ANNOTATED LINKS

How often do we hear "why reinvent the wheel"? Perhaps one day we will hear "why reinvent that web content", or many not :) Nevertheless, the following are excellent resources. Some include interactive simulations, some simply information, some tutorials. Please take a look. You might find someone has already created what you are looking for. You can use the navigation bar at the left to get to specific areas of interest.
  

Writing

University of Maryland's tutorials for students: How to Avoid Plagiarism.Need a really good tool for teaching students what plagiarism is and how to avoid it? The University of Maryland has several excellent multimedia tutorials for that purpose. Students will even get a printable certificate at the completion of the tutorial. http://www.umuc.edu/prog/ugp/ewp_writingcenter/modules/plagiarism/start.html. Maryland has additional tutorials that include a quiz, the results of which can be emailed to an instructor: http://www-apps.umuc.edu/forums/pageshow.php?pagepage=tutorials&forumid=3&s=684ea87c67fa3dc3d107874d556cefd6. Requiring students to complete a module on plagiarism, may be an enlightening experience for them and help instructors and students avoid the high costs of plagiarism.

Citation Machine : Recommended by librarians, this is a free, simple and quick way for students to properly cite sources. Students choose the type of media they need to cite: book, web page, newspaper article, etc. A form will open which asks students pertinent information: author, title, etc. When the student clicks submit a window will open with the source properly cited in both MLA and APA format. http://www.landmark-project.com/citation_machine/cm.php. For media that does not appear on Citation Machine, or for a slightly different approach try:http://www.noodletools.com/quickcite/.

OWL: Purdue's Online Writing Lab has been active since 1993. The online portion of the lab is available to the writing community in general and incluces far too many resources and tools to list individually. The offerings include multimedia workshops in Powerpoint, that can be used by instructors and/or students. Topics include research and documentation, how to write a resume, grammar and mechanics, and more. If you want to improve your writing skills, or just add some tools to your instructional repetoire, this would be a good place to start: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Creative Nonfiction http://www.creativenonfiction.org/ If you enjoy reading good creative non-fiction or if you teach it, this is a wonderful resource. Creative Nonfiction is a literary journal published approximately 4 times a year. The editor and founder is Lee Gutkind, a well-known writer who "has pioneered the teaching of creative nonfiction". The site provides the full text for selected writings in each journal. It includes an archive of previous publishings as well as educator resources. This is one of the places I look when I want something good to read.

A Union of Literature and Art: http://www.bornmagazine.org/ A recent article in "Poets and Writers" describes Born Magazine as a place "where some of the most innovative collaborative work on the Web can be found". Born is a unique literary and artistic experience, merging the written word with images and sound and motion, to create impact and meaning. Each offering is a collaborative work. Born publishes new material four times a year, but all previous material is accessible through its archives. The one that got me hooked is still there--a poem called Sky http://www.bornmagazine.org/projects/sky/.

Medical/Health/Biology

Human Anatomy. An endeavor of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical Center, the purpose of which is to "help students learn clinically relevant anatomy with maximum efficiency." While this is a work in process, there are many short video clips which include the dissection of a liver, the blood flow through the wrist, and many others. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~anatomy/

Heart Simulations. This site contains interactive heart simulations where students can listen, and see the anatomy of various heart rythym defects. They can learn to hear the difference and learn to diagnose them more accurately. It also contains an interactive anatomy and physiology exploration of the heart and a "heart sounds proficiency test" http://www.blaufuss.org/

Virtual Hospital is a digital library of medical and health information. The library's collections include medical references, textbooks, pamphlets, and even virtual anatomy. The library has sections for medical students and instructors, health care providers, and patients. The site has won numerous awards including, most recently, Best Overall Site" by the MD NetGuide and as one of the Best Radiology Internet Sites by the Consumers' Research Council of America. http://www.vh.org/

Medical Education Resources http://www.meduniv.lviv.ua/inform/studlinks.html is an amazing collection of links--everything from humor to multimedia resources to study help. Links are categorized for easy searching and include brief annotations. I checked out the Interactive Medical Student Lounge and found, among other things, the online diaries of medical students--interesting reading for sure!

Physics

Physics Simulations: Research on the impact of technology on education has consistently shown simulations to be very powerful tools. Several universities have developed there own simulations, while others host simulations. The Physics Department at the University of Oregon have developed simulations on thermodynamics, astrophysics, energy and environment and mechanics. http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/index.html. Mississippi State University hosts an extensive collection of simulations from around the world. These include electrical circuits, electricity and magnetism, energy, fluids, forces and Motion, Genetics, Gravitation and Planetary Motion, Harmonic Motion, Kinematics, Kinetic Theory of Gases, Light and Optics, Mathematics, Modern Physics, Momentum, Nuclear Physics, Physical Measurements, Quantum Mechanics, Rotational Motion, Sound, Structure of Matter, Thermodynamics, and Unit Conversion http://webphysics.ph.msstate.edu/javamirror/. Andrew Duffy and Ali Loewy, Physics Department of Boston University, have developed a large collection of simulations for introductory level physics students available at: http://physics.bu.edu/~demos/Physlab2/

Chemistry

By far, The most unique and fascinating Periodic Table on the internet, if not the world: http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/index.html#tabletop. This site and its table is the creation of Theodore Gray, one of the co-founders of Wolfram Research, Inc, and the developer of Mathematica. The “table” includes sounds and video clips, as well as real images—all of which combine to create a truly unique experience. The site also includes something that may be of interest to the Biology group: a table of the Elements in the Human Body: http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Elements/Body/index.s7.html. There is simply more here than a brief annotation can relate. It truly deserves exploration!

Mathematics

This is not a glitzy site, but has won numerous awards and for very good reasons. Check out the "Famous Curves Index" for such veluptuous visions as the "folium" and the "pear-shaped quartic". Not feminine enough for you? Then, check out the page on Women Mathematicians. But, if neither of these fits your fancy, you can explore mathematics in other cultures, or a timeline of mathematics. There is plenty here. http://turnbull.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/ If the biographies of Women Mathematicians really intriques you, then continue your exploring at: Biographies of Women Mathematicians
http://www.scottlan.edu/lriddle/women/women.htm

A work of the Mathematics Department at Penn State, Mathematics Web Sites is a comprehensive listing of Math related web resources. The collections include "Societies and Associations", "Mathematics Journals", and "Subject Area Pages", just to name a few. The site is extensive but searchable. http://www.math.psu.edu/MathLists/Contents.html

Looking for dynamic and interactive math? Math Online, developed by the University of Vienna, contains multimedia units for various mathematical subjects. The subject units are divided into learning units and quizzes. The material can be downloaded to your computer for use offline, or can be accessed totally online.
http://www.univie.ac.at/future.media/moe/

General Education

Simulations of learning disabilities: PBS has put together an interactive web site that allows the user to experience the difficulties the learning disabled child has in class. The site is called Misunderstood Minds. The user can experience difficulties in attention, reading, writing and math. But simulations are not all you will find here. There is also a wealth of resources and commentary. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/intro.html

Technology Integration

Recent research has demonstrated the often significant improvement the use of technology can have on learning, yet many, if not most teachers, do not feel confident in their ability to use technology in their classrooms. Because so many homes have computers and internet access, many students will come to school with well developed bad habits. One of the goals of educators should be increasing their literacy of this medium. Will they have the skills to do that? Below are some important links to help in that endeavor.

http://www.iste.org/ This is the home page for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), a non-profit organization “dedicated to providing leadership and service to improve teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in K–12 education and teacher education.” Subsumed under the ISTE are three other organizations: The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), the Center for Applied Research in Education Technology (CARET), and the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC); this site houses their launching points, as well. ISTE publishes several journals; full versions of the texts are available exclusively through membership, however, and not online. In any case, the site still has much to offer, including numerous research articles and other resources for educators. For example: this page: http://caret.iste.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=resources#Online%20Journals offers an annotated list of links to some of the best resources on the Web for topics such as Assessment and Evaluation, Online Journals, Curriculum and Instruction and Policy. The site is updated monthly--and often more frequently--so you can be sure to find the latest research and information here.

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
Blue Web’n is an annotated collection of “Blue Ribbon” Web Sites for educators. There is a plethora of Web sites and pages with lists of important links. Just checking out the links and determining yourself what will be interesting and what won’t is often not much different than typing your terms in Google and searching through the list of hits. What I really like about the collection here is the various ways the sites are categorized. This site has a very simple design and is easy to navigate. But far more important than that is the way the sites are annotated. The annotations include a description of the site, when it was last reviewed, and what star rating it was given. While some of the sites were reviewed several years ago, there is a page: http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/updates.html of their weekly updates. These updates, the 5 or so ‘Sites of the Week,’ are e-mailed out to subscribers in their newsletter. I have added many of their recommended sites to my curriculum, much to the delight of my students. The site is sponsored by the SBC Knowledge Network Explorer and put together by a team of teachers and librarians and is endorsed by Delaine Eastin, the former California State Superintendent.

http://www.thejournal.com/ “The longest running most widely read education technology publication” is published by Technological Horizons in Education. The Journal is free to educators and though you can request to get it in print form, you can also read it here. The articles are written by professionals and are often referred to in other scholarly journals. In addition to THE Journal, the site offers THE Institute (offering professional development courses for educators) , The Source (which provides information on new technologies pertinent to educators, EduHound (links to special places on the web as well as links to schools across the country), and three newsletters. Though the site does have a couple of blinking banners, and its design is somewhat too busy for my taste, the information is well worth enduring the slight distractions.

Humanities

Library of Cultural Artifacts: http://www.archive.org/ I would venture to say that this site is unlike any other you’ll find on the internet. The organization that created the site is a non-profit that was specifically “founded to build an ‘Internet library,’ with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.” The collections include texts, audio and moving images (video clips, etc). A good example of the diversity of what this site offers is included in the “moving images” section: there is a clip of the Cheerios/V-8 “Space Offer” Television Commercial as well as a clip of the Eisenhower Campaign Spots for the 1952 Presidential Campaign. The site boasts an extensive list of collaborators and supporters. Definitely a site to be added to bookmarks.

Visual Arts

A Union of Literature and Art: http://www.bornmagazine.org/ A recent article in "Poets and Writers" describes Born Magazine as a place "where some of the most innovative collaborative work on the Web can be found". This is a place where the illustrator, the graphic designer, and the poet can work together, perhaps even as multipersonalities. Born is a unique literary and artistic experience, merging the written word with images and sound and motion, to create impact and meaning. Each offering is a collaborative work. Bornpublishes new material four times a year, but all previous material is accessible through its archives. The one that got me hooked is still there--a poem called Sky http://www.bornmagazine.org/projects/sky/.

Atom Films: http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/home/ Some of the best new work in short films can be seen here. Before Atom Films short films had a difficult time finding a venue and much truly good work went unrecognized. Just as haiku in poetry, or a short story in fiction, can convey a depth of meaning in relatively few words, so too can these short films be powerfully entertaining and intriguing. I have laughed and cried watching many of these films, and some of the lines and imagery will not be forgotten. Unispired by what's on TV and video; log on to this site and prepare yourself for a feast.

Courses

SUNY Training Center offers "technical training and professional development for faculty and instructional support staff. Most of the courses are offered online and are open to members of institutions other than SUNY. The cost of courses is slightly higher for non-members. Courses in Blackboard, WebCT, Dreamweaver, Barrier-free Web Design, Designing Accessible Course Content are some of their offerings. The web site can be slightly confusing to use, but the classes are very well done and taught, for the most part, by SUNY professors. Check out the current offerings at this site: http://www.pware.com/index.cfm?clientid=2754. The home page for the SUNY Training Center is: http://www.tc.suny.edu/

AllLearn-an online learning alliance among Oxford, Stanford, and Yale Universities.
AllLearn offers a selection of at-a-distance courses developed by professors at Oxford, Stamford and Yale Universities. While the courses are non-credit, a letter of completion is given to the participant upon request. The offerings include a wide variety of subject matter, and include the ability to interact with other participants in stimulating discussions online. Not all instruction is delivered via the internet. Some is instruction is through video and audio recordings. The cost is extremely reasonable. http://www.alllearn.org/

Distance Learning

Online Journal of Distance Education Administration is a great resource for administration and faculty involved in or interested in Distance Education. It is published quarterly and issues contain articles in the theory and management of Distance Learning. All issues can be viewed in their entirety online. Recent articles include: Instructional Immediacy and the Seven Principles: Strategies for Facilitating Online Courses, The Implications of Brain Research for Distance Education, and Motivation and Incentives for Distance Faculty. http://www.westga.edu/%7Edistance/jmain11.html

This will continue to be a work in progress, with sites added regularly. If you know of one that is particularly good, and you do not see it here, let me know. I hope you find this to be a valuable resource.