How To Videos

If you're looking for instructional videos for you and your kids try Howcast, the best source for fun, free, and useful how-to videos and guides. The user shared videos on Parenting and Family, career Guide and Education, Kids, Teens, etc might help you and your kids get by in life.

Free Faxing

If you don't have a printer with an integrated fax service, you don't have to buy a fax machine if you don't fax everyday, try free online faxing instead.  FaxBetter will give you your  own toll free fax number when you sign up. When documents are faxed to this number they are emailed to you and appear in your FaxBetter account within minutes. No need for a telephone connection or fax machine or fax supplies (paper, ink and toner). 

Another option is FaxZero which which lets you send a fax to any fax machine anywhere in the U.S. and Canada for free as long as you don't mind an ad on the cover page. You can fax 2 free faxes a day. Just enter your name and address, the recipient's name and fax number, attach a document and send.

Toy & Product Recall Finder

Product recalls seem to be happening everywhere even with trusted product lines. So if you are concern about lead or safety issues in your child's toys and stuff, try the Toy and Product Recall Finder. Be informed, check product recalls.

Diet Assistant

Preparing meals for your family is challenging. You have to find the balance between what they want to eat and what's good foe their growing bodies. Do you want to know the nutrition facts, including food labels, calories, nutritional information and analysis that helps promote healthy eating on the foods you are eating? Go to Nutrition Data. It will make analyzing recipes for nutrient easier for you.

If you want to know the nutritional content of what you and your family are ordering in a restaurant, get Fatburgr's iPhone app, so you can browse through Fatburgr on your iPhone from the table at your favorite restaurant. Fatburgr will give you an alphabetical list of the restaurant's entire food inventory, with the number of calories, grams of fat, carbohydrates, and fiber in each serving.

Money Savers

Balancing your budget between your bills, your kids college funds, your retirement fund, vacation money and savings for those unexpected life expenses is challenging.You need to be creative to find ways to save wherever you can.If you find it fun to find great deals you can go to TheFind, where you can find reviews, sales, coupons and shipping deals, everything you need when shopping to quickly decide the best bargain.

Another option is fatwallet.com, the home of the savviest shoppers on the internet. Find coupons and cash back, and the hottest deals shared by our community of frugal shoppers. where you can find the best deals, coupons and cash back, free stuff, etc.

If you already know what you want and where to buy it, let RetaiMeNot help you save more by looking up coupon codes for great discounts at thousands of online stores.

Shipping and handling can be costly too so if your looking for a cheap but useful item to qualify you for free shipping on Amazon.com use Amazon Filler Item Finder. 


It’s fun to find great deals, to learn new things, to find new ways to save,

Bathroom Locator

If you or your kids  needs to go to a bathroom frequently, it might be a good idea to get the SitorSquat's  mobile app for your cellphone. It allows you to find and record bathrooms all around the world. Why settle for just any commode, find the nearest cleanest restroom to your location. This site is really helpful if you are pregnant or you and your kids drink a lot of liquids.

Shirtpocket Digital Television

When you are out waiting for something and your kids keep asking to play with your cellphone, it's sometimes easier to give in than deal with the whining in front of other people. Want to entertain your kids even when your not at home? Why not try the Shirtpocket Digital Television, the digital color TV small enough to slip into a shirt pocket, letting your kids watch their favorite programs while away from home. Its speaker delivers clear sound; a headphone jack allows your kids to listen without disturbing others. It must be used in a stationary location though so your kids can't use it in the car or aboard a train.  The built-in lithium-ion battery lasts up to two hours of viewing so this is great when waiting for doctor's visit or dental cleaning.

Video Camera Pen

Does your kid have a problem following lectures or presentations at school, maybe
the Video Camera Pen might help him. The ball-point pen that has a built-in video camera, capturing videos or still images with a click of its button so he will be able to record videos of the lecture or presentation and replay it in his computer repeatedly in his computer at home. Advice him that it is only a back-up plan though so he would not miss any part of the presentation. .


The Video Camera Pen has a built-in 1.3 MP image sensor that captures up to five hours of AVI video and up to 20,000 JPEG images, storing either on the pen's integrated 4 GB memory. Its built-in color camera lens is located just above the pocket clip and its microphone is located on the side of the barrel under the pocket clip. Its lithium battery provides up to two hours of power before requiring a recharge from the included USB adapter or the included AC adapter; the pen's built-in USB 2.0 port will allow your child to download videos when connected to a Mac or PC running Windows 7, Vista, or XP without the need for loading software. 

If you are budget conscious, the Pen Camera - Hidden Video Spy Pen in Silver-trimmed Black Executive Pen is another option. Encased in the elegant looking executive pen is a 2.0 megapixel CMOS lens that captures video in super-clear HQ 640 x 480 pixel resolution. Thanks to the Micron Chipset processor, video saves in a smooth 30 frames per seconds which is the frame rate from most full-sized digital cameras! The SphereGT spy pen also takes JPEG still images at 1600 x 1200 photo resolution, all at the push of a button. It has 4GB of built-in internal memory that can store over 1 hour 30 minutes of video footage. Viewing and copying files is also easy -your kid just need to unscrew the barrel of the pen to reveal the USB port which connects to your PC or MAC. No adapters/cables or drivers needed. Once connected, the unit becomes a conventional 4GB flash drive. Your kid just need to drag and copy files to transfer the video and images in the computer in minutes!  This is compatible with most Windows PC and Apple MAC O/S. Video files plays back under most video playing software including Windows Media Player, Quick Time, Real Player, VLC, WinDVD, PowerDVD and more. 

Online Scheduling

If you're a Mom you deserved a virtual secretary. Why between your unending household chores, your kids have to be bathed and changed into clean clothes several times a day,  and if you want to save and have your children eat nutritious food you have to prepare meals at least three times a day (you can't gave them take-out food all the time it's expensive and unhealthy). As organic food don't appear out of nowhere you have to go buy them in the health food store, in between all of that you have to do the laundry, fold and iron the clothes and put them away as clothes don't jump in the washer or dryer or fold or iron themselves either. To be continuously fit to do all these tedious chores again and again you have to be fit and healthy so you need to exercise regularly. Anyway exercise is supposed to make you feel good and have the energy to spend more quality time with your family like reading books to them, supervising them in doing their homework, taking them to a picnic, etc. On top of all of these you have to attend parent teacher meetings during open school, watch your children school programs and arrange play dates with other Moms. It's understandable that you need something to keep track of your busy schedule so why not try the Zoho Calendar,  a free online calendar application that helps you to track your children's check-ups, dental appointments and school events, schedules for football, basketball games, ballet lessons, art lessons, etc. You can also use it to send invitation and track RSVP's for their birthday parties or for family get together during holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving, Hannukah, etc.  On Zoho Calendar, you can invite others to your event as and when you create it. An invitation email will be sent to the invitees to which they can respond and update their availability status.   The latest features added to Zoho Calendar are printing a calendar and checking if the invitees for an event are available before inviting them. To view friends' events, use their email address to subscribe to their calendars or import their events to your calendar. You can also subscribe to publicly available calendars from the web.Holidays of 30 countries are available as predefined calendars for you to subscribe. What 's more the Zoho Calendar enables you to schedule multiple reminders for every event. Get your event reminders in your preferred mail box, as a pop up, or both. You can choose to receive reminders up to 90 days prior to or after the commencement of the event.

If you're a teacher, between keeping up with the state standards, planning you lessons, preparing your teaching props to create exciting and meaningful lessons,  marking pages in textbooks, finding materials that pertain to each lesson, reproducing worksheets, attending grade level meeting, organizing parent-teacher conferences for those parents that don't attend open school, you might find the Zoho Calendar very useful. You can publish your calendar on your class website or for every student or parent to see. At the same time, you can retain your privacy with various level of access privileges. You can display either free/busy information alone or the event details. If your calendar is exposed to unauthorized people, you can revoke the access permission by resetting your private URL. You can also enable your viewers to request an appointment with you like for example parent teacher meeting for those who were unable to attend open school night or those who have concerns about their children's progress. If you have older students, they can  schedule their group presentation, no need to have draw lots in the class that take away from the instruction, once you gave them the grouping and they choose their topic they can schedule their own presentation using the Zoho Calendar you embedded in the class website. Your older students can also booked one-on-one consultation with you online.


You can also use the Zoho Calendar to keep track who among your student is scheduled for progress monitoring or oral reading or whatever class schedule you need to keep track of. You can also use it to remind yourself of  field trips way in advance so you can coordinate themes, lessons around it. When you create events, you can save the event details as a note, add it as a task and schedule it as a meeting. This makes Zoho Calendar your access portal to other Zoho applications. Not only can you add, but you can also view the note and task from within Zoho Calendar itself.


Zoho Calendar can also be accessed on your mobile phone using a mobile web browser @ http://mobile.zoho.com (or m.zoho.com) which means you can access your schedule anywhere you go.

Kindle

Want to develop your kids love for reading? Why not give them a Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device  With fast, free wireless delivery, they can start reading books in less than 60 seconds even acrross the globe while traveling. This is because Kindle uses GSM technology - with wireless coverage in over 100 countries and territories, such as Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and many others. What' more if you prefer to read in another character, Kindle can now display Cyrillic (such as Russian), Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Korean characters in addition to Latin and Greek scripts for certain file types. To view your personal documents with non-Latin characters on your Kindle, send your file as a Microsoft Word document (DOC) attachment to your Kindle's e-mail address ("name"@free.kindle.com). The file will be converted to Kindle format and sent to your Kindle via the Wi-Fi connection and also to the e-mail address associated with your Amazon.com account at no charge.

With Text-to-Speech, Kindle can read English-language content out loud to your kids. In addition, Kindle includes The New Oxford American Dictionary with over 250,000 entries and definitions, so they can look up the definitions of English words while reading. Tell them to move the cursor to the unfamiliar word and the definition will automatically display at the bottom of the screen. Kindle also includes free built-in access to the world's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org.

By using the QWERTY keyboard, your kids can add annotations to text, just like they might write in the margins of a book. And because it is digital, they can edit, delete, and export their notes. They can highlight and clip key passages and bookmark pages for future use. They'll never need to bookmark their last place in the book, because Kindle remembers for them and always opens to the last page they read. What's more your kids can share their favorite passages with friends and family to social networks like Facebook and Twitter directly from Kindle, without leaving the page. When they highlight or create a note in their book or periodical, they can easily share it with their social network.

Kindle can hold up to 3,500 books so your kids no longer need to pick and choose which books fit in their bag. They can always have their entire Kindle library with them. They can also delete files if they want to with the reassurance that Amazon automatically keep an archival copy of your kids Kindle books and they can re-download for free, anytime. Amazon even back up the last page your kids' read and annotations, so when they re-download to the device they can pick up where they left off with all of their notes still in place. Your kids can also organize their Kindle library into collections, or categories, to easily access any book they are looking for. They can add an item to multiple collections to make organizing and finding titles even easier. For example, they can add the same book to your "History" and "My Favorite Authors" collections.

If your kids want to talk about what they are reading to other kids who uses a printed copy, they can also cite passages or read alongside others in a book club or class with real page numbers that correspond to a book's print edition. Amazon added real page numbers to tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store with matching print editions. All your child need to do is press the "Menu" button while reading to display page numbers.

Kindle has eight adjustable font sizes to suit your kids' reading preference. They can increase the text size of their favorite book or periodical with the push of a button. If their eyes tire, they can increase the font size and continue reading comfortably. Every book in their Kindle library can be large print. They can manually rotate the display from portrait to landscape to view maps, graphs, tables and Web pages. Images and photos display crisply on Kindle and can be zoomed to the full size of the screen. Using Kindle's 5-way controller, your kids can quickly flip between articles, making it faster and easier to browse and read the morning paper. If they want to remember the newspaper or magazine article they've just read, they can clip and save entire articles for later reading with a single click. Newspapers are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle before they hit newsstands.

Free Audiobooks

Not everyone learn the same way or has the same preference on how to receive stimuli from the learning environment. Are your kids or students an auditory learner? Then if they are a book lover who prefer to hear their favorite books try Librophile, where you can search over 4,000 free audio books and 50,000 free eBooks  by author, genre, or title and then dowload a book as a zipped set of MP3 files or subscribe to its chapters on an iTunes RSS feed. They have a vast collection of audiobooks from classics to sci-fi to recent fiction.

Book Reviews

If you are a book lover but too busy to keep track of the books you've read or what your kids read, try Goodreads. Not only would you be able to track of what you've read and what you want to read, you can also organize your books into virtual bookshelves. In addition you will see what your friends and your kids friends are reading and get great book recommendations from people you know. You can also have Goodreads for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad on the iTunes App store.

File Sharing

If you are working with your co-teachers on your grade level say on a theme, or your working with another teacher on another school on one of those on-line collaborative projects, you can try  YouSendIt, a web based secure file sharing company that allows you to easily send large files and email attachments. You can
send your large file by uploading it through a web browser, from your desktop or right from within your favorite application such as Microsoft Outlook. You can enter the recipients' e-mail addresses, attach the file and send it. The YouSendIt service store your file securely and email your recipient a link to click on and download the file.Your recipient receives the email notification, clicks on the link in the email and downloads the file. No need for CD's, DVDs, tape or USB flash drive.

Online Storage

Whether you are a parent following your child with a camera who snaps your little darling's pictures almost ever day,  or a teacher with a collection of worksheets, student reports, student behavior logs and other resources for your classroom you might need additional storage other than the usual flash drives or CDs. Also just in case of computer crashes or those flash drives got lost, your pictures and documents are safe. Here are a collection of free online storage provider.


If you use more than one computer say one at work and one at home then Microsoft's Live Mesh will help you keep your important files in sync. No need to email files to yourself, carry them around on a USB drive, or worry whether the version you have with you is the latest. You have 5GB of storage for synced folders that you can access from any computer connected to the internet. What's more you can share these folders to colleagues. On top of that you have the ability to remotely access your other computers through Microsoft's Remote Desktop service, as if you were sitting in front of them, provided Live Mesh is installed on each computer and the system is on of course.

If you really need a lot more of free on-line storage, try Humyo, a free online file storage and backup service. You can access your documents and media from any computer or phone, as well as share and collaborate with others.

Dropbox is the easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online. There's no complicated interface to learn. It gives you 2G of free on-line storage and a utility that syncs that space with a folder on all your desktop PCs, as well as your phone. Drop a file in from one machine and it will update on all the others.

Better Customer Service

Chances are between constant cleaning (got to have a clean environment for your kids) doing the laundry and doing the most unwanted tedious house chore like ironing on top of vigilantly supervising your kids you don't have time for the long wait to be connected to real person when you are calling customer service. Aside from the fact that you have to go through the automated calling service that most companies have, there is a better way of spending your time instead of waiting to get to a live person. Why not go to GetHuman? They have phone numbers, shortcuts, tips, contact info, reviews, and customer service details for thousands of companies worldwide. You get faster and better technical help.

If you want all of these numbers and cheats waiting for you on your phone next time you want to call a company, download the GetHuman iphone app. You can also go to the App Store on your iPhone or iTouch and search for "gethuman" You don't need to call information any more, the app opens right to company search, and within a few taps, you're ready to call with the shortcut you need. Since the app is on your phone,  you can contact customer support from wherever you are, even when you are  watching your children in a park. Although only do this when you are very good at multitasking because of course your children's safety is the priority and with all weird things going on these days you can't be very careful.

Web Page Offline Viewing

Not every classroom has computers for each student or not every class computer is connected to the internet for that matter. So if you want to save an entire web page with images for offline viewing, why not try converting a web page into a PDF file? They are compact they don't have to travel with a folder of images, they readable with the free app that almost everyone has, and they show all the images on the page. Copy the URL to the clipboard, go to http://pdfmyurl.com/, paste the address in the box press Enter in your keyboard and save the file.

Digital Texts

Digital text allows you to select and change the font of text on the computer screen.  Digital text is great for those who have trouble reading standard print from books. It also helps those who need additional information or supports placed immediately near the relevant text and those who could benefit manipulating or interacting with the text. Digital text is good for the learning environment because the visual displays can be varied and today students who are bombarded by rich media craved excitement even in the classroom. The auditory display that digital texts offers is also good for pre-reading. Aside from allowing the teacher to embed learning supports such as pre-reading background, definitions, summary and key questions in content, it also allows the students to copy and paste, or manipulate the text.

Here are a list of sources of digital texts.

DigitalBookIndex  is  the World's virtual library, 165,000+ Free eBooks, eText, Online Books, and eDocuments

UVa Library Digital Collections (Virgo) is the access point for the University of Virginia digital texts and images


The Online Books Page features over 10000 online books free to the public

 Project Barleby publishes thousands of free online classics of reference, literature and nonfiction.

[OTA] The Oxford Text Archive develops, collects, catalogues and preserves electronic literary and linguistic resources for use in Higher Education, in research

Online Collaborative Project

Global School Network -  The earliest source for global education and online project-based learning activities.

Telecollaborate - Resources for educators to begin collaborating in the global online classroom -- including tips, sample projects, resources, and cross-platform help.


CIESE- Interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum sponsored and designed by CIESE

Projects by Jen - Creative projects for Pre-K to th grade classroom coordinated by Jen Wagner

Reversed Audio

Talkbackwards.com 
Play audio files backwards online to find out if they have any hidden messages. If  you are concern about hidden subliminal message in songs this is a useful site, you never know the producer of the song might have employed backmasking, a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward to effect a change in behavior. Subliminal messages can be a good tool if used properly say as a a self-help tool to bolster confidence or to combat depression but it can also used to suggest destructive or inappropriate behavior. So there is nothing wrong in being careful.

Talking Text

Talking text is often called text-to-speech.  Word on the screen are read by the computer. on command. In some cases, the words need to be highlighted first but it allows reading of individual words or phrases. It works with word processors, websites and more.

Talking text helps the students who struggle with the task of composing grammatically correct sentences. It also help those who could benefit from hearing omissions or inaccuracies in their work. It is also good for those who could benefit from auditory input to support reading

Talking text allows a student to select individual words that they may be having problems with. Emerging writers experience between the spoken and the written word from the writing perspective.

Kidspiration - is the the visual way to explore words, numbers and concepts.                      

• Hints and Tips - Kidspiration

Kidpix - allows you to record your own sounds to add to your pictures
- want to read more click here


Inspiration - supports visual thinking techniques, enabling students to easily create and update graphic organizers, concept maps, idea maps

Click, Speak - an open source extension designed for sighted users who want text-to-speech functionality.

Microsoft Reader - is a free, downloadable software application that allows you to read eBooks on Windows-based devices you may already own.

Talking Clipboard -  is a text to speech software with inbuilt RSS reader. You can define alias or IPA pronunciation for words. It can read a large number of native document file formats directly like PDF, DOC, ePub, RTF, HTML and TXT or can read text from any application using clipboard. It can convert text to audio MP3/WAV files and support full control over reading like Play/Pause/Stop, jump to next or previous paragraph or line via menu or media remote or keyboard media buttons.

NaturalReader -  is a free text to speech software that can convert any written text such as MS Word, Webpage, PDF files, and Emails into spoken words using hot keys or floating toolbar. Highlights each word as it is read. It can also convert any written text into audio files such as MP3 or WAV for your CD player or iPod.

Presentation Tools

Children of the digital generation craves excitement. Sadly as a teacher you have to compete with their interest in their animated TV shows, flash games, etc. Children these days need  not only interest catching lessons, but visually appealing interactive lessons. So if you are looking for an engaging way to present your lessons to your students try the following:

Prezi - "a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. Text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the infinite canvas and grouped together in frames. The canvas allows users to create non-linear presentations, where users can zoom in and out of a visual map. A path through different objects and frames can be defined, representing the order of the information to be presented. The presentation can be developed in a browser window, then downloaded so that an Internet connection is not needed when showing the presentation. Prezi uses the freemium model. Customers who use the free Prezi Public license must publish their work on the Prezi site. Customers who pay for a Prezi Enjoy or Prezi Pro license can create and share private Prezis. Prezi also offers a special education license for students and educators". ~Wikipedia ~
- 13 Interesting Ways to Use Prezi in the Classroom

Here are examples of prezi that I made for a course I designed for my summer class.

Greeting cards on Prezi

Parts of a Thank You Letter on Prezi

280 Slides - Provides the ability to create presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with others.

Way Back Machine

Sometimes you bookmarked or saved an interesting website on your favorites then forget about it for a while until you need information on that site. However your screen is saying the page can't be displayed or an error page. If you can't find a web page, it might be a broken link. Use the  Way Back Machine to find an archived version of the web page. Just type the url of the website you want to go to and you'll be taken to the website as it was before.

Web-based Bookmarks

If you want to see your bookmarks or favorite websites in different computers, say you use more than one at home or have your bookmarks or favorites available at home and at work, why not use a social bookmarking service? Yes you need to create an account, but you can access your bookmarks or favorites on any computer connected to the internet.


SymbalooEDU - is a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) for teachers to visually organize and share the best of the web with students...the educational version of Symbaloo, developed for students, educators and schools.

Diigo - web highligting, sticky notes, bookmarking

PortaPortal -  is a web based bookmarking utility that lets you store links to your favorite websites online.


I Keep Bookmarks - is a web-based bookmarks manager, iKeepBookmarks.com allows you to upload and keep, your bookmarks 

Delicious - store and let's you share bookmarks... social bookmarking service on the web.

Teachers can use social bookmarking so they can easily share different related links either about a lesson or a collection of news website to students for current events reporting. Students can use the social bookmarking so that they can easily share links about a topic that they are researching or to members of their group or the whole class.

While studying  UNIT 4 INTERACTIONS OF AIR, WATER, AND LAND (K-8 Science Scope and Sequence p. 5) when fourth grade students are supposed to investigate the negative and  positive impact of extreme natural events (earthquake, volcanoes, etc.) on living things, I can use social bookmarking by opening the Delicious  stacks I created   Extreme Weather for the whole class while presenting and discussing the lesson. I can share this to all the students so if they want to look at the materials again or replay the videos while they are at home they can do so because obviously when I am showing it to the class, I’m operating on the class timetable. The pace how I show the learning materials might not work for some students. But at home they can use the material at their own pace, they can even keep replaying them. To take the lesson further, I can ask students to find out from different news websites about reports of extreme weather conditions that happen in the US. I can make a Delicious class account and students can add to the News Report on Extreme Weather stack or they can each have Delicious  account and they will share their  extreme weather conditions stack to each other and to me.

Book Summaries

Today we can find an increasing number of sources with added information, questions, links, graphics, or videos to enhance comprehension. We also see audio version of books in a variety of formats that can accompany texts. These are examples of enhanced texts. Enhanced texts offers a preview of the reading material by providing a summary or visual summary, vocabulary, as well as embedded reading strategies like questions about content, breaking down complex sentences, etc. Enhanced texts help students with  learning disabilities, students who find reading challenging, students who may struggle with vocabulary or students who come from diverse cultures. The following list are sources of enhanced texts.

Spark Notes - http://www.sparknotes.com/
-overview, character list, chapter summaries, study questions and quizzes on hundreds of books, including MP3 version of the notes

Pink Monkey - http://www.pinkmonkey.com/
-450+ books with background, analysis, chapter summaries, and study questions

WebQuests

A WebQuest is a lesson or a series of lessons built around a question that will be answered from information that students comes up with by visiting the preselected web links that the teacher provided for them.  It has five parts which are Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation and Conclusion.  The Introduction provides some sort of background knowledge. WebQuest involves students in a task, which guides the learning. Part of the Process is providing students with worksheets, instructions and hyperlinks to the resources on the web that are selected by the teacher in advance.  These ensure that students do not waste time and remain on-task while online. The students are also provided rubrics as part of the Evaluation so they will know what is expected of them and how they will be graded.  The students are reminded about what they learned and perhaps encourage them to extend the experiences in the Conclusion part.

WebQuests are good for differentiating instruction, cooperative learning and cross-curricular teaching. What is good about it is the group work can be done in parts by different students. As it does not need to have every student engaged in every part of each WebQuest, the group can just utilize the strengths and interest of each member.

Webquests offer a lot of advantages over traditional lessons. Students learn through discovery in webquests.  Although traditional lessons can also offer discovery in science lessons experiments, not all traditional lessons can have this element of discovery.  Webquests also allow student self- pacing and present self- learning opportunities, unlike in a traditional lesson that the teacher has to guide the class in a specific schedule to achieve the objectives for the day. So in webquest they have a sense of ownership in whatever they learn. The lesson or lessons are student centered and the teacher is just a facilitator unlike in the traditional lesson that the teacher is the sole source of knowledge. Going through a webquest  with all the worksheets, handouts and rubrics make the students practice their organizational skills as they gather and synthesize their findings or results. In addition they are required to compare, contrast, make decisions and recommendations so they are honing their thinking abilities. Unlike in a traditional lesson that they are just ask to give the answer, in most web quest there is no cut and dry answers.

Webquest is an example of project based learning because webquest has the characteristics as a project based learning. For example, one characteristic of PBL is that students make decisions within a prescribed framework; while doing webquest students come up with a conclusion or an outcome after following guidelines or instructions that can be given to them by the teacher in the form of worksheets and rubrics so they are working within a prescribed framework. PBL and webquest also both revolves around a problem or challenge without a predetermined solution. Students are responsible for accessing and managing the information they gather as well as regularly reflecting on what they’re doing in both PBL and webquest.

The 21^st century skills prepare students for work and life in a fast changing world transformed by technological advances and a global economy. Learning is supposed to integrate new technologies, and responds to the characteristics of a new breed of learners. Webquest is an example of the 21^st century skills because webquest integrates technology and during webquest students learn how to search effectively, evaluate what they find, and put it to use. Thus by doing webquest, students are being prepared for life because the work environment  and life in the 21^st century needs people who know how to effectively find the information, and put it to use.  Webquest develops thinking, problem solving skills and intellectual curiosity that are all part of 21^st century skills. Webquest also promotes 21^st century skills like interpersonal and self-directional skills. 


An example of  a WebQuest is Unrestricted Importation. If you want to see more example visit the following:

WebQuest.Org - Ideas for using the web for research in the classroom, including the one-

computer classroom; web rings to link WebQuest projects.

Primary School WebQuests and Projects - Primary Webquest and Project sites for kids and teacher resources.


CESA 8 WebQuest Matrix 


NMSU Student WebQuests - links to exemplary WebQuests designed by students in the Learning Technologies Program at New Mexico State University. Also included are WebQuests designed by teachers and faculty at NMSU involved in an NSF funded project called Digital Desert Library. Most were created by classroom teachers and have been tested by their students. The links will continually be expanding. You will also find some of the WebQuests are available in Spanish.


AT&T Knowledge Network Explorer: Filamentality WebQuest Teacher Guide -

Interactive Activities

There is much to say about the importance of interactive learning as Dale Carnegie once said "Learning is an active process. We learn by doing...Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind. We want to teach children not just concepts but how to learn because learning is a lifelong process. As we go through life we continue to learn or not to learn through our experiences, mistakes, etc. (the choice is ours of course). So if you also believe the Chinese proverbs that says "I see, I forget, I hear, I remember, I do I understand you might be interested in the following activities that you can try with your kids or students.


Following the Great Wall of China: Interactive Map | EDSITEment

- build China's Great Wall, and learn about the great Chinese imperial dynasties.This detail map of China is the area from the inset (lower right) map of the whole of the Chinese mainland.Wall Segment (Route) Legend: legend image showing segment of wall When the user answers a quest

Xpedition Hall - the interactive “museum” that takes you on geography journeys. Here you’ll climb a mountain, hover over the Earth, speed across Europe, visit an archeological dig, and even order sushi—plus games, animations, and more!

Art Project, powered by Google

Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.

Glogster 
-Poster Yourself /Text, Images, Music and Video
-Make your interactive poster easily and share it with friends.

Glogster EDU
-platform for the creative expression of knowledge and skills in the classroom and beyond.
-educators and students can create GLOGS - online multimedia posters - with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more.
-Sample work of a child using GlogsterEDU

 Voicethread
- Group conversations around images, documents and videos
-Transforming media into collaborative spaces with video, voice, and text commenting.

Smilebox
- Create amazing greeting cards, scrapbooks, slideshows, birthday cards, and more using your photos, videos, and music with Smilebox. Email, blog or print.

Animoto
- Animoto turns your photos and video clips into professional video slideshows in minutes. Fast, free and shockingly simple - we make awesome easy. 

Xtranormal 
- a web-site powered by Xtranormal's text-to-movie™ platform—a web-based application used to create short 3D animated movies from simple text-based movie-scripts. The characters in the movie speak the dialogue in the script, and react to performance triggers—icons that are dropped directly into the script, just like smileys in IM/chat. Movies can be shared through e-mail, blogs and online video sharing and social networking sites such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.


Digimi 
Digimi is a free online service that enable you to create your own super cool animated avatar from a facial photo and then use it on social networks

Kids' Music

If you want to enrich your kids' life with music try AOL Kids Pop, a free internet radio station featuring children's music.



You might also like Y! Kidz Pop, where your kids can listen online to the coolest music from hottest band's or best movie. After all music contribute to children's educational, physical, and emotional development.

Online Picture Books Read Aloud

Having storybooks read aloud is great for children because it gives them ideas how words sound. Listening to stories read to them will expand their vocabularies and expand their knowledge of the world. If you want to encourage your kid's love of reading try KOL Jr Stories, free online storybooks that are read aloud. if you are a teacher you can use KOL Jr Stories during group time activities. It will allow you to focus your attention on one group while a student or group of students (depending on how many computers with access to internet you have in your class room) listen to story books that are read aloud.

Kid-friendly Search Engines

If you want your kids or students to find age appropriate resources in the internet try the following:


Kids Click! Web Search 

KidsClick! is a web search site designed for kids by librarians– with kid-friendly results!
All links are professionally chosen, evaluated, and cataloged by subject. You can use the alphabetical list of subject headings or browse the site by subject directories, narrowing by categories until you have an annotated list of relevant sites.If you want to learn more about searching select Search Lessons to access Worlds of Web Searching. Links to more search tools, picture search tools and sound search tools are also listed at the top of the home page

The Internet Public Library For Kids 
If you use a Search Engine that has been designed for students, you will be assured to get information that is written at an age-appropriate level and that the found resource will contain age-appropraite images, charts, and graphs.


Ask Kids- Web search engine designed for children ages 6 to 12. Powered by Ask.com.

Yahooligans
-is the ultimate web guide for kids! Features fun and educational resources for kids with games, animals, music, jokes, movies, news, astrology, TV
-a public web portal provided by Yahoo! to find age-appropriate online content for children between the ages of 6 and 12.

Ithaki 
- a metasearch engine, it finds quickly the best web sites because it searches at once the top search engines and guides for kids, then ranks the results according to an internal ranking to make sure you get the exactly what you're looking for.


CyberSleuth Kids
An internet search guide for the K-12 student

Little Explorers Picture Dictionary - A multi-lingual picture dictionary with links to educational activities and games.

DmozKids
- kids and teens directory


Fact Monster 
-Online Almanac, Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Homework Help
- a free reference site for students, teachers, and parents. Get homework help and find facts on thousands of subjects, including sports

AolKIDS - Web site for kids with games, music, cartoons, movies, animals and celebrities.

Awesome Library - organizes 37000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent for teachers, students, parents, and librarians

Teachers' Resources

Tools for Educators - free worksheet makers, game creators, 100% customizable worksheet generators

Free worksheets generators, programs for teachers, game makers, worksheet wizard, and printables creators for teachers with images!

Teachers Without Borders: Resources

There should be no barriers to education. Teachers deserve access to the content, tools, resources, and people that can help them do their valuable work. This section was created with one goal in mind: to help our colleagues connect with the resources they need to play a vital role in their classroom

Educational Games

Quiz Hub: K-12 Educational Quiz Games 

Quiz Hub is a fun K-12 online interactive learning center that features educational quiz games for English language arts, French, German, Spanish, math, geography, history, earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics.

JumpStart
-thousands of activities and games

FunBrain.com-Kids Center 
FunBrain is the Internet's premier location for interactive, educational games (math, grammar, science) for children and kids of all ages.

GAMES | PBS KIDS

Play hundreds of fun educational kids games with PBS KIDS favorites such as Curious George, Elmo, Super Why and many more!

Sheppard Software: Fun free online learning games and activities for kids

Hundreds of fun educational games and activities for kids to play online. Topics include math, geography, animals, and more.

Learning Games For Kids

Learning Games for Kids - Education is part of life. It should be fun and challenging... not boring. Learn while you play games! Animal Games, Art Games, Music Games, Math Games, Logic Games, Geography Games, Memory Games, Science Videos and so much more!

Kids Games - Prongo.com has free educational games for kids

Prongo.com has fun, interactive, educational kids games.

Funschool - Fun and Educational Games and Activities for Kids 

Funschool offers free online educational elementary games for kids as well as printable activities, coloring and crafts that will help kids learn and get ready for school.

 

thekidzpage.com - Free Kids Educational Games - Learning is Fun!

Loads of Educational games for kids to play online and off. Childrens' educational games make learning fun!

Calculation Nation
The games of Calculation Nation^® are organized around content from the upper elementary and middle grades math curriculum. By becoming a citizen of Calculation Nation^®, your child or student will play online math strategy games that allow them to learn about fractions, factors, multiples, symmetry and more, as well as practice important skills like basic multiplication and calculating area — all while having fun.

Cyberchase | PBS KIDS

Cyberchase Online extends the learning where kids can play math-based interactive games, send in stories and polls, send e-cards, download free stuff, and more! Extensive resources are also available for parents and teachers.

Learn 4 Good

Free Online Kids Games, Children's Online Games, Children's Educational Games, Kids Game Website, Play Kids games com

21 Kids
WLIW21 Kids games from WNET New York Public Media

Play Kids Games - Play Educational and Fun Online Kids Games!

Play educational and fun kids games online at playkidsgames.com. Play games such as math games, vocabulary games, geography games, alphabet games, logic games, music games, memory games.

Harrold's K-12 Games and Diversions Links

Links to K-12 Educational Games and Fun Diversions

After School Parents Resources

ARTSEDGE: At Home

ARTSEDGE is the Kennedy Center’s free digital learning platform for arts education. Resources such as lesson plans, guides, audio stories, video clips, and interactives-- support K-12 teaching and learning in the arts in the classroom, at home, and beyond.

EconEdLink: Parent Resources

Check out these new e-Book versions of the Council for Economic Education's popular Financial Fitness for Life® Parent Guides.

Educational Programs

TEN MARKS Free Teacher resources | Math Programs for Grades 3 & Up The best math practice program for your class, let your students practice what you cover, and refresh what they need to - using intelligent questions, hints, and video lessons. FREE for Teachers!

Educational Apps

Get Parents Flash Cards: iPhone, iTouch or iPad App

Parents Flash Cards is a free app for your iPhone, iTouch, or iPad. Teach your child colors and shapes!

Starfall Education The "ABCs" Section is now an app for iPods and iPhones

Classtime Schedule 

- a lesson planning application for teachers and an agenda for students. Users can conveniently plan their daily schedules by date, time, period, and course.

Contests

CDWG | Win a Wireless Lab

A Digital Signage Solution for your school is an ideal way to promote events, deliver news broadcasts, provide wayfinding maps, emergency updates and more. We're giving away three complete packages (one each month) including three flat screen monitors, a media player and full installation.

Global citizen Corps: Contests - list of contest for children and the youth

Scholarships, Fellowships or Educational Opportunities

Creating Careers

E-learning community, offering vision2learn revolutionary approach to learning to over 50,000 learners and more than 60 colleges. Learners study on free interactive courses with activities, quizzes and online assessments, online support from college tutors...

Education | Global Citizen Corps

List of fellowships around the world

EIP Scholarship | Young Child Expo & Conference

The New York State Educational Incentive Program (EIP) is a scholarship program, which helps providers pay for high quality training and education they need to

Educational Resources

Whether you are a parent dangling household chores as well as helping your kids develop their full potential or a teacher looking for the educational resources on the time allotted for planning an instructional unit,  sometimes it is a little overwhelming finding the right resources. Knowing where to start can really help especially as the internet is loaded with resources that than can enhance instructional delivery. The content, images, graphs, charts and other resources not only need to be age appropriate but be relevant to the topic as well as motivating to students. The following is a list of educational websites that might be useful to you.


Interactives and Media - Smithsonian's History Explorer

A complete listing of all the standards-based educational resources that includes audio, video, and interactive resources. Many of these resources are designed to be used by the learner without help from a teacher or parent.

KidsKnowIt.com - Internet's Most Popular Educational Website For Kids - Thousands of Free Educational Games

Gamequarium -The site that swims with learning fun

The Teachers' Cafe.com Free Education Resources. Teachers, Homeschool & Students. Math, Reading, Writing Worksheets, Activities

Teachers Free Resource Information Directory. Teacher's web site links. Worksheets, lesson plans, activities, assessments, Math, multiplication, division, subtraction, addition, grammar, English, Science, writing TESL. Home school ideas. Parent's help.

Journey to Forever: Education resources for teachers, students and parents

Journey to Forever is an interactive adventure - the first-ever overland expedition from East Asia to Southern Africa, the first to use the Internet to link schools and communities all along the route, and the first to offer online participants and especially schoolchildren everywhere an active role

Art Kids Rule
The net's best place for playing, learning, and creating. Cool interactive art activities, and a whole lota' other stuff! Kids, parents and teachers

Thinkfinity: Parents and Kids - Free homework help and resources for parents and kids

Parents, searching for free homework help for kids and online educational resources? Thinkfinity draws upon the strength of our content partners, who produce a wealth of discipline-specific, standards-based educational resources to help your child succeed.

Educational Music

If you are an avid believer that music enhance learning and is looking where you can download educational children's music go to

Songs for Teaching: Educational Children's Music Downloads/CDs

Games

AOL Online Games

Play free online games such as sports games, arcade games, action, puzzle, creative and dress up games, goofy games and brain games. Online games for kids is all about good clean fun on the web.

Kids Games - Yahoo! Kids

Play over 100 free online games including Movie & TV Games, Arcade Games, Sports Games, Card & Board Games, and Word & Knowledge Games on Yahoo! Kids Games.

Games -Bing Entertainment 

Maze Frenzy 

WebCrosswords.com 
Free crossword puzzles

Free Events

As the government tried to decrease spending, salary freeze is on the table. On top of that the rising gas prices because of the unrest in the Middle East increase the cost of production thus affecting the prices of goods on the market. These does not mean that you and your kids cannot enjoy things anymore. You just need to be resourceful to stretch your family budget. There are a lot of free events that you and your kids can still attend. or avail of.


Target Free Thursdays 
Free public performances, every Thursday 8:30 PM at the new David Rubeinstein Atrium at Lincoln Center... performances feature national and international touring artists as well as local artists from around the New York metropolitan area. The series will also feature artists from Lincoln Center’s resident organizations including The Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and The Chamber Music Society, among others, along with artists curated by community-based partners. Target Free Thursdays represent a diverse cross-section of musical genres, including pop, Latin, rock, soul, country, spoken word, jazz, and world music, as well as classical and new music. Select performances also feature live music for social dancing including swing, salsa, and tango.

Kennedy Center: Millennium Stage

Free performances everyday at 6 PM in the Grand Foyer - no tickets required. Unless otherwise noted, all performances are broadcast over the Internet.

Club Free Time - Free theater, plays, shows in New York, New York City, NY, NYC

Educational Websites

The following are list of informative websites where your kids or students would discover that learning can be fun.

The World of Miamiopia - An Educational Virtual World For Kids

The World of Miamiopia is where balloons go when they escape from the hands of a human. Once here, these balloons seek to improve themselves by learning as much as they can about the world around them. Each building in Miamiopia is filled with learning games.

Trivia Games, Fun Trivia Jokes, Puzzles, Quizzes, Trivia News, History, Facts, Celebrity

Trivia, trivia games, trivia fun, online trivia games, free trivia games, trivia quizzes, trivia puzzles, trivia jokes, movie trivia, play trivia games, bible trivia, music trivia, sports trivia, baseball trivia, football trivia, online trivia puzzles, online quizzes Trivia, history trivia

Educational Tools

Looking for tools that help your kids or student not only learn the topic but do it in a fun interactive activity that foster imagination and creativity? Why not try some of the following links.

Comic Creator - ReadWriteThink

The Comic Creator invites children and teens to design their own comic strips. Their creations can be just for fun or as part of more structural learning activities: planning writing activities, before- and after-reading activities, and responding to books.

Make Beliefs Comix
-Online Educational Comic Generator for Kids of all Ages


Exploratree 
Exploratree is a web-based appllication that allows the user to create mindmaps of concepts, or simply to organize one's thoughts in a visual manner. The site is completely free and has a variety of pre-designed formats to choose from, or you can build your own from scratch. There is a method for uploading images from your own computer as well as the basic shapes that are provided. It also has the ability to create stages in the mindmap.

Story Map
The Story Map interactive includes a set of graphic organizers designed to assist teachers and students in prewriting and postreading activities. The organizers are intended to focus on the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution development. Students can develop multiple characters, for example, in preparation for writing their own fiction, or they may reflect on and further develop characters from stories they have read. After completing individual sections or the entire organizer, students have the ability to print out their final versions for feedback and assessment. The versatility of this tool allows it to be used in multiple contexts.

Xpedition Hall

the interactive “museum” that takes you on geography journeys. Here you’ll climb a mountain, hover over the Earth, speed across Europe, visit an archeological dig, and even order sushi—plus games, animations, and more!

Acrostic Poems
In this online tool, students can learn about and write acrostic poems.  All lines of the poem relate to or describe the main topic word. As part of the online tool, students brainstorm words to help write their poems and can save their work-in-progress to revise and edit, reinforcing elements of the writing process. Students can also print their finished acrostic poems or proudly show off their work by e-mailing it to a friend

Wordle
- a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.
- Top 10 Ways to Use Wordle's Word Clouds  for Classroom Lessons

Veterans Day Wordle

-The above example can be used to introduce the vocabulary words in a Veterans day lesson

Google Maps are searchable and zoomable maps of the UK, US etc.  You can find businesses, get directions, and even embed maps in your website.