Blabberize

I had always sort of dismissed Blabberize because I teach high school - it seemed a bit childish. How silly do I feel? I think I was just looking at it the wrong way.

What if you used it to give a voice to a local politician, a historical character, or even a famous artist. Your students could present their work in a whole new way and from a totally new perspective - the first person. Imagine that you are Pablo Picasso.............

I had another little play with Blabberize and I think I could also use it as a topic specific talking avatar that gives students hints or explanations of different parts of a task or an assignment. This is a tool that could be even be used to give instructions for homework - give your students access to your explanations 24/7.

What if your art students completed a self portrait and then blabberized it to do a reflection on the process or to discuss the motivation behind their work or just to inform their audience of what they were attempting to communicate. This is a great tools to get your students to reflect on their own learning in any subject. Now I feel like I had a great resource at my disposal and hadn't been using it. Time to rectify that.

http://blabberize.com/

Photovisi - Poster Maker

One of my colleague asked the other day what Web 2.0 tools would be good for his students to use to make a poster. There are literally dozens that I could have thrown at him, but I like to offer two of three and lets the students decide which fits their own style of learning/working best.

One of the Web tools I put on the list was Photovisi. Photovisi allows you to easily create eye-catching photo collages by using your own photos stored on your computer.

You can use a variety of funky templates so that very few poster ever look the same. Once you choose one of templates you simply add as many photos the template allows.

Instructions to students are very simple: Upload the pictures, move and rotate them to modify the template and create your own collage with your own photos.

Once you'll have finished your masterpiece, Photovisi allows you to save it in many different formats and resolutions. It would be perfect to then combine this with another Web 2.0 tool and print these out using Block Poster (previewed previously) a tool that allows you to print out an image to any size.

http://www.photovisi.com

ScienceFix

Need to gets your science class to understand a concept but can't do the experiment. Do them by video.
Darren Fix the creator of the site is an experienced science teacher who has created a blog that teacher can use for lessons, science links, video demonstrations or even web projects.

Darren is passionate about science and wants to share some of the more interesting things that are going on in science that will generate interest in you class - this is an exceptionally cool site.

http://www.sciencefix.com/

VuSafe - Another Youtube Safety Tool

Now an essential online medium, video is a useful way for teachers to supplement classroom learning and engage students in content they can't access on field trips or through books alone. However, finding and sharing videos can be a challenge due to safety and compliance concerns. That's why M86 Security created VuSafe—the secure, simple way to share Internet videos.

Through VuSafe, teachers can easily manage and share approved videos and other streaming content, while safeguarding students from inappropriate advertising, comments, links and other content present on sites such as YouTube.

http://www.m86vusafe.com/

TubeChop

Only want to show 2 minute clip of a 10 minute video?  Put the YouTube URL of a video inside TubeChop, and select the part that you want.  When you're finished, you are given a link and embed code for the cropped version of the video.

http://www.tubechop.com

ViewPure

Need to show a clip from YouTube to your class but weary of all the ads, comments and other suggested videos - try ViewPure. ViewPure is a cool little web based service for YouTube users to watch YouTube videos in a clean, clutter-free environment. You can paste a Youtube video URL in the box on their homepage and click on “purify” to get the cleaner copy of the video. Not only that, you can also create your own custom URLs and even password protect a Youtube video using ViewPure. This is very useful for teacher to collect classroom resources - now you don't have to worry about where all those links might lead.

http://viewpure.com/

Google Art Project

This is the best Google Application I have seen in a long time - mind you I do teach Art. Google Art Project is a attempt to bring all the major world art galleries to you. For a teacher this makes the idea of a virtual excursion so easy. Now all we need is a central place to contribute worksheets, digital tasks and interactive activities.

Your students can now complete a virtual tour of about 20 major galleries, more to be added as they come online. I love this. Have a look at the explanation.

This opens the door to so many educational opportunities - art galleries, science museums, natural history museums, the list is endless. Congratulations to google on the starting this project.