Winsome Wednesday: Build Your Wild Self

When given half a chance, children love to create and be imaginative. Use the web application, BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF, and watch kids' creativity and imagination in learning...

run wild....

BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF is a web application. Anyone can use their imagination or their knowledge of animals to create their own animal for a special habitat using this web application. Provide a platform for your students or children to build an imaginary avatar. Once their WiLD SeLF is created, they can use it as a desktop image, an avatar, or any similar application. Kids can compare and contrast various traits of humans and animals. They will also get a chance to learn about the habitats that some zoo animals would live in their natural homes.

Use this web application as:

A. the anticipatory set for new lessons in science, social studies, language arts, writing or other subject.

B. an example of animal habitat information to be studied utilizing many learning strategies; especially Compare/Contrast You can build a lesson about animals and their environments.

C. a formative assessment to determine if students can describe/explain why they used a particular environment or body part.

D. a reward for effective learning behaviors.

The web application, Build Your Wild Self was created for the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, and other New York City Zoos, in cooperation with the Wildlife Conservation Society.


SHARE SOME FINE EXAMPLES THAT STUDENTS HAVE SHARED WITH YOU:

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Follow hellotxt team on Twitter. This message can be sent straight from the minblogging web application, HelloTXT.

Saturday Specifics: VOKLE

Recently, I subscribed to the Huffington Post online, as many of my PLN were quoting their articles. I also signed up to receive email notifications, and that is how I found out about VOKLE.

While I enjoyed Huffington Post's Washington Bureau Chief, Dan Froomkin's, online live interview of Janine Wedel about her new book, Shadow Elite, I was even more impressed with the web application that they were using for this online event. Vokle has a smooth, crisp picture with a clean interface. The sounds are clear and full. There is a back channel that's easily viewed.

I learned there are some host safeguards for comments. You can see them before they go out, just in case there are any off topic participants. This is important to plan for ahead of time, because it's too late when they are there. I was in an online conference when someone arrived just to make off topic remarks and disrupt the session. It's very unsettling for both host and participants, so this is an excellent control feature.

I plan to use this new web application, VOKLE. How about you?

Other Reviews On VOKLE!

VOKLE Goes Public!

Vokle.com: Live Video Communication

More about Vokle's Free Web Conferencing Service

Vokle.com - Live Unmuted!

Defend Your Avatar!

What do you think of avatars? Do you have an avatar? If you do, can you defend it? Can you explain what it is and what it represents?

Over the years, I've heard and told various stories of how students created some project, including  avatar development. It's an act of creation from ideas built from prior knowledge and ongoing lessons. If you have an individual avatar, you created it or described how it should be created.

If you don't have an avatar, I'd like to suggest what I consider an appropriate place to begin, no matter your age. The Bronx Zoo website is a wonderful place for teachers and their students. There are the obvious lessons about habitats, with images and lesson plans, but the Avatar Generator, BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF is not one of the traditional lessons. Making an avatar with this web application provides an opportunity to learn about habitats as you learn to use online web applications, technology and group interactions.

Saturday Specifics: VisuWords

Have you ever had to search for a definition, antonym, or synonym while you are working online? If you have, consider using VisuWords to quickly search in your browser navigation toolbar. This online web application will speed your research, so you can quickly return to the task at hand.

The most effective way to use VisuWords is to add its search engine tool to your Firefox browser. All you have to do is click the link on the VisuWords website that says "search tool" and it places the VisuWords search engine on your Firefox Navigation ToolBar. Yes, it's that easy.

VisuWords is an excellent example of a web application, or applet, that draws its information from metadata sources also located on the World Wide Web. I believe this application represents what Sir Tim Berners-Lee described as he imagined the semantic web, part of the natural progression within the World Wide Web.

This particular application, VisuWords, works by analyzing clusters of words based on specific algorithms that derive what the VisuWord developer, Paul Dunn, calls "synsets": sets of synonyms. The term "synset" was coined by the Princeton research group who developed the lexical database named WordNet that is the source database for VisuWords.

Some of the "synsets" that support VisuWords relate to the grammatical connections of the search target, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. Other associated "synsets" are also derived and presented in the resulting graphic organizer of the word you select in your VisuWord search.

The source code for VisuWords is available for download. so the applet could be a valuable learning tool for all the teachers, students, and community members who access your server. The VisuWords applet is based on the open source work of Princeton University's WordNet, an English language lexical database. You will also need to download WordNet. As always, please read and follow all licenses if you expect to use these effective online tools.

12 Views in Animoto

Using this sample Animoto video as a guide, you may see how to use the Animoto web application to build a video from images and videos. Add your own music, or use the music available on the web application. Twelve images and one video clip were used to create this thirty second video that was packaged for Youtube.



The video you create can represent one part of your Biodiversity presentation and can be transferred to Youtube or other presentation media.

I Skype!

the skype payphone project by pt
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Mr. Robbo, The P.E. Geek, a colleague in my PLN (professional learning network) recently posted his teaching experiences with Skype. I agree with the basic premise of his post, Why Skype Is the Most Valuable Tool I Use. Yes, Skype is a great tool.

It seems strange, yet people often resist the most obvious and easiest internet path to use, free online tools. In my own case, I came to Skype recently, but it has revolutionized the way I communicate with my Professional Learning Network (PLN). What finally helped me begin to use Skype was encouragement from my peers.

Since my teen, as part of her official, school web applications, uses Skype in her Project Based Learning Activities, we discussed how she and her peers use Skype. Later, I wrote an article, Anticipate and Skype Your Reaction about a few of the many possible educational ways teachers could use Skype in their classrooms.

It seems to me that the increased communication capacities when using audio and video, as well as sharing links and screenshots make Skype one of the best free web applications to improve student access to teachers and their learning.

Winsome Wednesday: PhotoFace Animation

If you have ever animated images, you will recognize Oddcast: PhotoFace as an exceptionally simple tool to use your own images to develop an interactive animation similar to those generated from applications such as Voki. This new web application drew my attention, and I want to thank my PLN colleague, marragem for sharing with our fellow Plurkadians.

What makes Oddcast: PhotoFace different from applications such as Voki is the use of your own image as the base of the animated creation. That is very exciting, as you can also add your own audio.

First, you download a picture, or you can use one provided at the website. Here is a sample of how that works:



Then you follow the step by step procedure to add audio and send your new animation. I hope you enjoy this web application, OddCast: PhotoFace.

Winsome Wednesday: Amplify what you are reading

A new web application, Amplify, simplifies a number of learning strategies that anyone can easily use. Amplify makes ordinary notes expand into a marvelous presentation blog format that can include ideas, commments notes, quotations, and images that form a clog. Anyone who enjoys learning and sharing their ideas online can benefit from using this new web application, Amplify.

Clipmarks has been amplified in this new web application, and we are the beneficiaries. Try it out. I think you will find a variety of ways to use it.

Amplify makes a wonderful educational online tool. Teachers can use the group function to encourage students to take notes and share them in a project. Students can use Amplify to develop their reports, summaries or presentations.

Since your Amplified Clip goes straight into a Clip blog called a clog, you can easily start a group blog where your friends, family and coworkers can add comments if you like. Although you don't have to accept any comments if you are using it for a particular purpose. In a group or by yourself, Amplify gives you an opportunity to develop a special clip blog, so you can keep track of all you are reading.

Amplify DOES NOT require a toolbar to make it function properly. All you need to do is download a tiny icon with a drop down function box. There is a Firefox extension icon(it also works in Flock), as well as a Microsoft Internet Explorer extension icon. It is clean and out of the way. When you want to use it, the Amplify extension icon is available right away.

Several of us are testing a group clog entitled ABC's of PLN Power, and I want to invite you to join us in this beta. Add your comments and suggestions. We can guide the development of this wonderful web application through our participation.

Winsome Wednesday: "Doing DaVinci"

Doing da Vinci, a new interactive website with a companion weekly show, contains historical and scientific information about Leonardo da Vinci, as well as games and surveys. There are also video clips and information and interviews about the expert builders who brought da Vinci's machines to life, from his notes and diagrams.

One of the more interesting web applications on this site is Leonardo da Vinci's Personality Quiz. Several colleagues, including CoffeeDdaisy, Lona, sciproLdySlpr, Linda (Mrs C) and brina 1300 in our PLN, professional learning network, tried it out. We found it enlightening, as well as entertaining. This quiz would definitely capture the interest of students and teachers. It could be used as a lesson starter, sometimes called the anticipatory set.

This website contains timelines, samples of da Vinci's machines and a host of other applications that could be used by teachers of any subject.

The draw to da Vinci, as the ultimate Renaissance Man, remain his great and varied interests. Try out the website, quizzes, model-building and dramatizations. The companion television show will air each Monday throughout the month of April.



Image Credits:

Wikimedia.org

DaVinci Notes of Geometry of Flower

Leonardo da Vinci Helicopter and Lift Wing

Winsome Wednesday

rtw - 0334 by neil banas
Attribution-NonCommercial License

Today, I am introducing Winsome Wednesdays.

I will discuss interesting, curious and joyous ideas.

These are topics of interest to me that I think are related to education.

I hope you will enjoy them.

For my first Winsome Wednesday whimsy, I am featuring, Muxicall, so other educators can learn more about this simple, yet powerful web application.

Muxicall is an interactive online web application that helps people, anywhere online, interface through music. Created by a young student, Diana Antunes, Muxicall is a superb online application that everyone should enjoy.

You don't need to know anything about music to use Muxicall. Just go to the website and play around with the interface. I was most impressed when a friend joined me there. After a few squeaks and squarks, we fell into a synchronicity of musical interactions. It was a type of communications.

I will leave it up to you to decide, but I think there are a multitude of uses for this web application, Muxicall.

Particularly, I thought it might help children with interaction issues. It has a clean, minimalist interface. Its ease of use and wonderfully vibrant results could help draw them into interactions online that might lead to more face to face interactions with music. Music Therapy and Play Therapy have always been a powerful force to help children reach out to the world.

Try Muxicall. If you need a partner, let me know. We can find a time to evaluate Muxicall for future use in the classroom and have fun.

Interpreting the PLN

Photo by Sue Waters
Attribution-ShareAlike License

This wikispace, Franklinville: PLN, devoted to understanding the emergence of the Professional Learning Netowrk and its intersection with available web2.0 applications presents a unique perspective that others could easily use or modify for their own discussions. The authors, Tim Clarke and his colleague, Rick Weinberg, have a remarkable repertoire of materials.





Included on the wiki is an excellent video w/a Charles Leadbeater discussion of many of the aspects of various tools and links to those that we can employ to improve our best practice. He also discusses the similarity of thes 21st Century Professional Learning Networks with older more traditional networks.

3 Ways to WORDLE Share

Interested in learning more or sharing your WORDLES? Now, you can access the Diigo WORDLE Group.

Haven't used Diigo, the social bookmarking site? Now would be a great time to join.

While you're at it, consider joining the Diigo for Educators site that is protected, so you can use it with your students.

Here are webslide show of many of our group's bookmarks, to date.

Cast Your Web2.0 - Vote: Webware 100

One of the most exciting aspects of the interactive internet, is the basic premise that the web2.0 experience is distinctive. Your voice can count, and you don't have to be a great guru of tech to express your viewpoints, preferences and evaluations.



Last night, a contact from my Jaiku group reminded us that it was time to vote in the Webware 100 competition. I did. When you vote, you get a small badge for your website which is a symbiotic assistant.

When you display the Webware 100 Voting badge, you are accomplishing some important goals for yourself, the Webware100 team and CNET. One, it shows the people that you are interested in that you are interested in what web2.0 applications are still around tomorrow. Two, it reminds your readers that they should vote for their favorite web2.0 applications. Three, it helps the Webware100 team get the world out that evaluation and review are continuing.

This type of review combines the expertise of the professional and the amateur;D I think this symbiosis helps all of us, because it is one more tool in our web2.0 toolbox that we can use to sort through the various applications that may be of service to us, personally and in groups. I may be an amateur, but I know what works for me. CNET may be the expert in reviewing all that is tech, but they need to know what we, the consumer, thinks of these web application.

So, instead of thinking of myself as an amateur, professional or semi-professional, I like to think that we are all important characters in this online ecosystem of web applications and social interactions.

Go VOTE! Support your most cherished webware.

Go Elfster!

Trying out new interactive websites is what it's about, and I have tried out many (> 150) since August, 2007. Some of these WEB2.0 applications have been duds and duplicates of other applications that work better, but other new applications are excellent. These more effective new applications are easy to use, free to use, well-organized, helpful and fun.

I use these criteria to determine a web application's COOL factor, and Elfster has a very high COOL factor. This is a web application that Steve Dembo, a Classroom 2.0 and Twitter networks colleague, introduced to our network.


Using Elfster, Steve set up a EduTwitterverse Secret Santa group for those in the group who wanted to participate. I was curious, so I signed up. Steve set a spending limit and gave basic instructions. All throughout the gift exchange, Elfster helped Steve manage the entire program through excellent, well timed, information and reminder letters. Plus, he was available on Twitter. Thanks, Steve! Elfster was a great find!

When you join an Elfster group, you fill out a profile page. It includes information about gift preferences with available URLs that fit the spending limit.

Each EduTwitterverse Elfster received the name and profile URL of their Secret Santa recipient, so I read the profile information about mine.

To make it even easier, I found my secret friend and followed her on Twitter. She reciprocated. The Twitter colleague who received my name started following me, so I followed her. We add new followers on this EduTwitterverse group all the time, so I didn't figure out that one of my new Twitter colleagues was also my Elfster until she sent me a notice about my gift to Heifer International. Cool!

My secret pal made no specific gift requests on her profile, she just said, "Be creative!" That was scary! LOL! Then I remembered COFFEE! It was very interesting that my secret EduTwitterverse pal had posted a tweet about coffee a few days before we knew who are secret friends were.

It seems to me, this gift exchange became an excellent way to share cultural experiences with someone in another part of the world.

There is no more creative coffee selection than French Market Coffee. Based in New Orleans, French Market Coffee is the brand served almost everywhere in the area, including Commander's Palace, Gallatoire's Restaurant and other famous New Orleans area restaurants.



I like to buy from New Orleans merchants whenever I can, so that was another plus for French Market Coffee. Lastly, is their fantastic website. It is easy to use and they have excellent information at the French Market University. I ordered a gift set that included French Market coffee and chicory, mug and beignet mix, so my secret Twitter pal could really experience the New Orleans effect. Another plus: it only took 2 days from the moment of my order to my secret pal's receipt of the gift....that was awesome! Thanks, French Market Coffee staff!

For myself, I had requested that a donation be made in my name to Creative Commons or Heifer International. My secret Elfster agreed that Heifer International was a cool opportunity to give a gift that keeps on giving. She bought a share of chicks to be sent to a family who will raise them and send their offspring to another family. It was a very wonderful experience for me to know that my secret Elfster saw value in my choice of gifts, and I thank her very much.

While my Twitter colleagues and I really enjoyed this secret Santa exchange, Elfster has greater potential for social networking. I can imagine endless possibilities to use this for social networking with friends, family and school.

The Elfster exchanges don't even have to be about monetary gifts. For instance, teachers or students could send invitations or URLs for their favorite website, online game or web application. Each person could list their area of interest in their profile, say science, and their Elfster could send them a valuable URL.

What are some of your ideas of ways we could use Elfster for educational purposes?

Check out Elfster, and see what you think.