Topmarks bills itself as an “Educational Search Engine”.  It is certainly that–and more!  It is a site where you search from pre-selected resources that are some of the best available on the web.  Topmarks claims that “All of the content on Topmarks is carefully reviewed by qualified teachers and regularly re-checked because of the changing nature of the web.”  My exploration of the Topmarks site suggests this claim to be accurate.

You can do a general search of the Topmarks site.  For example, if you enter “number line”, the search returns 30 activities that use the number line to help learn mathematical concepts.   The majority of these are high quality flash activities that lend themselves to use on an individual computer or on an interactive white board.  The targeted learning level is suggested for each activity.

Or, You can search for learning activities by subject area and by age level.  The list of subjects is extensive, and the age range extends from early years through higher education.

Now Topmarks has a special place dedicated specifically to helping teachers find resources that work well on an interactive whiteboard.  If you are using an interactive whiteboard, I think you need to check this out!

Cobalt – Edusim is downloadable educational software for creating and using virtual worlds in the classroom.  This software is being developed specifically with collaboration and the interactive whiteboard in mind.  Edusim is still at the alpha stage of development, but I believe it holds incredible promise for  learners at all levels.  I suspect that Edusim will be especially appealing to some of the learners I work with who have identified “special” needs.

Here’s how Rich summarizes what Edusim offers:

Cobalt – Edusim is a 3D multi-user virtual world platform and authoring toolkit intended for your classroom interactive whiteboard (but equally powerful on the students laptop or desktop computers!) Cobalt – Edusim has been tested and works on the Smartboard, Activeboard, Interwriter, Polyvision, Mimio, eBeam, and even the Wiimote Whiteboard. Edusim is extendable allowing multiple classrooms to connect their interactive whiteboards for collaborative learning session.

Although Edusim hasn’t yet been released in beta, it is already available for download.  The site offers quick-start tutorials, suggested ways to use Edusim in the classroom, as well as helpful video examples.  Here’s the introductory video, showing Edusim in action.

Crickweb offers an extremely well organized collection of high quality learning activities. Activities are organized by level and subject area. Navigation through the site to find an activity is as easy here as I’ve seen anywhere.

Here’s what Crickweb says it offers:

• 163 free to use educational interactive resources for Primary Schools
• 16 free to use fun games for children aged 4 – 11
• 100 web links to other free interactive image and software resources

You actually get more. Check out all you get with a single item called “The Math Teacher’s Toolkit” under Numeracy for Key Stages 1.