Tech Tools for HistoryJeff Astor – Simon Technology HS

Wikihoods

• Imagine walking around your city and instantly getting historical information about where you are. That's essentially whatWikihood World Browser\ does for students! This free platform allows you to visit different countries across the worlds on an interactive map, and gain little nuggets of history (related to people, geography, the economy, and culture) along the way!

ThingLink

Eyewitness to History

• Free! Eyewitness to History s a collection of primary resources and thoughtful commentary covering historical events from ancient history to WWII. The primary resources are largely composed of eyewitness accounts excerpted from diaries, manuscripts, and other historical documents. The 18th century collection, for example, includes nearly 30 events largely centered around the American Revolution. The wealth of resources is free, but banner ads for blockbuster movies and Xbox may prove a distraction for some students.

Google Treks

• Free! Google Treks is a comprehensive set of web 2.0 lessons built primarily on top of Google Maps. Created by Dr. Alice Christie and a core team of collaborators, Google Treks offers lessons in science, mathematics, social studies, language arts, art, music, and health-- all in the context of geographic locations. Curious about the history of famous earthquakes? There's a map for that. Need to convey the scope and complexity of the Underground Railroad? There's a map for that, too. Looking to demonstrate good accounting practices by planning a vacation? Yup, in fact… well, you get the picture.

Aurasma

• Free! Available in the iOS and Google Play store, this app brings the magic of augmented reality to learners. Add a layer of video to an existing image, and voila! Learning comes alive. Aurasma is being used in classrooms to expand vocabulary, deepen conceptual understanding, and engage learners.

Newsela

• Free! One of the most frequent requests these days is for "leveled texts," or content written to the level appropriate for a specific reader. East coast-based startup Newsela is doing exactly that: creating texts that have five different levels of reading complexity. All the text is build around the news. Newspaper writers take a story from a McClatchy paper and rewrite it four times, corresponding to a total of five Lexile levels of difficulty.

Tech Tools and Commentary Pulled From Edsurge Index!

Check out the Resources available! Everything can be found there

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Thanks for participating and I hope this helped!

Feel free to contact me further with questions, comments,

concerns, feedback, or just to get in touch: Jastor@laalliance.org