Create and print a brochure or flyer in minutes.
Choose a theme and then customize with photos and text. It's a great way to create brochures and flyers that work.
This is VERY easy. Choose the Code type, from a url to contact information, SMS, Text, and more. Complete the form it gives, then click the generate the image. Save it so you can put it on your website. There's even a link to find apps for your phone that will read the codes. I'm using QRky Scan for the Droid and it works perfectly.
Celly creates mini social networks called cells that connect you with people and topics that matter most to you. A cell can contain anybody with a cellphone, people from your existing social networks, or any web feed. We let you define filters based on hashtags, location, time, and user identity so you can eliminate noise and get alerted only when relevant messages occur.
School is one of the few times when they can get together with their friends and they use every unscheduled moment to socialize - passing time, when the teacher's back is turned, lunch, bathroom breaks, etc. They are desperately craving an opportunity to connect with their friends; not surprisingly, their use of anything that enables socialization while at school is deeply desired.
informal social learning
This drive to connect provides a unique opportunity for school teachers: Incredibly high levels of student motivation paired with a predefined fluency with electronic communication tools.
One tool that can help educators to do just that is Voicethread.
Known as a “group audio blog,” Voicethread allows users to record text and audio comments about uploaded images.
Voicethread is Asynchronous:
Voicethread is Engaging:
Begin by carefully selecting a topic that will promote conversation and debate between students—and that can be conveyed through images currently available to you.
don’t be afraid to disagree with something
Initial comments should be somewhere between 1 and 3 sentences long.
As a teacher, this will be a challenge. The brief intro is what makes the difference between presentation and social education dialogue.
The best Voicethreads are truly interactive—with users listening and responding to one another.
They come to the conversation with an open mind, willing to reconsider their own positions—and willing to challenge the notions of others.
To be an active Voicethreader, start by carefully working your way through a presentation. While viewing pictures and listening to the comments that have been added by other users, you should:
Gather Facts: Jot down things that are interesting and new to you
Make Connections: Relate and compare things you are viewing and hearing to things that you already know.
Ask Questions: What about the comments and presentation is confusing to you? What don’t you understand? How will you find the answer? Remember that there will ALWAYS be questions in an active thinker’s mind!
Give Opinions: Make judgments about what you are viewing and hearing. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Like? Dislike? Do you support or oppose anything that you have heard or seen? Why?
Use the following sentence starters to shape your thoughts and comments while viewing or participating in Voicethread presentations. Comments based on these kinds of statements make Voicethreads interactive and engaging.
This reminds me of…
This is similar to…
I wonder…
I realized…
I noticed…
You can relate this to…
I’d like to know…
I’m surprised that…
If I were ________, I would ______________
If __________ then ___________
Although it seems…
I’m not sure that…
These student suggestions are the missing link I was looking for to successfully incorporate into my classroom.
help other listeners know what it is that has caught your attention.
finish your comment with a question that other listeners can reply to. Questions help to keep digital conversations going!
carefully script out short opening comments for each image that include a question for viewers to consider.
Just be sure to disagree agreeably
Assessing Voicethread Participation
Essentially mirroring the reflective aspects of Konrad Glogowski's system for pushing reflective blogging, I've decided to ask my students the following four questions while we're working with a new Voicethread:
To craft careful answers, they must truly consider the comments of others---an essential skill for promoting collaborative versus competitive dialogue---and compare those comments against their own beliefs and preconceived notions.
Competitive dialogue motivates the students, but collaborative dialogue is the life skill they need to learn.
Voicethread allows users to upload documents to their strands of conversation as well. That means that users can create a "Works Cited" page in a word processing application and upload it at the end of their Voicethread presentations.
Detailed guide to creating/using/evaluating VoiceThread in the classroom. There are great examples and guides to download. The question prompts for students to consider when replying are simple, yet perfect.
Digital planner - keeps track of homework assignments. This is something I want to give my students. Homework assignments/upcoming test dates can be texted into the website. The website will also send cell phone messages reminding students of upcoming assignments.
Underneath the image is a link that will step you through the word clouds for all the inaugural speeches. Each one is also printed so that you can read the full text. This is not only good for Social Studies, but also VERY good for English. My how our language has devolved over the years. Read Madison's speeches, for example.
The story has text and audio, so the students can read along as they hear the words. The traditional stories have different endings to choose from. Even though they are basic stories, the tenses are more complex than an early language learner would know.
Youth Voices is a meeting place where students and their teachers share, distribute, and discuss their inquiries and digital work online. It's a space where teachers nurture student-to-student conversations, collaborations, and civic actions that result from publishing and commenting on each others texts, images, audio and video.
While a bit involved to get set up, this is a great resource to either provide background knowledge of the setting of a story OR as a review of what happened in the text. Limited text selections but could very well be an inspiration for you to make your own Lit trip!
"This site was created by Dr. Alice Christie to share an exciting new approach to teaching and learning. Enabled by Web 2.0 tools, GoogleTreks™ allows teachers and students to synthesize information in one easy-to-use map that places text, pictures, audio files, video files, and much more in one central location. GoogleTreks™ Video."
" By the time you have reached the end of this tutorial you will be able to construct a series of linked web pages for any subject that includes formatted text, pictures, and hypertext links to other web pages on the Internet. If you follow the steps for the Basic Level (lessons 1-14) you will develop a page about volcanoes and if you go on to the Advanced Level (lessons 15-29), you will create an enhanced volcano web site."
the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology has upped the technology ante with the release of its National Education Technology Plan
in Spring 2010.
The plan states, "The challenge for our education system is to leverage the learning sciences and modern technology to create engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students' daily lives and the reality of their futures."
teachers need to guide students to be critical readers "who can evaluate online information for credibility, timeliness, accuracy, and even hidden agendas,"
The new generation, sometimes dubbed "screenagers," does much more with technology outside school. Through social networking sites and wireless gizmos, kids are reading; texting; connecting socially; and making their own digital creations, from music mashups to backyard, YouTube-ready videos.
SitePoint has gathered up over 30 of the best resources online for audio, video, images and more for finding just the perfect Creative Commons licensed item for use in your next project. So, have a look around and get inspired!