iKnowThat An Educational Site for Children

1. iKnowThat.comAn Educational Site for Children By: Danielle Coolahan Kaitlyn Dalton Shantiya Gilchrist Patricia Luberto

2. Description • iKnowThat.com is an educational site for children which can be used in or out of the classroom with engaging and interactive activities for the students to complete. • This site contains activities from a wide range of subjects at a vatiety of grade levels. •  Activities are based upon national standards, and cover hundreds of topics.

3. Description Continued • On the site, topics can be found through the search engine, by grade, or by subject. • Under each topic, there are puzzles, videos, quizes, and games that the students can find to help them become more proficient in their skills, as well as to guide a teacher in their lesson planning.

4. Demonstration • iknowthat.com requires a subscription to use most of the activities on the site; however, there are several free trials under each topic to explore. http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=math http://www.iknowthat.com/com/iktMath?SubTopic=Single+Digit+Subtraction&Movie=FortressAtFrogIsland&Topic=singledigitsubtraction

5. Strengths Colorful and attractive Allows access for grades Pre-K through 6th Includes activities for math, language arts, science, social studies, arts, and social learning  Lists the difficulty levels for each activity Includes teacher guides that specify what students can learn and practice based on their grade and academic level  Well-organized and easy to navigate (for teachers, students, and parents) Specific grade levels and subjects are listed Most activities can be tried for free Parent and Teacher forums Socially reinforced learning- easy for parents to be a part of the child's learning New content is frequently added

6. Weaknesses Banner ads at the top and sides of page $34.95/year subscription fee (30 day free trial) Students have ability to disclose their email addresses through challenging a friend to game/activity Requires additional computer features, such as flash player, to access audio/visual for many activities (some students may not have access) Dependent on Adobe "Shockwave"; students on computers with slower speeds may not have access to all activities 

7. Potential Activities • Since IKnowthat.com has a variety of activities in a wide range of subject areas for grades PreK-6th, there are a number of possible activities that could be done.

8. Math • Could be used to reinforce topics such as:                 1. Counting money through the "Money Workshop"  (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=MoneyWorkbench)                 2. Computational skills through "Mathblox" (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=Mathblox)                 3. Solving word problems through "Math Stories" (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=WordProblems)

9. Language Arts • Grammar and puncutation lessons can use these activities as fun reinforcements of the topic:                     1. Sentence Puzzles (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=SelectAWord)                     2. Alien Word Mine (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=WackAWord)                     3. Punctuation Paintball (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=Paintball)

10. Science • IKnowthat.com provides interactive illustrations, simulations, and other activities to learn about a variety of different science topics. Animals and Habitats- "Animal Universe" (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=Habitats) Ocean Creatures- "Underwater Expedition" (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=Exped) Online and Printable worksheets that can be used for a variety of topics including: weather, animals, Dinosaurs, Food chains and food webs etc. "Whaddaya Know? Worksheets" (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=WKWorksheets)

11. Social Studies Geography- "Puzzle Maps" - Students can "Put Together the World" by placing the puzzle pieces where they need to go in order to fill in a map. (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=PuzzleMaps) - Students can watch videos about different famous people, events  and landmarks in the "Video Vault". (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=TheVideoVault) - Students can play as a contestant on "Whaddaya Know? Quiz Show" with thousands of different question sets including topics such as Capital Cities, Christopher Columbus, landforms, MLK Jr., Presidential elections etc. (http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=QuizShow)

12. Ways that iKnowThat.com Meets The National Technology Educational Standards Creativity and Innovative iKnowThat.com has various activities in every subject area that are innovative and creative for students. There are games that allow students to practice mathematics in creative ways.While students are practicing math they can also help Leon the frog workout or they can learn how to count money using virtual money online.

13. NETS Standards cont. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving This website meets the critical thinking standards because many of the games try to help students develop their problem solving skills and strategies such as the game called Botz. Botz allows students to write and create their own program that will allow them to build their own robot to interact with another robot. There are also math word problem games that allow students to solve math problems critically.

14. NETS Standards cont. Communication and Collaboration The communication and collaboration standard was met in many ways. Some of the games allow students to play, chat, and learn with other students around the world. An example of collaboration is the Beehive Game. It allows students to play with their own bee in an avatar mutiplayer virtual world with other students.  The site also allow students to practice quizzes that other students made. 

15. NETS Standards cont. Digital Citizenship iKnowThat.com also meets the digital citizenship standard. The website encourage students to use non-identifiable screen names. It also encourages students to refrain from disclosing their passwords.The site also encourage students to be digital citizens by collaborating.

16. NETS Standard cont. Technology Operations and Concepts This standard is met by the site because it allows students to transfer their knowledge about mathematics by using virtual base manipulatives. It also allow students to learn about fractions by using various interactive tools. The website also have an application tool that allow the games and website to be accessed through mobiles.

17. NETS cont. Research and Information Fluency This is the only standard that iKnowThat.com did not meet. I didn't see any programs that promoted research to students.