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This is an excellent collaborative brainstorming tool for creating a mind map. This could be excellent for PreTraining or for a graphic organizer. Imagine your class having this open while you present key information, and they create their mind map of your concepts.

Bubbl us is a graphic organizer used to organize ideas. As I viewed the site, I thought I could offer this to my students who might be intimidated by the use of graphic organizers on the web. Using this site might reduce the extraneous process because the goal is to organize thoughts not learn a new tool.

The is online mind mapping software whre participants can create a graphic organizer online. Graphic organizers can be shared with friends or saved as a jpeg.

An essential part to PD is establishing relevance to what happens in the classroom. For many teachers implementing additional strategies to struggling readers or ELLs may seem overwhelming. Many teachers may already be using ESOL strategies in the classroom and may not even know it! Using this list of reading activities as a primer for background knowledge for some and a pre-training activity for others will help teachers realize that many ESOL strategies are just good educational practice. The Reading Resource is a clearinghouse of effective strategies for reading and although it is a bit difficult to navigate, it has a lot of resources for teachers from all educational levels.

Blockposters is a free online tool that will accept .jpg or .gif images up to 1 MB in size, allow for poster sizing, and return a .pdf file containing the image rendered across multiple pages. Simply print the file and assemble the pages for an instant poster-sized rendition of an image, graphic organizer, instruction page, or just about anything else. This is a tool I have been looking to find for some time! While I have tried replicating the functionality of this online tool using various desktop tools, the ease of use of Blockposters is amazing and the fact that a .pdf file is returned for easy downloading and printing is a welcome surprise. This tool could easily be used for pre-training by enlarging for print most graphic organizers, mind maps, and other types of assistive instructional material that facilitates essential cognitive processing tasks. By printing a graphic organizer in large format and posting in front of a class, students can easily refer to the diagram as needed while using their computers directly in front of them. Posting a large scale printout also eliminates students having to shuffle through miscellaneous printouts on their desktops while operating their computers. Handouts of the graphic organizer could be provided, but the timing of providing the handout could be strategically incorporated into the presentation / workshop to eliminate extraneous materials during the discovery and learning phases.

Voki is a online site that allows the learner to create their own speaking avatar. Once the avatar is created, there is an opportunity to demonstrate generative learning by creating speech for the avatar. The speech can be recorded by one's own voice or done through a text to speech tool. In my project, this will be a way for workshop participants to use generative learning to apply their learning to creating their own project. They will post an avatar on their wiki to entice learners to use it, giving purpose and features that will make the wiki useful to the participant. I chose this site for many reasons. Although it is very simple to use, it requires a high level of creativity that is engaging for learners. The product is high quality and is able to be shared via email and different online environments.

Voki is a great multimedia website that will allow students to create talking avatars depicting themselves or historical figures.  I will use this site in my presentation wiki on infusing mulitmedia in a history class.

This website allows users to design an avatar. A video demonstrating the use of avatars for editing rough drafts show a potential use of this Web 2.0 tool for the K-12 classroom. This video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/embed/ao9KQltMkP0

Box allows for the sharing and managing of content files. Box will turn any folder into a public webpage to allow for project collaboration and sharing of information. A content search directory allows for easy look up of information. Box also allows for mobile access to your mobile device. Box is free for personal use and allows for access to files from anywhere.

Xtimeline www.xtimeline.com The second website that I have chosen to share for authentic assessment activities is Xtimeline. Xtimeline is an online timeline creator that allows users to plot dates, events, plot details and other linear occurrences. Xtimeline is a great tool for authentic assessments because the students create the timeline from scratch and build on their timeline as they continue to work on it. Xtimeline also provides access to previously created timelines for research and background purposes. Xtimeline is capable of creating advanced, organized and visually advanced timelines for free. I especially appreciate the fact that Xtimeline lets members (membership is free) upload pictures to add to the timeline making them much more appealing and interesting to look at. I like Xtimeline because it helps me to observe the linear thinking process of my students. I have used Xtimeline for plot diagramming lessons as well as biography mapping. Xtimeline is a resource that I believe social studies teachers would find extremely useful and purposeful in their classrooms. I also like the physical set up of Xtimeline the tabs, categories and search engine make using this site easy for any user no matter their experience.

Flashcard Machine can be used for essential learning by offering users the opportunity to create online pretraining artifacts. These flashcards can contain important vocabulary, names, formulae, etc. that can prepare learners for the upcoming lesson. I chose this tool because it is a reputable site and offers several features that can enhance the final product such as attached quizzes.

A great way for students to pre-train on material and solidify essential learning. While these could be used for basic, generative learning depending upon the context of the flashcard, they are primarily for essential learning. This is a great site for this as it has applications available on iOS and Android so students can take it with them. Also, teachers can setup stacks for distribution, and students can create their own.

Google Sites are, first and foremost, versatile. Sites can be created for a variety of purposes, and Google has templates to make creation easy. Once a site is created using a template, it can be completely edited and personalized to fit the needs of the user. One way that Google Sites can be used for authentic assessment is to create portfolios. Since templates allow the user to customize their site, the teacher can create a template for the portfolio that each student could adapt to their own taste. Portfolios created using Google Sites can promote generative processing by encouraging students to organize the information they learned and integrate the new content with prior knowledge as they create authentic products. Google Sites is better than other sites for portfolio creation because it is user friendly and can be used with Google Apps for Education.

Brief Description: Slide Share is a website where an individual can upload and share their presentations, personal/professional videos, and documents (word and pdf). Information uploaded can be shared with everyone on the website or restrictions (limited viewers) can be placed on your information. Brief Explanation: Slide Share is a good presentation website because your information can be categorized, receive feedback, and is easy to use. Also a key plus for this website is that it is free.

Slideshare - Slideshare is a website that allows users to upload various types of presentations: documents, presentations, and professional videos. I like this site because it attempts to keep non-professional data off , unlike sites such as You Tube that is for general use. Setting up an account is easy and the basic membership is free, which is always nice.

SlideShare is a tool that allows users to upload presentations or videos they have created to be shared with others. This site also allows users to search for presentations and videos on topics of interest. Having used this tool before, I have found it easy to use and can see how it might be used to share any presentations or videos created for the workshop with staff who were unable to attend or with a much broader audience. 

another excellent mind mapping application that is platform independent. This allows you to collaborate online in the creation of a mind map

Spinscape is not only a great tool as a graphic organizer to find, organize, and share information, but it also allows for real time collaboration with peers from around the world. I like this website over other similar sites because you can add text, images, or graphics to expand on the information provided within the graphic organizer.

Description: A visual collaboration tool for collaborating with others online. Why better: Allows collaborative team work synchronously and asynchronously.

Inspiration is an excelled software program that helps you create graphic organizers. I like this program more than the others because it allows the user to save the file as a PDF or JPEG file. Many of the other resources do not allow for specialized saving.

This website, although is the advertising for the software, has an area for teachers to sign-in. This access has training and tutorials for teachers on how to use the software and how to integrate it into the curriculum. The site provides lesson plans and ideas for teachers as well as a forum and technical support. These programs are concept-mapping or brain-storming programs designed to help students of all ages prepare and organize their thoughts for writing. The program provides both text and visual elements to assist the learner. Purchase of the software is a condition of access to the teacher support and training areas.

This website, although is the advertising for the software, has an area for teachers to sign-in. This access has training and tutorials for teachers on how to use the software and how to integrate it into the curriculum. The site provides lesson plans and ideas for teachers as well as a forum and technical support. These programs are concept-mapping or brain-storming programs designed to help students of all ages prepare and organize their thoughts for writing. The program provides both text and visual elements to assist the learner. Purchase of the software is a condition of access to the teacher support and training areas.

Prezi is a web-based presentation tool using a map layout and zooming to show contextual relationships.

What it is: Prezi is an online presentation software that allows collaboration among multiple users to create unique multimedia presentations. Why it's better: Instead of a traditional slide presentation, Prezi provides a platform to create presentations that are as creative as each individual user. Images, sounds, videos, and text can all be mixed together to create the most effective presentation possible.

Prezi is a presentation tool that can either be created online or offline. It offers collaboration among users and has zoom features to highlight information. Presentations can be viewed from a desktop, iPad, or iPhone. One way that Prezi can be used for essential learning is to segment a presentation to make it learner-paced. This website offers a better product for keeping learners engaged.