20 Tools and Ideas For Using Primary Sources With Technology! Oh, Those Amazing Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 Tools Meet Primary Sources. Two Geeky Teachers share ideas for Using Technology to Highlight Primary Sources in the Classroom.

Well we started with 10 ideas and once we multiplied it with primary sources we loved, and great tools to use, we ended up with over 250 ideas for using primary sources in the classroom! History, Art, Historic Preservation, Science...it's all there!

We are thrilled to be presenting at the National Council for Social Studies (#NCSS17) and even happier that we can share our love of primary sources and technology with participants and friends at the conference in San Francisco.

We are deeply proud to be part of the team from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Regional Center in Colorado who are presenting in San Francisco and will be tweeting out resources this week (and next) to showcase ideas on how to merge Web 2.0 and Social Media tools with the rich collections and digital resources from the Library of Congress.

If you don't know about the Library of Congress TPS program check out their links here: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/

Here's a list of great tools and ideas! Check some of them out and bring non-fiction, primary sources, critical thinking, and 21st century skills into your classroom!Check out the links below for social studies, literacy, student engagement, science, math, art, architecture, and historic preservation ideas using primary sources from the Library of Congress (LOC.gov )

 

Adobe Animoto

Blabberize

Campayn

Easel.ly

Edpuzzle

Flipgrid Flipboard

GSuite

I-nigma

Instagram

Jigsaw Planet

Kahoot

Livebinder

Minecraft

Nearpod Padlet

Peardeck

Picmonkey

Pinterest

Popplet

Quizzlet

SMORE

Symbaloo

Twitter

Vocaroo

WeVideo

Librarian's List of Resources!

One of my favorite colleagues, High School Teacher Librarian Tiffany Stephens, created a list of blogs and people to follow after polling the other Teacher Librarians in the Adams 12 School District.  These are amazing resources and I suggest reading them in Flipboard on your iPad!

Recommended Education Technology Sites and Blogs:

Edtechteacher

Information about mobile devices, web tools, subject specific sites and apps, and articles on assessment and rubri cs

You can follow via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or sign up for a monthly newsletter.

EduTecher-

Tech integration ideas by subject.  Lots of technology instructional videos such as “5 Tips and Tricks for a Smartboard”

You can follow via Facebook, Twitter, RSS Feed or sign up for a monthly newsletter.

4Teachers

Integration ideas and resources including resources for Spanish speakers, ELL students, and special needs students.  There are also links to technology grant information.

educlipper

A “Pinterest” style website specifically for educators

Nikki D Robertson on paper.li

paper.li is a “curration platform” much like scoop.it  Nikki Robertson currates a site with general education and educational tech news.   Robertson is a cofounder of EdcampATL.  

You can follow via email and RSS Feed

Two Geeky Teachers

Our very own Laura Israelson and her colleague, Michelle Pearson have created a handy blog with a bunch of information about tech integration ideas and stories about successful collaborations at Hulstrom.  

You can follow via RSS Feed

21st Century Educational Technology and Learning

Great links to Project-based learning ideas and resources, applications, and more.  Named one of 11 “edtech bloggers to follow in 2014”

You can follow on Twitter, RSS Feed, and email.

Hobbit Librarian Scoops

Jen Alevy (former AD12 TL and current TL in Chennai, India) currates this scoop.it site with lots of great articles about information literacy and digital technology.  

You can follow via a scoop.it account

Edudemic

Great site that includes Teacher’s Guides, e.g. Teacher’s Guide to Twitter and Teachers’ Guide to Fliiped Classrooms.  Evaluations of educational hardware and software, as well as very current articles on technology and education.

Can follow on Twitter, Facebook, and RSS Feed.

Edutopia

A dynamic website for all things education brought to you by the George Lucas Foundation.  The site emphasizes Project Based Learning and offers ideas and tools to implement PBL in your schools.

You can follwo edutopia on facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.  You can also follow individual bloggers within the site via email.  

A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet

A good list of resources including resource lists for projects, web tools, infographics and ebooks from Julie Greller, a Media Specialist (does someone still use that term????) at Ridgefield Junior/Senior High School

You can follow via Google+, Twitter, or RSS Feed.

Free Technology for Teachers

Lots of resources about apps, tools, and teacher guides.  

You can follow on Twitter, facebook, Pinterest, Google+, linkedIn, and RSS Feed.

Never Ending Search-SLJ

Research, Information Literacy, and Digital Tools recommended by Celebrity Teacher Librarian Joyce Valenza.

.You can follow Joyce on Twitter.

Youth Summit Students and Teachers Giving Feedback on Amache Exhibit Website

Laura Says: We got to work together today with some of our Youth Summit students from around the state and some cool museum buddies.  They came to give feedback on a site that they helped to brainstorm.  It is about the Amache Exhibit at the Colorado History Museum and replicates much of the experience you would have at the museum.  There were a few glitches that the kids found and they had some great ideas for additional material including ways to involve kids from around the state.  It is so important to provide ways for students to have buy in.  Everyone wins when we take the time to work together!  We will post more about these interactive opportunities and online gems!  
Michelle Says: It was a true gift to hear the wealth of knowledge come from these guys and the director of education at the museum and a couple of educators nudged them with some great questions.But it was the kids that caught my attention... from the comments about how one of the interactive games should operate, to the wording of the scrapbook and captions, they had a lot to say and it was all valid. (even more amazing was when a certain browser did not work and they effortlessly tried typical admin solutions like changing to other browsers and settings without asking. Windows/Mac  iPhone, iPad, they were all over each device without a blink. They are navigation whiz kids! ) Their feedback helped the staff of History Colorado understand how kids would walk through an online exhibit site. I think one of the best things was to see them relate the information in the online exhibit to their recent field study at Amache, and their school projects and summer time spent on Mindcraft and other games and websites. They had very determined ideas about the stories that should be told and what themes rose to the surface of the exhibit. 

Tech Tools for the Elementary Classroom

#1 – Livebinders

Ok, Livebinders is kind of amazing!!!  So think about the binders you have in your classroom that hold all of your resources.  It’s just like that, but web based!!  You can access those resources from any computer, anywhere!  You need to create an account, but it’s F-R-E-E!    You can view other people’s binders as well!  

#2 Class Pager

Have you ever been to a restaurant or a store and seen those signs that say “Text ‘blahblahblah’ to 55552 to receive coupon codes”?  Well this is just like that!!  You can give your parents a code to text to a number and then you can send them updates via text message!  A good example of this would be to remind them of upcoming tests, parent conference reminders, school event reminders, etc.  SO COOL, right?  Check it out!

#3 Kerpoof

It is a bright, colorful website where you can create movies, cards, drawings, and little books/stories!  This would be awesome to have students use this to create a drawing and/or picture to go with a story they wrote!

#4 Zooburst

“ZooBurst is a digital storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create his or her own 3D pop-up books.”  This is similar to Kerpoof, but it’s a tad bit more user friendly (in my opinion).  So this would probably be great to use in primary classrooms.  This is also available as an app so you can have it on you iPad!

#5 Symbaloo

 It’s like all your bookmarks on one screen!  It creates little “tiles” for you.  You can also create different “webmixes”.  You can have a “webmix” for math and bookmark all your favorite math sites there.  You can create one for language arts, and have all of your favorite online language arts resources right there.  You can also search for other people’s tiles and add them to your “webmix”.  And they tiles are cute little icons, which is great if you are a visual person like me!  It might sound a little confusing now, but go check out the website and play around on it and you will see what I’m talking about!!  You MUST check this one out!!  It’s amazing!  Here is a symbaloo that I have posted on my library website: