I don’t have any teens yet, but for those of you with teens, looking for a safe way to allow your kid to collaborate online with peers on specialized technology projects, you might want to check out Freshbrain.com.

Freshbrain is a non profit organization, so as it stands today, it is completely free.

The site offers activities and projects in the areas of:

• development
• music
• graphics design
• gaming
• web
• videos/movies…and more…

They also offer contests and scholarships with the focus on using technology to execute tasks.

There are safety features in place (although I would still say that parents probably need to stay closely involved, as in any online endeavor).

And best of all, there are advisors who are trained volunteers which help guide teens through tools, projects, and activities.

All of this– FREE.

Yep.  Go check it out if you like: Freshbrain.com.

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iprompts, a handheld adaptive for iphones and the ipod touch, is a handy little tool that allows kids with special needs to use the pictures (or visual prompting) to help them transition from one activity to the next.

According to the official site, this tool allows a caregiver of special needs children (autistic, ADHD, Down Syndrome,  or autism) to offer the following:

PICTURE SCHEDULES: Allows caregivers to create sequences of pictures, guiding those they care for through activities of any sort. Captions can be edited for each image, allowing users to create SOCIAL STORIES. Caregivers can also create simple FIRST THIS, THEN THAT picture prompts using only two images. Choose from hundreds of stock photos and illustrations provided by iPrompts®, or take pictures “on the fly” using the iPhone’s built-in camera.

VISUAL COUNTDOWN TIMER: Displays an image of the caregiver’s choice along with a graphical countdown timer (set to any duration). Useful for demonstrating how much time is left before the next pictured activity begins.

CHOICE PROMPTS: Lets caregivers select any two images which may be offered as a choice, empowering those who cannot vocalize their preferences. When rotated horizontally, the Choice Prompt and Picture Schedule features enlarge and orient images for display to individuals needing visual support.
IMAGE LIBRARY: Includes hundreds of useful illustrations and digital pictures across numerous categories. Additional categories and pictures can be created and supplied by users.

It’s $49.99. http://www.handholdadaptive.com/

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If you have been looking for a different way to approach telling bible stories to your children, here is a neat little site that has bible stories children can both read (or be read to) with full colorful pictures.

THe girls have been enjoying these bible stories.

Typically I will let my 7 year old read them on her own or outloud to me as she scrolls through the pages.  The pages are in PDF and can also be printed out on a separate link to use as coloring pages.

Stories are both Old and New Testaments and are translated in about 35 different languages, including (English, of course), Swahili, French,  German, Portugues. Indonesian…and more!

Bible For Children does all of this for FREE because they believe in the value of spreading the Gospel message to children that normally wouldn’t have access to it.

On their website, they list their goal for BFC:

These Bible Stories are to be distributed to the 1.8 billion children of the world freely wherever possible.

We have been enjoying this website in our home school, and I thought I would just pass this along.

BibleForChildren.org

Enjoy!

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Just traipsing around the net and found a really neat video educational site.
This is EXCELLENT for educators when needing that extra curriculum boost or resource that will go along with a unit you may be studying in science, history, or skills you might be building in math or language arts.

The videos are all a collection of online clips from places like YouTube, TeacherTube, and a few others.

Here’s what WatchKnow has to say about their site:

Just think: millions of great short videos, and other watchable media, explaining every topic taught in schools, in every major language on Earth.

Finally, imagine them all deeply and usefully categorized according to subject, education level, and placed in the order in which topics are typically taught.

WatchKnow—as in, “You watch, you know”—has started building this resource.

WatchKnow is both a resource for users and also a non-profit, online community that encourages everyone to collect, create, and share free, innovative, educational videos.

Check it out for yourself, and see if perhaps you could supplement some of your lessons with these educational videos.  (You can upload your own too).  It’s www.watchknow.org.

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Voicethread is an excellent tool I just found online, as I’ve stated in one of my last posts…I plan to use it for NyGirl’s study on the Solar System to help her present her work.

Here’s a video on the VoiceThread website which shows what it does: http://voicethread.com/#home.b409.i848804

Essentially, you can upload documents or images your student has created (or that you the teacher have created) into a sort of slideshow, and create a voiceover narration for each slide. Then others comment on your slides and documents either by voice or text.

I am so excited that I want to create my first VoiceThread right now, but I am waiting until NyGirl has created most of her slides on the planets in Power Point first. The cool thing about VoiceThread is that it accepts different formats of uploads, or you can find images through the New York Public Library (integrated already in the system).
The possibilities are endless for educators. We can have our students use it for online projects, helping them to develop presentations that get “reviewed” worldwide. We can use them as teacher-to-teacher education, creating content that teaches others how to do things…or we can create materials online for older students to learn as well.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing how we integrate this special tool into our studies.

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In one of my earlier posts I talked about finding safe internet browsers for children.

Well…found one!

Check out Zoodles (this is especially created for the young student in mind).
When you sign up, you are given the option to be able to create your own parent dashboard which displays preferences for your child’s age, activities and suggestions geared toward your student. etc. You can also block ads and gain insight into what kinds of games your kids are playing that help with development in certain skills. But there is a fee for the extra service after the free trial.
So if you want, you can just sign up for the free browser and be done…which is what I did.

Basically, you need to sign up for a free account and then click on the download button and you’re set to go.

———
Well, I’ve just downloaded the software, thinking that what I had was an internet browser. But unless I am mistaken, it seems to be nothing more than a set of computer games which I have access to through a separate browser I’ve installed.
I think the games are VERY educational and I will be using them for my kids…BUT…I actually thought I was downloading a safe internet browser for kids, something similar to Firefox or Explorer. Not the case at all.

Regardless, I like the Zoodles web site and will be using it quite often to supplement lessons.

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Just found a really neat site that allows you to expand the abilities of a thesaurus:

ThinkMapVisual Thesaurus.

There is a subscription fee of $19.95 a year (or $2.95 a month) for the online subscription…or you can purchase the desktop version for $39.95.

I can see the possibilities for homeschoolers as endless for those language arts and grammar subjects.  Here is an example of what the software can do…directly quoted from the site:

The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words. Its innovative display encourages exploration and learning. You’ll understand language in a powerful new way.

Say you have a meaning in mind, like “happy.” The VT helps you find related words, from “cheerful” to “euphoric.” The best part is the VT works like your brain, not a paper-bound book. You’ll want to explore just to see what might happen. You’ll discover — and learn — naturally and intuitively. You’ll find the right word, write more descriptively, free associate — and gain a more precise understanding of the English language.

This is software lots of homeschoolers might consider for an extra language arts curriculum boost- definitely excellent for journalism and writing topics.  Thanks to Technology Teacher I was inspired to write this post.

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