I'm Kevin Cummins and here you will find the latest Tech, Tools, Toys, News and lesson plans for teachers who want to work smarter and keep one step ahead your students in the rapidly changing world of tech and education. I aim to keep it simple, straight to the point and relevant. Enjoy!
Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 8:39PM 
I heard this on the radio tonight and thought what a great maths activity for my kids tomorrow. Give it some thought and then click this link for the answer. Seems ridiculously easy once you see it done.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 8:16PM 
I found an absolute pearler today for those love interactive web sites based around learning current events. Interactive Narratives is a brilliant tool for any teacher to add to their digital toolbox when they want to explain something in detail that offers the reader the opportunity to explore diagrams, videos, games and multimedia associated to the topic to create a collection of evidence on the topic.
Want see and test what actually went wrong with all of those thousands of Toyota's recalled internationally? See how the Global Financial Crisis is affecting countries differently and take an interactive journey through the Space Race between Russia and the United States.
How can I use this in the Classroom? Interactive Narratives has a collection of Interactive Specials such as "comparing the ancient Aztec Deities" and "Examining the evidence and aftermath of the murder of young Darisabel Baez." These are brilliant reading activities your students can work on independently to then take to next level as a written report, discussion piece, argumentative essay. All the facts are presented here in a an unbiased manner leaving it to the audience to draw their own conclusions.
There is heaps of scope to use Interactive Narratives. I'd love to hear how you put it to good use.
Monday, April 19, 2010 at 6:18AM 
What is it? I came across Winged Sandals a number of years ago and was really impressed by the amount of effort and detail that had been put into this beautiful site retelling Ancient Greek Mythology. My kids learnt the stories of Zeus, Athena, Medusa, Icarus and Achilles. Dicovering who they were and most importantly the message behind their tale of fate or bravery. Then all of the sudden it just disappeared for around 4 years.
The great news is that it is back and better than ever. Winged Sandals has beautiful animated stories, a games section where you can replay some of the most famous events of Greek History, Make & Do for teachers to get creative with their students, a who's who? of Monsters, Gods and Mortals, A history Section and even a chance to ask the Oracle a question about life.
There is a good units worth of work here for teachers to offer their students and best of all your students will really love the interactivity and edgy artwork behind the site.
How can I use this with my students? I find this a great tool for literacy to teach students about fables and mythology. They can use this site to read see and hear the most important stories of Greek mythology then discussing as a group what the message and meaning was behind the story and how to subtly work into a tale. Obviously for History teachers there is a wealth of great content here and anyone studying any form of philosophy or political science will need to pop in for a visit too.
I personally think there is something here for people aged 6 to 106 and would strongly recommend taking a look at Winged Sandals today. Let us know what you think too.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 9:13PM 
I did this with my kids yesterday as part of our Geography and maths unit that was a real hit and had plenty of learning opportunities to offer.
1: The lesson involves measuring distances between two cities or locations such as Sydney and Melbourne and initially estimating that distance with your students. Record some of these up on the board and discuss which ones are realistic, unrealistic and why.
2: Next you need to introduce two terms of geographic measurement.
3: Measure the street distance using the directions tab in Google Earth and it will give you a distance such as 1245 Kilometres. Following this you need to get the kids to estimate the distance it would be "as the crow flies"
4: Measure the "As the crow flies distance" using the ruler option under Google Earth Tools. Finally get your students to subtract the direct route from the Street directions and find out how much distance the crow has saved.
That is basically it, you have plenty of lesson discussion and further geography and maths questioning options that I am sure you will flesh out with your kids. Remember to check out my Ultimate guide to Google Earth for more lesson Ideas using Google Earth look forward to hearing your feedback.
Google Earth, earth, estimation, geography, google, measurement, numeracy Friday, February 26, 2010 at 7:03AM 
Magic studio has been developed in conjunction with museums, publishers, teachers and pupils to provide an easy to use and highly engaging approach to visual, web based learning.
There are two parts to Magic;
The Magic Content Exchange combines content and resources from museums, archives and publishing houses with resources built and shared by other teachers. It is can be searched via the web or directly from a schools learning platform. Resources in the Content Exchange can be used in the classroom, free or on a pay as you go basis from a very affordable price.
Magic Studio gives access to a number of simple to use web-based tools to either customise existing resources or to build new resources using audio, video and pictures, either from the Content Exchange or your own personal media from Flickr, You Tube, Picasa or your home PC.
Individual users can get a free personal account at www.magicstudio.com. Magic Studio Pro is an enhanced, paid for service to schools and Local Authorities wishing to take advantage of cross-platform collaboration, sharing and community building amongst teachers, learners and parents.
To see how Magic works, please take a tour here.
Reosurces, literacy, magic studio, numeracy in reviews 
