Animoto is an online tool
for creating presentations and slideshows. The free version allows you to make
a 30 second video using your own images or images from the web. You have the
freedom to choose a style for your video, and may include sound, music,
pictures, videos and text. Animoto has music to choose from, or you can upload
a music file of your choice. Teachers can apply for a free educational account,
and will be provided with a code that students can enter to create their
presentation. Once your video is complete, you can upload them to youtube, or
add them to your blog. It seems as though Animoto has similar features as
iMovie, but the main difference is that it is online. Animoto can be an
excellent tool for teaching. Teachers can create short videos to use as
motivation activities to begin a lesson or unit. Students can use it to create
digital stories and videos on any topic. Animoto allows for creativity because
students need to choose appropriate images, sounds, music, and create proper
transitions. I like that you can always access your videos because they are
stored online, eliminating the need for a hard drive or flash drive.
Shutterfly is a website
primarily for photography. Unlike Flickr, shutterfly is a website that allows
you to easily create books, invitations, and cards from your photographs. You
are able to choose your layout and setup for the books or invitations you are
creating, and add images and text accordingly. Shutterfly is user friendly, and
lets you drag and drop photos into a book template of your choice. Shutterfly
seems like it is primarily for making products out of photographs, but it can
have some educational benefits. Personally, I would prefer to use, and have my
students use Flickr. Students can use shutterfly to create a photo album of
images that go along with a project or paper. Students and teachers can
organize photos from class trips or personal photos into individual albums. If
students are working in a group they can email each other select albums.
Google docs uses the same
account as your gmail and youtube. I am very impressed by the possibilities
that google docs has to offer, especially as a future teacher. You can create:
Documents - similar to one
you would create with a word processor
Spreadsheets – similar to
Excel
Presentations – similar to
Powerpoint, but with less features
Drawings – basic drawing
program for diagrams and more
Forms – for creating
surveys, quizzes, and questionnaires
The nice thing about
googledocs is that it is all online, and you can access it anywhere from any
computer. Google docs allows for collaboration in real time, allowing you to
see revision history. This can be helpful for teachers when students are
working on group projects, because you can keep tabs on participation.
Teachers can create
letterheads, do data entry, and create graphs, presentations, diagrams, surveys
and more all with one account. Your files are stored online, meaning that you
will never loose your files, or have to remember a flash drive. In Stephanie’s
presentation she showed us how to create a survey, email it to people, and have
the data collected in a spreadsheet. Teachers can create quizzes for students
and have them answer it during class or at home as a homework assignment. I
have only begun to use google docs, and plan on using more of its features in
the future when I begin teaching. Simplicity of use along with the many options
and features makes it a convenient tool for a variety of projects.
The main drawback is that
google actually owns all of your documents. Although this is a major drawback,
I do not think this would prevent me from using google docs.
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