But Joyce recently posted about an educational search engine that is fabulous. I only hope it continues to expand. I plan on using it with a class today! It's called InstaGrok. When you search, your results are returned in a wonderfully organized way which is so appropriate in education. Not only that, but the results are rich in media, encourage students to ask questions and include visual image maps, videos, websites, questions and even quizzes.
The use of the concept map on the first page of the results is a recent improvement and allows students to see the inter-relationshop between their search and related topics.
This looks to be a great tool for students. Stay tuned to find out how my students liked it!

Wholly cow or is it holy cow? Anyways this instagrok is AWESOME! I just checked it out and I am definitely sharing this with my department tomorrow. A place to search for images, video, articles, etc. on the content that I am teaching. I am always looking for "extra" stuff to reinforce, review, enrich the content in my curriculum and it takes forever to sort through what is appropriate or inappropriate for middle school students. This is great! It's almost like looking through the items available through the student data bases available at bcps.org, but larger. I especially love how you can narrow by topic and difficulty. Great tool for finding information geared towards your struggling readers. Thanks for finding and sharing!
ReplyDeleteJust remember that instaGrok is blocked under students' accounts..... But a great way for teachers to find curriculum related materials.
DeleteOn your suggestion, I also took a look at Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers blog & thought it was a great way to learn about technology tools geared towards instruction/education. I consider myself to be pretty up-to-date with technology, but there is SO MUCH out there that it is almost overwhelming. By subscribing to the RSS feed, I can get my "oh that's cool" fill at my convenience!
ReplyDeleteHi, I actually checked out instaGrok and I think I get it.... a little. I DON'T consider myself an up-to-date techie. But I am never too old to learn. Thanks for the painless lesson. Patricia
ReplyDeleteAfter I looked at Richard Byrne's blog, I read an issue of School Library Journal and realized he writes the "Cool Tools" page. It's great to hear technology tips from someone who is working directly with students.
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