Features and Tools

The Reference Link

Written by: Amy Ellisor
Friday, July 2nd, 2010

During the NT101 course participants collaborate on the discussion boards to share tips, strategies, resources and Best Practices. Often times, early in the course I have to send out a few re-assuring words to make people feel comfortable to post ideas. However, this summer the discussion boards are “on fire.” During the first content module, Barb Wagers from Aurora Colorado posted a great sample best practice article about the power of the Reference Link. Enjoy Barb’s Best Practice article below. Thanks to Barb for her great submission.

The Reference Link

If you have not explored the References link in the Features box, you are missing a ton of resources for you and your students. Teaching students to access the References button gives them several resources, literally, at their fingertips. There are two areas that I would like to specifically highlight.

Students always want to use images and sounds that may be copyright protected. Using Find Sound, students can download free sound clips that can be used in presentations or video production. Click on the Reference tab and scroll down to Find Sound under the category of Finders. You can search for a specific sound or browse through a list of sounds available by clicking on See Examples in English link. Once the students find the sounds they want, they can download them onto their computer and use them legally.

In the Multimedia area on the References page, there are several sites that offer free clip-art and images. The Elementary tab is a bit limiting, but have your students use the Middle or High school tab and they will see several websites that offer free clip-art and images. Many of the sites have the images in subject categories, which is very useful to the students.

There are several more resources in the References link, so check them out and teach your students to use them as well.

Barb Wagers
Instructional Technology Coach
Aurora Public Schools, CO

We would love to hear your tips, strategies and Best Practices for implementing netTrekker in your classroom, school or district. Your ideas may be published on nT Village or in our netTrekker newsletter.

Best Practice Submission Process:
Please describe (in 500 words or less), a netTrekker Integrated Best Practice. Include details that support using the Collections, the Features, Web Tools, and any of our Integrated Partner Products. In your entry, include the external links, a copy of any educator created materials, and any other pertinent documents and resources you incorporated to make your lesson a Best Practice.

Send this information to aellisor@nettrekker.com to be considered for publication in the Best Practice section of the netTrekker newsletter or on netTrekker Village.

Tags: best practice, Features and Tools, lesson plans, NT101, references, staff development, Training

Friday, July 2nd, 2010 Training No Comments

Layering Time

Written by: Danielle Abernethy
Friday, November 14th, 2008

High School Globalization netTrekker d.i. Timeline

I just got off the phone with a teacher in Georgia. She’s a science teacher that attended GAETC last week, and when she stopped by the booth, we played around with the Timeline Feature in netTrekker d.i. She didn’t realize that the timeline feature could do layers and was simply amazed. So at 7:30 this morning she called to go through the steps again and make sure she had all the facts.

She’s a high school teacher, so we started by going to the high school tab and clicking on the Timeline link found in the Features box on the right. We decided to use the World History timeline as our base and then selected the Globalization Era (eras are found in the black section) by clicking on the timeline icon next to the era. This pulled up the major general events, art related events, discoveries and innovations, and famous people who lived during this time period.

Next we went to the layering option, found in the right hand corner. You can add up to five layers to a timeline, and the topics range from science to art to literature. Each layer will have a different icon, as identified in the legend. You can collapse or expand sections by clicking on the up and down triangles and save the timeline for students to use in projects. Students love making connections on how one event or discovery might have influenced another.

I can learn more about Seaborgium, a discovery during this time frame for chemistry, by clicking on the