We wanted to share a couple fun quizzes that were posted this week on FunnelBrain. Don’t forget, you can embed these quizzes on your own blog by copying the embed code under the “share with friends” link from any Quiz on FunnelBrain.
LeBron James made his decision on where he’ll play next. Now, let’s see how much NBA Free Agent Trivia you know!
Not a basketball fan? Not a problem! How about some famous movie quotes?
I don’t think there is anyone out there that thinks using video supported tools like FunnelBrain or traditional video sites like YouTube in the classroom is a bad idea, but it’s not something we are taught or really encouraged to do. What makes this problem even worse is that many school districts block all websites that have any user generated content. The goal initially, I am sure was to stop students from visiting sites like MySpace or Facebook, but it is also preventing students and teachers from getting to some high quality sites like Wikipedia that while not a scholarly peer reviewed source is still a great spot to start research because it typically links out to many fantastic resources that are. Even more troubling for teachers is that some sites are a mixed bag where the obvious time suck exists but also some very high quality user generated content that is ideal for classroom use.
I really like video… I think it is a great way to start conversations and grab peoples attention. When I teach, I love to start off each session with a short video. Sometimes it is providing background information, is could be used to spark a conversation by illustrating a point, or it can be a call to action. Personally I like to start my lesson plan with the video and build outward from there to ensure there is an obvious connection between the video and my planned lecture. But what to do if YouTube or Vimeo are banned at your school? The good news is you still have options!
You could use TeacherTube a niche YouTube like site for educators. If this is banned at your school you should be able to get your IT department to open up access to it with a simple request. While TeacherTube is a great option it is hard to walk away from the tens of millions of videos on YouTube, so I am going to point you to two great resources that will let you download a video from YouTube to your computer so you can upload it into a powerpoint or put it on a flashdrive and bring to school without the need for internet access. The first is KissYouTube and the other is Vixy. Both are great tools that are very easy to use and will allow you to skirt arround your IT departments ban without breaking any rules.
Now that you know how to get the videos I thought it was worth sharing a few resources with you to get you thinking about how to work more video into your class.
100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers
The Top Ten Videos Inspiring Us To Rethink The Way we Learn
104 inspiring YouTube videos to use in the classroom
These are just a few of the thousands of fantastic resources avaliable. If you are new to the EdTech arean I highly recomend you check out the blog Free Technology For Teachers where you will find a plethora of information on how to add quality technology resources to your classroom to help engage students and stimulate learnng.
For conversation:
Teachers: What are some creative ways you have used technology in the classroom? How has it benifited you?
Students: Have you had a teacher that used technology in the classroom? How did it benifit you? If you have not, how do you think it would help?
Parents: How would you like to see technology used in the classroom? How do you think it would benifit your kids?
We wrote a post about some new features at FunnelBrain.com. Today I want to take a few minutes and share some thoughts/ start a conversation about gaming in education. It’s interesting to me that people tend to be very polarized on one side or the other on this issue, because to me education is about engaging students and getting them to want to learn. Again, this is just my opinion and I would encourage you to leave comments if you disagree with me but I think education can and should be fun. I’m not suggesting we should all be playing Halo 3 in the classroom, but if we are creative we could and in my opinion should be using games like Halo 3 to help students learn important concepts like Physics, problem solving, teamwork, and strategy. I’m always happy to see teachers trying to teach kids in a way that will engage students. A few days ago I posted over on our Facebook Fan Page a link to a project called Wow in School that is using tools like Moodle and World of Warcraft to teach a 7th grade language arts course. Is this the way we all learned in school? No… Does it make it bad? I do not believe it does.
As responsible educators, we need to put a focus on making quality research based decisions, and the fact is there is a great deal of evidence that education based games like those on FunnelBrain, Starfall, and KidsSpell are valuable tools that can increase engagement and help to foster students who are life long learners.
For conversation:
Teachers do you currently use games in the classroom? Why or why not? Are there ways you could be using technology to improve engagement?
Students, would you like to see teachers using games or other interactive technologies in the classroom?
We’ve added a few new features to the site today…
We’ve got a lot more in the works, so stay tuned…
Did Laker’s Win Lead to Celtic Player’s Murder?
American sports fans are known for unreasonable devotion to their teams. The very word, “fan,” is short for “fanatic,” a person whose devotion to a cause tends to lunacy. And surely Boston Celtic fans are as fanatical as any, right? Well, perhaps not. No, none of the Celtics have taken a bullet for Thursday night’s missed rebounds. That would be crazy.
There are other places in the world where the term sports “fan” is taken a bit too literally. In fact, in the competition for the world’s most crazed fans, the Americans don’t even place. Let us hope they never do. In that competition, South American soccer fans claim first place. If you doubt that, consider the case of Columbian footballer Andres Escobar.
US World Cup Victory Ends in Murder
The basketball murder of the headline, happily, is fiction. The soccer murder, however, is established fact. A U.S. victory in a World Cup match has led directly to the murder of a player on the losing team. If you are paying attention to the 2010 World Cup, you may protest here. The U.S. record so far this year is 2 draws, 0 losses and 0 wins. That is true. The murder in question happened in 1994.
Every four years the U.S. is reminded that the rest of the world plays “football” with a round ball. We pay a little attention to the World Cup for a month, then we get back to baseball. “Football,” which Americans insist on calling soccer, is by far the world’s most popular televised sport. Promoters salivate at the billions of dollars that could be made if only the Yanks would take to it.
The year 1994 saw an all out effort to turn Americans into soccer fans. That year, the U.S. hosted the World Cup. The promoters were not successful. Americans did not embrace soccer, in spite of record attendance numbers at the matches. They did, however, learn something about the passions of South American fans.
On June 22nd of that year, in Round 1 of the World Cup finals, in front of a Rose Bowl crowd of over 93,000, the U.S. managed a surprise victory over Columbia. The U.S. was aided in their surprise win by Andres Escobar, a star player on the Columbian team. As Escobar attempted to block an American kick, the ball careened off his foot and into the Columbian goal. U.S. 1, Columbia 0. The U.S. went on to win 2 – 1, thanks in part to Escobar’s infamous own goal. Two weeks later, Escobar was dead.
On July 2, 1994, after his team’s humiliating first round elimination, Escobar was back in Columbia. He was having a drink at the El Indio bar in Medellin when three men accosted him. The three took Escobar outside to the parking lot and shot him twelve times. One of the shooters reportedly shouted “GOAL!” after each shot.
How Much Do You Know About the World Cup?
Are you as uninformed as most Americans about the World Cup and the passionate world of soccer fans? We have put together a short quiz to help you find out. Give it a try. But don’t kill yourself if you do poorly. It’s just a game.
You may find some of the answers to some of the questions surprising. For longer answers with explanations, see the companion flashcard deck here:
Stay tuned for my next post: World Cup Losers Commit Suicide.
FunnelBrain has launched a new version of Study Teams that bring students and teachers together with a robust set of team learning features including:
You can view a quick demo below. When you’re ready, join a team or create a new one!
View recent FunnelBrain Teams here or Create a new Team from the FunnelBrain Homepage
Weekly News Quz
Hey Guys, Below is this weeks News Quiz. If you are enjoying the series, please join our News Group today!
You can view the News Quiz on FunnelBrain or take the embedded version below. Good luck!
Weekly News Quz
We are starting a new series at FunnelBrain, The Weekly News Headline Quiz. Every week, we’ll capture some of the more interesting headlines and post a quiz for you to test your knowledge. This quiz can also be shared with your friends or embedded in your own blog for your users. See the Embed Flashcards and Quizzes post to learn how.
You can click over to this weeks news quiz on FunnelBrain or you can take the quiz below. Good luck!
Healthcare Reform
With the Healthcare Summit taking place in Washington today, we thought it would be helpful to share a flashcard deck that includes interesting statistics about Healthcare in the United States.
FunnelBrain is a wiki-based system, please add/edit questions, answers, comments, ratings, etc. to the deck. Together, we can build a concise and comprehensive set of flashcards that’s creates a baseline for anyone that’s interested. Look forward to your comments and feedback.
Click the link to access the free healthcare flashcards on FunnelBrain. If you just want to flip through the questions, you can use the embedded version below.
We have some very exciting new features coming soon to FunnelBrain. Before we blog about all the new stuff, we wanted to share one feature that we are particularly excited about. It’s a new social sharing technology that let’s you embed free flashcards and quizzes in your blog or on your Facebook profile. It’s really simple and now you can study your FunnelBrain Flashcards on any site you want!
Here’s how to set it up:
1) Step 1: On any flashcard deck, click the “Share With Friends” link on the right side of the page as shown below.
click share with friends to open the embed options
2) Step 2: Select a site from the list of icons or copy the “embed code” and paste it directly on your site.
embed on facebook or your own blog
3) Step 3: Navigate to your page and flip through the flashcard deck on you just added!
Try it out and lets us know what you think. Happy Studying!
-FB
