WolframAlpha

WolframAlpha is an amazing third-generation search engine that can tell you almost anything about anything: math, chemistry, socioeconomics, geography, etc. You can input a formula, or just a few words as a question, and Wolfram will make the appropriate assumptions about what you want to know. Especially good with relational data, e.g., what's the ratio of France's GDP to Italy's?



The screencast illustrates a few of the many ways this tool can be useful: http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

This should be an excellent classroom tool, both in content-based projects and math work, and for general English, writing research papers, making predictions, etc.

Personas for Firefox

Just had some fun creating my own "persona" (theme) for my Firefox browser.


https://www.getpersonas.com/

This might be a good activity for your students. They need to create a long, narrow photo for the top and the bottom of the browser, and then upload it to the site. All the step-by-step directions and specifications are at the site (a good reading activity, and/or watch the tutorial video), and they can try it out before uploading. After the photo is accepted, they can share their personal favorites and/or make their theme public for others to use.

You will need to be able to download an add-on to Firefox before starting the process, so this may require the OK from your school administration or tech support. However, the download itself takes only a few seconds.