Educational Resource Review: Plag Tracker

Review: Plag Tracker 
"The most accurate plagiarism checking service"
My Take: Plag Tracker allows students to quickly check their work for plagiarism. The site allows students to copy and paste their work to discover if any of their work needs to be cited. Any possible plagiarism is linked to the source for students.

Review: EdApps.Ca

I utilize a iPads in my classroom on a daily basis. I am therefore constantly in search for the best iPad Apps and resources. The latest site I have come across is EdApps.ca.

The blog provides an opportunity to see iPad Resources, App lists that provide their reviews and more information for teachers using iPads. In my humble opinion, this site is more a collection of resources. I believe it maybe helpful for some to check out but I think other sites are more helpful. I hope that EdApps considers utilizing my blog's iPad posts - especially next year when I implement the 1:1 iPads for the complete year, in addition, any educator utilizing iPads needs to follow: Dad to 3 Boys.

Review: Three Ring

·      Three Ring = http://threering.com/
“"Quickly and easily digitize student work and build the resource for authentic assessment in your classroom."

Three Ring = http://threering.com/

My take: This app enables students to take a picture and upload the material online within seconds. Teachers are able to sort work by class, student, or a custom tag to easily find the picture uploaded by students. This site could allow for a lesson idea I have wanted to do recently - provide students with a small whiteboard - enable the students to create their answer and upload a picture of their work easily to me. I recommend checking out this app - it may help lower the fear of using iPads for teachers looking to utilize smart phones and iPads in their classroom and not knowing exactly how at first..
Tags: iPad Resources

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Booksource's Classroom Organizer

All English teachers, or teachers with classroom libraries, must check out this resource. As the website explains: "Classroom Organizer is a web-based program that allows users to maintain and inventory books in their classroom library. With this amazing tool you can:- Import titles from your Booksource order- Add your existing titles- Import your student roster- Enable students to check out and return books- Run assessment reports on student and title activity" This site will enable teachers to organize and check out books online much more effectively and efficiently - a great time saver for English teachers already stretched too thin.

GatherEd Review

GatherEd "Teaching interactive classes online has never been so simple."

My Opinion: Sometimes I fear that in a few years teachers will be out of the classroom - and I do not think this would be the best solution to the education problem. I believe that fostering a community of lifelong learners and captivating individuals to want to read, write, and think critical among young students requires a strong teacher student connection. However, the GatherEd technology is a new attempt to go to a virtual classroom using XBox 360's connect, a computer, and an iPad. I do not think this replaces a classroom but could be beneficial for those unable to attend in person. What do you think?

Review "Duolingo"

Duolingo = http://duolingo.com/

“With Duolingo you learn a language for free,and simultaneously translate the Web.”

My take: This site allows students to practice learning a language for free - the site is liked by students and I suggest foreign language teachers check it out.

Tags: Foreign Language

iPad App "Alltop"

One of the best blogs, iPad Insight, for learning about the latest iPad apps reviewed "Alltop."

A brief excerpt: "Here’s a little of its App Store description: Alltop for iPad creates an online magazine rack for you. Now you don’t have to find, bookmark, and visit your favorite blogs and websites because we’ve curated over 1,000 topics ranging from A (Adoption) to Z (Zoology) with News, Social Media, Sports, Politics, Photography, Macintosh, and Science in between." I recommend reading the entire review here: "Alltop Comes to the iPad by Patrick Jordan"

Lisa Johnson's iPad Lessons on Pinterest

Lisa Johnson from Techchef4u has put all of her iPad lessons onto Pinterest. This is worth a glance for all educators. I fully believe that the iPad and tablet devices will revolutionize education by providing a mobile platform for all students to engage in a differentiated individualized education program that will help them reach their potential. I believe that seeing Lisa Johnson's lessons will help make the iPad lessons seem more real and possible - again all lessons need to be adapted to a teachers individual style but Lisa Johnson has an amazing page here: http://pinterest.com/techchef4u/ipad-lessons/. I also recommend you check out her blog too: Techchef4u

Review "Vidipedia"

Vidipedia = http://www.vidipedia.org/

“Video Encyclopedia.”

My take: Vidipedia is a video encyclopedia that is similar to Wikipedia - while others suggest this site I think that it is simply a fine site. There is potential to create a library of videos for students to use as an encyclopedia but there are other sites I prefer.

Tags: Media Resources

Review "Digital Dialects"

Digital Dialects = http://www.digitaldialects.com/index.htm

"The Digital Dialects website features free to use online games for learning languages. Language resources include games for learning phrases, numbers, useful words, spelling, verb conjugation and alphabets. Games use Macromedia Flash Player. Updates: audio has been added to extra quizzes in the Chinese Games and Spanish Games sections..” 

My take: This site allows users to play games in foreign languages to help develop their skills. I wish the site did not use Flash because it makes it difficult to use on all devices.

Tags: Foreign Language

Review "DocumentaryZ"

DocumentaryZ = http://www.documentaryz.com/

“Watch free documentaries online! Full videos are available! Educate yourself with thousands of good documentaries about diverse subjects. The newest, latest, best and greatest top documentaries online can be watched here for free!”

My take: An online library for documentary movies - the more sources to find free resources is great. This site provides an additional source to search for helpful clips.

Tags: Educational Sites Media Resources

Review "Infogr.am"

Infogr.am = http://infogr.am/

“Free, interactive charts tool" and "Easiest way to make interactive infographics.” 

My take: The easy to create charts is a nice site to know - the site allows one to create bar, line, pie, and a matrix easily. The only problem with student use is the need to have a Twitter or Facebook account to sign up. I am very excited to try their infograph creator that will be available shortly.

Tags: Create Visuals

Review "PhyFun"

PhyFun = http://www.phyfun.com/

"Physics Games on Phyfun Games"

My take: Site provides links to several games to help teach physics. New physics game are released consistently - the games are free and the site also provides video walkthroughs, cheats, and solutions to the games.

Tags: Science Tools Games and Quizzes

Review "Paper Rater"

PaperRater = http://www.paperrater.com/

“PaperRater.com is a free resource, developed and maintained by linguistics professionals and graduate students. PaperRater.com is used by schools and universities in over 46 countries to help students improve their writing.PaperRater.com combines the power of natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, information retrieval (IR), computational linguistics, data mining, and advanced pattern matching (APM). We offer the most powerful writing tool available on the internet today.”

My take: I highly recommend this site. Students have used this site with some nice success - while the site is not perfect, I do not believe any online paper grader currently is; this site is easy to use and a site that provides nice feedback for students looking to engage in the writing process.

Tags: Language Arts

Review "Kwiqpoll"

Kwiqpoll = http://www.kosmix.com/

"Create poll, share link, done."

My take: Easy fast way to create simple polls. A nice site to know and use for those trying to gather information quickly. I prefer utilizing the polls on the Edmodo platform because my students are already utilizing this platform, however, this site is easy and simple.

Tags: Survey Tools

Review "Yogome"

Yogome = http://yogome.com/
"More than games - powerful learning tools."
My take: This site is working to develop educational games for iPads and browsers - this is exciting as they are working to make mobile friendly games. The site is still in the early stages but worth checking back to in a little bit for those looking to use or create educational games.

Tags:  Games and Quizzes

Review "Learn4Good"

Learn4Good = http://www.learn4good.com/kids/index.htm

"Free access to hundreds of educational games, activities, worksheets, lessons & top schools websites for all Kids including teens."

“My take: This website houses games for students - I believe the games are more geared towards elementary students. However, there are some resources for older students. 

Tags: Games and Quizzes

Review "Class Connect"

ClassConnect = http://classconnect.com/

“The easiest way to build and share your lessons."

My take: The basic reason to use Class Connect is to provide teachers a place to collaborate on educational lessons and units. Teachers are able to store documents, images, videos, and websites for their lessons in one place. Teachers are able to use a tagging system to help others find these units. It is an idea that is on the right track it will be interesting to see how it continues to grow.

Tags: Educational Sites

Review "Google Apps for iPad"

Google Apps for iPad = https://sites.google.com/site/gappsforipad/home

"Welcome to Google Apps for iPad."

My take: This site offers great resources for learning how to use Google Apps on the iPad. This is a great start for helping teachers understand how to most efficiently utilize Google Apps in an iPad classroom.

Tags: iPad Resources

Review "Famingo"

Famingo = http://famigo.com/

“Are you looking for safe apps for your family and kids? Famigo is the best app resource for families."

My take: There are a growing number of sites are devoted to helping families find appropriate Apps for their children. 

Tags: iPad Resources