Web 2.0 Tools 4 Schools

What’s out there?? Is it any good???

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is a free resource for learning, creating, collaborating, editing and sharing content online.

It's also about ease of use. Teachers and students can master many of these tools quickly.

The Term "Web 2.0”

was conceived in 2005 to describe a new kind of website that used newer web authoring tools.

had a minimal learning curve and is usually free

Once you download a Web 2.0 tool there are easy ways to figure out if it is a good match for the student and the task.

Technology has never been easier or more accessible.

Web 2.0 Tools = Skills

The Young and the Digital

“We need to build a more compelling narrative that digital literacy is no longer a luxury but a necessity.”

S. Craig WatkinsThe Young & the Digital

The Sixth-Grade App Maker Heard Around the World

Sixth-grader Thomas Suarez has taken the Web by storm. The YouTube video of his TEDx talk has more than 445,000 views.

Check out how he amazed the crowd by talking about how he created two apps: Bustin Jieber, a Whac-a-Mole for Justin Bieber &  Earth Fortune, which shows different colors of the Earth based on the region’s fortune.

Did he learn to make the app in school?

No, he came up with it by playing with the iPhone software development kit.

“These days, students know a little bit more than teachers, with technology,” he said, adding “sorry” in the speech he was giving to a crowd of teachers!

Social & Digital Media

A broad spectrum of technologies that will allow students with disabilities access to the innovative technologies that they will need for progressing in the general education curriculum, social networking & successful post HS careers.

Digital Media Features

The key feature of digital media & technology is FLEXIBILITY.

Digital Media surpasses traditional media because of the ability to meet diverse students learning profiles using a variety of instructional approaches.

With digital content, the right software and online tools, students have options for how they (read/listen) to obtain information and how they (speak/write) demonstrate their understanding.

… offer a wide array of features. They can save text, speech, and images with integrity and consistency. These features offer great flexibility in how and where that text, speech, and images can be re-used and displayed.

Digital Media Tools

New web 2.0 tools appear each day. Many of these tools were not originally intended for classroom use, but they can be powerful learning tools for today’s techno-savvy students and their more adventurous teachers.

Sites appear (and frequently disappear) very quickly, launched by creative techno-geeks out there in the world.

Digital Storytelling - Student Perspective

Digital Story Telling

Follow these simple steps and you are off on a grand story telling adventure!

Story Telling & Animation

Little Bird Tales is a nice site intended for younger students to create digital stories. Little Bird Tales walks users through each step of creating a multimedia story. You can upload images, draw images, or record from their webcams. Stories can be written with text or narrated by students using microphones connected to their computers.

Voki - Allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile and in email messages. Great for teaching languages. (free)

Xtranormal – A simple and versatile moviemaking system that uses virtual characters and a text to speech.(free)

Zimmer Twins - A website devoted to children and creative storytelling. Children can create and share their own animated stories. (free)

Audacity – Excellent audio software to record or install sounds to your computer (microphone needed) and edit them afterwards. Also great for editing or mixing songs (free)

Jamendo - A community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. Share your music or download other artists (free)

UJAM- UJAM is a cloud-based platform that empowers everybody to easily create new music and share it with friends (free)

The Power of the Voice

Sharendipity - A web based creativity suite where anyone can build and deploy engaging and interactive games and other web applications. (free)

Quizlet - Create and share flashcards with your own terms and definitions. Excellent for language learners or to help students revise material. (free)

Brain Nook is a virtual world in which students can practice their mathematics and English skills. Brain Nook provides students with scenarios that they have to resolve by answering mathematics and language arts questions.

This is your brain on Google

The BIG Question…How do you know if it is any good??

www.iear.org

New web 2.0 tools appear each day. Many of these tools were not originally intended for classroom use, but they can be powerful learning tools for today’s techno-savvy students and their more adventurous teachers. These sites appear (and frequently disappear) very quickly, launched by creative techno-geeks out there in the world.

http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/edge.cfm

There REALLY is a Special APP 4 That

10 popular iTunes apps 4 children with autism

Proloquo2Go Highly recommended for kids and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, developmental disabilities, apraxia, ALS, stroke or traumatic brain injury, this app-turned-AAC device utilizes colorful stick-figure illustrations and features an up-to-date vocabulary, text-to-speech voices and automatic conjugations.

Grace This innovative app allows special-needs children to communicate through complete sentences by linking together colorful images and symbols in this fully customizable application.

iCommunicate for iPad Create pictures, flashcards, storyboards, routines, visual schedules and record custom audio in any language with this versatile program; incorporates pictures from your camera or Google images. Helps to teach social skills for children with autism

First Then Visual Schedule Ease transitioning for children with developmental delays such as Autism Spectrum Disorders by introducing this easy-to-customize scheduler into your special-needs curriculum.

iConverse An inexpensive program designed for iPhone and iPod touch, this app functions as a picture exchange communication system (PECS) for autistic children and autistic adults alike, as well as others with communicative disabilities.

AutismExpress This free app displays basic facial expressions in a way which is comical and instructional; excellent for children who have difficulty understanding emotions.

stories2learn Illustrate your own social stories for children with autism,  using pictures, text and audio with this customizable program geared towards enriching the curricula of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

MyTalk Mobile The MyTalk Mobile is an AAC device for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; it also boasts the “My Talk Workspace,” which saves all info on a backup file in case of device crashing.

TapToTalk Make your own AAC albums with this app, currently including a library of 2,000 pics. Children can tap on each image to hear fun audio.

Goodnight iPad, Ann Droyd - 9780399158568