Tagged: Web 2.0 technology education

Tips for a Techie Start

ani_superteacher Being a teacher is not the easiest job you can have. You have to prepare lesson plans, manage different classrooms with different children with different abilities, you should also have the ability to teach different levels and you have to stay up-to-date with the current events and innovations. And now, there is the technology challenge for today’s teachers. There are numerous web tools that you can use, I think this is one of the reasons what makes the technology overwhelming and conflicting for some of us. So it can be a good start to have a look at the tools that you can use to improve yourself as a teacher. So; here are my suggestions for a techie career start:

Social bookmarking is a great tool to start. It allows you to categorize, access and share the websites easily. It’s the best way to collect the websites you like and keep a list of them and share it with others anytime. Delicious is my favourite social bookmarking tool. It’ specially designed for educators. You can access your favourite websites anywhere, anytime and share it with other people. Stumble Upon, Squidoo and Diigo are the other alternatives to delicious.

On the way of becoming a techie teacher, you are sure to follow many blogs from great educators but it’s difficult to check their websites every single day to see if there is something new posted. RSS readers can help at this point. Google Reader is my favourite feeds reader. You can easily organize one simple page to follow the blogs that you read every day instead of visiting them one by one. Netvibes, PageFlakes and Bloglines are other alternatives.

The most popular and social networking site is the Twitter. You can find amazing educators, teachers, writers on Twitter tweeting about different topics on teaching & learning. Twitter will help you to find new articles and blog posts to read, online conferences to join and to make friends with great people.

Wiki is a place to put text, pictures, links, audios, videos and collaborate with other. Wikispaces is my favourite wiki and it can be a good start if you want to do an online&collaborative project with your class, with other classes or with other educators all around the world.PbWorks can be an alternative.

There are many educational video hosting websites that you can use for professional development or to use in your classes. TeacherTube, EduTube,TeachersTV and SchoolTube can be the best places to start.

You may want to start your own blog to share your experience and knowledge with other people. Edublogs ,WordPress and Blogspot are the sites that you can start your own blog journey.

Of course, the technology will evolve and change every single day, so work hard, collaborate, get inspired and inspire others and be online.

Cross posted on TechLearning.



Color Your Digital Life with SlideShows

Slideshow OverlayCreating a slideshow is a great way to color your digital life. As mother’s day is fast approaching, you can create a unique slideshow to show your love to your mom or create something that will cherish others and wow-worthy!

SlideRoll is a way to create slideshows from your own pictures using different transitions. You can also create slideshows in a documentary style. SlideRoll Video Creator helps you to turn your slideshows into true video to display it on your blog or your website.

Slide lets you create slideshows from your photos with different effects and transitions in an easy way. You can also create a guest book for your blog, personalize your pictures with different effects, frame YouTube videos with different skins. ImageLoop is a similar site. It also allows you to create an online version of any pdf and powerpoint presentation. You can also use both these sites as a free upload of your images.

Roxio lets you add pictures and videos together and customize it to tell your story in an engaging way.
With Kizoa, you can create slideshows with music and effects, embed them to your blog or your websites, edit your pictures, store and organize your photos and share them with the world.

PhotoPeach is a quick way to create slideshows using pictures and music. It also lets you create quizzes on your slideshow.
You can turn your photos into digital creations to share them with other people with SmileBox. You can create scrapbooks, ecards, slideshows and photo albums using different designs and music.

RockYou allows you to create slideshows selecting from the various choices such as transitions, themes, music, backgrounds, and caption options.

If you have a Flickr account, you can also try FlickrSlideshow to create a custom Flickr slideshow on your website.You can also try SlideFlickr and FlickrSlidr.
OneTrueMedia lets you mix your photos and pictures together with effects, captions and music to create your unique slideshows.

With Vuvox, you can mix and blend your personal media into rich personal expressions.

Empressr lets you create your slideshows with photos, music, videos and audios to share it privately or publicly.

WebSlides is a site to create a slideshow of  your bookmarks and feeds.JogTheWeb is a similar way to create a slideshow of websites.
Animoto and Flixtime are exceptional in this category. They let you turn your photos and images into amazing videos with easy to follow effects.

Prezi is also one of the most unique way to create a picture show and a presentation. If you like it, you should also check Ahead which is a similar tool.

Enjoy exploring those sites and stay online!!