Smilebox, voicethread, google forms, and animoto. Quite a list but these are the wikis I have not posted about yet. First, let me say that all could be used in my classroom, but google forms is hands-down the winner as far as practicality. Google forms allows anyone with a google account to make forms and these forms can come in all shapes and styles. Surveys, online quizzes, making exams. It can do it all! Animoto was also an interesting tool for use in classrooms because it allows almost anyone to form 30-sec videos from images, clips, and music. There are many limitations but a short activity would suffice using this web 2.0 tool. Voicethread is the tool I remember least about but it seems to be a complex blog post with drawings and voice recordings so I will have to pass. Smilebox gives users the ability to create designs for certificates, photos, invites, etc. I think this tool would be extremely useful for elementary or middle school teachers but my class could also use some smilebox functions for projects and to build a sense of community. Also, Inspiration is a neat way to design one of my favorite organizational tools- the concept map! However, I would like to know if an online or free option is available. If there is anything I have learned in this class then I am sure it exists.
A nice reflection of the various tools...and some good thoughts on using in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteFOR THE FREE options...see the below section called "Alternatives" on the bottom of "Today's Class" for March 29th...I can not make the links active here, but these are free options.
Alternatives
If you work on a campus that does not have Inspiration/Kidspiration, try these diagramming tools:
* bubbl.us- Free, web-based, easy but not all the bells and whistles
* Webspiration- Inspiration's free, web-based version with sharing/collaboration capability
* Cmap- Empowers users to construct, navigate, share, and criticize, knowledge models represented as Concept Maps