Blabberize

A fun Web 2 tool is Blabberize.

You need to register (free).

You upload your own picture to the web site and are then able to crop to use just  part of the picture if you want to.

You then place the mouth area on the graphic - you can use as many of these as you want to i.e. you can have more than one person in the graphic.

You then record the sound and your video is made. These can be embedded into the class wiki, blog etc.

Students will love making these as part of a presentation about a research project for example if students are studying about another country they could use a picture of a person from that country and then have them speaking about the food that they like to eat or something similiar. Young children could do a news topic for others to look at. 

PresentationTube

A very useful tool for educators is PresentationTube.

You need to register (free) and download a recorder to your computer (Windows).

You are then able to use the recorder to record your PowerPoint presentation. It records your animations, transitions, as well as embedded video and audio. The presenter is also able to annotate their slides which will also be part of the recording. Once you have completed this you can then upload the file ready to share it with your students or other viewers.

This video can be embedded into your online class e.g. Blackboard or Moodle or into a blog or wiki. How great for the teacher to use this as a presentation after a class so that students can go to it to reinforce their learning or the teacher could use it as an introduction to a new topic.

Students could use this tool to present their findings about a research topic.  This can be shared with a wider audience on a classroom blog.

Science web site

Have just been reading an ESchool Newsletter about a science web site for schools.

The Siemens Foundation and Discovery Education have unveiled their new web site aiming to engage students in science education. They provide videos and hands-on activities for earth, life, and physical science to help educators turn their students into aspiring scientists.

I have been looking around the site and it is great. Teachers will find many ideas for their classrooms in here.

You need to sign up to enable you to down videos for example. They obviously think that only people from the USA are going to sign up as you need to give data about your school and give the State you reside in but just ignore those bits and the sign up goes through OK.

Web 2.0 - some good videos

Another video from TeacherTube about Web 2.0. This is a great way to introduce Web 2.0 to others. Clearly illustrates and defines Web 2.



Another one I thought was great answers the question :who are our students writing for? and gives ideas for using Web 2

A useful tool for teachers

Video-get looks to be a great tool for teachers wanting to download video from the web for their classrooms:



Also from TeacherTube a video about elearning and how powerful this learning can be. A very effective video.

Wikis and blogs in the classroom

I have been working with some teachers today (in their holidays and in my weekend). They were wanting to know about using Wikis in their classrooms. I thought that maybe it might be a good idea to put a Youtube video explaining about Wikis on here.



Another useful video for teachers is this one on designing a wiki for your classroom:



And still one more on blogs in the classroom (from Teachertube)

Podcasts

Teachertube.com have a new video on planning a podcast:



This has some good ideas for students planning a podcast.

Coming of Age plus Flickr and Blogger accounts

A great new video by Terry Freedman - coming of Age





A tutorial to explain how to set up flickr and blogger accounts, and and then details how to use this tool in a classroom science project.

Blogs in plain English

Commoncraft has made a video 'Blogs in plain English'. It is fantastic what so many teachers are doing in their classrooms to enhance the children's learning and also reflecting on how/why they are doing this.