Mobile Access and Apps, K-12

Apps are available for some online databases so you can help students on the go—hallway, lunchroom, by their desk, etc. You might want to share these with students, too.
• Gale suite of magazines/journals/newspapers (Academic OneFile, InfoTrac)—Search: Gale / AccessMyLibrary (choose the green app)
• EBSCO (Advanced Placement Source, History Reference Center, Literary Reference Center, Newspaper Source Plus, Points of View Reference Center, Science Reference Center)—Search: EBSCOhost
• Rosen Teen Health and Wellness—Search: Teen Hotlines

New Online Database Usernames/Passwords

Each school has a new username/password for the online databases such as Gale, EBSCO, Learn360, netTrekker, Encyclopedia Britannica, etc. Contact your school teacher librarian or call the Heartland Library. The new access also works with Com Cat so you can search most of the databases at the same time, http://comcat-agent.auto-graphics.com.

CultureGrams, K-12

http://online.culturegrams.com
Learn about people around the world and what their lives are like. Find customs, maps, songs, recipes, and interviews with kids. There is even information about the states. Students can compare country data side by side. View tutorials at http://www.proquestk12.com/landings/Vids_CultureGrams.shtml

Ideas:
• Build a graph or table that compares data for countries such as literacy, life expectancy, population, Internet access, survival probability, and caloric consumption. Examples:
• Obesity paper--include a graph comparing European countries caloric intake with the U.S.
• Econ--create a table comparing real GDP with population and life expectancy in African countries--what questions do the data bring to mind?
• Extremes--create a top 10 list of statistical extremes on more than 50 topics (most cell phones, most military spending)

Rituals of life: What is important or celebrated in a culture/society (birth, coming of age, marriage, death.) Go to Africa, click Egypt, and click the Life Cycle section.

Lifestyles: Find recipes, holidays, favorite foods, schools, games and sports.

C-SPAN Classroom, 9-12

http://C-SpanClassroom.org
C-SPAN features video clips for social studies, civics, and U.S. history. Users can navigate by subject; find clips that pertain to topics such as education, campaigns and elections, or military. The clips are all from news programs and pertain to current and major events. It includes varied points of view. The video player embedded in the site is simple to use and allows the videos to be increased in size to full screen without a loss in resolution.

Science Videos and Images, K-12

http://www.arkive.org/education/
ARKive includes thousands of videos, activities, and lessons, games, images, and fact files in a wide range of science, ICT, art and English projects. It promotes understanding of global biodiversity and the conservation of threatened species. Use the ARKive multimedia materials to engage the class in key biology topics, such as variation and adaptation, habitats or life cycles, or use them as creative inspiration for art and design projects. Teachers can embed a link in their class website or wiki. http://www.arkive.org/about/arkive-video.html

The World of Business, 9-12

http://kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/
Knowledge@Wharton High School is an online journal for students interested in finding out more about business. Students can explore feature stories about teen-run companies and business trends; read articles on how the economy works and how careers take shape; listen to and view audio and video podcasts about business’s most creative and color characters in sports, entertainment, retail, and hi-tech. Students can choose a portfolio and compete against other students in simulation games. It also includes a video glossary where Wharton professors explain the terms using examples high school students can relate to. For example, one professor tells students what an “angel investor” is, using Justin Timberlake’s character in The Social Network.

iPad Digital Storytelling Apps, K-12

https://sites.google.com/site/digitalstorytellingwiththeipad/apps-for-digital-storytelling
This site has links to apps for digital storytelling such as storyboard and layout, scripts and writing, images, and audio. It can help transform students’ writing into a visual masterpiece.

Word Clouds, 6-12

http://www.tagxedo.com
Tagxedo turns words—famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes—into a graphic. Words are sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence in the body of text. Students and teachers can make tag clouds in real time and re-spin to their liking; save the tag cloud as images for printing and sharing; look at all variants of the clouds in a gallery and choose the one they want. Other features include quickly switching between different colors and themes and changing the cloud to selected shapes such as a heart, star, cloud, oval.

Apptivities, K-12

http://www.apptivities.org/
Apptivities supports teachers in using mobile applications effectively to improve student learning. An apptivity is a specific learning activity using apps on mobile devices. Apptivities provide models for successful instructional practices with mobile devices and media resources that give a “view” into best practices in the classroom.
Examples of apptivities:
Create a puppet show about the Gold Rush on an iPod touch
Lovely Lady Liberty: Active Media Engagement for Young Learners using an iPod touch
Dictating for Foreign Language Fluency using an iPod touch or iPad
Making Decisions With Data: A Windy Proposition using an iPad
Mapping Concepts and Communities using an iPod touch or iPad

Translate 10,000 Newspapers

http://newspapermap.com
Students can select a world newspaper (from a satellite map or enter a city or newspaper) and read it in English. Even if the translation is not 100%, students can see what the top stories are in Afghanistan or Tunisia or Brazil, view photos, glimpse daily life, and follow world events. Twitter and Facebook links are included.

AP Stylebook, K-12

One word or two? Hyphenated? Caps or small? Language evolves. The 2011 Associated Press Stylebook lists these social media guidelines.

check in (v.)
check-in (n. and adj.)
download
e-book
e-reader
email
end user (n.)
end-user (adj.)
hashtag
liveblog
mashup
metadata
retweet
smartphone
website
wiki
YouTube

Food Science, 6-12

Food Science Experiments is a new video series on Learn360, http://www.learn360.com.
• Emulsions: Mayonnaise
• Fermentation: Root Beer
• Scientific Method: What Makes Popcorn Pop
• Hand Washing and Food Safety
• Biochemistry of Milk: Mozzarella Cheese
• Sensory Evaluation

Captain Jon Videos, PreK-2

http://www.learn360.com
This video series explains sharks, oceans, and coral reefs around the world. Log in to Learn 360 with the username/password assigned to your school. Videos can be streamed, downloaded, or added to a playlist.

Engineering, 9-12

http://www.egfi-k12.org
Engineering: Go For It! is a Web magazine with online video produced by the American Society for Engineering Education. Teachers can access weekly lesson plans, activities and feature articles about engineering. The feature articles, such as the one about the making of Avatar, are highly engaging and showcase the diversity of engineering careers.

World Digital Library

http://www.wdl.org
This collection of primary source materials from cultures around the world includes maps, books, documents, photographs, etchings, drawings, etc. Millions of dollars from international public and private sources went into the development of the site.
Narrow by place, time, topic, type of item, and host institution.

U.S. History Interactive Games, 6-12

http://www.mission-us.org/
Mission US is a multimedia project featuring free interactive adventure games set in different eras of U.S. history. The first game, Mission 1: "For Crown or Colony?," puts the player in the shoes of Nat Wheeler, a 14-year-old printer's apprentice in 1770 Boston. As Nat navigates the city and completes tasks, he encounters a spectrum of people living and working there when tensions mount before the Boston Massacre. Ultimately, the player determines Nat's fate by deciding where his loyalties lie.

Homework Help, K-12

This website includes a short description of each online database, why students might want to use it, and hyperlinks. Go to http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us, click the Parents tab, scroll down to Homework Help. Access is with the username/password assigned to the school. You’re welcome to copy/paste this article and email to parents, or add it to your social network. Be cautious and don’t post the username/password on a website or print in a document that is distributed to the general public.

Learn360 Videos, K-12

http://www.learn360.com
Over 9,000 videos are available for streaming or downloading. If teachers login with the one-time teacher passkey and create a personal account, they can create playlists. Ask the teacher librarian for the Learn 360 teacher passkey or call the Heartland Library.

New Online Databases

Webinars and tutorials are available so teachers and students can learn about the newer online databases: BookFLIX, CultureGrams, Encyclopedia Britannica, Gale suite of magazines/journals/newspapers, Teen Health and Wellness. Register for webinars or find tutorial videos on how to search the databases and integrate them in your instruction.
http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/medianet/Online%20Databases%20Training%202011-12.html.

Online Resources

New This Fall
Britannica Digital Learning
• Britannica Online School Edition
• 21st-Century Explorer
• Student News Net
• World Data Analyst
• Global Reference Center
CultureGrams
Gale eResources
• Academic OneFile with InfoTrac Collections
• General OneFile with InfoTrac Collections
• General Business File ASAP
• Health and Wellness Resource Center
• Health Reference Center Academic
• InfoTrac Newsstand
• InfoTrac Junior Edition
• InfoTrac Student Edition
• Educator’s Reference Complete
• Kids InfoBits

Continuing Resources
AccuWeather
American History in Video
AP Images
Atomic Learning
BookFLIX
DEScience K-8
EBSCO Educator Collection (professional journals)
iCLIPART for Schools
Learn360
netTrekker
NoveList Plus
NoveList Plus K-8
SIRS Issues Researcher
Soundzabound
TeachingBooks.net
Teen Health & Wellness

Email World of Media

In addition to the RSS feed, teachers can now receive the World of Media via email. Go to http://wom.aea11.k12.ia.us, scroll down and enter your email. You are welcome to register with your home email address if access through the district is blocked.