Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
BP16_2009103_Media_Assets_LucidChart
BP15_2009103_Web_2.0_Tools_Comments
Raylit is an educational site that addressed the needs of student. There are cartoons that host the educational sessions which are composed of fun learning games, videos, music and stories-things kids love. They talk about interesting things and guide kids through the lessons and games, making learning fun and effective. This site is good for kids from 3-7. What I like about this site is that you can type in your student's name to register them. Once you have done that the cartoons that guides the students through the lessons will call them by name. This makes the game personal for the kids.
Each session has 5-6 educational items. The items I had when I signed up under my daughter's name was, sequencing, matching the professional with the correct tool, learning numbers and counting, science knowledge clips and a sing along called Mr. Son, Mr Golden Son. The child's age will give you different educational items.
I plan on using this site with my second graders. I have ELL students and students that are working towards level that can really benefit from this site. It is hard for teachers to go back and teach skills that was suppose to be taught in kindergarten and first grade. This site will supplement to help fill the gaps in education.
As a teacher, I like the fact that I can send a text message to my students that will be spoken by the cartoon characters. I can click on their names to update their profile and settings. I can also view their current curricula and track their progress.
This site is not free, but I believe it is beneficial, therefore I plan to propose this site to administration at my school. I will try the trial version, track my student's progress, and show the data to my principal so that he can see how useful Raylit is.
picture from www.raylit.com
POSTED BY DALE-EMILY AT 4:10 PM
1 COMMENTS:
dcowdenhmb said...
Emily: This is a very interesting site. Thank you for sharing about it. I wish it was free, though. The last time I conferenced with my principal about Web 2.0 tools, the main thing that caught his interest was the part of many sites are free. Anything that requires money is considered a dream at this point. This looks good for ELL's, too.
Love your blogs!
OCTOBER 18, 2009 4:52 PM
BP14_2009103_Web_2.0_Tools_Zooloo.com
I would like to incorporate a web site design piece to the curriculum for my Technology courses. The curriculum would follow some of the pedagogy by Junior Achievement. WWW.Zooloo.com could be such a site for student use. It is still not acceptable on a broad spectrum, district level through parents, for minors to be accessible by the general public. So, any sort of web publishing would need clear scope and sequence, purpose, and responsible work ethics. The advertising is a continued issue, as well. Zooloo doesn't appear to have outside advertisers, and publishing can be private or public, according to the owner's control.
The use of a web page site could also be used as an instructor's site where students would access content information for instruction. This could be a site that a teacher creates to manage online content. For example, a teacher could use Screen Capturing for lessons and upload classes onto the web site.
Zooloo.com could be used as a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) by being a place where students could "bring all of (their) interests together: news, entertainment, social networking, shopping, messaging, photos, and more..." What I particularly like about this site, so far, is that it could be controlled so that access is only through invitation. This would work well for a classroom setting, but involves students to be responsible with their choices and postings.
Zooloo (n.d.) Retrieved on 10/17/09 from http://www.zooloo.com/
BP13_2009103_Web_20_Tools_Jamglue.com
Another music mixer site is www.Jamglue.com. This site looks to be completely free, has a lot of riffs and tracks to use, and students could upload their own tracks. Full Sail University uses this site for advertisement, too, so it must be good!
The tutorial is very user friendly. As soon as the first mixing page opens, a guided tutorial starts. It's good because it instructs learners to stop and restart the tutorial in order for the learner to do what was being demonstrated or explained. I was successfully creating tracks through the tutorial, and that usually requires a Digital Native to help me navigate through the jargon! The site is also intuitive; but, with the tutorial, the stress is completely managed to easy use. I like the array of sounds available for use and that users can add to the library.
I don't see the collaborative use just like Indabamusic.com, but tracks can be created, shared and used by others.
I think this could be a useful tool as a first step into the world of creating music online. Then, for the more savvy users, Indabamusic could be their next step.
DCowdenFSOBlog: BP12_2009103_Web_2.0_Tools_IndabaMusic.com
My middle school students want to create their own beats and background music, but I haven’t had software for them to use. I had considered bringing in my Mac so they could create with Garageband, but wasn’t comfortable with sharing my expensive MacBookPro that I’m using for my schooling needs. Then I started learning about Web 2.0 tools, and wondered if such a site existed. I think Indabamusic is even better, since it is creating music collaboratively.
Indabamusic.com has a similar creating page as Garageband with drag and drop riffs and other pre-made sounds. You can also record your own sounds, and then mix them. There are examples of music created by different people laying down track at different times who are located around the country. The tutorials are pretty good, too.
I’m not clear, though, if this is an entirely free site. I’ve emailed the creators for this clarification. I’ll update this post when I learn how far their free use goes.
I would love to use this site in my classes for students to produce original music and beats that they could use in their presentations, videos, and as music to lyrics for demonstrating their understanding of content. I visualize second language learners being supported by collaborating with students proficient in English, so that all learners are successfully meeting assignment objectives. I could also envision meeting classes across the country so that students could collaborate on projects that would include a music piece to their project presentations. Students could even have “critical friends” who are either college level musicians or professionals! That would be incredible. (For example, I wonder if professional musicians with the San Francisco Symphony might love to work with interested students. This could be a truly win-win as S.F. Symphony professionals reach out to public schools and the students successfully engage in their learning activities.) This also embraces the “Beyond the Classroom” goals that our district strives to achieve for our students.
© 2009, D. Cowden
