Web+2.0+Resources

There are many Web 2.0 tools that would be beneficial as collaborative tools for your students. More Web 2.0 tools are developed on a daily basis, so the list will grow.

[|Web 2.0 for Teachers] - provides and introduction and definitions about Web 2.0. The site also provides a large collection of Web 2.0 tools and handouts.

[|Doodle: Easy Scheduling] - a site that allows you to schedule appointments or polls easily. You can see an example of a [|scheduled event] or a [|poll]. This would be perfect for scheduling a group of people not in our District like parent groups, PTOs, Site Councils, or City or Statewide organizations or committees. Polls are automatically deleted from time to time, but no earlier than 30 days after the last date in the poll, or 30 days after the last access to a poll without dates.

[|Diigo] - a social bookmarking site similar to [|**Delicious**]. It is a great site where students and teachers can have their bookmarks on any computer any where in the world. You “tag” a web site with words you would like to use to find the site again. This is known as a **folksonomy**. The social networking aspect of Diigo is that if others have linked to one of the sites you have linked to, you can see the links they have in their account and find other items that might be useful to you. Diigo is excellent for use in the classroom because you can use many of the metacognitive strategies found in CRISS training with your students; they can highlight text on web pages and add notes and comments and when you go back to the page, they are still there and students can collaborate with peers. You can read a great article, [|Diigo the Web for Education - From Telegather to Teleplanter with Diigo], that shares ideas for using Diigo in the classroom. One of the things that makes Diigo stand out among social networking sites is that you can upgrade to an educator account for free. With the educator account, you can create student accounts and students do not need to provide an email address. Another nice feature in Diigo is that you can upload an excel spreadsheet in .csv format with student names, usernames and passwords and the accounts are created in an instant. Student accounts are placed in a private class and all of the students are considered “friends” and can share bookmarks, sticky notes and group forums automatically. Student profiles are only viewable by the teacher and other students in the group, so their exposure is limited.

[|Poll Everywhere] - a site that allows participants to use a cell phone or web browser to answer multiple choice and short answer questions. The site has a free version that allows for up to 30 people to participate in each survey. If you have more than 30 students in a class, you could have them do a think, pair, share and enter an answer for groups of two. The site shows online results and creates PowerPoint slides that embed the results. You can clear the results and close the poll at any time.

[|Wordle] is a tool for generating word clouds. This tool can have an impact in education. Students can enter text they have written or are reading and create word clouds and have discussions about the word clouds. Students can enter text from speeches and see the emphasis on words that the author chose. Here is an example from the [|2008 Presidential Elections]. Kevin Corner shares " I think Wordle has some real potential in examining text in new ways. What an awesome discussion tool to put a Wordle up before or after reading a passage."

[|**Google Docs**] - an assortment of collaborative online communication tools that students can use. Students can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations (similar to PowerPoint) and collaborate with each other in real-time right inside a web browser window. They also have Google Sites, calendar, Google Earth and so much more. The new Arizona Technology Standards were written using Google Docs; educators from around the state used Google docs to draft the initial documents and make changes. Carrie Hollman and Matt Haverty from Amphi High are using Google Docs for their [|AP Environmental Science Class.]You can view student examples for [|earth sciences] and [|life sciences] and see a sample project on [|Population Study].

[|Google Tools for the Classroom] - Google has an assortment of tools for education including Google Reader for RSS feeds, iGoogle, Google Docs, Picasa, Google Earth and so much more. These tools can be used for the majority of your collaborative work.

[|Ning] - a free online collaborative learning environment that allows for discussion forums, groups, pictures, calendar events and member pages. Peggy has created a [|Ning for the Tech Coaches]. It is a closed environment, contact her if you want to join to see what it is like. The site does have ads.

Twitter - a free online microblogging service that allows users to post messages up to 140 characters in length. Messages are known as tweets. Schools are using Twitter communicate with parents. One example is that Painted Sky Elementary is sharing information about late busses.

[|**Voice Thread**] - online tool that has made it easy for students to create digital stories on the web. VoiceThread also allows for users to comment on their work, thus making it a powerful collaborative tool. This is a great scaffolding tool for digital story telling before using programs like Photo Story and Movie Maker. VoiceThread allows the user to add pictures, voice recordings, videos and use the “doodler” tool to draw on the graphics. It also has a wonderful feature called //identities// so that teachers can create one account and within that account they can create different identities for each student in the classroom. VoiceThread is an easy to use program and they provide wonderful [|tutorials] about the program. At the tutorial link, you can learn everything from the basics of how to create a VoiceThread to setting up multiple identities. Peggy created a VoiceThread in the //Writing in the 21st Century Academy// in December called [|Small Moment] based on the process of writing a small moment narrative and using voicethread to share her story and get feedback. She also created a page in the Academy blog about the educational possibilities of VoiceThread. You should check them out at http://21stwriting.wordpress.com/voice-thread/ and come up with ideas for using VoiceThread in your classroom. This is a perfect way to engage our 21st century learners and get them to be creative while practicing their effective communication and collaboration skills. [|**Picnik**] – online/browser based program to edit pictures. You don’t even have to sign-up to use the program. Tools let you change the photos however you see fit. Under the **Create** tab you can “doodle” on the picture, change the color, etc. Some of the create options are free for use, others require a subscription. You can also save the picture. This is a perfect way for students to edit digital photos if you don't have Photoshop or the free open-source photo editing software called [|Gimp].

[|**Prezentit**] - is a tool where students can create PowerPoint type presentations. It provides a similar function to PowerPoint but does not save it in a .ppt format. It’s free; you just need to sign up. Not quite all the bells and whistles; **however,** multiple workstations can be working on the same document and even the same slide at a time. Everything stays online; nothing needs to be downloaded or saved locally (although it can be saved, if necessary as an HTML zip file. It’s presented directly off of the internet.

[|**Zamzar**] - a site that converts a variety of documents like video, music and image file types into other file types. For instance, if someone sends you a document in Microsoft Word 2007 and you don’t have Office 2007, you can have Zamzar convert it to a Microsoft Word version you can open. Or, if you have a PDF file that you want to edit in Word, you can convert a PDF file to Word. This site is useful for taking appropriate You Tube files at home and converting them to .avi files that you can use in your classroom. Always remember to follow copyright laws and obtain permission when changing format. You can see all of the file conversions Zamzar currently can make at http://www.zamzar.com/conversionTypes.php. The process is easy. You go to [|www.zamzar.com] and in Step 1 click on **Browse** and select the file you want to convert from your computer or enter the URL from the Internet. In Step 2, you select the file type you want the file converted to and in Step 3 you put your email address. You click on **Convert**. The file will be converted and an email will be sent to you with the link and you can download the file. Then you save the file, open it and use it.

[|**Clustr Maps**] - a hit counter that shows you the location of the people who are visiting your site. This has been a powerful tool for students that have posted content on the web as they like to see that people are visiting from other parts of the world. The students make the global connection for contributing meaningful work. we have a hit counter on the [|Amphi Smart Board page] and [|Laurie Burrell] has placed a clustr map and a buddy map on her page.

[|**Creative Commons**] - provides the tools for your students to license work for the 21st century.

[|**Bubbl.us -**] an online brainstorming tool.

[|SumoPaint]- a photo editing tool similar to PhotoShop. Allows students to be able to use many of the photo editing tools and features including cropping, layers, filtering, brightness, contrast and drawing tools.

[|Flowgram] - allows students and teachers to create interactive guided presentations using web sites, PowerPoint presentations, photos. Students can use the tools to highlight information and add personal narration.

[|Xtimeline] and [|Time Toast] - allows students to create a timeline and share it with others.

[|RSS A Quick Start Guide for Educators] - an article by Will Richardson about RSS feeds.