#1 Writing Territories
explore the students writing experiences by creating a list of the types of writing they have done (i.e. e-mails, short stories, poetry, texts, essays, memoirs), what writing they'd like to complete (personally, I'd like to write a few novels), things the students are not too familiar with writing (i.e. research papers, journalism articles), what the students like to write about (I like to write about my past experiences, as well as family and friends), and what possibly they never want to write or experience with writing.
#2 Nicenet
Nicenet is a wonderful place to go if you can't figure out Nings, or other open conference websites. What we have set up in our own classroom is an "online classroom" that we may discuss our literature within the boundaries of our classroom outside of the normal scheduled time. We are free to post anytime and can discuss with classmates as well as our teachers, professors, etc. about the given subject. It also strays away from bigger sites, creating an environment that only you can access when you have a "classroom key" or password, meaning only people you know within that classroom can access it, comment on it, and discuss. Therefor, there is not much intimidation with posting, because it is our peers/friends/fellow students looking on, rather than posting something you aren't sure is right in front of a thousand literary professors from around the world who have the ability to judge you. It is a nice, cozy environment to post on without the stress, and with all the help.
#3 Smilebox
Smilebox is a fun little trinket to show off your...online scrap-booking skills? The program is very beneficial if you like to do that but relating back to school work many in our group thought that it would be more beneficial to the students only for creating a special project, or if the teacher wanted to use it, opening up a book with a slideshow on the book, its themes, etc. The downside, you've gotta pay for how little there is to do with it. That is, if you want the "advanced" version.
#4 Wordle
Wordle is a cool little website that would be beneficial for vocabulary projects, or just to be creative. You can't use it for much, but it leads to creativity, and it is very easy to use. You just go to it, post (or copy/paste) words into a text box, then hit create my wordle, and viola-- you've got art. Cool, and simple. Students younger I believe would get the biggest kick out of this.
#5Wiki
Wiki's are nice. They are kind of like a blog, kind of like an email, kind of like an informative website, kind of like nicenet, all rolled into one short, simple, creative way to get students involved. Basically, you sign up and have a designated username to talk and interact with other students. The main function though, is posting, responding, etc to work that a teacher may put on the wiki. After the teacher posts, you have a chance to respond to that post, or even create a new thread to start your own post say if you needed help with some homework you didnt understand, or something along those lines. Easy to use, there are free versions, and can be a very good tool for teachers within (and out) of the classroom.
#6 Collaborative Word Processor
#7 Twitter
#8 Podcasts
#9 Meebo
Meebo is a cool little website that includes/connects all of the social networking sites on one computer screen It includes AIM, Facebook, Etc but does not have much room to be used in the classroom
#10 Photovoice
#11 Tagxedo
Tagxedo is a fancier Wordle. I thought wordle was cool, then I found out about tagxedo. It generally does the same exact thing as Wordle, but you can make your own shapes, including doing that by adding your own pictures. For example, I made a wordle/tagxedo in the shape of spongebob squarepants. Its pretty cool especially because you can save it, share it, and print it, all of which wordle did not give us the option.
#12 Scribefire/Zotero
Scribefire and Zotero were nifty little add-ons for mozilla firefox. Scribefire was a useful tool to connect our our writing from any computers to our google docs account. Zotero was a complicated but at the same time easy way to make a works cited page. Overall, both were very useful, and could be easily used in the class for obvious reasons.
#13 Voicethread
Voicethread is a community type slide show viewer. You make a slideshow, and people can comment or edit it by making an account and either recording themselves (video, or voice), doodling of the actual slideshow, or the basic text comments. Could be used in a lot of good things in the classroom, as well as extra credit outside of the classroom.
#14 RSS Feed
#15 Animoto
Animoto was a cool little option to create nifty slideshows. It is like powerpoint in the fact that is a slide show, but doesn't have an option to pause. It plays like a youtube video and is very easy to operate and create, but I don''t think it would have much use in the classroom.
#16 Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling is a good way to do book talks, or book reports. It gives general knowledge of the book including background information on the author, the characters, the setting, etc. The programs you can use to create a video (more of a slideshow), to digitally tell a story, are pretty much endless. There are a lot of programs that vary on difficulty and there are programs from many different companies, useful for both microsoft and mac users. This would be fun to have students use and create for class.
#17 Conference Proposal
Persuasion proposal in a conference trying to persuade people to do whatever your proposal is about. This is an outline of your ideas you think will contribute to whatever you may be writing the proposal for.
Things to include: Include main points, limit to 250 words, limit title to 9 words, appropriate language for audience, include bibliography.
#18 Lesson Planning
A lesson plan can be: a teachers guide, a substitutes lifeline, an administrators check, students protection.
A lesson plan should: explain a teachers goals for the lesson (objectives), list the materials needed (helpful check to be sure you're ready), present the order or sequence of what will happen and who will do what (procedures, teacher/student actions), include a way to know if what you planned is what happened (assessment), show how the lesson meets relevant standards (standards met), be clear and easy to read, be carefully edited, organized and presented on something larger than a post-it note, be easy to find in your classroom or planning area, be meaningful to someone other than yourself, including students, parents, administrators and substitutes
#19 Survey Monkey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YGJK6WB
Enough Said.
#20 Doodle
Doodle is a scheduling tool used over the internet that is fun and easy to use with friends and peers. You can schedule events and make times for events and other things for you and anyone who has a doodle. It is very easy to use for people with tight schedules, and it is an easy way for people to use rather than make time to get together face to face. This can save lots of time and effort.
