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Voki

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 13/03/2013
Posted in: Applications, General. Tagged: , , , , , .

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.

Storybird

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 22/02/2013
Posted in: Activities, Applications. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

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.

Slideshare

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 22/02/2013
Posted in: Activities, Applications. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

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.

Vorbeo – Create a Poll

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 22/02/2013
Posted in: Applications. Tagged: , , , , , .

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.

What would you like to most see on a class blog?

Stories
Videos
Audio
Art
Music

Monster Read

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 21/02/2013
Posted in: Activities, Competitions. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

monsterread
This is a competition run by Makewaves and to enter you’ll need to have a Makewaves blog – but this is free to set up.

Kids aged 5-11 are being asked to share their favourite read in any way they choose. Write something, draw something, blog it, film it. Whatever they like. The idea is that they aren’t reviewing their book, they’re recommending it.

Once children have created their entry, they upload it to their Makewaves blog and share it with the world.

Prizes include an e-reader for the pupil and a 12 month pro-account with Makewaves for their school. The competition closes on Tuesday 16 April 2013.

100 Word Challenge

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 21/02/2013
Posted in: Activities. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Inspire your pupils to write by entering the 100 Word Challenge, or 100WC.

This is a weekly writing challenge for children under the age of 16. Once a week a different prompt is given the children can write up to 100 words  of creative writing. Once their writing has been posted to your blog, link to the 100WC blog and others taking part in the challenge can read your entries.

The challenge of sticking to 100 words and having other people leave comments on their writing can really encourage pupils to give it a go. Use it as homework, writing practice or a regular activity.

YouTube

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 21/02/2013
Posted in: Applications. Tagged: , , , , , , .

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

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 21/02/2013
Posted in: Applications. Tagged: , , , , , .

Soundcloud is an audio platform that lets you can create and share original recordings.

soundcloud

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)

Using comments in the classroom.

Posted by Beth Gibbons on 20/02/2013
Posted in: Basics, General. Tagged: , , , , .

The global nature of blogs allows for pupils to receive comments on their work from outside the school and home. Comments, like posts, can be moderated by staff before being published and this ‘real’ audience can really encourage pupils to write. You never know, you might start a discussion with an ambassador…

Within the classroom comments are a brilliant way to get pupils to peer assess eachother’s work. Staff can leave comments as they would in an exercise book with praise and recommendations for improvements, and pupils can do the same.

As tagged pupil posts are easily searched for, pupils can reference the chronology of their work online and see for themselves how they’ve improved.

Reflective practice, peer assessment and incentive to write all in one feature!