This interactive ear tool has code to embed a large image/link on your blog. Useful for easy access to the site and more interesting than a text link but would be good if it was interactive from the blog post.
The Interactive Ear is presented by Amplifon
Edit pictures and add effects with online tool Pixlr-o-matic.
Upload pictures from your computer and use the gague at the bottom of the screen to switch between colour effects, special effects and frames. Then save to your computer and upload to your blog.
A great way to make your pictures look that bit more amazing!
Let users see where visitors are coming from using Revolver Maps.
There are several styles of maps available and in different code versions so there should be somethng that works with your blog. The widget takes visitor location data and displays it. Users can click on the widget to view visitor statistics of the site.
Voki lets you create an animated, speaking character that you can embed into your blog with information and comments.
There is a free version with limited characters to choose from or a Classroom version you can pay for with more features and classroom resources.
You create your character from a wide selection of faces, clothing and accessories – you can make an avatar of yourslef or a fictional character. Once you have finished creating you can add a voice, either by recording your own or using a text to talk feature (which has a selection of accents). The avatar resonds to the location of the user’s mouse cursor.
You could use voki to create a character that updates bloggers on school events, set tasks for pupils or comment on pupil work.
Create your own stories with Storybird taking inspiration from illustrations and piecing them together to make your own online book. Once books have been moderated you can embed them straight into your blog.
Individual and Teacher/Class accounts are available for free and the usual ‘extra options’ are available to purchase.
This is a great way to inspire children to write, letting the pictures tell the story.
Share your presentations and documents with Slideshare.
As with many ways of sharing media, there is a basic free version and a ‘pro’ option that you subscribe to but has more features. For uploading slideshow presentations it is free. These can be public or private and there is the facility for commenting.
Presentations can be embedded in your blog, so you can use Slideshare to make lessons available to pupils at anytime or as a showcase of pupil work.
You can create simple online polls with Vorbeo.
Fill in all the boxes for information and choose your colours, then copy and paste the code into your blog post.
Your voters get to have their say and then see how others have voted (on the Vorbeo website).
There doesn’t appear to be any way of viewing the results of the poll without voting or copying the link from the code and pasting into your browser. It is however a really simple way of creating a poll.
It’s easy to forget fairly obvious things when trying to be creative!
One of the ways to introduce video to your blog is with YouTube. You can create an account for your class or school and embed videos in blog posts.
This may be a good option for showing video that children have created themselves rather than using some of the fancy extras that other programmes provide.
Soundcloud is an audio platform that lets you can create and share original recordings.
There is the facility to embed your recordings in a blog and users can comment on specific parts of a recording.
Pupils could use Soundcloud to record podcasts of interviews, reports and radio shows, or use as a showcase for music lesson performances. Parents and carers get to listen to what their children have been learning without having to wait for the end of term concert.
There are lots of applications available through Soundcloud that let you edit and orgainise your work via web, desktop and mobile devices.
Example from Bush Upper School Music – Broken Records 19: Track 05 – Untitled (Iive) Adam & Tom (Unplugged)
You can create some really interesting slideshows of pictures and video for free with Animoto.
Choose from a selection of themes, pre recorded music and video clips or add your own to make slideshows up to 30 seconds long.
This can be a great way to get pupils to display their art work and have control over how it is presented.
Animoto have upgrade options that you can pay for – different resoloution videos, wider selection of themes etc, but it’s not necessary and you will probably find the free options are enough.
As with all these things it’s worth having a small play with to see what it can do but it’s really easy to get the hang of.
Make your own slideshow at Animoto.
