XMind - Mindmapping Tool

I downloaded and used the XMind tool to help me plan out how to structure my presentation for the Eastnet Cluster Expo and hopefully ULearn 2010.  I am sure other things will occur to me as I go through the process but I am happy to have a plan.

Fotobabble re Jacqui Sharp

Instantly ideas spring to mind for literacy for this site Fotobabble. Another great link from the Web 2.0 in Education blog which would be very useful for many things in the classroom. It is somewhere in between voicethread and vocaroo as it allows you to upload a photo but not more than one. So it appears to me that it would be useful for children to use a self-reflection tool that could be embedded into their ePortfolio. There could be a photo of their work or of them creating their piece of work combined with their thoughts - challenges, triumphs, next steps. Whereas with voicethread the teacher would also be able to comment this would not be possible with fotobabbly, however, the comments could be added via post comments in a blog etc.

I think the part that would be appealing to many of my colleagues is the ease with which the embed code can be obtained and then the fotobabble can be transferred into a class blog/ePortfolio etc which is sometimes the tricky part for people to manage.

Ideas to Inspire

I have just visited a great site Ideas to Inspire which has excellent ideas and resources for teachers plus links to other great blogs and sites. There was a link to Inspiring youtube videos to use to start discussions within your classroom with different messages. As someone who is often searching youtube for this very thing it was wonderful to find a slideshare of over 100 potential clips! I haven't had an opportunity to view them all yet. Thank you to the Ideas to Inspire blog.

Also within this site are areas: Interesting Ways to use ICT software and web 2.0 tools and Interesting Ways to use ICT hardware. I took screenshots to show the listed tools and technologies which resources are provided for:

Telescopic Text re Hey Milly

Thanks to Hey Milly for her post about Telescopic Text and how she has used this in her classroom to support her children to improve their writing by adding adjectives and choosing alternates for overused or in Hey Milly's classroom "wicked words". I remember when I was teaching Year 5/6 having a similar word wall for alternatives for 'said' which the children referred to during writing. This site demonstrates very effectively how writing can change dramatically with different phrases. The writing section of the site, where the children can write their own, is supported by Firefox, Safari or Chrome but does not support IE. There is a very helpful guide which explains what to do. It appears that you need to enter your text very thoughtfully because you can add adjectives or phrases to create more detail but you can't add new sentences.

Voicethread

Thanks to Di's Blog for this link http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/ I have worked with several colleagues this Term interested in voicethread and looking for purposeful ways to use this web 2.0 tool in their classrooms.

Thanks to voicethread for this presentation on web 2.0 tools which has some good ideas:




Thanks also to The Fischbowl blog for building on my thinking further about how to best support my colleagues with this helpful link about which tools could be used for what which is sometimes all teachers need to get their creatives ideas flowing! http://sites.google.com/site/ahslearningecology/tools

Word it out

Thanks to the Manaiakalani blog http://manaiakalani.blogspot.com/ for the tip about an alternative to wordle at http://worditout.com/ . I have been experimenting with this tool tonight and have quickly create an eLearning/ICT related word cloud. This could be a good alternative to wordle to give your children variety or if the site is blocked by watchdog/schoolzone at your school.
I haven't quite figured out how to embed yet but this is possible. I have linked with the URL and taken a screenshot for the moment: eLearning - Word cloud - WordItOut

The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book by Terry Freedman

I received an email which I read today from Belinda Johnston which contained a pdf of Web 2.0 Projects happening in schools. I was interested to see some work from Pt England School but am not surprised as I know they are doing exciting work in eLearning.
I have spent the past few hours opening links to blogs, wikis, weeblys and enjoying investigating work happening in different schools across the globe. I have tried out a few tools that I am keen to share with teachers in my school and readers of this blog.
http://eyeplorer.com/ is a very interesting tool. It is a graphical knowledge search engine which you can use without registering or else register to create your own!

I took a screenshot using Screenshot Studio of a search I did on Water which is one of the contexts for interdisciplinary learning and teaching this year:

I then registered and had a quick look at how to create:





While on youtube I found this video by Nik Peachey showing how he used EyePlorer which showed me how to use the tool in more detail!

Another neat search tool which shows results from different websites in a visual way is http://www.spezify.com/ but it mixes all media types - very effective but if using in the classroom you need to search first and check the results before sharing with the children just like http://www.wordle.net/ . I enjoyed doing a search for 'exponential' because that's a word that I think describes eLearning in education!

I re-watched a video clip I saw at ULearn in 2007 and have embedded the original that stuck in my mind at the time and which I return to, when I am thinking about whether I am doing all I can in my teaching to make the 'shift in thinking'. I discovered an updated video which is also included.

There is also a link to the video with UK statistics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNutcmyShW4

Another great online visual tool is http://www.visuwords.com/ which is a visual dictionary and thesaurus. This screenshot shows the results for exponential but also when you hover over each noun or verb an explanation, which is not shown here, appears.