MY+Web2+Tool+Review

Welcome to MY Web 2.0 Tool Review Page. Here are 10+ sites that are of interest to me, and why. Or if you would like, this link will take you back Home. [Also - At the BHM Aug 2010 new teacher workshop week, Ryan gave us a list that we filled in as a class. Here it is: Look for links strewn through this list: https://docs.google.com/a/bhmschools.org/document/edit?id=1DYJRk8gWHzowfJQM054gTUtfzVbWWGwqMB3gmkyUeeE&hl=en&authkey=CPe1y4II#

Site 1: **Blabberize** Its URL : http://blabberize.com/ Age Appropriateness: 7 to 70 I think this is a good tool because it makes your pictures talk. If used successfully and appropriately, it can be fun and funny. And everybody could use a laugh while learning. In the classroom, here's how I might use it: Instruct students to take pictures or photos which represent characters out of any literary work we're interpreting together... And Make Those Characters TALK! ... in ways that would be consistent and representative of their roles in the stories we're reading.

Site 2: **Jeopardy Labs** Its URL : http://jeopardylabs.com/build/ Age Appropriateness: 14 to 74 I think this is a good tool because you don't have to register - you can just start building a game, to your own subject-matter and specifications. In the classroom, here's how I might use it: Have students review material for up-coming tests by designing Jeopardy categories out of the material, flash-card style almost.

Site 3: **SnagFilms** Its URL : www.snagfilms.com Age Appropriateness: Wo! 27 and Up... See WHY I SAY THIS below after the BUT... Wow - Check out this survey I just copied off the SnagFilms homepage: ==Researchers are starting to come up with some uncomfortable theories about how the Internet is changing our brains. These scientists believe we are becoming impatient and distracted as a result of our reliance on technology. Do you think that you could make it for three weeks without digital technology?== 57.8% Yes 30.7% No 11.5% I'm too distracted to answer.
 * I think this is a good tool because** I like free access to documentaries, BUT ...if you check out their site today, the slide show shows a Kurt Cobain close-up with his eyes showing that he is probably high out of his mind on some kind of white powder. In the next breath, you read and see names and faces like Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Courtney Love... Clearly, this is a site whose editors thrive on giving unabashed views of the Underworld Musicians who may have been brilliant but who took serious wrong turns and are now dead. This is what i would call a post-modern, cynical, sensationalized site. Better have a strong FILTER ready as a teacher or parent if you're going to let your students log on here, (Though I know, I know - many of them already ARE in their free time.)
 * In the classroom, here's how I might use it**: I would find more kosher instructional documentaries out of the Snagfilms cookie jar, and I might NOT tell my students where i got them from.
 * Our Users Said**

Site 4: **Hulu** Its URL : http://www.hulu.com Age Appropriateness: PG - 13, I would say I think this is a good tool because it allows you to access videos right from your browser, anytime, for free. With full episodes of TV shows both current and classic, full-length movies, web originals, and clips of just about everything. In the classroom, here's how I might use it: I believe in teaching through Art which honestly represents, with great performances, the values and eternal verities we may ask our students to understand and to strive for in their own lives. Hulu offers a pretty good smorgasborg of selections which will allow me to "take my students here and there," with administrator review, clearance, and approval, of course.

Site 5: **Casa Notes** Its URL : http://casanotes.4teachers.org/ Age Appropriateness: degreed Adult Teachers I think this is a good tool because it is designed to allow teachers to quickly make, and customize, typical notes that are sent home to parents or given to the students. This is done by using templates and allowing the teachers to customize some of the content. The notes can then be printed on a black-and-white or color printer to be used. Teachers can select whether the notes should be in English or in Spanish. with the parents of my students in meaningful, diverse ways.
 * In the classroom, here's how I might use it:** Obviously, to keep in touch

Site 6: **Aviary** Its URL : [] Age Appropriateness: 4 and up I think this is a good tool because it is colorful and apparently easy for students to use to craft their own audio and on-line image creations. In the classroom, here's how I might use it: Have students work individually or in groups to first explore all the different Aviary features and then to design something entertaining and educational to show the rest of class. It could be used to bring thematic assignments to life.

Site 7: **Penzu** Its URL : http://penzu.com/ Age Appropriateness: 7 and older I think this is a good tool because, as its home page claims, it is the //best online diary and personal journal in the world.// Penzu is a **free** online diary and personal journal that is ====focused on **privacy**. You can keep your thoughts and ideas to yourself and share only if you want to! And if you want [|**Ultimate Privacy**] With Penzu Pro, you can protect your most secret entries with military-grade 256-bit AES encryption.==== my students will continue to use medium-sized notebooks I bought them for 50 cents each, which offer pretty good security features -- I lock my room, and their journals are kept in a locked file cabinet when I'm not there. I just saw a film about how much cyber-eavesdropping is capable now, and done by the NSA in our government on us, its citizens, to protect us. But I digress. When my students can be provided with laptops, and this should be soon, we will decide whether to keep using pen and paper for our journalling, or switch to typed, encrypted versions, like the above-showcased tool.
 * In the classroom, here's how I might use it:** Well, at the present time and budget levels

Site 8: **ToonDoo**
Its URL : http://www.toondoo.com/ Age Appropriateness: octogenarians and up... i mean, Under! I had hoped they would share things with a little more academic merit. Well, if I let them use ToonDoo.com as an intermediary vehicle for the same assignment, maybe they'd delve into deeper subject matter, 'cause the ability to make avatars teach their choice of material on-line might be more motivating to my sluggardly students.
 * I think this is a good tool because** the world we are living in is really turning into a Cartoon anyway, right? Why not just add to it? With this tool...! Though i tried to use it and it lost my work. So, I don't like this site: Too hard to figure out how to make work.
 * In the classroom, here's how I might use it:** I tried this thing with my Seniors that I thought would be challenging, but wide open, called '**T3**.' It stood for "[your] **Turn To Teach**." <Anything you want! They did bare minimum stuff, like "How To Play Hacky-Sack."

Site 9: **VOKI**
Its URL : http://www.voki.com/ Age Appropriateness: 7 to 70 with students, to nourish their creativity, to improve their comprehension of messaging, and to motivate my students to participate more!
 * I think this is a good tool because** it's fun. Using it kind of empowers the students when they see little characters talking and they can say "I created that!" and "I gave them those words."
 * In the classroom, here's how I might use it:** To promote effective language learning, from English to (name that tongue), or vice versa. Also, to promote relationship-building

Site 10: **XTRA Normal** Its URL : http://www.xtranormal.com/ Age Appropriateness: 6 to 96
 * I think this is a good tool because** it isn't that tricky to use and the results will make you smile.
 * In the classroom, here's how I might use it**: Let students (especially ones whose body language suggests that they are less secure with a real human audience) retreat into creating an on-screen avatar. Like the XtraNormal avatar guy who invites you to do this says on their Intro Page: "Be who you really wanna be. Be You!" from experience

Site 11: An Orchard Its URL : http://www.pleasantvalleyorchard.com/ Age Appropriateness: All Ages I think this is a good tool because if you go there, and just walk among the trees, and eat some of the fruit, it will be very relaxing and nourishing to your body, mind, heart, and spirit. You'll also probably realize, as you're getting some fresh air and great exercise, that we live in a beautiful world, of wonderful design in its intricate levels of organic Nature. In contrast, the man-made technological worlds of the internet, downloadable files and simulated programs, you will realize don't come close. And they never will. Those who dwell there often become dark and 'wired.' outside, and to walk in Nature, in orchards like the Pleasant Valley one with me.
 * In the classroom, here's how I might use it:** I will invite my students to come

A Few More: **News Dots**: [|__http://__][|__slatest.slate.com/features/news_dots/default.htm__]

A Cool Power Point Presentation about "Engagement of Students" // __@https://docs.google.com/a/bhmschools.org/present/edit?id=0ATscT8qEXSr5ZGNucmdxemRfMTAxY2I3d2prZGc&hl=en__ //

Example __[|__http://www.360cities.net/image/sanaa-sunset__]__
 * 360 Cities: ** []

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