Cognitive Tool Challenge Part 1 - Consumption tools

Thursday Group

Create a simple review to share with your class. Consider the cost, time commitment, ease of
use and final result. Add to the section and improve if you can. Add a comment if you have a
question. If you know of another resource, add it to the list at the bottom.
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ABC Splash ABC Splash is a free, easy to use website that contains information relating to the
Australian Curriculum. It has online games and interactive activities designed for a range of year
levels and learning areas.This Website is set out in an easy to navigate layout and provides
recent News and articles relevant for Education students. There is a search bar that says I am
in year.. and I want to know about.. which allows for age appropriate research.It is available
for Android which means it is portable and accessible anywhere. It is free which means it is
obtainable for everyone.
ABC Splash is free to use. The resources are categorised different class subjects, types of
media e.g. videos, digibooks and audio and educational games. There are also resources for
teachers and you can select by year group.
Khan Academy: A non-profit education organisation that provides free video tutorials and
interactive exercises. It offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalised
learning dashboard that helps and inspires students to study outside the classroom or at their
leisure. The Khan Academy covers various subjects like math, science, computer
programming, history, art history and economics.
Khan Academy provides a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. The organization
produces short lectures in the form of YouTube videos. In addition to micro lectures, the
organization's website features practice exercises and tools for educators. All resources are
available for free to anyone around the world. The main language of the website is English, but the
content is also available in other languages. Similar to what the TED talks do, it is providing what
they see as valuable information to the consumer and allowing for anyone with the internet to
engage with topics and literature that they may not have access to in normal schooling environment.
Their mission of providing free education tools also provides students who dont have access to

Cognitive Tool Challenge Part 1 - Consumption tools

Thursday Group
proper schooling and have the willingness and drive to learn, to be able to engage with learning
material that will be invaluable.
ABC Splash is an online education portal funded by the Australian Government which is providing
students and families with access to an extensive library of educational resources aligned to the
Australian Curriculum. A significant amount of the content is rich video and audio materials from
collections of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Having access to a tool that is considered
appropriate for the educational system of Australia means it has already been filtered and there is no
danger for teachers to get into hot water while accessing Youtube. All these resources are also
considered important, and should be valued.
Ask.com (was originally known as Ask Jeaves) is a questioning answering focused business based
on the styles of a web search engine page. It was founded in 1996. Ask.com software is criticized for
its browser toolbar which behaves as malware. It is a great resource in my opinion as it enables
users to source information in a similar way to google search engines. It however limits information
into a educational perspective allowing students easier access to the right kind of information. Ask
allows individuals to search based on a particular category. This means individuals who want to filter
based on a certain topic have access to do so. The categories include but are not limited to: Home
and garden, math, pets and animals, science and food. This directional search allows for less
confusion when filtering through information.
Behind the News is a primary and secondary resource allowing for individuals to gain access to
stories, quizzes and polls about current topics. Youngers particularly are often faced with the need to
stay current with news and political/societal changes. This website allows these year levels access
to the information that is presented at a more appropriate level and at a more increased levels of
relevance to the students. Behind the news is a resource that presents current affairs in a higher
energy level presentation which engages the students. Weekly programs are built major news
stories or the week, providing the reader with background information not usually given in news
bulletins on popular media.

BrainPop is a group of educational websites with over 1,000 short animated movies for students in
grades K-12 (ages 6 to 17), together with quizzes and related materials, covering the subjects o
fscience, social studies, English, mathematics, engineering and technology, health, and arts and
music. BrainPop is available by subscription but has some free content, including a movie of the day,

Cognitive Tool Challenge Part 1 - Consumption tools

Thursday Group
several free movies from each topic area, educators materials, including lesson plans, and an
extensive library of educational games called GameUp. Its free smartphone and tablet application
accesses BrainPop's free and subscription content.
Behind the News is a long-running news program broadcast on Australia's ABC TV made in
Adelaide and aimed at school-aged children (813 years of age). BtN is aimed at upper primary and
lower secondary students with the goal of helping them understand current issues and events in
their world.
Behind the News explores major news events using the language, music and popular culture of
young people. The program explains the concepts that underpin the issues and events, while also
providing background information that puts current affairs into context. Behind the News also covers
kids' issues often overlooked by mainstream news, and makes use of online resources including
streaming video of BtN stories, study materials for teachers and additional information and activities
for students. BtN explains news items in a fun, simplistic way that is easy to understand.

Britannica: An online encyclopedia scaffolded by year level, subject and/or education level.There are
three different Britannica associated sites; Britannica Academic (upper secondary), Britannica
School (all years) and Britannica Kids (primary school specific). The sites are comprehensive, easily
accessible and reliable resource. There is also the option to do an image quest on Britannica School
which could be excellent for all subjects. For teachers there is also the benefit of lesson plan
browser and builder. Obvious con is the cost.

TED Talks: TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. TED is an yearlyl conference
that started in 1984 which invites opinions of leaders in their respective fields. TED is a nonprofit organisation that posts videos of the people presenting a talk on ideas that they possess.
These people make the conference much more interesting, past speakers include Bill Clinton,
Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, Al Gore, as well as the founders of companies like Virgin,
Microsoft, and Google. TED talks focus on what the future will be like, what is happening around
the world, if its being done well or not. Therefore, this can inspire students to be creative, get
them thinking about issues that may not affect them but will in their later life.

Cognitive Tool Challenge Part 1 - Consumption tools

Thursday Group
BBC Bitesize is a very interesting website that is linked to the UK Curriculum. It will
require some translating to ensure that it matches with the Australian Curriculum. There
is a diversity of information and projects on the website and a useful app. The
information is pretty comprehensive, particularly in relation to some of the relatively
similar curriculum topics, such as English Literature and the Science. The site is very
content heavy, but would be great to use in the lesson preparation and for specific
resources for the students in a research assignment.
Wolfram|Alpha is a science focussed collection of resources. It is run by an American
Company and so is not linked to the Australian Curriculum, however it has a vast
collection of science related material; though it could well be above many students. If
you are to use this resource you will need to insure that the material is appropriate for
the student level. It is based on computational knowledge, and is therefore very good
for maths and science related inquiry.
BTN:
Behind the News is a valuable tool for both teachers and students to use. It contains polls and
quizzes that relate to current topics and news. It can be used by both primary and secondary
school classes. The website supports the informative ABC show Behind the News, making it a
great resource for finding videos and news stories. The website is constantly being updated with
new material and has a helpful teacher's page, which allows you to sign up to a weekly
newsletter.
Phet interactive Simulations: Phet interactive simulations offers a wide range of interactive
tools students from multiple disciplines. These simulations are ran through HTML 5, Flash and
Java, and are all open source. Phet interactive simulations are designed to be collaborative,
provide interactivity, encourage scientific enquiry and also use real world connections. Phet
interactive simulations uses click and drag, sliders and radio buttons to provide an interactive
experience.
Ask.com: Is a question-answering search engine. The answers provide key information,
quickly and intuitively. You can get quick access to sports scores, movie times, weather,

Cognitive Tool Challenge Part 1 - Consumption tools

Thursday Group
dictionary results, translations, conversions, health information, and more. Ask.com is similar to
that of google were in that it searches information, however, it is only a quick response to
questions and doesnt have the wide depth of information that Google does.
PhET Interactive Solutions: PhET is an online resource that provides simulations of
mathematical and scientific concepts. PhET can be used by both teachers and students in both
classrooms and outside of the classroom to engage students as well as teach them in practical
and real-world ways the applications of maths and science concepts. Not only does PhET
provide a huge range of simulations, it also caters for a wide variety of ages from primary or
elementary school through to undergraduate university students. PhET allows users to search
according to their specific needs. For example, the topic of estimation in mathematics can be
searched according to age as well as the type of activity such as a demonstration, homework,
and more, as well as in different languages. PhET is free to use and access and is a great
addition to ones lessons assisting in increasing student understanding of some difficult
mathematical and scientific concepts.
Youtube: An online video browser