Can you INSTRUCTIFY?

The LEARN NC Interactive Conference was recently held in Chapel Hill, NC. LEARN NC has a daily blog, Instructify, that not only shares information about new tools and sites to use but also gives ideas on how they can be used in the classroom. When using technology in the classroom, the curriculum and learning should be the focus, not the tool.

Here are some of my notes from an Instructify session: Free classroom technology with Instructify. The presenters for this session were John Don Forsythe and Ross White. Below is a list of links to the FREE tools they planned to discuss. (They actually only got to talk about a few of them, but provided links to share them all with us.) The list is from the site linked above and the pink notes are from me!

Glogster: Create digital posters that integrate text, images, audio, and video. The presenters talked about Glogster. I (and some others in the room) mentioned EduGlogster as another possibility. After sharing information about EduGlogster with the group, I sent some more information and examples to the presenters.

Argument Wars: In this free classroom game students will argue both sides in several famous Supreme Court cases.

Evernote: Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free. I want to try this out. Some parts of it remind me of livebinders but more is possible. You can also store files there to be in the cloud like in dropbox. There are some things you can do with Evernote on a smart phone.

Weebly: Use Weebly to easily build a classroom website and/or blog in minutes. What you’ll need — a web browser. What you won’t need — experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or Flash. Drag and drop interface to create a fully functional website. Ex: http://instructifyfall2010.weebly.com/
Here’s a sample site Jason build in about 15 minutes.

OE-CAKE physics simulator: This program is a sandbox-style physics simulation program that allows you to see how different physical compounds and elements interact with each other. If you haven’t done so already, download it here for a windows client and download it here for a mac based client.

VocabSushi is a free online application that helps students expand their vocabulary through a variety of methods including articles and games. The whole experience is wrapped in a slick and easy to use interface.