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Tikatok is where kids channel their imagination into stories - and publish those stories into books for you to share and treasure with friends and family. Tikatok also has a separate education site. Storytelling comes alive here! First, Tikatok has developed the StorySparks system, a database of hundreds of interactive story prompts that help a child get started in the writing process and get help when they need it. StorySparks help activate a child's natural motivation. Kids pick the topic, choose character names and genders, and always have the ability to modify or ignore any part of the prompt. Second, Tikatok connects kids to a community of passionate storytellers like themselves, but in a safe and parent-moderated environment. Here they can share their books with other kids, collaborate with their friends, get writing advice, and communicate their love of reading and writing in book clubs. Tikatok makes digital storytelling the social activity that kids are familiar with from the playground. Finally, Tikatok can turn a child's stories into real printed books. The physical books, just like the ones on the shelves at the bookstore, reinforce the child's perception that their contributions are valued by their parents and peers. They help create a sense of pride, and of confidence in one's writing abilities, and drive the child to continue writing and creating. The passion for reading and writing that children develop on Tikatok will serve them well as they face more and more advanced educational challenges at school.

Tikatok is a great site that allows the user to create and publish hardback or paperback books. The site is free and the printed books cost about $20.00. This site encourages students to use their creativity to write a story, draw illustrations and more!

This website is another site that allows children to author and illustrate a book online. The books can then be purchased in hardback, paperback, or PDF format. I really think that this site would appeal to students who like to use technology. It's an alternative to the paper and pencil writing that some students really seem to fear and avoid.

MLA writing format site

I am a little iffy about this site being interactive enough to be considered 2.0, but if you are teaching writing to older students, it is pretty nice. There are bibliography makers and tutorials so... I hope it is considered a 2.0 Web site :-)

faceinhole.com is a fun site with famous pictures of celebrities, movie scenes, music album covers, magazine covers, and more. Each picture has a hole where a face belongs. You can upload a digital photo of yourself and crop it to fit in the hole you chose. You can also post your creation to a blog. These can be done for fun or you can have students create one and tie it into subject matter. For example, they could create a picture of themselves and then use that picture and setting to write a story, using the particular writing elements in your classroom.

This site shares innovative ways on how to teach creative writing and gives examples for each style.

aMap is short for 'argument map'. The idea's very simple - to get more people arguing by mapping out complex debates in a simple visual format. At its heart, aMap is about helping people get to grips with complex (or otherwise) issues and get people thinking. aMaps come in two different formats: Printed pocket-sized aMaps, which you can buy on the eMaps website Interactive personalised aMaps, which you can make on the eMaps website The underlying structuring of aMaps is based around "informal logic" - this is the logic people use to argue in everyday life. Informal logic has a four-tiered structure: - Your position (I think . . .) - what you think over all - Propositions (Because . . .) - reasons that support your position - Arguments (As . . .) - supporting arguments that back up each of your propositions - Evidence (Supported by . . .) - supporting evidence to back up your arguments Although aMaps can be used just for fun, to help students improve and/or develop their reasoning and critical thinking in their essay writing and verbal communication.

This is a free private journal on the web. How much fun would that be to use the web to keep track of your daily journal entries at school? These entries can be shared with others ONLY when you allow them to be. Images can be added on entries as well. Those who keep a journal are known to have a better "working memory." Keeping a journal also improves the writing process and aids in creativity. No more pen and pencil for journals after today!

This site allows children to create their own books. It allows them to add pictures, either uploaded or clipart. It is a great writing tool for students to publish their stories.

Wordle is a great Web 2.0 tool to motivate students to look at word choice in their writing. The words that are used frequently, are displayed larger in the word cloud.

Wordle helps create word clouds. You enter words and the more often a word is entered, the larger the word will appear in the word cloud. It's a fun way to make posters that are fun and informative. It would be a good way to have students create posters over books they've read, end of the unit displays, etc. One tip that I received for Wordle is that it is helpful to type your words in a Word document first so that you can edit them and make sure they are all spelled correctly. If you have a typo in your Wordle, you can't edit it. You have to retype all of the words.

Great for listing words to a related topic. Have used it to make Mother's Day card with the students.

This blogging service is intended for classroom use only. Blog accounts are created by the classroom teacher. Teachers may use this service for professional blog publishing functions, and to manage and publish student writings. The teacher may add students as class users on their blog.

This would be a great tool for use in the classroom. Students can use it to write essays/papers individually or in collaboration with a group. Each member of the group is able to review and edit what has been done. Every edit is saved as a new version so any version can be rolled back. Changes can be compared within two versions. Students can get to Writeboards from any computer with an Internet connection so they can work on their projects at anytime.

I love this website. It is an easy to share, web-based text document. It allows writing, editing, comparing, and collaboration. You can invite an individual or group to work on a project. It's another great way to get students to work together--even when they are not together.

This is a list of tools to use in the classroom. It has several links.

This may have shown up for other's. It was posted on the Web 2.0 group.

I really like the website Model Bank--lots of examples of good writing--great for when you don't have time to create an example for the students.

This site allows users to create stories using pictures. You can collaborate with another person, or work on your own. I think this would be a great tool for those students who need help/ideas to get them started with their writing. It's also nice because they can see their story come to life like a real book.

Plotbot is a web-based collaborative screenwriting application where you can write a screenplay with as many or as few people as you like. Adopting the wiki approach to screenwriting, each element is editable by any member of a project. You can also comment on, delete or restore any element. Good to use in a safe, closed classroom environment.

zWebquest is a web-based software for creating WebQuests in a short time. When you use zWebquest, you will not need any of writing HTML code or using any web editor software. zWebquest creates all the necessary files and puts them on the server automatically. Hosting is FREE!

This site allows you to create story maps, and writing webs on the computer. It basically allows you to brainstorm online.

Blogger is a free site for blogging in just three easy steps: create an account, name the blog, and choose a template. It is one of the most popular blog creation sites. Choose a discussion topic and have students blog about it.

This web site helps you easily create a free online blog. You can use it showcase information about your classroom, such as photos, email links, student work, assignments/homework, and much more. Students can also create their own blog, to showcase their work, writing, what they've learned and technology experience.

Great for introducing students to social networking in a safe environment.

Create Your Own Social Network for Anything\n\nThis site allows you to create a social network for any topic. It is very simple. \nStep1 Name Your Social Network. Here you identify what your group is about.\nStep 2 Pick a web address for you group. \nStep 3 Sign up for a Ning account\nStep 4 Agree to their Terms of Service\n\nThis would be a great site for having an online book club or library blog for students. You can post videos, photos and pages. Students could have a poetry page or short story page where they are writing for a real audience.\n\nThere is already a TeacherLibrarianNing for teachers and librarians to post events, photos, and a forum for discussion. This would be great to network with other librarians and see what is going on in our profession.\nhttp://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/\n

This website offers a neat way for students to create their own books. I know that I've had some students who just hate to write, but I really think if they could create a story on the computer with illustrations they would love it. The stories can be printed in a paper copy, published online, and ordered in hardback form. I just think that this website would really appeal to elementary age students and would be a fun way to publish some of the work that they do.

A video workshop for using read-write in the classroom.

Free, user-friendly blogging site. I used this site with 3rd graders. They caught on very quickly and wanted to blog every day. Very easy for the teacher to set up and maintain. Great for private classroom use.