The Pit and the Pendulum, an Interactive Comic

On February 23, 2011, in Books, Interactive, Reading, by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn
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Check out this video….
I was sick, sick unto death with that long agony… from Into ThePit on Vimeo.

Edgar Allen Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum’s book  FREE for download.   So, no more buying paperbacks year after year.  And talk about turning kids on to the books.  This Interactive comic might just do the trick.The Pit and the Pendulum is an interactive comic book created by Poe in the Pit. While viewing the comic book online, you can click symbols to open videos, more pictures, as well as background information into Poe’s work.

“The idea behind the interactive comic is to make learning about Poe and his literature fun, intriguing and experiential. Taking advantage of modern social media and mobile phone technology to extend the ‘universe’ of the story. The film, comic and websites provide deeper interactivity with which to plumb the historical backdrop of E.A.Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum, highlighting the characters and political & religious conditions which set the Spanish Inquisition into motion.

How it Works: —-The comic is chock full of hidden links!  Some are found using your mouse cursor while viewing the pages (using Adobe Acrobat PDF Viewer) and some are in plain sight as QR Codes, accessible with a mobile phone and QR Code Reader Software.  QR Codes are a type of 2 dimensional bar code, holding various bits of information such as simple text messages, URL’s (website addresses) and contact information. QR Codes are a fun way to integrate information into comic books; used this way, QR code further expands the story with video, images, audio, etc.”

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by Kevin Zimmer, The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness Kevin has a great selection of resources for Core Subjects.  Check them out.

Math Web Based Resources – General, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, and Trigonometry

English Web Based Resources – General, Reading, Writing, British Literature, and American Literature

Social Studies Web Based Resources – General, History, Government, Economics, and Geography

Science Web Based Resources – General, Earth-Space Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Anatomy

Electives Web Based Resources – Foreign Language, Special Education, Art, Agriculture, Business/Marketing, PE/Health, Music, Practical LivingCroe Subject Resources

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The idea for smories.com during an extremely long journey in a very dirty Land Rover from the Kalahari desert in Botswana to Cape Town in South Africa in February last year.

Our daughter (8) had the idea to film herself with our ipod reading Enid Blyton short stories, and then play them back to her younger sister (6). This kept them entertained for hours.

Our kids have always loved reading to each other and are transfixed when other children read them stories. They are also obsessed with the internet and will make their way to youtube any time they get their hands on a computer.

We thought a website that had a continuous flow of new stories, read aloud by kids, would make a healthier destination than so much of the stuff out there. Imagine you’re stuck in traffic and need to keep a miniature person entertained in the back. Access a playlist of smories stories from your i-phone and voila…

Once we had the idea for a site that publishes stories for kids read by kids, we also thought it would be a great unthreatening forum for showcasing unpublished stories. This allows writers to test their work in a straightforward and transparent way, hopefully giving them exposure which they might otherwise not have received.

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Can eBooks help bridge achievement gaps?

On January 19, 2011, in Books, iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Reading, Research, by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn
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Research confirms that reading matters, and having books at home is a leading indicator of a child’s level of educational attainment. Where do electronic books fit in?

By Nora Carr, APR, Fellow PRSA

A massive study published last spring confirmed what many educators already know: having books in the home is as significant as socioeconomic status or parents’ educational level in determining the level of education children ultimately will attain.

Now, as more traditional book content goes digital and smart phones act as electronic readers, educators are left wondering whether technology will make achievement gaps even wider—or whether electronic books might act as a bridge for students traditionally hamstrung by family circumstances and other issues neither they nor their teachers control.

Read the ful story, CLICK HERE

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This book is more than a book, it is a curriculum on bullying for the grade school level. As kids make their way through these pages about a cute, brown dog, they become immersed in the issue of bullying and learn strategies for stopping it in their world. Visit: http://kevinhoneycutt.org for a study guide and lesson extensions to bring this book to life where you live!

I’ll be using this in class this semester with my pre-service teachers.

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David Thornburg, Ph.D., a futurist, author, consultant and founder and Director of Global Operations for the Thornburg Center.

The Argument for Open-Source Curricular Materials

The week this announcement was made, Edutopia had an article on the use of open source curricular materials – a growing trend being driven, in part, by the extraordinary cost of commercial textbooks. The argument for open curriculum has many elements in common with the argument for the increased use of open-source software. The most obvious feature of free open source (FOS) materials is the lack of cost for the materials themselves – most open-source content is free of cost in digital form.

Read the full story, CLICK HERE

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Arts Impact investigates the potential for students to learn concepts in math, reading and writing when these core concepts are shared by and taught through dance, theater and the visual arts. The lesson plans on the Arts Impact site were developed collaboratively by artist mentors, classroom teachers, arts curriculum and instruction specialists and Title I curriculum specialists. Selected concepts that are represented in both core classroom disciplines and the arts were identified. Examples include

  • Writing: narrative beginning, middle and end shared by dance, theater and visual arts;
  • Reading: character attributes shared by theater and visual arts;
  • Math: symmetry shared by dance and visual arts. The lesson plan template is available to download as a Word document.

Click Here to Access Free Lessons

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Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can:

  • Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go,
  • Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer,
  • View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen,
  • Print out the stories and poems to make your own book.

There are six ways to get started with Lit2Go:

  1. Browse by Author: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
  2. Browse by Title: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
  3. Browse by Reading Level (Flesch-Kincaid*): K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
  4. Browse by Subject Matter: African-American Literature, Florida, Mathematics, Science
  5. Search Database. You can search the collection by title, author, or keywords.
  6. Launch iTunes. If you have iTunes software installed on your computer, you can download many of the selections directly into your iTunes library. The free iTunes application for either Macintosh or Windows computers may be downloaded directly from Apple, Inc.

EXAMPLE

A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is a Victorian morality tale that focuses on the life of the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. First published by Charles Dickens in 1843 as a means to relieve personal debts, A Christmas Carol has become one of the most enduring Christmas stories of all time.
Source: Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (London: Chapman and Hall, 1843)
Lexile Level: TBD Origin: British Genre: Fiction, Victorian, Ghost Story
Reading Level: 6.7 Language: English File name: cc
Sunshine State Standards:
LA.A.2.3: The student constructs meaning from a wide range of texts.LA.D.2.3: The student understands the power of language.

LA.E.2.3: The student responds critically to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.

Theme: Morality, Greed, Redemption, Forgiveness
Reading Strategy: Story Analysis, Character Analysis, Character Mapping
Click here to start reading online
To download MP3s, classroom support material, and printable PDFs, see individual chapters:
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Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano of Langwitches Blog has an amazing post about teaching kids to post comments on a blog.

Preparing Students for Commenting with Wall Blogging
http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/11/26/preparing-students-for-commenting-with-wall-blogging/

All of our classroom teachers are working hard on their classroom blogs. They
are using the blog as a platform to allow parents to have a peek into the
classroom. It is a communication tool between school and home. It has been a
steep learning curve for some to write, post, embed and upload in [...]

This is so impressive, every teacher in Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano school has a classroom blog/website. Silvia outlines the entire process of teaching kids to comment on a blog. The process is not technical and doesn’t even use the technology at first, in fact, they are learning the process the old fashion way, pen and paper and a bulletin board. Now that the kids understand the process and have had practice, they will try it with the technology.  I encourage you to read the whole store and of course, Silvia has some great photos to show you each step of the process.   CLICK HERE

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Comparing iPad PDF readers for annotation

On November 24, 2010, in Apps, iPad, Reading, Writing, by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn
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Annotating on documents is a question I have been asked about frequently.  I have been experimenting with different apps for the task.  Wesley Fryer has a great post about his experimenting and I have to admit, at this point I like Goodreader best as well.

by Wesley Fryer, Moving at the Speed of Creativity

“Goodreader and iAnnotate are the two best applications I’ve used to date for reading PDF files and annotating them on an iPad. I like the way iAnnotate supports signatures, which can be handy when you need to sign a document, but I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t handle double column PDFs for annotations well. Here is an example.”

Read the full story, CLICK HERE

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250+ Places for Free Books Online

On November 8, 2010, in 21st Century Skills, Books, Reading, by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn
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This is a listing of 260 sites that legally offer free books (eBooks) for download or for online viewing.

Some time ago I went looking for some free eBooks and was surprised to find that there are many resources for this.  I decided to put together this list of sites that offer free eBooks as a reference.  Since there are so many, I was not able to check each one out thoroughly.  So comments from you on any of these sites would be appreciated and added to the comments in the article.

I have tried to make certain that all of the eBooks at these sites are legally available for viewing/downloading.  However, it is possible that I have made a mistake.  If you suspect any of these sites of illegally offering copyrighted materials, then please let me know.

Putting this together was exhausting, but the list is not exhaustive, so I encourage you to post any sites that you know of that are not listed here.

The listing here is in alphabetical order.  Given the size of this list now, it may be easier to search by genre.  I have set up 14 pages here of different genres.  If you do not see one that covers your interests, let me know and I may be able to put one together.

I have also put together a listing of sites that offer free and legal audio books at, CLICK HERE

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Learning to READ: ONline resources

On October 24, 2010, in Books, Elementary K-6, Reading, by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn
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http://mightybook.com

MORE THAN 800 BOOKS STRONG —IN ENGLISH, SPANISH AND CHINESE!

MightyBook is a powerhouse of learning that’s helping kids around the world read and speak English. With more than 800 animated stories, songs, games and puzzles – plus lesson plans and online quizzes — MightyBook is one of the best values in education.

Thousands of young children around the world have discovered the joy and power of reading at MightyBoook.com. Now, we’d like to introduce this wonderful reading resource to your students. With more than 500 animated read-aloud books, songs, poems, jokes, puzzles and games to choose from, MightyBook provides many exciting opportunities for children to discover how much fun reading can be. Five new books or songs are added each month throughout the year.

http://www.biguniverse.com

BigUniverse.com is an engaging online reading and writing community for grades preK-8. This student-centered website provides a large library of leveled nonfiction and fiction online books, an online writing and publishing tool, a safe bookshelf sharing community, and many supporting tools such as reading logs and more. All these features inspire reluctant, advanced, and ELL students to read, write and learn anytime-anywhere while providing educators the necessary tools to teach balanced literacy and track student progress.

Our company was founded with the mission of delivering engaging education to students around the world. The development of BigUniverse.com began in November 2006 with its first publisher partner coming on board in April 2007.

Today, Big Universe has 24 publisher partners and 2,436 books online covering all academic subjects. Our science, social studies, language arts, and math books have been read 661,469 times by 36,905 members from 152 countries. Members have created 14,617 books online using our engaging authoring tool for creative writing, book reports, and science projects. Underlying the reading and writing features, is a vibrant community that bolsters the impact of our reading and writing features, fostering a setting where students can motivate and learn from each other while safely sharing their written works and book selections (fun avatars and anonymous usernames safeguard students’ identity, privacy and security).

ZooBurst is a digital storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create his or her own 3D pop-up books. Using ZooBurst, storytellers of any age can create their own rich worlds in which their stories can come to life.

ZooBurst books “live” online and can be experienced using nothing more than a web browser running the Adobe Flash plug-in. Authors can arrange characters and props within a 3D world that can be customized using uploaded artwork or items found in a built-in database of over 10,000 free images and materials.

Once constructed, books can be inspected from any angle from within a 3D space, and rotating around a book is as easy as dragging and dropping a mouse. In addition, authors can choose to make items “clickable,” allowing readers to learn more about individual characters within a story. Each character can have its own “chat bubble” that pops up when that character is clicked. In addition, authors can also record their own voices using the ZooBurst audio recorder to have their characters really “speak” when clicked!

Readers can choose to experience and participate in a ZooBurst book in a number of ways. Authors can share books with readers using a simple hyperlink, and books can easily be “embedded” in any website or blog, allowing authors to provide their own contextual framework to their stories. Authors can also maintain a moderated discussion forum for each book, providing a virtual space in which readers can interact with one another.

Readers who have a webcam installed on their computer can also experience any ZooBurst book in Augmented Reality. Once a book has been loaded, readers can click on the ‘Webcam Mode’ button at the top of the screen. This button will turn on their webcam and allow them to see themselves as though they were looking in a mirror. From here, visitors can hold up a special symbol to the webcam to watch as the book “flys” out of the paper and into the room around them! In addition, Augmented Reality mode also allows readers the ability to interact with a book using simple gestures. For example, simply waving your hand in front of a book will allow you to turn its pages back and forth.

As an educational tool, ZooBurst provides students with new ways in which they can tell stories, deliver presentations, write reports and express complex ideas. ZooBurst contains a powerful “classroom management” feature for teachers that lets them easily set up protected, safe spaces for their students. Teachers can assign usernames and passwords to their students without having to input any sensitive or personal information, and can manage and moderate student work in a protected environment.

The best way to learn more about ZooBurst is to give it a try! Click here to sign up for your own ZooBurst account – it’s free!

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The whole discussion of reading digitally or on paper in a “real” books certainly a hot topic these days.  A week or so ago Small Dog Electronic did a survey asking the question–”Do you prefer to read digital or paper books? The results are below.   Kind of interesting.  The nice part is all the apps are available for the iPad.  So I guess it makes everybody happy!!  For my vote, #1 is iBooks- or at least for novels and such.  My other #1 for other kinds of reading, I love Flipboard- it is just amazing.  Both are FREE which even makes it better. Don’t you just love FREE!

10. Nook

Barnes & Noble’s reader features the largest library of digital publication available on any platform. Similar to the Kindle app, the Nook app allows syncing between all Apple iOS devices including Macs. Though the library of over 1 million titles is impressive, the Nook experience just doesn’t quite compare to iBooks and Kindle. Free

Barnes

9. Classics

Classics was one of the first e-readers to land in the App store and has been claimed by many to be the inspiration behind iBooks. As its name implies, Classics is a collection of literary masterpieces ranging from Pride & Prejudice to Treasure Island. In total the app features about 25 books several of which include illustrations. $2.99

Classics

8. STARSS

Depending on how you feel about Star Trek, STARSS may be the coolest or dorkiest RSS reader ever. Featuring an excellent recreation of the LCARS graphical user interface this app make the news of today feel like the news of tomorrow. $2.99

STARSS

7. Goodreader

If you’ve got momentous PDF files to view on the go, GoodReader is your app. With users reporting fine performance with file sizes up to 1GB, this app can tackle nearly any file you toss at it. Featuring additional support for MS Office and iWork documents, web archives, TXT, and media files, this app is a must have for referencing documents on the go. Plus, it’s a steal! $0.99

GoodReader

6. Instapaper

The folks behind Instapaper realize that when you’re at work you should be working. This app is incredibly useful if you’ve ever stumbled upon (get it?) something you’d like to read but just don’t have the time to. The app allows you to effortlessly save long news articles or blog posts (like this one) for reading later on when you’re off the clock. $4.99

Instapaper

5. Flipboard

Less e-reader, and more social magazine, Flipboard is a simple and free way to navigate news, photos, and social media updates. Its elegant layout is both appealing and intuitive, and its ability to bring a range of content together into one app is awesome! Free

Flipboard

4. Alice for the iPad

Though a standalone app as opposed to an e-reader, Alice for iPad is nonetheless a ground breaking re-interpretation of the digital reading experience. Featuring animated scenes that take full advantage of the iPad’s multitouch and accelerometer technology, this reinterpretation of the Lewis Carroll classic is truly a trip! $8.99

Alice

3. Stanza

Stanza is a free and easy way to catalog existing ebooks you may have. Perhaps its greatest strength is its diversity in terms of compatible formats. Stanza supports ePub, eReader, PDF, Comic Book Archive, and DjVu format books. Though it lacks the large library of downloadable titles in Apple and Amazon’s apps, it still maintains over 50,000 titles for purchase and over 50,000 free classic works through Project Gutenberg. Free

Stanza

2. iBooks

Apple’s 1st party reader is among the newest to the e-reader scene, and comes in at a close second place. Though it features a slightly more elegant interface, and supports the more open ePub book format, it does have a few faults. The built in iBookstore has a noticeably smaller selection than Amazon’s app, and although the ePub format is less proprietary than Amazon’s, iBooks is an Apple exclusive. While Kindle for iPad plays nicely across a range of devices, iBooks aren’t even Mac compatible meaning you must own an “iDevice” to read them. Free

iBooks

1. Kindle for iPad/iPhone

The Kindle app combines the elegant interface and usability of Apple’s iBooks and adds Amazon’s mammoth library of over 630,000 titles. Kindle books can sync between Apple’s mobile devices, Kindle devices, Macs, PCs, and mobile phones including the Blackberry and Android. Free

Kindle

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Speakaboos
http://www.speakaboos.com/
Speakaboos is a site that brings classic children’s stories to life! Stories with characters like Chicken Little and Goldilocks come to life through celebrity performances. Famous performers like Kevin Bacon and Nick Cannon are just some of the few celebrities that lend their voices. With beautiful illustrations and original music, children can develop literacy skills while learning about technology in a safe and fun environment.

Literactive
http://www.literactive.com
This site is the leading provider of reading material for pre-school, kindergarten and 1st grade students. Not only are there stories, but there are activities and supplemental reading material, as well. An ESL version allows users to translate stories into another language. There is even a section of interactive poetry which includes some of the most famous poems ever written! All you have to do is sign up for free and you can download these stories and more!

Between the Lions
http://pbskids.org/lions/
This site, from PBS Kids, is aimed at getting kids “wild” about reading. With stories, games, video clips and more, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be excited to explore! The stories vary in format. Some are read by a narrator, some are interactive and some are prerecorded readings from a children’s book. Whatever you choose to do with this site, there is sure to be something educational and entertaining for your little ones.

StoryPlace

http://www.storyplace.org
Storyplace is the ultimate digital library for students. This interactive site offers preschool and elementary stories and activities. The site aims to give children the experience of going to a library, without actually leaving the computer! With themes like “Dinos Rock” and “The Three Country Critters,” kids will be reading and having fun in no time!

Big Universe
http://www.biguniverse.com
BigUniverse.com is an award-winning web 2.0 learning platform where PK-8 students read, create, research, and collaborate using online books and interactive tools. This web community uses vividly illustrated books, a fun writing tool and a safe book sharing network to instill the love of reading, writing and learning, while providing an anywhere-anytime, standards-based, education resource for students, educators, and parents.

  • Big Universe Reader™ – Read hundreds of fiction and nonfiction children’s books from today’s best publishers and take optional quizzes to assess comprehension.
  • Big Universe Author™ – Create, print & publish animated e-books using an easy-to-use writing tool and 7000+ images.
  • Big Universe Community™ – Safely share your bookshelf, recommendations and published books with your peers only or thousands of other members.

StoryNory
http://storynory.com/
Storynory is an online treasure trove of audio stories. Here you will find a mixture of new stories, fairy tales, and specially adapted myths and histories. We also have a sprinkling of verse. We have published an audio story every week since November 2005. Storynory has grown and grown in popularity, and now around a quarter of a million mp3 files are downloaded every month from our servers.

Our stories are read by Natasha Gostwick and her clear story-telling voice has won a place in the hearts of children and adults all over the world. The founders of Storynory are Matthew Lynn and Hugh Fraser – the co-owners of a Blog Relations , an online consultancy that can help you build your reputation via online media. Storynory is a prime example of how its done. Matthew is a ghost writer for a number one best selling series of books by a well known personality. Hugh is a former BBC radio journalist.

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Wesley Fryer has a very interesting post today about his six year old, iPods and books.  It is worth your time to read.

Over the years our family has purchased various iPod models, and we tend to pass them down by age. Currently, this means my six year old daughter is the proud owner of a 2 GB second generation iPod Nano purchased in 2006. That was payment for her sister’s work (who was then about to enter kindergarten) in helping me lead a multi-day workshop about podcasting with Garageband for teachers in College Station, Texas. Although Rachel is VERY cognizant of her iPod’s limitations (it won’t play videos) she is also VERY proud of it and loves to use it. Being in a family of readers who not only read paper books and eBooks, but also listen to AudioBooks, Rachel has naturally decided she wants to listen to AudioBooks as well – and she recently realized should COULD do that on her iPod Nano. Last night she announced her desire to buy some AudioBooks in advance of an upcoming car trip to visit family in Kansas, so we explored the iTunes Store together and discovered two suitable titles which caught her interest.

To read the full story, CLICK HERE

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsOEfMiPndA&feature=player_embedded

K-2: Your Buzz & Woody: What toy is your absolute favorite? Write down 3 words (or sentences) that describe why you like it.

3-5: If You Were a Toy: Pretend that you get to be the voice for a Toy Story 3 toy. What toy would you be? Why would that toy be the perfect fit for your voice?

6-8: Toys Trashed?: When you outgrow your toys, what do you do with them? Do you think its best to keep them, give them to a younger family member or to charity, or to throw them away? Why?

9-12: The Gender of Play: Ken gets teased for being a girls’ toy. Do you think that children gravitating toward traditional toys for their gender is a natural tendency of children or a result of how little boys and girls are treated differently?

YouTube Block?  Try this siteThanks to TeacherHUb for this resource.

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by Christian Long: http://tedxproject.wordpress.com/

What happens when 80 10th grade students watch, analyze, and reflect upon 640+ TED Talks in pursuit of the answer to the question, “What Matters (To Us)”?

The Big Picture: Summary: Who: 80+ 10th grade English students (both Survey and Honors students). Collective Scope: The students will analyze ALL 600+ of the currently published TED Talks (+ a few strategic TEDx Talks I will select). Individual Scope:  Each student will be assigned 8+ Talks to analyze individually.

CLICK HERE to learn more

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Win Yourself (or Your School) an iPad!

Hey Kids!  Every time you create or upload your own original children’s ebook from now until June 30th 2010, you’ll receive one entry in our drawing to win a free (16GB Wifi) iPad!

Hey Teachers!: Have all your students (or even your whole school!) enter for a better chance to win!

But wait, there’s more…

Free Children’s eBooks for the iPad

and all other readers; and even some books for adults too!
Create an eBook
Write, edit, and publish a book online now… for your family and friends or share it with the world: FREE!
Digitize a Real Book
Mail us any physical children’s book and we’ll “digitize” it for use on your iPad: FREE!
Upload an eBook
Upload any ebook file you want to read on your iPad or share with the world, and we’ll convert it to ePub: FREE!
Download an eBook
Browse all the ebook files others have shared and import them to your iPad: FREE!

Welcome to the iPod & iPad User Group Wiki

We welcome you to our wiki and blog for supporting iPod & iPad devices in education. Although our focus is K-12, many of the techniques should work for you at any level and with any number of devices.

Teaching with iPads the Movie (Take Two)

Since the quality of the online video last week about teaching with iPads turned out so poorly I decided to shoot it again so that you could see the apps on the iPad screen. I go through a few of the apps that I feel would work great in our schools and classrooms.

20 Amazing iPad Apps for Educators

After the iPod revolutionized how society listened to music and the iPhone pushed the boundaries of smartphone technology, the iPad stands poised to alter the face of mobile computing. Many have praised its potential to make personal and professional lives that much easier – and that certainly includes the education industry!

Teachers with a love of technology and a passion for nurturing the minds of their students can easily discover creative ways to incorporate the iPad into the daily routine, and some of these great educational and organizational applications are bound to help them get started.

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Oh my, these digital storybooks are simply amazing!

iStoryTime and DreamWorks Animation have joined up to bring a children’s storybook [iTunes link] based on the final film in the Shrek series, Shrek Forever After, that opened recently.  Unfortunately most reviews of the movie I have seen are not so great.  But this app sure it EXCELLENT.

The iPad can does amazing things with digital storybooks. My first hook was the Alice in Wonderland.


And how could you not love the FREE version of Toy Story Read-A-Long

I am impressed with the sound effects and character audio from the movies, they even include the voices of animated characters right from the movie.  I was completely enthralled!  Imagine a kid!!

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This is a great site from the Canby Schools, OR.  If you are considering using iPods or iPads in your classroom, this is worth your time to explore.  Seems to me they have it figured out and we can all benefit!!  Sometimes we make our jobs a teachers so much harder than they need to be.  If we just work together, have PLN’s and learn from, as well as, use what others have done, we could accomplish so much more.  Much of the time there is no need to start from scratch. I encourage you to check this out if you are even remotely thinking about the idea of using iPads and iPods in your classroom.

We welcome you to our wiki and blog for supporting iPod & iPad devices in education. Although our focus is K-12, many of the techniques should work for you at any level and with any number of devices. On the wiki side of this site are the deployment and management articles, and on the blog side, you will find the classroom activities (written primarily by teachers) where iPods are supporting achievement improvement for our students. We are posting as many help and how-to articles here as we can and as quickly as we can so you can continue to be successful using iPod devices in your classroom. Please let us know if there are more or different things that you would like to have included here.

iPad has landed! We are working with our first iPads and will begin to post how-to articles on managing and deploying iPads in classroom or other educational settings.”

To read more and access all the wonderful resources: http://wiki.canby.k12.or.us/groups/ipodusergroup/

They also have a blog with tons of great information about using iPods in the classroom, it includes real examples:
http://wiki.canby.k12.or.us/groups/ipodusergroup/blog/

Additional Resources

Recommended iPod Apps (Grade Levels & Subjects) Escondido Union School District – iRead : 2009-2010
Welcome to the iPod Touch Classroom Wiki!
Cell Phones in the Classroom: Missed Opportunity?
The Best Apple iPod Touch Apps for Science and Social Studies

Learning Community with iPod Touches

edu.Mac.nation School Spotlight: New Milford High School
iPod Touch Schoolwide Implementation|Classroom 2.0

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