Curiosity is Fundamental

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Thursday, October 7, 2010

BP7_Comment to Elizabeth Ashley

If you are a parent in search of a safe tool for your young child to use and monitor, follow my link to Elizabeths explanation to Zoodles.

BP6_Comment to Tremeris Sanders

Cool converting Web 2.0 tool. Check it out by following this link.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

My action research is still a little shaky for me. When I say shaky, I mean it’s hard to finalize and make the topic concise when I am having a hard time finding literature for the topic. As of now my action research is about differentiating instruction to be able to reach my diverse population of students. I would like to differentiate instruction using the theory of multiple intelligences and technology. I feel that the multiple intelligence theory and technology will allow me to motivate and engage my students therefore increasing student involvement in their own learning.

While researching Web 2.0 applications I found the Voki. Voki is a very interesting application. It’s humorous and definitely engaging. Voki allows the user to create an avatar using their menu of categories. The user can customize the body, clothes, props, and background of the window. The most amusing portion is adding a voice to your avatar. The user has different languages and accents to select from. This application allows the user to add a voice to the avatar through four different methods. Voki is definitely user friendly. The created avatar can be embedded to several different social networks. Anyone can add a comment on the Voki window by clicking on the comment button. Once an account is created with Voki several avatars can be created.

I can use Voki in many different assignments in my classroom. As an introduction assignment, it can be used for students to invent themselves and interact with one another by commenting on each other’s Voki. I can have students create a short speech on a topic and have them present it using their avatars. I can use it to present a topic or project. This is an application I anticipate to use to engage my student.

Monday, October 4, 2010

BP4_Sweet Search

It’s amazing how oblivious I am to so many of the web 2.0 tools out there. From the website provided (www.go2web20.net), there were many e-learning applications I liked but I decided to pick Sweet Search for this assignment. I picked Sweet Search because I do periodically assign different research topics for my students. Sweet Search is an amazing search engine for students. Once a students begins a search they are provided with a list of selected website. Sweet Search provides students with several small sections from each webpage with the words they are researching. The students are allowed to select the portion that applies to their research. After selecting all the portions that will enable the students to complete their assignment. The students are then allowed to record or share the gathered information in different ways. One way to store the information is by bookmarking all the selections into a created folder by the student. The student is then prompted to the page the bookmark page by yolink. Another way to store and share the information is through google docs. Goggle docs would automatically creates a document for the student outlining all the sections and websites chosen by the student. This is my preferred method. When I use this with my students I will be asking them to post it to google docs and share the document with me as well as their group members. They also have the option of sharing the sections through social networks like: blogger, facebook, twitter or research applications like diigo, evernote or email. This tool is good because it’s a selective search engine, which is vital for high school students learning to do research. However the sharing capabilities are the amazing part of this web 2.0 application.