I've just had loads of fun with a cool site, called Befunky. It has a collection of applications, including a cartoonizer, uvatars and a video cartooniser.
I can't wait to use this in class to cartoonize photos and create uvatars. They can be used to enhance students blogs, or ePortfolios. It solves the problem of looking for free images, and is an easy way to protect your student's identities.
The only problem I'm having is that currently our school firewall blocks the uploading of images. I'm waiting for our techie team to sort that out.
Doesn't it just drive you crazy when you find something new, and just to find you can't apply it in class!
We all know that effective learning occurs when...
Student autonomy and initiative is accepted and encouraged
Teacher asks open-ended questions and allows wait time for responses
Higher level thinking is encouraged
Students engage in dialogue with teacher and each other
Students engaged in experiences that challenge hypotheses
Class uses raw data primary sources, physical and interactive materials
Knowledge and ideas emerge only from a situation in which learners have to draw them out of experiences that have meaning and importance to them
Derek writes: "In my experience these are exactly the sorts of learning experiences that many of these emerging social web applications enable and encourage."
This brand-new state-of-the-art 21st Century pedagogy was first written about in.... 1915 by John Dewey in his "Constructivist Pedagogy". Makes you think about how much progress we've made in the last 100 years in education, doesn't it?
These are my top ideas for using Web 2.0 tools in class, to encourage the type of learning experience John Dewey was dreaming of:
Tip #1 Class Blog: Use blogging software such as Edublogs or Blogger to create your class blog. In a Primary class, it works well to have one student log on username and password, and let them publish their best writing and pictures. I let my class look at our blog every morning just after we've done the roll, and the excitement is always great if we have a comment. The clustermap also lends itself to a quick Atlas search to find out who our readers are!
Tip #2 Class Wiki: I like to use Wetpaint. (You can ask for the ads to be removed, if it is an educational wiki. You can also use PBWiki. For me a wiki is the ideal showcase for students' work. You can create a page for each project, and students can add a page for themselves, on which to add their notes, links and work. Students can edit and comment on each other's pages, and you can have a discussion thread going. This is also something parents can access (but not edit, unless you let them.) My class wiki is still under construction, but it will be used as a sort of filing cabinet to store our work digitally.
Tip #3 Voicethread: This is something I've just learnt about, and I can't wait to try it out in class!
This video was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. Equally important, it serves to motivate school leaders to provide teachers with the tools and training to do so.
