Tech Thursday!

I hope you are having a great summer so far! I have had lots of time for relaxing, creating, and even learning.  

I have really been trying to learn a lot about Project Based Learning this summer. I attended a training recently and learned a lot about student research. I want to share a cool new tool. Thinglink is used to create interactive images to enrich student learning. 

Why I like Thinglink:

1.  As a teacher, I can collect appropriate facts and research options in one central location. Students can explore my Thinglink safely to learn about a given topic. Conversely, students can create their own Thinglink! Consider having students create a Thinglink as a final project. 

Here is a ThingLink I created about Hibernation:

Hibernation ThingLink

Here is a great one created by another user on the ThingLink website:

Plants ThingLink

3. It is EASY to use and available for free! I am only using the free version right now, but of course upgrades are available. They even have a special rate for educators. 

Thinglink is wide-open. It can be customized to meet any topic you're teaching and at any grade level. Have you tried Thinglink? Have you tried the free or paid version? I would love to hear your experiences with it. 

(: 

Mandi

Tech Tips

Today I went to a class to learn more about Project Based Learning.  Student research is a BIG component of PBL. The facilitators shared several options for student research. So I thought I would link up with the ladies at Teaching Trio for Technology Thursday to share one with you today!

First of all, do you remember these?! 

It's true! Encyclopedia Britannica was my GOOGLE! I remember pouring through these books when I was younger. Maybe I have always been a bit nerdy! ha! Anyway, I learned about an updated version of Encyclopedia Britannica today. It's called Q-files. 

Q-files is a free illustrated children's encyclopedia. (Say that 10 times fast!)  It is kid friendly and organized by topic. Students can click the tabs at the top to find categories for research or they can use the search box. 

Each topic is explained through words and detailed pictures or diagrams. The articles contain hyperlinks to the glossary to define content vocabulary.  There are also links to related topics. See that cute little owl in the right hand corner? That little owl gives a few interesting facts about each topic. 

The best thing about Q-files to me is that it truly is kid-friendly. All information is presented without advertisement (which is rare in today's world!) 

If you are looking at Q-files and wondering how to make it useful for the lower grades, you may consider using the Select and Speak add-on for Chrome. Select and Speak will read text aloud from websites. As I experimented with it today, I found that it would be especially helpful to teach students to highlight the word or sentence they need help with (versus having the entire page read.) Please remember, this extension only works in Chrome. There are probably sources which accomplish the same task in Explorer, but I am unfamiliar with them at this time. 

Have you tried Q-files or any other illustrated encyclopedias for student research? I'd love to hear about them!

(:

Mandi