The best educational wikis of 2011

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By Carole  

With the announcement of the 2011 Edublog Award winners, there are now two more award-winning wikis in the Wikispaces community. And we couldn’t be prouder!

ICTmagic
First place for the 2011 Best Educational Wiki went to Martin Burrett for his ICTmagic wiki. It’s a truly inspiring collection of IT resources for students and teachers, and it’s sure to give you more ideas than you could possibly have time to try. ICTmagic was also our Featured Wiki last August, so you can read more about it in Martin’s own words.

Resources for History Teachers
Second place went to Robert Maloy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His Resources for History Teachers began as part of a class in 2006. Then, in the best tradition of all great wikis, it grew through the combined efforts of Professor Maloy’s students, along with K–12 educators and students from around the world, into a rich, multimedia, cross-referenced sourcebook for anyone interested in teaching or learning about history.

We were also very excited to see that many of the people we have previously profiled on this blog were nominated for Edublog Awards, including Andrew Churches of the Educational Origami wiki, Gwyneth Jones of the Daring Librarian wiki, Shawn Avery of the Student Math Movies wiki, and Craig Kemp of the Ruma Tahi wiki.

And congratulations to Linda Yollis, winner of the Most Influential Blog Post award, whose Educational Blogging wiki we featured in November.

In fact, we want to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the Edublog winners and nominees, across all the categories. The amazing educational content you are constantly creating and sharing all over the Web makes our work more satisfying, and inspires endless conversations around the office. Be sure to check out all the winners and nominees for yourself.

E-Learning / ICT Scope and Sequence Chart - What to teach in Computers and When

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I put together this really handy chart to advise teachers what they should be teaching in ICT / E-Learning and when.  It is linked to VELS but really applies to any curriculum and you should feel confident in delivering these activities to the year level recommended.  Download the PDF File here.

AuthorKevin Cummins | CommentPost a Comment |



E-Learning Scope and Sequence Chart - What to teach and When

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I put together this really handy chart to advise teachers what they should be teaching in ICT / E-Learning and when.  It is linked to VELS but really applies to any curriculum and you should feel confident in delivering these activities to the year level recommended.  Download the PDF File here.

40 ICT ideas in 40 Minutes

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Some of the programs and tools are getting slightly dated but the concepts are still very fresh.

 

40 Ict Ideas In 40 Minutes

 

Teach your kids how to use the web smarter and safer: Welcome to the Web

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welcome-to-the-web-edgalaxy.jpg

welcome to the web"Welcome to the Web" is an interactive set of web pages which can be used to teach children (and adults) about the Internet. They can be used in the classroom / computer room and children are welcome to explore them as they wish (although they have been designed to use in sequence).

The resources are in split into seven sections:

  1. The Beginning - explains how to use the site.
  2. Getting Started Online - teaches children about the basic concepts involved in the Internet (World Wide Web, Hyperlinks, Back button etc). This introductory lesson also gives valuable practice in visiting and navigating around web sites.
  3. Staying Safe - encourages pupils to keep themselves safe online by following the SMART rules. Also tests their understanding usign interactive activities and fun quizzes.
  4. Using Your Browser - helps people to learn more about their web browsers... what are the different features and how are they used?
  5. Searching Online - teaches children how to search effectively, and keep themselves safe when doing so. Also identifies search engines which are particularly suitable for children to use.
  6. Trying Top Tricks - finding information on the net is great, but it is also important to know how that information can be used. This section explains about printing, using the Find tool to locate specific information within web pages, copying and pasting text, and saving images from the web. Also includes information about copyright and why it is important to credit others when you use their work.
  7. The Welcome to the Web Challenge - When the children have completed all of the sections of Welcome to the Web, they can complete this exciting challenge. It requires them to use all of the skills which they have learnt to catch the creator of a destructive computer virus!

When visitors complete the challenge, they are able to print a personalised certificate to show their competence in using the Internet.  Access ithere.

ICT / Computer Lesson ideas for every year level

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These are a great collection of complete computer lesssons for every year level covering a masss of ICT activities.  Really Great stuff for Primary school here.  Check it outhere.

Teach your students how not to kill their audience with bad PowerPoints

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I have discussed this in the past in my article "Death by PowerPoint"as Microsoft's Presentation tool would have to be one of the most used and abused applications both in the classroom and the staff room for meetings and speaking and listening tasks.

I cant stand dodgy PowerPoints in which the presenter simply reads the same boring drivel that we can already see on the screen behind them.  So I jumped atthis lesson planoutlining how to get the most and avoid the worst from PowerPoint from theNew York Times Learning Network.

In this lesson,students examine perspectives on effective and ineffective uses of PowerPoint, then develop a set of rules for effective use of this tool for their class projects and presentations. They then create PowerPoint slides and a prose narrative on the same subject and compare the impact of each on the intended audience.

There is something here for both teachers and students and I would recommend this for year 5 students upwards through high school.  Check it outhere.