DoppleMe: Create Free Avatars

DoppleMe allows you to create a head-to-toe avatar and customise it as you please. There are limited options for those who do not register, but enough to create a decent figure. For those who do register (for free), you can save and edit your avatar and get access to a wider range of features.

Integration:
I recently used this site for my learners to create personalised avatars for interactions with other schools. For those who have concerns about learners putting their faces on the Internet, this is a safe option.
Another use that comes to mind is creating characters for storytelling. Using Michael Gorman's lesson plan for the 'one take video' I could see how these avatars could be exploited to create characters.

Zondle: A Truly 'WOW!' Game Engine

Over the years I've come across some great game generators but as time has gone on, they have either changed to subscription-based models or disappeared. Enter Zondle which promises to always be free. This site allows you to enter questions with over 20 different formats to choose from. Once the questions have been typed in, the site automatically generates 50+ different games to review the knowledge.
After a rapid-fire round of emails with the very helpful Dougi of Zondle Support, I had my class usernames and passwords set up in less than half an hour last night. Today my learners logged on and...well, I've never heard them beg for more learning. After 20 minutes of playing games which tested their 'knowledge' of Shakespeare - we have not yet launched the topic and they have had no direct instruction - they were individually able to give me newly-learned facts simply from their gaming. When I asked if this was really a useful tool for learning, there was a resounding 'Yes!' vote.
What I love about Zondle is that it generates so many engaging activities from so little input. It is a very simple-to-use interface that requires only basic ICT skills and learners as well as teachers can author the activities.
What I have yet to try is the 'Team Play' mode which I've only previewed so far, but it is so slick and professional-looking that it's sure to be great for whole class involvement.
Did I mention that you can use 3rd-party devices for teams to enter their own answers? Or that you can integrate it with your teaching materials? There are so many great features that if the video below doesn't convince you, a visit to the site certainly will. Click here.

Visual Literacy: Inspiration for Literacy Activities

I came across a great resource a couple of days ago on TES containing a link to a posterous site set up by one Rob Smith. Although only a couple of months old, the blog already contains over 50 video clips with suggested activities from creative writing to discussion, inference and deduction and much more. The clips are generally short and the ideas are great for seeing just how many ways there are to incorporate this engaging material into lessons. If you've got 10 minutes to spare, have a browse and see what gems you uncover.

Rob seems to be a Primary teacher, but there is plenty in here for the Secondary classroom too. Be inspired!

Click The Literacy Shed to visit the site.

A Result! Thinglink Gadget for Google Sites

After a very frustrating couple of days, the kind Andrew of Thinglink has produced a gadget to embed Thinglink images into Google Sites.

>> Click here for the Thinglink gallery<<

Instructions (Open your Google page before reading):

1. Go to the Google Sites page where you want to place image and click 'edit'
2. Click 'insert' and choose add gadget.
3. Add a 'Gadget by URL'
4. Enter the URL: http://thinglink.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/tlGoogleGadgt.xml
5. Enter the embed code from the Thinglink image where the box is
6. Save the page to see what it looks like; you may have to fiddle with the height and width settings depending on your image dimensions

Integration:

• Use embedded Thinglinks as a navigation menu on the splash page of your site. (Thanks to Holly for this one.)
• Learners can use Thinglink to draw together information on a topic using a relevant image; as it's a collaborative tool, you can allow anyone to edit and add tags.
• Learners could make a map of place that a story takes place in and then embed different media at certain locations as a way to experiment with experiencing narrative in different ways.
• Science could set up a murder scene with tags leading to various clues or English/Language Arts teachers could do the same as a starting point for imaginative writing.

Festisite: Unleash the Creativity - Mother's Day Cards?

Festisite is an interesting platform for producing some great teaching resources, as well as getting your learners to be creative with texts. You can sign-up using an existing account such as Facebook, so no need to create a separate profile.

Integration:

• Use the money generator to produce customised cash for use in the classroom - maths?
• Personalise cards with pictures for classroom games.
• Create shape texts - how about one like this letter (below) for Mother's Day?

Sumdog: Games for Math Practice

Sumdog offers a wide range of games to practice math in a fun way. There are rewards, competitions and multi-player games to keep even the most reluctant learners engaged. There are portals for teachers, students and parents so it can be used at home too. Teachers can organise students into classes and set specific activities for them to complete.

Integration:

• The ability to create free logins for all your students, without providing e-mail addresses is a bonus for schools not yet using a school-wide email system
• As teachers can choose which skills learners practise, activities can personalise activities and  complement classroom activities 
• Let's face it - what teen would rather do exercises out of a traditional textbook than play interactive games online? It's a winner for motivation and engagement at all levels.

SearchyPants: Customisable Searches for Kids

I am always keen to find customised search engines for learners and SearchyPants is my latest find.

Searchy Pants allows children, parents & schools to create a custom search home page for their child to use and allows families to easily communicate by leaving custom messages. Schools can also use Searchy pants to showcase pupils work while providing a safe search experience.

-SearchyPants 'About' page 

Since introducing SweetSearch and Instagrok, my learners have been surprisingly vocal about how useful they found them so I will definitely be adding this to their toolbox.

Word Dynamo: Have Fun Improving Vocabulary!

Word Dynamo is the latest offering from Dictionary.com that allows you to test and expand your vocabulary through a range of fun games. Registering allows you to track your progress and it's also possible to create your own word lists for games and submit them to the public library.

Integration:

• Create word lists for your own topics that learners can access in their own time for revision or learning before tackling a new topic.
• Guide learners toward creating their own word lists for topics so they can have fully personalised games to improve their vocabulary.
• Set up word lists and have a chart displayed in your room to track progress; a visual check may encourage learners to keep up with those ahead.

Free Hangman with Customisable Lists from Teachit

Teachit has just added this handy tool to their Whizzy collection. It's free to use although you have to sign up for a (free or paid) membership. You can enter your own list of words and then use it as a whole class or individual activity. The replacement of the gallows with a balloon-holding stickman takes away the gruesome element, and you can set the number of balloons he's holding to differentiate the level.

Integration:

• Use as a whole class activity by putting learners in teams. They then take turns to give a letter with a time limit (e.g. 5 seconds) to keep it well-paced. If they are correct, they get another turn. If incorrect, play moves to the next team. If teams know the word, they must spell it; they are not allowed to shout it out or play moves to the next team.
• Embed on a website or wiki as a starting or revision activity for individuals.
• As you can save word lists to your account, use these again and again for timesaving fun with a sound pedagogical aim behind them.

Get Writing with Elastoplast Stories

Elastoplast Stories offers another way to encourage writing among younger learners. Kids are offered a blank template with boxes for each scene of their story. They can write the story and then add pictures with speech bubbles and other media, including animated elements. Once finished, they can submit their stories to the public gallery for all to share.

Click to enlarge

Learners can peruse the gallery to promote excitement about writing and to see what the finished results could look like, and there is a kids' adventure pack to download for exploring the great outdoors which could be great inspiration in itself.

Draw a Stickman 2

It's the holidays so time for a bit of a break. In case you missed the first installation of this adventure, here's my post on the original Stickman.

And now...part 2! If you can't think of an educational use for this, why not just let your learners have a break for 5 minutes, exercise their creativity and spark their imaginations? And of course, you could always take a break yourself...(Go on, click it - you know you want to!)

Mee Books & The Story Home: Audio Books for Kids

MeeGenius offers a range of free (and paid) books for kids that they can listen to and/or read along with on the site. The stories are beautifully illustrated to engage younger learners and although the range isn't great, it's another place to find free reading content for kids; add them all together and you have a lot of choices to keep them busy!

The Story Home is another site where kids can listen to tales read by a guy named Alan. Unfortunately, there is no read-along option on this site. However, there is a wider range of stories than the previous site and they can be browsed by category, so still lots of useful stuff to keep younger learners engaged and occupied. Given the lack of illustrations, why not get your learners to create their own visual responses?

The Write-n-ator

The Write-N-Ator is an interesting tool for getting younger learners writing. They watch a video and then take a linked writing challenge. Tips for writing are included as are U.S. standard alignments. The challenges span a range of purposes from descriptive to explanatory with some requiring only a sentence or two, and others more. Useful for Primary-school kids or perhaps even younger Secondary learners.

Hello Slide (& Wicked - Science and Maths)

Hello Slide offers another way of presenting information. It's similar to other platforms, such as Voicethread, but it incorporates a text-to-speech function which means that you don't need access to recording equipment. Here's an example:

Integration:

• Use to create self-access instruction whether for flipping the classroom, learning stations or a 'help yourself' section of a website or VLE.
• Learners can produce their own presentations for sharing with peers or paired schools.
• Learners could create stories with narration, explain mathematical/scientific concepts, illustrate geographical events or profile historic figures - consider applications for your own subject area. 

Like this? You might also be interested in these science interactives on plate action, rock formation and more from wicked.org.nz

Boom Writer - Encouraging the Best Writing from your Learners

Boom Writer takes the idea of collaborative writing and adds in the important element of peer assessment with a requirement to do the absolute best writing possible.

Learners write a chapter and then, without knowing who wrote what, vote on the one that should continue the story.

Schools have the choice of then publishing the finished book, or simply access it from the website.

An example of what this can result in is here and the short, clear video below gives an overview of the process.

Blue Ribbon Readers

Blue Ribbon is a series of resources from PBS Learning designed to improve reading literacy at grades K-5 but it could be used for intervention with weak readers who are older too.

There are 14 activities in the set and skills covered range from inference and deduction to visualising.

Below is one of the activities which can be embedded into site by way of an iframe.

Zooburst

Zooburst is one of the most exciting story-telling tools I'm using at the moment. It is not new but since its 2010 launch it has been developing bit by bit and today it offers a pretty unique and exciting product. I could say Zooburst is a platform that allows you to make your own virtual pop-up books, and I'd be telling the truth, but that would be massively understating its potential. Have a look at the 2 minute video below and be blown away.

Highlights:

• Zooburst allows you to create 3D pop-up books that you can use your mouse to navigate 360 north, south, east and west. Zoom around and over the story before coming up behind one of the characters or to the front door of a house. The possibilities are only as limited as your imagination.
• You can upload your own pictures to include in your story or use any from the well-stocked library that's already there so it's possible to produce not only stories but also scientific presentations, historical reports, geographical tours etc.
• Add text to pages, as well as speech bubbles that can be clicked for interactivity and exploration to add another engaging dimension to the experience.
• It's great for collaborative projects as there are different elements to be planned out from the storyboard to the text to the images used as well as the thought/speech points and finally putting it all together and presenting it.
• Zooburst uses augmented reality which means that if you have a webcam you can view the virtual book floating in front of your very face and all you have to do is wave a hand to turn the page. Brilliant for storytelling and learners literally gasp in delight - even the older ones!

Image Maps Made Easy

A colleague today asked me about inserting an image map into a Google Site. For those wondering what this is, it basically means a picture with clickable areas that are hyperlinks. Check out this example which is an interactive version of the picture below. (Hover over the menu options once you've followed the link.)

I initially thought that inserting a Google Drawing would do the trick but alas, I was wrong. So, in a bid to make it as easy as possible, my research has led me to 2 tools for the job.

The first is here and, despite the visually unattractiveness of the site, it does the job.

The second is another no-frills page here and is perhaps a bit more user-friendly. It also has the added advantage of allowing you to resize the pic by pixels.

Integration:

• Learners can create interactive pictures with hotspots e.g. maps with links to information about particular places marked or profiles linked to a class photo
• Images could be used to create a choose-you-own-adventure type story or a route through a particular topic, making it visual rather than typeface
• Create visually attractive image maps for your site, wiki, blog or other web presence
• Using image maps will make navigation of sites easier for younger learners who are still developing their literacy skills or SEN contexts where reading is a challenge

Sidevibe

Sidevibe is a useful tool which is now totally free making it eligible for a slot on this blog. It takes the idea of a shared notepad that floats on top of webpages and enhances it with the ability to add links, discussions, prompts and much more. Other tools might be alternatives to some of the features, but it negates the need to click between two media e.g. a webpage and a note-taking tool, thereby saving time and keeping the 'flow' of work going.

Having a test-run with it, I found out that it is not currently supported by Chrome or the latest version of Safari so you'll have to use another browser such as Firefox or Explorer when creating 'vibes.'

Here's an intro below which gives an overview, but really you need to go and experiment with it yourself, and perhaps explore the forums, before its potential applications become fully clear.

Integration:
Sidevibe can be used for many activities; below are just a few:

• turn any webpage into an online activity by providing questions or instructions to follow when visiting a specific URL;
• collaboratively collate websites related to a topic;
• prove discussion / thinking prompts for a webpage containing any type of media from print to video;
• take notes on a research topic as learners move through various websites;
• structure / plan / write an assignment with the criteria / rubric open on the page in front of them;
• receive immediate feedback at the side of a presentation by using Sidevibe as a backchannel.

Be Funky Photo Editor

In the wake of the sad news that Picnik is to be no more, the hunt is on for viable alternatives. There are quite a few photo editors out there, but what I loved about Picnik was the no-registration, easy-to-use interface. Be Funky provides something very similar. As with Picnik there are premium options you can pay for, but the basic free version allows you to be experimental with your uploads and still do an impressive job. Here's a picture that I edited for our reading blog. Click here to visit Be Funky and get creative!