FunBrain

FunBrain is an educational website for kids preschool to 8th grade. The website boasts having games, videos and books for students all for free on the site. There is also a section for parents and teachers as well. It has content on all subjects for each level in the form of games and videos that are engaging and fun. The site is easy to use with each grade level boldly displayed at the top so students can find the age appropriate content easily. A drawback of the site is there are ads everywhere which can be distracting to students or they could accidentally click on them leading them to non age appropriate sites.

I personally really enjoyed playing the games and if I was a student would be more motivated to learn if part of learning was these games... even math. I really like that they have books that students can read for free on their site because as a avid book lover I would know that buying books all the time to read gets expensive fast. Overall I feel this is a great website to use for a sub day or for parents to use at home if their child needs extra help on a certain concept or subject even though it can be played just for fun!

ABCmouse

ABCmouse is an award learning comprehensive program for children age two to eight.  They have a learning path that help the child learn through fun activities and can also be used on an app.  The curriculum ABCmouse teaches are reading, language development, math, science, technology, social studies and health.  The have a 30 day free trial but the monthly fee afterwards in $9.95.  Each membership can have up to four accounts (one for the parent and up to three children) In addition to the games they have, they also have books, songs, puzzles, drawings to color in and printables so students can practice their skills away from the computer.  Other features features include progress tracking for keeping up with the child's progress, tickets and rewards where the child can purchase items onsite and make a customizable avatar where the child can make a version of his or her self if they choose to.  Overall for children in the early grades, this website can be a solid tool towards fostering a learning environment for any child and I believe a bargain for what you recieve.

Newsela

Newsela is an instruction Content Platform that enhances learning and reading engagement in every subject. This website was developed as an educative online platform which focuses on building reading comprehension by students. The real-time assessments and high quality websites provided by Newsela for students ranging from grades 2-12 spans a wide variety of content. Some of the content provided include law, money, science, health, opinion, sports, and arts. Newsela is a well organized and useful online platform used by many educators. The website was once free but now charges around $18.00 per student.

This online platform provides very high interest yet low vocabulary access for English language learners and learning disability students to track achievements while also providing a higher level option for students who perform higher. This is also a great tool in which enables differentiation in a classroom while allowing the same content with different levels for classroom discussions. While exploring the website, students are provided with new and innovative materials that help them solve the problem of having to find articles on the internet. I highly recommend this website as it allows an entire class to access the same material at the adaptive level of each student. This is especially beneficial because each student will gain some level of comprehension and will not be discouraged by their reading abilities.

LingoDeer

 LingoDeer in language learning application. On this site/application you learn several different languages like English, French, Korean, Spanish etc. The app shows you which language course are available by the language you would like the course taught in. You learn by answering some multiple choice, short answer, and/or fill in the blank questions. It also allows you to record answers to check your pronunciation. LingoDeer separates the learning into categories such as verbs, family, greetings, food, time, numbers, etc. 

 I was not able to go very far into the levels because in March of 2019 LingoDeer switched from being an 100% free application to having the subscribers pay for access to the daily lessons.  They have a one-time lifetime option or you can pay per month. The pricing per month goes by if you want to have the subscription strictly monthly, quarterly or yearly. 

From just the little bit that I have experienced, I think LingoDeer is worth the one-time lifetime subscription payment option. If you do not have the funds to purchase that option then I would recommend waiting until you do. I do not think it wise to pay for this monthly. 

Could AI Replace Human Beings as Teachers?

     While it is exciting for some people to consider, and equally frightening for others to ponder, the idea that computers or robots could replace human beings as educators, I don't believe that this will really happen.  Robots cannot replace doctors, for example, but surgeries with more and more sophisticated technology can and does assist doctors to perform complex surgeries.  I think that robots could serve as teacher's assistants, for example, leading a particular group of students through a specific lesson, but I think human beings would still be in charge.  As the article I found suggests, human beings learn best by modeling or learning from other human beings.  Mirror neurons found in our brains dictate this relationship.  Unless the robots could replicate humans in a way in which we can't even imagine, I think it's safe to remain in the profession.

TypingClub

TypingClub is a free website that introduces kids to typing. The first lesson begins with a short video that serves as an introduction to typing. It explains how students should align their hands on the keyboard for optimal typing speed. The first activity consisted of typing f, j, and using the spacebar. After the activity, it gives the students a score that consists of accuracy, speed, and duration. It also lists the website’s goals for these. For example, the goals for the first activity were 80% accuracy, 3 wpm, and a 10 wpm speed goal. The student can compare their scores to the website's goals and see where they need to improve. The activities ease into incorporating more letters (the second lesson focuses on using k and d). There are 684 levels. The very last level consists of typing a paragraph. The student can view their stats at any time under the home page. Furthermore, there are badges students can win. One badge that can be earned is “Fiery Typist” in which the student has to type against the Typingclub speedometer. There is a premium version that includes no ads, but the ads did not appear to be a problem.

Codesters

Codesters is an exciting website that helps translate code into easy steps for students. Created in 2016, Codesters was originally a free-to-use website that granted kids easy games they could construct out of "blocks" of code, introducing code as an easy concept for most. As time went on Codesters would add more their website, including a curriculum and a Learning Management System(LMS), but this would be at the downfall to the consumer. These additional tools would be accompanied with a new cost. While the access can still be accessed for free, many of the new quirks require a membership. This does not take away from what can be gained from Codesters.

From a teachers perspective, this would be a great addition to a school. Schools can actually apply for discounted rates and get accounts for multiple students. I also believe that this could be a great way to introduce an extra curricular to a school. If your school lacks in clubs and activities students can participate in other than sports, asking for a school discount and getting 30 accounts to open a "Coding Club" would be a great investment. With one teacher that could head the club, using the dashboard and curriculum to easily access what the students are doing would be an easy task. Having the ability to function outside of the school would also be easier for the teacher in charge. Not only could you help students that would otherwise not have access to the full website, you would also be bringing more students into the school life. I would love to see a smaller school do this and cater to students that don't find themselves engaged with other activities on the premise. I support this platform and would love if there was some sort of incentive to bring more students into the user base, such as perhaps having one day a month where the "paid for" services could be free for that 24 hours.