Tool #5: Producing with Web 2.0 Tools

Now, we're talking. This is the kind of techy thing I LOVE! You can probably tell I had a difficult time stopping!  So much fun! This kind of thing is right up my alley. I tried a bunch of them (and spent way too much time playing ), and some of my favorites were Comic Strip Generator, Dumpr, and Wordle. Text to Picture also offers endless possibilities as does Big Huge Labs, which I love.  I'm thinking of using some of these graphic image sites to do a theatre project on publicity posters, etc. I've used Wordl for posters in my classroom, and I've even made rather evil word banks for students to use on vocabulary tests. WordSift is more left-brainish, so not as appealing to me, however I can see students making use of the suggested links.

"Because I said so!"

Glogster is a fun site, and students love photo manipulation, so this is a very useful alternative to traditional posters. Yes, students need to be a bit more organized to turn in their posters online, but most students are capable of using this technology. Some students may still prefer to use printed projects from Glogster on traditional poster board to create a kind of collage effect which can be very cool. 


Animoto is cool, but it reminds me of Windows Movie Maker but with fewer options. Windows Movie Maker allows you to create videos of any length with more ways to manipulate pictures and music. Animoto could be a nice alternative to Power Points for student presentations. Another cool presentation tool for students is Prezi.  I've seen my own kids use this for school projects, and it's a perfect fit for Social Studies and English classes, maybe even for Science presentations.  Check out my Animoto movie at the bottom of this post. I could spend all day doing this kind of thing.

"Rocky Mountain High"