Instructional Technology Web Resources
The following links provide easy access to resources on the web that include everything from lesson plans, project ideas, interactives, puzzle makers, photo and clipart resources, videos, Web 2.0 tools, global learning sites, and much, much more.
If you discover a dead-link, please email me at: rwenner@esmschools.org.
Use the links below to "jump" to a specific category:
jump to Blogging ... j ump to ClipArt and Animations...
jump to Comic Strip Makers... jump to Digital Storytelling...
jump to Document Cameras... jump to Global Learning...
jump to Online File Conversion... jump to Podcasting
jump to Puzzle Makers... jump to Rubrics and Checklists...
jump to Sounds and Music... jump to Interactive Whiteboard Resources...
jump to Videos... jump to Video Conferencing...
jump to Virtual Field Trips... jump to Wikis...
jump to other "Cool" Web 2.0 Tools...
SCHOOLTOOL
https://st.esmschools.org/schooltoolweb/default.aspx
TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY BLOG (Becky's TechTips)
http://techpusherwenner.blogspot.com
LESSON PLAN DEVELOPMENT (something for everyone)
Atomic Learning: Technology Skill Tutorial: This site has tons of tutorials for all Microsoft products, GroupWise email, Geometer Sketchpad, Audacity, iTunes, iPhoto, GarageBand, and many more. You can search by platform (PC or MAC) or by software name. Atomic learning has free tutorials as well as subscription tutorials.
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/tutorials
Beginning Teachers' Tool Box: A great resource site for new teachers and their mentors
http://www.inspiringteachers.com
Brainy Betty: A plethora of free resources for designing professional looking PowerPoint presentations, websites, and other Office documents.
http://brainybetty.com/
Buddy Project: Great Resources for teachers, students, parents. Links to lesson ideas and subject specific web sites.
http://buddyproject.org/
CNYRIC Instructional Technology (BOCES): eLearning, PowerMediaPlus, useful links, blogs, professional development and more.
http://itd.cnyric.org/
Dr. Alice Christie's Matrix of 320 WebQuests: Written by her students for all subject areas and grade levels
http://alicechristie.org/edtech/wq/matrix/
Dr. LeBeua's Home Page: Resources for Teachers, Students, and Curious Adults. A great collection of websites organized under the following categories: Education Rescources, Technology, Search Engines, Cool Links for Kids, Reading Resources, All About Writing, Science, Math, Social Studies, Geography & Places in the World, Celebrations by Month, School Leaders & Supervisors, Just for Parents.
http://www.suelebeau.com/
Digital Video in Education: Teacher Process, Student Process, Equipment, Internet Resources, Project Ideas
http://edtech.guhsd.net/video.html
The Discovery Channel:Lesson Plans – hundreds of original lesson plans, all written by teachers for teachers.
http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/9-12.html
Dynamic Digital Camera Use: Teaching strategies and example projects for using digital cameras in the classroom.
http://www.lincoln.k12.ky.us/lcms/digcamera.htm
EasyTestMaker: FREE online test generator to help you create multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true and false. You can also insert instructions and divide your test into multiple sections.
http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx
Educators Reference Desk: Lesson Plans by Subject, Resources, and Question Archive from Ask Eric
http://www.eduref.org/
Education World-The Educator's Best Friend: Lesson Planning, Professional Development, Technology Integration, Administrators Desk, School Issues
http://www.education-world.com/a_ lesson/
Interactive Web Resources: Provides all curriculums links to cool interactive web resources.
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interactive.htm
Internet4Teachers - Helping Teachers Use the Internet Effectively: Great site for links to high quality, free, internet resources created by teachers for teachers. http://www.internet4classrooms.com/
Jenuine Tech - Creative Projects for the PreK-6 Classroom: http://www.technospudprojects.com/
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators: Categorized list of sites useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth (Lesson Plans, Scavenger Hunts, Web Quests, Assessments and Rubrics, etc.)
http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide
The Lesson Plans Page: Over 2,500 free lessons and much more!
http://www.lessonplanspage.com
Map Generator: site for science and social studies teachers
http://nationalatlas.gov/maplayers.html
Microsoft Office Templates
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx
School Notes.com: Easy-to-use no-cost tool which gives educators the ability to communicate school information on the World Wide Web for access by their community of parents and students.
http://www.schoolnotes.com
TeacherClicks.com: Free web based tools and resources for the K-12 Teachers.
http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/TeacherClicks/
Teacher Tap: Addresses co common technology integration questions by providing practical, online resources and activities.
http://eduscapes.com/tap/
Thinkfinity (formerly MarcoPolo): This site is amazing!! Plethora of FREE standards-based lessons, interactives, 21st Century skills, and professional development information.
http://thinkfinity.org/
TICAL: Technology Information Community for Administrative Leadership: TICAL's Resource Database contains over 800 carefully selected and annotated resources to help you find quality educational technology resources in a hurry.
http://www.portical.org/
BLOGGING ENGINES
Blogger.com
https://www.blogger.com/start
Blog Doctor: Blog tips and tricks, Gadget Showcase, and lots of other cool stuff to jazz up your blog!
http://www.blogdoctor.me/
edublogs.com
http://edublogs.org/
21 Classes.com: 21Classes lets teachers set up and manage a multi-user blog solution with independent blogs for students instantly and easily.
http://www.21classes.com/
WordPress.com: Large selection of great free and customizable designs for your blog, 3 gigabytes of file storage (that's about 2,500 pictures!), and tons of other cool features.
http://wordpress.com/
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CLIPART, IMAGES & ANIMATIONS
Animation Library.com
http://www.animationlibrary.com/
Clipart.com
http://www.barrysclipart.com/
3D Text Maker: great site for designing 3D text for all your documents and webpages.
http://www.creatingonline.com/image_editing/3d_textmaker.htm
Cool Text Graphic Generator: Great site to design your text.
http://cooltext.com
Flashiness.com: Free Flash Animations
http://www.flashiness.com/index.htm
FreeAnimations.com: 3D Animations and Graphics
http://www.free-animations.co.uk/
Gif Animations
http://gifanimations.com/
Image Idea: High Quality, copyright free digital images for educators to use in their classroom.
http://ideas.wisconsin.edu/imageideas.cfm
Internet Clip Art
http://www.internetclipart.com/home.htm
Microsoft Office Online (free clipart for download)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx
NY Public Library Digital Gallery
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
Philip Martin's Free Clip Art Site
http://www.phillipmartin.info/clipart/homepage.htm
Photos.com
http://www.barrysclipart.com/
Pics 4 Learning
http://www.pics4learning.com/??
Webdeveloper: Animated GIFs for Free Download
http://www.webdeveloper.com/animations/
Smithsonian Images
http://smithsonianimages.si.edu/siphoto/siphoto.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=home
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COMIC STRIP MAKER
Comiqs.com: Create and share your comiq style stories.
http://comiqs.com/
Dvolver Movie Maker: Animated/interactive comic strip generator. Choose from backgrounds, skies, scenes, and characters. Type in the character's script and render as digital movie file. Share via email, or embed on webpages.
http://www.dvolver.com/live/moviemaker.html
MakesBeliefComix: Awesome site that your kids will love!! Selected by Google as being one of the world's most innovative web sites in fostering literacy and reading!! Choose from bank of characters whose emotions can change. Site also provides Teacher Resources, Story Ideas, Writing Prompts, Language Options, and Printables.
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/
Myths and Legends Story Creator: Great site. Lot's of tools and options.
http://myths.e2bn.org/story_creator/
pikikids.com: Easy to use comics creator. Pick a layout, upload your own pictures, add some text and presto....your comic is done.
http://www.pikikids.com/home
Pixton Comic Strip Creator: Award winning click and drag comic creator. Choose from templates or start from scrath. Also provides large
format comics ideal for posters or for t-shirt designs.
http://pixton.com/for-fun
ToonDoo: Lots of fun with a variety of tools! Just make sure you have your students/or parents read terms of use! Some adult image/content is there!
http://www.toondoo.com/
Txt2Pic.com: Free online comic strip generator (political, celeb parodies).
http://www.txt2pic.com/toons/5.htm
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DIGITAL STORYTELLING
DigiTales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories: resources and inspiration for families, individuals, schools, everyone else ready to discover the power and magic of merging the art of storytelling with the enchantment of using digital tools.
http://digitales.us/index.php
Digital Storybook Lesson Ideas, Example & Rubrics (Univ. Mass):
http://www.umass.edu/wmwp/DigitalStorytelling/Lesson%20Plans%20for%20Digital%20Storytelling.htm
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling: Great site created by professors and graduate students from University of Houston. All the resources you will need to start this activity with your students: examples sorted by curriculum, tools needed, PhotoStory 3 tutorial, rubrics, and more.
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
Integrating Digital Storytelling in your Classroom: Lots and lots of good stuff (integration ideas, storyboard resources, rubrics, examples, and more)
http://its.ksbe.edu/dst/
Jackson County Schools: Links, Ideas, and Examples
http://www.eaglepnt.k12.or.us/Page.asp?NavID=1894
Open Thinking Wiki (Digital Storytelling): popular Web resource for K-12 teachers interested in digital storytelling platforms. The wiki lists a number of helpful starting points and links for educators who want to integrate multimedia presentations into their classroom lessons.
http://couros.wikispaces.com/digitalstorytelling
TeachNet: Creating Your PhotoStory
http://www.teachnet.ie/innovative_teacher/default.asp?NCID=365
Teaching Teachers' Digital Storytelling: Resources include an overview, the art of storytelling, examples, planning tools, and more.
http://www.teachingteachers.com/index.htm
21st Century Teaching: Ideas for PhotoStory 3 Projects
http://21stcenturyteaching.pbworks.com/Ideas-for-Photostory-3-Projects
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DOCUMENT CAMERAS (ELMOS)
ELMO USA: Show Great Lessons (.pdf): Practical list of interactive instructional ideas that cover all grade levels and many subject areas for ways to enchance your instruction. http://www.elmousa.com/files/ShowMeGreatLessons!.pdf
Elmo Lesson Plans for Pre-K and Early Elementary: New and exciting ideas for using your ELMO. Using an ELMO in the classroom will revolutionize the way you teach and the way your students learn. Using the ELMO in your classroom daily will take both you and your students to a whole new level of teaching and learning you never though possible.
http://www.pre-kpages.com/elmo.html
Teaching Tips: Classroom Use of Elmo Document Cameras: This professional development site for educators provides a large list of links for integration ideas for all grade levels.
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00002162.shtml
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GLOBAL LEARNING
ePals: - Where Learners Connect: The Internet's largest global community of connected classrooms! Safely connect, collaborate and learn using our leading protected email and blog solutions for schools and districts.
http://www.epals.com/
Friendship Through Education: Consortium of organizations committed to creating opportunities that facilitate interactions between youth worldwide, building an understanding between nations, and a bond between humanity.
http://www.friendshipthrougheducation.org/
Global School Net: Linking kids around the world. Meaningful project learning exchanges with people around the world to develop 21st Century Skills.
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/
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INTERACTIVE WEB SITES FOR STUDENTS
Calculation Nation (Math): Calculation Nation™ uses the power of the Web to let students challenge opponents from anywhere in the world. At the same time, students are able to challenge themselves by investigating significant mathematical content and practicing fundamental skills. The element of competition adds an extra layer of excitement
http://www.calculationnation.com/
Learn to Type: Learn to type or improve your typing skills with our free comprehensive keyboarding lessons. Tips & games included.
http://www.typingweb.com/
SpellCity.com: This interactive Web site helps students prepare for spelling tests and quizzes.
http://www.spellingcity.com/
ONLINE FILE CONVERSTION PROGRAMS (FREE)
ConvertYouTube.net: Great site that allows you to cut & paste YouTube video URLs and download in multiple different formats (.wmv, .avi, etc.).
http://www.convertyoutube.net/
ConvertYouTube.com: Another free site for downloading YouTube videos in various formats (requires setting up a free account).
ZamZar: Free online file conversion program with tons of file format options. Convert documents, .pdfs, audio and video files. Can also be used for downloading videos from other websites.
http://zamzar.com/
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PODCASTING
The Education Podcast Network: wide range of podcasts that may be helpful to teachers looking for content to teach with and about, and to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century.
http://www.epnweb.org/index.php?view_mode=about
Gabcast: easy-to-use podcast creation and hosting site; even use your cellphone to record the podcast or post audio to your blog.
http://gabcast.com/
Mr. Fahy's Podcasts: Great examples and use of PodBean.com
http://mrfahy.podbean.com/
PodBean.com: free, easy-to-use podcast hosting site. Upload to your own padcast webpage!
http://podbean.com/
Ray Middle School - Library (Baldwinsville, NY): Examples of good and bad podcasts, lesson plans, etc.
http://www.bville.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=1927
SHAMBLES' Podcasting in General: The "one stop site" for all your podcasting needs. List of links to sites that will answer your questions, provide instructional materials for teaching students about podcasting, podcasting hosting sites, and more.
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/podcast/
SHAMBLES' Podcasting and Education: Tons of links to support the integration of podcasting into your classroom.
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/infolit/edupodcast/
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PUZZLE MAKERS
Discovery School's Puzzle Maker: Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more using your own word lists.
Puzzle Maker
My Teacher Tools: Crossword Puzzles, Word Searches, Mazes, and other Puzzles.
http://www.myteachertools.com/puzzles.php
TeAch-nology.com's Word Scramble Generator: This neat and handy tool allows you to create word scramble sheets over the web. Scramble up to 999 words and get the answers, too.
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/scramble/
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RUBRIC and CHECKLIST CREATORS
Project Based Learning Checklists: Checklists to support Project Based Learning and evaluation
http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/checklist.shtml
Rubistar
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
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INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD RESOURCES
Bob's Place of Educational Links: list of links to a variety of SMART board activities and lessons.
http://www.bobsedulinks.com/Smart_Board_Links.htm
Promethean Planet: free online community designed to provide Activclassroom teachers around the world the ability to share new and innovative lessons, access a wide variety of professional development materials, and connect with fellow Activclassroom teachers from around the Planet.
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/
Simple SMART Skills: great resource for SMART Board information. Site includes web sites of interest where you can download great SMART Notebook files, Tech Tips with hardware suggestions, and a Gallery reference section where you can quickly view all multimedia items in SMART Notebook software.
http://www.simplesmartskills.com/download-nb-files.htm
SMART Technologies' Educator Resouces: SMART Notebook lesson activies, lesson resources, teachers hub, online classroom resources and more.
http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/
SMARTBoard Interactive Resources: Lot's of SMART resources appropriate for the primary and elementary grades. Highly interactive lessons for teaching on your Smart board and lots of fun too!! (Math, Reading, Writing, Music, Social Studies, Science)
http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/smartboard/smartboard.htm
Smartboard in the Classroom: Links to interactive websites that are great to use with a smartboard as introductory activites, lesson ideas, and 2-minute tutorial videos.
http://eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard/
QZAB Teachers: Wiki for 21st Century Educators with a whole page on Promethean Board resources.
https://qzabteachers.wikispaces.com/Promethean
Wichita Public School's SMART Resources: SMART lessons, everyday math smart board lessons, meet their SMART Master Teachers, video tutorials, and interactive websites.
http://technology.usd259.org/resources/whiteboards/smart.htm
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SOUNDS & MUSIC
Absolute Sound Effects
http://www.grsites.com/archive/sounds/
Educational CyberPlayround: Music WAVs and Legal Music Downloads
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/waves.html
FindSounds.com
http://www.findsounds.com/
Internet Archive Open Source Audio: This library contains over two hundred thousand free digital recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Many of these audios and MP3s are available for free download.
http://www.archive.org/details/audio
Jamundo: Worlds #1 platform for free and legal music downloads. Available in seven languages, it offers the largest catalog of music under Creative Commons licenses. Songs and playlists are uploaded from artists from around the globe! Downloading from Jamendo is quick and easy. Once you create your user account, you can download from an artist, album or playlist page, or even straight from their player.
http://www.jamendo.com/en/
Partners in Rhyme: Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects plus free music loops, free sound effects, and free midi files.
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/
Purple-Planet: Huge selection of royalty free music that can be used for any type of film production or web presentation (blogs, podcasts, classroom webpages, etc.).
http://www.purple-planet.com/
Royalty Free Music
http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/
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eSchool News TV: Video news for today's K-12 educator. View and upload videos to share with educators from around the world. Great source for instructional videos, demonstration/example videos for student projects, and professional development.
http://www.eschoolnews.tv/
Ed-Video (BOCES Curriculum Resource Center/Video Streaming/Media Booking)
http://www.ocmboces.org/teacherpage3.cfm?teacher=365
Learn Out Loud: Audio and Video Files (audio books, speeches, interviews, etc. - largets selection of free audio and video learning resources)
http://www.learnoutloud.com
Mathtrain.TV: Great website consisting of student teaching student middle school math concepts. Also includes teacher made videos.
http://www.mathtrain.tv/
SchoolTube : safe, world class, and FREE media sharing website that is nationally endorsed by premier education associations.
http://www.schooltube.com/videos
SnagFilms.com: Rated top site of 08'. Great site for tons of online streaming video and videos for download. Topics include Environment, Health, History, International, Life & Culture, Politics, Science & Nature, Sports & Hobbies, and Womans Issues.
http://www.snagfilms.com/
Teacher Tube - Great Educational Videos
http://www.teachertube.com/index.phpTED: Ideas Worth Spreading: Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.
http://www.ted.com/WatchKnow - Videos for kids to learn from. Millions of great short videos, and other watchable media, explaining every topic taught in schools, in every major language on Earth!
http://www.watchknow.org/
WingClips: Free inspirational movie clips from many favorite films.
http://www.wingclips.com/
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VIDEO CONFERENCING (PROVIDERS/COLLABORATIONS)
CAPSpace (Collaborations Around the Planet): social networking tool for educational videoconferencing. Login to find colleagues and schools interested in collaborative videoconference projects. Create and advertise your own collaborative videoconference projects to educators around the world.
http://projects.twice.cc/
Polycom.com: searchable database containing programs from content providers such as zoos and museums that offer IP based videoconferencing.
http://www.polycom.com/solutions/industry_solutions/education/searchable_database.html
VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS
What is a virtual Field Trip? It's a guided and narrated tour of Web sites that have been selected by educators like yourself and arranged in a "thread" that students can follow from site to site with just the click of a single button.
(http://www.field-trips.org/develop.htm, 2009)
Go North! Explore the Artic - free adventure learning project for the K-12 Classroom anchored in social and natural science curriculum. Utilized by more than three million learners, participation includes teachers in 2900+ schools - across the 50 US states and worldwide on six continents.
http://www.polarhusky.com/
Quest Network's Blue Zones: Empowering Students to Explore, Question, and Act: interactive expeditions for audiences to explore the world around them, question what they find, then act to affect change. Through exploration, we provide cultural, environmental, and historical knowledge to empower our audiences.
Tramline Virtual Field Trips: collection of virtual field trips developed with the goal of making the best use of the web in the classroom. These annotated trips take students to some of the best web sites on each trip subject.
http://www.field-trips.org/vft/index.htm
Virtual Classroom Field Trip: Great site that provides both pre-made field trips to exciting, educational, and interesting locations, plus, step-by-step guides/templates to create your own field trips.
http://www.uen.org/tours/
Windows into Wonderland: Since 2001, Yellowstone National Park has been offering eTrips to share the resources and treasures of the world's first national park. Explores the geysers, hot springs, animal wildlife, and much, much more.
http://www.windowsintowonderland.org/
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WEB 2.0 TOOLS (FREE!!)
Animoto: Free for teachers, Animoto is a web application that creates MTV-style videos with the click of a button. "Animoto videos have the emotional impact of a movie trailer and the visual energy of a music video." Users can upload their own pictures, videos, and music, or can use Animoto's bank of media resources (images, videos, and royalty free songs donated by the artists themselves)!
http://animoto.com/
Blabberize: This fun site allows students to express themselves in a whole new way!! Students can upload images and make them come to life with their own voice!! Check it out!!
http://blabberize.com/
Glogster: Create interactive online posters! Simply put, a "Glog" is a kind of poster, fully designed by yourself! Glog is a fancy creation from text, images, music and video!
http://www.glogster.com/
Magnetic Poetry's Kids Poetry Page: Just like the magnets for your fridge, students can use this fun "manipulative" to play with language and improve their writing skills in the process. Students can submit their poems and view poems submitted by other kids. Click on the teacher resource link to view or download the Classroom Guide.
http://www.magpo.com/kidspoetry/
Prezi.com: Create astonishing presenations live on and the web. Prezi is a digital zooming story telling and presentation tool that helps you create outstanding visuals for your thoughts.
http://prezi.com/
VoiceThread.com: web based tool that creates " Collaboration Environments" that allow users to collect multiple voices and viewpoints in a single package. Upload any type of media such as images, documents, videos and allow users to comment on topic in 5 different ways. Cool!!
http://voicethread.com/#home
Student Publishing.com: Cool Site that will publish REAL books for your students for free... yes- FREE!
http://www.studentpublishing.com/index2.php
Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools: This wiki has everything you need...the one stop shop for all your cool online teaching tools!! All resources are contributed by teachers from all over the globe!! Have questions about a tool?...collaborate with it's contributor!
https://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/
Wordle: Wordle (text visualizer) is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
http://www.wordle.net/
WordSift: This free text visualizer was created to help teachers manage the demands of vocabulary and academic language in their text materials. WordSift helps anyone easily sift through texts -- just cut and paste any text into WordSift and you can engage in a verbal quick-capture!
http://wordsift.com/
WIKIS
PBWorks (formerly PBWiki.com)
http://pbworks.com/
Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com/
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