Tech Tools for History
Jeff Astor – Simon Technology HS
Metryx
• Free! Metryx is a formative assessment
tool that allows teachers to "track, analyze,
and differentiate" students across any
number of customizable skill sets. Teachers
can import class rosters and skill sets, and
individually track students across each skill
set as they perform various classroom
activities. Metryx appears especially useful
for project-based learning, skills
demonstration, and other activities where
multiple-choice assessment data can't fully
convey student progress.
Poll Everywhere
• Poll Everywhere creates stylish
real-time experiences for
events using mobile devices
• It's the easiest way to gather
live responses in any venue:
conferences, presentations,
classrooms, radio, tv, print —
anywhere. And because it
works internationally with
texting, web, or Twitter, its
simplicity and flexibility are
earning rave reviews.
ThingLink
Eyewitness to History
• Free! Eyewitness to History s a collection of
primary resources and thoughtful commentary
covering historical events from ancient history to
WWII. The primary resources are largely
composed of eyewitness accounts excerpted
from diaries, manuscripts, and other historical
documents. The 18th century collection, for
example, includes nearly 30 events largely
centered around the American Revolution. The
wealth of resources is free, but banner ads for
blockbuster movies and Xbox may prove a
distraction for some students.
Google Treks
• Free! Google Treks is a comprehensive set of web 2.0
lessons built primarily on top of Google Maps. Created by
Dr. Alice Christie and a core team of collaborators, Google
Treks offers lessons in science, mathematics, social
studies, language arts, art, music, and health-- all in the
context of geographic locations. Curious about the history
of famous earthquakes? There's a map for that. Need to
convey the scope and complexity of the Underground
Railroad? There's a map for that, too. Looking to
demonstrate good accounting practices by planning a
vacation? Yup, in fact… well, you get the picture.
Newsela
• Free! One of the most frequent requests these
days is for "leveled texts," or content written to
the level appropriate for a specific reader. East
coast-based startup Newsela is doing exactly
that: creating texts that have five different
levels of reading complexity. All the text is build
around the news. Newspaper writers take a
story from a McClatchy paper and rewrite it
four times, corresponding to a total of five
Lexile levels of difficulty.
Exit Ticket
• Free! ExitTicket is a classroom and feedback
system designed to work on any smartphone or
tablet that enables students and teachers to get
real-time feedback any time during class. Teachers
can select questions from a database or choose
their own as the basis for quizzes, polls, and other
"rich media questions". ExitTicket really shines as a
pulse-test of whether most students understood the
core of a lesson--before they walk out the door.
The tool now offers a Lite version to teachers free
of charge. The accompanying student module is
available via web or through the iTunes App
Store.
Voxy
Free! Voxy is a language learning tool
steered by user interest and location to
create language lessons that stick. The
system consists of a web interface with
targeted learning activities and a mobile
app for on-the-go lessons and reminders.
The system is meant to "follow" the user
and create an immersion-like experience
that incentivizes learning with interesting
content. Voxy works hard to make it fun;
users translate popular songs, learn
vocabulary based on location, and read real
news stories curated by their own interests.
Synopsis by: Laura Costello
DuoLingo
Synopsis by: Laura Costello
Free! DuoLingo hopes to harness the energy
of language learning in order to translate the
Internet.
Luis
von
Ahn,
creator
of reCAPTCHA, worked to produce the tool
which, like reCAPTCHA, crowdsources
humans to do what computers cannot. One
of the few language learning startups aimed
at intermediate and advanced language
learners, DuoLingo lures language learners
to the program with the potential rewards of
contributing to the greater good. After a brief
lesson that introduces grammar and
vocabulary points through a variety of rapidfire challenges, users are able to put their
new skills to work translating snippets from
Wikipedia and around the web.
Tech Tools and Commentary Pulled
From Edsurge Index!
Check out the Resources available!
Everything can be found there
neatly categorized.
Thanks for participating and I hope
this helped!
Feel free to contact me further
with questions, comments,
concerns, feedback, or just to get in
touch: Jastor@laalliance.org