Favorite Web 2.0 Tools

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Permalink Reply by Michael on October 14, 2011 at 7:44pm

Off the top of my head, I would recommend the following:

-Blogger.com & pbworks.com: Two fantastic blogging / wiki services that are really conducive to getting children to write.
-Apture.com: A highlighting browser plugin that allows students to highlight words and get more information.
-Storybird.com & Moglue.com: Two services that allows student to create their own storybooks online and share them.

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Permalink Reply by Colleen Young on October 15, 2011 at 9:55am

Agree with those - Wikispaces for me - but same sentiment in that it is easy to use for staff and students (and no age issues because teachers can create users).

Storybird is excellent (see the other thread for age comments!).

 

It's tricky picking favourites! Some of mine in this post.

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Permalink Reply by Heidi Madsen on October 16, 2011 at 4:28am

I agree Story Bird is amazing. My students love it and they write so much more than they usually do. They are so exited when they hear that we will use this in class.

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Permalink Reply by Tammy Morris on October 15, 2011 at 4:08pm

Thanks so much, Michael and Colleen! Yes, picking favorites is hard! Apture and Moglue are new to me. Storybird was on my list, too, so that's neat. So many wikis to choose from! I've used wikispaces and blogger, and have looked at pbworks. Thanks for the link, Colleen! I know I'll probably have way too many to share for the time I have, but this way we can pick and choose the ones the participants know least. It's fun to hear others' favorites, so thanks for responding!

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Permalink Reply by Michael on October 15, 2011 at 6:47pm

I can't believe I forgot about Wordle and Tagxedo!  Both are fantastic word cloud builders that can be really useful for the little ones.

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Permalink Reply by Heidi Madsen on October 16, 2011 at 4:30am

I like Wordle as well - but I frustrates me a bit that I can't add the cloud directly to my class blog. Do you know if it is possible?

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Permalink Reply by Michael on October 16, 2011 at 9:23am

From what I understand, directly embedding word clouds into a blog can be problematic.  Your best bet is take a screen capture of the cloud, crop it, and then upload it to your blog from your computer. It takes a little bit more time than if your were to embed it, but it works.

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Permalink Reply by sharon sinclair on October 15, 2011 at 8:40pm

Storyjumper is one of my 1st and 2nd grader students' favorites! (They especially love that they can add their faces to a character's body!)

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Permalink Reply by Tammy Morris on October 15, 2011 at 8:52pm

I have to stop somewhere, so I think now is a good time! My list is way too long, so I think I'll use PollEverywhere to have participants suggest the ones they want to hear about most. Currently on my list (although I will probably continue to add to it until the first session on Monday, so keep the suggestions coming!):
Google docs, forms, spreadsheets, and calendar
Portaportal
bit.ly
typewith.me
Vocabulary Spelling City
bibme
easybib
Wordle (my first favorite find!)
Tagxedo
Prezi
Museum Box
QuestionPress
Blabberize
StoryBird
StoryJumper
Make Beliefs Comix
VoiceThread
DeweyDigger
Animoto

Yeah. Definitely too many for two 40-minutes sessions :)

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Permalink Reply by Colleen Young on October 16, 2011 at 1:30pm

That's far too many - you need to be really choosy!

 

Concentrate on a few that need you to explain more and give them links to easy ones they may/ will be able to explore themselves.

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Permalink Reply by David Dean on October 16, 2011 at 9:10pm

2 of the resources I build some pretty big projects around are GlogsterEDU and Fakebook.  We create Presentations about Historical Figures from our 6th Grade Academic Standards and I use Fakebook as an extension.  It is an outstanding learning experience for my students to approach Fakebook as if it were around when their Historical Figure was alive.  All posts have to be historically relevant to what their Figure would actually say.  Friends have to be who this person would have really been friends with. 

 

I share resources several times a week on my blog if you would like to check it out!

 

http://classoftech.blogspot.com/

 

 

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