Learning Activities

Voki is an online learning resource that allows the user to create a customizable avatar that will star in a short video clip.  The avatar can be placed in a variety of settings, and students can record the script for the avatar to say.  There is also a text to speech component of the program where students can choose a voice style and then type the script for the avatar to perform.

Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.

In this learning activity, students will watch a video clip from the movie, Far and Away.  The scene is a reenactment of the Oklahoma Land Rush.  Students will watch this clip to be able to visualize what the Oklahoma Land Rush was actually like.  Students will then pretend to be a man or woman involved in the race for land and write a journal entry describing their experiences that day.

Scholastic StudyJams Hearing video can be used to introduce or reinforce the teaching of the ear structure and function. There is an included link to a post-quiz to assess learning.

The Xtranormal video depicts a discussion about the causes of the U.S. Civil War between Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln. Both presidents are represented by cartoon avatars that resemble each president. **Because the video is from YouTube, instructions for how to address potential school site Internet blockages are listed in the "Advanced Preparation" section of this page.

This video promoted by the Ad Council is designed to make teens aware of the potential dangers of sharing and posting personal information online and communicating with unfamiliar people.

The video is a concise and entertaining way to introduce students to basic geometric shapes. 

In this learning activity, students will relate to the experiences of new immigrants to life in the United States by following the immigrants' footsteps by taking a virtual tour of Ellis Island.  The digital tool includes first-hand stories told by people who came through Ellis Island and historical photographs and films.

The tool used is a video from schooltube.com. The video shows students taking on the roles of influential African Americans in the United States. At the end, the students are reciting the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr.  

In this learning activity, students will identify key Alabamians who made contributions to science, education, arts, and politics by creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers through the Read Write Think Printing Press.  The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers. Teachers and students can choose from several templates to publish class newspapers, informational brochures, and flyers announcing class events. Text added to the templates can be modified using a simple editor, which allows students to choose text features, such as font size and color.