Will Books & Magazines Be Gone Soon?

I was just looking at my paper from last Sunday and saw all of the ads for the latest electronics. As I was searching a thought occurred to me....will technology replace paper products? In today's world most people read the news online, weather online, and books online. They even have specific devices such as the Kindle to read material. Personally, I like the feeling of holding a book when I read, however, I also like to read online. Below I've attached a video of what the future might hold for magazines. It's actually pretty cool!

Sports Illustrated - Tablet Demo 1.5 from The Wonderfactory on Vimeo.

Soundboards

I just stumbled upon a great website called Soundboards.  It is free to register and you can create your own soundboard from an extensive collection of famous celebrities, movies, historical figures, etc... Imagine what you could with it in the classroom!  It would be great to use as an anticipatory set, in a presentation, or for a test review.  I've added a soundboard below just for fun showing my favorite movie.

Very Cool Tool

Paper Rater - Proofreading & Plagiarism Detection

from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)

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Paper Rater is a free service designed to help high school and college students improve their writing. Paper Rater does basic spelling and grammar checks, but the real value of Paper Rater is that it tells students if their papers have elements of plagiarism. Paper Rater scans students' papers then gives students an estimate of the likelihood that someone might think that their papers were plagiarized. Some of the other useful features of Paper Rater are style indicators, word choice evaluators, and a vocabulary sophistication indicator.








(click image to view full size)
Registration is not required in order to use Paper Rater. To have a paper rated all you have to do is paste text into the "analyze" field and click "get report." I gave Paper Rater a try this evening and found it to be very quick in processing roughly three pages of text.

Thanks to Make Use Of for the link to Paper Rater.

Applications for EducationPaper Rater could be a valuable tool for high school students to run their papers through before turning them in for a grade. Paper Rater can make students aware of potential acts of plagiarism. Paper Rater can also make students aware of changes in vocabulary that they may want to make before submitting their final papers.

I found this great video (below) for Read Across America. I am going to use it during the week and then have a silent reading period--for fun. Too often reading is assigned in school with an assessment such as a book report or organizer. Whatever happened to reading just for the love of reading? I hope it's not lost, because if it is, reading will eventually turn into another chore.

If the video doesn't play here is the link: http://www.blip.tv/file/3134777/

Time Warp

The other day I was downloading some apps for my ipod touch for the classroom and thought about all of the amazing technology advancements since my childhood. Does the picture below bring back any memories?

Today I use my ipod touch for so many things such as the internet, music, movies, and apps for education. Below I've listed some apps that I find very useful for education.

1. Awesome note (Great for making to-do lists and can synch with Google Docs)
2. History Lite (Free App that tells you what happened on today's date in history)
3. CNN
4. Awesome Facts
5. Quote Book
6. Google Earth
7. Factbook
8. Wordbook

Please note: The list above is in no particular order. It is simply a list of useful apps.

Relevant Websites (for my students)

The other day I was reflecting on my lesson on fairytales and the students' use of Google docs. Now, I love Google docs and highly recommend it, but my students have never had a typing class. They opt for the hunt and peck method, which drives me crazy. It is quite baffling that the affluent district that I teach in does not offer typing to elementary students. So, I decided to search the web for a good free typing program. Please click on the following link:

Typing

Also, for those students that can type quickly and would like to know how fast they type they should visit the link below:

Fast Typing

Study the States and Capitals