iLearn Technology – Page 11 – Integrating technology in the classroom

Voice Thread Update

December 5, 2008Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4174 views

What it is: Voice Thread is an amazing site that just keeps getting better! Voice Thread is the site that makes outstanding web 2.0 slide shows interactive and collaborative. You can read my original posts about Voice Thread here. Voice Thread came out with an outstanding new update yesterday, the ability to take your Voice Thread’s with you via an iPod!!! Whenever you export a Voice Thread, you now have the option to download a full sized, high resolution movie version or one that has been formatted to go directly onto you iPod, or iPhone- how sweet is that?! Additional new features include the ability to clone your Voice Thread so that you can have a backup copy or a copy of the same Thread to use with different audiences. Voice Thread now supports Microsoft Office 2007 formats when uploading into your Voice Threads with Microsoft Photo Story 3 video supporting coming.

How to integrate the Voice Thread Updates into the classroom: So, why am I so excited about the new Voice Thread features? The ability to save a Voice Thread onto an iPod or iPhone opens up a whole new realm of possibilities in the classroom. Now you can create learning activities with Voice Thread that are portable for your students. You can extend your students learning day with a Voice Thread based on your curriculum and the students needs using an iPod. Math explinations, sight words, phonics, and read alongs can all be created with Voice Thread and uploaded onto the iPod. Create a reading buddies program with pictures and sound using Voice Thread. To find out more about the Reading Buddies program click here.

Tips: If you haven’t used Voice Thread in your classroom yet, now is the perfect time to sign up for a free account and start!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Voice Thread in your classroom.

VoiceThread

November 8, 2007Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1767 views

What it is: VoiceThread brings Web 2.0 communication to presentations. Slide show presentations are no longer static, VoiceThread makes them interactive collaborative learning experiences. Features include: the ability to create voice comments, voice recording within a browser allows for recording of multiple voices, doodling which captures drawing as an animation synced to voice or text commentary…listeners can watch the process, voice threads can be embedded in other sites, one account can have many identities so a classroom can switch identities on the fly without having to sign out, media importing so slide show presentations and pictures become collaborative conversations, comment moderation abilities, and the ability to zoom in and pan images.

How to integrate VoiceThread into the classroom: VoiceThread has hundreds of uses, the following are a few that I came up with. Use VoiceThread to create a time line of the students day. Students can record themselves describing different events of the day. Parents and out of town family can see what happens on a typical day in your classroom. Debates can be hosted and conducted using Voice Thread. VoiceThread can make history interactive, for example, host an art history artist critique and discussion. Create a book group using VoiceThread where students interact and discuss their reading together. Students can read their stories and record as a VoiceThread (this also makes a special keepsake!). Teachers can use VoiceThread for math problem demonstrations, step by step science “experiments”, staff training, or to teach a second language. Computer teachers, what about creating Voice Threads to teach your students when you can’t be there? This would make life easy for a substitute and ensure that your students are on track when you return.

Tips: Go to the “help” section of VoiceThread for some great interactive tutorials.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using VoiceThread in your
classroom.

Webspiration

November 30, 2008Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2009 views

What it is: You have most likely heard about the popular visual thinking software called Inspiration (or Kidspiration). Webspiration is a new online version of the visual thinking outlining and organizing. Webspiration has many of the same features as Inspiration but is free to use and allows for collaborative visual thinking. Webspiration is perfect for planning, organizing research, and completing projects successfully from beginning to end. Brainstorming and outlining tools help students organize thoughts for papers and research projects. Collaboration on Webspiration documents is simple and allows for same document contributing, posting, comments, and viewing changes. Concept maps and diagrams are created easily with Webspiration. Visual diagrams and graphic organizers, such as those created with Webspiration, help students retain information.

How to integrate Webspiration into the classroom: Webspiration is a great tool for the classroom. Teach elementary age students how to visually organize information using concept maps, venn diagrams, and KWL charts. Basic outlining skills can also be taught in the elementary classroom using Webspiration. As students get older, Webspiration helps them take control of and organize their own learning. Teachers can create concept maps and invite students to collaborate and help fill in information. These online graphic organizers are wonderful for students, they contribute to filling it in and can access it from any Internet connected computer, iPod, or phone to study from later.

Tips: Webspiration is currently in beta, if you notice any glitches or have ideas for additional features let Webspiration know!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Webspiration in your classroom.

Wetpaint

February 11, 2008Kelly Tenkely3 Comments2272 views

What it is: Wetpaint is a free wiki website editor/builder that is EXTREMELY simple to use. (No really, EASY is an understatement!) If you aren’t familiar with wiki’s they are websites that anyone can edit and help grow through collaboration. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia which is a group effort encyclopedia that anyone can add to and edit. Wetpaint has amazing looking templates to use…this is no boring wiki!

How to integrate Wetpaint into the classroom: Wetpaint is an easy to use wiki builder. It provides a place for students to collaborate on projects, it is so simple to use that even primary classrooms could make use of Wetpaint. Wetpaint provides a platform for your students to be the “expert” on a subject. Whatever you are studying in math, language arts, social studies, science, etc. is the perfect subject matter for a wiki. Create a classroom book club where students can write book reviews, suggest books to read as a class, and rate books through a poll. Collaborate with other classrooms, grade levels, or other schools on any subject. Wetpaint provides some different levels of privacy for your wiki, it can be public which means that everyone can edit, semi-private, or private.

Tips: Wetpaint has built in widgets that can be used in your wiki. These include YouTube or Google videos, polls, slide shows, rss feeds, music, and a place to embed code (like a Gabcast podcast).

Take a look at the introduction video on the Wetpaint site… I want my students to make videos like this! So rad (yes I really did say rad!)

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Wetpaint in your classroom.

Widbook: Online Collaborative ebook Creation

June 15, 2012June 15, 2012Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3470 views

Widbook – Write, read and share! from Widbook on Vimeo.

What it is: Widbook is a new publishing platform for ebooks. What makes this publishing platform so neat is the social aspect, it allows authors to collaborate and make suggestions. Each user also gets their own bookshelf where they can subscribe to other author’s work.

When students start a new ebook, they can choose who can see the book when it is published, choose whether they will accept collaboration for the book, and choose if they want to accept comments for the book. Actually writing the book is fabulously simple. All of the onscreen tools are easy to use and intuitive as to their function. The book can have a table of contents, multiple chapters, and pictures and video embedded right into the book. When students are finished, they simply save the book and publish it. The finished book gets a unique url that can be shared.

How to integrate Widbook into the classroom: Widbook is a fantastic, simple tool for secondary students to use to create ebooks. Students can create individual published works that can be commented on by other students and the teacher. Students can receive relevant-real time feedback not only from their teacher, but also from other students. Students not only get practice writing their own works, they also get practice evaluating writing of their peers.

Students can use Widbook to write final drafts of any piece of writing be it an essay or creative writing assignment. The ability to add video and images easily is wonderful.

Widbook would also be a great place for students to collaboratively create books about their learning. Each student can add a chapter, or groups of students can create chapters together. Instead of assigning students a textbook to read for the semester, include them in the creation of a collaborative textbook. Provide students with a table of contents and put them to work creating a chapter for each topic/unit throughout the year. At the end of the year, each student will have a book of their learning that they helped to create. Much more useful than a textbook that one of the Big Six wrote that gets opened only before tests!

Are you having trouble finding a book that matches your classroom learning needs? Create an ebook that perfectly meets your students right where they are. Include videos and images relevant to learning.

***For younger students be sure to check out BoomWriter!

Tips: Older students who have Facebook accounts can choose to link their Facebook account for easy login (make sure you know your school’s policy on social networking sites being accessed at school, even if it is just to login with).

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Widbook in your classroom!

Wizz-e Free e-Books

October 19, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment9091 views

What it is: Wizz-e is a kids interactive e-book website. Not all of the e-books are free, but they are SO high quality and definitely worth any investment. Wizz-e does have some free e-books for you to preview. Both Puss-in-Boots and the Elves and the Shoemaker are free to play online or download to your computer. The stories can be read to students who may struggle with reading on their own. Students can also choose to read the story independently without sound. At the end of each e-book is a quiz that checks for comprehension. Wizz-e also has a few games that students can play online including puzzles and hidden picture hide and seek.

How to integrate Wizz-e Free e-books into the classroom: The Wizz-e ebooks are a wonderful way to read a story as a class on a projector or interactive whiteboard. With the large print and pictures, every student in the class can read along and see the illustrations clearly. These ebooks also make for an excellent reading center on classroom computers. They are especially good for students who may struggle reading indpendently. Students can listen to the story and follow along or read a page independently and then click to hear the story for understanding. The e-books bring reading to life and will draw in your struggling readers. Wizz-e only features two free ebooks but would be a worthwhile investment for your classroom library. The site features a variety of topics and genres and has some amazing math and science stories that teach key concepts through story. If you teach 3-8year olds the two free stories are must downloads! The quiz at the end will ask students question at the book and help them to monitor their own comprehension. The quiz models the questions that good readers ask as they read.

Tips: Because the Wizz-e books can be purchased, there is an option to purchase a gift certificate for the e-books. This would be excellent to put on your wishlist for parents to donate to your classroom. The e-books add to your classroom library but have the added bonus of creating a listening center where struggling readers can read along.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Wizz-e Free e-books in your classroom.

Word Magnets

October 29, 2009October 29, 2009Kelly Tenkely6 Comments14789 views

What it is: Word Magnets is a fantastic little website that lets you type or copy and paste words into a field and create virtual word magnets out of them (think of the popular word magnets sold for refrigerators). After you have typed in the words to transform into magnets, you can choose a “magnetic” background for your words. There are several backgrounds to choose from including grids, venn diagrams, time lines, arrows, stair steps, targets, boxes, numbers, alphabet, circles, webs, flow sequences, tables, present/absent, and many more. After you choose your background, students can create sentences, sort, and interact with the virtual magnetic words. Words can be added to the board at any time and the color of the background and size of the magnets can be adjusted.

How to integrate Word Magnets into the classroom: The background options for your word magnets are really the highlight of this website. You can do everything from word sorts, to venn diagrams, to practicing alphabetic order. Create tables; sort words by their root, prefix, or suffix; link ideas; practice building sentences; create a time line of events, take attendance…the possibilities with this site are endless! If you are going to use this site for taking attendance, I would suggest creating a master list in a saved word document that you can copy and paste from (this will save you from re-typing names every morning). This is an excellent site for an interactive whiteboard or to use as a center activity. This is an easy way to create customized interactive lessons for your classroom. Because you enter the content, this site is appropriate for any grade level.

Tips: One thing I wish this site had: the ability to save. If you want to save words to interact with over and over, create a document that you can copy and paste from. If you want to save a copy of the word magnets after students have interacted with them, take a screen shot of it.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Word Magnets in your classroom.

Word World

June 18, 2008June 18, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3591 views

What it is: Word World is an awesome site for kindergarten-first grade and especially for students who struggle with reading and letter recognition. Every time I visit the PBS kids site I find a new fun game or activity for kids. Word World is a world of fun characters that are made up of the letters that spell their name. As I said, this would be an excellent site to visit for struggling literacy students. The Word World is very kid friendly and interactive. Students will enjoy spending time on this site!

How to integrate Word World into the classroom: This is a great site to used with kindergarten and first grade students at the beginning of the school year. Word World would be a fun one to use as a whole class on a projector or interactive whiteboard. It is also simple enough for students to play individually as a center or in a computer lab setting. For struggling readers, this is a really wonderful place for some one on one therapy. Encourage struggling readers to point out the letters they see making up the characters in Word World as they are interacting and playing games on the site.

Tips: As an extension activity, have students draw their own characters using the letters that spell their name. Or, take a word field trip around school and find items that are shaped like letters. Take digital photos of the letters found in the environment and create a digital storybook in a slideshow program.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Word World in your classroom.

Zoho Challenge

April 28, 2008April 28, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1792 views

What it is: Zoho may look familiar to you if you have been with me for a while. Zoho has a great online suite of office productivity tools such as spreadsheets, word documents, and online presentations. If you haven’t ever tried out the Zoho tools, they are definitely worth a look! Zoho has a new fabulous tool for teachers, called Zoho Challenge. Zoho Challenge allows teachers to easily conduct tests online in 4 simple steps. Zoho Challenge allows for multiple choice questions and descriptive questions. Results are displayed immediately for you and your students (although this setting can be altered to fit your needs.) Time limits can be specified, difficulty levels calculated automatically, and online access to students details. Zoho Challenge also has the ability to send emails to your students with their scores. Zoho makes it simple to create multiple exams, add candidates, schedule tests for future dates, look at student performance, find out who passed the test in a quick glance, view a “report card”, and view a graphical representation of overall results.

How to integrate Zoho Challenge into the classroom: Zoho Challenge can be used for any classroom testing. It makes it extremely easy for you to grade tests and see the results graphically. Zoho Challenge will save you time and quickly show you who understood the tested material and who needs more practice. Zoho Challenge is best used in a computer lab or mobile lab setting.

Tips: Test results can be sent home to parents via email…cool!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Zoho Challenge in your classroom.

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ZuiTube

November 11, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment10495 views

What it is: KidZui is a site I have written about in the past. The KidZui network has added some sites to the network that I just learned about. ZuiTube is a kid friendly You Tube portal. It is the largest collection of kid friendly videos online. New videos are added to ZuiTube daily. All videos are approved by parents and teachers before being posted on ZuiTube. Students can watch educational videos, funny videos, movies and movie clips, silly songs, and music. There is also a special section on ZuiTube just for videos related to Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving collection includes everything from the Turkey Dance to videos about Native Americans and Pilgrims.

How to integrate ZuiTube into the classroom: ZuiTube videos can be used as an introduction to new teaching (on nearly any subject), to add some humor to the classroom, or to reinforce teaching. Videos are a wonderful way for students to make connections to new learning. I have found a video that correlates with nearly every part of our curriculum. I even found a great Berenstein Bears video for character education…gotta love that! With all the snow we get in Colorado, there are bound to be some indoor recess days for the kids. ZuiTube is a safe place to find kid friendly videos that students will enjoy while they are staying dry and warm inside.

Tips: I often have parents asking me what they can do at home to keep their kids safe online. KidZui is an excellent recommendation, the parent reports are a great way to keep parents involved in their children’s online activities.

Leave a comment and share how you are using ZuiTube in your classroom.