Internet Search Tools

Below I have provided a list, with links, of five of my favorite kid-friendly search engines.  With the increasing amount of inappropriate material out there on the internet, who knows what our children and students may be viewing and reading.  These five search tools that I have listed are safe to use and always monitored to decrease the chances of children coming across a site that may be harmful to their ever growing brains.

KidRex
KidRex is probably meant for the younger children, elementary age.  It is a child-safe search engine and it's powered by Google Custom Search.  The main search page of this site is colorful and appears to be hand drawn which I have found draws the attention of elementary aged children.  Because it utilizes Google SafeSearch, inappropriate content is not included in the search results.

Infotrek
Infotrek is centered more around high school aged students with reference sites on many different topics and subjects.  On the main search page of Infotrek are subject-sorted icons that students can click on that can take them straight to a specific search page that focuses on searching just in that subject area.  Infotrek accesses only trusted websites that our recommended by librarians, teachers, and other educational associations.

MyMunka
MyMunka is a safe search engine designed for school-aged kids that blocks 98% of inappropriate internet content.  MyMunka's purpose is to protect families and their computers from malicious search results.  There are flashcard categories to help students expand their knowledge and it's a good site for disabled students as well.

AGA-Kids
Every site that is accessible through AGA-Kids Search is carefully checked by their network monitors before it is indexed onto AGA-Kids.  They only index sites that are kid friendly with kid related material.  There are games and pictures that kids can access as well. It is a great search engine for children to find attractive resources on the internet.

GoGooligans
The first thing you read on the GoGooligans website is "Simple, safe, and kid oriented."  They use Google to help power their safe search and can block sites that they view as inappropriate for children.  There are 38 different languages available to search in and there is a pop-up keyboard for children with disabilities.

Educational Websites

There are a lot of educational websites available for teachers, students, and parents to access.  I have created a page where you can access the websites that I thought were the best. The link for this page is listed below. Some of the websites are completely free to use while others may require a membership. The websites I chose are a mix of the two but the ones that require a membership, I believe, are extremely worth the money.  The educational websites I found that would be beneficial for teachers to have are ABCTeach, Edhelper, Brainpop, Teachnet, Crayola, Learning Page, and Middle Web.  These sites are useful for teachers because they provide so many resources for teachers to use in their classroom, such as printable worksheets or educational videos to show to their students.  The websites I chose to show for Students are Enchanted Learning, Homework Spot, School Notes, Arcademic Skill Builders, Ask, Infoplease, and Quiz Hub.  Some of these sites contain interactive, academic games and skill building activities and others are sites that students can visit to search for help with their homework.  The educational websites I chose for parents are still important to have.  They include Fun Brain, Kids Reads, PBS, Scholastic, and Time for Kids.  The sites for parents are meant to help parents find skill building activities to do with their child and also to help them find resources for their children such as books.

~Crystal R. Maine

Click here to view my Educational Resources Website.

Screencast video

A screencast is a capture, by video or picture, of a computer screen.  People use screencasts to explain how to do something with a specific, step-by-step, explanation. There are many different tools that one can use to create a screencast.  The tool I used is called Screencast-O-Matic. It is easy to use and free to download. There are also other tools available such as jing or screenr.com.

The video I put together is one minute and forty-five seconds and its purpose is to show viewers how to access basic information about their Windows 8 computer. The information I show how to find in the video is the processor speed of the computer, the amount of RAM (Random Access Memory) the computer has, and the amount of TOTAL hard drive space and of AVAILABLE hard drive space the computer has.

Video Photo Story

Video story telling is a great way of learning for students.  The digital world has become a prominent way of communicating, teaching, and learning.  Children love the digital world, which is why it is useful in helping them learn.  Using a video to guide in the learning process for students can be creative and engaging, maybe even for the teacher as well.

There are many tools available to use to create a video photo story such as photo story 3 and animoto.  For my video story, I used voicethread. I added pictures that I edited through ipiccy.com and then recorded my voice over the pictures to teach the lesson. 

Because I will be a Health and Physical Education teacher, I have put together a video photo story that briefly explains to students (at the secondary level) what calories are, how to balance them with physical activity, and why it's important to know about calories.