Class List of Best WBLTs

Designing a Cell Phone (Posted by Thom) This interactive game-like simulation aimed at students in grades five to eight provides the opportunity to explore engineering design and technology. Students get to explore research, made design decisions balancing features and costs, test their design and finally evaluate the results. Codecadamy (Posted by Thom) This website offers hundreds of interactive tutorials for people that want to learn how to code using various web-related languages and technologies ranging from very basic concepts to intermediate topics, some of which are organized into tracks of related content. The site features detailed progress tracking, earning points and badges, and the ability to interact with other users through profiles, forums and blogs. Users can also develop their own tutorials for the Codecadamy platform. http://ca.ixl.com/ (Posted by Asha) IXL learning is a web-based educational website that allows students to learn and practice mathematical concepts. The dynamic and enjoyable environment of this website provides students with online interactive math games and practice questions. The teachers can find unlimited amount of practice problems specifically tailored to the learning objectives found in the curriculum. It also allows teachers to track student progress as they practise questions, and generate detailed performance report to give insight about students abilities. The teacher can use this report to identify students strength and weakness, monitor progress over time viewing questions they miss and the answer choices for those problems. http://illuminations.nctm.org/ (Posted by Asha) This website contains interactive online activities for students to learn mathematics. The students can explore different concepts from K-12 level and work through different options for each activity to investigate the concepts. There are also math teaching lesson plans for teachers to use in their classrooms. Math - Interpreting Data (Posted by Ellen) This site offers many different games and simulations to support the development of students' math and problem-solving skills. In the particular game linked here, users can control what survey questions are asked, thus giving them a measure of control and helping to increase engagement. To improve accessibility, it would be wonderful if users were given an option to have the excellent written instructions read aloud by the computer. PBS Kids - Don't Buy It. Get Media Smart! "What's in the shopping bag?" (Posted by Ellen) This site has several games and objects that help children to develop critical media literacy skills. This game in particular is designed to teach students to read the fine print on packaging and to question the message being sent. The products used are relevant, the site is attractive, and feedback is both interesting and appropriate for students. Discovery Education - WebMath (Posted by Shem) This Web site offers assistance with a wide variety of mathematical concepts. It is effective because it not only provides the answer but a detailed explanation of the solution in real-time. In addition, it is free and its developers are conscientiously working to cover more topics as computer math programming evolves. Starfall Education Teach Children to Read with Phonics (Posted by Shem) This multimedia-rich Web site uses a systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice, to teach children how to read. It is geared for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, home school, and English language learners. Furthermore, it is free and accommodates different learning styles by using text, audio, and video to offer instruction and feedback in an engaging and interactive manner. Stop Disasters (Posted by Chris) This WBLT gives students the opportunity to problem solve unique scenarios such as tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes. It requires critical thinking, budget management, time management and prioritization. It is very

complex and requires advanced knowledge, and perhaps research into infrastructure, emergency responses, crowd control and natural disasters. The tool provides amazingly realistic simulations and real life scenarios. Balancing Act (Posted by Chris) This WBLT provides an animated instruction on how to successfully complete the task of keeping the bar balanced. Students are able to experiment with different variables in different positions to try and maintain balance. Variable outside the students control change from time to time keeping the game fun and constantly evolving. It allows the student to succeed and fail without having to exit the game, it is ongoing allowing the student to fully grasp the concept on their own time. http://www.learningtools.arts.ubc.ca (UBC Learning Tools) (Posted by Mike) I really like the learning tools being developed at UBC. The project is run through the UBC Department of Arts Instructional Support and Information Technology. The tools are available to anyone. One of my favourite tools is Timeline Tool 2.0 which allows you construct interactive timelines with audio and video. My other favourite here is the Language Pronunciation Tool. It allows you instructors to record simple phrases. The student listens, repeats the phrase, records themselves and then allows them to compare their speech with the instructors. They are just really simple tools which can be easily customized for almost any learning environment for free to educators and researchers. Make a Balanced Plate-Food a Fact of Life (Posted by Edin) In this WBLT the student learns about balanced nutrition by exploring a variety of different food choices. The food items need to be organized into their food groups and portion sizes. I really like this WBLT because it helps us understand how to build a balanced meal for an overall healthy diet. Eyes Can Learn-Eye Exercises to Improve Learning and Visual Attention (Posted by Edin) This site has a wide variety of activities that can improve your visual information processing like perception and focusing. I really like the activity that helps with peripheral vision. In the activity you need to watch the circle in the center and not look away. As the center circle changes

color, find the same colored circle on the outside without looking away from the center circle. San Fransisco Symphony Kids' Page Music Lab (Posted by Andrew) The whole SFSKids site is full of great WBLTs: clear, accurate, engaging, and smooth (no super-long load times). The Music Lab introduces students to the elements of music (pitch, rhythm, tempo, etc.); each section gives a quick overview, and then lets students play, adjusting one element (e.g., speeding up a recording, or changing the instruments playing a piece of music), and hearing how the change affects the music. Fun, easy to use, and highly educational. New York Phiharmonic Kids' Page Music Instrument Storage Room (Posted by Andrew) Students learn about the instruments of the orchestra, visually organized as a room lined with instrument cases which reveal their contents when students hover with the mouse. Students explore links to information about the instrument, sound clips, related instruments, and close up views (including some clips of NYP members playing the instruments). This WBLT is very engaging and easy to use, and presents a huge amount of information in a very easilydigestible, student-guided format. How We See Things (Posted by Kathleen) Students (ages 10 - 11) manipulate small mirrors with two different angles to reflect light in an attempt to make the light touch different objects on the screen. If they are successful, there is an audio cue to indicate their success. There is also a multiple choice quiz they can take to test their knowledge of 'how we see things' with immediate feedback. This activity is easy to use, has a help menu, lets you move back and forth between the activity and the quiz, and is graphically pleasing for young children. Conceptual Frameworks (Posted by Kathleen) This WBLT is designed to assist students in understanding conceptual frameworks for research. It contains a combination of videos, text, and examples to help students with this process. I like it because it tackles a relatively complex subject in an easy to understand way and in manageable 'chunks' of information. Advanced Vocabulary in Context (Posted by David)

Students in advanced level English classes are able to practice the skill of making meaning based on context. Two sentences are provided that share a word; only through an understanding of meaning in context are the students able to make sense of both sentences and identify the meaning of the word in question. I like it because it encourages careful reading and provides immediate feedback and explanation. Police Scenarios Motivational Interviewing Health Services (posted by Kathleen) These are great learning objects that take adult learners through challenging and difficult situations using a variety of tools (video, audio, quizzes, text based material, etc.). They touch on a number of the theories. Action Verbs Game (Posted by David) Hosted on a blog dedicated to flash-based games for building vocabulary at the lower elementary school level, this game asks you to correctly associate verbs with pictured actions. I was quite engaged and couldn't wait to see the end result of all of the actions being put together in a short animated sequence - silly, but fun! Introduction to Calculus (Posted by Marco) Students taking calculus can get a head start with this introductory to calculus WBLT. It is a video explaining the concepts of calculus. Using examples, the video gives a summary of the development of calculus. What is a function? (Posted by Marco) This WBLT is an interactive simulation that uses everyday objects to explain the concept of a function. Once the concept of a function is established, students participate in solving functions through interactive animation sequences. Matching (Literacy/Language) WBLT (Posted by Katherine) This WBLT is designed for a young student (K1) as it helps the student categorize what items belong in different places. I like this because it looks fun (Help Nina the Newt figure out what to put in the house), and it reads the simple instructions out loud for the student. This is great for a primary learner who may still be developing their literacy skills. Science WBLT (Posted by Katherine)

This is a website that is FULL of different WBLT. Each section contains different activities that address certain scientific topics. It seems to be for junior and intermediate grade levels as I found some of the topics to be higher level and the instructions to be a bit complex depending on the activity. I like the variety of the games and the results after each game provide great feedback. In specific I liked this activity: Classifying Organisms 50th Anniversary of NASA (posted by Michelle) This WBLT uses a sliding-scale interactive timeline to portray NASAs history. It begins with an animated introduction explaining how to use the site, which combines video, audio, music, and animation. The excellent introduction leads into easy-to-use interactivity and makes learning the fascinating, in-depth content fun. Links are available to further develop knowledge. Journey to Mars (posted by Michelle) This WBLT allows students to explore an interactive Mars habitat. As students work through the habitat links they are learning facts about Mars. Students are able to follow their interests and learn about life in space. Volcano Explorer (Posted by Jess) This WBLT provides a simulation environment for learners to explore the science behind volcanoes. The learning tool provides facts about volcanoes which learners will use to create their own virtual volcano. Their knowledge is tested by the learning experimenting with different settings which change the eruption pattern. I picked this WBLT because I liked the open feel to the module. It takes advantage of a constructivist viewpoint on learning. How Plants Grow (Posted by Jess) This WBLT provides an exploratory approach to learning as individuals are provided with an opportunity to explore plant growth. They will experiment with optimal growing conditions for flowers and feedback is promptly displayed through the use of text and animations (the flower dying or growing). The learner has more opportunities to test the conditions after the initial experiment is concluded. I selected this WBLT as I appreciate it's constructivist approach to learning by allowing the student to achieve their own understanding based on experimentation.