Category Archives: Web 2.0

Screencasting in the Classroom

Ed. Tech Resources, Web 2.0, , , , ,

Let’s face it, you can’t always use the pause button in a classroom.  But that’s what screencasts allow students to do…pause, rewind, and re-watch teacher or student created videos until they “get it”.  Screencasting is a video of what’s happening on your computer.  It allows students to have access to information 24/7 and refer back to it later and not just when they’re in class.

Here are some examples of teacher created screencasts:

How to create a link in Glogster:

How to Create an MLA Citation in Word

Course instructions for “The Big Run”:

The examples above were created using Jing, a free Web 2.0 tool for capturing not only video recordings of your screen, but editable stills as well.

Screencasting 101

Jing is a great way to start screencasting, but if you’re looking for tools that have more features, Mashable put together a great list of tools which can be found here.

Are you screencasting in your classroom?  What’s your favorite screencasting tool?

Word Clouds for the Classroom

Web 2.0

Who doesn’t love a word cloud?  They’re so fun and students LOVE to create them.  This word cloud was created using Tagxedo, Word Clouds with Style. Not only was it fun, but is was EASY to do…and FREE.

There are many ways you can use word clouds in your classroom.  This is  an example of an About Me cloud. Have students start by listing all the words that describe them.  In my example, I did just that.  After about fifteen words I was stumped and lets face it, word clouds just aren’t as cute if you only have a handful of words.  So I chose two words that I felt described me the most and used the handy “Synonym:” method in my google search.  I copied the results from that search and pasted them into the text field of Tagxedo and presto, I had more words to add to my word cloud!  Here’s what that looks like:

“synonym:happy”= blessed, blest, blissful, blithe, can’t complain,captivated,
cheerful, chipper, chirpy, content,contented, convivial, delighted, ecstatic, elated,
exultant, flying high, gay, glad, gleeful, gratified,intoxicated, jolly, joyful, joyous,
jubilant, laughing, light, lively, looking good, merry,mirthful, on cloud nine,
overjoyed, peaceful,peppy, perky,playful, pleasant, pleased,sparkling, sunny,
thrilled, tickled, tickled pink,up, upbeat, walking on air

You might notice in the example that some of the words are larger than others.  There are advanced features in word cloud generators that allow you to customize the size of text, but an easy way to do that is to just add more of the word you want to enlarge.  Here’s an example:

These words, “Web~2.0, Web~2.0, Web~2.0, Create, Collaborate, Social, web-based, global, anywhere, learn,” made,

Notice the use of the tilde (~) connected Web and 2.0 together.

Tagxedo also has cool shapes you can choose from to customize your word cloud, that’s what makes it different than Wordle, another cool word cloud creator that was used to create the example above.  In addition, you can choose your own images to upload to Tagxedo to shape your cloud.  In my example, I used the shape of the Big Island of Hawai’i since that’s where I’m from.  This is something you’ll want to play around with a little.  I used photoshop to get my shape just right to work with my cloud (tutorial coming soon).

How can word clouds be used in your classroom?  Luckily, there are some awesome bloggers out there who share lesson ideas with the rest of us!  Here are just some of the great ideas and examples teachers are using in their classrooms:

Here’s an example of my 8 year old’s word cloud created in Tagxedo (She use synonym:TV to get extra words…I would have preferred “family”, but it’s her cloud…):

Have you used word clouds in your classroom?  Do you have any tips to share?  Student samples?  Tell us about it!

Alternatives to PowerPoint

Ed. Tech Resources, High School, Middle School, Web 2.0, , , , , ,

Edutopia has an excellent Summer PD titled, Web Tools Collective Series.  I just read Part 4 of the series and my absolute favorite Youtube Video about how not to use PowerPoint was shared:

We’ve all probably experienced this when attending presentations, which is why this video is SO funny.  I laugh every time I watch it!  So how do we teach our students to give good presentations?

ReadWriteThink and PowerPoint in the Classroom both have excellent resources for teaching kids how to create effective and meaningful PowerPoint presentations.  But we also have to remember with the emergence of Web 2.0 tools, there are now FREE alternatives to PowerPoint.  Below are just a handful of some of the Web 2.0 Tools that students can use to create presentations:

The beauty of the above tools:

  • They’re accessible from any computer, anywhere as long as one has internet connection
  • They can been shared with peers, students, parents, etc.
  • They allow for collaboration
  • They don’t require a flash drive

One important thing to consider when using any Web 2.0 Tool in the classroom is the terms and conditions of the tool.  Lucie deLaBruere has put together an excellent resource for information addressing terms and conditions of Web 2.0 tools and privacy policies.  Find it here.

What’s your favorite presentation tool?  Do you have any student samples you can share?

Embedding your Glog on Your KS Blog

Ed. Tech Resources, Web 2.0

One of the wonderful things about Glogster is you have the option embedding your Glog into a Blog or a Wiki.  But one of the things I ran into when trying to embed my glog into my blog is the size was either too big, or too small.  So here’s how you can embed your glog and make it fit!

  1. From your Glogster EDU dashboard, copy the embed code
  2. From your KS Blog dashboard, click on the HTML tab
  3. Paste the embed code and replace the “100” with “70”
  4. Voila!  Your Glog now fits in your Blog!  🙂  Click here to see an example of what it looks like in your blog.

You also have the option of embedding your Glog as you’re saving.  If you copy the embed code from the save menu:

Here’s what your Glog will be scaled to in your Blog:

Shelfari

Ed. Tech Resources, Web 2.0, , ,

http://www.shelfari.com/

Today Mrs. Helm introduced 6th graders to Shelfari using the youtube video above.  Todays lesson included the following:

  1. Create accounts
  2. Demonstrate how to add and review books
  3. Add three books to bookshelf – two books students have read and one book students are reading
  4. Add friends

For homework, students were tasked to identify, describe, and explain the following literary elements in their book reviews:

  • Protagonist
  • Setting
  • Inciting incident
  • Subplot
  • Theme

They were reminded to provide enough details to their reviews that inform the readers about the novel and hopefully, encourage others to read it.  Students were also reminded not to spoil the ending for readers.

If you’re interested in integrating Shelfari into your reading program, there’s an excellent example of a parent letter you can find here.  Additionally, here’s the beginning of a handout you can use with your students.  If you do use it, we’d love you to come back and comment!

BTW, students loved it.  One student said, “OH!  It’s like facebook for books!”.

Big IQ – Spelling Practice and More

Ed. Tech Resources, Web 2.0, , ,

As a parent, I’m constantly looking for resources that will not only excite my kids about learning, but also make life easier for me as a parent.  Every week, both my kids have spelling lists and the rule at our house is no TV, games, computer, etc. until the spelling words are memorized with 100% accuracy.  So rather than sit and read and re-read and re-read and re-read, well you get the picture, the spelling words until they’re correct, I upload the words to BIG IQ.

BIG IQ lets me create spelling quizzes my children can take online.  The computer will read the word and use it in a sentence.  My kids will type the word and then the computer does the grading.  That’s the best part!  The computer does the grading!  Big IQ will also mark the ones that are incorrect so we can go back and study the ones that are not quite memorized.

As a teacher, you can also use Big IQ in your classroom.  You can set up classes and users and it can be a way students can study their spelling words during class.  Go check it out and tell me how you used it!  http://www.bigiqkids.com/