Group3

=**Link to Group 3 Design Blueprint**= = = =**Group 3 Wiki (Madeleine, Casey, Kristi, Lori, and Mary)**=

//Prezi - [|http://www.prezi.com]//
Prezi is a cloud-based tool for creating presentations that go beyond PowerPoint. Instead of slides, Prezi uses a “canvas” – one large picture – that the presenter moves around, zooming in, panning out, flipping around. It is visually much more interesting than PowerPoint, and allows for a lot more creativity in presentations. Registration is required but there is no fee. It allows you to add URL links, video, audio, etc. It can be made public and shared with anyone. This can be used in virtually any class presentation – because of its “map-like” setup, I think it would best be used in a geography assignment. I was thinking about an assignment on U.S. geography, where students are studying the resources of a particular state. The canvas could literally be a map of the state, overlaid with photographs and text about the resources of a region. The students could get creative in how they move the canvas around for their presentation – they could even potentially use images from Google Earth to focus on specific regions in the state.

__Why We Decided on Prezi:__ Maddy: I thought that Prezi was a great tool because it's so visually appealing. There are so many applications of a presentation tool as well - from middle and high school all the way through higher education. Mary: I have seen presentations on Youtube and elsewhere and wondered, "How did they do that? What software did that?" Little did I know if was free in the cloud at least for the basic user! Prezi is cool and it's what kids are used to seeing. I think it would be neat to work on basic PowerPoint presentations then "kick them up a notch" via Prezi and have students observe the differences in the two styles- linear versus non-linear. Kristi: As a faithful PowerPoint user I think that Prezi is a great alternative for students when it comes to creating presentations. It provides some extra zing that I think high schoolers will appreciate. It might seem overwhelming to us, but I think students will pick it up quickly. Casey: This was a tool I was going to post myself, but Lori beat me to it. Prezi is a great interactive presentation tool that will engage students with visuals and text. It can be used in the classroom by either the teacher or the students. Students can create Prezi presentations themselves to showcase their learning of a topic. If students can create something to present an idea or topic, then they are showing their learning. Teachers can use Prezi as a presentation tool, similar to PowerPoint presentations, but more lively and interactive.

//Screencast - O - Matic - []//
Screencast-O-Matic is a free Web tool that creates "one-click screen capture recordings". You can record your voice OR video (via webcam) along with your mouse movements on your computer screen. This tool is very user-friendly and runs on both Windows and Mac platforms. I see multiple uses for this tool in any classroom. Teachers can use it to create tutorials for their students or even for their peers. This could be particularly useful for students who have missed class. In the case of a flipped classroom, this could be used to preview new topics before they are covered in class. Students could use Screencast-O-Matic to demonstrate/record their knowledge of certain skills or facts. They could use it to record themselves working in a computer program. They could narrorate their findings to Webquests or any Internet work for class. Screencasts could be used as alternative assessments to written tests. This may require some guidelines (i.e. number of attempts at recording) and work better for some subject areas.

__Why We Decided on Screencast-O-Matic:__ Maddy: Again, there are so many different applications for a tool like this. Especially in distance education programs, it allows the instructor to record movements and the student to see and understand those movements asynchronously. Great, too, for homework assignments, etc., where the instructor isn't physically with the students - you don't have to spend class time showing students how to use it or worry that they'll forget how to do something by the time they get home! Mary: From podcasting to screencasting! Researching, reading and learning on your own is one thing, but if you must teach it to someone else, that is a whole new level of understanding and remembering. Podcasting is a great tool in and of itself. Making audio presentations along with a screenshot truly brings a demonstration to life. I have explored Jing for making video tutorials for my students, but how wonderful to have them make tutorials for each other! Casey: Students becoming experts and teaching other students is a great learning technique for both the expert and the learning. Screencasting is a way for students to showcase their skills. Screencasting also can be a great as a study aide, students can access the screencast library to study for exams and quizzes. Keeping a library could also assist teachers in reflecting about their lessons, which ones worked and which did not.

Here are my 5 tools - I tried to choose tools that were not currently listed on the tools page. Enjoy! - Lori :-)

Prezi: [|http://www.prezi.com]

Prezi is an online presentation tool similar to PowerPoint. It is more powerful than a PowerPoint in its ‘zooming’ layout. It allows you to add URL links, video, audio, etc. It can be made public and shared with anyone. The next time you have to present I recommend this powerful little tool. You could use Prezi in your classroom as a replacement for traditional PowerPoints or Overhead transparencies. Students could use this tool to present on a topic of their choice to the class. Registration is required but there is no fee. SideVibe: []

SideVibe is a tool I discovered recently that allows you to eliminate your paper handouts when doing an online lesson. You can create ‘vibes’ or floating windows that provide the student all of the information they need to complete the assignment completely online. This is a useful tool for those who have a lot of online content. This would be perfect for non-traditional webquests or any online lesson that required the student to follow a set of directions to complete. Registration is necessary – and there is a download (plugin) for your browser – but everything is free. Lino: []

Easy to post, see, and peel off stickies! You can arrange your pictures and notes as you like on your canvas and share them with your friends! By creating a group, lino becomes an ideal tool to share your ideas with your friends and colleagues. It could be implemented in a classroom setting to share photos, links, or just text. Students could create an online poster for others to view and comment.

Skribblar: []

Multi-user whiteboard, live audio, image collaboration, text-chat and more! Features include: Real-time multi-user whiteboard, Image upload and download, Text chat with userlist, Crystal-clear live audio, No user or session limits. This is one of the best online whiteboards available. This tool could be used in place of the Interactive Whiteboard hanging in your classroom. All students could collaborate in real-time with each other.

Mixbook

[|http://www.mixbook.com]

Mixbook allows you to create online books using photos and text. More than one student can collaborate on a book. When complete, you can have the books published and printed. Students could create books on almost any topic. You could also create class books using this tool. This could be a great way to share field trip information and pictures. This site is free – but you will need to create an account.


 * Here are five tools that I found . Hope you find them useful! Kristi **

Screencast-O-Matic [] This was the Web 2.0 tool that was recommended to me by Melissa Day (Podcast Interview). She had nothing but good things to say about it and when I tried it out—Wow! I can see multiple applications for this tool. It is free, requires no login and/or account setup, and it very user-friendly. It allows you to record your movements on your screen along with your voice in any program. I think I could use Screencast-O-Matic to record classroom demonstrations and then post them to my classroom wiki. This would be useful for student who were absent or had trouble understanding the new concept. I could also see having my students record screencasts demonstrating their knowledge of certain skills in Microsoft. This would be an excellent alternative assessment tool!

Google Voice [] This was another Web 2.0 tool that was recommended to me by Melissa Day. She said she knew of a Spanish teacher who used this in his classroom. He registered a phone number through Google Voice that was used only for his classroom. He would record a question (in Spanish) as the voicemail message and then the students called in and answered the question (in Spanish). I thought this would be a good thing to use in my classroom. I could have the students call in and answer review questions. I could have them call in and leave comments on what they like and don’t like about class. I like the idea of them doing this from home so they don’t have the pressure of doing it in front of their peers and/or teacher.

Bubbl.us [] I found bubbl.us when looking on Pinterest for Web 2.0 tools. It is an online brainstorming/mindmapping tool. You can print your diagram or export it as an image. It is very easy to use and has a good help section. I think I would use this to brainstorm ideas in class, especially on my SMART Board. That would make it extra interactive! The students could also use this to help map main concepts of a chapter and then export the map as an image to their blog or wiki.

The Readability Test Tool [] I found this Web 2.0 tool by mistake. But what a happy mistake! This Web site allows you to check the reading level of any Web site. I think this would be extremely helpful to teachers in the lower levels. This way you can check and see if the sites will be easily comprehended by your students. As far as how I could use it in high school—pretty much the same way. I occasionally find articles on business and/or technology for my students to read and I could use this to make sure it isn’t too difficult.

Readability [] This is the Web 2.0 tool I was looking for when I accidently found the one listed above. I found this particular tool when I was taking a class on teaching to diverse learners. When reading Web pages or articles online, it takes away all the extras and gives you a simplified version. This tool would be useful to those students who need help focusing when reading. No extra ads or bells and whistles to distract the readers. I use this personally all the time. It also has a convenient link that sends articles to a Kindle or other reading device. I plan on using this in my classroom and installing it on all the computers.

Here are my links!! - Casey

1. Glogster - [|www.glogster.com] or [|www.glogster.com/edu] for education packages

Glogster is similar to blogging, only it is a more free-form poster format. Videos and Photos can be added easily to a student's glog. Students can use the glogs to create visual presentations with interactive links. The presentations can be part of an oral presentation or a display as part of a science fair or other fair project. Students can also use it as a webquest. Either the teacher can create a Glog about a particular subject and the students use the glog to learn about the topic or the students can create the webquest for other students to follow. (Free for regular users, Different packages for teachers and schools to allow student interaction and collaboration on glogs.)

2. Smilebox - [|www.smilebox.com]

Smilebox uses the user's photos, music, and graphics to create slideshows and scrapbooks. The Smilebox creation is shareable through several sources, such as facebook, blogs, and possibly wikis. Students could take photos of certain places, events, or steps of a process. They can create their own slideshow to take someone on a virtual field trip or create a how-to video. Students could also use royalty-free images from the Internet to create a digital storytelling project. Smilebox is free for users and also has a free iPhone app available for any districts embracing BYOD (Bring your own device).

3. Animoto - [|www.animoto.com] or [|www.animoto.com/education] for educators

Animoto is a different type of slideshow/video program. Animoto takes can of some really cool transitions and music incorporation so students (and teachers) can focus on the content of the video and not on the extras that make the video neat to watch, but still creates a cool video. Teachers can use animoto videos to introduce topics. Free accounts provide access to an unlimited amount of 30 second videos you can create. It can be used as and introduction or wrap-up for any discussion or topic. Students can also use the animoto programs to create their own videos. They can use animoto to summarize a story or math chapter in 30 seconds. (Packages available for longer videos for a yearly fee.)

4. Popplet - [|www.popplet.com]

Popplet is a tool similar to Google Drive (google docs tools). It has the ability to create concept maps that incorporate videos, photos, and drawings. Collaborative tool where students can contribute in real time to the map. Students can create concept maps to brainstorm ideas for a project. Popplet allows them to work together in real-time and see other student's edits while they are working. Students can also use it as a study aide they complete while they are learning the lessons. They can add to their map and have unlimited space. The finished map can be used to study for a chapter or unit test. (Also has a $5 iPad app)

5. Today's Meet - [|www.todaysmeet.com]

I mentioned this one in a previous post. Today's Meet is like a private Twitter account. Anyone with the Room site can log in to post comments about anything! Super simple to use and NO SIGN UPS!! This can be used as a "Backchannel" tool in classrooms. It can be used during a discussion where one group is discusses a topic and a second group comments using the Today's Meet room. It can also be used during a lecture where students can comment if they don't understand something or if they have an AHA! moment during class.

Here are my tools and descriptions - Maddy

1. **Prezi** – www.prezi.com Prezi is a cloud-based tool for creating presentations that go beyond PowerPoint. Instead of slides, Prezi uses a “canvas” – one large picture – that the presenter moves around, zooming in, panning out, flipping around. It is visually much more interesting than PowerPoint, and allows for a lot more creativity in presentations. This can be used in virtually any class presentation – because of its “map-like” setup, I think it would best be used in a geography assignment. I was thinking about an assignment on U.S. geography, where students are studying the resources of a particular state. The canvas could literally be a map of the state, overlaid with photographs and text about the resources of a region. The students could get creative in how they move the canvas around for their presentation – they could even potentially use images from Google Earth to focus on specific regions in the state.

2. **Animoto** – [|www.animoto.com] Another presentation tool, Animoto creates videos out of photos, video clips, and music. Best of all, Animoto can pull photos from a deal of other Web 2.0 tools – Flickr, Picasa, Instagram – for use in the videos. The students can choose the music and order of the photographs, and create a video that aligns with their creative vision. I picture this being used in a photography class – I know that that’s cliché, but I think it’s the best use of the tool. I would develop an assignment where students had to use photography that tells a story without words, only using their photographs and the music to set the tone for the video/story. I see this being successful, because part of being an artist and a great photographer means being able to show more than just a picture – you can capture emotion, the setting, etc. I would probably put a limit on the amount of photos, and have the students also write a short essay about what they are trying to say in the story to have for comparison, to see if they were able to achieve their desired effect.

3. **Poll Everywhere** – [|www.polleverywhere.com] Poll Everywhere is a tool that allows people to submit responses or votes via their cell phones (or the web or Twitter, but I’m going to focus on cell phones for the purpose of this assignment). By sending a text message to a special number with a voting keyword, participants log their answers or votes, which can then be accessed by the moderator. Plus, polls are free for audiences of 40 or less, which I would assume is smaller than most classes. I would use this tool in the classroom setting – most students have cell phones, and those who didn’t could participate on a laptop or iPad at the school. This could be incorporated into a quiz game, maybe to review before a test, where the students are broken up into teams and receive points based on their answers to the questions – this way, every student gets to participate in every question, as well. I would probably also upgrade to a paid plan ($15/month, which could be beneficial for a large school district), which allows you to run reports on each learner – this would allow you to see which students needed help in specific areas.

4. **Kubbu** – [|www.kubbu.com] Kubbu is a tool that allows a teacher to create a free account for themselves and 30 learners, where the teacher creates games, quizzes, and/or crossword puzzles. The site is user-friendly in that the activities are programmed already (and not shoddily designed, I might add) – all the teacher needs to do is input the information in the format that they choose, and the students participate, and the teacher can keep track of their progress and results in the site. In addition, teachers can share the activities that they have made in a searchable directory, broken into categories by subject. This tool would be a helpful addition to reading comprehension in an English class. Instead of hoping that the students read the assigned chapters in a book, or spending classtime on pop quizzes, the teacher can assign a reading and a game or crossword puzzle pertaining to the reading on Kubbu. The site is user-friendly and colorful, and would hopefully motivate students to complete their assignment if there is a game to complete.

5. **DecideAlready** – [|www.decidealready.com] DecideAlready is a collaborative site that allows members to pose a question, propose answers, then share them with others. The other people can propose their own answers, vote, and collaborate to make decisions about topics. I chose this because I think it would be a great way for students to collaborate through discussing and debating issues either in small groups or as a class. The free option allows 50 free questions/invitations to participants per month, which is more than enough. This tool would be helpful, for example, in a situation like this assignment, actually. If a small group is challenged to come up with a list of options as individuals, then come together to vote on the best options, DecideAlready would be a helpful tool to help the group make this decision. The site offers three options – simple, where each person gets one vote; ranked, where participants rank the answers in order of their individual preference, and advanced, where participants use sliders to rate potential answers based on criteria that can be ranked by the moderator. In our case, I would say ranking would be the most effective tool – each member puts their top choices, then the computer figures out which answer “wins.”


 * Mary’s Top Five “Conservative” Collaborative Tools:**

1. Kidblog [|http://www.kidblog.org]

I have been searching for collaborative tools for elementary and middle school students that are safe and useable without email addresses. Let’s say, conservative! Kidblog seems to be a good fit! This is a free re source that has no advertising. After the teacher sets up the account, the students may select their login from a list of names in the class. So there is no creation of names by students. This source reminded me of Today’s Meet. You can add multiple classes. The dashboard is very simple and set-up took literally minutes! I want to keep exploring this and think it is a good starter tool for my district. It looks as though students can access a class blog as well as create their own blogs. I practiced with this tool and noticed that it was private in that you needed to be able to login to read the blog. I think this has great possibilities. I created a practice blog here: [] and you can login as any student using the password rwkrwk

2. Today’s Meet [] I second the “emotion” for Today’s Meet, a free Twitter-like service. It again requires no email address. It would be great for older students to have real-time commenting and provides access to “the back channel.” As with all tools like this guidelines for use must be clearly thought out. Students create their own usernames, for example, and even this need accountability. If nothing else, this tool would provide a forum for discussing pros and cons of Internet safety and etiquette. My students need to learn more about thoughtful commenting and positive support of others. I am viewing this as something useful for grade 8 at my school. It could be used when the teacher is presenting a topic and students comment. The comments can be collected by the teacher and used as food for discussion the following class. It could also be used for feedback when giving tech inservice to fellow teachers.

3. Socrative [|http://www.socrative.com] This is a student response system that has a lot of uses in the classroom and can be used on different devices, so that it could enable “Bring Your Own Device.” (BYOD) In my school it would work on our laptops and without email addresses. The teacher creates a “room” and there is a student login. The teacher is able to present questions and invite realtime responses from the students. Many uses for this free service! You can use it to create instant quizes in multiple choice, true/false, short answer, etc. So the possibilities are endless. This would be a great way to keep kids focused and to review.

4. Superteachertools [|http://superteachertools.com] Although not intended necessarily a collaborative tool, I used this site this year in a way that my students were able to work together in class to create questions and answers to Jeopardy flashgames that I inputted for them online. Therefore, the teacher screened their research and writing. Here are the two games my students created, with a little help from me. In the future I would like to open this up more for them to do the actual game creation themselves. This year I had them do the research, collaborating in the old way. They worked offline with paper and pencil and then we transferred this to word docs housed on our school server. This of course would be better in a Wiki or GoogleDoc, but as we have been saying, we need to implement technology in “baby steps.” The students witnessed some of my inputting of their work, which I was able to project for them to see. They were very excited to see their work online and then play the games! A good start! Here is a link to this year’ projects: []

5. Podomatic [] Podomatic is a free service for posting podcasts. Although at this time I would not be able to have students access this directly, I will be seeking permission this fall to pursue posting of classroom made podcasts through this service. Podomatic is easy to use. Students collaborate in the classroom setting in groups or pairs. Writing together and recording can be arranged in a variety of ways. Again, this could be expanded to use of a Wiki or Google Docs in the future, but in my case for now we are keeping it simple as far as permissions go, and keeping all interactions “in house.” As we gain support, podcasts can be posted to Podomatic by the teacher. An example of a podcast that I made as a demo is here: []

Prezi: [|http://www.prezi.com] Prezi is an online presentation tool similar to PowerPoint. It is more powerful than a PowerPoint in its ‘zooming’ layout. It allows you to add URL links, video, audio, etc. It can be made public and shared with anyone. The next time you have to present I recommend this powerful little tool. You could use Prezi in your classroom as a replacement for traditional PowerPoints or Overhead transparencies. Students could use this tool to present on a topic of their choice to the class. Registration is required but there is no fee. SideVibe: [] SideVibe is a tool I discovered recently that allows you to eliminate your paper handouts when doing an online lesson. You can create ‘vibes’ or floating windows that provide the student all of the information they need to complete the assignment completely online. This is a useful tool for those who have a lot of online content. This would be perfect for non-traditional webquests or any online lesson that required the student to follow a set of directions to complete. Registration is necessary – and there is a download (plugin) for your browser – but everything is free. Lino: [] Easy to post, see, and peel off stickies! You can arrange your pictures and notes as you like on your canvas and share them with your friends! By creating a group, lino becomes an ideal tool to share your ideas with your friends and colleagues. It could be implemented in a classroom setting to share photos, links, or just text. Students could create an online poster for others to view and comment. Skribblar: [] Multi-user whiteboard, live audio, image collaboration, text-chat and more! Features include: Real-time multi-user whiteboard, Image upload and download, Text chat with userlist, Crystal-clear live audio, No user or session limits. This is one of the best online whiteboards available. This tool could be used in place of the Interactive Whiteboard hanging in your classroom. All students could collaborate in real-time with each other.

Mixbook [|http://www.mixbook.com] Mixbook allows you to create online books using photos and text. More than one student can collaborate on a book. When complete, you can have the books published and printed. Students could create books on almost any topic. You could also create class books using this tool. This could be a great way to share field trip information and pictures. This site is free – but you will need