This video shows Hans Rosling lecturing through the means of augmented reality in order to visually explain the statistical growth of 200 countries over the last 200 years. Plotting life expectancy against income for every country since 1810, we see a world that is quickly evolving.Af Doug Saunders

Here is a great video that I discovered on youtube that higlights the importance of incorporating social media into the 21st century classroom.Af Doug Saunders

CNN offers a ten-minute, commerical-free, daily news program for middle and high school students. The news broadcast and it’s companion website are free of charge and can be viewed by going to CNNstudentNews.com. If you subscribe to it’s podcast using iTunes you can get automatic updates on a daily basis. CNN not only offers a great news feed highl…

A couple weeks ago I blogged about the website Animoto for those interested in creating quick and easy movies that require very little input from the creator. Although Animoto is extremely user friendly, the site does not offer much in the way of movie production or customization. Stupeflix is a great alternative to Animoto and allows for students …

April 1st already?Af Doug Saunders

Good Luck VCU!Af Doug Saunders

Mailinator.com – Let them eat spam! Mailinator is a website that allows for all students to have a valid email address with no registration or sign-up necessary. There are number of web 2.0 websites that require those that sign up to have a working email address prior to giving them full access to the site. For example, google docs, wikispaces, and…

Looking for a quick and easy way to have your students create a website? Well look no futher – Roxer.com has arrived. Roxer.com is a free online web 2.0 resource that allows for teachers and students to create a stunning website in a matter of minutes. Roxer allows for live editing. Just by visiting the webpage and logging on changes can be made to…

Google docs is a great piece of online software to get you kids working collaboratively in the classroom. I recently spent some time working with a reading teacher who wanted to have his kids work in cooperative groups on a creative writing project. He wanted each person in the group to take turns writing out a different line to a story. For exampl…

I created my first Prezi today highlighting the key characteristics of the 8 regions of the United States of America as outlined by the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL). My first creation is nothing real snazzy, and involves quite a bit of regurgitation… I was just trying to get a feel for the program. Turns out, Prezi is pretty straight forwar…

Here is the HD version of our morning announcements introduction that the WUWW staff created using Animoto.com. Thanks to Mr. Nicholas for writing and performing the background music.Af Doug Saunders

Polleverywhere is a great way to get your students engaged in the lesson. The site allows for a teacher to upload up to three multiple choice questions to the site. The site then displays an sms number and automatically generates keyword options for each of the choices. This allows students to use their cell phones to answer the questions by textin…

Animoto allows you to create “stunning video slide shows”. The greatness of this site can be witnessed in the fact that a person can essentially be brain dead and still create a beautiful movie. Non-Tech savvy teachers who want the illusion or false pretense that they are computer gurus will love this site. As far as creativity is concerned it is a…

Titanpad.com is a great way to collaborate with students, faculty, and staff in real time. The beauty of Titan Pad is found in its sheer simplicity. Titan pad is so simple in fact, that you do not need a user-name or an account to use this product. To create your own titan pad you simply type titanpad.com in your browser’s address bar. When you arr…

Are you ready for a new and relevant way to excite your students about their learning? How about turning your classroom into your very own radio station? Since the creation of the iPod, Podcasts (internet radio shows) have been a huge trend among listeners across the United States. You can find a Podcast on just about any subject in your curriculum…

Youtube consists of a lot of poorly orchestrated, and downright asinine video clips. With that said, YouTube also contains a multitude of educational, and worthwhile videos as well. The HCPS filtering system block students from accessing the site and teachers are only able to bypass the filter by having an ethernet connection. Streaming video can a…

The internet can be a scary place. Teachers are always a bit apprehensive when having a classroom of 30 students surfing the web while working on a research project. Proximity is always a good idea when students are online, but how can a teacher monitor every site that all their kids are visiting? Thankfully the filter blocks a good deal of the adu…

Aviary.com offers an online suite of free creation tools. How this site manages to offer such powerful features and remain free is beyond me. I personally use the site for its wonderful photo editing options. As a matter of fact, with the help of toondoo.com, I was able to create the ITRT Happenings banner as seen above for my blog using Aviary. Av…

I am not a fan of power point. My eyes often begin to glaze over and drool slowly dribbles down my chin whenever a presenter begins a lecture by reading directly from the text displayed on his/her powerpoint presentation. Don’t get me wrong students need to know how to create power point slides and practice oral communication skills in order to pre…

Google Earth is a great way to get your kids excited about geography. It also gives them a greater perspective of where certain points on a map are in relation to one another. Google Earth 5 now offers the option to record your voice when creating a tour. The video below consists of a teacher modeled lesson I created to highlight where each of the …

Webspiration is the online version of Inspiration – the popular mind mapping software. Mywebspiration.com offers all of the tools that Inpiration has to offer and then some. Webspiration helps students who are visual thinkers, by allowing for them to organize their thoughts and ideas systematically and provides them with the tools necessary to deve…

Henrico 21 is an initiative that began last year. It is essentially a contest that allows for teachers in grades k-12 to submit their best 21st century lesson idea to the county level where it is judged using the Technology Integration Progression Chart (TIPC). Teachers may submit their lessons with a focus on one (or all) of the following areas: P…

Each and every morning the televised announcements are delivered live on channel 10 closed circuit to the students, faculty and staff at Wilder Middle School. Everyone in the building is able to get real time information regarding up and coming events, important reminders, sports updates, weather, yada… yada… yada… However, since the morning announ…

Lorin Anderson, who is a former student of the late Benjamin Bloom, revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and published Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy in 2001. Anderson basically revised the original Bloom’s Taxonomy by simply replacing the nouns with verbs for each category. In Addition, the new Bloom’s taxonomy places creating as the highest order thinking skill. T…

Sick of bloggin? Why not try glogging? Glogster is an online web 2.0 resource that allows students to create innovative, and interactive posters. When you sign up for a free edu.glogster.com account you are assigned up to 200 free student glog accounts. It is important to note that the edu version of Glogster is not blocked by the HCPS filter. I cr…

Wordle is a great teaching tool that makes it easy for teachers to transform mundane primary sources, documents, or vocabulary words into aesthetically pleasing eye candy. Can you guess which famous document in American History is pictured above? If you guessed the preamble to the United States Constitution… you would be correct! Wordle.net is a fr…