Digital Tools for Students

Virtual Keyboard

Colleen Young — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:33:36 +0000

Added to the Audio page – this virtual keyboard from Netmedia/BCC and provided by Birmingham Grid for Learning.
Note the instructions button on the left for further information.

Two BBC Sites

Colleen Young — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:47:37 +0000

Two sites from BBC Scotland BBC Brainsmart and BBC Pinball have been added to the Revision and Creativity pages respectively.

BBC Brainsmart explores your brain and discusses subjects such as memory and effective revision and BBC Pinball develops your thinking and creativity with six different tools to try.

Mind Maps for Learning

Colleen Young — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 12:39:26 +0000

Added to the Diagrams page is this very impressive collection of diagrams from the University of Hull.

There are many other resources on learning available on this site.

Creativity

Colleen Young — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:22:34 +0000

Added to the Creativity page, Ryan Chadwick’s site Creativity Games.net has many challenges and games to get you thinking. See the About page (scroll down a little) for ‘How to benefit from Creativity Games’.

Harvard Generator

Colleen Young — Sat, 21 May 2011 05:49:02 +0000

Added to the Writing page – The Harvard Generator to help you format references and sources in the correct Harvard Referencing Format.
The generator can generate the format for a variety of sources.

A Google a Day

Colleen Young — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 06:29:38 +0000

How good are your search skills?

Try Google’s daily puzzle.

Click on ‘About’ for further information. Note that you can see previous puzzles also by clicking on the dates at the bottom of the display.

(Added to the Research page).

Wordnik

Colleen Young — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:38:05 +0000

Added to the Vocabulary page, use Wordnik to look up a word, Wordnik’s aim is to give as much information as possible about any word. As well as definitions you can see example sentences including the word, a thesaurus entry which interestingly includes words used in the same context as well as synonyms. Each entry includes Flickr images tagged with that word. Wordnik does not require registration but does includes a social aspect, there are comments on each word. It is possible to sign up or alternatively login with Facebook.

Featured Sites

Colleen Young — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:10:20 +0000

If you are searching for information it may be helpful to try WolframAlpha, see these questions aimed at younger children and the full gallery of examples here.

For an alternative way to search and refine your search try SortFix.

Have you ever tried Google Squared?
You can add your own columns if you wish or even start with an empty square.

Once you have searched on Google you should see a menu on the left; have you ever tried the Wonder wheel or Timeline?
There is further information on Google and searching generally on the Research page.

To create a timeline of your own try Timetoast.
Note there are tutorials on the Timelines page.

To search for copyright free images there are many sites you can use.
See the links on the Images page.

To explore a topic try Power League, see this league for example on student views on redesigning a school.
Note that it is possible to design your own league.

There are many resources to help with your studies, try some of the resources to support writing, spelling and vocabulary, such as Word Stash, Miss Spell’s Class, Knoword and vocabulary.co.il (see the games menu on the left).

Have you tried any of these resources or any others on this site?
Do you think they are helpful?
Why not leave a comment below?

Reading

Colleen Young — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:36:27 +0000

Added to the Reading page, The International Children’s Library has books for children from age 3 to 13 to read online. There is a choice of several languages including Chinese (simplified and traditional).

Thanks to Richard Byrne’s ‘Free Technology for Teachers‘ for the information.

TrackClass – organise yourself.

Colleen Young — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:03:32 +0000

A new application added to the organisation page, TrackClass allows you to keep a calendar of your assignments, take notes and send yourself reminders. There is also a version for the iPhone.