Hi, have we met? I'm Amy, and I love FREE stuff, especially if it's digital and therefore does not have to be stored in one of my overstuffed built in 1960 closets. Lately I've been noticing an amazing number of online photo editing tools that are quite special, no $ and no skills required.
My first love is http://fotoflexer.com/. With this cool tool, you can make not that great photos look like works of art . . . see?
You'll have to trust me that the original wasn't nearly that great because I'm not publishing it. Period. FotoFlexor also lets you add sparkly text, stickers, and try out hundreds (thousands?, millions?) of different frames and effect combos.
Personally, I have a love for all things vintage that rivals my love of all things free. That is what led me to http://www.rollip.com/. Rollip respectfully requests mula for high quality images, but frankly my dear, the ones they show me on the screen are just fine. Check out this cool effect . . . It looks like it could have been taken way back when I was little, but these are my own kids, and this was taken last week. Here's a comparison: And these are not the only two sites available, of course there a bajillion more. Here are some of the best I know of. If you're using one YOU adore, please comment with the web address.
http://www.picnik.com/ http://pixlr.com/ (Check out the Filter section) For completely free AND high quality effects, try the Poladroid Project. You drag and drop your photo onto the landing pad (that camera below is floating on my desktop), then watch your old time Polaroid develop. That's pretty SWEET! Neat little sound effects AND you get the nifty white edge (with texture). Coolio.
I'm adding an after the fact addition to this list that should NOT be ignored due to the new features they've recently added. Drumroll please . . . it's good old BEFUNKY.com. With hundreds of easy to apply effects and a not very obtrusive logo in the corner as the only drawback to the free account, Be Funky is an easy and versatile way to go. Multiple applications of each effect and settings within those. Cool!
BeFunky also provides the Uvatar maker you see on other sites. So far, I can't see a way to get to it independent of another service (ex, Facebook), but the Bebo site looks like the easiest/least obtrusive to access, and if you want to make cool pictures like this, you'll sign up for an account.
Next time there's a not so great photo taken of you or yours (Christmas dinner?), remember these cool, free sites and make yourself look as lovely as you are on the INside.
The latest and greatest Web 2.0 tool, in my humble opinion, is probably not what you'd expect, but please . . . at least read the first paragraph before you dedide this tool will not help you teach school this year!
It's Floorplanner.com. And no, that's not the end of the first paragraph. Keep reading. Floorplanner (as was pointed out to me by a Mrs. Hutchins---thanks Vickie) is FAR more than just a really REALLY nifty eat-your-weekend tool for planning your decorating or remodeling project (which it is, BTW), it's a fantastic way to learn just about any math concept. The lesson plan Vickie shared with me included students creating a house with a given number of square feet (say 2000) that would get four people separate bedrooms and included certain amenities like bathrooms, a kitchen, a family room, a place to eat, etc. The house also had to have certain characteristics, say a circular entryway. (Pies are squared anyone?--Yes, that's a joke. Don't email me about it.)
If you're a language arts teacher, you probably have already stopped reading, but just in case you still are, here's the language arts aspect: Create a house, then advertise and sell it. You'll obviously need to do screen shots so people can see the looks of this incredible creation! There are SO MANY more things you can do with this. In my classroom, I enjoyed what I called the "Practical Research Project." This is where instead of writing about an academic topic, students actually researched how to do something, then wrote a research paper with the review of research that also included pictures and descriptions of a real project. Actual projects included retiling a kitchen, redecorating a bedroom, building a kit car and, one of my favorites though a little scary, building and finding the best propellant for a potato gun. (True story. Wayne Fishback wrote it like a CIA document including "Eyes Only" notifications. He's in the military now!)
So back to the topic. Floorplanner.com is an incredible tool. My own experience with it goes as follows: I wanted to redecorate the front rooms of our house, which due to poor design and decor were rarely used. I THOUGHT (silly me, lived here 6 years) that I knew the rough dimensions of said rooms, so I logged right in to Floorplanner and proceeded drawing some rectangualr boxes. See below:
However, I noticed that something was amiss. There was indeed not as much room on this wall or that as my drawing showed. What was up? I took out my handy tape measure and started measuring walls and openings. Low and behold (yes, I feel stupid), my rooms actually look like this:
After many, many hours of planning my IKEA shopping foray, placing furniture, checking the website for the EXACT measurements of EVERYTHING (I'm not a very "exact measurement" type normally, but this tool inspired me), I finally developed a design that looked like this:
(Many furniture stores give exact measurements of furniture on their sites, OR, you can just use the built in furniture pieces in the software, which are fairly average sized.) And then, maybe the coolest thing of all happend. I clicked the 3D button in the top right, and got a really TRULY amazing view from all angles and THROUGH MY OWN WINDOWS. OH MY GOSH! If I could have found anyone who cared, I would have called them to tell them about it!!! Look how COOL!
Free online screencasting tool So, just in case you are not able to drive by my actual house and get the REAL view, BUT you still really care and want to know how it turned out, here is the (I think) astonishingly accurate result of my many hours of learning about measurements using Floorplanner.com:
Here's my first foray into Prezi. I don't see an embed code option on the site, and I'd like to. Perhaps soon! But never mind that, there's so much there to be happy about, I hardly noticed.
Once again, my colleague Jill Malpass showed me this free Web 2.0 tool that is KILLER for education. It MIGHT be the most amazing thing I've seen this year. Jill made the comment that it was not easy to learn to use, and I agree in part. There are no text-based on-screen directions, though there appears to be a lot of tutorial info, which I ignored. I like to learn by doing, so I dove right in. Once I let go of the expectation that words were going to pop up and tell me what to do, I found the controls to be intuitive and even smart. I think students (Digital Natives) will have a MUCH easier time learning to use this tool than Digital Immigrants. Here's a screencast showing the basics of how to use it as well as what it does for the rest of us:
I'm guessing I don't need to tell you how this is educationally relevant, but just in case you want to hear it anyway, here are some things I'm thinking of . . .
1. Organizing thoughts on any topic. History? Not all events fit into a timeline, but even if they do, you can show that using this tool. What about connected events? Music from the time period? Put it in. Make it logical. Show how it "goes." Literature? How do two authors/works relate to each other? You can make two or more areas in your infinitely large presentation space, then show connections among elements both by how you connect the elements, how you place them, and how you use the arrows/connectors. AMAZING possibilities for making thoughts visible. (Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkess anyone?)
2. Use this tool instead of a linear presentation tool (like PowerPoint--please, NOT PowerPoint! At least use Google Presentations or OpenOffice 3 if you just need some download & installation action in your life), to connect different subject areas. For example, if you're a science teacher studying the water cycle, students should make connections between that topic and the current drought we're experiencing (at least in my neck 'o the woods), and how does the water cycle relate to a hurricane? We've had a couple of those lately! Check that link up yonder to see what it looked like around my abode after Ike.
3. I bet you've seen Visual Thesaurus(lots of $) and Visuwords (free, but use my link or make your own, don't use the default or you may get a not so nice word). What if students made their own vocabulary maps like the ones found on those sites but with personal connections? They could even insert their own links, drawings, and music. They could show how their words relate to each other. What if I were trying to learn the word "obnoxious" or "noxious"? I could define them in my own words, but then I could also put in that I think Bart Simpson is "obnoxious," and that my Grandma's perfume smells "noxious" (no offense Grandma; it doesn't). In addition, I could add pictures that connect my own personal ideas. It might take Digital Immigrants 3 hours to do one word, but give your 3rd graders a shot. They'll pick it up MUCH faster than you or me and be adding each word in minutes.
I have about a million more ideas, but I'm guessing you're not still reading this. By now, you're probably playing with Prezi.
After reading some of Marc Prensky'scontroversial and thought-provoking work, I created the quiz below for a staff development session. The questions are there twice, yet the statements are reversed to show how shift happens and so that it can be used as a discussion tool.
Enjoy finding out if you are a Digital Native, a Digital Immigrant, . . . or somewhere in between! (I also heard the term "Digital Refugee" last week. It feels useful, though perhaps is a tad demeaning, especially if used to the face of such a one.)
This quiz is not to make you "feel bad" about your 'hometown' (as some persons doggedly insist), but it is important for us to remember that kids these days may not be from our locale. It's something to think about while you're filing those emails you've been printing, if, that is, you're able to do more than one thing at a time.
I can't take credit for this idea, teacher Amina Bradford told me about it right after Mother's Day this year, and one of her colleagues thought of it: Use Wordle to create (or have your kids create) a "Beautiful Word Cloud". . . this time, about Dad. (Example for my Dad.) Put the word "Dad" in twice to make it the biggest. Download the image, then send it in to a photo printing service to have it professionally printed, pop it in a frame, and there you go! Unforgettable father's day present! Amina's friend did this for Mother's day and her students came up with words like "loud, squishy, and hungry." How awesome is that?
Use a tool like Glogster or Scrapblog to make a photo collage/book of you and your Dad. Fun! When you finish, download the image, or if you can't get it like you want it, blow it up so that you can see the whole thing on your computer screen, then hit the print screen (prt sc, maybe fn>prtsc on a laptop), then open your photo editing program (I like PhotoFiltre--free and amazing), and hit Edit Paste. Size/edit your image for sending off for professional printing or print on your color printer.
If you're REALLY getting into this idea, you could make a cartoon of your Dad using ToonDoo. How about showing an important event you remember or creating a little cartoon you with your little cartoon Dad and let your character say all those gushy things you might not say in person?
If you're doing this project with kids who can't write yet, try SumoPaint to let even the littlest ones draw Dad, or if you have a bonafide artist in the house, see what they can do with the amazing advanced tools SumoPaint offers. If you want to keep it simple, photograph your kids' drawings with your digital camera, then add them to your Dad Book or get them framed. You can use PhotoFiltre (again, it's free) to crop and intensify the color saturation to make them really pop.
You can make a whole book for your dad yourself or use a service like Lulu.com (start today) to have your book professionally printed.
Of course, Dad would love some text thrown in there too. Find some great quotes about amazing Dads. Add some of the lyrics of his favorite song in that Scrapblog or Glogster, or if you're going to turn all this great stuff into a video using Animoto, put that song in the background. And here's the English teacher coming out: Have your kids (or yourself) write a formula poem. They are surprisingly moving. Just make up a rule, then follow it, for example, every line starts with
Dad, Did you know that . . . ? and the poem will be called "Dad, Did you know?" Trust me, people will cry, probably including you when you write it or read it.
If you feel the need to give your Dad something more traditionally "Dad like" for father's day, how about making "The World's Smallest Toolbox" for him? I don't really know if a Dad would like this, but I WANT ONE!
We call ours eyeCamD; you can call yours BETTER and CHEAPER! Stop paying $400, $500 or more for document cameras right now. Using a few supplies from your local hardware store, you can use a high quality webcam as a document camera with TONS more functionality.
-Logitech 9000 webcam (8 mega pixels, the Avervision CP150 is 3.2 mega pixels) -PVC pipe (we used 1/2") -PVC elbow -3 layers of 1/2" MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard-kind of like particleboard but heavier) glued together to form a heavy base -You can use velcro to affix the camera to the camera arm if needed or you can cut a slot for the bottom "leg" of the camera to go through. -If you're into appearances, you can use black plastic paint to paint the PVC parts. -If you're going to paint the base, coat it with a glue/water mixture first to seal the MDF or else you will use a whole can of paint on one base. No kidding. We did it.
In our district, shop students are making bases for our campuses. It's a great lesson for them and we're getting a really superior document camera as well as saving $16,500 for EACH of three new campuses that would have had Avervision document cameras!
I needed to conduct an iPhone training a month or so ago, and I could NOT get my Avervision 150 document camera to display on the computer so that I could show the phone to the audience. I finally gave up and as a last resort, hung my Logitech 9000 web cam over the arm of the $400+ document camera and connected to the web cam.
EUREKA!
eyeCamD was born. I asked my husband to use his significant woodworking skills to create the perfect stand for the camera, and 10 prototypes or so later, we had the eyeCamD. We're hoping to start selling the stand soon. Just think what we can do with it:
-Use Skype/ooVoo to video conference with experts, teachers, students, and fun folks from all over the world. -Record lessons for absent students. -Record your lessons so that when YOU'RE absent, your students can watch you do the explaining. All the substitute teacher will have to do is press "play." -Show beautiful full-screen images at 8 mega pixels using your LCD projector while you read books or do science experiments. (If you buy it, I'll show you how ;-) -Do everything you usually do with your document camera and a whole lot more for a fraction of the cost.
The only similar thing I can find so far is the Hue, but since it's only 1.3 mega pixels, don't waste the money to buy it. You won't be able to see the image clearly enough to use it in the classroom. Maybe Hue will make an 8 mega pixel model. I hope they do, but in the meantime, we'll be busy making eyeCamD!
Below you'll see an embedded VoiceThread (made by an educator named Michelle) that shows some educational uses of the tool. Look at some of the slides by clicking the arrow on the bottom right. Michell talks on the first one and shows other ways to comment on some of the other pages. (Find out how to get VoiceThread for FREE at the end of this post. No scrolling ahead!)
I'm pretty sure you've been hearing as much as I have about differentiating instruction and evaluation as I have. We should be hearing about it . . . we should have been doing it all along, so it's certainly high time to talk about it. However, what I see is that most evaluation is done the same old way, through fairly (if not completely) typical testing techniques. Many a scantron (or relative thereof) is still used and many a blank filled in. But, if we're as serious about differentiation as we SAY we are, then we've got to do more than just try to teach in ways that reach more students, we've also got to evaluate in ways that allow more students to show us what they've learned. If you wonder if this is important, find most any nearby 7 year old (or 17 year old) and ask them to write a paragraph for you about a topic they've been learning about in school and are at least somewhat interested in. Next, ask them to talk to you about that topic. Be prepared to stay a while. The paragraph will be done in a flash and will likely not inspire you, but what you will hear when they speak will be an entirely different experience. My own 12 year old 7th grader got fired up telling me how barbed wire changed the West the other night until I thought we were going to have to muzzle her. So, the reason VoiceThread could inspire ESPECIALLY kids who need it the most is that kids who are traditionally not the schoolgirl/schoolboy type are usually better (profoundly better) at expressing themselves with their voices than they are at writing. Won't it be great to give them a chance to show what they've learned using their own voice? And anyway, if you're not testing for the purpose of developing traditional test-taking skills (and please PLEASE tell me you're not), wouldn't it be a perfectly fine way to show you've learned to talk about a topic, show pictures about it, and annotate it? Sure! Why not? I challenge you to offer Voice Thread as a product next time you ask your students to display their learning. I guarantee you that 98% of your students will choose Voice Thread over an essay or traditional test, and that you will have a lot more fun hearing about barbed wire than reading essay numbers 1-99. So will you give it a try and let me know how it goes?
VoiceThread is free for anyone, though if you have extra money just lying around, you can pay to get more features (I can't tell why though---the free version is amazing!). If you teach young children or are worried about Internet safety, simply make their threads private. Learn more about VoiceThread here. To register for a VoiceThread account, click this link, then click "Apply" at the bottom of the "Free Educator" column.
At first glance, Wordle feels cute. It IS cute and a little game-like, but months ago, Assistant Princiapal Angela Griffith showed me why it is a powerful educational tool. Since then, I've seen so many knowledgeable teachers use it in so many effective ways that I feel the need to share the glories of Wordle.
When you "Wordle" your text, the more times a word is used, the bigger it appears in the final product, so the largest words have the highest frequency. If you want to know what your résumé really says about you, Wordle it. You may find out you've said you "coordinate" when what you really want is to "lead." If you want your students to see what their writing is really about, have them do the same. Jessica Powell, 7th grade language arts teacher, had her students Wordle their non-fiction essays about the AIDS epidemic in Africa with similarly revealing results.
First grade teacher Jean Curran tells me Wordle leads to "more writing." She says, "My students want to write more words when we use Wordle so that they can see them appear." If you haven't done much observing 7 year olds write, this might not seem significant, but ask a teacher of this age group how much it matters, and they'll tell you just getting kids to write is of utmost importance. It's the practice of forming words and making sentences that leads to fluency in writing. By the way, that remains true of any age group.
Today, second grade teacher Peggy Gusler introduced me to yet another use of Wordle. Her students watched a science video and while they viewed the film, they typed the key words into Wordle. The creative spelling of 2nd graders is very cute, but the products also show the kids were paying attention and noticing which words were important; again, an important skill at any age.
Finally, Wordle turns student writing into a sort of shape poem. I know this is very English-teachery of me, but I can't help waxing a little teary-eyed at this story from my colleage Jessica Powell. She is a huge Moodle fan, and she often has her students embed their Wordles into discussion forums on Moodle. Not long ago right after she lost her grandpa, she was reading along and noticed a Wordle that was posted privately, just for "Coach P.," as her students call her. One of her students had created a Wordle about her mother's recent death. She could see that Coach P. had been grieving, and she wanted to share the feelings of loss she was also experiencing. Jessica said she cried viewing the student's work because it was such a heart-rending poem, unsolicited, unexpected, totally personal, and completely touching.
Wordle Options to Try: -Change the maximum words of longer pieces to, say 25, and see what is REALLY important. Only the top 25 most important words will show. (Layout>Maximum Words) -Turn off the default option under "Language" to ignore the most common words (the, and, a, etc.) and see if you've used the word "their," for example, more than any other. -Choose a custom color palette that reflects the theme of your topic. Students can show that they understand how the mood of their work can be reflected by color choices. -Keep words or names together by inserting this character instead of a space: ~ , for example Google~Docs, Thomas~Jefferson. Thanks for the tip Ms. Goodney! Though I can't believe you kept it from me all this time! Check it: - Instead of pasting in or typing your own words, paste the URL of a web site (with a feed, like this one) about the topic of study. This box is right below the "Create" area here. Create the Wordle, then see if it summarizes the topic accurately. If not, were your perceptions off about the topic or is the site not that great? -Use the option under "Language" to show word counts and see just how many times you really did use each of those words.
If you've found more ways to use Wordle educationally (and I know you have!), please post a comment below and tell us!
UPDATE: A Real Glog made by a REAL CISD student is embedded below. The features are really amazing.
Glogster allows your students to create free, protected digital posters. This tool blows my mind! I know, I know, I always say that, but I've looked for a Web 2.0 desktop publishing tool since I knew what Web 2.0 was, and this one ROCKS. It's extremely easy to use, and also very versatile. Check out this sample (a Glog embedded in a Wiki). Click the play button in the top right. Hover over the Gloster.com link in the top right and View Full Size. WOW!
Thanks Kelly McNamee, The Woodlands High School for this find.
Check out a real Glog below . . . . Right click here to get the full effect and see the video play.
Many well-meaning educators have a long-held belief that we must "teach technology" (learn to use Excel by following this 9 week course outline) as opposed to integrating technology (work with your team to create a Wiki about the causes of the Civil War). To understand the difference, let us unearth an old argument with our beloved high-school English teachers. . . . Mrs. Grammar says, "Students, you must be able to identify the parts of speech and diagram sentences before you can understand the English language and write an essay! We will concentrate on these skills, and eventually, you will be able to write a good and correct essay." Imagine Mrs. Grammar's students are in 11th grade, theTAKS* test is looming, they wonder,
"If I stick with my diagramming in Mrs. Grammar's class, will I be able to make a 2 on the essay, pass the test, and graduate from high school?" Mrs. Grammar is insistent. Diagram! Noun, adjective, verb!
Nine grueling weeks later, students are minimally competent at identifying basic parts of speech and diagramming very simple sentences. Her administrative evaluator suggests, kindly, that perhaps she should have the students try to actually write an essay. She acquiesces and has them write. It's terrible. She sees "he don't like . . .," "her and me are . . ," and even the dreaded preposition ending a sentence error is in nearly every example. Did the students learn nothing?
Actually, the answer is "yes," they learned nothing . . . about writing an essay because the two activities (parts of speech and diagramming & essay composition) do not relate to each other. Mounds of research prove this, but Mrs. Grammar will probably never be convinced, even if 30 years of experience should have proved it 30 times. After all, she believes, this is how SHE learned it. Whether you agree with her or with me, as a practical-minded and open-minded educator yourself, you probably know that what makes essays better is writing lots of essays of all kinds and reading other people's essays, and then writing more essays yourself.
Along the same line of thought, well-meaning educators everywhere insist that discrete, program-related technology skills must be taught if students are to gain competence. "Students must know how to use Excel," the voices insist. How can they function in a business world that uses Excel without experience using Excel?
The answer is similar to the one we offer Mrs. Grammar. If 17 year old 11th grade students cannot identify a noun, yet they speak their native language (English) and write in a way all can understand (though perhaps incorrectly), the practical-minded teacher realizes she, at this juncture, must work with what she's got. Students who can write essays have just got to get writing right away.
When we meet students who use their skills as digital natives and operate computers in ways their teachers perhaps cannot understand, we must not hold them back from doing the equivalent of diving in to write that proverbial essay. Our students are not just essayists in the realm of technology, we have 8 year old Tolstoys . . . full-fledged novelists of the digital world. If they are not already, given the merest opportunity, they will soon be. To ask our tiny Tolstoy tots, our digital natives, to learn to click the mouse this way then that "all together now!" or learn to use this specific program or that, is even more tragic and less useful than asking our 17 year old essayists to spend their junior year in English learning to identify nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Please help your fellow educators understand that . . .
We must not keep students from reaching their potential as digital natives because we do not speak their language.
(From urenglishteacher who never enjoyed math much . . . )
See them on the EDGES of their seats?
This student is waiting to see which country her next competitor will be from.
Today we had the privilege of visiting Mary Ellen Bryant's 4th grade class at Bush Elementary; however, her students were so enthralled by what they were doing, they didn't even notice we were there. Was it geography? Was it social studies? Was it math? Was it a game? It was ALL of the above! World Math Day allows students to compete with other classes/schools/kids all over the world. Mary Ellen said it was EXTREMELY easy to set up and it is completely free. She anticipated the students would play for 30 minutes and then be ready to move on, but over an hour later, their excitement was still spilling over. The contest is appropriate for students aged 5-18. I saw some students doing difficult multiplication and some doing addition. From the site: "The students play against each other in mental arithmetic games. Students are captivated by the fact that they are playing in real time. Each game lasts for 60 seconds, students can play as many games as they wish. The questions are appropriately leveled for different ages and abilities. . . ."
Thanks Mr. Tooke from Wilkerson Intermediate for sharing this great find: An interactive map with the front pages of newspapers from around the world. See how it works here: http://screencast.com/t/aMBc446Q It's a fast and interactive way to get a cultural view on what makes news where.
Credit for this find must go to Dustin Hornsby who told me about this MONTHS ago. I looked at it and thought "yeah, that is cool," but it wasn't until today when I used it on the big screen with a Mimio* that I FULLY appreciated exactly how COOL Cooliris is. Check out the search engine that "Transforms your browser into a lightning fast, cinematic way to discover the Web."
*What's a Mimio? It's a device that turns any surface into an interactive area when used with a computer and LCD projector. It eliminates the need for bulky, expensive interactive boards like Smart, Numonics, or Promethean (all great products, but who has the $ or space?)
I've spent a lot of time trying to find a program/web 2.0 tool like Photo Story that will work on my Vista OS computer. There are hundreds of great web 2.0 slideshow tools out there, but none of them I've found so far have ALL the elements I love so much about Photo Story 3 for some purposes. So, here's how you can make it work. Enjoy!
You'll have to trust me that the original wasn't nearly that great because I'm not publishing it. Period. FotoFlexor also lets you add sparkly text, stickers, and try out hundreds (thousands?, millions?) of different frames and effect combos.
It looks like it could have been taken way back when I was little, but these are my own kids, and this was taken last week. Here's a comparison:
And these are not the only two sites available, of course there a bajillion more. Here are some of the best I know of. If you're using one YOU adore, please comment with the web address.
http://pixlr.com/ (Check out the Filter section)
For completely free AND high quality effects, try the Poladroid Project. You drag and drop your photo onto the landing pad (that camera below is floating on my desktop), then watch your old time Polaroid develop. That's pretty SWEET! Neat little sound effects AND you get the nifty white edge (with texture). Coolio.
BeFunky also provides the Uvatar maker you see on other sites. So far, I can't see a way to get to it independent of another service (ex, Facebook), but the Bebo site looks like the easiest/least obtrusive to access, and if you want to make cool pictures like this, you'll sign up for an account.
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