7 replies to this topic

[Russel Tarr]

I've recently launched three new templates at Classtools.net which you might find useful.

1. Twister: Make up a fake status update for a historical character;
2. Plagiarizr: Paste an essay into it and it will do a quick plagiarism check;
3. Keyword Checker: Provide it with an essay and a list of essential topic words and it will tell you how many of them have been included.

I've made particular use of the "Keyword Checker" myself in my IB lessons - it's very useful at "first draft" stage to provide students with some key topic words and get them to check the essay themselves using it. Certainly beats having to read through it line by line, anyway!

[DaveStacey]

Great stuff Russ!

[Dave Wallbanks]

I love the Twister idea. A fabulous concept that would be really useful in developing chronological understanding of a topic. Can these be saved to produce a series of twisters? Alternatively we could do screen dumps to a PowerPoint and produce them as a handout. My biggest concern is that our PC network doesn't have the latest version of flash and often most flash materials don't work in school. The twister application would be ideal as a download. But then again my techies would probably ban it any way! All three are excellent materials.

Is there any kind of directory of useful teacher tools like classtools that I could look at to develop my planning for ideas for using ICT tools?

[Andrew Field]

Great to see further updates.

Is there any kind of directory of useful teacher tools like classtools that I could look at to develop my planning for ideas for using ICT tools?

Yes - http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/ - although this list is misnamed - they are more teaching tools than learning tools.

[Russel Tarr]

My biggest concern is that our PC network doesn't have the latest version of flash and often most flash materials don't work in school. The twister application would be ideal as a download.

Twister runs as a php application (not Flash) but needs to be online to find and display the images. There's already a facility to export them as .pdfs (creating an image pixel by pixel would destroy my server!).

Is there any kind of directory of useful teacher tools like classtools that I could look at to develop my planning for ideas for using ICT tools?

I've tagged quite a few here in Delicious, and it's now possible to search all my "tweets" too which might be helpful.

[Dave Wallbanks]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Russell. There is a load of useful material there that I can use in class. However I'm also looking for more of the game/ quiz making possibilities that are out there somewhere! I'm going to find out more about the potential of using dominoe too. I'm increasingly concerned that I've missed out on the potential of web 2.0 sites and that I can use these to improve my lessons.

[Dave Wallbanks]

Found it! I think this is an absolute gem of a directory. sue.summerford's site This has almost everything I've read about. It has loads of amazing ideas that I'd love to try out. In fact the only thing missing is http://www.classtools.net
I also like this http://prezi.com/xpt...-the-classroom/ presentation on sites for use in the classroom.
This is useful for presentation of key words in a hurry http://metaatem.net/words/ Just type in your word and let it find images of the various letters for you to put into a document or print as a banner.

[donald cumming]

CoolTools4Schoolsdoes a similar job too