Web 2.0 AdventURE Calendar

I have spent the last few nights on the beginning of a journey of discovery into the world of Web2.0. This is the future for your children - an online world/community where work and social interactions will take place. Sharing photos/videos/information is taking on a whole new meaning - and so in order to be up to the ride, I’m here learning as much as I can.

In just a few hours I have discovered voki’s - an online persona that you can communicate with and viddler - a way of sharing movies online. There is sooooooo much that it is only the beginning. So hold on to your hat as I hold on to mine - and lets enjoy the ride together.
We Are The Champs - Trish D

Blogs are a rich source of class content. Any class that examines autobiography or the diary should include blogs.

In this digital age when young people are stimulated on a daily basis by mass media and the internet teachers cannot afford to be left behind. Teachers may be digital immigrants but this does not mean that they cannot assimilate with the digital natives. This calendar aims to bridge the gap and ensure that teachers have the confidence to trial exciting IT software with their students. The objective of this program is to encourage exploration of Web 2.0 and new technologies and to provide staff with new tools that will engage students.

The Idea Generator is quite a useful wee tool for generating random ideas. It is along the lines of deBono's thinking games or Tony Ryan's Thinkers Keys.

You click on the button and the generator spits out three words. This could easily be used for daily writing practice.

I really like the idea of putting up a stand alone Christmas blog. When Heather suggested it to me and discovering that there was a template for Christmas, my head went into 5th gear to try and work out what could be done. Half of our years 7-9 students have gone on a week long bike ride, so the rest of the year levels are split into three groups and rotated around the remaining staff.

I had my first group this afternoon. After showing them the bare Christmas template at www.christmas2us.wordpress.com, the group discussed what could be done to improve the site and the of content that might go in it. They were all set to task to create some different products to add to the blog. Fortunately, the year7s already had completed work on “Christmas through the 5 senses” (I smell, I see, I taste, I hear, I feel). Students come up with some amazing work, so they were challenged to convert their word processed documents into a mutli media or movie format.

After much thought and discussion and due to the time restraints placed upon us, most students cut and pasted their text into MS Powerpoint and added clip art or photos for improved visual impact. Powerpoint slides were then saved as jpg rather than powerpoint presentation. This converted each slide into a picture which could then be imported into MS Photostory. Students love using Photostory. It is so easy to use, allows photo editing, panning, transitions, text addition and is a free download if MS Office is purchased. It gives such a professional outcome with the minimum of effort and time. It can be saved into so many different formats for either output on the computer, email, mp4 players or playback on appropriate mobile phones.

As students completed their photostory, we did a search for free Christmas song mp3 files and many sites came up. Students chose an appropriate one for their story, right clicked on the link and saved target as into their folder. This allowed them to insert that music into one of the final slides of MS Photostory. The movie was tested and then saved for use on their hard drive. It was then converted into email format and uploaded into teachertube. (Youtube is banned in our schools in Victoria). A code then allows that movied to be embedded into the blog or wiki of your choice. Some of the older students are working on movies and some just love to write. When complete these will be added to the blog.

School is such a hive of activity. Christmas trees are going up in the classrooms, decorations are being made and craftwork completed.Upon wandering down the corridor, I noticed and read with delight the Christmas musings of the grade 2s. Their work was proudly displayed on the wall outside their classroom. So a separate page has been added for their writings on the blog. It is called Christmas musings. Out of the mouths of babes……..!!!!

Hawkesdale P - 12

At school, we are using Voicethread to share our interests, acitivities and other project materials with some schools in USA. The grade 3 and 4 class have been working on this project. Year 8 students have produced a photo album of our school to share with schools in other countries. It is relatively easy to use and there are great tutorials, examples and resources on the website.

Voicethread is like a photo album but it can capture and hold the voices and stories of an entire group forever. It is then stored online. It can be made public or private. Many identities can be created so that each class member will have a separate identity under the umbrella of the teacher. Each identity chooses an image for themselves and records their voiceover. Steps in using voicethread are as follows:-

Go to www.voicethread.com >upload and insert the required photo under browse (or flickr or photobucket) Give a title to your slide. Make sure you give yourself a digital image - photo or otherwise.

Goto comment and record your introduction or voiceover, add an image. Goto the top RHS corner where your photo or image sits>my account>add identity and follow the prompts.

Once in the voicethread, identities can also be added. Follow the prompts until completed. New slides, with different images, can be added etc. Ensure that the microphone settings are correct for the computer that you are using. Choose record and the person records their message. If you need to re-record the voice click on the rubbish bin which appears when selecting the image. See below.

To switch identities, click on your image in lower left hand corner, and choose the one you now want to work with. New identities can be added here as well.

These voicethreads can be shared with other classes, schools and globally. So they are a great collaborative tool.

Podcasts are audio files that are published on the web. You can subscribe to a particular podcast and have the audio files automatically delivered to your computer whenever there are updates. These can then be transferred to a portable MP3 player. You typically subscribe to podcasts using “podcatchers”, such as Internet Exporer 7, My Yahoo or iTunes.

The guys at Wodonga Primary School are clearly having a good time in their IT rich class.

If nothing else you can have your class simply look at these books and wonder how they did it. Of course you could have them do reviews and make a digital drawing of a page that might have been in the book.