Web+2.0+Tools+Kid-Friendly!

ABC s of Web 2.0 Tools

** The Three C’s of Web 2.0 Tools ** **// Communication - Creativity – Collaboration //** **ABC’s of the Three C’s**
 * A : ****// Animoto //**

Animoto – I love! My first attempt was with the **animoto** images and that was a thrill. Then after my next two **animoto** creations - 16 Habits of Mind, and All Cats Have Aspergers - I’m hooked and could easily become an avid **animoto** junkie for school and family visual projects.

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 * // Avatar //**


 * //Avatar//** – I’m not sure about creating avatars, I’m not sure that is my medium. I think my students would love this site though, so I’m sure that I will revisit the Avatar creation sites in the future. I loved the film, **__Avatar__**, and the concept of virtual reality portrayed in the film.


 * B ** :: :**// blogger - blog //**

I was terrified when I first opened the ‘blogger’ page to ‘sign in’ and register. I can’t imagine now what I was afraid of – the unknown. I realized yesterday, that I had become a ‘blogger’ when I returned home from seeing the film, How to Tame Your Dragon, and realized that I wanted to write a blog about my experience of the film. Yes, I came a long way from being reticent to being eagerly engaged in writing my blog. Another search engine – with an intuitive edge – it makes assumption to help us all research and find the information and images that we need.
 * C: ** **// Communication, Creativity, and Collaboration //**
 * Communication: During this course, I have definitely broadened my awareness of the avenues for communication with individuals around the globe (and maybe beyond if virtual worlds count) that are currently accessible through my laptop. The pathways are infinite…blogs, comments, sharing opportunities,etc. abound.**
 * Creativity: Wow! The doors of perception are wide open. The options – xtranormal, animoto, wordle, etc. – are there to help students be creative relatively quickly. I’m still amazed at how animoto can bring images and music together to create a multi-modality product in just minutes.**
 * Collaboration: My perception of collaboration being enhanced through the digital tools and media literacy has perhaps been my most dramatic paradigm shift. I don’t think I really understood what was going on out there. I didn’t have a facebook account, and I rarely text. Now, from visiting so many sites, I see that collaboration is enhanced through blogging, sharing comments, sharing ideas for solutions to problems, or just simply sharing visions. I’ve had to rethink ‘twitter’ once I read the Tweets for Good Programs info – that’s amazing what they are doing to help find a cure for Malaria (Bill Gate’s mission) and help Haiti – and many other non-profit causes. By the way, April 25th is Help End Malaria Day.**


 * D: ****// diigo //**

I’m still trying to figure out how to save the article that I wanted to highlight and add sticky notes to….it kept telling me that I hadn’t saved anything yet. (Which I was all too aware of). I will revisit diigo and learn how to use this tool to help my students and myself be more able to research (annotate, archive, and organize) – share (build personal network) – and collaborate (create a group knowledge repository).


 * E: eportfolio : **A student centered platform where students can create and customize portfolio, maintain a plan of study, and share their work.


 * edutopia: ? =**What works in public education? The George Lucas educational foundation based on the core concepts of integrated studies, project learning, social and emotional learning, technology integration, teacher development, and comprehensive assessment.

Edublogs let you easily create and manage student and teacher blogs, quickly customize designs to include photos, videos, and pod casts.
 * // edublog //**


 * F : //flickr// **
 * // flickr //** is a website where you can share your photos, watch the world, share and stay in touch, upload and organize, make stuff, and explore the world. I went into flickr looking for images for a project, and it is amazing how one photo leads you to a cluster of other photos. You can get lost in the sidebar related photo sites. Pretty amazing.


 * // Flat classroom project.com //** : The concept of a flat classroom is based on the constructivist principal of a multi-modal learning environment that is student-centered, and a level playing field for teacher to student, and student to teacher interaction. John Dewey would be thrilled if he could visit this site and see what is happening globally. I just signed up this morning (Saturday, April 24th) to be on their wikispace.

= G : **//Google//** – Is google a noun or a verb? A google is a google google= the most amazing search engine that I can’t imagine living without. I ‘google’= = =


 * H: //__Habits of Mind__//** ‘Across the Curriculum’

Edited by Arthur L. Costa and Bena KallickPreface I love this quote that I found on-line when I ‘googled’ Habits of Mind: The story—from //Rumpelstiltskin// to //War and Peace//—is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories. //—Ursula K. Le Guin// Habits of Mind I made an **animoto** video with images from Google to represent the 16 habits of mind to the music of John Lennon’s “Mind Games”.


 * I: //Innovate Digital Immigrants// **

J: Jing.

K: // K-12 Station.com //“Great Links for Education” = A site I found while surfing the

M: Moodle Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS) or Virtual Learning Environment that is a tool for creating on-line dynamic websites for students. I watched a video of an 8th grade science teacher who is using ‘moodle’ in her classroom. I need to experiment more on the moodle home page. **// Media Literacy //** The of what this course is all about…Yes, I am now definitely more media literate and less computer phobic than I was at the beginning of the course.


 * N: //Ning// **

Ning is an on-line service that allows users to create their own social networks and join and participate in other networks. I enjoyed seeing the Deer Hill ‘Ning’ site during the class sessions. At our last class, when we discussed ‘Ning’ in our small groups, I actually suggested that our middle school identity committee consider developing a ‘Ning’ network for the middle school that could be available to teachers and/or parents. It seems as if it could promote congeniality among staff and an open place for the sharing of ideas.

I ‘attended’ my first ‘virtual’ on-line conference on April 10th and 11th. It was sponsored by momsfightingautism and it was **//their//** first ‘virtual’ autism conference, ‘Things to Know About Autism’. It was amazing with two keynote speakers – Temple Grandin and Donna Williams, and 14 other presenters over the course of the two days. Listening to the conference organizers share their hopes for the conference – the reality of bringing internationally known keynote speakers to people all over the world – for free – they were psyched. I would definitely ‘attend’ a virtual conference again. It was great to hear the keynote speakers respond to questions being asked by the participants. Picasa is a Google photo managing program. I would love to have more time to ‘play’ with and figure out how to use it this summer to go through family and school photos.
 * O: //On-Line Conferencing// **
 * P: //Picasa// **


 * // Prezi //**

Prezi is a site that I definitely plan to visit again, and experiment with how to navigate the tools. As a special needs teacher I am always on the search for tools to help my kids understand how to organize ideas. I think Prezi will be the perfect tool to quickly bring together images to support the ideas within an organizational format that fits the specific topics. This is a tool that has great potential for me, especially, to support the student’s understanding of the key terms and essential knowledge within the science curriculum.


 * R: ** ** Relevance. **One of my favorite moments in class was watching the Wate Buffalo story, with the emphasis on empathy. I had never ever considered empathy being related to the internet. I had seen the internet as a cold medium of communication, not a catalyst for empathy, which to me is very relevant for the 21st century learning endeavor. Being able to communicate using digital tools does bring a level of relevance that is essential for students to learn the skills they will need to solve problems, and think flexibly and productively in the future. The other theme portrayed in the South American video (that was suggested viewing) was deferred gratification, which is also a relevant topic for thought as we move forward with 21st century teaching and learning.
 * S : SlideShare **

I have no direct experience with SlideShare. It’s actually a blog. I know that it is a business media site for sharing presentations, documents and pdfs. Individuals & organizations upload documents to SlideShare to share ideas, connect with others, and generate leads for their businesses. Anyone can view presentations & documents on topics that interest them. The site suggests that teachers can use Slide Share to upload lesson plans. [|Twitter Blog] When I visited the Twitter Blog, I had a paradigm shift with how I think now about Twitter and tweets. What changed my mind was the following on the blog:
 * T : Tagexedo **
 * Twitter **

· [|Tweets vs Mosquitos: Let's #endmalaria]
// A worker in Tanzania inspects mosquito nets before delivery. //When you send a tweet about Malaria and pledge your donation of $10, you are providing a life-saving bed net to protect against this mosquito-borne infections disease. Your generous donation will be matched by The Case Foundation, providing the opportunity to double the impact of each tweet. For more information about Twitter and the fight against Malaria, visit our [|Hope140] site dedicated to helping all of us become a force for good.

**from //Learning: The Treasures Within// Report.** **Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live Together, and Learning to Be.** The goal of the four pillars is that people get the most from their educational environments throughout their lives. Wow! I can definitely see how these pillars and perspectives would be helpful when planning for the middle school learning environments. I think with the recent focus on bullying, we could benefit from borrowing ideas from the principles stated in this report to help create a school community where bullying would be lessened, and acceptance increased and valued.
 * U:UNESCO –4 ****The Four Pillars of Education**
 * V: ** ** Voice Thread **

I experimented moving through the Voice Thread tutorials, and found the concept fascinating. I like to talk, and I like visual supports – so this medium fits my learning style, and that of many of my students. Voice Thread is a way to have a conversation around media. There are 5 ways the participants can make comments: phone, text, microphone, webcam, or file upload. The idea that a whole conversation can be portrayed on one page – brings a connectedness to the diverse ideas being shared – making this a good way to capture group discussions visually. I definitely need more time to experiment with this tool and then use it more and more effectively with students.

Voki Wordle is a ‘toy’ for creating ‘word clouds’ from the words that you enter into the program. I have enjoyed creating ‘wordles’ for subject content and just for fun as autobiographical statements with kids. My students have enjoyed ‘playing’ with the arrangement of the words, the fonts, and the color groupings as they determine the final appearance of their ‘word clouds’. **// Web 2.0 //** **// Wikispaces //** My daughter is very impressed that I now have my very own Wikispace. I am in the process of creating a Wikispace dedicated to sharing current ideas related to understanding students identified to be on the autism spectrum – especially Asperger’s Syndrome and high-functioning autism. It is a slow process, and I am now thrilled that I can add links to the wiki pages – that can take the reader deeper into the net. For instance, I put the Amazon sites for some books, which makes it possible for the reader of my wiki page to actually ‘open ‘ the book and see the Table of Contents /read the first few pages to get a sense of the author’s style / message. I have also found that by adding the links – I am linking the reader to the sidebar info which will most likely lead eventually to further relevant links. My wikispace is t1nkerb3ll – the word tinkerbell was already being used – So, I substituted a 1 for the I, and a 3 for the e. Years ago on an Appalachia Service Project trip, we were asked what superhero we would be. My response was that I would be a bionic Tinkerbell – so, now my wikispace bears her name. I still need to determine a metaphor for my Autism theme. Right now I’m leaning towards borrowing Dr. Ross Greene’s image of an adult and a child in a canoe paddling together. I need to email him and see if he will share the metaphor. I’m enjoying creating my wikispace. It’s taking me longer than I initially thought it would. I’m learning how to move back and forth between the screens, and import the website links and the images to support my writings, so it all takes time. It has definitely been a steep learning curve for me, but I feel now like I am climbing higher and am less afraid of the whole process. So, please visit my wikispace and share your insights about how to best provide instruction for students on the autism spectrum.
 * W: Wordle **

I created a script for two robot ‘figurz’ based on geography on ‘xtranormal’. The two robots discussed the connection between rainfall and the landforms on the distant planet and Earth. I enjoyed writing the script, yet while I was experimenting with how to animate the figures – it all vanished. So, I will tried again. This time I had the robots talk about ‘Looking for the 3 C’s’ – so I named it, ‘3C’s Dig It!”- It worked! It’s pretty much an animated treasure hunt for the 3 C’s. They end up walking off together – feeling creative, communicating, and working together. I tried to add footsteps – but you can’t really hear them. I think ‘xtranormal’ has great potential to promote a positive partner activity for two students to create a script to convey their understanding of concept – be it geographical landforms, similes in ELA, molecules in science, bridge building in technology, and communication skills for social interaction.
 * X //xtranormal// **


 * Y //YouTube// **
 * I am a YouTube junkie. I discovered YouTube years ago at a library in Columbus, Ohio because the teenager next to me was on ‘YouTube’. I was amazed at this discovery, and spent the rest of the evening watching every Martina McBride video that was ever produced. I realize that YouTube has taken a bad rap because of the bullying nature of inappropriate entries. However, in general, I love YouTube. I have found short clips on YouTube that make you laugh – the little baby on Evil Eye – the sneezing Panda– the Japanese binocular soccer players - are really funny – you can’t not laugh – endorphins are your friends. At school we can’t access YouTube, as it is blocked. At home, I often use YouTube, especially to view music videos.**


 * Z **
 * // Communication //** **// Creativity Collaboration //**