Smartboard and Health Education

Click here to visit the site

Health education is essential these days but it can be quite difficult to explain the concept of a balanced diet. Fortunately, teachers can use some great interactive websites and their interactive whiteboards to help students learn the concepts of a balanced diet.

ActiveScience GSK has a great interactive activity called Balanced Diet that challenges students to interact with different people, read about their goals for a balanced diet and then choose the best meals throughout the day. They are provided feedback about their choice of diet that helps educate them about the importance of the types of foods they are eating. This activity also has supporting worksheets including a word search and a word scramble.

Using Videos in the Classroom

Many teachers love using video to enhance their lessons. The downside: many videos are too long, and it’s time consuming to scan a video to find the clip you want to use. Here are two sites that can help streamline the process.

TubeChop and SPLICD allow you to select a section of a Youtube video and crop the bits that you do not want to use, then you obtain a link that you can share with your students or place into your SMART Notebook file. This gives you the ability to launch a quick video clip with minimal classroom down time.

All you have to do is to copy and paste the YouTube URL, crop the video and copy the link to share or the embed code to insert in your VLE.

5min Life Videopedia – Another Amazing Video Website

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to go to 5min

 

 

 

5min is a platform for instructional, knowledge and lifestyle videos. This library includes tens of thousands of videos across 20 categories and 140 subcategories, which are professionally produced and brand-safe.

5min features content from some of the world’s major media companies as well as the most innovative independent producers. You can watch video recipes, yoga and fitness routines, tech tutorials, DIY projects for home and garden, health videos on specific conditions, beauty and fashion tips, video game walk-throughs and much more.

It’s a great tool for every subject area. Go and have a look.

Befuddlr

What can you do to keep your learners engaged when introducing them to a new topic?

Why not play with Befuddlr?! Befuddlr will take pictures from Flickr, or you can also upload your own, and befuddles them to create a fun picture puzzle to solve.

It’s a perfect application for the SMART Board! Try it out!

www.befuddlr.com

Etherpad – An Online Collaborative Text Editor

Try out Etherpad for a fast, free, easy and really live collaboration and chat session.

Click for screencast

Etherpad is an online collaborative text editor usable by anyone with an Internet connection. There is no sign up required; you just share a unique URL (web address) with the people you want to collaborate with.

Each user has a different colour and there is a chat box. You can use the random URL assigned or make one up just by adding the name of the document to the end of the URL.

It is real time; you see the edits of the other people as they make them, and you may discuss changes as you make them in the chat box.

The potential for use in education is unlimited. This is a great web tool for collaborative writing and planning; writing reports, stories or scripts, answering questionnaires, improving writing, making lists or also discussing opinions.

It really is simple to use.

1. Just go to Etherpad and create a new pad.
2. Email the link for the pad to your learners.
3. Learners click the URL and they are ready to start writing and chatting in the same pad. You can see everyone editing the document.
4. All revisions of the etherpad can be saved at any time.
5. It is simple to format text as well as headlines and bullet points.
6. You may delete your etherpad

There are also loads of opportunities for using it with staff. There are many situations where we have to put a document together with just one scribe! Well now everyone can get involved in the self assessment! It could also be used for communication!

Wallwisher

 Another great web tool! Another great way of communicating. And free!

 http://www.wallwisher.com/

Wallwisher is an online notice board maker. You can use it to make announcements, make notes, share opinions and resources, etc … Just think of wallwisher as your virtual post-its!

It is extremely easy to use. You don’t need to register or create an account. You just have to click on write post and that’s it.

You can add images, links, videos and music to your comments or post it.

To arrange your post its, you just need to drag and drop them where you want.

Check the wallwisher I have just created to try it out with you, and please write something to play with it. To add you comment you just need to double click on the denim background.

 

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/WAESelearning

What do you think?

I am sure you can think of some good ways of using wallwisher with your students. You can ask your learners to give opinions on something you brought up related to what you are teaching, or you can ask them to try answer a difficult question and everyone checks all the answers and can have discussions.

All you have to do is to click on build a wall, choose a URL, pick a theme, add an image (optional), enter your name and email and edit the title (here you can type in your question). Then just click on done.

To share your wall, copy the link and send it to your students. Or wallwisher will send you an email with the link and a template email that you can use to send to your students.

Have fun!

Using Online Resources

There are loads of websites that you can use with your students. I am sure that you know a lot of good online resources, but sometimes you don’t know how you can use them with your class.

The web sites can be employed for individuals, small groups or the whole class, depending in what you are trying to achieve. Or you may want to structure an entire session around one single site.

Here is a list of extremely useful online resources that are valuable for teaching and learning.

National Gallery

The National Gallery offers very good resources for educators and potentially helpful in adult education. The site contains detailed notes for teachers about particular paintings and suggestion for learning activities, facility to browse and access the whole collection, zoomable pictures, as well as biographies of several leading artists.

BBC Learning

This web site is a considerable resource to help learning in a wide range of subjects, such as health, study skills, history, geography, English, foreign languages, maths, computers…

There are several online courses, as well as information and other forms of content.

Tate Modern Gallery

The Tate website offers the opportunity to view their contents in several languages as well as BSL. This facility offers a wealth of opportunities for language classes.

The podcasts are also very good learning resources and they also offer a free online level 1 course Introducing Learners to Art.

Virtual Tour

Several websites provide access to online simulations, as for example science experiments, demonstrations of products and virtual tours.

10 Downing Street’s web site offers an opportunity of taking a virtual tour of the building. It allows one to explore the different rooms and read about their history. It also provides information about the government’s structures. This could be quite useful for teaching Citizenship, History or ICT navigation. You could set up a class discussion by projecting the tour on the interactive whiteboard and use it as a whole class resource.

Multimedia presentations

The Money matters to me site provides a series of interactive workshops, including a simulator of a cash machine or an electricity meter.

There are also loads of utility bills, case studies and interactive activities.

As this site offers a structure based on an individual’s life changes, learners can explore different financial issues relevant to their lives, which could be motivating and meaningful for them. As a tutor, in this case, you should only support your students instead of controlling what they are learning.

Resources

There are also various sites that offer resources in a variety of forms. For example:Images that you can use for educational purposes,

The NASA website offers access to 300.000 images linked to space exploration and related subjects. It is free to use their images for educational use.

Maths

This web site offers free mathematics resources. It includes discussion forums, puzzles and reviews of calculators, free software and books. This could be handy for class preparation or use of the interactive exercises.

Arts and Humanities

This site offers hundreds of links to newspapers, journal articles, book reviews and extracts, essays, periodicals, TV and radio stations and organisations. You can use this resource for preparation of discussions on philosophy, literature, language, culture, history, music or art; current affairs, media studies and international relations.

Tools and Aids

You can find an automatic translation service on the Alta Vista or Google search engine. This facility translates text from one language to another.

You can also select a whole webpage to be translated on

Google Maps is excellent for getting hold of maps as well as Multi Map and Ordnance Survey.

The Met office web site besides giving weather forecasts also has a section for teachers, even though it is primarily aimed at young learners, there are many different resources you can use and adapt for adults.

The best tips to use online learning content is by involving learners, allowing them to create their own knowledge, basing activities on “real-life” issues, varying methods, using simulators to practise something that is intimidating, thinking of your learners’ needs and contexts, integrating online resources with traditional methods, making learning fun and interesting, encouraging peer support, using the internet for specific topics to demonstrate the richness of resources and making your learners become internet confident users.

 

Source: Online Resources in the Classroom by Alan Clarke and Claudia Hesse, NIACE

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling has become a powerful instructional tool for students and teachers. Digital storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell a story, basically combining the art of telling stories with a variety of digital multimedia, such as images, audio and video. Digital stories bring together a mixture of graphics, text, recorded audio narration, video and music to present information on a particular topic.

There are several types of digital stories, such as personal narratives, historical documentaries and stories designed to inform or instruct on a specific concept or practice.

Here is an example of a digital story. Have a look!

 

Click here to view a digital story

There are numerous ways of using Digital Storytelling in education. Teachers can create their digital stories or have students to create their own. An engaging multimedia Digital Story might capture the students’ attention and increase their interest, and it can also be a potent tool for students if they have to create their own stories. Teachers’ digital stories may also be used to enhance lessons, facilitate discussion, and make abstract or conceptual content more understandable.

 

WHAT TECHNOLOGY CAN WE USE TO CREATE DIGITAL STORIES?

 

Not long ago producing multimedia digital content required expensive equipment and technical expertise, but now we are at a point where we can make a very compeling content creation with Smart Notebook Software, PowerPoint, Photo Story, Movie Maker, iMovie or web tools such as:

 

            

 

        

 

            

   

         

     

               

 

     

              

 

       

Click on the web pages logos and try creating your Digital Stories. All web tools have tutorials in case you get stuck.

Here are some links where you can find appropraiately free and licensed resources for your Digital Story.

    Images

http://arthist.cla.umn.edu/aict/

http://www.youraustralia.eu/

http://www.brisbio.ac.uk/

http://www.freeimages.co.uk/

http://www.freefoto.com/

http://freestockphotos.com/

http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/

http://www.imageafter.com/

http://openphoto.net/

http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/free_stock_photos/

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/\

http://picapp.com/publicsite/

http://fromoldbooks.org/

http://www.pics4learning.com/

http://phil.cdc.gov/

http://www.woophy.com/

http://worldart.sjsu.edu/

http://yotophoto.com/

 

 

Audio

 

ttp://www.artistserver.com/music.cfm

http://cchits.ning.com/hits/

http://www.ccmixter.org/

http://freemusicarchive.org/

http://freemusic.freeculture.org/

http://funkyremixes.com/

http://www.jamendo.com/

http://www.podsafeaudio.com/

http://www.opsound.org/opsound.html

http://www.pdinfo.com/

 

    Video

http://www.archive.org/details/movies

http://streams.wgbh.org/sandbox/

http://open-video.org/

 

Xerte – A Superb Free Toolkit

Xerte is a suite of tools for rapid development of interactive learning content. The online Xerte tool is an effective way for staff with limited IT skills to create high quality, cost-effective and accessible learning materials. 

With Xerte you can create materials with the same quality as the NLN materials.

This toolkit provides a quick way for tutors to create presentations or interactive exercises, such as quizzes, with built in colour preferences, font size preferences, keyboard navigation and text to speech.

Xerte templates allow the content creator to make highly creative accessible learning objects in an extremely user-friendly way. You can integrate text, images, audio, video and animations, create interactivity, drag and drop and hot spot interactions.

Click to watch the video on MoleTV

How to get hold of Xerte?

Go to Xerte website – www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte -  download and install the Xerte engine.    

OR  just use the online tool by going to http://www.techdisplayxerte.info/. To play with it you will need username: techdis and password: jisc. Try to create your own project. On the website you can find a very simple and fast demo, as well as Xerte examples.

This is a free open source that you can share with your students by uploading it as a SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) to Moodle.

QR Code

 

QR (Quick Response) codes are 2-dimensional bar codes that can contain text, URLs, phone numbers and other data. The QR code can be read by a camera phone as long as it has free QR Code Reader software.

These awkward looking images are being used with students in various ways.

Students can use it to subscribe to a RSS news feed; tutors can integrate QR codes in their PowerPoint presentations or printable materials, as it facilitates note taking; you can send as sms to a phone; transfer a phone number; append the codes to Moodle, it facilitates classroom evaluation and it is perfect for mobile learners.

How to create a QR Code

Go to http://qrcode.kaywa.com , type in text, a URL or a telephone number and generate the code. Copy and paste the image generated into your slide or document etc.

Check if your phone can use QR reader software on http://reader.kaywa.com/getit , download direct to your phone or to your computer and transfer.

Use your camera and software on your phone to capture the code’s message.

Another excellent QR code creator is Snappr.net . You just have to create a free account and you can create QR codes linked to music files, images, URLs, VR Cards and Voting. Snappr allows you to download the QR code reader on your mobile phone (few mobile phones cannot read QR codes).

In case you do not want to download the application to your phone or if your phone does not accept a QR code reader you can use the MMS option. It’s simple! – Take a picture of the code on your mobile phone and send it to Snappr@Sannpr.net . Within a few moments you will receive a link that leads to the collected information on Snappr, all optimized for your device.

Visit http://molenetprojects.org.uk/moletech for more ideas using QR codes in teaching and learning.