Web 2.0 and Software Applications
eLearning Manager at Coomera Anglican College
eLearning Manager at Coomera Anglican College
Matthew Jorgensen
eLearning Support Manager
B Teach, B Ed, M Ed
| Days Road ■ Coomera ■ QLD 4209 ■ Australia PO Box 457 ■ Oxenford ■ QLD 4210 ■ Australia Ph: 07 5585 9900 ■ Fax: 07 5585 9911 mjorgensen@cac.qld.edu.au ■ www.cac.qld.edu.au |
| Disclaimer: The contents of this email and any attachments are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message, and any attachments, and advise the sender by return email. more. |
1. Cool Online Application 1
http://www.buildyourwildself.com/ enables students to create creatures using features from many different animals. They can then email the result to friends. See below for my creation:
2. Cool Online Application 2
http://www.pixlr.com/ is a great online image editor. Here’s a quick activity for Year 6 using this app. Name these Queensland politicians:
Matthew Jorgensen
eLearning Support Manager
B Teach, B Ed, M Ed
| Days Road ■ Coomera ■ QLD 4209 ■ Australia PO Box 457 ■ Oxenford ■ QLD 4210 ■ Australia Ph: 07 5585 9900 ■ Fax: 07 5585 9911 mjorgensen@cac.qld.edu.au ■ www.cac.qld.edu.au |
| Disclaimer: The contents of this email and any attachments are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message, and any attachments, and advise the sender by return email. more. |
What is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 is a term used to describe the function of the internet and internet sites where there is an emphasis on collaboration and sharing to create websites, rather than a static display that only the website owner can change. Collaborators can create, share, publish, connect and influence everybody and anybody. As you can imagine, there are some powerful applications for Web 2.0 tools in teaching and learning. The rise of Web 2.0 has facilitated the phenomenon of ‘Social Networking’ – Facebook, My Space, You Tube, Twitter and so on. There are a number of different Web 2.0 tools which can be used for educational purposes. These tools include (with links to examples):
Blogs – Short for weblogs, blogs allow a linear updating of entries in a chronological order. Students can use blogs to keep a study journal or to explain what they have learned each day. Microblogs – The same as a blog, only with less characters. Think Twitter. Students can use Twitter to share ideas in a group task through the economic use of words and use of images
Instant Messaging – Users can type text back and forward in a real time conversation. Four students working on a group task can use IM to collaborate in real time in four different locations.
Forums – After a topic is presented, forum users can add replies to the topic or new threads to go off on conversational tangents. A teacher can set a forum topic question, and each student can respond with text, images and web links Wikis – People power in action. Wiki is Hawaiian for fast , and is an encyclopedic resource in which anyone can edit the information displayed. Wikis are used in education to allow students to collaboratively develop definitions and build knowledge of different topics. RSS Feeds – Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds allow users to automatically be updated with the latest news from selected websites. Students can have RSS feeds from news providers to keep up to date with contemporary topics being covered in SOSE.
Social Bookmarks – Diigo and Delicious are the two most popular online social bookmarking sites that allow people to save their bookmarks from any computer in the world, as well as highlight and add sticky notes to webpages and share saved webpages. An awesome study and research tool for students, who can locate, annotate and share valuable information from anywhere in the world.
Etherpad – So good that it was bought by Google, Etherpad allows for 2 or more people to be adding text to an online page at the same time from different computers. Students can work collaboratively to build research content ubiquitously.
Tags – Key words that are applied to content and used to search for information. Think Google search. Generating effective tags for describing and searching websites and documents is a great skill for students to possess. Tagclouds can be generated from the text of websites to show the most commonly used terms.
Matthew Jorgensen
eLearning Support Manager
B Teach, B Ed, M Ed
| Days Road ■ Coomera ■ QLD 4209 ■ Australia PO Box 457 ■ Oxenford ■ QLD 4210 ■ Australia Ph: 07 5585 9900 ■ Fax: 07 5585 9911 mjorgensen@cac.qld.edu.au ■ www.cac.qld.edu.au |
| Disclaimer: The contents of this email and any attachments are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message, and any attachments, and advise the sender by return email. more. |
From: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/11-free-mind-mapping-applications-web-services.html
Mind mapping is a way of taking notes, capturing ideas, exploring concepts and breaking down information into a more readily understood format. It’s a place where visual representations and written representations of things merge to create something that is more natural to the mind; it works with and represents the way we think, where as paragraph-based text is not representative of the thought process at all.
There are a million and one uses for mind mapping. You can use it to study for a big exam. You can use it brainstorm new article ideas, or flesh out what needs to be covered in the business plan for a new venture. You can organize a big move of house; heck, I’ve seen people use the mind map format for their daily to-do lists (each to their own, eh?).
There are huge advantages to creating your mind maps with paper and pen. In fact, though I’ve tried many different mind mapping programs over the years, pen and paper remains my favorite way of creating them. Some would say that it is a part of the process. That said, there are distinct advantages in using software and sometimes you need to decide what the best tool for the job is on a case by case basis. For when that time comes, here are 11 free mind mapping applications and web services.
Freemind is one of the most popular free mind mapping applications out there, and that’s mainly because it’s in Java and thus cross-platform (and because it’s a great app, of course). This software implements some of the major features that digital task lists have over paper task lists: retractable and expandable branches and hyperlinking between different branches make it easier to organize and easier to connect ideas.
bubble.us is a free web-based mind mapping application. You can sign up for an account in order to save your mind maps, but better still, they don’t force you to get an account to start creating. The interface could use some work to make it a truly usable application.
Semantik is a KDE Linux application for creating mind maps, though they can be viewed in different formats, such as a linear tree view with retractable and expandable branches.
MindMeister is another web app with varying account options; there’s a free account, and several commercial options. It has a fairly nice design and interface in comparison with many other mind mapping web apps that are available.
RecallPlus is commercial software with a lighter free edition. It combines the process of mind mapping with flash card memorization techniques, and is aimed at students who wish to take notes and then test themselves using them. RecallPlus is a Windows application.
Mindomo is another mind mapping web app with both a free account option and a commercial one. It allows you to share your mind maps with others, and also embed them into your web pages.
Mind42 is a totally free mind mapping web app and it is one of my favorites. The interface is a good one, and it has some excellent features such as easy navigation for large mind maps with zoom and birdview (and branch hiding, but that’s pretty standard these days), and the ability to attach notes and images to branches, which isn’t always allowed in “pure” mind mapping software. You can also link branches to other sites and see a preview when you rollover the link, which I think is probably the only appropriate use of those preview rollovers anywhere on the net.
Labyrinth is a very simple and basic mind mapping application for Linux and Windows.
Vym (View Your Mind) is an application for Mac OS X and various Linux distributions. There seems to be a Windows port, but it is accompanied by bug reports.
WiseMapping is another web app for mind mapping which requires no browser plug-ins at all, which is fantastic when you don’t know which computers you’ll be using in a given day. You can share, export and publish your mind maps from the app and there is no commercial account option; everything is free and unlimited.
PersonalBrain is a cross-platform application. It’s a commercial application, but a lighter free edition is on offer. I thought the integration of a calendar with events that you can add was a particularly cool addition and means you can brainstorm in not just the conceptual realm but cross over into the earlier stages of planning as well.
Mind mapping is one of those areas where it has always been hard to find a good native OS X application. It always surprises me when I find more Linux options than OS X options! I tend to go for the web apps, but Freemind in particular is good for any user on any popular platform. If I were to suggest one particular web app, I’d suggest Mind42. While I’ve used the Windows and Linux apps before, I can’t give a strong recommendation as I’ve not used any for the long-term.
Matthew Jorgensen
eLearning Support Manager
B Teach, B Ed, M Ed
| Days Road ■ Coomera ■ QLD 4209 ■ Australia PO Box 457 ■ Oxenford ■ QLD 4210 ■ Australia Ph: 07 5585 9900 ■ Fax: 07 5585 9911 mjorgensen@cac.qld.edu.au ■ www.cac.qld.edu.au |
| Disclaimer: The contents of this email and any attachments are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message, and any attachments, and advise the sender by return email. more. |
Pics4Learning is a safe, free image library for education. Teachers and students can use the copyright-friendly photos and images for classrooms, multimedia projects, web sites, videos, portfolios, or any other project in an educational setting.
Matthew Jorgensen
eLearning Support Manager
B Teach, B Ed, M Ed
| Days Road ■ Coomera ■ QLD 4209 ■ Australia PO Box 457 ■ Oxenford ■ QLD 4210 ■ Australia Ph: 07 5585 9900 ■ Fax: 07 5585 9911 mjorgensen@cac.qld.edu.au ■ www.cac.qld.edu.au |
| Disclaimer: The contents of this email and any attachments are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message, and any attachments, and advise the sender by return email. more. |
You can use Storyboard That for planning narratives, movie scripts, comic creation and information posters.
For School – A Fun and Creative Way for Students to Learn
| Collaborative | Reinforcement | Exciting and Fun |
| Storyboard That presents a great opportunity for students to work together. When creating a storyboard, students can discuss what they want their story to say, how to structure it and what imagery to use. After they create them , students are excited to share their storyboards with friends and get feedback. | Storyboard That provides an excellent place for students to echo what they have learned and expand on it.
| Storytelling is fun. Creating a story in Storyboard That is exciting. Students love the experience of rapidly creating a storyboard that looks good and tells a story from their point of view. |
Thanks,
Matthew
Matthew Jorgensen
eLearning Support Manager
B Teach, B Ed, M Ed
| Days Road ■ Coomera ■ QLD 4209 ■ Australia PO Box 457 ■ Oxenford ■ QLD 4210 ■ Australia Ph: 07 5585 9900 ■ Fax: 07 5585 9911 mjorgensen@cac.qld.edu.au ■ www.cac.qld.edu.au |
| Disclaimer: The contents of this email and any attachments are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message, and any attachments, and advise the sender by return email. more. |
Dear teachers,
Game-Up is an educational game component of our current BrainPop Subscription. After logging into BrainPop (cacpop / elearn4209), students can play games to reinforce concepts. Choose from 240 prep to 3 games and 50 Years 4 to 12 games.
So, instead of students wasting time playing ‘Cool Math’ games that don’t actually have any educational value, they can reinforce the concepts you are teaching via ‘Game Up’.
Thanks,
Matthew
Matthew Jorgensen
eLearning Support Manager
B Teach, B Ed, M Ed
| Days Road ■ Coomera ■ QLD 4209 ■ Australia PO Box 457 ■ Oxenford ■ QLD 4210 ■ Australia Ph: 07 5585 9900 ■ Fax: 07 5585 9911 mjorgensen@cac.qld.edu.au ■ www.cac.qld.edu.au |
| Disclaimer: The contents of this email and any attachments are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message, and any attachments, and advise the sender by return email. more. |
Comic Creators are great for :
· Creating a narrative
· Story boarding
· Creating RaVE examples and stories with morals
· Engaging younger students with tasks that require minimal text
· Illustrating class rules
· Reinterpreting stories
The list below is extensive and tried and tested. I have explored most of them in the past and used a few in class. Creating Avatars is another great way to engage students and to get them to create a digital identity. Click to go to the site.
Matthew Jorgensen
eLearning Support Manager
B Teach, B Ed, M Ed
| Days Road ■ Coomera ■ QLD 4209 ■ Australia PO Box 457 ■ Oxenford ■ QLD 4210 ■ Australia Ph: 07 5585 9900 ■ Fax: 07 5585 9911 mjorgensen@cac.qld.edu.au ■ www.cac.qld.edu.au |
| Disclaimer: The contents of this email and any attachments are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message, and any attachments, and advise the sender by return email. more. |