Dvolver Moviemaker

A fun little web 2 tool is Dvolver Moviemaker where the user creates a small movie in the matter of minutes.

The user selects a background and a sky, then selecting characters, adding the conversation (comic book balloons), music and titles. You are then able to email the link to others.

This could be used to teach about direct speech with English grammar as well as many other ways.

I did make a movie and used the embed html to add to this web site and although it shows in the editing view it does not come up quickly in the published view so I deleted it.

Embed Plus

I wrote earlier in the year about Embed Plus (check my previous post to find out about how this tool can be used).

This site is now very popular with educators as can be imagined.

They have now got an area where they have an example of how their tool might be used in a classroom or with students. The first example is a dictionary which will be great for ESOL teachers (pronouncing words) where students can find how to pronounce words and use the word in context. This will also interest other teachers to give them some ideas of how they might use it.

You can also go the link page to get the html code to use in your own web site.

Using Classroom Tools

On the Classroom Tools web site (which has so many great things for teachers) was a video showing some children using the web site to reinforce their learning about fractions.




The children are working in groups and are showing obvious excitement about their learning - isn't that we all strive to do - enhance their learning and make it fun. You will find other videos on their web site to help you using some of their tools in your classroom.

I have used Embed Plus to just show a small snippet of the video on this blog post (another great tool for teachers.

Christmas

One of my favourite web sites at this time of year is Portable North Pole.

You put in the information about your child (or a child that you know) and a Christmas video is made. They are just beautiful. Santa talks to the child about them in a video (you can also upload your own graphics of your child which are used in the video.

Last year my sister did one for a family member. She was Skyping them when the child opened the video. Children just love this one, try it and see...

Happy Christmas

The Tate Movie Project

The Tate Movie Project is a great Web 2 site for schools.

The project is for schools in the UK however there is no reason why other children cannot use the site. I set up an account to check it out. You design your avatar and then visit the studio where you become involved with making the movie. As you complete each step you get an award.

In this site the children design characters, write their story and make the storyboard. They use animation and sound in their movies. I can see this site being a great hit with children and would really motivate reluctant writers.

Creaza

Another great Web 2 tool for the classroom is Creaza. This site has several different parts to it requiring one login.

Mindomo: With this tool you can make mindmaps for visual learning, developing creativity and problem solving. You can organise and present your ideas visually.

Cartoonist: with this tool you can create your own cartoons. You can use their professional backgrounds, characters, props, images and text. You can also create title cards, speech balloons, thought balloons, or scream balloons. You can also combine all this with your own images.

MovieEditor: MovieEditor is an online video editor to create movies, complete with professional-looking titles, transitions, effects, animation, music, and narration. It is a timeline-based video editor, similar to traditional desktop-based video editing tools. The difference - MovieEditor is web-based and a web browser with Adobe Flash gives you instant access! You can export the result to your favourite media player, or directly to YouTube or Facebook.

AudioEditor: AudioEditor is an online audio editor for recording, slicing, and mixing audio. It is useful if you want to publish the finished sound clip as a podcast.

This tool follows established conventions for sound editing, allowing you to place sound files along a timeline, across several channels.

You can also record sound and add it as a track on top of your final edit.