PSU Web 2.0

cartoon maker

This site is really fun, and I think it would work for ALL ages:-) When I use it is when the kids are learning about a plot graph. We will read a short story that has clear elements (exposition, complications, etc), then the kids will have to change the story into their own words, showing me in each cartoon slide, that they understand what those elements are.

This site enables you to create a speaking avatar. It can be used to teach characterization or for presenting information in which students need to use oral language. The avatar can speak from recording your voice over a phone or typing in text.

A great way to give a daily message to the students. Can have the students record lunch menu for the class to hear each morning.

Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages. I personally have two of them on my teacher website. Sometimes you have to spell phonetically in order to get the Avatar to pronounce things correctly, but other than that, it is a blast creating them.

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.

I ran across this website while working on another project! What a cool way to teach a project. Check it out!

This is really awesome. You could collaborate with students from another school--either near or far. I love it!

This is for anyone who spends anytime working on their family tree. It is very easy to use and you are able to add pictures. This would work great for a family tree project in class. It also has places to create timelines, which would be a great social studies project.

great for family tree project in Spanish class

With Geni, you can build your family tree, invite relatives to collaborate, preserve your family history, discover new relatives, share family photos and videos, and remember birthdays and anniversaries. Geni is private and secure. Only the people in your family can see your tree. I think this would be a wonderful tool to help teach research and organizational skills in a very secure and controlled environment.

Scratch is a programming language that allows students (ages 8 and up) to create interactive stories, animations, and games online. These creations can be shared on the web. This would be great to use in the classroom for the development of 21st Century skills. Students learn math skills, creative thinking, reasoning, and how to work with others.

Students can create and share interactive stories, art projects, games,etc...

HotChalk is a curriculum, planning, assessment, and professional development site for teachers, students, and parents. This site offers videos and other content information. It also allows teachers to put assignments online. The site claims to reduce plan time because of the wonderful resources for lesson planning it offers but I think I would spend some up front time getting everything figured out. The professional development resources are also very helpful. Users can save information in their desk, library, and class. Initial registration was free.

This site has free lesson plans, a learning management system, and lots of other great tools.

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.

PBwiki is for teachers, students, and parents. It lets you create a simple, secure wiki in about 60 seconds. You can make your wiki public or private. You can also embed video & audio, add tags, RSS, and full page revisions, see who changed what, and automatically reverse any changes. It also has access controls. This would be a good collaboration tool for the classroom.

I'm loving this site! Good find! My students would love this!

Interactive multiplication games

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 :-)

WePapers helps students and others share and expand their knowledge for free. You can find and download papers and documents you need in a matter of seconds, discuss them with others, or just mess around. WePapers is where you find the kind of quality information you wouldn't find anywhere else on the web, the kind of papers you'd have to dig for in dusty library basements and still not find what you're looking for. WePapers is one big study group! Universities are even using it for class-notes and articles. I could see using this in a classroom situation for research papers and the such. Students would have the opportunity to connect with others around the world, get help, and feedback from others just like them.

This site let's you download, share and organize information. Sign up is free and if have a facebook account you do not have to sign up.

Digital Media for Teachers is an extensive library full of resources for classroom use or professional development.

This tool allows the user to download a book to your IPod for students or kids to listen to. This would be great for the reluntant readers or ones who struggle with reading. This site would be a great addition to the classroom.

AudibleKids allows you to purchase an audible version of books. They are fairly expense but would be worth the money if it was a download you knew you would use repeatedly. This could be especially helpful when making adaptations and modifications for lower level readers. The other thing I really liked is that you can listen to a short samples for free.

I use this to buy audio books for both personal and school use. If you buy a lot of audio books, they have membership packages which can allow you to buy books for about $7. That's a great price!

With Yacapaca, teachers can create quizzes, surveys, tests, etc.; discover, modify and share assessments; mark automatically, analyze with tools that improve your teaching, and more. Students use Yacapaca to learn faster and have fun while learning. They can even set up their own, completely personalized e-portfolios. This would be a great classroom resource for teachers as well as students. The e-portfolio options would be a great way for students to showcase and reflect on their best work.

When you register on this free site, you get access to already created assignments/tests and you have the ability to create your own. You can then check the results and have immediate data.

This site is a fun and interactive way to get students to "show what they know".

Live chat and blogging

This one seems like it could be a double edged sword, but MAY be appropriate for Jr.'s and Sr.'s. I am thinking especially for the kids who are in vocational classes. It would be a good way to reach out to communities of people that are already in the field. They could talk to others who are out there right now, doing what they are thinking that they want to do.

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.