Janna McColgan's List: Web 2.0 Tools

Great resources like free web 2.0 tools and ideas for digital scavenger hunts can be found on this site.
http://edudemic.com/2012/09/10-free-web-2-0-tools-and-how-to-easily-use-them-in-your-classroom/

Glogster.com is a site that offers the opportunity to build customized webpages. It is an appealing site for students and teachers to create project-based learning lessons. Fun templates allow for an eye-catching, custom pages. Like a poster, a student can add images and text. Like an interactive poster, video, audio and blogs can be added to create fruitful discussions. Glogster has created a version for education that has a safe and private classroom management platform. This option does cost money, but is inexpensive. I would be interested in using this program to post an art history topic, add readings and images representative of the topic and encourage glogging (blogging) class discussion.

Animoto.com creates movies from photographs, text, graphic images and videos. It also allows a customized music accompaniment. There are a nice variety of templates to use to help set-up a simple 30 second movie. With the inexpensive paid version, movie durations are unlimited. With the more expensive Pro version, more templates and some other features are unlocked for use in the creation of movies. In education, Animoto can be used for short presentations of books, art or any number of subjects that have a project-based lesson. In arts education, a 30 second video would be an interesting way to present the progression of a long-term project, like work done for an art portfolio or group work done in theater or a mural arts project.

Weebly.com is a simple drag, drop, type and upload website-building program that can be made private (password-protected) or public. It does not place nor allow outside advertisers to post on your sites. It has dozens of templates and elements to create a website as interactive as you choose. Weebly knows the importance of mentoring 21st century students with 21st century skills and tools. As a result, Weebly for Education allows teachers to create classlists and guide and monitor students through the process of creating their own websites.I intend to use Weebly for guiding my future art students in creating their own electronic art portfolios.

Create your own comic strip! This site is an online educational comic strip generator for All Ages. It contains the classic framework and components used in creating comic strips. It offers a selection of characters, moods and text to use. Students and teachers can use this site for educational projects or lessons. In the history of art, we don't always know the story of how famous artwork came to be. What was its inspiration? What was the artist's mood when they created their work? Where did they design the work? In a young art class, I would use this program to encourage this creative discussion about famous artists and have the students create their own version of the story. For example, maybe Picasso designed his cubist paintings to look broken because he was a klutz. The imaginations of the students can run free using Makebeliefscomix.com

This article on Web 2.0 maintains that there are three major challenges that effect integrating technology into student learning: 1. Promoting fads or short-term ideas 2. Working with faceless products 3. Filtering fiction from fact. This article encourages educators and students to not forget the necessary human interaction while being part of "the social and technological phenomenon that enables users to generate content, interact, and share information across borders".

Are the skills needed to prepare the "21st Century Learner" really new? Suggestions have been made that instead of simply amending 21st century skills taught to students, perhaps an overhaul of the curriculum, the teaching and the testing is what is truly needed.

Using Classroom 2.0, I found this link that is well-organized with information, examples and videos on using Google applications in education. This link is aimed to equip teachers and those administering technology options for students with Google tools that will enable collaboration in a 21st century classroom.

The ICDL (International Children's Digital Library) is an online library that offers books from cultures found throughout the world. Their mission is to teach tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing free access to children's literature. The site is graphically interesting, easy to use and aimed to lure all ages. Choosing a book is easy: They are organized by age, collection, language, featured books, character types and more!

Enjoypic.com and Photofunia.com are great photo editing sites. They each have a series of templates that allow you to add a favorite photo in a unique environment. They offer the option to add text, edit photos, produce collages, cards and the ability to share and save the finished product. In education, some of the templates in Enjoypic and Photofunia can be used for cover art presentations, printed for posters or shared in a slideshow presentation. Additionally, in a lesson about portraiture, I would ask the student to place a self-portrait in one the templates, print and use as a resource for a larger drawing or painting.

Create "canvases" for class discussion or projects. Students can callaborate and comment from anywhere.
Ex: http://edcvs.co/1c44cCa