Friday, July 2, 2010

So ... did you learn anything?

What do you think, Web 2.0ers - did you get anything out of the two week class?  What web tools and ideas do you think you can use in your classes next year?  What things do you want to show your teachers, your family, and your friends?  Please respond to these questions by leaving a comment ... and a have great summer!

Voicethread - adding sound to your presentations!


Think of a great person in the world, past or present. Someone you admire, someone who made a difference, some who should be remembered. Shouldn't that person be on a trading card? Here's your chance to create one, Web2.0 style!

Using an awesome program called VoiceThread, develop an interactive trading card for a famous person of your choice. You will want to do a little research on the person, find two super images, make a two slide PowerPoint presentation with their name and images, write about their accomplishments, add a quote or a "did you know" fact, and add our trading card logo (look to the right!). I will teach you how to turn it into a voice thread.

What makes it 2.oish? You can comment on it, as can others! You will post your card on your blog for others to see and react. I will collect all of the cards, and you can check out each other's work on a collection page. It's a challenge, but it's a great way to use the Internet and Web 2.0 applications to share information!

Here is my example ...

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Wordle - what do you want to say?

Wordle is an online tool that has become very popular - and it has many uses. You can take a huge chunk of text (a speech, an article, song lyrics) and find out which words are the most common in the work by creating a word cloud. For example ...

Wordle: dream

You can also control the size and color of the words by going to the Advanced section of Wordle. It's a pretty cool tool - check it out!
How about creating a timeline of something online, and having it embedded in your blog? It's easy with a program called dipity (yup, dipity - kid of funny). You can make a timeline of historical events, parts of story, your summer vacation, almost anything! It's pretty easy to do. Here is one my class did about Civil Rights ...


So, here is your task - Go to dipity.com, sign up, and make a cool timeline. Pick any topic of interest and create a timeline for it. You can add video, locations, text, links - great stuff!

Ebooks - think about what you could do in class!

I fooled around a bit with ebook creation on Myebook ... and I love it! You can make your own books online about any topic - including images, video, text, flash files, audio ... amazing. You can embed the book on a blog or website as well. Great tool - don't you think?


Myebook - Gettysburg - click here to open my ebook

Make an Avatar ... or two!

You have heard of the movie, but what exactly is an avatar? How about an image that represents you on your blog? You can make a few different avatars online, including a talking one using Voki (like Uncle Sam here)



Get a Voki now!

or a simple cartoon one using Doppelme. Try one!


Wednesday, June 30, 2010

More Comic Strip Sites!

Web 2.0ers - want to try out some other comic strip sites?  Check out Pixton and Bitstrip - get creative!