The more I learn about the web tools, I have realized that there are many more out there to be explored. I was reading through `Science in plain English` and I liked the video about search engines. Often students spend a lot of time doing improper searching. I am definitely going to guide them through searches as indicated in the video.
Just listing below a few of the tools in the order of my understanding and preference.
Voice thread. Created one and I have identified where I would use it for my students. There is a component called `Theory of knowledge` for my IB Physics students which requires a lot of discussion. I am going to choose a topic, create a voice thread and invite my students to it. I am sure my students would love talking about the topic and debating at their own leisure rather than during the class hours. The short video clips in the `Voice thread` article explain precisely every feature of the Voice thread. I liked the Videodoodling feature a lot. It would be fun to have all the controls such as play and pause while running a video and being able to give a voice over simultaneously. One of the features that interests me is the comment moderator. The person who has created the thread can control whether the comments of others need to be there for everyone to hear. This naturally will be useful to edit any offensive or irrelevant comment.
Digital storytelling. Like the idea of telling stories digitally. I have to figure out a lot about it but really am interested in it. I am impressed by the following features mentioned in the article on digital story telling
- Digital stories are inherently easy to replicate and share.
- Digital stories are not constrained to text, but can make use of imagery, audio, video, and social affordances available in the medium.
- Digital storytelling can foster innovation and creativity as there are unlimited genres & forms available for expression.
File conversions.
Both are good to use. I have used Zamzar to download you tube videos.
KickYouTube: This website helps you download YouTube videos. When you find a YouTube video that you want to download, just insert the word "Kick" before YouTube in the URL (change www.youtube.com/adfasdf to www.kickyoutube.com/asfasf). This will take you to a new website. Select your file format and click download.
ZamZar: This website service converts file format types for you. The steps are very simple. You can either enter a URL or upload a file. Zamzar will e-mail you the converted file.
I have also browsed through Jing and Screencasting. I have to spend a while understanding its features and decide the best way I could use it in my classes.
TEDx was interesting but I am still not sure how I am going to use it for my class.
I would really appreciate views and advice from those of you who have used one or more of these tools in your school.
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