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Storybird is an online story creator. It is a place where people can easily create their own stories and collaborate with others if desired. You can also read stories created by other users. This site is very easy to navigate and purposefully created to be child friendly, but is also appropriate for adults.

I really like Storybird as a website that offers story creation. Many websites that allow users to create a story are very complex and may take days and days of work. Storybird seems a bit more simplistic which would make it easier for young children to use. I think online story creating could be a great idea for teachers to incorporate into the classroom.

I stumbled upon this free digital storytelling site and think it's pretty cool. It's a service that uses collaborative storytelling to connect children and families. Two or more people create a Storybird by writing their own text and inserting artwork from an extensive library. The final storybook can be shared privately or publicly with an online community.

PLA Cited in sample in Social Media Class

Come join fellow educators to share and learn about technology use in the classroom, early childhood through grade 12. This is an incredible professional development opportunity and it is FREE! Please check out the website to learn about the "unconference" model of EdCamp, http://edcampmaine.org

A great way for a child to be engaged and excited about writing. Students' books can be shared on classroom blogs, websites or the hyperlink can be emailed to parents.

Site for creating artwork and images ideally for children ages 3 to 12. Anyone can access and download the application for free from the website (tuxpaint.org). The application has special features to engage children, including sound effects when tools are selected and used, and a cartoon displayed in the corner to give help and hints. The drawing tools that are available for children to use are paint brush, rubber stamp, line tool, shape tool, text tool, special effects (magic) tools, eraser, and undo. Also, teachers and children can easily open, save, and print creations.This program could be used in an early childhood setting to help children work on fine motor skills by using the mouse on the computer. It can also foster creativity because the children are allowed to create whatever they want, however they want, and there is no limit on the amount of pictures that can be created. I would use this program in centers in the early childhood setting so that children could get equal opportunity and assistance, if needed.

Children can create their own sketches and illustrations. Very simple and easy to use.

Very simple and easy. Recommend for younger, new computer users. Good practice of mouse/pointer manipulation while expressing creativity.

Twitter is an easy way to communicate with friends, co-workers, and other people. For us, as teachers, it is a great way to communicate with parents what is happening in the classroom!

Twitter has become a very popular site over the last 2 years. This site would be more appropriate for teachers and parents. Teachers could follow someone in the public eye that has importance to education, and parents can follow teachers. By "follow", I mean that if you "follow" someone, you receive updates from them to your phone and/or web. It is a great way to stay connected! Many times parents are curious as to what their children are doing/learning that moment, and teachers can express this through using Twitter.

After evaluating this site even more, there is not always a guarantee that a website that is posted to someone's update would work or be available. This could cause concern and frustration for a parent or student trying to stay in communication with a teacher through Twitter.

It is for mac or PC. It is free. it seems to be more versatile than other digital photo software.

This is a fun and useful website to create cards, scrapbooks, etc. and share them.

Site for sharing ideas, photos, stories. Anyone can access the blogsite, like any other website. Comments can be made on the blogs by the viewers. This tool allows the creator to personalize the page with themes and gadgets. This site could be used by teachers within the classroom for older students to do writing projects. Blogger could also be used as a parent/teacher collaboration tool in early childhood settings.

Fun and easy to use and customize. Good tool for education/classroom blogging.

This site was really easy to set up, but I've had a hard time using it to search for and follow other applicable blogs. Any suggestions?

With this site you can create a face using various types of eyes, noses, lips, ears, eyebrows and hair. Once you have created a face you can manipulate it by scaling it up or down, rotating or flipping it. You also have the option to save your picture and email it to friends and family. Overall, I think this is a good site for children to explore creative technology. My biggest concerned was I could not find a statement on who the target audience was. For this reason be sure to carefully watch children when they are at this site.

I really liked and enjoyed this website! I liked the freedom to personalize the face I was creating. With the editing tools of color and scaling up and down, I was able to create numerous completely different faces. I think this activity could be great for older children and could let them explore all of the options online art sites can offer.

The ePals Global Learning Community is a network of interconnected classrooms around the world. It provides a safe environment for students and teachers for building and exchanging knowledge, using protected e-mail, blogs, translation tools, evidence-based curricula and authentic, collaborative learning experiences. ePals offers a range of services and features that are free for students in grades K through 12. One service is ePals SchoolMail. This is a multilingual electronic communications solution that offers schools and districts a protected, customized and collaborative environment. Another service is ePals SchoolBlog, an educational tool for creating unified Web-based platforms that administrators, teachers, parents and students use to achieve academic goals (hotchalk.com)

The ePals Global Learning community is a very useful networking, and collaborative tool. I found it very easy to use. It is easy to sign up and free to use. I have had no problems using this website.

TotSpot integrates many aspects of technology together to create a Facebook-like network for parents and their child. The network is private and accessible to only account holders. Parents create an account then are able to add their children to the account on their own page. Pages can be shared through friend invite. The parents and children can upload pictures, videos, write journals, create developmental charts, and track milestones. Friends on the account can view items and make comments. With families living far apart and technology on the rise, families can keep track of their childrens' progress (even before birth!)

SchoolTube is a website where teachers and students can upload and watch videos for free. Students can search and watch videos safely. All videos that are posted on this site must be approved by registered teachers, follow local school guidelines, and adhere to schoolTubes high standards.

Tate Kids allows children to create artwork, games, videos, etc.

Tikatok is a website where you can create your own book using your own pictures scanned into the computer. You can order a copy of your completed book so that you can have a hard copy of what you or your children have created. This is a great tool for teachers or parents to inspire a child's imagination to create a story with both words and pictures.

I really like this site and would definitely use it if I had children. It makes it so easy to make a story and actually get a hard copy of it. I reviewed Storybird, which is another site that allows you to create stories, but it doesn't have the option of ordering it. I think this is a step up from Storybird!

Great way for teachers to incorporate digital skills into the curriculum. Offers planning guides, teaching techniques, activities and projects for teaching computer graphics and image editing.