I love this week’s activities – these are cool tools.
Wordle and Tagxedo are similar tools. Tagxedo allows you to create a picture with your words as well as edit colour and text themes. Having used Wordle with young students, I found it best to get them to create and edit their word lists in a word processing package first. This allows for spell checking etc. If you want a word to appear large, repeat it numerous times in your list.
I like the ability in both programs to insert text from other websites. In particular it is fun to import your tags from Delicious and create a pictorial presentation.
ToonDoo is a great comic strip maker. I have used this with children as young as Prep (age 5) through to Year 6’s (age 12). They all loved it and found it simple to manipulate. The variety of styles of pictures available allows for lots of indivualisation. I have asked children to use them to reflect on an activity/experience, for example – challenges overcome at camp. Having to have Primary students log in to these types of sites can be problematic – a site that does not require log in is MakeBeliefComix. More comic strip creator stes are described on Edubeacon
A great example of using Comic strips for different purpose (as I have mentioned before) is the work of Edna on WhatedSaid.
Voicethread has so much potential and I will admit that I have tried to use it, but had a few technical hitches. A fellow colleague has created some great resources to assist teachers to set up Voice threads. In particular, it details the creation of an educator account. (Thanks Tom)
Voicethread Educator Account for Teachers in Classrooms from Tom Wursthorn on Vimeo.
I intend to use it more in the near future and love the idea that children can insert sound and video recordings.
Wikis are interesting too and I have my wiki page linked from this blog. I basically use it to store and sort links and ideas. We have used Wikis with children as reflective class journals, but have not yet found a ‘fantastic’ purpose.
Glogster – well, it took me a while, but here is my first try
I can see the potential here and I will need to find out about the Educator accounts as Glogster’s terms of Service do not permit under 13’s. Apparently Educator accounts make this possible. Some good resources and ideas here at Edunology.
Thanks for the mention, Celia! I love ToonDoo… both as a tool for my students and for my own creative expression. Thanks for the idea of using it for reflection, I hadn’t thought of that!
You can overcome the student login issue by getting your own secure school ToonDoo space (that’s the edu version). The support is fabulous and you have complete control of what images are available.
A really thorough examination of week 8 tools and it’s good that there are plenty of sites you’d use with your students. Thanks for adding in examples and how to sites. I love Ed’s ToonDoos too, she is so clever.
Hi Celia
I’m enjoying reading your reflections – they mirror many of my thoughts as well as encourage me to think!
I have dabbled with many of these tools, but am struggling with how to use some of them in the LRC when I only see a class once a week and have limited access to computers. At the moment I’m using them more to share work we do on our LRC Blog. I’m hoping to get some more staff on board so students can use them in their classrooms…
Tom’s video on Voicethread is very useful and now I know how to create an educator account!
I love Ed’s ToonDoos too – she’s able to capture ideas so succinctly with her characters!
Kim 🙂