1.1. Discovery Educator Network: is about revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating, editing and sharing user-generated content online. I have watched the videos and done some extra reading, but being unfamiliar with this site, I'm not sure exactly how I would use it in my classroom. However, it does seem interesting and possible could be used in the future.
1.2. Wikispaces Classroom: Wikispaces Classroom is a social writing platform for education. It's an incredibly easy way to create a classroom workspace where you and your students can communicate and work on writing projects alone or in teams. Rich assessment tools give you the power to measure student contribution and engagement in real-time. After using a wiki in this class (first time I'd used these), I was talking with another teacher about how I would like to utilize a wiki to create an organized board for my own classroom. The American Revolution is a large part of 5th grade Social Studies curriculum and I think it would be an excellent place to save all my videos, resources, and articles in one place.
1.3. Collaborize Classroom: Collaborize Classroom is a free, online learning platform for teachers and students to create structured discussions in a private online community. Students can expand on discussions as well as interact with online lesson plans that allow for deeper participation inside and outside the classroom. I like the idea that students can share their thoughts and ideas and then have an online discussion with classmates about a topic learned in school. Like the teacher in the video, not all students participate in discussions, but might be more likely to share in an online format.
1.4. Google Docs: Google Docs is an online word processor that lets you create and format text documents and collaborate with other people in real time. This would be a good way for students to take notes and for the teacher to share notes with his or her class.
1.5. Storybird: Storybird uses collaborative storytelling to connect kids and families. Two (or more) people create a Storybird in a round robin fashion by writing their own text and inserting pictures. They then have the option of sharing their Storybird privately or publicly on the network. The final product can be watched on screen, played with like a toy, or shared through a worldwide library. This would be a great way to let kids practice how to write narrative pieces together before having to create on on their own.
2. Communication Tools
2.1. Twitter: Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short messages. Users can also following other tweeters that are of interest to them. Although I don't think the students in my 5th grade classroom would benefit from this tool, I do feel it will be a great asset for myself. I will use it to find new ideas to use in my classroom and therefore, it will benefit my students.
2.2. Discovery Educator Network: is about revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating, editing and sharing user-generated content online. As I stated before, I have watched the videos and done some extra reading, but being unfamiliar with this site, I'm not sure exactly how I would use it in my classroom. However, it does seem interesting and possible could be used in the future.
2.3. Blogs: A blog is a frequently updated online personal journal or diary. It is a place to express yourself to the world. A place to share your thoughts and your passions. Really, it’s anything you want it to be. As I watched the blog videos, I was thinking how great it would be to create a classroom blog. Students could add things they feel were important in our classroom and share them with parents and the community.
2.4. Edmodo: Edmodo is a social networking website for teachers, students, and parents. Teachers can invite students into private groups that can be used for online classroom discussions, but in a format that keeps the teacher firmly in control. Twitter is a little confusing still to me and one of the videos stated that Edmodo was "better than twitter for education", so I would like to try it out and see how I could best use this in my classroom.
3. Creativity Tools
3.1. Pinterest: Acts as a personalized media platform. Users can browse the content of others on the main page, then save individual pins to one of their own boards. Pinboards are typically organized by a central topic or theme. Users can personalize their experience by pinning items, creating boards, and interacting with other members. This site can be used in the classroom by organizing boards to each core subject. Videos, project ideas, and directions can be displayed in the classroom to engage and direct students.
3.2. Voice Thread: Voice Thread is an interactive collaboration and sharing tool that enables users to add images, documents, and videos, and to which other users can add voice, text, audio file, or video comments. Students could use this website to create and upload their own videos to share with classmates and/or the teacher. Teachers could also create a video to show the class to help teach any subject.
3.3. Bubbl.us: Bubbl.us is a tool that enables users to create mind mapping and brainstorming diagrams online. Students could use this tool to create their own mind maps to outline a topic of discussion had in class on any given day.
3.4. MindMeister: MindMeister is a tool that allows you to collaboratively create mind maps and share them online. It can be used for real-time collaboration and brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. This is the site I used to create my mind map for this class. However, I think that maybe bubbl.us would be a better website for my 5th grade students to use to create a mind map for a Social Studies lesson.
3.5. Clipgenerator: This site helps you create professional looking videos using your own selection of music and pictures. When you are finished, you can share it with whomever you want. I had to have help earlier this year in creating a video goodbye message for our long time softball coach. It would have been nice to know about this and created a video using this website. I'm thinking maybe next year of taking lots of pictures and creating an end of the year video for my students.
