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This is a simple wiki designed to create a top 50 websites that enhance teaching and learning. Please list your favorite websites with a brief description.

1. [|Apple Learning Interchange] - Educator created lessons and activities. Rich with movies, images and podcasts. Special collections from content providers

2. [|Animoto] - Takes just minutes to create a video. Bring your lessons to life. Post/embed videos elsewhere or download them for in-class presentations! Also check out [|Animoto for educaiton]

3. [|CircaVie]. I think it’s the easiest online application for creating timelines and incorporating images. It can be used in any number of lessons.

4. [|VoiceThread]. You can upload pictures and create an audio narrative to go along with them. In addition, audio comments can be left by visitors. VoiceThread also provides a great deal to teachers by allowing them to get their premium services for free, including allowing them to create a zillion VoiceThreads for free. Happily, they’ve finally incorporated the feature of allowing you to include images off the web just by inserting its url.

5. [|Graspr] a site where users can upload (and watch) “how-to” or “instructional” videos to do just about anything. One of the features, though, that makes Graspr a little different from the others is the ability for the viewer to write online notes about what they see — while they’re watching. I help my students learn reading strategies (asking questions, making connections, etc.) so they can become better…readers. We also talk in class about how we can become better listeners by using these same kind of strategies while in conversations and while watching movies. This site is an interesting, and challenging, way for English Language Learners to try this out.

6. [|The Broth] It lets you create password-protected private “rooms” where people can cooperate on creating a piece of art. In addition, it has a chat component that lets you talk with people who are in the room at the same time.

7. [|Book Glutton], an intriguing web application that allows groups of people to read books over the Internet and “chat” and leave comments about what they’re reading. That’s okay, but I think it’s their “uploading” feature (that they recently began) that will really be useful. You can then upload your own materials and have groups chatting and leaving comments about it. I could see that really having potential for online discussions of short articles between classes in the same school that meet during different periods and with sister classes in different parts of the world.

8. [|“The Digital Vaults.”] It’s an entry into the vast resources of the National Archives, and allows you to use those resources to create your own movies, posters, and what it calls “Pathway Challenges” to… challenge others to find connections between a series of images, documents, and other resources you put together.

9. [|Search Me] search engine. It’s an excellent search engine that shows snapshots of the webpages in addition to text information. In addition you can create “stacks” of categorized sites, images, and videos; embed them in a blog or website; and/or email them to a friend or teacher. You can also write some kind of description, or tag, for each site. This kind of application is great for categorization activities, and teachers can also easily create “stacks” of webpages, videos, or images that they want students to review.

10. [|Book Goo]. It’s a new tool that lets you upload documents or webpages and then annotate and share them. Others can also then annotate the same document. You can draw on the documents as well. I have students use the notes to demonstrate reading strategies on webpages.

11. [|HippoCampus]. It has great (and complete) online and accessible textbooks for many subjects, including History and Government. Their resources include extraordinary multimedia presentations.

12. [|Learn About Congress] is a site sponsored by Indiana University and is ranked fourth on my list. It has several videos and animations designed to show how the United States Congress works.

13. [|Awesome Stories] Awesome Stories has been a great source of information, particularly about history, for students since it began in 1999. It has thousands of very accessible stories about countless subjects.

14. [|Ology] from the American Museum of Natural History. It has numerous excellent activities on topics like biodiversity, archeology, and astronomy.

15. Houghton Mifflin Science’s [|Discover! Simulations]. These are extraordinary interactives covering many areas. It also has a good glossary with audio support. (Middle School)

16. [|Learning Science] A partnership, including Temple University and a local school district, has developed the site. It has a great collection online science activities. MATH resources here as well.

17. [|FOSSweb] It’s the online component of the exceptional curriculum created by the University of California. it has a series of science experiments students can explore online. The activities are based on grade levels - from kindergarten to middle school. You need a password to access the middle school exercises, but you can obtain that in less than a minute.

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