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Utilizing the Internet for learning:

Also visit Catherine at her weblog for more resources and information on cutting edge uses for technology in instruction. Select 'Links' in the top right bar. View the blogroll and other feeds on the right for conversations with leading tech educators: http://nlcommunities.com/communities/acceleratingminds/default.aspx

• 4Teachers: in English and Spanish, an online site for teachers integrating technology into their classroom: http://4teachers.org/
• 21st Century Skills: This important group of educational, business, and civic leaders is exploring what the future holds for today's students. Their report: Results That Matter, is a must-read and an action plan that we cannot ignore. www.21stcenturyskills.org
• Afterschool Training Toolkit: free enrichment activities, organized by subject area, funded by US Department of Education: http://www.sedl.org/afterschool/toolkits/index.html
• Anti-Phishing Phil: This site is a must! It teaches students (and teachers too) how to recognize phony websites in a game format: http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/antiphishing_phil/
• Asia Society's K-12 International Education initiative: resources page: http://www.internationaled.org/resources.htm
• Blue Web’n Learning Site Library: across the curricular areas- tutorials, activities, projects, lessons, hotlists, resources, references/tools http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
• Brain Boosters: FREE mathematical brainteasers categorized by thinking skill http://school.discovereducation.com/brainboosters and games: http://www.brainconnection.com/teasers/
• Citation Machine: use this resource to make links to cite references on blogs, webpages, etc: http://citationmachine.net/
• College/future planning: sponsored by Minnesota institutions of higher learning, imakeithappen.org is an excellent, interactive, multi-media site available to anyone. Also see: getreadyforcollege.org and http://www.connectedu.net/
• Concept to Classroom: free online professional development for educators on important topics in education such as constructivism, inquiry-based teaching, assessment, afterschool programs & the home/school connection, the Web as an instructional tool, etc. http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/index.html
• Current events: CNN student news, Time for Kids, and Larry Ferlazzo's list
• Curriki: worldwide educational wikis share curriculum thorughout the world: http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
• Del.icio.us: online social bookmarking has a multitude of uses: http://del.icio.us/http://del.icio.us/
• Discovery Schoolhouse: a wealth of information for teachers: http://school.discovery.com/
• Earthshapes: free site in which students create Place Capsules (montages detailing the physical world, natural and built, in which they live) and then share them and ultimately collaboratively merge them to create new environments. www.earthshapes.org
• Education Podcast Network- free podcasts produced by students - elementary through secondary: EPN
• Ed.VoiceThread allows students to post work and talk about it, and allows others to comment on that work. You can keep it private or put it out there on the web: http://ed.voicethread.com/#home
• Eduwikis - free, how to use wikis in education including real-life examples: http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/
• Federal resources for educational excellence: thousands of free resources, lesson plans, and great parent tools as well. http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html The Library of Congress: American Memory: an invaluable collection of historical documents for research and social studies: www.marcopolo-education.org
• Free-ed.net: free courses on many advanced study topics. Credit is not granted, but they are free online tutorials
• The Futures Channel: Why do we have to learn this? Free mini-documentaries linking content area subjects to real careers. This site fills a very important niche! The Futures Channel: Why do we have to learn this? Free mini-documentaries linking content area subjects to real careers. This site fills a very important niche! www.thefutureschannel.com/
• Gaggle.net- free email, blogs, discussion boards, digital lockers designed for schools: www.gaggle.net
• Gaming: the PowerUp game is a free multi-player virtual game to teach engineering, science, & math: http://www.powerupthegame.org/home.html Also see River City Project: http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/ . For a list of educational games see: www.socialimpactgames.com

• Global School Net Foundation: linking students internationally to work on projects that benefit humanity: http://www.globalschoolnet.org/about/index.html
• Google classics - books, music, shopping, scholarly journals, videos... this portal will take you to practically anything on the web: http://www.googleclassics.com/
• Google multilingual search - sources for resources in other languages: http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
• GreenPlanetSearch: free search engine focused upon ecology and green technologies
• Highlight text on the page and make notes, which you can then email or Twitter to others with Awesome highlighter
• Homework Hub: Scholastic's portal page for many great tools, games, tips for kids: http://www.scholastic.com/kids/homework/
• iEarn - linking students globally through digital projects: www.iearn.org
• Inspiring Learners: free downloadable surveys and learning profiles to better get to know your students- www.inspiringlearners.com/resources.htm
• Internet4classrooms - links to just about anything you would need for K-12 education: www.internet4classrooms.com/k12links.htm
• Intervention central: so many resources for behavioral and academic interventions- www.interventioncentral.com/
• Kidzonline: all teachers of middle and high school students absolutely will want to visit this site. It's FREE, and includes guided career information, complete with tailored personality inventories leading to various career paths and interviews with professionals from all walks of life, technology training modules on how to use many applications, lesson plans, and other resources. This is definitely a best of the best site: http://www.kidzonline.org/TechTraining/
• Knowledge Community: This ingenious program from Hong Kong designs globally collaborative projects and scaffolds language and higher order thinking skills. Highly recommended: http://www.globalkc.net/
• Knowledge Network Explorer: AT&T's project to assist educators in using Internet resources and videoconferencing to enhance learning: www.kn.pacbell.com
• Landmarks for Schools Project: this site explores constantly evolving ways to utilize current technology to empower students to collaborate, communicate, and construct knowledge: http://www.landmark-project.com/index.ph
• Math Applets -Wisweb- free, on a number of math strands: http://www.fi.uu.nl/wisweb/en/
• Math Fact Cafe: FREE. Make worksheets quickly and easily, or use their pre-made worksheets. www.mathfactcafe.com
• Math Graphic Organizers: Free - Grades 4-8 , Grades 9-12
• Math Screencasts: FREE narration with accompanying white board explanations- http://math247.pbwiki.com/ and www.coolschooltools.com and Larry Green's Applet page: www.ltcconline.net/greenl/java/index.html#Word_Problems
• National Geographic Society's learning site: www.mywonderfulworld.org
• No Child Left Behind: This is the official site from the US government, with education for teachers and parents. If you’re struggling to understand the law and its complexities, this is the best place to find facts and dispel rumors. You may also order a free Teacher’s Tool Kit and A Parent’s Guide as well. http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml
• NoodleTools - Noodlequest will help students to find the best search engine for their needs: http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest/ or http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html
• Northwest Regional Labs (NWREL) Library in the Sky: www.nwrel.org/sky/
• November Learning: Alan November is a leader and visionary in exploring the interface between technology and its potential to enhance communication and global dialogue among students: http://www.novemberlearning.com/
• Online safety & cyberbullying: free site with comics & videos for kids: www.nsteens.org/
• Oracle Education Foundation's work joins students across time and space as they work on projects through cyber-collaboration: http://www.think.com/en_us/
• Overture- Yahoo's search marketing tool - This site is VERY interesting; students are intrigued by it and become much more aware of the meaning of sponsored links in searches... type a keyword into the search box in the top left, you'll get a list. Click on 'View Advertisers' Max Bids' at the top right, and you'll see the going rate being paid to get the sponsor's 'hit' to show up at the top of the search list. (Varying countries can have different rates... see homepage.) Each time someone clicks on that site from the search engine, the sponsor pays the listed price: http://www.overture.com/d/search/
• Proteacher- lesson plans/content area research and current events: www.proteacher.com
• Puzzlemaker: FREE - put in your content and choose a puzzle format: http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
• Questia: world’s largest online library: www.Questia.com
• Rubistar: FREE - make your own rubrics for project-based activities, or choose from one in the database: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
• Search engines: There are many out there. Some are for web pages, others specifically for blogs or podcasts:
  Altavista: www.altavista.com/
  Ask: www.ask.com and Ask for kids: http://www.askforkids.com/
  Blinkx: online video: www.blinkx.com/
  Easy Whois: who owns a particular URL & domain? Find out! www.easywhois.com/
  ESL Search: only searches websites about teaching and learning English

Feedster: anything with an RSS feed: www.feedster.com/
Google: www.google.com
Google News Archive: http://news.google.com/archivesearch
Grokker: Do you like graphic web formats? www.grokker.com/
Hoax websites: Are students savvy enough to recognize a hoax when they see one? www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoaxsites.html
Informine: scholarly Internet resource collections: http://infomine.ucr.edu/
Internet archive: has the Wayback Machine, as well as other Internet archives and free downloadables: http://www.archive.org/index.php
Ivy's search engine for kids: http://www.ivyjoy.com/rayne/kidssearch.html
Kathy Schrock's guide to help kids critically evaluate web pages: http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html
Librarian's Internet Index (websites you can trust): http://lii.org/
Noodletools: help students to design their search: www.noodletools.com/noodlequest/
Podcast Alley- find podcasts: www.podcastalley.com/
Podzinger - search for audio and video on the web: www.everyzing.com/
Primary sources - Historical American newspapers: or Letters & Diaries Online

Technorati - for blogs

Viewzi - a multi-format search engine in which you can search for photos, videos, sound files, text, and more - all displayed in a visual format

• Second Life: Free to join - there are islands and groups dedicated to teaching and learning English. I can't list them, because there will be new ones every day. If your district blocks it, which is probable, at least more mature students can access it at home once alerted: www.secondlife.com
• Sesame Street: early literacy, games, videos - a very comprehensive site
• Social Impact Games: This site leads us to many 'serious' games, whose primary purpose is other than entertainment. http://www.socialimpactgames.com/
• SuperKids: FREE educational resources, such as math worksheets, vocabulary, logic games. Also has links to their educational software reviews www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/
• Survey-maker for students, free: fo.reca.st
• Superthinkers: problem-solving brainteasers in a solve-the-mystery format. Free
• Teachnology: Generate everything for teaching, aside from perhaps your 3-dimensional avatar so that you can just stay home. You'll love this site: http://www.bestteachersites.com/web_tools/materials/
• Thinkfinity: formerly Marco Polo, this site is a gold mine for teachers. funded in part by Verizon, but with many prestigious partners. Edutopia recently awarded it the best FREE site for lesson plans: www.thinkfinity.com
• Thinkquest's library of student-authored webpages: http://www.thinkquest.org/library/index.html
• TIGed.org: Takingitglobal's teaching and learning site, dedicated to youth making positive changes globally: TIGed.org
• Top 100 tools for learning: browse for the best of the best for your purposes.
• Tutoring online: Fee-based services that charge a flat monthly fee, such as TutorVista , or minutes-used fee-based sites such as Tutor.com, Growing Stars, and SmarThinking
• UC Berkeley's Teaching Library Internet free workshops - the time spent here is wellspent. Educators need to understand the basics of internet use if we are to help our students: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
• Web 2.0 for the classroom: a list of great sites for learning how to use tech in the classroom
• WebQuest: once you discover webquests, you'll use them often! Webquest has a searchable database of FREE fully-developed lesson plans that utilize the web: http://www.webquest.org/
• Wikipedia: FREE online encyclopedia in many languages - it is a wiki and therefore there some doubt validity because viewers may edit, but increasingly reviews are required. Also SimpleEnglishWikpedia and WikiJunior (a wiki with FREE books on various topics geared for students 8-11 years old; not only is this a source of text for our students to read, it's also a good forum for meaningful editing opportunities)
• Writing Fix: if you teach writing, you'll want to know about this site- www.writingfix.com/
• Writing Matters : FREE ezines (also available a fee-based writing curriculum) that allow for your students to comment, and can be used to discuss revision and editing with other students' work in an online format- www.writingmatters.org
• YouthLearn: Free- Lessons plans and projects integrating technology.