Freebee Friday: Touch Autism

Brain Parade’s See.Touch.Learn is a great way for coaxing Autistic kids to come out of their shells and start learning. Picture-based, the free app runs on the iPad and replaces clunky static flash cards with groups of pictures shown on the pad's screen. The latest version provides access to visual libraries and lessons. You can even create your own lesson for special cases. It’s available as a free download from the iTunes App store.

Freebee Friday: Worksheet Heaven

Most teachers feel they’ve entered hell when they need to create their own worksheets. Freeology can help with a wide assortment of worksheets for everything from organizers to Word Searches to analyzing the narrative flow of a short story. With nearly 500 to choose from, there’re even sheets that can help teach out to efficiently take class notes.

 

 

Freebee Friday: Broadband Bargains

When it comes to your broadband provider, the grass is always greener on the other side, but according to the FCC, ISPs deliver 96 percent of their advertised bandwidth last fall. The 2013 Measuring Broadband America report looks at the top 15 ISPs and compares their speed during last September with respect to what they promise they’ll provide. The results show that five providers delivered at least double what they said they would and others, well, didn’t measure up to their claims.

Freebee Friday: Wonder Women

Need an expert to build a Civil War lesson round? The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies is hosting the webinar: A Will of Their Own: Judith Murray and Women of Achievement in the Early Republic. It’s set up for March 13, at 4 p.m., eastern time and the online presentation will examine seven remarkable women and their achievements from the 19^th century to today.

Freebee Friday: Gutenberg, Ho

With 42,000 historical volumes on tap, Project Gutenberg has more books available than the typical school library, and they’re all free. Stanza lets you download and read any of them along with a variety of more recent works with an iPhone, iPad or recent iPod Touch model.

 

Friday Freebee: Hand Me Ups

HP is giving away some of the IT gear that was used for this summer’s Democratic convention in Charlotte, NC. Edgecombe County Public Schools and three North Carolina community colleges will get lightly used 161 notebooks and 13 printers that are worth about $300,000. 

 

Freebee Friday: 57th Inauguration

Looking for a lesson to teach about the upcoming 57-th inauguration? Barack Obama’s big day can be a teachable moment with the help of the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies. There will be an online lesson on Thursday January 10^th at 1PM (eastern time) as well as a teacher preview on January 7^th at 4PM. In addition to the history, context and details about the inauguration, there will be three 50 minute online classes including question and answer time at the end.

Freebee Friday: TED for Kids

We’ve all heard of the TED conferences where the tech world’s movers and shakers meet and try to outdo each other with intense intellectual presentations about their areas of interest. How about one for students? That’s exactly what TEDYouth is all about. On November 17, nearly two dozen scientists and future-thinkers will converge on New York City’s Times Center with planned presentations by Bobak Ferdowsi (the Mars Curiosity rover’s Flight Director), science writer Carl Zimmer and theoretical physicist Clifford Johnson. There will also be dozens of TEDYouthDay events throughout the world.

Freebee Friday: Student Choice Awards

Just as the school year gets underway, Parchment’s annual Student Choice College Rankings shows that it’s never too early for students to set educational goals. The study reveals that while you may have an excellent state college nearby, Harvard University comes out on top, once again. Stanford, Yale, MIT and Princeton follow closely. You can see the complete listing and get the class studying those SAT vocabulary lists.

Freebee Friday: Cards in a Flash

Forget about making flash cards on, well, physical cards because StudyBlue can turn an iPad into a study machine. The app is a freebee and can create and distribute flash cards on any topic that have not only text but audio and images as well. You’ll need to register, but it’s free.