Voki in action!

Voki Ever wanted to create a simple voice over for your online class? Voki lets you record your own messages using your own voice or one of several accents built into the program through text-to-speech. You can also create your own avatar to resemble yourself or one of many other characters from their diverse library. This is like a podcast with a live avatar. Voki recently added a sister website built just for educational applications. This new website includes actual lesson plans built with incorporation of Vokis. 20 Reasons to Use Voki in Education http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/voki-creates-ad-free-site-for-education-plus-20-ways-to-use-talking-avatars/ Here are some of my favorites: 1. Classroom newsletter: Make a daily or weekly newsletter for students and also remember that Vokis can be imbedded in many 2. Student show and tell for books 3. Speech debate 4. Course announcements 5. Use as a test instruction reader 6. Vocabulary pronunciation for English or foreign languages 7. Powerpoint presentations 8. Story telling

Diigo in action!

Diigo stands for "Digest of internet information groups and other stuff." This is an organizer's dream tool. Organize, store, and collect just about any type of media including audio, video, bookmarks, notes, and much more. So how does this help with teaching? Diigo provides a free, efficient, effective and reliable way to save and organise your favourite websites, online articles, blog posts, images and other media found online. Diigo provides a lists feature that allows you to share carefully selected bookmarked websites with your students. Diigo has tools that encourage students to collaborate with others to analyse, critique and evaluate websites. Diigo provides opportunities for students to apply higher level thinking skills while researching and gathering information. Diigo allows you to gain access to the ‘collective intelligence’ of the internet. Diigo allows you to develop your own professional learning network (PLN). Diigo provides a forum for teachers and students to discuss areas of share interest, or a particular online website or resource using the ‘topics’ function within groups. Use Diigo to provide visual access to websites you have collected using the built in program ‘webslides’ Use Diigo’s advanced tools to link its power to blogs and RSS. Lists of similar websites that you have created can easily be posted onto a blog by using the ‘post to blog’ button. Use Diigo tools to enhance professional reading and save time creating summaries of online posts. Access your information from any computer, or even your iPhone or iPad! Uses provided by http://resourcelinkbce.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/12-reasons-teachers-should-use-diigo/

Twitscoop in action!

Twitterscoop For those of us who like to always be in the loop through twitter, try twitscoop. This site lets you view live twits in a streaming format. You can customize how the feed is viewed such as a simple stream or word cloud (to display the most commonly twitted words) Never miss the buzz Watch the trends live on the cloud, tweet from your account. Twitpic images on the fly Preview Twitpic images directly from Twitscoop. Track bit.ly stats Check bit.ly stats in real-time. Multi-tab search and graphs Background search your favorite topics and enjoy the live refresh. Never reload your page Don't bother reloading your page, updates are automatic. Follow stocks Stay on top of the latest financial trends with our real-time charts. Combine the power of traditional twitter for education with a easy to read interface using twitscoop

Here is a quick intro video on SmartLabs by creativelearningsystems.com

Today we will be talking about SmartLabs. Have you ever wondered what the next century classroom would look like? Well here is a great example. Smart labs are designed for the exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics or in short STEM, In other words STEM is the acronym for learning digital media arts and other academic topics through applied technology. Smart labs are turn-key classroom systems that include all the necessary equipment for student-centered learning environments. They include the hardware, software, scientific and media equipment, hands-on constructions kits, and even flexible furniture systems. In smart labs, technology is fully integrated into core learning in eight subject areas including: 1. Mechanics and Structures 2.computer graphics 3. science and data aquisition 4. publishing and multimedia 5. alternative and renewable energy 6. robotics and control technology 7. circuitry and finally 8. computer simulation Skills learned for the 21st century include critical thinking & problem solving, collaboration and communication, project planning and resource management, information and media literacy, and self direction and adaptability. Smartlabs also has the ability to help instructors personalize the needs of varying student academic levels. Results have shown that students using smartlabs show improvements in standardized tests because students are engaged, challenged, and fully immersed in core subject learning. To learn more please visit creativelearningsystems.com.

A quick intro on StoryBird.    

I came across this website for creating visual storytelling. Although there is no verbal narration, StoryBird.com allows a story teller to illustrate the emotion and visual stimulus of story telling for a variety of genres. The easy design layout allows you to be the author, artist, and book designer. I think this is a great tool for not just teachers but also parents or aspiring children's book writers.