Teacher Tube is a online sharing site that hosts video, photographs, documents and audio files that cater to an educational environment. The format is much like You Tube. Files can be easily shared/embedded on a variety of sites. Once you investigate these resources for the content and quality that you are searching, they prove to be a great way to promote essential learning. I chose this site because, like You Tube, there are some high quality videos available. Rather than reinventing the wheel, the busy educator has ready-made resources at his/her fingertips. You Tube is blocked in my school organization so Teacher Tube is a comparable resources and it is controlled for inappropriate language and controlled for inappropriate language and content.

Slideshare is an online site that houses a wide variety of presentations, documents and videos. These resources can be uploaded and downloaded for easy sharing. It has a wide variety of presentations on a wide variety of subjects. Users must be cautious because there is no quality control. I had to look through a large number of presentations before I could find something that had both the content and quality for which I was searching. This site is a good resource for essential learning as it can provide new information in both auditory and visual forms to be processed into the working memory. I liked this site because of the quantity of presentations that are housed in one site. Presentations can be easily uploaded, shared, and embedded into sites.

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.

Because my workshop is about Using Wikis in Education, the authentic assessment for my workshop participants will be to create a wiki for their professional/classroom use. Wikispaces will be used to house my own presentation so it will serve as an exemplar for what they are expected to produce. By creating their own wikis, participants will demonstrate generative learning because they will need to organize and apply their learning to create their own authentic project utilizing a rubric. I chose this site because it is user friendly and produces an attractive product. Additionally, Wikispaces has excellent video tutorials to demonstrate how to use the site.

I recently discovered Spinscape, which is a mindmapping webtool that can be used to create a graphic organizer. It has so many features wrapped into one application. Some of the features that I would find helpful in using Spinscape are the ability to insert links, widgets to post Youtube video, notes, attachments and even tasks for managing a project. Spinscape also offers numerous different views such as the classic bubbles, compact, wiki and farmland styles. The ability to put in tags also makes this a useful tool to help locate information. This definitely is a more visually appealing and more multi-functional than some of the other mindmaps that I have seen, but it is significantly more difficult to navigate and use. It exports the files in multiple formats (HTML, PDF, Word), but not in JPEG. I would really love to use this tool for my presentation, but I will probably not because of the cost. I have been using my 7 day trial membership to explore and it will be expired by the time that I do my workshop.

Bubbl.us is a very simple brainstorming/mindmapping tool. In my workshop (Using Wikis in Education) I will use the graphic organizer as a pre-training tool to introduce the purposes for using a wiki in education. This will be a good tool for essential processing because the learners will be exposed to key concepts before the main learning event takes place. The learners will be given the key concepts in the primary nodes in the mindmap as the categories under which they will classify their new learning. Bubbl.us allows the learner to map out ideas and make connections. I liked this site because the mindmap was simple to create and it could be easily exported as a JPEG file. The only drawback is that I wish that it had the ability to import pictures/graphics and notes.

I am using Pro Profs Flashcard Maker to introduce the concept and terminology of wikis during the pre-training section of my workshop. This will allow learners to process the essential information that will be needed in order to achieve the instructional goal. I like this activity for pre-training because it is "frontloading" the learning event with essential information. These flashcards are created online and can be embed them into my wiki. Its simplicity and multifunctional use make in an attractive tool for any teacher.

I am using Voice Thread to introduce the use of the graphic organizer in my workshop. This will be helpful for essential processing as they begin to select the important information that will be presented in the workshop. I posted a copy of the graphic organizer and then used a microphone to record the directions for the participant. I also typed out and posted a written example of how they might begin to fill out the graphic organizer. My workshop participants will have a paper copy of the graphic organizer, but will also have a choice to post their ideas on the voice thread. I chose this site because it is easy to use and interactive. I want to provide a differentiated learning opportunity for my digital natives by using an interactive webtool as opposed to paper pencil, which may be more appealing to my digital immigrant participants.

This is the link to my multimedia workshop wiki. The topic will be Creating a Classroom Wiki.

This website utilizes pictures, video or any type of work that can be uploaded to the site by a teacher or a student. Participants are able to provide written, voice or video comments about the posted artifact. This is a collaborative, student-centered site that promotes cognitive processing of information. This artifact represents what Mayer (2009) calls dual coding, including both textual and visual components. The students have the opportunity to respond in a variety of ways to the instruction which promotes higher level thinking skills. I plan to create my own Voice Thread using our own student writing.

In my workshop, the participants will use this site to create a graphic organizer to help them organize their notes as they navigate the workshop. The mywebspiration site is strong on active processing (Mayer, 2009) as the user must take in the material and actively process it in order to produce the synthesis of the information in the form of a mindmap.

Xtralnormal is a website contains a highly appealing multimedia opportunity for the creator. It allows the creator to text dialogue which is then transformed into an animation. The creator is able to choose the characters and the setting of the movie. For example, after studying a specific topic, the student must synthesize the learning and show his/her understanding by creating dialogue between two characters. Mayer (2009) would characterize this type of learning as active learning because of the cognitive challenge presented in creating dialogue about a topic. I plan to create my own extra normal movie that will engage my workshop participants.