IWB Resources – some ideas

To be honest I have never been impressed by the resources produced by Boardworks. In reality, the  ideal IWB resources are those that you are comfortable with, and can use well, thus this is not a list of the best, bust just some ideas, highlighting some I have found useful. Most are not very interactive, as interactivity comes with how the resource is used. The following list in in no particular order.

http://prezi.com/ I use this as alternative to MS Powerpoint as I got tired of the linear  nature of the Powerpoint. Prezi allows greater freedom, as the presentation is displayed as a map, allowing greater spontaneity when presenting. The benefits given to teachers is a very nice touch.

http://earth.google.co.uk/ Google Earth and Google maps are wonderful toys, especially with the additions, giving students trails to follow is useful, also the ability to adapt the map with template and information points makes this resources very useful in the classroom. See http://thenandnow.edublogs.org/about/google-earth-and-the-holocaust/ for some examples.

http://www.historypin.com/ History Pin is a simple idea, that enhances Google Maps Street View, placing old pictures over current scenes, I tried something similar a few years back (http://thenandnow.edublogs.org/about/)

http://www.youtube.com/group/schoolhistory The use of Video on the IWB has become very popular, a few years ago a colleague and I set up a Youtube site to allow teachers to share useful educational videos.  An alternative is http://vimeo.com/

http://classtools.net/education-games-php/timer/ I generally use the timer supplier by Russel Tarr on his wonderful ClassTools website (http://classtools.net/) There are plenty of other fantastic resources here

http://www.google.com/ig I use iGoogle with the form usually, just to provide a variety of information, updated regularly, it works well as the hub for research.

http://edublogs.org/ Education is all about communication, we have seen the emergence of ‘bloggers’, this site allows teachers and pupils to blogfreely, but has adequate safety procedures to overcome concerns about Child safety. http://www.edmodo.com is an alternative

http://www.timemaps.com/products/ Although not originally designed for IWBs the Timemaps products are a wonderful resource for the IWB, showing what is possible with a little planning and thought, the products come highly recommended, and are very reasonably priced.

http://twitter.com/ Twitter has received a lot of publicity, not all of it positive, but I have found it very useful, basically using it as an electronic noticeboard, but also as a fun way to communicate information chronologically.

http://www.wordle.net/ Wordle provides wonderful word clouds, that can be used to examine text, as the most frequent words used are highlighted

http://www.xtranormal.com/ I have  movie making, and animated movies in the classroom, but for sheer fun, nothing beats xtranormal, allowing students to write the script, choose the characters, then plan the direction of their own movie.

http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/ I have been using the SchoolHistory Teachers discussion forum for a number of years now, it is ideal for sharing resources and ideas. The Student Forum is also a must for students (http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/studentforum/)

http://issuu.com One way I have found that encourages students to write extended pieces of writing, is using Issuu, which allows subscribers to publish electronic books and magazines, it is ideal for projects as it allows Hyperlinks.

I am happy for people to contact me if they find any alternatives, or something better.

7 thoughts on “IWB Resources – some ideas”

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