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Greetings from a great new site I found to be able to create flashcards, puzzles, word searches, jig saws with words that you chose. You can produce your own quizzes, scramble them, grade them! Think of it you no longer have to bring your computer with you!! Check it out www.proprofs.com

BL16_2009113_Researching and Blogging about Web 2.0 tools

sunday, november 15, 2009

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Click on the link above to view the movie

A web burglar introduces you to a new Web 2.0 website.

BL15_2009113_Researching and Blogging about Web 2.0 tools

I had a great time looking at everyone's sites but was really excited at some new Web 2.0 sites I found.  You will need to check this site out because it has numerous creative aspects to use in your classroom.  I can not wait to use this for a lesson next week. I will create it this weekend to help me teach my students. This site is called "Proprofs" - click on the link so that you can explore http://www.proprofs.com/ I zeroed in on the flashcard part of this site so that I can teach Web 2.0 vocabulary to my students. http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards  

Many sites are blocked at our school but I want to introduce my students to the vocabulary so they can check things out at home. My sixth grade students love flashcards that they can play with on their computer screen and work at their own pace. Since we do not have programs at school the students can use I will be able to type in my own definitions and terminology to customize for my classroom usage.  There are also different flashcards that are premade by others in many different subjects to choose from. By picking a premade set you can customize them to fit your class. This site also has a way to create and customize quizzes as well.  The quiz section allows you to shuffle your quiz, add images to your quizzes and also have two-way feedback. ProProfs provides free knowledge sharing tools and free online education. It also has blogs, wikis and a webschool.  Let me know what you think!

BL14_2009113_Researching and Blogging about Web 2.0 tools

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009

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http://www.zinepal.com/ is this amazing Web 2.0 site where you can turn your blogs into a printable magazine. This is exciting because after this class I could go back and take all the blogs I have written for this class and turn them into a professional looking magazine that I could take along with my on job interviews to show my media background. It would be a great site to use with students as well because you could have them blog on literature as they were reading novels in your English class, and then have them turn all of their blogs into a really exciting magazine as their final projects. This would be a great lesson that would really engage the "whole brain" learning approach, as it involves critical thinking skills, as well as creativity. Students could upload photos or graphics to make their magazines more visually exciting and it would be something they could take away from class and add to their own professional portfolios. I am definitely going to try this site once I am done with this class, so that I could have a paper version of all the hard work I have done in this class. I think students would also get a sense of accomplishment from having their very own magazine to have at the end of my classes. I also think I could use this site in my Journalism class to show students the differences between Newspapers and Magazine layouts. I am really excited to try out this tool both in my own life and in my classes.

Zinepal Solutions Inc. (2008-2009). Zinepal. Now you are the editor. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://www.zinepal.com/

BL13_2009113_Researching and Blogging about Web 2.0 tools

Click below to link out to Hardy's video 

I wanted everyone to see it!!

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couple of quick reasons on why www.yacapaca.com is used in my classroom.

BL12_2009113_Researching and Blogging about Web 2.0 tools

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009

BP07_20091108_Researching Web 2.0 Tools

There are so many Web 2.0 tools to choose from that it makes it really difficult to narrow the search. Here are three that I have had the chance to play around with and would like to work them into using in my music classroom:





Voki is a program created by Oddcast that gives you a chance to create your own speaking avatar that can be added to profiles and other web environments. The avatar can be personalized using drag and drop interfaces. You can record your own voice by using the phone, a mic, or by using text to speech or text to sing. There are also built-in voice choices and effects. You have your choice of characters including people, animals, and even vehicles, along with different themes and accessories. I wanted an avatar to represent me to use in preparing media presentations to be used in my classroom as well as on my web page and this tool shows a lot of promise. I am going to create a music room mascot or maybe several for different grade levels just to add another layer of fun. Pay a visit to Voki.com and enjoy!



Quizlet is a tool that can be used to create flashcards that can be used for group study and review, to introduce new material through games of matching that are timed. There is a learning mode that will keep track of scores and a test mode that allows for different question and answer formats. I see a lot of valuable uses for this tool for the six different grade levels of music classes as well as my before and after school groups. I am in the process of creating my own sets to try out for next week’s lessons using some basic music fundamentals, and also some questions related to the recorder and piano. I will update this blog and let you know how it comes out. Stop by Quizlet.com and check out all of the sets that are already available.



DoInk.com provides a tool for creating and sharing animations and I thought my students might enjoy seeing them in various media assets as well as having the chance to create their own and share with others, maybe to add to a song they have created or a sound story. Being in a fine arts magnet school, we enjoy the artwork of our students among their many other talents and I think this would be another way of them being able to express themselves and still use it with a musical connection.