Saturday, 2 April 2016




PowToon is Web-based animation software that allows you to quickly and easily create animated presentations with your students by manipulating pre-created objects, imported images, provided music and user created voice-overs


Advantages:


  • Creation of account is easy, no download of software needed.
  • Has ready to use template or you can start with a blank canvas.
  • Easy to use once you get used to the drag and drop of built-in features, characters, and objects.
  • Can record audio over presentation.
  • Can add background music to the presentation.
  • Can imbed video to the presentation..


Disadvantages:


  • Some options and features are available only on upgrade.
  • Presentation can take sometime to load.
  • Unable to save an offline  version of the presentation.



How to use Powtoon:

Begin by opening a free account on powtoon's website.



Then, press create.  Then you can choose to use one of powtoon's ready made template or begin from scratch.



For this how-to, we will choose to make a presentation from scratch  Press the "go" button from start from scratch, you may choose your character and background for your presentation.



Then once, character and background are selected, you may begin typing your text.



Add slides as needed, as well as text features.



Once your slides are all prepared, you may want to add background music as well.



Try, playing your presentation and see if changes are needed  You can adjust the time for each slide making it shorter or longer based on your need.

You may also choose to embed voice recording, instead of music.



https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/eaEnbexNtBV/?mode=movie#/

Wednesday, 30 March 2016




Wordle is an online tool for creating word clouds from passages of text. The more frequently a word appears in the text, the larger it shows up in the word cloud.



Uses of Wordle in the classroom

  • Can be used teaching vocabulary.
  • Can be used as a previewing/introduction activity in all content area - KWL activity for students.
  • Can be used to review learned concept - teacher can create wordle for a lesson and have student guess the wordle.
  • Can be used to create character traits or historical figure character trait.
  • Can be used as a reflection tool.



Advantages of Using Wordle:

  • It's a free educational tool, no need to open any account.
  • Allow teachers to incorporate technology in learning text.
  • Super easy to use.
  • Has the option to customize fonts, color, layout.
  • Can be used for different activities in the classroom to create meaningful projects (as shown above)
  • Can be used to decorate room as well.


Disadvantages of Wordle:

  • Internet connection required.
  • Students can misuse wordle by using inappropriate languages so guidelines should be discussed and taught before having students use them.
  • Cannot save your wordle directly as an image



How to use wordle:

First, go to wordle.com


Then press the create button to begin process.



You may begin typing your text or you can copy and paste a text of your choice in the box.



Once text is typed or pasted, click go.






Below is my created wordle for Declaration of Independence:



Saturday, 26 March 2016



Toondoo is a comic-creating tool that allows you to create, personalize and publish your cartoons.

Toondoo  allows teachers to create a rich, creative illustrations for lessons that may be too difficult to understand textually such as science concepts.  Adding pictures or illustration will help get the attention and emotional interests of the students.  Teachers can use this also as extension projects so students can express what they learn in a more creative way.  For example, they can create story characters or make historical characters alive in their cartoons.  For students who have difficulty drawing, toondoo allows them to create a cartoon using their templates.

Advantages:

  • Has a variety of character, background and props options
  • Has DoodleR and TraitR tools that allow users to create their own drawings and characters.
  • Includes social features such as friends comments, ratings by others.



Disadvantages:

  • Takes time to render.
  • Has to be connected to the internet
  • Rights of your creation belong to Toondoo
  • Once work is shared to the public, students are vulnerable to outside comments that can be deemed inappropriate.
How to use toondoo:


  1. Go to http://www.toondoo.com/
  2. Choose Register in the top right corner to set up an account.
  3. Go to Tools > ToonDoo Maker or Book Maker (a bookmaker uses the same process as the cartoon, it just puts it in a book format with turnable pages.
  4. Select your layout.
  5. Go through the process of viewing the available characters, backgrounds, props, texts, clipart, etc. Drag your choices down into the template. 
  6. After creating your cartoon, go to the Toon Doo Start Here button and choose Save. 
  7. Create a title and tags.
  8. Choose whether you want others to be able to “Redoo
  9. Publish based on your preferences.
  10. View and share your new toon! 


Here's my toondoo:http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/9892976

Wednesday, 9 March 2016









What is Pinterest?

It’s a website that allows you to “pin” or bookmark things that you find useful, interesting and inspirational on line.  It stores all these materials and resources for you so you can access them anytime you want or need them.

Uses of Pinterest in the classroom:

  • To get inspiration on presenting lessons, decorating classrooms, fun ideas for a new project.
  • To organize ideas by creating different boards or folders within Pinterest.
  • To create a class board where students can post interesting articles, images, videos
  • To swap lessons and ideas from other teachers.
  • To get updated as far as new tech resources, innovative teaching methods and new educational products
  • To use as research boards where students can create boards for different classroom topics, assignments and pins relevant articles, images, videos or materials from Pinterest.  They can work in groups or individually.
  • To use Online bibliography – have students use a board as an online poster with pins to online contents and images.



Advantages of Pinterest
  • Very visual
  • Easy to use
  • Can easily organize your material
  • See above  for more advantages


Disadvantages of Pinterest
  • Doesn’t protect copyright
  • Can be addictive
  • Can only be accessed with internet connection
  • No Android app
  • Have some privacy issues 


How to create a board in Pinterest
  1. Sign into your Pinterest account.
  2. Click on your profile on the left side corner of the board.  You will be directed to all your pins. 
  3. Click the “Create A Board” option
  4. You will be asked to enter basic information about your board such as name, category and who can pin on this board.  Once, information is properly filled out, click the “create board”.

   5. Then begin looking for materials and start pinning


Below is the link to my pinterest board.