Showing posts with label free resources for students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free resources for students. Show all posts

Home Posts filed under >free resources for students

Gooru - collections of free study guides and resources

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Gooru is a site I wrote about this past February that was in private Alpha. I just received notice from them that they have now launched their Beta site and it's open for use.

Gooru is a search engine for education and learning. It contains study guides, aligned to standards and personalized, on topics in 5th - 12th grade math and science. Resources include videos, animations, links, digital textbooks, and more. All of the resources have been organized and reviewed by teachers or content experts.

Here's a small sample of what a search for "physics" returns:



It also contains a social aspect with a community to discuss topics and ask questions. There are also self-assessments that Gooru suggest resources and study guides to help you.

Check it out and share with your students: http://www.goorulearning.org/gooru/index.g#/home








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Assignment Planner - free Android app for Students

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Assignment Planner FREE


I just learned about Assignment Planner from Edudemic. Assignment Planner is a free app for Android that keeps track of assignments, homework, projects, course and class information, and grades. It includes the ability to sort assignments by due date or course and set reminders for assignments. It's easy to use and got excellent reviews. (Here are some more apps for students for notes and class planning)

The free version has ads (at bottom of the screen - never bother me on my ad supported apps) but the pro version with no ads is only $1.29.

This is a great resource for students to stay organized in school and not forget about things.




Check it out in the Google Play app store and on Facebook.



Related:

10 Great, Free Apps for Students for Notetaking and Class Planning


Evernote - notetaking, web clipping, and more, on any device

Comparison of some popular note taking apps

Getting Students and Teachers Organized - tips and resources - includes links and resources for electronic and paper planning

10 Things Students Use Technology for in my Class







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Zendo is now StudyEgg - quiz and help students using open source videos

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Last March I wrote about Zen.do, which is a free site that allows students to take notes as normal, while it automatically builds a study guide of related flashcards. Students can then review the flash cards as a study tool. There is a built in algorithm to optimize the review time of the students as they use the flash cards.

I just received an email from on the the partners for Zen.do announcing that they have evolved and rebranded Zen.do into StudyEgg. It's a free service that integrates videos, help, quizzing and learning techniques.


What is StudyEgg? 
StudyEgg quizzes students on great open source videos from Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, OpenUniversity, Yale, TEDed and more by pacing them through the videos with rich questions and helpful explanations. Students can feel confident that they are learning the material presented in the videos through instant feedback from the questions they are asked. The StudyEgg library currently features over 100 different science videos, with more being added each week!

StudyEgg is a good tool for students to use as review or extra help about a topic and get both instant assessment of how they are doing, as well as explanations of the topic.

StudyEgg starts out with a question on the topic you select, and then if you get it wrong, will show you a video explaining the topic and why the correct answer is correct. Questions can be timed and there is an "I don't know" button that will take you to the video that will explain the topic for you. You get feedback on your progress as you go along.



There are 5 main subject areas (Biology, Chemistry, TED Ed, Psychology and Critical Social Psychology) right now, with many more coming. They did just launch after all.

StudyEgg is also integrated into Edmodo, giving teachers an insightful dashboard that allows them to know how their students are doing on StudyEgg lessons individually and as a whole class. This is a great way to track which students are doing the work and who may be looking for help.

Check it out and share: http://www.studyegg.com/   The developers (students, teachers, scientists, engineers, and hackers who love learning) would also love to get feedback from teachers and students about StudyEgg and how they can improve it.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of the Flipped Classroom Model (assumes students have tech at home and puts lots more homework on them) and while I see uses to Khan Academy, it's not the savior of education (although many see it at that) and can't be the only way students learn. These types of models and resources can be part of a teacher's (and student's) tools to help differentiate learning and help students succeed. They should not be over used. They are great resources for helping students and for students to use as self-review and self-help. I think StudyEgg has created something that combines a lot of great resources into a tool that students and educators can use as part of the learning process.



Related:

zen.do - free tool to take notes and turn them into flashcards


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CIA World Factbook - excellent resource about countries of the world

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The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) World Factbook is an incredible resource about the countries of the world. It's free and available online and you can also download a copy for offline viewing and access. Older versions (back to 2000) are also available, which can be good for history teachers looking for older information.

The site has information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.. It's a great resource to find out information about the countries of the world and the CIA is constantly updating it.

Check it out and share it with your students. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/







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My GCSE Science - science resources for teachers and students

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My GCSE Science is a site that has video lessons and resources on Biology, Chemistry and Physics. They were developed for a specific curriculum and program, but can be used by anyone for these topics.

The videos are good and there are notes pages that go with them. The notes pages have images from the video along with space to write your own notes. The video listing has the length of the video also.

They are organized by subject and topic and the videos are hosted on YouTube.

This is good for students to use for review, missed work, and help, and for teachers to use in class or for absent students.

Here's some of the Chemistry and Physics videos. Click on the video or "Learn" to get to the video. "Notes" brings you to the PDF notes for the video.


Notes page example:








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instaGrok - awesome education search, curation, and journal site

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instaGrok is a interesting site I just learned about. instaGrok's tagline is "A New Way to Learn" and they define "grok (v): to understand thoroughly and intuitively".

instaGrok is a type of search engine that finds educational content and retrieves it in multiple formats, including web pages, images, videos and even forums. It filters out non-educational content and profanity, uses crowd sourcing to rate the quality of each search result, displays search results according to grade level difficulty, provides source notes, visualizes concepts in an interactive concept map, updates the concept map as you refine your topic. It also allows curation and tracking of your websites, concepts, student activities, and can generate multiple-choice questions from the search results. Students can use it to create editable research journals ("groks") and the groks will be populated with websites visited and the concepts covered. Teachers can review the students' groks and add comments.

Here's an instaGrok search for "Heat Capacity". The search results are shown in the concept map, and as you click on each circle, it opens up more results. The right side menu has key facts, websites, videos, images, quizzes, and concepts. In less than 5 seconds, I have an incredible amount of information and resources on heat capacity that I can use with my students. Students can quickly do searches and find relevant information and resources on any topic.


Here's a summary of features and results:



It's a very cool way to do research and curate and share the results. 


instaGrok: http://www.instagrok.com/








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Evernote - tips for students to be more productive with it

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I just posted a new resource to the Evernote for Education page, entitled "10 ways Evernote can help make students more productive" which great tips for students to use Evernote in Education.

Evernote is one of my favorite resources for both educators and students. It really is an amazing app and service.

If you haven't tried Evernote yet, or want to learn more about it, check out the information and resources here: Evernote for Education page






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SparkNotes app available for Android -teach students responsible use

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I remember in high school when ever we had a book report due, we'd head off to the library or bookstore for Cliff Notes. Now students have SparkNotes website and now an Android App. SparkNotes provides guides and chapter summaries of books. The app is free and their is an iOS version.

While some students misuse this and use this instead of reading the actual book, teachers could show these kinds of resources to their students and how to use them to help them understand what they are reading. Show the students that these are help resources, not something to replace the actual reading of the book.

The app has 50 study guides pre-loaded, you can download more and it has a built-in social networking feature to connect with other users.

This is one more resource that students have available to them. One way or another they are going to use it. As educators, we need to show them how to use the resource properly.

Get the SparkNotes app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.sparknotes.sparknotes



Related:

Android for Education resources and apps - app reviews, apps for education, news, tips, resources, and more.

Litcharts - free, downloadable alternative to Cliff Notes





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Google Summer of Code Student Internships applications open

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Google Summer of Code


Google is once again hosting a summer internship for students called "Summer of Code." It is a paid internship for students who will work on open source projects. Organizations submit proposals for projects, students apply to work on those projects and then Google gets them connected to code over the summer. Student applications are now open with a deadline of April 6th. There are 180 projects for students to chose from. 



More information is available here:


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StudyBlue unveils the ‘world’s largest digital study group’

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StudyBlue, the company that has a free service that allows students to create and share flashcards, quizzes and study guides, has just announced a new feature that allows students to share and compare their online notes and materials with other students. 

There are more than 2 million flashcards on the site, ranging from math, to history, to science and more. With this new feature, students can connect with each other and study, share and collaborate. They can compare their understanding to that of other students. They can also use the other students' flashcards to help them learn. When they create a flashcard, they will see a list of 30 most relevant or similar flashcards that they can review and compare.

This is a great addition to a very useful study tool for students.

Source: StudyBlue site: http://www.studyblue.com/about/2012/03/learn-from-others-teach-yourself/


Related:

StudyBlue - create and share flashcards, quizzes, and study guides

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Use StudyBlue to create study materials from your Evernote notes

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Last week I wrote about StudyBlue, a free service that lets students create and share flashcards, quizzes and other study materials. I am constantly writing, Tweeting, and presenting about Evernote (it's just that good and useful). Today, I found out from Richard Byrne (FreeTech4Teachers) that you can take your notes from Evernote and import them into StudyBlue to create flashcards from your notes. That is just too cool.

This is a great resource for students. They can use Evernote to take notes, and then use these notes in StudyBlue to create flashcards, quizzes and study aids to help them learn the material.

Here's the link to get started using your Evernote notes in Studyblue.



Related:

StudyBlue - create and share flashcards, quizzes, and study guides







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Quizlet - free flash cards and study games

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Quizlet is another site that allows students to search for already study aids and flashcards or create their own. There are over 10 million free sets of flashcards available on the site, in addition to educational games.

Topics include science, math, geography, history, languages, art, standardized tests, professional careers, and more.

Teachers can also use Quizlet to create study materials students can use in the classroom or at home

Quizlet has mobile apps for iPhone or iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, Kindle Fire, and Nook



Related:

StudyStack - free site to create flashcards and other study aids
StudyBlue - create and share flashcards, quizzes, and study guides

zen.do - free tool to take notes and turn them into flashcards

Wordstash - digital flashcards

Braineos - Flashcard games to make your brain happy!

Student Study and Help Sites

Gooru - online study tool with great resources

Thinkbinder - free way to create online study groups with lots of features








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StudyStack - free site to create flashcards and other study aids

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StudyStack is a free site that allows students, or teachers, to create their own flashcards to use as a study aid. You can also search already created flashcards to use. The site also has activities such as matching, crosswords, hangman and more that you can turn your flashcards into to help study a topic. I like this feature because it helps you learn by going through the material in different ways.

As you go through the cards, you can sort them into two piles, correct and incorrect, so that you can review the wrong ones again.

You can access your flashcards on the site, print them out, or export them to a flashcard app. The site supports exporting the flashcards to apps on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, webOS, PalmOS, PocketPC, Blackberry, PC and feature phones. That's an impressive list.

Topics/Categories of existing flashcards include Geography, History, Business, Math, Science, English, Languages, Medical, Test Prep, Aviation, Culinary and much more.

This is another great study resource for students.




Related:

StudyBlue - create and share flashcards, quizzes, and study guides

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nextSTEP magazine and site - for life after high school

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nextSTEP magazine is a great resource for high school students. The magazine itself is not free, although many schools get bulk subscriptions. Their website, http://www.nextstepmagazine.com, does have a lot of free resources for students.

Their tagline is "your life, after high school" and the magazine and web site have advice and information on careers, college planning and more. College search, college planning steps, career descriptions, articles on college life, careers, how to be successful in college, and much more are all on the site.

Our school has a bulk subscription, so the students can pick up a copy in the counselors' offices. Many of the students prefer to just go to the web site. The site has more detailed information than the magazine, along with videos and links to other resources. The site does has all of the articles from the print magazine.

This is a must have resource for high school students.




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TryEngineering - engineering simulations and info on engineering

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TryEngineering is a great site about engineering. It has information on engineering careers, what engineers do, engineering colleges and more.

There are resources for students, teachers, counselors and parents about engineering careers, how to prepare, colleges and more. Students can explore what it takes to become an engineer, find a college, ask questions and get answers from engineers and engineering students, get news about engineering and technology and more.

The coolest part of the site though is the "Games" section. In this section, students can select from 27 different resources where they can design, model, and test products and solutions to problems, simulate engineering projects, answer engineering trivia questions and more. Projects include bionic arms, parachutes, solar cars, roller coasters, bridges and more. Some are hosted/created by TryEngineering and others are links to other sites. There are links to more information about each topic also. Some of the games are Flash Based, some Shockwave based, other HTML.

These "games" and simulations are a great way for students to learn about engineering and apply math, science, and problem solving skills to an authentic problem.





Related:

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Resources for students and Teachers.
(collection of resources, links, and more on science, technology, engineering and math lessons, careers and more)

10 Important Skills Students need for the Future





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Dabbleboard - virtual whiteboard for online collaboration

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Dabbleboard_logo

Dabbleboard is a virtual whiteboard that allows you to create, collaborate and share. It has an excellent interface that is easy to use. You can use it for presentations, homework and study sessions, chat, and as a whiteboard. 

This could be very useful to teachers and students as a way to collaborate and share. There is a free version and then paid plans if you need more functionality. 

Similar to:

Cosketch - online virtual white board you can share with others

Scribblar - online whiteboard

Twiddla - free online team whiteboarding and collaborating



Here is the interface layout:



Here are some examples of what can be done with Dabbleboard:

Splash1 Splash2







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BioInteractive - free resources for science teachers and students

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BioInteractive HomeBioInteractive Home

BioInteractive is a site from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) that provides free resources for science teachers and students.

The site has videos, lectures, animations, links, downloads, lesson ideas, virtual labs and much more. You can even order DVD's of many of their programs for free.

The virtual labs include: Transgenic Fly, Cardiology, Bacteria, Neurophysiology, and Immunology.

The materials were developed by educators and scientists and are excellent.

The HHMI is a great resource itself.




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Wouldn't It Be Cool If...Great invention contest for 10-15 year olds

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Wouldn't It Be Cool If... is a contest for kids, ages 10-15, sponsored by Time Warner Cable's Connect a Million Minds, and i.am FIRST. There are two age categories, 10-12 and 13-15. The challenge is to dream up the "coolest invention idea to make their lives, communities, and even the world more AWESOME."

Students can enter the contest now through March 28th as an individual or teams of 2 or 3 people. The submission is the invention idea and how math and science can make it real.

Winners will be selected by an expert panel of judges and then finalists in each age group will be invited to pitch their ideas, live, to will.i.am, Dean Kamen (master inventor) and other judges at the FIRST Robotics Championship in St. Louis, MO. One grand prize winner may even have their idea developed by innovation firm Fahrenheit 212.

This is a great way to have students apply math and science concepts, creativity, and innovation in a project.

Details on how to enter and official rules are available at the site: http://www.wouldntitbecoolif.com/



Related:

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Resources for Educators

Project Based Learning Resources for Educators

WPI Plan - a great educational model for all schools

10 Important Skills Students need for the Future




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LibreOffice - great free office suite - gets upgrades

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LibreOffice updates to version 3.5, brings grammar check, bigger Calc workbooks, and more

LibreOffice is a free, open-source, powerful office suite software that is a great alternative to Microsoft Office. I use it on my home computers. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and has six applications: Write (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation), Draw, Math and Base (database). It works great and the menu functions are similar to Office 97, so the learning curve is easy. It is built off of the same code base as OpenOffice. I happen to like LibreOffice better and think it runs faster.

One of the great features is that it can open, and save as, files in a variety of formats including Microsoft Office (multiple versions), PDF, ODF, and more. I have mine automatically set to load and save as MS Office files so that they work at school without a problem.

Support is excellent, with a great support site and user forums.

The upgrades include built-in grammar checker and a real time work count window for Writer, ability ti embed multimedia in Impress, and increasing Calc's sheet count up to 10,000 per workbook. That's a spreadsheet I do not want to work with. There are quite a few other upgrades too.

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on office software, download LibreOffice for free. http://www.libreoffice.org/



Related:

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

Google for Educators resources (includes Google Docs)









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yasp! Easy to use Student Planner for Android

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I just recently posted an article entitled "10 Great, Free Apps for Students for Notetaking and Class Planning" which had some great apps for note taking and class planning, and then I found out about Yasp!

Yasp! is a student planner app for Android that is free and has some great features. It's easy to use and set up your class schedule, as well as enter assignments and due dates. In landscape mode, it displays a week view and can support two week schedules (A and B weeks like my school uses). It supports recurring events, class schedules, assignments with reminders, and one time events like exams.

It does not sync to any desktop version, but is very simple and easy to use and will be a great resource for many students.




 


Get it in the Android Market for Free: https://market.android.com/details?id=snok.stubefrie



What are your favorite student planner apps? (for any OS)



Related:

10 Great, Free Apps for Students for Notetaking and Class Planning

Android Smartphone and Apps I use as an educator

Android resources - information, news, resources, and more

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