BP12_ 2010043_Oneminutemessage(Animoto)

Here is the URL for my week 3 one minute message    One minute message

BP10_2010043Comment(Aminah)

Here is my comment on Aminah's blog about Tikatok.

This can be seen at the url underneath my screen shot.
http://yjackets99.blogspot.com/2010/04/bp52010042web-20-tools.html#comments

BP9_2010043_Web2.0tool3Animoto

For this week, I thought that I would try to check out something that could be used by anyone.  I found a video-producing tool called "Animoto".

What is Animoto? 

It is a Web 2.0 tool where a person can take images and music and produce short videos. (short means 30 seconds).

You can upload your own music or video clips but you are not limited to your own there is a library that allows for borrowing images, music and video clips.  I produced two short videos very in about 5 minutes.  It gives the three steps for creating a video then the site puts it together and produces the video clip.

There are three steps to assembling a video.  Step one is to pick images.  There are several choices here.  You can pick your pictures from your computer, you can load pictures in from Flick, Facebook, SmugMug, Picasa or photobucket.  The other choice is to use images from their library.  It is not hard to put choose the different images.  It is mostly click and waiting until the image loads.

The second step is to choose some music.  Now, it is not the stuff that runs on the hit parade, but some little know artists who apparently agreed to have their stuff on this site.  Several classical pieces are also part of this, but short selections and then the Animoto editor cuts the music to fit the images. Animoto then produces the video and then you can store your videos on your site.  It also lets you move away from the site while the videos are being produced.

Here is what your creating space looks like.

Here is what your saved space looks like.

Ways to use this:  Easy way to produce short videos. (30 seconds)  Pictures are very kid friendly.  Music is not necessarily short clips, but there is no editing necessary.  If there is an idea, then that idea could be produced in a 30 second video.  There is only one problem and that is the site continually asks you to upgrade to full length or other versions that you have to pay for.  If a student accidently clicks on the upgrade, then someone will have to come up with the money to do it.  It is only $3.00 for a full length video.  The videos turn out really well.  I have included one that I did here.

pretty flowers

BP11_2010043comment (Louise)

I posted a comment on Louise Cooper's blog.  I have found that everyone is researching different things so it is interesting to see what others think about particular tools.

http://louisewcooper.blogspot.com/2010/04/bp5-20100418-web20tools.html

Post on April 21

I was inspired by the fact that while I was looking through some of our links for WEB 2.0 tools, I ran across something that surprised me.
One that was mentioned was Minnesota's 23 things on a stick.  I took part in 23 things on a stick about two years ago.  So I have been introduced to 23 different web 2.0 tools.  In fact my other blog is from that particular session.

i also was surprised to see a media guru in Minnesota's blog as part of the DEN network.  It is now part of  my RSS feeds.  His name is Doug Johnson and to media specialists around Minnesota, he is one of the people who are trying to save our jobs, as media is being cut around the state.

BP8_2010042_oneminutemessage

one minute message


This is the link to my one minute message about Wordle.  Enjoy!

BP7_2010042_Comment on blog(Aminah)

Here is my comment on Aminah's Web 2.0 tool.  It looks like it might be something that I would use in my classroom.

This is posted on

BP6_2010042_Comment on blog(jason fudge)

I commented on Jason's Web 2.0 tools.  I am not sure that I would personally use this tool.

More research is needed.

Here is my comment.

the link is here http://etcjfudge.blogspot.com/2010/04/bp42010041web-20-tool.html

BP5_2010041_Web2.0tool_ToonDoo

I looked at several different Web 2.0 tools this week before deciding which one to review for this week. One was for electronic portfolios, but mostly for artists.  I also tried an animation site, but it didn't do what I wanted.  


Finally, I settled on ToonDoo. This is a place where students (or anyone) can create cartoon characters or comic strips, it can also be used to make books.  There are four “R”s to the ToonDoo software.


   One is called “TraitR”.  This allows you to create a person or in other words an avatar. It has several different facial characteristics in the palette which allows you to make a person.  This is what I got.  It really doesn't look much like me, but it is supposed to be a cartoon.  I was only able to change the color on the shirt and the skirt.  I was not able to change colors on the shoes or sleeves.

I also attempted to create a cartoon like environment for myself using some of the ready made drag and drop items from their "library" of pieces available. this is just using different clip art pieces.  These are available as part of a Toon.  They also allow books and the ability to mess up a picture that you have taken, that is called "ImaginR".

I also made this one of my cat.  He is black, however, but this is something that he would say.  He's kinda like Garfield in that way.

There are other features of ToonDoo.Another is called “ImagineR”.  This is one where you can take a picture that you own and “goofify” them.  You can also take a picture off the web and change it.

Another feature is the “DoodleR”.  This is a palette of features which allows you to draw on top of what you created when you make your own comic.

They also have a fourth “R”.  This is what they call “SocialR”.  This is how they want people to interact with each other.  Using this feature one person can say whether they like someone else’s toons, or if they don’t like them.

ToonDoo also has a feature title “ToonDoo Spaces”.  This is an area that can allow users a private area to save their books and comics.  This part of ToonDoo is not free.  There is a free trial of 15 days which can be used for storage, but otherwise, you pay per user per month.  The cost for one person per month is about $.17.  They also have a graph which helps to figure out the costs.

I could use this to allow some creativity into the classroom.  These toons can be used in slide shows and possibly podcasts or movies.  (I might try that as well.)  It could also be used to create avatars for different websites.

   

new stuff

watch for new stuff
BP 1-4 are posted!

BP2_2010041_EduUses4Blogs

Uses for blogs.

     In my personal experience, I have used blogs for only one thing and that was for a diary of sorts when I did 23things on a stick with Metronet from Minneapolis.

      I did set up about seven or eight for a summer school class of 3 & 4^th graders to tell a bit about their summer experience in a bicycling class, however, due to lack of time (and poor keying skills) not much got written into these blogs.

     In Song (2009), the author discussed using blogs in a graduate level class to post remixed art images and mentioned that: “Posting on the blog is a social action that can raise environmental awareness in others.” (p. 234). The art images were changed images that students in the class assembled and used to promote social awareness. They took an image that they found and changed it to advertise a social concept. 

     Churchill (2009) discovered that blogs were very useful when it came to using blogs.  He concluded that there were three main blog based activities for learning and they were to read blogs of others, obtain comments from everyone and looking at others tasks and getting feedback.  He had done some studying on blogs and also used them for his own reflection.

There are several uses for blogs.  Not only a diary of personal learning but an opportunity for social action and the allowing of seeing others thoughts online.  In this class, I suspect that our blogs will not only be a journaling of what we learned but a chance to learn from others as we read the blogs of others.

References

Churchill, D. (2009). Educational applications for Web 2.0:Using blogs to support teaching and learning. British Journal of Educational Technology 40 (1), 179-183.

Song, Y.I. K. (2009) Media art remix: a tool for social action. International Journal of Education through Art:5 (2&3), 229-240.

BP1_20100401_iGoogle Screen Shots

                                                                                

Here are my screen shots of my iGoogle tabs.
The first one is my home page, I do not have a twitter account but am in the process of getting one going.

This is my AR/CBL tab.  I do not have my Del.ici.ous account attached yet, but will next week.

This is my FSO tab.  I use my Sign in page as a home page so I don't go to this site right away.











This is my ETC tab.  I have used Google Docs and have a few things posted.  My Flickr account has been disabled, but I am in the process of reinstating it.

BP4_2010041_RSS Feeds

I have more than the few subscriptions that has been asked for.  I have put them in folders where I can look at them quickly.

One of the things that I have is a folder full of Minnesota News feeds.  I am a news junkie and I like nothing better to keep up in what is going on around me.  This is why I chose the folder with the television and newspaper feeds from Minnesota.

Two other subscriptions that I have are the FSO grad (Rena Hanaway's blog and Dr. Ludgate's blog.  I thought that this was probably the easiest way to keep track of what was going on in each of these blogs.

I also picked a folder of technology feeds.  The reason is to keep up with what is happening or what is new on the technology front.

The final one is a folder of librarian feeds.  Besides the 23 Things on a Stick, which I was part of in 2005, I will also add Camp Read a lot which is a professional development course that is a ning that I used last year and will again this year.  On it we comment about books that we have read.  The other librarian feeds are because that is the field that I have been part of and want to know what is going on with librarians.

BP3_2010041_Web2.0T1-Wordle

This is what I found.

The Web 2.0 tool that I wanted to check out is Wordle.  The reason for picking Wordle, is partly because I read something about it in one of the articles that we had to read for the class.  I thought it might be fun to play with and make word collages.  So I did.

This is just an example of what you can do with Wordle.  In order to create a product in Wordle, you need to paste or key in several words and then it creates a collage like you see above.  You can change colors of the words and background and the font.  Like this,

      One problem with this is that there is a font entitled “Sexsmith”, so the site becomes blocked just for that reason.  The font was developed by a person by the name of “Sexsmith”.   This makes it difficult for some people to use it-as their filter blocks anything with "sex" in it.

       This might come in handy when working with vocabulary words of any type.  I tried that too.  These are terms that I have used with students while teaching my technology courses.

It didn't work as well with the terms as the words get mixed up and if you are not careful, then the term gets mixed into the meaning.  The one thing that I did miss was a "back" key or a way to go back from where you where.  However, it does allow you to randomize the words on the page.  This application may also be good for brainstorming, descriptions or a poetry unit.  If you have a bunch of words to use, then it could colorize the words and then someone could decide which words to use for a particular use.

The site also has a gallery of other people's work, which was interesting, however, there were some on there with words that I wouldn't let others see.  This may also exclude the site from some filters.

I would recommend its use if teachers could get to it.