My one minute message on tikatok.com:
Sunday, April 25, 2010
BP1_2010403_DiscoveringWeb2.0Tools (tikatok.com)
This week I looked at the Web 2.0 tool, tikatok.com.
Tikatok is a tool to make simple children's books on the web. The children can upload scans of their own pictures and drawings to be used to illustrate the books. There are story templates with a basic storyline and place for pictures to be added or you can design a storybook from scratch using your own story and pictures.
This looks to be a great tool for education as children can take their artwork and stories and have them printed in a softcover or hardcover book. This takes art in the classroom into Web 2.0. Along with individual registration, teachers can sign up for a master account with the ability to have all their students book projects in one place. This would make a great project for students to participate and a great way for budding artists and writers to get their work published in a professionally printed book.
To test out the service I needed images so I broke out my colored pencils (thought Crayons might melt in my scanner!) and did some artwork for a storybook template called Land of the Dinosaurs, an adventure story of a young boy (I was one once) and his mom traveling the globe on adventures. Though we never encountered dinosaurs as a preschooler my mom did drag me all over Southern California on day trips, most notably our many trips to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA and I believe we also went to the famous Farmer's Market at 3rd and Fairfax in Los Angeles. As I said before no dinosaurs encounters in my real life, but man there are some scary looking ones in my Tikatok storybook!
So I colored 3 pictures that I scanned to my Mac and then uploaded to the Tikatok site. I chose a title for the book, put in my name and my mom's name and then began adding the pictures and some text and oila in just a few minutes the wonderful adventure story below is available to the world. Being that I can't post a real book that I won't get for a week or so, below is the preview PDF of my exciting story.
For those who want a Web 2.0 spin for their art or story writing classes or if you are a teacher that would like to make your own book go to http://www.tikatok.com.
Land of Dinosaurs Book
Sunday, April 18, 2010
BP1_2010402_Web2.0Tools-Vimeo
When it comes to places to post videos online there are many to choose.
This week I want to look at a video hosting site and Web 2.0 tool that is a vital part of my
work at the online graduate school that I produce educational videos.
This site is Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com). Vimeo may not be the first video hosting tool,
but I have found it to be one of the best for video quality (1st major service with HD video
uploading), ways to upload videos (weboage, standalone Vimeo app for PC and Mac and ability to use
other tools like tubemogul.com or pixelpipe.com.
I use Vimeo each month for posting a monthly video program that is streamed live to donors and
other supporters of the school. This is a way to give a special time of learning and interaction with
Dr. Stuart Dauermann, the Senior Scholar of the institute. It is streamed live on the internet using
uStream.tv's watershed service and I record to SD card on my video camera for posting to Vimeo.
Vimeo has a Vimeo Plus paid service ($60 per year) that allows the user to make videos only able to
be played on certain sites via embed, which we use this for a secure website that requires signing in,
which allows those who missed the live broadcast to login to the website archive and view the
archived videos. This makes the content available as a premium for supporters and donors.
Vimeo is a great tool, quick uploads, high quality video plays and with the Vimeo Plus plan alot of
extra features for video producers.
This is a great tool and one that I use regularly.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
BP4_2010401_Web2.0
One of the interesting Web 2.0 tools that I came across was from the listing on the EMDT blog (http://www.fsoblogs.com/emdtms).
It is a site called xtraNormal (http://www.xtranormal.com/).
It is an avatar animation site where you can use their online software or download a Windows program (Mac users will need to use online software or purchase a program like Parallels, that I use that allows for Windows to run as a "virtual machine" on a Mac).
This is an interesting looking tool for making quick animated videos for the classroom and also just for fun, which is refreshing being that education and fun are usually separate pursuits.
They have added recently a set of Presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Clinton, Bush, Obama) that can be brought to life in animated videos. This can be used to make videos on historical figures, history lessons and can help to bring to life these historical characters in a familiar web graphics format and animation that students are familiar with already. It can also be used by the students to demonstrate their knowledge of what they have learned in history class and use their creative talents to tell a story of American history.
Below is a link to a sample video of the Presidents in action that I made with the online program. It is a fictional talk between President Obama and President Bush in the White House:
In just a few minutes I was able to add dialogue for the Presidents and add in
animations for the short movie. The online software features Obama and Bush,
with the Windows program you can access other Presidents and features.
When completed you can have it "film" your video and then it can be displayed
on their site or sent to youtube or even downloaded to your computer.
This is a fascinating Web 2.0 tool that I look to use in the future.
This is a fascinating Web 2.0 tool that I look to use in the future.
BP3_2010401_GoogleReader
- Photo from picapp.com, a stock photo service for bloggers where I have an account.
1. Seth Godin's blog - Seth is widely recognized as the top voice on how the internet technologies are used in marketing and promotion. As a Social Media Specialist for my school, I am following his guidance on using technology and looking forward to his introducing of new web tools.
2. Second Life Discussions on Classroom 2.0 - I am researching how Second Life can be used in education and this discussion board focuses on how other teachers are using Second Life in their schools.
3. Chris Brogan - He focuses on new technologies and their use in Social Media.
4. John Haydon - John Haydon is a guru on using Social Media (Facebook, twitter, YouTube) in promoting and fundraising for nonprofits, of which my school is a nonprofit, so his ideas are very useful and informative.
5. Beth's Blog - This is a blog about using Social Media and Social Networks for nonprofit organizations, with practical tips presented daily.
6. Mac Community on Classroom 2.0 - I am also following the Mac community on Classroom 2.0, as a Mac user and promoter of Apple products I am keeping up with how teachers are using Mac hardware and software in their classrooms.
7. Listening Post - I have also setup a "listening post", a Google News and Google Blogsearch feed of any references to my school in blogposts and online articles to keep up with what is being said online about the school and to measure our influence on the web.
BP2_2010401_BlogsinEducation
Blogs serve as a central piece in the delivery of classes at MJTI, the online graduate school for which I work as Social Media Specialist. MJTI uses Typepad as their blog hosting company. Through the class blogs the professors deliver reading lists for students, audio class lectures/podcasts on the current readings, written assignments to be completed and returned to the professor via email, weekly questions and class discussions based on student questions and the professor’s answers and other communication to students is delivered via the class blog.
Below is a screenshot of a sample class blog page:
It is in this use that the blog becomes MJTI’s Course Management System. It is in using this blogging tool that courses are offered to the students. This takes the weblog or “online journal” to a new level and uses Web 2.0 technology in an educational context.
Beyond using a blog as a Course Management System where the teacher’s use of a blog to deliver content to the students another great idea for blogs in education is in encouraging the students themselves to have their own blogs.
Encourage your students to keep blogs a well. This can be a classroom or an individual project. Blogging
will help your students to express themselves and to practice valuable computer, keyboarding, writing,
spelling, and grammatical skills. Teach them how to upload photos from a digital camera if possible.
(Blogs in Education, n.d.)
Blogs can serve as a transmitter of educational material and serve as a Course Mangement System and it can also be a way for students to teach themselves and learn new skills by blogging on their own.
Blogs can serve many roles in the educational process and these are just two of what can be many ways that blogs can be used in education.
References
Adultlearn.com (n.d.). Blogs in Education. Retrieved April 3, 2010 from: http://www.adultlearn.com/blogs-education.html
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)