Why These Tools?
The tools you find on this page were selected for at least one of the following reasons:
- Freely available
- Easy to share work with others
- Allow for contact with others around the world
- Provide a foundation for international collaborative projects
- Provide info about countries around the world
Desmos is an incredible online graphing tool that also has a phone app making it incredibly versatile. Even better, Desmos has an activity builder, which supplies a teacher with two options: use a pre-made activity or design their own activity. Options include matching, graphing, sketching, card sorts, marble slides, sliders, etc. Choose one of the two buttons below:
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Geogebra is another graphing calculator software, but I find it to be more useful for geometry and it allows for 3D graphing, which is a feature still largely lacking from Desmos. Additionally, Geogebra has a free application for download, allowing for a broader range of offline functions. Their website provides access to a blog with updates, sample applets, and tutorials. Follow the buttons below:
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For math and social studies teachers, the World Bank supplies an incredible amount of open source data from countries around the world that can be downloaded as Excel (Windows) or Numbers (Mac) files. Click the button below to access the database:
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Although there are many options out there, I find Weebly and Wordpress to be the most intuitive website builders out there. In fact, this blog/website uses Weebly as a platform. The baseline option is free, making it an easy way for students to share their work with others locally, nationally, or internationally. Click either picture to further explore the platforms.
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Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are very similar to Microsoft Office, but they are free to use, allow for multiple collaborators on the same document, and make sharing through email or a personal website very easy. Creating a Gmail account instantly provides access to these programs, which can also be downloaded to your computer for offline use. Access these programs with the buttons below:
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Arduino boards are great for creating electronics that carry out repetitive tasks. From the website, you can download the coding platform and order these cheap boards. The students in the robotics, electronics, and systems courses in Bucaramanga, Colombia were using these to create robotic arms, LED lighting systems, and automatic door openers. Doing projects in the United States with Arduino could be the foundation for international collaboration between students. Click the image to the left to learn more.
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