June 20, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Iran:
CNN has photos of police attacking protesters in the most recent demonstration on Saturday.
The Mashable blog has posted Iran Election Crisis: 10 Incredible YouTube Videos. (see The Best Ways To Access Educational YouTube Videos At School)
MSNBC has photos of protesters being blocked by Iran’s security forces.
June 20, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
As I’ve explained in earlier pieces, I periodically post “most popular” lists of websites that I think educators might find useful. Of course, there are a number of ways to gauge “popularity.” I just view these lists as opportunities to check-out some new sites, and find it interesting to see which ones might be particularly “popular.”
Today, I’d like to highlight two tools (I’m sure there are others) that show what sites are being bookmarked by Delicious users during various periods of time. They both are also on The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, , Book, Movie, & Music Recommendations list.
Popacular shows the top twenty-five bookmarks from Delicious.com for the last: hour, eight hours, day, week, month, and all-time. At first, I thought it wasn’t going to be a particularly useful web tool. However, I checked in on it three times today and found two very helpful links. I probably spent a total of less than five minutes looking at the site.
Wectar not only has a continually updated listing of the most popular Delicious bookmarks, but with one click of the mouse it will then show a list of related websites, including “thumbnail” screenshots. Plus, you can identify the most popular bookmarks by categories, as well.
Delicious, the popular “social bookmarking” tool, has just added some neat features. One is a page where you can see the most popular websites at any given moment. I’m adding this new “Hot List” page here.
Feel free to share other suggestions.
June 20, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Rent Rent is another “mashup” that easily allows people to determine what apartments are available for rent, at what price, in different cities. It uses information from Craig’s List.
These kinds of web tools are ideal for my students to create their annual comparison of different Sacramento neighborhoods.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Neighborhood Maps.
June 20, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Seeking Refuge is an excellent infographic from The Wall Street Journal showing the “the top countries of origin for refugees.”
I’ve added it to The Best Sites For Learning About World Refugee Day.
June 20, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Wall Street Journal has posted an excellent interactive timeline showing what has happened day-by-day in Iran since the Presidential election.
Khamenei Warns Against Further Protests is a slideshow that’s also from the Wall Street Journal.
I’ve added both resources to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Iran.
June 19, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Babelwith.me is the newest addition to both The Best Online Tools For Real-Time Collaboration and The Best Online Tools For Collaboration — NOT In Real Time.
No registration is required, and it takes a few seconds to set-up a private chatroom. Of course, a number of other tools on those lists do the that same thing. However, Babelwith.me lets you do it and automatically translates what you’re saying in the recipients language and in the language you’ve written. This last feature could be very helpful with English Language Learners communicating with sister classes in other countries.
Another great capability is that the chatrooms themselves appear to stay active indefinitely, so users can come back to them whenever they want to continue the conversation.
You can read more about Babelwith.me at a ReadWrite Web post.
June 19, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Doodle is the newest addition to The Best Sites For Creating Online Polls & Surveys.
Registration isn’t required, and it’s extremely easy to create a poll that can be embedded in a blog or website or be accessed via its url address. Participants can leave comments, too. It appears to have been set-up primarily to organize group events, but it can be used as a poll for just about anything.
The Make Use of blog has an extensive explanation of how it works, though it’s pretty darn simple.
June 19, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Iran:
CNN has an interactive explaining Iran’s Power Structure.
Iran Mourns, Protests Continue is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.
Major Defiance, Small Concessions is a slideshow from The New York Times.
In Tehran, Terror in Plain Clothes is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
June 19, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments
I’ve previously posted positively (how’s that for some alliteration?) about the language-learning site Busuu.
They now have just announced the availability of free simple vocabulary reinforcement widgets anybody can get (without registration) for their blog or website.
I can’t seem to get their embed code to work on my blog, however. I’ll check with Edublogs to see what I’m doing wrong. Let me know if it works for you.
(Busuu now says it has something to do with compatibility with Edublogs’ platform. They are going to see if they can make their widget usable with Edublogs next week)
June 19, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I just sent-out the latest issue of my free monthly email newsletter to several hundred subscribers. It’s the first time I’ve used a new format using Feedblitz.
You can see previous issues of it here, and you can subscribe here.
It highlights a few of the posts that appear in this blog.
June 19, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I welcome comments on this blog — suggestions, affirmations, critiques. Recent comments are highlighted on the sidebar. I thought it would be helpful again to share my present “policy” (which is always open to feedback and revision) on comments.
I generally respond to comments very quickly by emailing the person who left the comment. I often don’t, though, respond back in the comment section itself because I think people don’t often check the option that allows them to receive follow-up comments. I want to make sure they do indeed hear back from me.
Another reason I often don’t copy my reply to the comments section is sheer laziness.
I will, however, respond publicly if it appears to me that other readers might find the response helpful.
Though I generally approve comments from the owners of sites who want my readers and me to check-out their websites, I typically will not respond to them.
My posts on the In Practice blog are a different matter. Those posts are usually designed to initiate a public conversation about the topic of the post, and comments from readers and my responses are published in that blog’s comment section.
June 19, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
The first part of this post is my usual introduction to this series. If you’re familiar with it already, just skip down to the listing of new sites…
Here’s the latest installment in my series on The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly. As you may remember, in order to make it on this list, the web tool has to:
* be easily accessible to English Language Learners and/or non-tech savvy computer users.
* allow people to create engaging content within minutes.
* host the user’s creation on the site itself indefinitely, and allow a direct link to be able to be posted on a student or teacher’s website/blog to it (or let it be embedded). If it just provides the url address of the student creation, you can either just post the address or use Embedit.in , a free web tool that makes pretty much any url address embeddable.
* provide some language-learning opportunity (for example, students can write about their creations).
* not require any registration.
You can find previous installments of this series with the rest of my “The Best…” lists at Websites Of The Year. Several hundred sites have been highlighted in these past lists. You might also want to take a look at the first list I posted in this series — The Best Ways For Students (And Anyone Else!) To Create Online Content Easily, Quickly, and Painlessly.
You might also want to look at The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly — 2008.
Here are my latest picks:
CREATE A PAINTING WITH YOUR VOICE: Your mouse is the brush and your voice the ink when you create an online painting.
MAKE A DRAWING WITH SAND: Just click and start making a drawing with virtual sand, then save your creation to the gallery.
CREATE A 3D SCENE: Use Kickfly to create a 3D scene of images.
SEND A NEAT eCard: Pigspigot lets you choose and eCard or create your own. As with other apps on this list, students can post it on their webpage or blog. I haven’t looked through all the eCards available here, but, in a quick look, didn’t see anything inappropriate, but you probably want to double-check.
As always, feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
June 19, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Constitution For Kids has three “levels” of explanations about the U.S. Constitution. An English Language Learner — from high Beginning to Advanced — can choose which one he/she finds most accessible.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Citizenship.
June 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
All the tech blogs have posts today about new features just announced by Google for its Google Books service.
You can read about all the new additions at TechCrunch. The one that I really like is the feature that lets you embed previews of books into your own blog or website.
I’m hoping to use this with next year’s mainstream ninth-grade English class. We’re going to be doing some work with other classes, and I can see them writing about their books, embedding the preview, and then having other students respond not only to their writing, but to the preview of the book that they will be able to read.
June 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Iran:
CNN has interactive timeline of Iran’s recent history and a map of the protest locations.
Hundreds of Thousands Mourn Dead In Iran is an Associated Press online video on the most recent rally.
Here are more images from the same rally.
The Guardian also has photos from the most recent rally.
June 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments
World Refugee Day is coming-up in two days. Here is how it described at the official site:
“The United Nations General Assembly designated June 20 as World Refugee Day to recognize and celebrate the contribution of refugees throughout the world. Since then, World Refugee Day has become an annual commemoration marked by a variety of events in over a hundred countries.
This year’s World Refugee Day theme is “Real People, Real Needs”. Despite the efforts of many, the needs of refugees worldwide are far from being met. Behind the unmet needs are not just numbers but real people with real stories.”
I don’t have time right now to do a thorough job of compiling resources, but, especially since many of our English Language Learner students are refugees, I felt like I needed to post something about the day.
You might also be interested in:
The Best Resources To Learn About The Forced Return Of 4,000 Hmong Refugees By Thailand
The Best Web Resources On Darfur
Here are a few of The Best Sites For Learning About World Refugee Day (and are accessible to English Language Learners):
ESL Holiday Lessons has a English Lesson Plan on World Refugee Day that provides audio support for the text and has an online activity.
Here are photo galleries of refugees from around the world from Refugees International.
Against All Odds is an online game created by the United Nations refugee agency. In the game you play the role of a refugee in various scenarios. It’s probably accessible to high Intermediate English Language Learners.
The UN has a number of good videos on refugees. Unfortunately, most are on YouTube and will be blocked by school content filters (See The Best Ways To Access Educational YouTube Videos At School)
GOOD Magazine has an infographic called Seeking Refuge: A Glance At Refugees Worldwide.
The Road To Refuge is a BBC presentation on the plight of refugees around the world. It has a substantial amount of resources on the site. The link in this post connects directly to a slideshow accessible to English Language Learners that highlights refugees from different parts of the globe.
Médecins Sans Frontières and MediaStorm have collaborated to produce Condition: Critical, Voices from the War in Eastern Congo. It’s a moving, informative, and disturbing audio slideshow about the on-going war in the Congo, and the suffering of refugees.
Al Jazeera, the Arabic TV network, has a feature on Hmong refugees in Thailand.
Pakistan’s refugee crisis has been in the news a lot recently. Here are some resources specifically about their plight:
Pakistan’s Invisible Refugees is a slideshow from The New York Times.
Children In Pakistan is a series of photos from the Boston Globe’s Big Picture.
Fleeing Swat Valley Fighting – Refugees in Pakistan are photos from The Denver Post.
Here’s a short PDF document from the UN telling about refugee children.
Seeking Refuge is an excellent infographic from The Wall Street Journal showing the “the top countries of origin for refugees.”
TIME Magazine has a slideshow titled The Urbanization of The World’s Refugees.
Beyond The Fire is a PBS site that introduces you to teen refugees.
Refugee 101 may be a bit of a challenge for ELL’s, but it provides an excellent overview of refugees in the United States.
Doctors Without Borders has a few simple lesson plans.
CBC News has a text description of the Anatomy of a Refugee Camp, along with a related interactive.
CNN has many refugee-related videos.
The Guardian has a graphic on refugees in the world.
ABC News also has many refugee-related videos.
Uzbeks flee ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan is a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee about the latest refugee crisis to hit the world.
After The Violence In Kyrgyzstan is a Wall Street Journal slideshow about the same tragedy.
Ethnic attacks in Kyrgyzstan is a series of photos from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture.
World Refugee Day is a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee.
Faces of the displaced is a series of photos from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture. They’re of refugees fleeing the violence in Libya.
United Nations Refugee Agency Teacher’s Corner and Lesson Plans
Flight and Expulsion is an impressive interactive map showing the refugee flow from and to all parts of the world. You can go and check it out directly, or you might want to read and see this short description from Fast Company first.
The World’s Largest Refugee Camp Turns 20 is a series of photos from The Atlantic.
This is a new video I’m adding to the list. It’s called “Lost and Found” and has closed captioning.
Dark Passage is a Newsweek slideshow.
Immigration is the title of a Boston Globe series of photos.
Photo Essay: Syrians Escape to Turkey is a photo gallery from The PBS News Hour.
Here is a special photo presentation recognizing sixty years of the United Nations Refugee Agency.
UN report on refugees – in pictures is from The Guardian.
Inside the U.N.’s Shocking New Report on Refugees is from The Atlantic and has some accessible charts.
Slide Show: The World’s Biggest Refugee Hot Zones comes from The PBS News Hour.
LIFE has a slideshow about Somalian refugees.
Haven and Hell: The World’s Largest Refugee Camp.
Dadaab: the largest refugee camp in the world — audio slideshow is from The Guardian.
Exile Without End: Palestinians In Lebanon is a photo gallery from the CBC.
Other suggestions are, as always, welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
June 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Fur.ly is a new tool that lets you combine multiple links into one.
It’s a little different from others I’ve posted about — they show you visual snapshots of each site that you can then click on one at a time. Fur.ly, on the other hand, shows you the first link in the collection and you can then click on arrows to go review each one.
I’m adding it to both The Best Places To Create (And Find) Internet Scavenger Hunts & Webquests and The Best Ways To Shorten URL Addresses.
June 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Iran:
Iran Erupts is a slideshow from LIFE.
Iranian Protests: Then and Now is a video from The New York Times.
Here’s an amateur video of the protests hosted by The Wall Street Journal.
Protesting Iran’s Election Around The World is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
Iranians World-Wide Protest Vote Results is a slideshow from the Wall Street Journal.
MSNBC describes the key players in Iran’s power structure.
A History of Modern Iran is a slideshow from MSNBC.
Protests Build as Iran Continues Media Crackdown is a slideshow from The New York Times.
June 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
ASCD SmartBrief is on The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current Education Issues. This very widely-circulated daily newsletter is published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), a national organization of educators. It consistently provides thought-provoking articles from around the country.
You can see a regularly updated list of its “most-clicked-on” stories here.
Teacher Magazine Update and EdWeek Update are also on the same “The Best…” list. Though they don’t have specific pages highlighting their most popular stories, you can go to the Teacher Magazine main page and the Education Week main page and see a regularly updated “Most Popular Stories” box near the bottom of each.
As I’ve explained in earlier pieces, I periodically post “most popular” lists of websites that I think educators might find useful. Of course, there are a number of ways to gauge “popularity.” I just view these lists as opportunities to check-out some new sites, and find it interesting to see which ones might be particularly “popular.”
It may not not entirely accurate to describe top stories from ASCD, Teacher Magazine, and EdWeek as the “most popular education articles on the Web.” However, all three are very popular, at least in the United States.
June 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
You have twenty minutes to find twenty dollars in coins — in the basement — in this “hidden object” online video game. Every action also has a text description. It’s a good language-learning exercise.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Word and Video Games.
