Google Street View Just Keeps Getting Better

Google's amazing Street View just keeps getting better and better.  Use this in your classroom to take students on virtual field trips anywhere in the world with incredible 360 degree panoramic views.  Imagery from inside the Colosseum in Rome is newly available in street view, as are a variety of other World Landmarks including the C.N. Tower, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and many more.  You can even ski the slopes of Whistler through Street View.

One of my personal favourites is Stonehenge, where it is actually possible to get the 360 degree view from inside the circle that you can't even get if you visit in person!

You can also visit the Street view home page to teach your students how Google creates the Street View images.

All you need is a data projector connected to one of your classroom computers to open up a world of possibilities to your students using Google Street View.

Wallwisher - A Virtual Bulletin Board for Your Classroom

Wallwisher is a free online application that allows you to instantly create an  online bulleting board.  You can share the customized URL you create with your students, who can then post text and links to images on the wall.  This is a great way to add instant online collaboration to your lessons.  Imagine your students responding on a class Wall to a read aloud, adding new vocabulary to a Wall as part of a literature circle, brainstorming as a pre-writing activity, and much more!  Add your own ideas for using Wallwisher to our 6 Easy Clicks Wall.

Podcasting in Kindergarten!

I was recently at Waverly P.S. visiting a Kindergarten classroom and was amazed by the innovative and exciting ways that teacher Monica Cheung is using Audacity for podcasting with her kindergarten students.  Visit Miss Cheung and Mrs. Leslie's Super Awesome Kindergarten Page to listen to podcasts of the students describing their learning at classroom centres, reciting poems, responding to stories, and much more!  Imagine the powerful ways parents can be engaged in their children's learning by listening to these wonderful student podcasts.

Primary Story Writing With Storybird!

Storybird is another great online application that has a teacher dashboard that allows teachers to create a class and monitor student accounts in a similar way to BitStrips and KidBlog.

Storybird allows children to select from preset art libraries and write stories to to match the illustrations.  The finished "storybirds" are beautiful picture book versions of the students' original stories that can be read online in an engaging full screen book format.  Students can also invite classmates as collaborators on their stories, and read the published stories of their classmates.

Your primary students will love creating stories in this engaging online format.  Get started here by creating a teacher account and adding students.

Start Blogging As Early As Grade 1

In today's world, it can be argued that writing for an online audience is an entirely new form of writing that students need to be exposed to from an early age.

KidBlog is the perfect platform to introduce young primary and junior students to the concept of blogging. Teachers can quickly add students to a class, using an easy to use teacher dashboard that is very similar to Bit Strips. Within this dashboard, teachers can set access levels and turn comment moderation on or off. This allows the teacher to create a protected class blog that can only be viewed by students, with comments that are only visibile upon teacher approval.

Microblogging

Many of our kids are excited about using social media in their own lives.  Can we leverage the appeal of 140 character thoughts in our classroom?  You be the judge - Twiducate allows teachers to create a class of students and have the students communicate in a Twitter-type style.