Tag Archives: Richard Byrne

Historical Facebook

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Recently edtech guru Richard Byrne wrote about a way to encourage students to research using the concept of Facebook. By creating a faux Facebook account for a person of interest, students need to research that person and try to bring their personality to life. Derrick Waddell has developed a template that any teacher can freely use.

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To read the entire post, click here.

Note: Students will NOT set up a Facebook account, this is merely a template based on the Facebook concept and layout.

The State Library of Victoria Education Services have also alerted me to an interactive way for teachers to bring Shakespeare to life for their students. Sarah Schmelling created this Facebook page for Hamlet:

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Again, Facebook does not have to be used for this unit, but using the template above, students could create new Shakespearean scenes, scenarios, characters or plays, update the play they are studying or develop conversations between characters.

A great way to bring history to life for our students using a format they are familiar with.

Interactive Web Search Tutorials

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Richard Byrne from Free Technology for Teachers recently posted an excellent article on free animated web tutorials to help students with web research strategies.

The tutorials include:

  • Credible Sources Count
  • Research It Right
  • Searching With Success
  • You Quote It, You Note It

Although a university site, these tutorials are ideal for secondary students. Please see Richard’s post for more information and links to the tutorials.

World’s biggest earthquakes since 1900 – interactive map

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The CNN World website has developed a terrific resource for students researching earthquakes. Showing both the biggest and most deadly earthquakes since 1900, each map has captions for each area showing date, place, magnitude and death toll.

Biggest earthquakes

Biggest earthquakes

Deadliest quakes

Deadliest quakes

Earthquakes are presented by ranking.  A very good resource to begin researching the world’s earthquakes. Thanks again to Richard Byrne from Free Technology for Teachers for informing me about this top tool!

Seven tools for organising web research

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Richard Byrne‘s excellent Free Technology for Teachers site has outlined seven useful tools for organising web research. Some of the tools you may have seen before, some may be new.

  1. iCyte
  2. Memonic
  3. Lumifi
  4. Wet Mount
  5. Zoho (Bright Ideas post 29/10/08)
  6. Reframe It
  7. Webnotes

Please see Richard’s post for all the details on what these tools can do and how to use them.

Audio Owl

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Audio Owl is a site that provides listings of audio book recordings that are in the public domain; that is out of copyright and freely available for anyone to download to mp3, iPod or iTunes formats. Genres include fiction, fantasy, children’s, young adult, adventure and mystery. Downloads are quick and if using iTunes are saved as podcasts.

Some titles include Anne of Green Gables, the Secret Garden, the Call of the Wild and the Getting of Wisdom.

Thanks to Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) from Free Technology for Teachers for passing on the link to Audio Owl.

Free Technology for Teachers

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Uberblogger Richard Byrne has the most amazing site for teachers wishing to integrate technology into learning and teaching. The Free Technology for Teachers  blog has won numerous awards and has a huge following.

Featuring guides such as Free Guide to Technology Integration (that explains how to create documents and presentations; tools to improve communication between schools and parents; tools for student collaborative projects and alternatives to YouTube) and Beyond Google (“fifteen tools and strategies to help your students (and colleagues) to explore the web beyond the first two pages of Google results”) as well as informative posts on items such as:

1. 30+ Alternatives to YouTube
2. Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration
3. Seven Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter
4. 10 Places to Make and Find Flashcards
5. 35+ Educational Games and Games Resources
6. Ten Grammar Games and Lesson Resources
7. Ten Spelling Games and Lessons
8. 9 Resources for Website Evaluation Lessons
9. Netbook vs. Cheap Notebook Decision
10. Four Free Tools for Creating Screencasts
11. Great Timeline Builders

Free Technology for Teachers is a must-subscribe-to blog. Richard provides some more information for readers:

The purpose of this site is to share information about free resources that teachers can use in their classrooms.

In 2008 Free Technology for Teachers was awarded the Edublogs Award for “Best Resource Sharing Blog.”

In 2009 Free Technology for Teachers was again awarded the Edublogs Award for “Best Resource Sharing Blog” and was awarded the Edublogs Award for “Best Individual Blog.”

Free Technology for Teachers is read by an audience of more than 15,000 daily subscribers (current as of December 15, 2009).

About the blogger (Richard Byrne):
My full-time job is teaching US History and Civics to high school students at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in South Paris, ME. In the past I have also taught courses in global studies and English/ Language Arts.

I believe that when used correctly, technology has the power to improve student engagement and student achievement. I also believe that technology gives teachers the ability to form powerful, global, professional learning communities.

In 2009 I was nominated for an Edublogs “Lifetime Achievement” Award. I am a Google Certified Teacher.

Congratulations to Richard Byrne on an incredible blog. Great to see that he has been acknowledged for his contribution to professional learning for teachers worldwide.