Fur.ly

Fur.ly is another site offering users the ability to shorten multiple URL's into one.  You can find previous posts where I discuss these services.  Fur.ly is not much different.  You copy and paste several URL's and then it provides you with one short URL.  When you visit the URL it created you then view each website in a slideshow fashion. 

Fur.ly does allow you to open links you shortened in a separate window and it also provides a drop down menu to each long URL you provided.  An added bonus is that you also receive stats to determine how often they have been viewed.  These stats will help you determine whether students are accessing the links that you have provided them.

Psykopaint

Personally, I was never really that good at art.  I remember one time doing a stencil drawing of a still image and being impressed with my skills...after that, it all went down hill.  Needless to say, my artwork at 4 was better than at 14.

Psykopaint is a website for those of us that have a limited ability to think abstractly or understanding colors and shading.  We also might struggle understanding the different styles of art.  With Psykopaint you can upload and photo and turn it into a fascinating work of art.  From the picture the software knows what colors go where, you just determine the style.  When you are finished you can pay to have your artwork put on a canvas, thus making it a great gift idea.

So what about classroom use.  Psykopaint would be a great way for Arts and Humanities teachers to discuss the various styles of art, both modern and contemporary.  It might be a neat way to take images that you share in class and change the appearance and then have students guess what they are looking at, and then reveal the original, especially famous people. 

The site still takes some artistic creativity, but at least you can start with something instead of a blank canvas....but the site also allows you to use a blank canvas if you so desire.  Just visit the front page of Psykopaint and see the samples and play around with the samples.

Kideos - Videos for Kids

"Kideos is the premier destination for kids to safely watch videos online. Each video on Kideos has been screened by our Video Advisory Council before it makes it onto our site. Our goal is to empower parents to feel comfortable allowing their child to spend time on Kideos, while also making sure children have a thoroughly entertaining experience." 

Kideos provides videos for various age groups from 0-2 to 9-10.  There are various channels that you can search through to find videos that you are looking for as well as the ones that are rated most popular.  Think of Kideos as a combination of YouTube and Hulu.  There is also an iPhone App available so kids can watch videos on the go.


I know I normally focus on Secondary resources, but this seemed too valuable to pass up...especially since my wife teaches 3rd grade.

Cosketch and FlockDraw

Cosketch is a multi-user online whiteboard designed to give you the ability to quickly visualize and share your ideas as images.  It can be integrated with Google Maps, so if you are doing a Google Trek, this would be a good resource to use.  What I like is the ability to upload a photo and then draw/sketch on top of that photo.  This would be a great way to take a screen shot of a Power Point Slide or other document and have students take notes, make edits, etc on those images.  If you use a blank canvas it would be a great way to teach Geometry concepts because students could participate in the drawing of Geometry concepts. 

With Cosketch, everything that you sketch shows up in real time as it is happening.  With one click you can save your sketch to embed on a blog or forum, providing students more ways of communicating concepts.  There is also a chat feature so that you are not limited to just drawing.  There are several drawing tools to choose from. 

The Internet is truly providing new ways for students to collaborate on projects in the classroom.  There are several options for students to create stories in sections and students finish them.  Cosketch could be used to draw a story that students complete in segments.

FlockDraw is another option for online whiteboard collaboration.  Flockdraw is a free to use web based painting/drawing tool. It makes it easy to draw with multiple people for fun or business. You can have unlimited people in a room and it updates in real time. Uses different colors, shapes and text. Save your work to our gallery and show it off!

Magnoto

Magnoto is like an all in one website for sharing various types of multimedia.  Think of it as an online bulletin board, online poster board, and a blogging platform.  Several features remind me of Glogster.  There are also several features that remind me of Lino It.  Then there is the idea of making it into a blog, yet it is a blogging platform like one I have never seen.

I learned about this site from Kelly Tenkely and her iLearn Technology blog does a great job of explaining several of the features and concepts of Magnoto, so I point you to her blog post to learn more instead of my attempt at reinventing the wheel....plus, giving credit where credit is due!

Thanks Kelly!