Module 5

Bubbl.us is a good mind-mapping tool.  I use the app ‘popplet lite’ (free) on iPad with my students or on iPad or my phone personally.  I was wondering if Bubbl.us allowed for real-time collaboration, which would make it an extremely powerful (and free!!) tool.  I found my answer on Rebecca Buerkett’s blog ‘The Learning Librarian’…

“I wish it [Bubbl.us] allowed real-time collaboration (wiki-style) like MindMeister or FreeMind (Adam and Mowers 24), rather than only one person being able to use it at a time.”  http://rbuerkett.edublogs.org/2009/03/08/reflections-on-bubblus/

This at least gives me some great leads on real-time collaborative tools.

It looks like after signing up for MindMeister it is possible to collaborate in real-time but I’m not sure if it is as flexible as Bubbl.us in terms of choosing the position of cells etc.

I was happily working away on creating my glog, feeling that this was going to be a very useful classroom tool when a box popped up saying Glogster was requesting permission to store information on my computer!!  That was the end of Glogster!  At least they asked permission I guess.

I really enjoyed playing around with Prezi.  It definitely has a better look as a presentation tool than PowerPoint and Keynote.

Module 4

I found some great podcasting and vodcasting resources searching through the plethora of links.  Some that I intend to look more closely at and continue to ‘mine for gold’ are Jane Smith and Nathan Toft’s http://portablepd.edublogs.org/, Sue Waters http://theedublogger.com/2009/05/26/what-everybody-ought-to-know-about-podcasting-part-i/ and http://theedublogger.com/2009/05/29/what-everybody-ought-to-know-about-podcasting-part-ii/, also studentmathmovies.wikispaces.com.

Some of the resources I watched, listened to, explored were fantastic!  I create movies with my class at the moment on iPads mostly using the apps iMovie and Explain Everything.  As often, I find my questions are centring around time…time poor, time wise etc.  I feel like I need to choose one or two new things and really explore them well rather than try everything poorly.  So I will need to spend a bit of time (!!) thinking about which tools I can trial in my classroom that have an authentic purpose and will really add value to what we are already doing.  Maybe I can refine our movie making and explore broadcasting them for a wider audience.

I enjoyed using Animoto.  A really easy way to quickly put together a video that looks great.  I was a bit worried about something I read in the Upload Terms… ‘You hereby grant Animoto a royalty-free perpetual right and license to host, reproduce, distribute, display, perform, manipulate, synchronize, create derivative works of and otherwise use the Content as necessary to provide the Animoto service and enable you to create videos.’ http://animoto.com/legal/upload_terms.  This means I would need to be very careful about the images and music (if we have created these ourselves) we chose to use in our videos.  It is great that Animoto has music they provide for free that can be used.

Until next time, happy web 2.0ing!!