Web Based Tools Tryout

I had a great time this week working on the examples of web based tools! It really makes you realize how cool these tools can be and how great they would be for the classroom. They were all very simple to use and can be implemented into a classroom easily.
The first tool I used was Animoto. I made a simple 30 second clip at first and fell in love. It was so cool seeing pictures in that video form. Its a lot more entertaining then using a windows movie maker to create a video out of pictures. I then signed up for an educators account which gave me the capabilities of making a longer video. I decided to make a video on my cross country trip I took this past summer with my three best friends. I thought that this was a good video to make because it shows one way that this could be used in the classroom. When there is a spotlight student of the week, instead of students bringing in a few pictures, which is sometimes uncommon with photos being digital now, they could make a video about a certain time in his or her life. There is a variety of other ways that this web based tool could be used in the classroom and this is just one example. Animoto
The next tool I tried was Wordle. Wordle is a great tool for vocabulary words, analyzing a character of a story or even a historical figure. For my example, I stayed with the theme of describing myself. This could be used the first week of school for students to hang around the room. They can choose words that they think describe themselves then can present them to the class.

Last was VoiceThread. This was the web based tool that was the hardest for me. VoiceThread would be a great way for students to work on a project if they are all not in one place together or doing it at the same time. This would also be a great way to get responses on some sort of piece that the class could have a discussion on, maybe a poem or picture. I do not know if it was my computer but the uploading of files was very slow when I tried to add pictures. I also was not able to put any voice comments into it because of my computer. When completely the VoiceThread I noticed that the doodling tool was not as great as I thought it was. Doodles that I canceled or from other slides would show up. Although this is a great tool I think students would need to be pretty experienced with computers to be able to use it without guidance from the teacher. VoiceThread

Finding Access to be a Keeper!

Usually when I look at the list of Microsoft Office applications, I usually click on Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or Publisher. I have never thought about exploring the other programs or even had a clue what they did. I was excited to give Access a try and was pleasantly surprised with it.
This week's assignment was actually pretty challenging for me. I first wanted to learn what Microsoft Access was and how it is used. When I was looking into it, I thought it seemed similar to Excel and did not understand what the difference between the two. I went through the tutorials and started to learn more about the program. I thought I had a good handle on how to use it but once I began the assignment, I got a little lost. I walked through the assignment with the tutorial as a guide. I slowly started to make progress on it. But then it came to the queries and I was lost again. The first query we were asked to make wanted us to only show presents over the price of $40.00. I searched through the tutorials to find something to help me and played around for awhile before I realized I was stuck. Finally I used the Microsoft Help and found an article that explained all the different criteria you could use. After I figured this out I flew through the assignment.
I quickly fell in love with Access. This program could be so useful for teachers. This would be a great way for teachers to track students progress. Special Education teachers could use this to track students' goals to see if they have met it. Being able to draw the information you need out of these tables can really be useful for teachers. When grouping students by skill level you can figure out which students grades are averaged above a 90 or below a 60. I really think that Access will be very helpful to me as a teacher!

Web Based Tools Part 2

After last week, I was excited to find even more web based tools that I could use in my classroom. I liked how this list was organized by activities. This will be helpful for future reference when there is a specific activity I am interested in doing with my class, I can come back to this site and find a tool easily.
The first activity I found interesting was the time lines. This section had multiple web based tools that would be very helpful in the classroom. I found the website, Timetoast timeline, to be the best. I liked this website the best because it was very user friendly. It was really easy to make a timeline using this site. The free account only allows one user to work on the timeline but the more advanced accounts allow multiple users to work on it. This would be great for working in groups on a project. The tool allows the user to add events which includes pictures and description, great for making time lines for historical events.
The web tool Chatzy was another that I found intriguing. Students always have questions at home about homework or projects and they do not always have a way of asking the teacher. Chatzy is a private chat room that can be created by the teacher. It would be a great way for students to talk about projects together after school hours. The great thing is that it is private and a teacher could easily monitor it.
I think my favorite web tool on the whole list is ePals Global Community. Teachers from all around the world can look for other classrooms to connect with virtually or even to become pen pals with. A Spanish teacher in the US could search for classes from Spanish speaking countries and even by age so that the students can be communicating with peers. It is a simple way to become connected with people from all over. They have some great resources for teachers as well.
The last tool I found to be really great is Sweet Search. This is a search engine designed for students. It searches websites and articles for the words you searched for and yields many more results than google seems to do. I searched a simple statement like "animals" and found a great assortment of information that involved animals in some way.
I think it is great that people have created these lists of resources on the web because without it, many people would never find these tools. So many of them can easily be used in the classroom, making it more effective or more interactive. I know that I will be bookmarking these lists to come back to in the future!