MentorMob offers a convenient way of organizing online content into playlists. Playlists may include articles, videos, images, and websites. These playlists can be embedded on any other website. Teachers may wish to use these playlists to organize information they present to learners on a particular subject. Or, learners might want to create playlists to help show what they are learning. I really like MentorMob’s tagline: ‘learn what you want, teach what you love’. This sounds like my kind of school!

MentorMob is seeking to create a community where members collaborate to create, edit, and refine playlists. There is also the opportunity to provide constructive feedback. I haven’t created a playlist yet, but I have checked out the user interface, and it doesn’t look at all difficult. It looks as though a playlist’s creator can set the desired level of privacy.

Rather than try to describe MentorMob in detail, I’ve embedded the introductory video as well as an example of a recently created playlist.

Mathematics 4.0 can be installed and run on its own in Windows 7, Vista or XP. It can also be installed as an add-in that will run within MS Word 2010,  MS OneNote 2010, or MS Word 2007. The standalone option means that the program can be used without having to purchase MS Word or OneNote. [The add-in can be downloaded HERE, and the standalone program HERE. If your computer system is 64-bit, you'll need to download MSetup_x64.exe. If you have a 32-bit system, download MSetup_x86.exe.]

Mathematics 4.0 enables the user to “do” math on the computer. This is helpful for anyone who has difficulty using pencil and paper. In the context of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) the program is also helpful because it offers powerful visual alternatives for representing information to learners, as well as options for action and expression. For example, the graphing calculator can animate graphsof 2D and 3D equations. Below is a list of what Microsoft says the program will do:

The Microsoft Mathematics Add-in can help you with the following tasks:

• Compute standard mathematical functions, such as roots and logarithms
• Compute trigonometric functions, such as sine and cosine
• Find derivatives and integrals, limits, and sums and products of series
• Perform matrix operations, such as inverses, addition, and multiplication
• Perform operations on complex numbers
• Plot 2-D graphs in Cartesian and polar coordinates
• Plot 3-D graphs in Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates
• Solve equations and inequalities
• Calculate statistical functions, such as mode and variance, on lists of numbers
• Factor polynomials or integers
• Simplify or expand algebraic expressions

My math skills are such that I am not competent to review Mathematics 4.0 properly. I refer you instead to the excellent review posted by Murray Bourne on his website, squareCircleZ. Keyboard shortcuts are available for Mathematics 4.0, but I don’t know if these are sufficient for use by someone who is blind. Mohan Manohar Mekar has written a post listing and describing the available keyboard commands. Embedded below is Microsoft’s promotional video.

Microsoft promotes Mathematics 4.0 as a teaching tool, and it can indeed be used to great effect by teachers of Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Physics, or Chemistry. If I were teaching any of these subjects, I would want to use this program, via projector, to help explain, demonstrate, and review. Mathematics 4.0 is also an impressive learning tool for individual independent exploration and for completing assigned work. This is a program that can be used by learners in the classroom and at home.

Pictured below are the two main user interfaces of the program. I find it noteworthy that handwriting can be entered when the program is open on a tablet computer.

Qwiki‘s stated goal is to “…forever improve the way people experience information.“  Although Qwiki is still under development, I think they’re off to a great start!  There is nothing unusual about Qwiki’s search box.  It’s the multi-modal way in which search results are presented that is truly exceptional.

In response to a query,  Qwiki presents a slide show of related images, along with text that is read aloud in a high quality voice by a text-to-speech engine.  The slide show and scrolling text can be paused, and the source of an image is revealed by rolling the cursor over it.

When a ‘Qwiki’ ends, you are offered links to Qwikis about related subjects. There are also links to articles on the same topic in Wikipedia, Fotopedia, and Youtube, along with Google search results for the term.

Clicking on the ‘Contents’ tab of a Qwiki yields yet another way of accessing the information.  The text of the article is displayed next to the related images.  A convenient option for printing the article is available as well.  Qwiki articles can be embedded elsewhere, or shared via Facebook or Twitter.

Check out the Qwiki of the Himalayas that I’ve embedded below.

CTG10 – Collection of Free Digital Resources to Support UDL

I’ve just linked my blog to a wiki that I created last fall, so I thought I’d describe the wiki here.  I’ve put a great deal of effort into it, so the more widely the wiki is used, the happier I’ll be!  I first shared this resource in a pre-conference session at  Closing the Gap in Minneapolis last October.

The wiki has been organized around the 3 fundamental principles of Univeral Design for Learning–Multiple Means of Representation;  Multiple Means of Action and Expression; Multiple Means of Engagement.

The rapidly growing number of quality digital resources available online is huge!!!  I’ve organized and presented some of these in as user friendly a manner as I could manage.  Straight lists of links don’t work well for me, so I’ve included logo images and point-form descriptions.

CLiCk,Speak works well to provide text-to-speech in the tables on the wiki, as long as you are using Firefox 3.6 or earlier.  I believe that means FireVox should work for those who need a screen reader.

The resources linked on the wiki include both online applications and programs that can be downloaded and installed for offline use.  At the bottom of the FrontPage of the wiki is a ‘Table of Contents’ with links to each of the other wiki pages.

This is how the resource collections are organized.

]]> http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2011/01/09/ctg10-udl-resource-collection/feed/ 0 http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2011/01/01/fresh-starts-new-beginnings-and-a-udl-presentation/ http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2011/01/01/fresh-starts-new-beginnings-and-a-udl-presentation/#comments Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:27:14 +0000 Paul Hamilton http://paulhami.edublogs.org/?p=2322 Continue reading →]]> I love sunrises! For as long as I can remember,  I’ve appreciated the way sunrises organize time.  With each sunrise, we’re presented with a brand new day.  For me, this has always offered the promise of a new beginning with the chance to start over.

In a similar vein, New Years Day seems an apt time to make a fresh start with my blog.  I’ve been away from the blog for much of 2010.  Now I believe it’s time to start sharing here again. Dean Shareski was spot-on when he described sharing as a “moral imperative” for educators in his pre-conference keynote for the 2010 K12 Online Conference.

There are, of course, countless ways for an educator to share.  I’m convinced, however, that with its potential for embedding a wide range of media, and thereby offering multiple means of representation, the blog remains one of the most powerful vehicles for sharing.  I will continue to highlight free digital resources that support learning, but I’m not exactly how I will refine my focus.

Today, I begin by sharing a presentation on Universal Design for Learning.  I had the privilege of sharing this in person in Minneapolis in October and again in Hong Kong in November.  For anyone keen on educational reform and looking for a sound pedagogical approach to using technology in the learning adventure, I believe UDL is worth more than  just a look.

[I shot the sunrise scene above from Landour, in the Indian foothills of the Himalayas.  This is where I lived as a boy, and where I taught from 1981 to 1990.]

In Teaching Every Student, David Rose and Anne Meyer  observe that “…a person who appears learning disabled in a print-bound, text-based environment may look extraordinarily skilled in a graphics or video-based environment.” There are indeed learners for whom video is especially helpful, but I believe that all learners benefit tremendously from access to video. That’s why, in a universally designed learning environment video is made freely available to everyone.

With all the online video that is readily available on almost any subject imaginable, it is a truly wonderful time to be a learner!  TechCrunch reported recently that there are now nearly 17 billion video clips online.  The challenge, therefore, lies in finding the most useful and highest quality video. WatchKnow does a great deal to help meet this challenge; and it is a resource that should be familiar to anyone who wants to foster a UDL learning environment.

WatchKnow has indexed and organized 18,485 online educational videos as of today. Site organizers aim to increase that total to 50,000 by the end of 2010.  All videos have been organized by category and sub-category.  For example, the 2,490 videos listed under mathematics have been sub-divided into 15 categories that range from “Number Sense” to “Calculus” and “Math in the Real World”.

WatchKnow has been organized as a Web 2.0 community where input is welcome from all.  Users are encouraged to add videos.  Since WatchKnow is funded by a foundation, however, teachers and librarians have been hired to edit the directory.  Each video is accompanied by a description, age level information and rating.  Access to videos does not require registration, but you must register if you wish to add videos to the collection.

Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is the executive director of WatchKnow.  He offers an overview of WatchKnow in the video below.

Every learner is uniquely gifted, and has his or her own unique set of learning needs. I’ve concluded that a one-size-fits-all approach to learning has done more harm than good in the lives of countless children who have been subjected to it.  I never have to look far to find  heart wrenching evidence of this reality–individuals who have  “learned”  in school that they are incompetent failures.

There are no magic bullets, and our model for schooling is inherently flawed; but the situation is far from hopeless.  Universal Design for Learning (UDL) offers  both a research-based theoretical framework and a practical approach that can go a long way toward meeting the unique needs of the individual learners in our classrooms.

The video below offers an excellent introductory overview of UDL.  Following the link above will take you deeper.  If you are not familiar with UDL, please take a serious look.

So what to do about the backlog of literally hundreds of worthwhile resources that I would love to share here?  The list is constantly growing!  I’ve concluded that it might be helpful for you to know where I look first as I trawl for free resources that support a UDL approach to learning.

It should come as no surprise that I find almost everything on other blogs.  If you aren’t subscribing to blogs with a “reader”, I encourage you to begin doing so.  At the end of this post, I’ll embed the Common Craft video ‘Google Reader in Plain English’.  I use Google Reader to keep up with the blogs that I subscribe to, and I recommend it highly.

Here are the blogs where I find most of the resources that I share.

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day

• Larry is an ESL teacher in Sacramento, California.  He is also a prolific blogger, who normally posts to his blog several times a day.  Larry also does an excellent job of listing the websites that he writes about, by category, with literally thousands of cataloged online resources.  Virtually all of these resources are free.

Free Technology for Teachers

• The author of this blog is Richard Byrne, a high school teacher from the state of Maine.  He is another prolific blogger who writes several posts each day about free resources.  In addition to reviewing resources that might be of value to learners at all levels, Richard has recently posted helpful screencasts that illustrate how to use some of these resources.

Free Resources for Education

• This is Patricia Donaghy’s blog.  Patricia is a post-secondary educator in Dublin, Ireland.  Patricia posts regularly; and I’ve discovered some resources on her site that have proven to be invaluable.  Patricia also hosts the International Edubloggers Directory, which connects people who are involved in education from all over the world.

Welcome to NCS-Tech!

• Kevin Jarrett, a K-4 Computer Teacher and Technology Facilitator in New Jersey.  Although Kevin does not always write about resources, most of Kevin’s frequent posts offer detailed reviews of K-8 resources that he is excited about.  Almost all of the resources reviewed by Kevin are free.

Teachers Love SMART Boards

• James Hollis is the blogger here, and he’s based in Illinois.  Clearly, James’ focus is on resources that can be used effectively on the SMART board.  Much of what James writes about, however, also works well on standalone computers or in networked computer labs.  If my memory serves, the resources that James highlights are always free.  I appreciate James’ signature statement at the end of each blog post — Sharing is Caring!

Talking SMART Boards and Much More

• The author of this blog is Anne Marie.  She’s been a special education teacher for over 25 years.  She posts regularly, shares a wide range of helpful free online resources on her blog.

Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs

• Kate Ahearn is the prolific host of this blog.  Not all of the resources that Kate shares are free, but many are.  Quite often, Kate shares low cost alternatives to costly resources.  Kate posts regularly and frequently to her blog, and her posts are always worth reading.  She not only shares resources, but she offers practical suggestions in terms of effective use.  I believe that anyone working with learners who have complex special needs ought to subscribe to Kate’s blog.

Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day

• Jane Hart is a Social Media and Learning Consultant in the UK.  Not all of the resources that Jane highlights are free, but many of them are.  Sometimes I first learn of something when Jane puts it forward as her ‘Pick of the Day’.  I also appreciate Jane’s ‘Top 100 Tools for Learning’ lists.  These lists are compiled with input from users.

Demo Girl

• Demo Girl Molly McDonald and her sister Maureen are not ‘educators’ as we commonly, and narrowly, define that term.  (I have commented on her blog,  however, that I thought Molly ought to consider taking up teaching.)  This is a blog where I sometimes first discover a powerful and valuable Web 2.0 application.  All of the posts on this blog contain screencasts  that demonstrate how an application works.  This means that the Demo Girl archives are worth checking out if you are ever in need of a screencast to explain an application.

GOTOWEB20

• This blog is authored by Orli Yakuel in Israel.  She highlights numerous brand new Web 2.0 applications, so this is another place where I have first become aware of some genuine gems.  Orli catalogs the applications she blogs about in a special directlory that is worth checking out.

These are not my only sources for resources, the majority of my “finds” come from these.  I encourage you to check them out and to consider subscribing to some of them in a “reader”.  Here’s the promised Common Craft video that explains Google Reader in plain lanuage.

In our digital era,  all learners benefit from developing proficiency with multimedia presentation tools.  For some learners, especially those who struggle with using text to share thoughts and ideas, multimedia tools may be essential.  This is why I am so eager to promote effective applications for multimedia presentation.

As I’ve used it recently, PhotoPeach has emerged as one of my favorite online multimedia applications.

• It is extremely easy to use.
• Photos upload relatively quickly.
• Photos automatically pan for dramatic effect.
• Text captions can be added to any slide.
• Full screen viewing works well (if resolution of originals is high).
• Music available from PhotoPeach library or Youtube video.
• Easy to share via email, Twitter, facebook, MySpace, embed code, or URL.

I particularly like the way that adding text captions has been facilitated.  Music does not have to be added, but the choices here are interesting.  If you don’t wish to use any of the selections from PhotoPeach’s library, you can search for the sound track from an appropriate Youtube video to be played along with the slide show.

If you wish to view a sample, I took some slides from our recent road trip to Mexico and used them to create the PhotoPeach show that I’ve embedded below.  You can jump easily to a full screen view.  (This does not who up in Google Reader, so you may need to click HERE, or go to my original post if you wish to check it out.)

I want to share a video put together by one of the teachers who was enrolled in our course.  Myriah relates her personal journey in overcoming some of her learning challenges.  I find the arrogant ignorance of some of Myriah’s college teachers appalling.  How do you respond?

Celebrating Diversity from myriahmichaux on Vimeo.