Thursday, March 1, 2012

Web 2.0 Tools in Education


Edmodo
Edmodo is a free site that offers the world of blogging and collaboration to students and teachers in a safe, educational setting.  I have just started using it this year, as a pilot program and many of my students love it.  It’s surprising to see which of them are quite engaged and offer many of their ideas and opinions, though in class they are quiet and don’t often participate.  I like this alternative opportunity it provides for them to share.  It can be used to gather information from students in surveys and polls, disseminate information with links, attachments or text, and it provides a venue for thinking, reflection and collaboration with students.  www.edmodo.com


Prezi
Prezi is a free online tool that can be used as an alternative to power point.  It has huge potential in the way you can connect your information and help your audience see your stream of ideas and thoughts.  It has a great zoom feature that allows the user to embed pictures, videos, etc within the presentation and makes for an interesting view.  I just created my first prezi and my students positively received it.  I found it a bit picky in creating one of my own but appreciated all the tutorials, help categories and large gallery of completed public prezi presentations that I could refer to often. http://prezi.com/


ToonDooSpaces
ToonDoo Spaces is a great online source for creating and sharing comics written by students in a protected, safe environment.  My students love creating comic strips and would LOVE this website.  It has great connection with our writing workshop model in sharing and getting feedback from one another.  I also think the use of the website would be a huge incentive for some of my students as it seems like their work is being published.  It does require you to create an account so students’ work would not be shared publicly.  There is a huge gallery of images available to make the creation of the comic strip to go rather quickly, once the idea, sketches and text are created.  I’m trying this one as soon as our current unit is wrapped up. 


Glogster
Glogster is a great online resource for students in creating collaborative projects and interactive posters.    I see this as an easy way to incorporate technology into our science and social studies topics.  Students would love to find text, visuals and video to support their glogster topic.  Its link to Google Earth is a great geography connection and its link to Edmodo would be a neat addition to our class blogging.  I will try to incorporate this into my classroom this year – I think it would be a good match to a study of George Washington coming up in late spring.    There is a gallery of excellent completed glogsters to preview and use.  There seem to be a lot of supports in place for any novice, student or teacher to figure it out.


Kerpoof Scholastics
Kerpoof Scholastics is a multimedia site where stories can be created, games can be played and many lessons are stored and shared.  The graphics programs included offer great options and the way a story can be clearly laid out and created are user-friendly and fun.  I know my students would love this!  The choices of settings, backgrounds, and clipart are endless!  There is a huge bank of lessons already written that use many of the Kerpoof tools.  In addition, there are games that are fun and somewhat educational.  I can see using this site as one students can work on independently, once we’ve reviewed the basics as there is so much there, they can choose from.  

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