Blabberize

So, I came across this site surfing the web. Found it kind of funny. Then I thought, "how could this be used in the classroom?"  Well there are multiple options.  You could do short biographies of a famous person.  It would be like your students speaking as a famous president or inventor.  Your students could load their own picture and read a poem.  If you have students studying animals, find a picture of an animal and talk as if you were that animal, sharing information about it.  Really you could use any image of anything or anyone you are studying.

I think it would be a memorable way to share information.  It would keep your students entertained as well as attentive to the presentation.  It would have to be worked on some where in silence so there is not background noise, but it would be a great addition to a homework assignment or any project over someone famous.  Of course your students would need Internet access.

Here is one I created.  Looks like I am talking out of the corner of my mouth.  I also could have made the mouth opening bigger which would have been more entertaining.  Go ahead and laugh...I did!

One Page Websites

Many students do not use the same software at home that we use at school, especially those from lower income districts.  Now the technology has expanded making it easier for teachers to convert files from Word Perfect, or Works, or whatever program the students are using.  There is however another options.  Two websites that I discovered give your students the ability to create a one page webpage.  Students could type their paper using these webpages and then just simply write down the link on a sheet of paper and bring it into class.

Just Paste It and Axess.im give students the ability to title the webpage and then share it with you.  It would then also make it easier for you to share on your own website or blog.  Each site allows you to easily upload pictures as well as links.  You can also embed Youtube videos via HTML or directly (depending on which one students use).  Both are very simple to use and offer most of the Text Formatting you will see in an average Word program.  Just Paste It automatically saves your work every 3 minutes, so if the browser crashes, the data will not be lost.

Be careful though.  You want to make sure that the students work is not plagarized and that if you post it, other students do not use it without permission, so you might have to createa a password for your webpage and then give people access to it that way.  Also know that anything posted to these websites becomes the property of the developers, royalty free.

Just some things to keep in mind, but for simple assignments, this would/could be a solution to your problem.

Edublog Awards

The time has come again for the Edublog Awards.  I am new to this whole Edublog experience, but I thought I would share the previous winners of 2008 so that you could view their blogs.  You can also view back to 2004.  Got to wonder if any blogs from 2004 are still up and running with all the changes to the Internet and Technology Integration.

You can nominate a blog for a multitude of different categories.

My Nominations for The 2009 Edublog Awards are:

Best teacher blog - Social Studies Central
Best Resource Sharing Blog - Free Technology For Teachers
Best educational use of a social networking service: Classroom 2.0
Best educational wiki - Moving Forward
Lifetime Achievement - Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod


Personally, I am new to the game.  I am sure there are a lot of other Edubloggers out there that I have not visited, but these are the ones that I have feeds to, so they are ones that I watch and keep up with.

Thanks.  Visit all the great Edubloggers out there and show your support.  They work hard to share information with all of us.