Kizoa

Kizoa is a great Web 2 tool to use in the classroom. The students can create slideshows, collage and edit graphics. This is a free tool to use. Once completed the students can save the collage for example to their hard drive (this is not part of the free membership, you need to pay a fee) or share it online through their blog (free). With the slideshows you can put in text, music, animation and other special effects, there are all sorts of possibilities to customize your slideshow! Be careful to only use the free tools and effects if you plan to share your creations.

Christchurch earthquake 22 Feb 2011 - slideshow with musichttp://www.kizoa.com

Animoto new feature

Animoto, as I have said before is a great little tool for the classroom. By putting your own photos in it makes a video for you - each one is different. It now has a new feature so that you are able to put in the text to go with the graphics.

On the home page of the site you can see a sample video. Don't forget that there is an education area where you can register. This allows you free downloads. Some of my students have made these to put into their web sites or into multimedia resources.

Classroom blogs

My students and I have been looking at examples of classroom blogs made here in New Zealand. It is great to see just how many teachers have a blog which their students are using.

This graphic (showing part of a classroom blog) was put into Motivator (create your own motivational poster online - free). Students can then save their poster to add to their blog another great Web2 tool for students to use.

Animoto

I have been playing around with Animoto to see how it works and then think how it could be used in a classroom. It is a great Web 2 tool which can be used in the classroom in any curriculum area. To use the free part of the site you first need to register. You are able to make full length (cost involved) videos or free short movies.

The short free video involves uploading 10 digital images, selecting music (the site has music available to you can upload your own) and then letting Animoto do the rest! No two videos are the same so it is possible for children to upload the same graphics and have a different video. The videos can then be seen in Animoto or you can see them in YouTube or embed into your own classroom web site (or blog etc).

This video was made using photographs taken of the children at Star of the Sea in Sumner, Christchurch, when they were having an ICT conference.

There is an educational area where teachers can go. Teachers are able to get an educational account so that they can now create longer than 30 second videos for free and download them for playing and keeping on your computer. To get this from Animoto use this link and email Rebecca for an educational registration key before you register.

Drawing program

A free graphics editor is Inkscape with has capabilities which are similar to other programs (not free). You can edit nodes or trace bitmaps for example.

Comic strip generator

A great online tool to use in the classroom (free to register and use) is the Comic strip generator.




Lots of ideas on how children could use this to enhance their learning in a fun way.