Pretty Cool

After reviewing some of the online tools/resources, I definitely like some over others. I was also confused because I thought Webspiration was free but when I checked it out, I found that it wasn't. Did any one find this as well? Did I research the wrong thing? If this resource isn't free my question is this, if it is like Kidspiration or Inspiration why would a school pay for that as well? I was a little disappointed. I also explored/watched the tutorial on MindMeister and saw you could do some really cool things...once again not free! More disappointment and on to the next. Bubbl.us is neat, extremely easy to use, and best of all...free. The only thing I didn't like is that the first bubble (usually where you put the topic) stayed on top and the sister/baby bubbles would be below it. I like brainstorm mapping around (below/above) my topic bubble but this is just a personal preference. Determined to find a resource that would allow me to do my peferenced type of mapping, I moved onto exploratree. This was my favorite because it allowed me to do what I wanted to do and was free. It was a bit more difficult (not much) to use and I found the tutorial not to be very helpful. I liked how pre-made maps were included along with the option to create your own and to post pictures. I definitely played more with this one and would like to show my students this. I did also briefly explore the education oasis site (liked the resources, easy to use) and the CMAP (this was my least favorite, hard to navigate, probably won't use).


I would like to comment on the resources I learned to use for each strategy. For cues, questions, and advance organizers, I think I could use Stellarium. I haven't had much time to play around but would like to incorporate this into the classroom. I wish it had viewable tutorials for I learn better watching as opposed to reading. For nonlingustic representation, I think plotting the data from the U.S. Geological Survey is a great mini lesson to incorporate excel into my social studies classes. I actually graphed it and it turned out...pretty cool. Also on my to do list is animation. For summarizing and notetaking, I saw some great ideas but my school just upgraded to Office 2010, so I think the steps included in the book are slightly different. (This would be a problem for the excel activity mentioned above.) I myself am just learning 2010 and then I have to teach these changes in my 8th grade computer class before I can focus on anything else. Finally, I would like to throw out there, the idea about middle school students blogging...has anyone actually done this? My school (and I know other schools) shine away from giving students school emails and unfortunately you need that to create a blog. I know that most kids have their own emails but I still think that most schools are slightly leary. I also know that some Web 2.0 applications (prezi, animoto, and voicethread) do allow a teacher to create an "umbrella" email account through google. That way kids can create their own account using prezi, animoto, and voicethread by using a combination of your login with a + sign and their login. I use their name but it could be anything. So for example my umbrella email is spreiss1211@gamil.com, students would then create a prezi account by doing spreiss1211+john@gmail.com. Prezi allows students to enter and create but any corresponding emails or comments go to me. I do know this doesn't work with everything...GoogleDocs and Blogger don't allow this, but the three I mentioned above do. One last thought...PBWiki, where did you go :(