Hey there fellow bloggers!
I went to see the Blue Man Group last night and
might I say, Ermahgerd. It was fantastic. It was loud and rambunctious and over
all a huge dance party. Some of the things they do are really cool, I encourage
you to look the group up if you don't know who they are and I'm also going to
encourage you to go see them if you can.
Anyway, that isn't what today's post is
about.
Web 2.0 tools are designed to enhance a classroom
setting. They help both students and teachers preform better and have fun.
There are a lot of them, ranging from Presentation Tools to Creativity Tools.
If you plan on becoming a teacher, you'll probably see these some time or
another. The goal today is to expose you to a variety of Tools and just give a
short summary of what they are and how they can be used.
Please do keep in mind that I am aiming to become
an art teacher, so my summaries will be geared more towards that area. Feel
free to explore the Tools and think about how they can be incorporated into
your classroom or take time to browse more Web 2.0 Tools.
Student Publishing is a
Tool that allows students to have an open mind and be creative while writing.
The site lets students write a story, poems, songs, or whatever else they can
write. It is a free publishing site where students can work alone or
collaboratively on an assignment. In an art classroom, one could assign
students to create a story in groups using this site. The next day, the stories
could be read in class and the next assignment could be to illustrate the
story.
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| Found at: http://teachamazing.com/9-web-2-0-sites-to-publish-student-work/ |
Be Funky is a cool, fun
photo editing Tool that incorporates technology directly into the classroom. It
has a lot of effects that you can apply to a picture you upload, including the
basic light/dark enhancers, ways to change your makeup and eye color, and
interesting effects like Pop Art or Old Photo. Once you are finished Funkafying
your picture, the site allows you to save it to your desktop or your social
media page. In the classroom, a teacher could let students edit photos to
better understand the class’s art style and what an individual student leans
towards art wise. The teacher could also edit a photo of their own to make the
lesson more hands on.
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| Made in: www.befunky.com |
Glinkr is a Tool that maps
information from different sources. You must have specific topic to begin with
and branch off of, you can create subcategories that follow the path you want
to take. Each subcategory is filled with a link to a relevant webpage that
contains useful information for the topic. For an art teacher, this would be a
good way to show an order of events in an artist’s life. This creates a more in
depth and less complicated way for students to learn the lesson.
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| Found at: http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2008/08/03/visual_communication_and_video_publishing/ |
Tux Paint is a step by
step instructional Tool for the ages from 3 to 12. The Tool is free and you
must download it to access any of the drawing tools. Students are presented with
a computer based blank canvas that includes sound effects and a cheery mascot
to guide the drawing. In an art class, using Tux Paint would be a nice way to
show students that you can create art with technology or with hands on
supplies. An assignment could be to have a common sentence or phrase that every
student must base their online painting after.
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| Found at: http://tux-paint.en.softonic.com/ |
Vacaroo is a very
simple Tool; visit the website and two boxes will appear, one saying ‘Click to
Record’. The message you record is not permanently stored on the site and it
can expire or be lost. Although you cannot add the recording directly to your
website, you can send your message via email. Teachers could use Vacaroo to
email parents and further explain a lesson to students or parents. If a student
could not make it to class you can record a message and send it to them,
explaining what they missed in class that day.
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| Found at: http://vocaroo.com/ |
Spezify is a Tool that
is basically a search engine; however, unlike Google or Bing, all the
information pulled up is primarily in photos. This is a very visual based search
and is useful if you wish to skip around text searches that are usually pulled
up. When the site is first pulled up, Spezify will offer some suggestions to
jump start searching, you can search anything you want by pressing the last
option though. For the classroom, this could be helpful if you wanted to view a
certain artist or one of their works. An example could be if the class is
studying architecture of churches, Spezify would pull up a ton of different pictures
that you could use as examples.
.jpg) |
| Found at: http://lastonk.blogspot.com/2011_02_20_archive.html |
As the name of this
Tool might suggest, FlockDraw is a site where several people can come together
and work on the same painting. An unlimited amount of people can watch the drawing;
however, only ten participants may contribute at one time. It may seem that the
drawings can be open to anyone that wishes to join, but you can create a session
for specific groups you wish to work with. For an art class, one could create
sessions for students to work together; this will teach them collaboration
skills while they join the group effort to finish the drawing. FlockDraw has
many different tools to use while drawing and also provides a live chat. If a
session in this Tool were assigned as homework, students could discuss the
drawing while they work.
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| Found at: http://flockdraw.com/ |
Photoshow is a
Presentation Tool; it allows those who use it to create a big slideshow. The
slideshow is automatically generated for you; however you may customize your
photos, music, and animations in whatever way you please. The site allows you
to share your slideshow instantly with friends and family over email or social
media. In an art classroom, one could use Photoshow to put together a slideshow
of examples for students to follow at the beginning of a lesson. At the end of
the year, one could put together a slideshow of the artwork completed and
either send it to parents or play the slideshow at the next year’s open house.
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| Found at: http://kostenlose.rbytes.net/photo-show_download/ |
JamStudio is a Tool
that allows you to create your own tracks of music. You can piece together
different beats, instruments, rhythms, etc. to compose the desired sound. You
have to join the site to use this Tool, although it doesn’t cost anything.
Music goes along with art and usually inspires students when they are working.
One could play tracks they have created or assign students to create their own.
The lesson could be to ask how certain pieces of art make the students feel or
how their own art makes them feel and design music around that feeling.
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| Found at: http://www.acljohn.com/music/jamstudio |
Poll Code is a Tool
that allows you to create polls or surveys. The site is very precise and seems
in depth but easy to use. You plug in the information you wish to get feedback
for and the site will create the survey for you; it’s up to you how you use it
from there. For the classroom, one could create a poll, and give the class two
choices for projects and let them decide what you will do next. One could also
create a poll and embed it into a website to see how parents feel about how
class is going.
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| Found at: http://edutecher.net/links.php?txtSearch=interactive&searchin=tags |
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