Friggatriskaidekaphobic Friday Four

Friday Four – April 13

I am hopeful that few of you are actually friggatriskaidekaphobic and will be able to concentrate on this week’s interesting/intriguing finds. The first two finds are a couple of really neat online tools that I came across in the past week. At least one of them came from one of my favorite sources of free stuff, Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne), who writes the Free Technology For Teachers blog. If you are unfamiliar with Richard’s blog, you need to visit the site and add his blog to your RSS feed.

  • Instagrok is a search engine/mind mapping tool that is designed for education. Below is a little video that explains the basics of instagrok. Accounts are free and the tool is pretty easy to use. Give it a try!

  •  The second neat web-based tool I came across this week is called conceptboard. With conceptboard, you can collaborate on a document or a virtual whiteboard with peers and hold a virtual “working meeting.” I tried it out the other day and was impressed with its ease of use and the tools that are included. Could be a great tool for groups to brainstorm ideas for a presentation or to peer edit a document. Below is a brief video introduction to conceptboard.

  • I have been a fan of Daniel Willingham ever since I read his book “Why Don’t Students Like School?” and follow him on Twitter (@DTWillingham). He recently posted a list of FAQs about learning styles that I found interesting. He includes a link to a video in which he explains why learning styles as many have come to “know” them, do not exist.
  • I enjoy reading Tom Whitby’s (@tomwhitby) posts on his blog and found a recent one of his to be thought provoking and somewhat appropriate after our recent faculty day when we asked people to stretch a little and learn something new that they might incorporate into their teaching.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *