Comments on: Free websites help boost student engagement, teacher productivity

By: Tomsmcdonald

Tomsmcdonald — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:10:05 +0000

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By: lfink

lfink — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:04:15 +0000

ReadWriteThink.org (RWT), a website produced by the International Reading Association and
the National Council of Teachers of English since 2002, has become a staple in K–12 reading and language arts education. Tracking more than 15 million visits in 2011, the site remains a trusted
source for educators and is commonly used as part of daily classroom instruction. The site is also part of the Verizon Thinkfinity consortium, funded by the Verizon Foundation, and in partnership with eight leading educational organizations across the academic subject areas. RWT covers reading and language arts instruction while other websites in the Thinkfinity consortium cover academic areas, such as math, science, and geography. Visit RWT at http://www.readwritethink.org/

By: lhoffman4

lhoffman4 — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:20:16 +0000

Teachers, students, and parents will be wowed by Thinkfinity—a website that offers thousands of free resources accessible from anywhere at any time. These resources include lessons, activities, interactives, videos, podcasts, audio, worksheets, and primary sources for K-12 and adult learners. The lessons are linked to Common Core and State and National Standards. Educators can also join the Thinkfinity Community—a free educational network where teachers can organize and store resources, share in discussion forums on a variety of subjects, and connect globally with colleagues, friends, and educational experts. Thinkfinity, sponsored by the Verizon Foundation, has partnerships with many of the nation’s leading educational organizations to provide up-to-date, high-caliber, free resources that continue to expand and incorporate 21st century learning skills.

Check out Thinkfinity at http://thinkfinity.org/ and the Thinkfinity Community at http://community.thinkfinity.org/index.jspa

By: ttrust

ttrust — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:07:59 +0000

Great article! Here's a database of over 2,500 free, kid-friendly educational resources categorized by grade level, subject, and standard: K-12 Tech Tools Database

By: stephlennon

stephlennon — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:24:49 +0000

I use MBC daily with my students in a variety of ways to introduce, reinforce, and master skills and concepts. MBC has a library of resources of websites and YouTube videos, plus my own items that I have added including Prezis, PowerPoints, and any other documents I may want to include for a concept. My lessons are based on providing the students with enough differentiated tools that they can “discover” the learning with my coaching instead of a traditional “stand and deliver” method. Each student has his/her own account and is added to my appropriate group where the tools for learning are added by me. Furthermore, I add group discussions, video chats, announcements, and calendars to encourage collaboration and teach “netiquette.” I have used MBC for two years now as a platform to “flip” my classroom and the results have been outstanding in terms of performance and motivation. I would also consider my students among the best equipped in using technology to enhance their learning by taking advantage of opportunities like shared documents, finding reliable resources, and organizing themselves on-line (no more lost flash-drives or leaving work at home). I think crissy and joel059 have answered the other part of your inquiry, but please ask any other questions that arise- it really is that great of a system!!

By: joel059

joel059 — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:33:02 +0000

Teachers/small schools can use My Big Campus w/ up to 250 students at no cost. Once the teacher registers – they then get an invite code to sign up their fellow teachers and/or students. If a school district is a Lightspeed Systems customer – they can auto-create the accounts w/ a import from their student information system (SIS).

By: crissy

crissy — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:26:32 +0000

Dear ajharmer,
First off, My Big Campus is free and always will be. And yes, My Big Campus can be integrated with our Lightspeed web filter but if you don’t use our web filter that’s ok. It is still a safe collaborative learning tool with hundreds of thousands of resources for students.
As for signing up, once you have your free account you can invite your students and other staff members to join by sending an email invitation or generating an invitation code. Once you are logged in you can follow the simple instructions under “account.”
Hope this helps!
Looking forward to hear from Stephlennon on how My Big Campus is in the classroom!

By: ajharmer

ajharmer — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:28:46 +0000

Dear Stephlennon,

How do you use My Big Campus with your students? Do they each sign up for their own account or do you invite them to yours? I know that its free for a single account, but that the filters that most school districts require cost $$. Before I begin using this, I would like to find out about any hidden costs that might crop up in the future. Thanks.

By: stephlennon

stephlennon — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:37:03 +0000

My school district uses My Big Campus, which is a free site that combines many of the most impressive features of this top 10 list into one place. Not only is this a social learning platform that unlocks YouTube videos, provides a venue for “flipped” classrooms, and allows for document sharing, but My Big Campus also encourages 21st Century skills in the classroom by providing discussion boards, video chat, wiki-like pages, and blogs. I use this site daily in my own classroom to extend the learning day to a 24/7 experience. The teachers and students benefit from the resource library and can organize themselves with personal file storage and tools to organize their “stuff.” This site has also helped my district in our “Go Green” initiative as we can give paperless quizzes and assignments through MBC (and the site even grades them for us!). Check it out at http://www.mybigcampus.com