Google Font

Create a cool title or heading for your Wiki or Blog using Google Font. Type in the words and click Create Logo!

Click on Download Logo

Do a right click over the logo and select Save Picture as

Save it to a folder on your computer and insert as a picture into your wiki or blog.

SlideBoom and animated PowerPoint

Set up an account, upload animated PowerPoints with sounds, video, links, buttons and transitions to SlideBoom. Embed in blogs and wikis. Students will need to critique their PowerPoints before uploading, remind them that 'less is more' when adding effects to their slideshows.

Make Beliefs Comix

Create comics with characters, panel prompts and talk balloons MakebeliefsComix. Make 2, 3 or 4 page comics. You can't save or download the comics but you can Email or print (or take a screen capture and paste into Word or PowerPoint).

If you are taking a screen capture for showing in a PowerPoint then make sure that you only do a 2 page comic at a time, that way you will get a better image when you make it bigger on the screen.

Children from Hunua School went on class trip to the local Police Station. They presented the experience they had by creating comics in Make Beliefs Comix and then inserted the finished comics into PowerPoint.

Zoho: Online Free Office Package

Zoho allows you to create WordProcessing documents, Slideshow Presentations, Spreadsheets, Databases, email, calendar, blog sites and more. And it is free. Which means if your students have internet connection at home but no suitable WordProcessing packages on their computer then they can use this suite of applications for their homework. Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents can be uploaded to Zoho, and vice versa you can download your Zoho documents into Word, PowerPoint or Excel or even in PDF file format.
There is a limit to what you can do regarding extra tools but the basics are there. You can insert photos, type text, insert tables, change fonts, size and colour, align text, print and save.





It also has an easy to use Database Creator so students could create their own surveys or databases

Moblyng: Creating Photo Slideshows

Moblyng is free software that you can upload your photos to, organise them in many different formats, add music and titles if you wish and then embed the code into blogs or Wikis. I have used it here to showcase how some students I worked with recently took their own photographs after watching a slideshow I had made about 'How Kids can take great Photos'
You need to register first and set up an account before you can save the slideshow to get the embed code.

Visit http://www.moblyng.com/make-slideshow/ to make your own!

Education version of Glogster

Glogster has been around for a while but now they do an education version. You can create school accounts and keep Glogs private. They will be adding more features as time goes by. You do need to make sure you have the latest versions of Adobe flash for everything to work well.
Its catch phrase is 'Poster Yourself!' Insert photos, graphics, text boxes, speech bubbles, podcasts, movies (Youtube, webcam), hyperlinks to other files and sounds so that it becomes interactive. This is wonderful way for children to present their work and publish it to a blog, wiki or website. So instead of making a poster displaying children's knowledge, get them to make an interactive poster that links to the places they found their research i.e. online encyclopedias, movies etc



Examples of how to use Glogster

• book reports
• book trailers (advertising a book in the same way a movie trailer advertises a movie)
• character analysis (picture of a character and labels)
  
• publishing their writing (recounts, explanations, argument etc)
• Inquiry learning presentation on a topic
• posters for health (all about me, how to keep safe)
  
• science (steps of an experiment, findings from an experiment)
• comparison statements, insert photos or graphics and make comparisons
• insert a glog that has different elements hyperlinked into the home page of a Wiki so it becomes the 'launcher' page that links to other pages

Jigzone

I used to subscribe to the website Jigzone years ago, but it became too addictive. Especially if you have the jigsaws emailed to you everyday! But it is a great educational tool, all you have to do is upload a jpeg, choose how many pieces you want then embed into a blog, website or wiki...or hyperlink through PowerPoint to the link where your Jigzone has been saved.

This activity has been created in Jigzone. Upload a photo to Jigzone, set the number of pieces and save it. I created these images in PowerPoint by typing in all the words, rearranging them, inserting a shape behind them, grouping all the images and then right clicking to use the option 'Save as Picture'. Then I uploaded the image to Jigzone. I could then hyperlink the image I had made from PowerPoint to the jigsaw I had made.

This is a photo that a child took of another child playing on the Adventure Playground.

Scribd - Presentation Software

Scribd is my new favourite online presentation tool. It is very simple to upload documents, and accepts many types of files (PowerPoint, Word, PDF and picture file formats jpeg etc). This is a wonderful way to showcase children's published work online as it embeds into Blogs and Wikis. Below is an example of a Word document.

Where the Wild Things Are Activities - Upload a Document to Scribd

Make giant posters

Block Posters
Create free huge posters of your photos by going to this site http://www.blockposters.com/ choose how many sheets wide you want it to be, download it as a PDF and print out your poster

Big Huge Labs 'Curriculum use of Photos'

Big Huge Labs
has a multitude of applications that can be used in an educational context mainly as different ideas for publishing or presenting. If your school blocks Flickr though you might not be able to use it. Occasionally you might see some questionable advertising that you might like to advise your students to ignore. Click on images to see a larger version.

Motivational Posters

Insert a photo and type in an inspirational message, choose a frame.

Bead Art

Digitises photos and turn into beads

Jigsaw

Photos are turned into jigsaws with some pieces missing.

Picture Cube

Create your own dice with photos and graphics.

Magazine Cover

Create your own magazine cover with photo and words

Wahorliser

Turn a photo into a Warhol picture.
And there are many more if you click on the 'Jump to Menu' options

Wordle - Word Clouds

Wordle is an application that creates Word clouds from text. The more times the word is used is how large the text will be. You can print them or take a screen capture of them for use on blogs or wikis. To embed you must save to Gallery first and then the code will appear. Here is an example of text copied from a recent newspaper article. This could be used as an activity for writing a report.











Or this one where the story of Cinderella was copied from wikipedia site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella

Why not copy the text from a child's story and insert into Wordle, the student will be able to see what words they use the most in their writing.
Here are some examples of student writing. This particular student is very aware about using descriptive adjectives and interesting verbs.


This next student who is of the same age as the previous one has the same amount of words, but it is obvious which words she has overused by the size of the text. In discussion with this student she is able to clearly see that she needs to find other words for 'said, school, fun' and she could look at the use of her pronouns as well. Compare the two Wordle diagrams and it is obvious which student has the larger vocab!
If you are letting students enter this site on their own then I suggest that you give them this address http://wordle.net/create this will avoid the Home screen which has examples of others 'Wordles'. Occasionally there may be one that has inappropriate words but if you use this address with the Create it will open up the Create window thus avoiding looking at the Home Screen. There are new features being added regularly. Use the menus to make more changes to your diagrams, the Language menu allows you to show all common words like 'the' or 'and'. The font menu offers you a range of creative fonts. Layout gives you many choices for viewing the words horizontally, vertically or any which way. Under the Colour option you can change the colour of the words and backgrounds. This application has the potential for many uses in education so give it a try!

Mixbook Creating books on line

Mixbook is an application that enables you to create online books (with turning pages!) with photos and text. You can upload photos and jpegs to a library in Mixbook. There are a variety of page templates to choose from. Once finished they can be embedded into wikis and blogs.

View More Create a Photobook

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Be Funky - Catoonise your photos

Be Funky is a photo editing application that will cartoonise your photos in colour or as line drawings.



These can then be saved to your computer.

Use these images to create a cartoon in ComicLife or insert them into Autoshapes in Word or PowerPoint.

There is also a wonderful morphing tool where you can stretch parts of the photo. These boys look like elves now!

Eventually you will be able to cartoonise video clips as well as this is a feature they are working on. See a demo here.

Dipity and Timelines

Dipity is an online application that allows you to make and share interactive timelines. There is a search feature to look at other timelines under a wide range topics i.e. History, Literacy, Social Science etc. These timelines can be embedded into wikis, blogs and webpages. This is an example of an incomplete timeline about Sir Edmund Hillary.

Sir Edmund Hillary on Dipity.

bubbl.us Online collaborative mindmapping

bubbl.us is an online mindmapping tool that can be embedded into blogs, wikis and websites. It can be created online, saved, printed and other people can be invited to add to it. It can also be exported as a image so it can be inserted into wordprocessing documents. Once it is embedded use your mouse to click and drag the diagram around, use the scroll button on your mouse to zoom in and out. Try this out on the example below.

Animoto

Animoto is slideshow creator that animates your photos. This example has PowerPoint slides saved as jpegs. There are also some microsoft clipart examples of bees.

Slideshare

Slideshare is a programme where you can share your PowerPoint or Keynote presentations. You can save them as .pps, .ppt or pdf. This is an ideal tool for children to showcase their presentations online in a wiki or a blog publishing their writing or sharing their findings on a research .

View Upload your own

Photoshow

Photoshow combines photos with captions, transitions, effects, and musical soundtracks.

The Photoshow can then be shared on blogs and wikis. Create your photo slides using KidPix (as in this example)

How to create a del.icio.us account

How To Create A Delicious Account

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: delicious)

How to compress photos

View Upload your own

How to compress photos in Picture Manager


SlideShare Link

How to create a Flickr Account

View Upload your own

How to create a basic Flickr account


SlideShare Link

Mapwing

This is Mapwing. A programme that enables you to create a virtual tour from photos and images. Create a map background, then add pins to pinpoint areas you would like people to look at. Add photos and text (descriptions, information etc) to those areas. Embed into a wiki, or a website.

Del.icio.us How to

Del.icio.us is one of those free sites you must have. Too many times you will have found yourself in this situation, you have bookmarked favourite websites on your computer at home and different ones on your computer at work! You sit down at the computer at work and want the bookmarked sites that are on your home computer. Del.icio.us is the website that will store all of your bookmarks in one central place so that you can access them on any computer with internet access. To set up your Del.icio.us account click on this link Del.icio.us

Click on register
type in user name. I usually suggest at this point that you might like to have 2 Delicious accounts, one for personal and one for education use. Use your own name (first and last name) as a user name. Type your full name, type your password twice (it must have at least one number in it). Type in your email, don't use your class one, use your private one as you will want to take this list with you when you go. Type the letters you see in the gray box, click Register.

The next window will install your Delicious buttons onto your browser toolbar. Safari will instruct you to click and drag the buttons up and drop onto your toolbar. The Firefox and Explorer browser will ask you to click and install extensions. This one asks you to 'Install the Extension Now!
This message may appear saying that 'Firefox prevented this site...
Just click the Options button and click Allow and then Close
In the next dialogue box click on the item you want to install, then click Install.

Once you have installed your buttons, it is best to close your browser and reopen it.

Your 2 new buttons will appear on your toolbar. This button will take you to your Delicious page and this button is your Tag button. When you find a website you want to book mark, click on the Tag button. A new window will open with the name of the website, the address, a place for you to add notes and tags. Add a note that explains what the website does. Tags are very important, tags will appear at the right hand side of your Delicious page and are an important navigational tool for you and for others who might look at your site. If it is a maths site you might consider adding specific tags such as geometry or statistics. Click Save.

These tags will need to get sorted into Bundles when you return to your Delicious page. Click on the Delicious button on your toolbar to return to your Delicious page.
If you do not bundle your tags they will end up as a long list down the side of your page. Click on the blue bundle tags link. Type in a bundle name in the new bundle box click Create. Type in some tags that will be added to that bundle, when you have enough tags click Save Changes Go back to your Delicious page and you will see your bundles and tags, (you will only see tags of the Websites you have added so far.)