Storybird is incredibly easy to use digital story telling tool. With an inspiring collection of artwork, this drag and drop, click and wri
Thinglink is an interactive online tool allowing individuals to annotate images. I enjoyed using this tool to showcase my Toolbelt and share substantial information and links within one image.
Cost: Free with potential to upgrade Benefits: Ability to annotate images, embed final project on a website, upload your own base image, change the icons, link to other sites Drawbacks: The free program does not allow you to increase the size to fullscreen, nor can you upload multiple images within the same project. I wanted to challenge myself a bit this week and decided to make an infographic. I haven't made an infographic beyond what I would design in Microsoft Office. Visme is a fairly user friendly tool, has a free and a pro account. Their templates are quite limited in the free account, however they provide a good starting point for designing any infographic.
I found this activity took more time than I initially thought, especialy because I ended up deleting almost all of the template and inserting my own graphics. In the end, I think it was a good first attempt, however next time I may choose a topic in which I have more concrete statistics to display because the graphing options are quite good. UDL: Provides an alternative for strictly written text. There is also the option to insert audio, however I did not utilize this function. Benefits: visual, can display a substantial amount of information interestingly and quickly, engaging, ability to delete aspects of templates and build on it for your own, lots of graphic choices, auto saves, user friendly, ability to publish, download and embed infographics Drawbacks: lack of free template choices and I would have liked more "draw" abilities rather than having to insert clipart Cost: I used the free version and it provided all the necessary options I would need as a teacher and for my students. I've heard about Google Chrome for a while but have never really explored it. For this course, we were shown numerous extensions and apps that make Google Chrome an incredibly accessible browser. For a list of extensions that support special ed students directly, take a look at Paul Hamilton's UDL Website.
After exploring Google Chrome and some of its FREE apps and extensions, it will become my go-to browser. Three excellent extensions to check out are: 1. Read Comfortably - this extension declutters webpages and opens a new page with easy to read text without all the distractions. 2. Speak it - this extension is a text to speech tool. By highlighting the text, Speakit will clearly read out loud the text. 3. Google Dictionary - enables users to easily look up words and either read or listen to the definition. Benefits - all of these extensions make learning on the web accessible for all learners. Drawbacks - Just getting used to using them. At first this might seem like an odd post, pairing these two together, however they both have video recording capabilities. With hand held devices it is extremely easy to capture a screen shot, however it can be more daunting with a computer.
I have been using Jing for at least five years to capture images and screen-casts on my computer. I find it most valuable when I need to picture of what's on my screen and I can't get it any other way. Jing will also record what is happening on the screen, however I found that I prefer using Quicktime Player on my Mac. Quicktime enables users to create a new screen recording, thereby recording what you are doing on the screen. Benefits: Both pieces of technology enable you to capture what is happening on your screen, either by taking a picture or recording a video (screen-cast). Drawback: Volume is not recorded. Cost: Jing is free to download. Quicktime Player is standard with Macs. Voki is a fun and simple text-to-speech avatar tool. I initially had planned on using Xtranormal for this activitiy, which similarly used text-to-speech avatars, however it is no longer available. I ended up creating this Voki for an intro to Kurzweil 3000.
UDL: The best use of Voki in the classroom would be to engage students by quickly gaining their interest and for expression of their learning. Benefits: Students can input text and their avatar will say it. It is also engaging because students have some choice in the design of their avatar. Drawbacks: In the free version there is limited use of avatars. As well, it kept freezing when I tried to input my voice and then also when publishing. The length is also limited in the free version. Cost: Free for a basic version, but then they also have an education version Powtoon is one of those tools that I had never previously used, but had always thought was pretty cool. After using this Powtoon video in my UDL prezi, I decided it was time to try it for myself. I ended up making a short Powtoon video which can be found on my Explore page.
Principles of UDL: I think this is a pretty cool way to engage students and represent information. As well, I believe students would find it pretty interesting creating their own Powtoon to express their learning. When creating any video it may seem like more time is being put into it than simply writing it down. For students who may find reading and writing challenging, the chance to use a video to express their learning can be a transforming learning experience. Benefits: It is easy to use. It has a large library of cartoons and animations which can be used with text and audio. Drawbacks: Few. It does take some time to become comfortable with the tool, however I didn't really come up against any roadblocks. Cost: There is a Free account and a Premium account. Everything students and teachers need is available with the free account! I love Prezi! I've used it multiple times to express my learning, for my representing information to students and at conferences. I find it is engaging to watch and easy to follow along with.
UDL: Depending on how it is being used, Prezi could be used in all categories of UDL: Engagement, Representation, and Action and Expression. Benefits: It is essentially a presentation tool where text, audio, images and video can be included. Prezi is fairly easy to use and it has helpful hints and tutorials. Presentations can also be accessed away from an internet connection. Drawbacks: When wanting to do an automatic slideshow you can't set the speed of slides, however the viewer is able to pause the show. Cost: Free I'm planning to use this portion of my site to reflect on Web 2.0 tools that I use to express my learning, but also their applicability in the classroom. Technology has the potential to really change the learning experience, however the multitude of tools can be overwhelming. I will briefly analyze each tool by highlighting its connections to Universal Design for Learning, the benefits and drawbacks, and also cost.
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AuthorCamille McFarlane is a teacher passionate about ed techn and the ability of all students to learn. ArchivesCategories
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