for the future or is this young man pointing out just what our education is missing.  This young man named Thomas Suarez taught himself to program in multiple languages and has been creating iphone apps.  Has already become quite successful at his endeavor and begun looking to the future and future projects. Yet as he puts it many of the kids his age have no idea were to look today to learn how to do something like this because it is not taught to students. Is the lack of technology taught in schools going to hinder our next generation? Watch the video below and tell me what you think.

Related articles

• Thomas Suarez – TEDx Contributor (and 6th Grader) (thetechscoop.net)
• Bustin Jieber: The 12-Year-Old App Developer Who Taught Himself To Code Goes … – TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
• Middle schooler iPhone app programmer (holykaw.alltop.com)
• Sixth-Grade iPhone Developer of the Day (geeks.thedailywh.at)
• 6th Grader Makes iPhone Apps! (wycd.radio.com)
• Sixth-Grade Developer Teaches Students How to Make Apps (good.is)
• Watch a 12-Year-Old Put Your Startup To Shame [Video] (gawker.com)
• to teach or not to teach (zealforeverything.wordpress.com)
• Innovation in education: what I’ll be talking about at the Guardian event today. (#IIE2011) (dougbelshaw.com)

14 Ways For Students To Create Timelines

Image via Wikipedia

Timelines are a great way to teach history. Students in my classes often use them to create projects on a given time period or event with great success. I have found that for all students putting events in order helps them to understand the overall development of a particular event like WWI, WWII, and to understand the development of an historical era like the Cold War. It also allows them to see how historical events are related and points out the cause and effect relationship between historical events. Below is a list of 14 great website that will allow students to create excellent interactive timelines.

1. xtimeline – Explore and Create Free Timelines

2. Timetoast Timelines | Create timelines, share them on the web.

3. TimeRime.com – Homepage

4. TimeGlider: Web-based Timeline Software

5. Time Line Maker

6. ReadWriteThink: Student Materials: Timeline

7. Preceden – The Easiest Way to Make a Timeline

8. OurTimeLines.com – Create Timeline

9. Dipity

10. Gapminder World

11. Microfacts/Weaving History – Home

12. World History

13. A history of conflicts

14. Photo Timelines – LIFE

60+ Video editors

Well it is that time of year again for student projects. Every year I am always looking for new and inventive ways for students to show me what they have learned in class. This year I really wanted to use video. Students always love making videos. It is a fun and engaging way for them to present information. However, video editors are quite expensive and can be difficult to use. So over the course of the past few years here are a some websites  that are not too difficult to use and many are free. This allows all students the ability to edit video. I have had students use many of these websites and have seen some great videos in the past. I just hope to see more of the same this year. Take a look at the following 60+ video editors.

• Dragontape.com

  tags: youtube tool tools web2.0 dragontape web remix media

• Video Annotation Tool [Academic Technology Services, UMN]

  tags: annotation tools youtube web2.0 flash tool umn Research

• Welcome to Aviary

  tags: tools graphics editor photos photography photoshop Photo audio

• CaptionTube: Home

  tags: youtube captions subtitles tools google education caption translation

• animoto – the end of slideshows

  tags: web2.0 slideshow animation photos tools presentation music audio

• Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

  tags: photos hosting photography web2.0 sharing image storage photobucket

• One True Media – slideshows, free photo sharing, facebook video, slide shows, Facebook slideshows, Facebook codes, free video sharing, video montages.

  tags: slideshow web2.0 photos media tools photography multimedia sharing

• Flixtime – Video Slideshows made easy!

  tags: digitalstorytelling web2.0 slideshows slideshow presentations animation tools flixtime

• YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.

  tags: youtube editor tools broadcast yourself tool web2.0

• Free Videos Online – Watch TV Online – Free Video Clips | Veoh

  tags: media tv web2.0 social streaming web p2p veoh

• Movie Masher: Free Open Source Online Video Editor

  tags: editor tools editing web2.0 Videoediting flash opensource masher

• Kaltura: Open Source Video Platform

  tags: opensource web2.0 tools kaltura videoblog editing Open Platform

• 404 | RiffTrax

  tags: remix digitalstorytelling web2.0 rifftrax 404 tool | mashup

• Upload videos! Free home video sharing and editing. Secure Home Movie Archiving, Hosting and Storage.

  tags: web2.0 sharing editing social mashup motionbox service share

• USTREAM, You’re On. Free LIVE VIDEO Streaming, Online Broadcasts. Create webcasts, video chat, stream videos on the Internet. Live streaming videos, TV shows

  tags: streaming web2.0 tv broadcast ustream tools media community

• Stroome.com | mix it up. mash it out.

  Video editor

  tags: editing stroome tools collaborative collaboration mix video_editing com

• Home – Creaza

  tags: digitalstorytelling web2.0 cartoon animation audio mindmap storytelling creaza

• JellyBarn – User Generated Video Contests

  tags: web2.0 blog photos mobile phlog Chris’ photography moblog

• Free Online Picture Editor, Image Editor and Photo Editor

  tags: editor image tools ajax tool imagenes photos web

• Stroome.com | mix it up. mash it out.

  tags: collaboration stroome web2.0 com mix tools edit it

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