Showing posts with label teacher resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teacher resources. Show all posts

MeeGenius Free Ebooks for Kids

5:57 PM discovery
MeeGenius is a great resource for both free and paid ebooks designed specifically for kids. The website has an awesome interface which obviously shows that kids were in mind while designing the template. MeeGenius stands out from the crowd by the unique features it offers to its users. I know several websites provide ebooks for free but not all of them are as good as MeetGenius.





MeeGenius is available both on the web and on mobile devices particularly iPhone, iPad, and Android. Among the features that MeeGenius offers to its users and that distinguishes its service from other similar web platforms is the automatic word highlighting option that accompanies each narration of each book. The mobile version of MeeGenius lets users eiither choose to read the stories by themselves or have them read by others.
Head over to MeeGenius and start exploring the ebooks there.

The Best Free Documentary Websites

2:57 PM discovery

I usually blog about web tools and mobile apps that we can use in education but since it is summer holidays now i am going to provide you with a list of free documentary websites that you can use to watch thousands of documentaries from different categories. Feel free to share the post with your friends and colleagues.

Here is the list of some of the best free Documentary websites.

1- Fandor

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Fandor is a website that offers over 2000 indie movies that you can watch right from your computer. It also includes international movies and documentaries covering various categories such as comedy, drama, action and science fiction. All you need to do is log on with your facebook account. When you watch a movie you can leave your comment or review or even share the video on your website.

2- Sprdword

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Sprd word is a cool website that provides great documentary videos that you would not find in the traditional media. You can browse videos by category,topic, alphabetically or by region. Apart from documentaries , you can also find links to short informative videos on the right panel of the website.

3- Documentary Heaven

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Documentary Heaven is another free to use website that offers a various collection of documentary films that you can watch online. It does not require any sign up and it allows you to select films using category options such as activist, celebrity, conspiracy, mystery, war, technology… etc.

4- TopDocumentaryFilms

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TopDocumentaryFilms is a website that offers free documentaries. It has up to 350 films that can be browsed through categories such as art, biography, comedy, crime, history, military etc. You can also select the most commented or controversial documentaries in the website.

5- Human Restore

 

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Human Restore  is a repository of free engaging documentaries featuring different categories….read more in  Human Restore:Free educative documentaries

6- SnagFilms

 

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SnagFilms provides the world’s most compelling documentaries .You can search for any documentary film using a set of different categories and a smart search bar ….read more in Free Documentaries for educators.

 

7- Free Documentary TV

 

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Free Documentary Tv is a great website for watching free documentary films . It is developed by Holly who has a great passion and love for documentaries . Free Documentary Tv offers more than 1700 films covering a wide range of topics

 

8- PBS

 

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PBS ( Public Broadcasting Service ) is a a great website that offers free in-depth lengthy documentaries on different popular issues.

9- SurfTheChannel

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SurTheChannel  which is known as a tv show and streaming website offers a Documentary Section that features more 1800 documentaries. This service allows users to only sort videos alphabetically which is the only drawback of this tool

10- OneBigTorrent

 

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OneBigTorrent is a great place for quality documentary torrents. “OneBigTorrent.org is a new place for sharing material that deals with or is relevant to issues of social justice, progressive and radical politics, independent media, ecology“.

11- Miro

 

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Miro is a video player that provides several channels. You can subscribe to over “1500 web shows, documentary channels and podcasts. Channels include TED Talks, Frontline/World, NOVA etc. mostly in HD content”.

12- FreeDocumentaries, Bodocus and Docuworld.

 

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These website provide free documentaries that are aggregated from Google Video. They are organized into categories such as politics, health, history, religion, business etc.

13- Joost

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Joost is not as known as the other  documentary websites mentioned above but it does features some high quality videos. There are now about 27 channels in documentary section depending on your location.

Are users of Internet Explorer dumber than the others ?

8:25 PM discovery
Here is a recent interesting piece of news i have read in CNNTech website and want to share with you. The article is entitled Are Internet Explorer Users Dumbe ? My curiosity drives me to inquire for an answer and conviction. I know the facts in this article are relative but they are quite fascinating.



There has been a recent survey conducted over 100 000 participants by AptiQuant whiich is a  consulting company based in Vancouver. The survey was in the form of an IQ test that the participants had to undergo while monitoring which browser they used to take the test.  Guess what !! Chrome, Safari and Firefox scored slightly above average while Internet Explorer users scored below average.
This is not it , there is a counter part that refutes these findings and have even went so far to give evidence, I wont say more , i ll let you enjoy the article by yourself. Read more in Are Internet Explorer Dumb ?

Watch Documentaries – Free online documentaries

1:51 PM discovery

Watch Documentaries is a free website that provides documentaries on different topics. Most if not all of these documentaries are educative and can be used in classroom with our students. Unlike other documentary websites which only offer links to other site webs and in some cases those links get broken, Watch Documentaries host documentary video clips and let you stream them.

 

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Documentaries are organized into different categories allowing users to easily browse and find the type they want. You can even search for particular ones using specific keywords. Under each documentary you will find a helpful description detailing what the documentary is about.

 

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Watch documentaries lets you also interact with other users by leaving comments and sharing interesting documentaries with your friends and colleagues. I highly recommend this website for educators and i wish you can use it to prepare documentaries to share with your students in the classroom.

Mobile devices no more cancer worries for kids

7:07 PM discovery
Today as i was checking my mail i came across USA Today Your Life newsletter and as i was going over the articles included in this edition a catchy title drew my attention ; Cellphones don't increase cancer risk in kids, study says. The article was a great paper about study results proved scientifically debunking the cancer myth connected with the use of cellpones. There is an excerpt ;
The study's authors compared the cellphone habits of nearly 1,000 children in Western Europe, including 352 with brain tumors and 646 without. Kids who used cellphones were no more likely to develop a brain tumor than others, according to the study of children ages 7 to 19, published online Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

If you want to read the whole article something which i highly recommend since we are educators  using mobile technology with kids then i invite you to check Cellphones don't increase cancer risk in kids

The Best Educational Websites

2:13 PM discovery
The following are some of the best resourceful websites  that offer a great wealth of information pertaining to teaching , learning and education . Click on any link to read the tutorial post relating to it  . Make sure you bookmark this page for i will be adding more links  to this list .


Teacher Resources :

The Best Book Websites - Track and Get Notifications about New Releases of your Favorite Books and Authors.

9:49 AM discovery
Today i am going to introfuce you to some of the best websites that will let you track your favorite books and authors. What is so special about this collection of URLs is that almost all of them enable their users to get notifications and aletrs about new releases of the books they track. So instead of going after your dedicated authors trying  to see their latest updates , these websites will save you the trouble and notify you  of any new releases. It is taken for granted that you already know Google Books so there is no need to include it in the list.
This is really a great service for us in education , i highly recommend the following websites to educators.


1- TrackNewBook


TrackNewBook is a free web service that lets its users track their favourite books via email notifications.You can choose whether to get notifications about upcoming books by a particular author, on a particular subject, that include particular keywords, or that are similar to a particular book.

2 - Book - Buzzes

Book- Buzzes is another free to use web service that allow its users to track the latest releases of their favorite authors. All you need to do is sign upo for a free account and set up your alerts such as : chjoosing your location, what binding you want  hardcover or paperback. Remember you can delete any alert at anytime.


3 -  AnyewBook

AnyNewBook is  a great free web service that keeps you updated about the latest book releases theough email notifications.You can subscribe to a weekly email notification on a specific book category such as fiction, non-fiction, programming, history, horror, law, and many others. It also enables you to customize your notifications.

4 - FictFact
FictFact is another free book notification service that allows its users to keep track of their favorite books .It also enable  you to track books by series and tells you which book is next in the series you are reading.It gives you the possibility to many customization such as , marking books as being read and also sharing your series with friends and colleagues.

5 - Book Army
Book Army is a social networking site for book lovers.  It allows its users to get book recommendations based on their reading experience and preferences. What is really good about this site is its socialising side for you can rate and discuss books and read user reviews and even browse books suggested by other members. It also let you contact authors and even promote your books if you are a writer.

6 - Biblio

Biblio is a free web service that lets you search for had to find books. It has over 5500 bookstores and more than 50 million books listed in its database. You can use different criteria to look for books . For instance you refine your resultys by specifying : condition, price, binding,and attributes. Just enter the book's title and its author name or its ISBN number and hit " find Book " and there you go.


If you have other suggestions to this list or any questions do not hesitate to drop them down.

Easy Notecards – easily create your own flashcards.

3:30 PM discovery
Easy Notecards is a great educational resource. It offers its visitors a wide range of flashcards. It allows them to create both text based and image based flashcards. This is indeed a great studying tool that “ uses interactive notecards to make it quick and easy to learn new material.”





What is so special about this service is that it lets you make  notecards for a specific book. You can then enter the chapters the notecards are for.
Easy Notecards provides a gallery of public collections of flashcards that you can browse through. I am sure that this tool will be your favorite guide for next year. Students will learn a lot from it and they will eventually like it.

Some features of Easy Notecards

Here is a list of the main features that Easy Notecards offer to its users:
  • It is free
  • It is simple to use
  • It requires a sign up
  • It allows you to create notecards for a specific book
  • It also lets you add images to your notecards
  • Notecards are printable
  • You can Test your knowledge by taking the multiple choice quiz that is available for every notecard set
  • You can create your list of favorites
  • You can interact with other via leaving comments one their public notecards

You can also check this list of the Best  Free Graphic Organizers.

The best Free teacher resources = collection of great websites

8:20 PM discovery
Here is a list of the best free teacher resources. If you are a teacher or an educator then these URLs are just what you would need to bookmark for everyday reference. Make sure you share this with your colleagues.

Teacher Resources :

The Best 20 Educational Quotes in 2011

12:08 PM discovery

Here is a list of the best 20 educational quotes for teachers to learn about. All thanks and gratitude go back to Jill Hare for her grassroots efforts to collect these amazing words.

Quote N1

If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important.

-Barbara Colorose

Quote N2

Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops.

Henry Brooks Adams

Quote N3

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

—Jacques Barzun

 

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  Quote N4

The man (or woman) who can make hard things easy is the educator.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Quote N5

Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

  Quote N6

Children are like wet cement, whatever falls on them makes an impression.

- Haim Ginott

 

Quote N7
The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard to answer.

-Alice Wellington Rollins

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Quote N8

Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.

-Bob Talber

 

Quote N9


Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child.
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.”

Shel Silverstein

Quote N10

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

-William A. Ward

Quote N11

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

-William Butler Yeats

Quote N12

If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.

John Dewey

 

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Quote N13

Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions.

-Unknown

 

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Quote N14

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

Albert Einstein

Quote N15

A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.

James Baldwin

Quote N16

 

Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible.

—Robert M. Hutchins

Quote N17

 


If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.

-Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Estrada

Quote N18

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

- Aristotle

Quote N19

As a general rule, teachers teach more by what they are than by what they say.

Unknown

Quote N20


Never do anything for a student that he he is capable of doing for himself. If you do you, you’ll make him an educational cripple…a pedagogical paraplegic.

-Howard Hendricks

Tips and exercises to sharpen your mind and boost your brain power

9:08 AM discovery
Today as i was browsing through some of my favorite bookmarking sites  i fell upon this great article from HelpGuide. It is about How to Improve your Memory. I know you will be wondering now what the hell is he talking about , this is an educational technology blog and i am an edu tech blogger so why this off topic article ?






I am a very big fan of everything that has to do with psychology, neurology and emotional intelligence  and i always keep a constant update of the latest things in these domains but given the importance of Memory and retention skills in education i could not stand but share with you this article.  give it 5 minutes of your time and concentrate on what it says because the benefit is huge.
You will learn highly useful tips about how to keep your memory healthy and how to improve your brain power and prevent dementia and memory decline. The post features five tips with detailed explanations. Please after you finish reading them make sure you bookmark them so as to share them with your students.

  1. Improving memory tip 1: Don’t skimp on exercise or sleep

  2. Improving memory tip 2: Make time for friends and fun

  3. Improving memory tip 3: Keep stress in check

  4. Improving memory tip 4: Bulk up on brain-boosting foods

  5. Improving memory tip 5: Give your brain a workout

  6. Use mnemonic devices to make memorization easier

  7. Tips for enhancing your ability to learn and remember

Now head over to : How to Improve Your Memory - TIPS AND EXERCISES TO SHARPEN YOUR MIND AND BOOST BRAINPOWER

Wiki Summarizer – Get The Best Wikipedia Results

7:07 AM discovery
Wiki Summarizer is a great application for educators. It automatically summarizes the Wikipedia articles using keywords. It also provides a list of related articles to your search query. These summaries are stored in a relational database for users to explore instantly and easily.





Some features of Wiki Summarizer

Here are the features that Wiki Summarizer provides for its users. this is just an excerpt from their official website: ( taken from Wiki summarizer about page )
      1. efficiently search across ALL Wikipedia pages for references to your topic

      2. download the summaries as text for your research, publishing, learning and blog writing

      3. download the summaries as mind maps for instant visualization in your favorite mind mapping application

      4. take notes – quickly collect topics and sentences from all contextually relevant Wikipedia pages

      5. speed-up reading by condensing each article to the essential keywords and summaries

      6. make a long story short – the summaries headline most important sentences giving instant information capsules




Applications of Wiki Summarizer in education

we all know Wikipedia is a great resource for both teachers and students. It is probably the primary springboard for students online searches. With Wiki Summarizer , Wikipedia will have a another feel and students will love it for sure  . It will enable them to get the best results all summarized in one page and accessible at the instance of a click. Their broad topics will now be narrowed down and so much time will be save.
That’s it about Wiki Summarizer – get the best Wikipedia results.

Many Books – free educational ebooks

12:18 PM discovery
Many Books is a great resource of free ebooks for teachers. It has indexed more than 29.000 free ebook in a variety of format and for different devices. Educators will find this website very useful as they can have access to a wide range of free etexts at the instant of a click.


Many Books allows its users to “Browse through the most popular titles, recommendations, or recent reviews from our visitors. Perhaps you'll find something interesting in the special collections”.
Many Books has arranged its content in such a way to facilitate the navigational use of the website. You can either start looking for books using the authors’ name or the title of the work. You can also use other criteria such as: genres, languages, new titles, or recommended ones. This website also features Books of the week which is a collection of literary works chosen by the site’ team.







Applications of Many Books in education

I really recommend this website to all educators. You can even introduce it to your students and show them how they can browse it to look for free ebooks. I have done some queries in the site and found it very useful. Head over to Many Books main page and give it a try.

Mapeas – Contextuaize Your Search Queries

8:14 AM discovery
Mapeas is a cool website that educators can use in their classrooms. It allows its users to Geographically look for content about certain topics. I love this tool for it contextualizes the content and renders it much more relevant.
 Mapeas is not an encyclopedia though it functions in the same way encyclopedias do and it is not a search engine for its search algorithm is not as sophisticated as search engines, i would rather call it a directory for news and stories all around the world connected to a specific geographical location.





How does Mapeas works ?

Mapeas is very simple to use and does not require any sign up or download. Just head over to Mapeas main page and click on any circle on the map to zoom-in on a location and select a story.

bear in mind that stories are provided by the Associated Press, AFP, ABC, NBC, and Fox. When you click on a post you will be directed to articles or videos for further reading.

Mashpedia – educational real time encyclopedia

8:06 AM discovery
Mashpedia is another real time encyclopedia. It provides its users with information and content pulled from different sites. All it takes is entering a topic title to instantly get digital contents from several websites including : Wikipedia, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Books, Newspapers, and Magazines.
Mashpedia resembles Zoombo in that they both fetch their results from social websites. I really like these kinds of encyclopedias for they save you so much time you have lost if you were looking for information in each site separately.





Some features of Mashpedia

Here is a list of the main features that Mashpedia offers to its users:
  • It is free to use

  • It is simple and easy

  • It renders search results instant and quick

  • It lets you discover new, relevant content about your favorite topics and interests

  • Mashpedia topics include : New Madia, Cloud Computing, iPhone, History ,a dn many more

  • It allows you to get a multi-perspective vision and real-time context for every topic


I invite ll educators to give Mashpedia a try and see by themselves. I strongly think that Mashpedia can be very beneficial for both students and teachers. I also invite you to try the other search tools or encyclopedias i have already talked about namely : Zoombo  and Qwiki.

zoombo – real time encyclopedia for educators

8:01 AM discovery
Zoombo is a real time encyclopedia. It is a perfect tool for educators looking for information about a specific topic. Zoombo search results are to the point and accurate and this is the reason why i am introducing it to you today.
Zoombo is definitely not a search engine but a tool that pulls its content from blogs, social networks, Flickr, Youtube, newspapers, news sites, and wikipedia.
Here is an excerpt about Zoombo taken from their official page:
Zomobo is a web application structured thematically around topics, like in an encyclopedia, enhanced with a set of features and interactive functions. It integrates contents loaded from different online sources under one single interface, providing a wide spectrum of digital contents and up-to-the-minute data. For every valid topic, Zomobo presents a list of modules with content loaded in real-time from multiple web services, categorized by media type or data source. By jumping modules, you'll find fresh data and digital media from Newspapers, Magazines, Blogs, Books, Wikipedia, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Social Answers and additional online resources




Some features of Zoobo

Here is a list of the main features that Zoombo offers to its users:
  • It is free to use

  • It is very simple

  • It has user-friendly interface

  • It pulls its results from several sites and blogs

  • It offers a fun and engaging learning experience

  • Access the freshest information and multimedia content about almost any subject, person, place or event in one single place

If you like this real time encyclopedia then you might also like to check Qwiki which is another type of ‘ encyclopedia ‘ that is very useful to educators.

MyVocabulary.com – free puzzles, lessons plans and games

12:56 PM discovery
My Vocabulary.com is a free resource site for teachers. It offers a plethora of vocabulary lessons, wordlists, and puzzles created solely for the middle school and high school students. My Vocabulary.com is “used in over 24,000 schools to enhance vocabulary mastery & written/verbal skills with Latin & Greek roots”.





Some features of My Vocabulary.com

Here is a list of the main features that My Vocabulary.com offers to its users:
  • It is free

  • It is easy to use and to navigate

  • It has a student-friendly interface

  • It offers free interactive puzzles with varying levels of difficulty

  • It provides Root Word Lesson Plans including : prefix study,root- a – week puzzles, crosswords, word finds,synonyms, antonyms

  • It also offers 390 “ A-to-Z” word lists for oral proficiency, writing assignments

  • It provides printable worksheets and thematic specific word lists

  • It offers worksheets adaptable for assessment



Applications of My Vocabulary.com in education

This website is very useful for teachers especially language teachers. They can use it to develop students’ mastery of vocabulary. Students can have access to different wordlists and word puzzles. There are also many other activities and assignments that can all if used properly enhance not only students’ repertoire of vocabulary but their writing skills as well.

Address Search – Reconnect with old friends and classmates

9:17 AM discovery
Address Search is a great service offered for free. It allows its users to reconnect with their former friends, colleagues, classmates or/ and relatives. This service enables you to find out email addresses of the people you are interested in. It is kind of email directory with millions or even billions of email addresses indexed and stored in their data base.



When you are looking for someone’s email address , Address Search checks their email directory for possible matches and then compare those matches with their telephone directory increasing , thus , the chances to find the right email of the right person. You can also find other identifiable information about them like their face book profiles, blogs or websites.
Please note here that for the protection of the privacy of people online , Address Search will not reveal the email address of the person you are looking for but will only give you a way to contact him or her using a contact form, read what they say here :
While we make this service available for free, we do partially hide the email address in the results we provide, allowing the searcher to email the address using a contact form. No access to the actual email is ever given. This is done in an effort to protect the privacy of the email address’ owner, while providing them with a way to be contacted by someone looking for them.

How does Address Search work ?

There are  two ways to use to find email address information about someone using Address Search.
The first way is Forward Email Search




This type of search is conducted when someone is using a name to get an email address. This is very helpful when trying to reconnect with an old friend or classmate whom you know nothing about for a long time.

The second way is Reverse Email Search





This kind of search is very helpful when you try to find out the owner of an email address and his name. This is a good way to validate the identity of a sender or ensure you have the correct email address before you send out an email.
Remember the results are not always accurate but if you are a US citizen then chances are you might get better results then others.
That’s it about Address Search – Reconnect with old friends and classmates.

Mr. Printables - Free k-12 flashcards and graphic organizers

8:21 AM discovery
Mr. Printables is a great resource for educators looking for printable flashcards , games, puzzles, coloring pages, calendars and many more. Mr. Printables is a useful educational tool for kids, teachers, and parents. It provides a huge selection of flashcards covering various learning topics such as mathematics, drawing, the alphabets, basic vocabulary ,shapes, scrapbooking, planners, geometry, numbers , words , and more.



All these resources are free to use for a personal non commercial use. They are available as PDFs that you can download very easily.





Why using flashcards in learning/ teaching after all ?

This is a good question to ask yourself before you pick up any material from this site or other sites that provide free graphic organizers or printable flashcards. In fact there are many reasons why educators must use these materials in their classrooms. Here is a list of the main of them:
  1. Flashcards develop students critical thinking
  2. They help develop students creative thinking
  3. They help them learn by doing
  4. They are fun and students interact way better with them then with other plain materials
  5. They are handy and easy to use
  6. They improve memory retention skills for students
  7. They boost students’ self- esteem, motivation and achievement especially in early life.



These are in brief some of the pluses behind the use of flashcards in the classroom with students. Now head over to Mr. Printables and select the materials you would like to include in your future lessons; if you do not want to use them yourself then at least inform students’ parents of these materials and let them use some with their kids.



That’s it about Mr. Printables -  Free k-12 flashcards and graphic organizers.

Qwiki – Multimedia alternative to Textbooks

11:10 AM discovery
Qwiki is a great multimedia encyclopedia. It allows its users to browse through more than three million entries. I really like this kinda search engine and deciced to include it withing the Teacher Resources tab. Qwiki contains millions of popular topics that you can search very easily using their search tab. What i really like about Qwiki is the fact that it is powered by a smart technology that transforms static information into interactive stories giving it a whole different ”information experience”.





Some features of Qwiki

Here are the main services and features that Qwiki offers to its users :
  • It is free to use

  • It is very simple and has a nice looking interface

  • It has millions of multimedia entries

  • You can search any indexed term and qwiki will generate an information experience describing it

  • It has now started to allows users to interact with the information they read by contributing to it

  • You can watch , read, and listen to any Qwiki entry you search

  • You can also find related materials by clicking the “ Q” symbol that is under its play bar

  • You can embed Qwiki into your blog or website

  • You can also share your Qwikis with others using Facebook, Twitter, or Email options


How can i get started using Qwiki ?

It is very easy to use , just head over to Qwiki main page
Type in a search term into its search bar or
simply choose a topic from the featured topics on the homepage

Applications of Qwiki in education

As i said before Qwiki is an easy tool and educators can use it in different ways. They can browse it to look for topics they teach and get Qwikis to share with their students in the classroom. The Qwiki format will make students look forward to explore it. I think it is a better alternative to textbooks.
That’s it about Qwiki – Multimedia alternative to Textbooks.

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