This week we started our blogs, as you know from my previous post, and we explored the website bighugelabs.com It's a website that has all sorts applications you can use to do fun things with pictures. Some cost some money, but others are totally free. Also, for some of them you can find ways around spending money, like just saving the image to your computer, instead of ordering it off their website.
We also had to explore the website www.go2web20.net Web 2.0 offers links to many, many different websites, and applications of varying interests. Our assignment was to explore 3 of them, and discuss what we found useful, how we might use it in teaching, etc.
I looked under the tag 'e-learning' and found www.tikatok.com. Here you can write your own book. They have three different levels. In the first you just add a few words and pictures, and the story is provided for you. In the second level you add all the pictures. The text is provided for you, but you can edit it. In the third option you add all of the pictures and dialog yourself. In order to save your story you have to register on the site, and you have to pay to receive a copy of your book. I think this is a really creative website. I remember when I was younger getting a kit where I wrote and illustrated my own book. The book I made wasn't online, so this website makes the process faster. I think you could lose some creativity if children only use photographs for the pictures in the book, but if you had access to a scanner you could scan and upload students' original artwork. This website is geared towards both students and teachers. Teachers can register for the website in order to gain access for their students, and the website includes some lesson and project ideas for teachers. This website could really be for anyone. I would have fun making a book on this website, and I'm 22. :) Also, not just teachers can register, anyone can, but teachers receive some discounts from the website. Overall, I think it is a really creative and useful website. If I had the money I would love to use it in the classroom, but it would be easy enough to have students write and draw on readily available paper, and comb bind it. It wouldn't be as fancy as what you would receive from the website, but it would be the same idea. Writing a class book could to relate to any subject being taught. :)
The second site I found is really fun and really cute. It's www.carrotsticks.com It's for 1st through 5th graders, and it helps them work on their math skills. You get to create a little person, and then answer math questions by typing in the answers with the number pad on your keyboard. You have to register in order to save your progress. I didn't register, but I found their pricing options. You can use the site for an unlimited amount of time practicing addition, but if you want to practice any other math functions it costs money. It's also free during school hours, but I'm not sure if that is for anyone. Children can also compete against other children playing the game. It keeps children safe by not allowing them to use their full name, and it doesn't have 'free chat', so I believe the only interaction is seeing the other person's character answering math facts. I think a really fun way to use this could be to have it set up for two different classrooms, and have a class wide challenge between the two. It would also be good for individual practice during class free time.
The third site I found is photovisi.com It's a site where you can pick from different templates to create a photo collage. This site isn't geared specifically for students. It's created for anyone who wishes to make a photo collage without a lot of hassle of gluing a bunch of photos together. I thought that there could be some fun ways to use it in the classroom though. It would be a fun way to make a class picture. Students could collaborate to choose key photos to put into a collage that represent a unit they were learning. For example, key people when learning about the Lewis and Clark expedition. I had another idea as well, but it suddenly slipped my mind, drat. I believe it is free to download your collage when you are finished as well.
I found all of the websites pretty straightforward and easy to use. I really like the Web 2.0 website. I found a couple websites that I am excited about for my own use, and I think I will continue to use Web 2.0 to find other websites in the future.
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