Our Story

http://www.ourstory.com/

“Save Stories, Photos, and Videos on a Collaborative Timeline.” Share with family, friends or others…make personal collections or use to create reports on school-related topics with collections of photos or videos and research.

Roxer

http://www.roxer.com/

The first words you see on this site are CLICK – DRAG – DONE. That pretty much sums up how easy it is to use. Roxer allows users to create web sites for free, and the tools are very simple to learn. No programming knowledge is needed, and no software is required. You can upload images from your browser, and create pretty snazzy looking pages. Roxer even hosts the pages. Did I mention this all is FREE? A great tool for student projects!

Wetpaint Wikis

http://www.wetpaint.com/category/Education–Ad-Free

The past couple of years I have been helping a group of European teachers with their grant applications. For their latest project, one of them created a wiki site on Wetpaint. One thing that I like about it is that there’s a weekly e-mail to the site members with updated additions to the site. I just discovered that there is also an ad-free version available for educators and students.

Here is a link to some ideas on how to use wikis in the classrooom.

Here is a link to the site that I mentioned.

Please comment about ways that you integrate this Wetpaint into your lessons.

Diary.com

http://diary.com/

Diary.com allows not only text, but photos, graphics, links, music, files and videos can be included in your diary entry. You can make your entries private or social, and you send entries to your diary by e-mail.  In March, there are plans to launch a public diary feature too.

Students can create multimedia journals to share only with their teachers.  This site could also be used for students to create a shared or public journal pretending to be a fictional or historical character.

Can you think of other ways to use this site with your students?

Pic-Lits

http://www.piclits.com

Pic-Lits is “inspired picture writing”…

“PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.”

Pic-Lits gives the user a choice to either drag and drop words (categorized by parts of speech) that relate to the picture or to go to the “free style” tab and add writing to the Pic-Lit on their own. Then, they can save, blog/share or e-mail their creation.

Here’s a quick Pic-Lit I created using the free style format.

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

The site includes a “Learn It” section where writing suggestions are given.

How would this site inspire the writers in your classroom?

EtherPad

http://etherpad.com/

EtherPad is a really easy-to-use collaboration tool.  It doesn’t require an account…just go to the website, click on CREATE NEW PAD, and start typing.

A unique URL is generated for your new pad, and you can use it to invite others to collaborate with you.  What’s great about this site is that you can see what others are adding right away.  Each participant chooses a different color to identify their contributions to the document.  There is also a chat window on the right side of the screen for sidebar discussions.  The website suggests all kinds of business uses, but students can use it to collaborate on writing, projects and more.

What ideas do you have for using this wiki-ish site with students?

Mixbook

http://www.mixbook.com/edu

This is a great site for digital storytelling. The final product can be shared via web address or embedded in your class site.

Here’s an example of an education photo book that was made with Mixbook:
http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/education/kids-for-kenya-1246798

The books that are created on this site can actually be purchased, and the Education Program site offers a discount for books printed for the classroom.

Click here for the Mixbook Blog.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Jog the Web

http://www.jogtheweb.com/

On this site from Paris, users can create a “track”…a linear collection of specific websites on a particular topic; add comments to the pages, and voilà!

Here’s an example using some of the sites in this blog:

http://www.jogtheweb.com/play/7YaJ274vNG5w

PhotoPeach

http://photopeach.com

Photos or picture files uploaded into PhotoPeach can be turned into video presentations with background music and captions. I used the IMAGERY site to collect mine for this:

Example from Photo Peach

Great way to tell an illustrated story!

READ/WRITE/THINK

http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

An incredible collection of interactive tools aimed at improving literacy! Some of my favorites are Diamante Poems, the Essay Map and Crossword Puzzles. There is something for every grade level here!

Please share ways that you use any of these tools with your students!