Over the past weekend I came across a great resource to use in the classroom. This site allows you to create jeopardy games to play in your classroom. They are very easy to create and it allows you to keep score of up to ten teams in a game. This could be used as a pre-assessment to see where your class is at before you develop your instruction or to review and assess what students have learned over the past few weeks. There are also many games already created on many different topics that you can choose from. I really liked the functionality and how quickly you can create these games. This is a resource that all teachers could use, check this one out at the web address below.
Over the past year I have begun to transform my class into a project-based classroom. This constructivist approach to learning has allowed me to really incorporate technology into the classroom. Students are creating projects that contain many different technologies, and I have been able really become a type of consultant in the classroom pointing out technologies and information for them to use in their projects. It is my students who have become quite creative with their projects, and they have begun using a variety of online resources to create videos to show their learning. They have created all types of videos from short animated videos to fully edited movies. I have kept a list of the many different sites students have used to create their projects for other classes. Take a look.
Online video resources for students:
Memoov:http://memoov.com/ A unique video site based in Israel. They provide the characters and settings and you provide the audio for each of the characters. These videos can be created and shared on a variety of websites like YouTube and others. My students found it simple to use and very intuitive. They were able to create interesting videos in just two days.
Vokihttp://www.voki.com/ Voki allows users to create talking avatars to present information. You can use your own voice or choose from voices provided for you. This is an easy and fun website to use.
Go!Animate: http://goanimate.com This site allows you to create animated stories to present information or quick stories. They have many different options and objects to choose from and are constantly adding new material.
Xtranormal:http://www.xtranormal.com This is a Text-To-Movie site that takes a typed script and animates the voices for you. Then you add expressions and movement to the characters and create unique videos. My students love to use this website to create videos. However, there can be questionable material on this site at times.
Dvolverhttp://www.dvolver.com This site allows the user to pick a scene and characters then type in the dialogue to create your videos. Simple site with limited scenes and characters, but with some creativity students can create some great videos.
Zimmertwinshttp://www.zimmertwins.com/ Like devolver this site allows students to create animated cartoons with written dialogue. Again, it has limited scenes and characters just like devolver. The quality of the final movies is quite good.
Digital Filmshttp://www.digitalfilms.com/ Like the two sites above, this site also creates animated cartoon movies with written text. I have not had any students use this one yet, but it seemed fairly simple to use when I took a quick look at it.
Aniboomhttp://www.aniboom.com Aniboom allows users to create animated characters and create aniumated stories. This site is a little more complex than others listed here, but it can be used by Jr. High and High School students.
Fluxtimehttp://www.fluxtime.com/animate.php Like Aniboom, this site creates animated cartoons and scenes; however, it does have a bit of a learning curve and may take students some time to learn how to use it.
Animasherhttp://www.animasher.com/ This is a fun site that allows you to create a variety of different types of animated movies with real video and 2 dimensional pictures. This is lots of fun, and students can really get creative with this website. Students can even load their own video and images.
Video editing resources online:
EditorOne:http://editorone.ideum.com/ EditorOne is an easy online editor that allows students to create videos online and share them with a variety of sites. This is very easy to use and has some great video clips for students to use.
Photo Peach:http://photopeach.com This is an online slideshow creator that students can use to quickly and easily create slideshows to present information or a story. It’s a simple design and easy to use. Students can make these slideshows in a matter of minutes.
Animoto:http://animoto.com This is a video editing website that allows users to use their own images and video to create their videos. This website does produce high quality videos that look professional and are well put together.
Stupeflix: http://www.stupeflix.com/ It’s another video editing site that integrates well with Flickr and Twitter. This site, like the others, allows you to create your own videos with your material.
Masher:http://www.masher.com Masher provides you with a lot of different footage to use along with your own material. Also you can add a variety of special effects, and you can share this with many different online services.
Other visual resources:
Tiger Film Dubhttp://www.tigerfilmdub.com/ This site is a lot of fun! You add the subtitles to Chinese movies. Kids loved playing with this site, but often got off task. This was so much fun that I often got off task with them as well. This could be used for projects, but be careful there is some content that is not appropriate.
Classic TVhttp://www.grapheine.com/classiktv/index.php?lang=uk I found this site on Larry Ferlazzo blog, and it goes right with Tiger Films Dub above. This site provides you video that you can dub over with your own message. Again, lots of fun, but students can get off task really easily.
Overstreamhttp://www.overstream.net This is another site that allows you to add subtitles to foreign movies and to present your own satire or message. Kids love to play with this site and can get very creative.
ToonDoohttp://www.toondoo.com This site allows students to create cartoon strips to present an idea or concept. It’s a neat way to see if your students truly understand the topic discussed in class.
Big Huge Labshttp://bighugelabs.com/poster.php Here students can create movie posters to show that they understand concepts presented in class. This is a lot of fun, and, while limited in scope, students can use this to create some neat projects.
Here is a site that fascinated me over the weekend. Social networking and democracy decide what music is played on this site. Once you log on you can go to a particular station and vote in real time with other users and decide what song to play next. I found this interesting because for me listening to the radio is a way to relax. The concept of voting and lobbying for your song to play next seems like to much work. This is a great example though of just how embedded social media has become and an example of how social media is being used by kids everyday. Not using it in our schools and classrooms seems to be something that educators really need to look at and consider.
So today after reading about Prezi and half heartedly looking at this new online resource, I decided to give it a try in class. So I took the lesson I had created for today in Powerpoint and began the process of cutting and pasting and put all of the information into Prezi. I found the process to create presentations to be surprisingly easy. As a typical guy, I did not read any of the directions or watch any of the how-to videos that they provide and was able to create my lesson quite quickly. The only issues that I ran into was that image files needed to be GIF format and videos in Flash format.
As I presented the information to the students, they seemed to enjoy the presentation and were captivated by the zoom in and zoom out functions during the presentation. As an added bonus, all of your presentations are kept online so that you can access them from anywhere. Also this site allows you to embed these presentations into your class website and download them onto your computer. I took sometime to show this to other faculty members, and they to thought that it would be a useful resource for presenting information to their perspective classes. This is a resource that I know I will use again and recommend for other teachers. It is simple to use and it enables you to create presentations quickly and easily. So if you have not already, check out this resource at http://prezi.com.
Note: Teachers be sure to check out the discount rate they offer to upgrade to the pro version.
This is an online tool that has become very useful in my classes. Located at http://pdfmyurl.com/ this tool will simply convert any website into a PDF file with one click. This will allow you to print sites for your students to read and it maintains all of the margins and formats. All you need to do is copy and paste the URL in the address bar on the webpage and click the icon at the end of the address bar and you are done. Great tool!
Really thought that this video brought up some great points on the possibilities and uses of mobile technologies. At some point educators are going to have to start harnessing the power and uses of technology rather than focusing on not allowing them in class. The potential uses for these technologies are endless in a classroom. Watch the video and let me know what you think about the use of these technologies in the classroom.
Tuesday February 2nd Frontline is going to take a look at how technology has grown to influence our modern society. The preview below will give you a quick overview about what the show will be about. For me it looks like a must watch that will pose some very interesting questions and issues on how technology influences our everyday lives.
Over the past week, I have been conversing with colleagues about the impact of technology on our students, specifically mobile technologies like cell phones and the new improved smart phones. What struck us most was that these new technologies are a powerful tool for students to use in the classroom. They can surf the web, check their spelling, calculate numbers, and much more. We soon began to wonder – will these technologies change what we currently teach in schools? What about cursive handwriting? I can’t remember the last time I wrote something in cursive. With word processors, texting, IMing, and a variety of other communication tools, should time be spent on teaching students to use these tools rather than on handwriting? All mobile technologies have calculators, so are times tables really necessary? What about states and capitals? Students can quickly Google the capital of a state or country. Do these technologies need to be considered today, when we look at what we teach in our classrooms? Or, are we creating a group of students who cannot think for themselves and are becoming too reliant on technology? It seems as though there is an App for just about everything to help people make decisions on almost every topic. As an educator, it leaves us with a real dilemma as to how we should use these technologies and teach kids about these technologies. As technology increases, this question will have to be considered within our educational system. I just hope by then they have an App for that.
Here is a great lesson created by the New York Times for the State of the Union Address tonight. Wish I had found this lesson earlier but will find a way to incorporate it into my lesson for today. It is worth a look! At least for discussion topics in class.
Krunchd is a free web service that allows users to consolidate a list of links into one. This allows users to share multiple links on Twitter and makes emailing out collections of links much easier. When you click on the Krunchd link it will display your list of links that you want to share. This is a great feature to easily share links on social networking sites.
Over the past weekend I came across a great resource to use in the classroom. This site allows you to create jeopardy games to play in your classroom. They are very easy to create and it allows you to keep score of up to ten teams in a game. This could be used as a pre-assessment to see where your class is at before you develop your instruction or to review and assess what students have learned over the past few weeks. There are also many games already created on many different topics that you can choose from. I really liked the functionality and how quickly you can create these games. This is a resource that all teachers could use, check this one out at the web address below.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=849f31f9-a292-44ef-84b5-c4b0f0fafbb8)
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