Last Sixty Years of Chinese History in 2 Minutes
I found this on FreeTech4Teachers.com and it's here.

Great How Tos For Moviemaker
If you go here there are a bunch of how to connections for movie maker which I use to have my kids do a variety of assignments.

British History
One of the nice things about doing this blog is that I get a lot of e-mails telling me about sites (and please send any you know of) including this one that gives a great deal of information on British history. There are a lot of links and pictures as well.

Google Docs and Florence
Okay, call me a little behind the times, but I only just started learning Google Docs recently. What is amazing is how easy it is to embed video (from youtube or your desktop, but no where else) and pictures, etc. You can also easily link to outside sources. There are a bazillion templates for a PowerPoint and it can be shared with others online and you can download. Above is a very simple example that I did in one minute. Here is a video I made on how to make a Google Doc Presentation.

Quizlot
This is a new site that allows you to make quizzes, flashcards, etc. It also allows you to share them with others (ie practicing for a test). It already has some questions up for history and government.

Google Earth
Here is how to navigate around Google Earth. Below it is a video showing you how to place a marker for a site. I will be having a series of video so you can use this tool with your students. One use might be to follow the explorers in the Age of Exploration and both follow them on the earth, as well as embed pictures of the people and the places as they look today. The very top video tells you how to embed it in a blog.

The Lascaux Cave

The French Government has sponsored a phenomenal website which gives users a virtual tour of the Lascaux cave, including descriptions of each drawing, its importance and meaning, as well as individual breakdowns of specific parts of each drawing. A really cool site that students can explore individually or that you can look at as a class.
The Lascaux Cave

Google Earth
Google Earth keeps getting better. Here, thanks to the Google Earth Blog and Free Tech4Teachers is a great video for looking at Afghanistan. It is more professional than what your students might do, but it will show them what is possible and give them something to shoot for. Check back soon as I will be adding a video showing how to do it.

AP World Exam Calculations
While I have not taught AP World, years ago I used to grade AP US exams. Back then if the student used 3 (yes 3!) facts correctly they could get a 5 (out of a possible 9) on the rubric and that was good enough to pass the exam - assuming all else was equal. Well here (and above is the graph) an explanation of what a student needs to pass the AP World exam. I'd be curious about your feedback on this one, but the point is that if you can teach students how to answer free response questions (and the best way is to become an AP Reader) it is not that hard to pass the exam (yes, assuming the kids come to class each day, do their homework, etc.). It is interesting to see the chart and the explanation, though.

The Mysteries of Catalhoyuk

This is a great website that allows students to complete some simple Pre-historic activities, such as creating a neolithic dinner. Its a fun way for students in World History I or AP World History to explore the world of the Neolithic individual, how they survived, what they ate, and where they lived. Great as a whole class or explored by individual students.

Japan's Attack At Pearl Harbor

How Stuff Works
This is a great site for many reasons, mostly because they have hundreds of short videos (on many things beyond the classroom). I have found it very good for both US and world history. Above, for example is the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The coolest thing is that the movies are 3-1o minutes, so if a student misses class, he/she can still see what you watched!

Smart History

This is a great website that helps us learn and teach Art History. The topics covered range from prehistory (cave art) all the way up to modern art. This site is great for students to explore in class since it provides maps, pictures, and detailed explanations of different art trends and how they relate to art history. This is especially helpful for World History since the SOLs and AP exam seem to be adding images every year. http://www.smarthistory.org/

Map Site Traces Famous Voyages
If you want to show your students the voyages of Magellan, Columbus, Lindbergh's flight to Paris, DeSoto, the Silk Road, Marco Polo and others, this site is a great one. It also includes pictures and descriptions which you can see as you make the follow the voyages. By the way, I found it on a Delicious.com site. Delicious allow you to bookmark online so you can get to your links from any computer and it also shows you what others who have bookmarked the same sites are looking at.

Reminder on Videos

Just as a reminder, there are several tips posted on how to download and embed videos for instructional use.

How to download a video from Real Player

Academic Earth

Here is a great resource. Academic Earth is a collaboration between Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA and Yale that provides full video courses and lectures for free. There are video lectures that cover both US and World History, as well as Political Science/Government. I'm planning on using these in my AP World History class as enrichment material that students can access from home.

Great Map Site
I'll let this site speak for itself: The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection has over 20,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented. Collection categories include antique atlas, globe, school geography, maritime chart, state, county, city, pocket, wall, childrens, and manuscript maps. Some examples are United States map, maps New York, California map, Arizona map, America map, New York City map, Chicago map, and Colorado map. The collection can be used to study history, genealogy and family history.

Text Your Students with E-mail
I always get my students' e-mails and will occasionally send them a message. It is frustrating that half of them never check. In fact even after they e-mail me, they don't look for a reply. But here is a way to use cell phones, but not in the classroom. You could set up a database with their cell phone numbers and then add the code below depending on their cell phone and then they will receive a text. Certainly this way the kids will get the message. (Obviously this is one you'd want to check with the parents first to make sure they don't mind)

Sprint:

[10DigitNumber]@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile:

[10DigitNumber]@tmomail.net

Verizon:

[10DigitNumber]@vtext.com

AT&T:

[10DigitNumber]@mobile.mycingular.com

Just replace [10DigitNumber] with the ten digit phone number you are trying to reach (area+ local number).

Cell Phones Uses - Podcasting
Go here to see a presentation on ways to use cell phones in class. The video takes you through each step and could easily be followed by you or your students. It is quite lengthy so I have put the highlights. But if you want to use the cellphone this is really an excellent how to video. All of the examples could be done at home if your school won't allow cell phones. Here is what is covered in the video

1. Record video or audio. You can use www.gabcast.com; www.gcast.com; www.hipcost.com; www.evoca.com (all of which are free). These sites also allow students to use landlines to make the podcasts. Gabcast will allow you make a podcast of up to one hour for each entry. It will also give you html which can then be put in your blog. Uses would include
a. getting authors to read their works
b. having students explain concepts that you are teaching
c. read poems
d. put clips from famous speeches and have kids explain them
e. radio broadcasts
f. audio interviews
g. sound clips from trips
h. ESOL students working on their language skills and integrating it with subject matter.

2. A second use of free phone conferencing is www.freeconference.com which actually allows you to have a conference call of up to 200 people! The advantage of using a cell phone is that you will not be charged long distance charges. Another is www.talkshoe.com

3. You can have free online voice mail which are at privatephone.com and jangl.com. These will give you your own phone number and for those who don't want to give out your own number, this is perfect and better yet you can get the messages via your cell phone or online.

4. Audio e-mail are found at jott.com and mindjot.com. These allow you to speak your message and it will be transcribed into a text message and even be set as an audio.com

5. Taking Movies: go.blogger.com Using bubbleshare.com you can use your phone to make pictures and then bubbleshare.com will allow you to make a slideshow. You can have all the students in one class send pictures to the same site or have invidual sites for each student. You can edit the pictures, record audio which would allow you to make a digital storybook. You can then e-mail the slideshow, add it to a blog or even to download it. Imagine going on a field trip and having an instant slideshow created by the kids.

6. If you want kids to make movies, you can use the free site of eyespot.com. They allow you to take movie clips with a phone and immediately upload it to the sites where you can edit the fim online and then publish it to a blog page.

7. This video also goes through audacity.com

8. Sending free textmessages. textforfree allows you to send free text messages.

9. To create surveys you can go to mobiode.com

10.

Watch Know Video Library
Here is a collection of short videos which can be used to study ancient world history. Topics include Egypt, Greece, Rome, Incans, Mayans, pre-historic, Ottomans and more. If you are like me, you are picking your way through all the videos I have put on this site and choosing some to use in class. If you have a student webpage, you can easily then have absent students view them on their time. Above is on of the videos, this one on Plato.

Empirical Support for Cell Phone Usage in the Classroom
I have put some of my ideas for cell phone usage on a list serve and have gotten some flak saying 1)our rules prohibit 2)the kids will abuse it if we have it. I really believe as with passing paper notes when I was a young teacher, that good teachers will 1) find a way to get kids not to look at cell phones (interactive teaching and interesting material) and over time will find good uses. At any rate International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) has a report out that looks at technological use in the classroom. Since I have a Ph.D., I am all about support (and for that matter questioning what you read), but this report cites empirical research that states the obvious. 1) we have always known that the best way to teach is to be interactive and to use tools that kids enjoy 2) that tool today is technology. As the study states (money pages are 6-8) , 10-17 year olds spend an average of 3:45 a day on cell phones and that 87% of 12-17 year olds are online EVERY DAY. Right now, unlike online activities, ideas for cell phones in the class are certainly limited, but that will change over time (see my next post for another idea for cell phones). So I am only advocating limited use and certainly NEVER to text friends.

Just in case you need more convincing, here is Sec of Education Arne Duncan advocating the use of cell phones.