What are your favorite web 2.0 projects or tools and why?

What are your favorite Web 2.0 tools and/or projects and why?

I am a huge fan of digital storytelling! Love Masher and Animoto. In the past, I used Movie Maker 2, Photostory 3 and my all time favorite Adobe Premiere Elements. I am curious about what others like to use in the classroom.

In the past, my students worked with an original idea of mine called "Digesting a Story" . That was probably one of my all time favorite projects. (See clips here!)

Another digital project was my KDOZ TV 2 Newscasts with my 2nd graders. See example here!

If you can't open the files, you can see those on my website @ http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/smbodin

I would love to hear about your digital projects (or see student examples!)

Thanks!
Stacy

Tags: 2.0, digital, storytelling, technology, tools, videos, web

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Permalink Reply by Brenda on September 8, 2009 at 8:03pm

Hi Stacy, Your ideas are awesome. I'm starting to write a grant to get a flip camera for the classroom. Would that work for the digesting the story project? I've use animoto and voicethread. Last year my 2nd graders wrote "found" poems using words from a Natl. Geographic article and constructing a poem. They illustrated their poem. I uploaded to voicethread and recorded each student reading their poem. It was great to show at open house. I want to expand my tech skills, but I need more "tech" materials. Any suggestions? I'm teaching 4th grade this year and feel they would love to do more tech projects. Thanks for your help and ideas,
Brenda
Ca/4

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Bodin on September 8, 2009 at 8:24pm

Hi Brenda,

Using a flip camera would be a great route to go. I used a digital video camera because that is what I had at the time. If I had a flip camera now, I would definitely go that route instead!

For me, using the "holiday" themes worked GREAT! It gave us productive projects to celebrate instead of coloring sheets or just having them do cut and paste things. The theme however can be used for ANY type of story!

I loved doing that project with the students. In fact, we made DVD's for parents and that was their mother's/father's day gifts and the parents were thrilled. Who doesn't love having footage of their children's work?

I love your projects and the voice thread ideas! I am hoping to do that with a class in one of our district school's this year. Thanks for that idea!

I did several type of projects during my years with 2nd grade. Here are just a few of my examples! http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/smbodin/CLASS%20TECH/childrenswork.htm

I was a hard core teckie in the classroom and my students did computer work or centers every day in all subjects. It was tedious to plan, but my students got so much out of it.I worked a lot with interactives online, MS office (Templates for MS Word and PPT), Timeliner, Kidspiration, Graph Club, etc. I was part of a grant and had the resources, however I worked even more with the freebies online a lot too.

Here is our District Curriculum Site.. We have a 4th grade site now with interactives, etc. That may help too.(We have an eHomework site filled with interactives @ each grade level in our district now.)

If you let me know what you have in mind, I can help you locate information. That is basically what I do now that I have retired. I help our district teachers daily!

Good luck! Email if you have questions! stacybodin@aol.com or smbodin@vrml.k12.la.us.

Here is my home page with more info!

Thanks!
Stacy

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Permalink Reply by Brenda on September 20, 2009 at 12:20am

Hi Stacy,
I can't believe I didn't see your response. I'd love to pick your brain on how you used technology. I'm new to 4th grade this year and I want to use the technology I have available. Have you ever used something called a bamboo pad which I think is like a corel drawing board.
I've looked at your site, bookmarked a lot of your graphic organizers. I put them in my portaportal so the kids can use them at school or at home.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Brenda :)

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Wylie on September 8, 2009 at 8:30pm

Brenda, do mind me asking where you are submitting your grant to? Is it a local organization or national?

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Permalink Reply by Brenda on September 20, 2009 at 12:18am

It's through our citiy. They have an educator grant that many teachers apply for. Do you have any ideas???? Thanks,

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Wylie on September 20, 2009 at 7:07am

I also did a newscast type exercise with 4th Grade last year. They wrote the scripts, made script boards, filmed with a digital camera, and edited in iMovie. I have also done PowerPoints with embedded media, and photo slideshows of school trips in iPhoto. We have begun some class blogging this year, and I hope to offer individual blogs very soon. Vocaroo or AudioPal lets you embed audio in blogs, and we recorded some poems that way. I am also going to get into Glogster some more this year and see how I can integrate that across the curriculum. The EDU version lets you create student accounts that you can manage from a teacher account.

There is so much material out there that sometimes it is hard to find, or just keep track of. I am trying to keep track of them via my own blog, www.educationtechnologyblog.com. I have a link on there to my favorite sites on simplybox..