Apture - Snapshot tool for your wikis and blogs

Apture allows you to save webpages within your blog or wiki without leaving your site.

First you will need to download the plug in, click on Download Plugin.
Select a blog type and then click on the Install the extension (in this example Firefox)

You will need to open a new post page and the extension will be added.
Follow the instructions to activate the link.
Highlight the text that will open up the Snapshot

Click on the Apture link button
Paste in the URL address for the snapshot, click Go
Choose whether you want an External Link or a snippet then click on Create Link

Hold your mouse over the Link below (don't click) to see the snapshot window

Here is a snapshot of another one of my blogs

Or click on the Apture Embed button, paste in URL and click Go


Wiki Instructions
For a Wiki click on Other Platform and click on Get Started now then Create a Super Embed

Choose from the selections; article, map, audio, document, person, news article, webpage
Type URL address, click Go




An image will appear of the website.
Click on Create an Embed
Click on Copy this code
Paste into your Wiki Widget.

Textoriser -Textorise your images

Textoriser turns your pictures into words. In this example I have used the text from my ICT Teaching and Learning blog and my avatar.
First download the software from Textorizer, install the software. Upload a picture.

To use your own text, copy the text into a Word/Pages file and save the file as a .txt.
Click on the Change Text and browse to your text file.
There are two choices of Textorizing, the one I prefer using is Textorizer Two.

You will need to play around with the the font scale and text size (drag the blue bars up and down like sliders).
Click on Textorize when finished.
Maximize your screen before taking a Screen Capture

Here is an example of the same graphic with slightly bigger text.

Here is an example of a Picture created in KidPix, saved as a jpeg. The text was typed in Word and saved as a text file. Here are 3 different examples where I have adjusted the font scale, text size and Line height. Click on each example to see the full image.

Wallwisher in the classroom

I have seen Wallwisher used in a few different ways by teachers, which has of course inspired me to write this post and come up with some more ideas of how to use it. So instead of writing the ideas in this post I have added them to the Wallwisher. Please feel free to add but additions are moderated.
If I was using this with students in real time I would not moderate it until later.
You do not have to set up an account, but for classroom use I would as you can save and view all of your walls.

First choose your wall colour and add distinguishing words to the end of your wall URL if you would like to personalise the wall. Click on the options of who is able to view or post notes. If you want to approve the posts click on the check box.
Type in a title for your Wallwisher by clicking on Click here to edit title and do the same for the Subtitle.

Add an Icon Picture to the wall by clicking on Click to select image. Choose one from the ones provided or upload a  picture from your own picture library by clicking on the Browse button.
When you have finished click on the 'done' button in the bottom right hand of the screen.
To add a note, double click on the wall, type in your note which is limited to 160 characters.

You can add links to a website or to a  movie by pasting in the URL at the bottom of the note.

The notes can be moved around and organised.
The notes can only be edited or deleted by the wall owner.
If you have given a unique name to your wall, anybody can view and add to it http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ineducation but in this case I am moderating the comments.

Hero Machine Version 2.5

Hero Machine Version 2.5 is another Superhero site. This one is very comprehenisive and offers many choices. I particularly like how you can add a companion.

There is also four choices of bodies.







Once you have added all the parts and features to your superhero then you will need to take a screen capture
 Update 3 November 2009
Jeff the Designer left a comment about my post and told me that HeroMachine Version 3.0 is in Alpha mode, it looks amazing, heaps more options. Kids are going to have fun with this one!

Animoto for Educators

The standard Animoto website allows you to make 30 second videos for free with about 12 items (photos or video clips). Add text over slides and spotlight the special slides. Add music by choosing tracks available from the Animoto library or upload from your own computer. Once the movie is generated it can be uploaded to Facebook, Twitter, or any social networking site, and it can be embedded in blogs and wikis.






Animoto for Educators allows more choices. Click on the Apply button to lodge an application for Animoto for Educators. Create longer videos and export to Youtube or download to your own computer.

PhotoPeach - Slideshows

PhotoPeach allows you to make slideshows out of photos, add captions to each slide, add music and then finally add a quiz to the end of the slideshow. Once the slideshow is finished, the viewers can leave a comment in the comment box.
You need to sign up for an account first.

Step One: Upload photos
Step Two: Arrange your images into the order you want to present them
Step Three: Type in a title and choose your music. There is a choice of instrumental, classic, search YouTube or upload your own
Step Four: Click Finish
Step Five: Play the slideshow and add captions by clicking on Add caption
Step Six: Type in the caption, choose where you want to place it 'Center or Bottom'
Step Seven: Click on the next photo and add a caption, repeat with all of the photos



Step Eight: Finally, add a quiz by adding first a blank slide and then click on the Quiz button. Type in the Quiz. Complete the slideshow by clicking on OK at the top of the page.

There are several  ways of sharing your slideshow.
Email to friends, upload to Facebook, MySpace, add a link to Twitter, embed a copy into your wiki or blog or copy a link to the slideshow that could be inserted into PowerPoint,Word, Keynote, Pages, Zoho or Google Docs.

Methods of Drafting on PhotoPeach

Voki - Animated Avatar

A Voki is an animated avatar.







You can customise the avatar's look.

You can add voice by typing in some text and a computer generated voice will read it out, or record your own voice using the microphone.
You can add backgrounds.





And  you can publish to your blog or wiki.
You can also send to an email address and a phone
You will need to set up an account.


Get a Voki now!

More Superhero Avatars

Following on from my blogpost about The Hero Factory, there is another Superhero site. Marvel has their own website for creating superheroes.
Click Begin and then create your base.

Then go through all of the tabs to create your superhero.


To save the Superhero you need to set up an account or you can click Download and then take a screen capture.

Kid Friendly Avatar Maker - My Avatar Editor

When you show My Avatar Editor to children they recognise it straight away as it looks like the avatars (known as Mii) you can make on a Wii. It is very easy to use.
Type in your name and creator name.
Choose Gender,
Choose colours.
Then click on the buttons below to personalise your avatar.
Once you have finished click on the the Save button (the first button)

There are several save options.
I recommend using the Export option as that allows you save it as a Jpeg. You can also select the Pictures size and a background colour.

Tagul - Interactive Word Clouds

Tagul is an interactive Word (Tag) cloud. Each word is linked to a website so it becomes a navigation tool for the viewer. How it is different from Wordle is

1. words are interactive, it is a tag cloud
   
2. you can have several different fonts
3. you can have the words in a shape
   

It can be time consuming as you have to go through every word to delete common words or words that you don't want to appear in the cloud. It is still very new and the developer 'Alex' has stated that there are more features to come. In this example I used my blogsite 'ICT Teaching and Learning' to generate the words for the Word cloud, all the words in the cloud point to Google but this can be tweaked to point to other websites. Once you have played around with it for a while it is quite easy to mix and match colours, fonts, shapes and backgrounds.
It will be interesting to see how this application develops and how we could use it in education.

Comparing Embeddable Mindmapping software

I needed a Mindmap recently that would have hyperlinks to different sites. It also had to be readable and scrollable. Here are my efforts:

Webspiration was a little disappointing as it would not hyperlink when embedded. The links work when  you are in Webspiration. For ease of use, look, and ability to be creative I really like Webspiration but it falls down in the embedding. You can collaborate, upload Inspiration, download to Inspiration and you can publish on a webpage and access through a hyperlink, but you can't click on a hyperlink in the embedded document. See example below. All you can do is zoom in and out to view the document.


Result: Overall Features 8/10 Embed in blog/wiki 5/10

Mindmeister came up the best in embedding in a wiki/blog. It looks good, easy to navigate, simple to create map, graphics are limited, not much of a variety as Webspiration, but it did exactly what I wanted and that was to embed a diagram that hyperlinked. You can add notes and attachments and it can be collaborated on. It is also free, but you can upgrade for a price to a more sophisticated product with more features. Hover over the links and you will see thumbnails of the websites.


Result: Overall Features 8/10 Embed in blog/wiki 10/10

Wise Mapping is the third mind map I looked at. It is very similar to Mindmeister in all of the features. There is quite a range of colours, you can add notes and others can collaborate on it as well. There are limited graphics. It embeds easily enough but I didn't choose it as the one to go on my wiki as it is difficult to manipulate and view. Mindmeister was clearer and easier to view.



Result: Overall Features 7/10 Embed in blog/wiki 8/10

So my main choice was Mindmeister, the others had merits but Mindmeister was far ahead as the choice to use an embeddable hyperlinking mindmap.

Make a Wordsearch for your blog or wiki

Create your own Wordsearch in Wordsearch Maker and embed into your blog or wiki.
Click on the first letter and last letter of the word in the Wordsearch and it will highlight all of the words.

Make Your Own Word Search

Ways to use this application
Wordsearch on

• your Topic words
• spelling lists
• novel study characters
• number names in maths
• focus words
• essential word lists
• commonly used words
• computer terms
• conjunctions
• verbs
• adjectives
• nouns
• titles of books
• authors
• geometrical terms
• measurement terms
• children's names in class
• suburbs in your city
• cities in your country
• countries in your continent

R rating- None that I could find