Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Venice, Italy is the focus of an interactive graphic from The Wall Street Journal. The images and accessible language will give English Language Learners a sense of the place.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Europe.

Haiti: The Eroding Nation is the title of the Sun Sentinel newspaper’s interactive on the effects of deforestation on that island nation.

It’s accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my Geography page.

A nice geography lesson is to have students plan a trip to some location (or locations). There are several web tools that make doing this pretty easy — it’s just a matter of identifying where you want to go, looking through the sites to see in those places, and then “dragging-and-dropping” them onto a list that you can subsequently post on a student or teacher website/blog. Most of these sites also allow you to write a description of your trip (and why you chose the places you did), but students can do the same on their own site, too.

Even better, most of these sites also let users comment on places they have visited, which make them an excellent place for students to write for an authentic audience about locations they have really visited (which can include local spots).

Here are the sites that I think are most accessible to English Language Learners and let them plan these kinds of virtual trips (not in order of preference):

Tripwolf just today announced a revamping of their site that makes it much more accessible.

Nile Guide

Go Planit

Ruba

Planet Eye

Tripcart

Tripwiser

Discover America

Travel DK

Yahoo Travel

You might also be interested in The Best Resources For Finding And Creating Virtual Field Trips.

Feedback is always welcome.

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You might also want to explore nearly 300 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

A Journey Into Time Immemorial is a very interactive site from the Virtual Museum of Canada.

It highlights the culture and history of Canada’s native peoples, and includes many videos with the transcripts located under them.

I’ve placed the link on my website under The United States and Canada.

150 Years of Central Park is a new slideshow from TIME Magazine.

I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About New York City.

Everlater is a new web application for people to document their travels. It’s very accessible, and tools like this are excellent for students to document field trips, historical journeys, etc.

I would add it to The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience”, where it would join similar sites that are listed there.  However, unlike those, Everlater doesn’t allow you to grab images off the Web.  At this point, they only let you use your own.

If and when they change that policy, they’ll certainly be put on a “The Best…” list.

Thanks to TechCrunch for the tip.

You can see photo excerpts from a new book called Monumental India at this site. They’re pretty impressive images.

I’ve also added some photos from the Sacramento Bee of Sikhs celebrating a holy day in India.

I’ve placed the links on my Geography page under Asia. I’ve place the Sikh images under Religion, too.

Glencoe has a nice companion website for its Exploring Our World geography book.

If you go to the link, you’ll see resources they have for each chapter, including online games and animations called “In Motion.” They’re from National Geographic, are short, and accessible to English Language Learners.

I’m not going to do it now, but the next time I teach Geography I’ll add direct links to each one on my Geography page.

It has the same set-up for its Civics textbook, with similar “In Motion” animations (though these are not from National Geographic).

In Virtual Pilot, the player is given the name of a destination and has to land a plane as close to it as possible.

It’s a fun little game, not unlike several other map games out there. It’s a good way to reinforce geography skills.

I’ve placed the link on my Geography page.

“Mashups” are the common word to describe the result of combining the features and information of two or more websites or tools.

“Mashing” data together with a map is one “mashup” that can make information more accessible to English Language Learners.

Virender Ajmani has a blog called MIBAZAAR where he shares mashups he creates using data and Google Maps. I’ve posted about several of his creations in the past. His newest one highlights CNN’s ranking of what they think are the 100 best places to live in the United States.

If you go to his blog, you’ll see a listing of his previous mashups on the sidebar. They’re worth a visit.

I’m adding Bluewalks to The Best Places Where Students Can Create Online Learning/Teaching Objects For An “Authentic Audience”.

You can easily create a “walking tour” with text you write and images you can grab off the web.

Thanks to Google Maps Mania for the tip.

This Madagascar slideshow from Time magazine shows wildlife in Madagascar. It has a lot of cool images and simple captions. It would work well with a short excerpt from the animated movie.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Africa.

Guess The Flag is a game where the player is showed a flag followed by three names of countries. The goal is to choose the correct country to go with the flag. After the selection, in addition to being told if your choice is right or not, a map appears showing the country with a few facts about it.

I’ve placed the link on my Geography page.

The Boston Globe has quite a collection of incredible images from India. They each have short captions that should be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Asia.

Onion Maps are a series of unique maps of major cities around the world. What makes them different is that they are “sort of” 3D. I say “sort of” because they’re not exactly. In fact, I don’t know the appropriate word to use to describe them.

If you click on “Attractions,” you’ll be able to zoom in on the most important sites. A window will pop-up showing information about them, along with photos.

It’s certainly accessible to English Language Learners,and I’ve placed the link on my Geography page.

The Las Vegas Sun has an exceptional collection of online multimedia presentations, many which would be accessible to English Language Learners.

The stand-out among them is an amazing presentation on the history of Las Vegas, which will work will with the Las Vegas unit we teach in tenth-grade English classes at our school.

I’ve placed the link to all their interactives under Multimedia Resources From News Outlets on my website. I placed the direct link to the Las Vegas history on my Geography page.

The World’s “Germiest” Attractions is a slideshow from LIFE Magazine that students will love…at the same time they yell “eeewww!”

Photos include ones of people kissing Ireland’s Blarney Stone and a “bubblegum wall.”

A Europe of Tales shares several animated traditional stories from different countries in Europe.

Even though there isn’t audio support for the text, it still should be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Europe.

Hypercities is a neat “mashup” of what various cities have looked like over the past several hundred years. By using a “slider,” you can choose a year, and then various images of that city from that time are shown. It’s pretty ingenious, and certainly the basics are accessible to English Language Learners.

Thanks to Jeff Mummert for the tip.

Don’t Gross Out The World is a game that challenges you to answer questions about dining customs in different parts of the world.

It’s accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners, educational, and fun.

Thanks to Tony Cassidy for the tip.

I’ve added it to my Geography page.