Blabberize

Want to hear from your students??? Why not have them create an image that talks? It's silly, it's fun, and it's engaging. Please go to www.blabberize.com and learn how to use this tool quickly!

ThingLink

THINGLINK: MAKE YOUR IMAGES INTERACTIVE!
https://www.thinglink.com/

ThingLink is an awesome interactive media platform. This website allows individuals to upload a single image and embed it with text, other images, music, videos, and/or direct link to other websites.

Utilize in English Language Arts, History, Science, and more! Turn a map into an interactive experience, a planet into a well developed research project, or an image of a book into a detailed book report. The opportunities are unlimited!

Fake Magazine Cover

I love utilizing this fun tool in various ways! Basically, this application will allow students to create cool magazine covers for various reasons.  It's extremely easy to use and it's free!  I used it for students creating articles concerning a major plot element within a novel - but it could be used for research, important concept/topic you are discussing, creative writing, etc.  All you need is to have an image saved on your computer that you would like to use, pick a magazine template, upload, and voila! Students will LOVE it!

Just go to the following website to get started: 

www.fototrix.com OR www.fotojet.com

Word Clouds

Tagxedo and Wordle: www.tagxedo.com and www.wordle.net

These websites are great for vocabulary, poetry, descriptive language, and so much more!  We know as educators the words are fun - but our students don't always know that - so introduce them to a visual graphic that associates words with having a good time. 

 

Polyvore

Are you a designer at heart?  Would you love for your students to get a little creative with a project?  What does that main character in the book really look like?  Well, why not try out POLYVORE. 

www.polyvore.com

This website allows students to create concept boards that involve clothing, accessories and text.  Students easily can create accounts and get busy right away!

Text It!

Face it...our students LOVE to text!  Cell phones could practically be viewed as an appendage these days.  So, why not utilize that interest in the classroom?  Not comfortable having cell phones out in the classroom??? Then use the website: Fake iPhone Text!  www.fakeiphonetext.com or http://iphonefaketext.com/

This website allows students to create fake text messaging conversations.  Why not have characters from a book texting one another? What about historical figures?  Mathematicians? The possibilities are endless!

Olioboard

Olioboard is a website that allows you to create 2D and 3D rooms.  It is easy to use and lots of fun to learn.  Students can create scenes from a book, design a concept for a business they are creating, construct a layout for an art project, or whatever way you deem it fit for your curriculum.  My students love utilizing their imagination and creativity with this awesome interactive website!  (It's also very easy to set up an account.)

PicMonkey

Have some fun with photo editing!  They say...a picture can say a thousand words - so why not utilize the magic of photography within your classroom!  You don't have have to be an art teacher to incorporate this type of media within your lessons!

With this FREE software students are able to edit, crop, cut, and manipulate any photo!  They can add text, graphics, and border too.  Let students explore your lessons through imagery!

Prezi: Presentation Software!

This presentation software is awesome! It is like Power Point on steroids!

"Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and the connections between them. The result: visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery."

What is moodle ppt

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

What is moodle ppt

View more presentations from Tomaz Lasic.

Glowing with Glogs!

Glogster is a super cool website that allows you do create posters in the cyber-world. This tool isn't only tons of fun - it also allows for tons of creativity. Have your students create a glogster page about themselves as an introductory activity or about any important figure and/or character you learn about throughout the school year.

Comics are Cool

Comics are cool again with Toon Doo! Have students create comics for all sorts of purposes! Have a laugh with characters solving math problems, a comic strip surrounding the Bill of Rights, the plot to a story, analyzing problems and so much more! The possiblities are endless, and students will claim that they are actually enjoying themselves while producing work for your class! Yay!

Text-to-Movie

Xtranormal is an awesome Web 2.0 tool that is Xtracool! With this neat application students can turn any text into an animated video. Want the students to tell a story? Why not do it visually with animation, sound, and various features! I am having my students retell short stories with this tool - Kate Chopin's stories will be viewed in a whole other way! The best thing about this Web 2.0 tool is that it is VERY easy to use. I learned how to manage it within minutes. Try it out - you can't help but have fun!

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Here is an awesome website with a list of some amazing resources. This is the place to go to learn about integrating great Web 2.0 tools into your curriculum.

Don't be afraid - go out there and learn as much as you can. Our students are yearning for these tools! Enrich your curriculum with Web 2.0 tools! Click on "Web 2.0 for the Classroom" and it will direct you to the wonderful website created by fellow educator, Sue Somerford.

PODCASTS: Personal on Demand

PODCASTS - What a great idea!
Watch the video below to learn what a podcast is and how one uses a podcast.

How did I use podcast as an educator?

At the beginning of the year I was on maternity leave and podcasts were an amazing tool to utilize during my leave. I was able to create lessons, post them on my podcast website, and leave it to my long term substitute teacher to simply press play or direct my students to my website.

I have also used podcasts to create "radio shows" with my students. My eleventh grade English classes created stories and then recorded them using the free downloadable program called "Audacity" and then we uploaded those stories to my podcast website. The stories were available for all to hear and I was able to create lessons based off their own stories - and the best part they didn't have to be in class to hear them! They could simply go to my website and download them onto their mp3 players. The possibilities are endless - what's your ideas?

Wiki, Wiki, Wha?

What's a wiki?
Wikis are collaborative websites that encourage others to collaborate and work with others in a community like atmosphere. One great factor about a wiki is its ease in which pages can be updated and changed by the general public. Wikis are used for personal use, business use, or school use. I feel that if you do not have a class website then a wiki is a good place to start. You could have direct communication with your students, have the ability to upload documents, and be accessible to your students and parents at any time. Wikis are growing in popularity and should be considered an ideal tool to use within the classroom.

To learn more about wikis watch the video created by Common Craft called "Wikis in Plain English". I have also linked this sentence to navigate to my wiki called "English Carn" that was created with the free program Wikispaces. There isn't much on the site, but maybe it will give you ideas about how to create one for your classroom.

Tech Humor

Our students aren't dumb they just aren't engaged. Let's "hook" our students with technology.

Open Source Software and ePortfolios

To view my teaching ePortfolio simply click on the picture

Open Source Software is increasing its popularity with the onset of electronic portfolios. For both students and business professionals an electronic portfolio can prove quite useful and popular when trying to stand out above the crowd in an demanding workforce. There are numerous ways to create portfolios, but by having a website that contains all of your information you save time and the frustration of keeping all of it together. You simply hand your future employer a card with your website on it. The appearance of organization is apparent and your use of technology skills shine. Try it out for yourself or create portfolios with your students!

Through eTech Ohio my school had the wonderful opportunity of trying out an Open Source portfolio powered by Sakai. My English department decided to utilize this software as Career Portfolios for our students to create. However, the possibilities are endless. You could very easily utilize this software to create a showcase of student work, create a place to showcase what's going on in your classroom, or use it to simply compile documents for any reason.

Open Source Software...A Little Info

Introduction

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code.

The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

– Open Source Initiative, http://opensource.org/docs/osd