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!

Monday, June 28, 2010

The Great World of Glogster

What in the world is a glog? Good question - so head to Glogster.com to find out. A glog is sort of like an interactive poster, and your next task is to sign up for Glogster and let your creativity run wild. Create an informative, attractive, interactive glog about a subject of your choice. Include color, titles, text, links, images, graphics, audio and video if it fits. As you complete your glog, think about how you could use this platform in school next year - so tell your teachers!

Online storybooks - have some fun!


You may not read storybooks anymore, but why not try to write one? Storyjumper.com allows yout to write, edit, share, and print short storybooks created by you. You can import images from your collection, so you could include yourself in the story. I wrote one with my son this weekend - check it out!


Got some pictures of family and friends that you want to present in an online scrapbook? Scrapblog may be the tool for you. After creating an account, you can add your own photos, include some backgrounds, text, and stickers, and make a collection. While the account is free, some of the backgrounds and stickers aren’t – so when you search, select “least amount of credits” to find the ones that are free.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Picture fun with PiZap

Want to have fune with your picture ... or someone else's? Head to PiZap.com, upload your image, and go for it! Ofcourse, you always want to make sure you have someone's permission to post their photo, especially if you take a few liberties with it. Try it out with a celebrity of your choice!



piZap.com free online photo editor, fun photo effects
piZap.com free online photo editor

Awesome designs on Myoats


Web 2.0ers - even the worst artists in the world (like me) can make awesome designs using some cool Web 2.0 applications, like Myoats.com. While it doesn't appear that you can embed your designs, you can save them as pictures, make links to them on your blog, and make them public for others to see. Sign up and give it a whirl!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Xtranormal - superfun ...when it works.

Xtranormal.com allows you to make animated movies, just with typing and adding some set instructions. Sign up for an account and begin to experiment, Once you are done with a movie, publish it and add a link on your blog. Some of the more advanced movies require "points" (basicall, money), so don't do anything too crazy. Stick with the material listed here.

Check out my example here!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Sketchfu - a quick doodler!

Here's a Web 2.0 tool I just stumbled upon - Sketchfu.  Sign up, make a quick sketch, publish it, and embed it into your blog!



Make your own drawings at SketchfuMore from this artist at SketchfuShare this drawing from Sketchfu
Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!

Want a juke box ... and to share your musical interests?

Could it be possible to have your very own jukebox on your blog? It's almost possible ... with http://www.last.fm/. This interactive site allows you to develop a playlist of your favorite songs and artists. Once you have enough songs selected, you can play your library any time your are on your computer. Even better, the site lets you comment on groups, converse with people of common musical tastes, find new music that is similar to your favorites, find out tour dates and band information ... wow! What a great Web 2.0 application!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Make a short music video - the easy way!

Grab some pictures, pick a song, and boom - you have a music video! Animoto allows you to upload images and music (or choose from their music collection) and fashion a pretty cool 30 second video. Give it a whirl at http://animoto.com/. You need to sign up for an account and have a folder of images saved. I will make a quick one in class today and embed it - check out my daughter's softball team!


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

ToonDoo - let's make some comics

Are you creative, but struggle with drawing? (I do)  You can still create comic strips by using a great platform called ToonDoo. It's an easy and fun platform to express your ideas and share them with the rest of the web world.  Give it a shot.


What's on your bookshelf?

Imagine having all of your favorite books in one spot. Maybe you do, on a shelf at home, or in the library. But with Web 2.0, you can share the titles and your reviews of all of your favorite books using Shelfari at http://www.shelfari.com. Create an account (using the same email and username that you have already been using) and start populating your bookshelf with your favorite titles. Put your Shelfari shelf on your blog, and then send it to others to share your interests! You can join groups based on topics of interests, start discussions about your favorite genres or a specific author, and find new books.





Monday, June 21, 2010

What's a Widget?

That's a great question! In the past (pre-WWW days), a widget was a general name for a small machine or gadget. But now, the term has taken on a whole new meaning with the development of Web 2.0. In our web world, a widget is an application (actually, the code that opens up an application) that allows users to interact with information, text, images, video, audio, ... you name it. It could be a calculator, a search engine, a game, a poll, a quiz, news headlines, stock quotes, ... again, you name it. They are almost always free - but it's always a good idea to identify the source of the widget and the author if they are identified - gotta give them some props, right?

Here is your task - scan through some of the widget links below, play around with some of the widgets, and add at least three to your blog - either as a posting or as an element to your page. One widget should be something that makes your blog more productive for the user, one should be something that you can use in your school work in the future, and one should be just plain fun/cool/whatever!



Feeling crazy creative? Have a cool idea, but no widget for it? How about trying to Create Your Own Widget?

Links A Lot!

Want to put a list of your favorite links on your blog?  Blogger makes it very easy - almost idiot proof!  Go to the design mode in your dashboard and select "Add a Gadget".  You can select the list of links, and then open up a new tab to find your favorite sites on the web.  Give them a title, paste in the URL, and volia! - you have a list of links!

Posting Assignment #2 - Pose a question, get some responses!

To begin class on Wednesday, and to give people a reason to check out your blog, your next posting assignment is to pose a question that has an open-ended response. the question can be about the specific subject of your blog (Where is your dream travel destination, and why?), something general about people's favorites (movies, TV shows, bands, books, etc ...), or a reaction to a video or article. You can ask a few people in class to respond, and also send out your blog address to family and friends and see if they will leave a comment as well. Remember, Web 2.0 is about sharing ideas - a two way street!

Also, notice that you can make labels or 'tags' for you posts. These come in handy when you have multiple postings and you want to be able to organize them. Give it a try!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Embedding Video - Make you blog multimedia cool!

With YouTube, Google video, and other web based video browsers, it's pretty easy to embed video into your blog posts. Once you find the desired video, click on the "Embed" code or "Source" code, copy it, and put it into the body of a posting.  It's always a good idea to identify the basic topic of the video, as well as the resource.  In fact, you should try to get in the habit of doing that for any material you post that did not come from your own creative brain!

Check out this video - an overview of Web 2.0 from Utechtips, which provides screencasts for educators and videos from students.

Posting Assignment #1 - Blogging Safely

Web 2.0ers - Here is your first posting assignment! Take a look at this article titled Teen Guide to Safe Blogging. After you read it, create a post on your blog that identifies five (5) important facts or ideas all teens should know about blogging. An easy one to start off the day!

What's your URL?

Team Web 2.0 - Please cut and paste your blog URL into a comment for this posting!  I will post everyone's work on the class blog, so we can check out what everyone is doing and share our creativity!

Welcome to the World of Web 2.0!

So ... what's going to happen over the next two weeks?  Amazing, astounding, incredible stuff on the web!  The term "Web 2.0" became pretty popular a few years ago, and it refers to the internet in which users create content and share information instead of simply receiving information.  In this quick summer course, you will be developing online content in a variety of different platforms, sharing ideas and creativity with others, collaborating with family and friends, creating a central repository for your interests, learning about internet safety, and hopefully using tools and skills that will help you in school!  We will have new challenges and activities every day - but the fun doesn't stop at the end of the class, since you will be able to keep developing your material.  So .... let's get going!

Image from  The University of Oklahoma, available at http://www.ou.edu/mis2113_gp2504/images/web2.jpg