Click the link below to check out my educational glog on the United States:
http://www.glogster.com/nxxzarax3/the-united-states/g-6l6mqr82nuuv96il3ubjpa0?s=imgglog
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Zooburst
www.zooburst.com
Zooburst is an online three dimensional book creator. It allows the student or teacher to create any book of their choice using characters, pictures, text boxes, and auditory recordings. Once they pick their characters and pictures, the user can place them wherever they want on the surface and even change the position and angle. There are many different controllable aspects to this program, like the position and angle for example, that may overwhelm the student, so I think an appropriate age for this website would be fourth grade and up, keeping in mind that the teacher will probably still have a good deal of helping the students. The sense that the student is making their very own personalized book, instead of just a character compared to other websites, should motivate the student and give them a sense of inspiration. This application would work effectively either individualized or collaboratively because there are many tasks involved that can be divided up. I think that because you are able to write whatever you want and choose any topic, generally any concepts or subjects can be taught with this program. I can see this program being used as a final project assigned to the students to see if they mastered the lesson. For example the teacher could assign the students to create their own book on a specific topic giving them certain requirements to fulfil.
Wordle
www.wordle.net
Wordle is a website that allows you to take a variety of words and make it into one big picture. It offers the teacher a way to confine multiple thoughts of the students into one setting for the whole class to view, and it offers the students a way to create a personalized piece of their own. You can choose to "randomize" your words, which means the website will randomly customize it for you, or you can customize it on your own, permitting you to change word font, color, or style. This program is very simple to use and understand. I think teachers can use this in classrooms with kinder-gardeners, but as for using the application on their own an appropriate age would be second grade and up. Not being limited to any preset options is motivating for the students along with the fact that they can place whatever it is they want in their display. In my junior year of high school, my english teacher actually used this application when we were done reading a book. He told us to all think of three words to describe the book and ended up putting every word together to create a display of what the class thought without having to ask us all individually. Due to this, I think this application is a great way to work collaboratively, but it can also be used more individually. For example, an elementary school teacher may use this when introducing a lesson by telling the students to list words that they know about the topic already. This is why I think this application can be used to teach concepts in any subject- it is a good way to spark discussions.
Voki
Voki is an application that allows you to customize and create your own avatar/ character. The user can choose a gender and face of a character, along with choices in hair color, clothes, eyes and mouth features and more. Once you create your character you are able to either record a voice for it, type a phrase, or upload a recording. It allows you to pick a background setting as well. All of these elements allow the student to customize and express themselves pretty well on a personal level if they wish. It is more realistic than some of the other sites so I think it has more of a practical use. It is not that hard to use, so I would say fourth grade and up would be an appropriate grade range. Because there are various components that make up the final product, I think that piecing it all together to get the end product inspires the student and keeps them interested. The ability to make it look like yourself is also a motivating factor for the student. I see this as more of a individualized project because this program is one of customization. I don't see this application as something that can be used to teach in a core class, but I can see it being used in more of an art or computer graphic class as a creative project.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
GoAnimate
www.goanimate.com
GoAnimate is a website allowing the user to create a preset short video. It does not allow the user to choose whatever characters or backgrounds they want, but there is a variety of preset options. There are videos the user can choose from, and then using that they may type their own dialogue between the video characters. This makes it more school friendly for the teacher or student because the choices are all appropriate. It still offers more creativity for the student and gets them thinking because they must come up with their own dialogue. I think an appropriate age group for this program would not be for a younger audience, but but rather for 5-8 graders. It is a fun way for a teacher to introduce a lesson that the students can take notes on, so I think it can be used for any subject or concept.
Blabberize
www.blabberize.com
Blabberize is an application that allows you to create a small video with the picture and recording of your choice. It offers the teacher a fun way to present information that captures the students attention more, and it offers the students a way to create a video in an easy and entertaining way. This application requires you to fixate the mouth around your object which elementary aged children would find difficult doing, so I would say an appropriate age group for this would be middle school (grades 6-8). The end result of this process is funny and exciting for kids, which is a motivating factor. It is more of an individualized use because the process is not very long and there are not many parts to it. I don't see how any effective lessons can be taught with this program, but I thought it could be a fun way to take a oral quiz in class perhaps instead of your ordinary written quizzes.
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