Blabberize

Blabberize is a site that allows users to upload a picture and make it talk.

The process to sign up takes about two seconds, no e-mail verification is needed. After you log in, you will be taken to your own page. You will have nothing in your page the first time you visit. To create a product select “make” at the top of the page. You will be asked to upload a photo.

The next step is to position and shape the mouth onto your photo. This is the part that will move as if the mouth opens and closes with the voice you record later on. Simply reposition the dots by clicking and dragging them into position.

Next you will be asked to add a recording. You can talk into the microphone on your computer, add an audio file or select the option to phone the audio in. Blabberize will provide you with a phone number and extension that matches your photo.

Next, hit save. You will be asked to name your creation, write a short description, and add a few tags. Congratulations - you have created your first talking photo.

VoiceThread

A VoiceThread is an interactive media album that are online slide shows of images, documents, or videos. Viewers are able comment on any slide by typing, recording an audio or video comment, or drawing on the image itself. VoiceThread has amazing video tutorials that walk users through each step of setting of an account to explaining each way to comment on a thread.


Teachers can sign up for a free account, however it looks like you only get to create three threads on this account. Your students sign in under your account. They simply upload an avatar to accompany their identity.

If you like, you can pay for an educator account. The cost is $60 per year and you can add up to 100 students.

Here are links to some great examples using VoiceThread in the classroom:
Students Sharing Poetry (set up with no comments can be added option)

Water Cycle Review and Assessment

Writing Revisions - Small Moment

Triangle Scavenger Hunt

I am looking forward to trying Voicethread out with my students this year.

Animoto

I love, love, love Animoto! Users simply upload digital images, arrange, add some text and music and before you know it Animoto has mixed a professional looking movie for you. Teachers can register for an education account (click on Education in the bottom right corner). Be aware it does take a while for the account to come through. I think I waited two weeks last year at the beginning of the school year.

Once you have your account, students need to register within about 30 days. You educator account is good for 6 months, however your access code is only valid for 30 days.

Students do need to have an email account to register. I created an account in Gmail. Gmail allows you to add + name to the email username. I registered blaszakstudent@gmail.com as my email, now each student uses this as the basis but adds their name. For example blaszakstudent+amy@gmail.com. The email still comes to my original account. I maintain control.

My students enjoyed using Animoto to create a final novel project for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. To allow for more text and for text on a page with a picture, students created the "slides" in PowerPoint and we saved these as pictures to upload to Animoto. We learned that one or two sentences was all we should put on a page. It became to hard to read otherwise. Students also learned about choosing text size and color that could be easily read.

I often create quick videos from pictures I have taken in class and email the link to parents. It gives them a glimpse into what we are doing during the day.

Glogster

Glogster is a wonderful creativity tool that allows students to demonstrate their knowledge. Glogster allows users to input text, pictures, graphics, video, and audio to create an interactive online poster. Glogs can be hosted by Glogster or you can embed it into a wiki, blog, or class web site.

Teachers must register to use Glogster. It is free, and each student will have a log in. You can have up to 100 students in your account and from the teacher dashboard you can view and control all student activity.

Here are some great examples of glogs that I have come across:

Examples

http://englishseale.edublogs.org/2009/10/09/descriptive-writing-glogster-example

A wonderful tutorial to walk you through setting up your Glogster account can be found here:

http://drop.io/4denpdx/asset/glogster-wtih-de-ppt

I hope you and your students enjoy glogging as much as I do!

Hello World

Well I have finally done it....this is something I have been thinking about doing for a while. I have spent the past 6 months building my PLN. Along the way I have read some amazing blogs and connected with like minded educators on Twitter. The time has come for me to take the next step in my journey with 21st Century technology...reflecting on my successes, my failures, and the attempts that land somewhere in the middle through blogging. So far so good, it was super easy to set up this blog. It took more time for me to decide on my blog title than to create the blog itself. I actually created a blog ona different site, but hated all the advertising that popped up in between my first posts. So far so good here on advertisement free blogger!