Techno Constructivism
Redefining/designing an Urban Educator in a 21st Century World through the Habits of Mind.
Web 2.0 Tools for Today’s Educator
Last week, I took advantage of the opportunity to join the webinar, Web 2.0 Tools for School with Brad Fountain. This was a great webinar that refreshed my memory of tools I had once found useful and forgotten about, and presented me with many great “new to me” web 2.0 tools that are surely classroom friendly.
Of course, we are all familiar with SymbalooEDU thanks to the DEN and the great promotions they reward to their STAR members. If you aren’t sure what I am talking about, perhaps its because you aren’t yet a STAR Educator. It’s a great way to get connected to Tech Educators and Discovery Evangelists. Be sure to check it out! Apologies for the digression! Well, as I joined the Webinar, not only was Symbaloo explored, but also LiveBinders. Both sites are essentially Live Bookmarking Sites where all of your favorite sites can be organized, categorized, or shared. As I embarked on the Web 2.0 Refresher Webinar, I thought it might be nice, to put what I was learning to action. I created this LiveBinder for all of you to check out and explore some of the great 2.0 tools!
- E.ggtimer: This is a great site that allows you to create a countdown or countup! All you need to do is type the url e.ggtimer.com/#minutes once the URL loads, your web browser will navigate to a live timer on your screen!
- Avairy: If you choose the “tools” tab there are 6 great tools for you to check out. Image Editor, Color Editor, Audio Editor, Effects Editor, Vector Editor and Image Markup. The newest edition is the Music Creator. All tools are free and easy to use! The bird theme brings the experience full circle!
- Great Summary: Just what the busy teacher has been waiting for! You simply copy and past the url with the text you want summarized as well as tell it the number of sentences you would like the summary report composition to be. Then, the program analyzes the text using a mathematical algorithm to report back the gist of the information in the text! Talk about a time saver!
- Qwiki: Looking for a complete research report on a topic? Check this site out! This is the information knowledge database requires a simple topic and will immediately search for information! Wait! It gets better! It doesn’t just spit back a list of websites to find more information, it actually reports it to you verbally and pairs it with images! Talk about differentiating content and providing your visual and auditory learners with the tool they need for their next research project!
- Go!Animate: Create your own animated videos! It’s simple, the free online tool has themes, characters, voices and backgrounds. You add the characters, props, backgrounds. Mix around the facial expressions to match the movements. Play around with the scenes, audio tracks, sound effects and more. You can upload some of your own! It is all run by a timeliner. You can even create your own characters! Bring those cartoons to life!
- Posterous: One stop shopping! A simple blogging tool that can be done sitting at your desk, on your couch, or on the go! It’s as easy as sending an email! Create an account, send an email to your Posterous account! It’s that simple! The subject becomes the title of your blog, the attachments are embedded, and the body of your email is essentially the text of your blog entry! Can it get any easier than this? LOVE IT!
There are lots more tools out there to explore! Be sure to check out the Web 2.0 for Today’s Educator LiveBinder as well as the SymbalooEDU Mix Web 2.0 in Education for more cool tools that you may have forgotten or perhaps haven’t yet Stumbled Upon!
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