Civil War SImulation

If you like Fakebook, you will enjoy the Civil War simulation which is also by Russell Tarr.  It is a great way to review the Civil War as it has lots of images in addition to making kids answer questions about the war.  

Fakebook Tutorial

I have been using Russell Tarr's Fakebook for several years with my students.  It allows the kids to create a Facebook like page where they can have friends, put up posts and make comments.  It is not real in that the students are not sharing with others, but rather creating their own world.  They also are given their own unique url and allowed to set a password of their own.  BUT they do not have to sign up, or give a e-mail or anything else that will identify themselves.  It is a great way to have students create a conversation between historical figures or even current politicians to show that they have learned the material successfully and can apply it.

Since Russell has not yet created a new tutorial to match his newly improved Fakebook site, I have my own above. 

Fakebook and FakeTweet

If you follow this blog, you know I like Fakebook and FakeTweet which allows students to create facsimiles of Facebook and Twitter without having to create a login/password.  Above is a video on how to create a Fakebook page.

On our county in-service next week Karen Kratz and Katherine Lorio is going to teach a class on how to create both items.

Here is a written tutorial that she created for teachers and here is the assignment she wrote up for her students.  Finally here is what she gives her students to explain how to create a Fakebook post.

For FakeTweet, Katherine and Karen have created this document to explain how to use it.
Below is a Matt Levi video on how to create a FakeTweet.  Here is what she gives her students to help create the FakeTweet account and here is her example.

FakeText SMS Generator

I would love it if my county went to an opt out for login/password much as we do with Family Life Education as it would open so much more to my students.  But until then it is great to have British teacher Russell Tarr and his great inventions such as Fakebook (my posts on how to do it), Faketweet (some of my posts on it) and now the SMS Generator as none of them require a login/password and yet each can be saved and re-edited and give the user a unique url.  One of my teacher-students came up with the great idea to use a Google Form and had her students turn in their links to Fakebook that way.

Well now you can do a similar fun exchange between two people and have your students pretend they are texting.  It is amazingly easy.  At the top of this post is a very simple example I just did.  When you look at the bottom of the SMS Generator, you will see on the left (under #1) a "+" which you click to have a text appear on the left and #5 above will make another person's appear on the right.  The gear (#3) gives you the option to get the embed code as well as a QR picture (which you can also see above).  The "new" icon lets you start a new set of texts.

Incidentally I found out about the SMS Generator from a G+ post from Richard Byrne. 

Fakebook Gallery & Project Ideas

I've done a number of posts on Fakebook which allows you to create a historical discussion between many people, put in their pictures, have friends, etc.  In fact it looks very much like the real thing, but no login/password is required (can you tell it is actually made by a real teacher!).  But I just noticed via FreeTech4Teachers that the creator of Fakebook now has a gallery of historical figures which is updated each day. If you want to show your students examples before you start a project, it is tremendous. 

Fakebook for Historical Discussions

I showed my teacher students tonight so they could create Fakebook pages with their students.  I use it, for example, to have my students converse between different historical characters.  What I love about it is that the algorithm finds the picture of the historical figure or you can upload your own.   You can also put in a video and create friends.  Best of all is that you do not need a login or password and it will create a unique webpage for you or your students.  Here is an e-sheet explaining the assignment using Fakebook that I put together for my world history students.  

Take My Integrating Technology Into the Classroom Course

Starting tomorrow (August 28th at 4 pm), if you work in Fairfax County, VA you can sign up to take my course called "Enhancing the Use of Technology In The Classroom."  It will be 10 weeks and give you 2 credits and will be offered on Thursdays from 4:30-7:30 pm.  It is course AC2310 and you will need to sign up in MyPLT.  

The course will cover things such as using Google Docs, Study Blue, Diigo (which is an online list of your favorites), Twitter, WeVideo (collaborative video), Fakebook, FakeTweet, integrating your e-book, creating webquests, mobile apps and more.  The class is also very practical as you will be using things we learn to make lesson plans to use during our class session (so we can work out the wrinkles).    

Classtools to Make Learning Fun

Just a week or so ago I posted on Fakebook which is built by "Classtools."  Well I finally got around to looking at that site and was impressed as there are a number of games (most of which I had not heard of - but that will make it even more interesting for your students).  There are also more traditional items such as a Venn diagram which you can write upon the computer screen and then turn into the teacher.  Above is a video explaining how to use the site. 

Great Collection of Web Tools for Students

This is a very nice collection of webpage tools all nice and neat in one place. It includes Fakebook (which I have commented on before), Glogster, Jeopardy, Doink (for creating animations), Artpad, Fotoflexer (which allows you to edit images online), Prezi (a cooler way to present than PowerPoint), Storybird (which allows you to make short books online), Youpublisher (where you can make your pfds into little booklets that have page turning), Voicethread (where you have have animated slides and make them with people in different locations), Wordle and several other items. Soon I will be doing more in depth items on several of these. 

Civil War Simulation

I have written about Russell Tarr before as he developed a Facebook simulation called Fakebook.  Now he has a new (free) one on the Civil War which your students might like to try.  Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo's G+ heads up for telling me about this. 

Fakebook

I have followed @russeltarr for a while on Twitter and his adaption of Facebook is one of the many great reasons to follow him.  If you go here, you will get a free Facebook like template which you can have your students work on. They can save their products and even edit them later or e-mail you the finished url to grade.