BP10_200910_Web 2.0 tool #4

Mind maps are diagrams used to delineate words, or ideas linked to a central idea or word. These visual aids can be utilized for studying, organizations, problem solving, or writing. “Because mind mapping is more flexible than outlining, it encourages creativity” (Murley, 2009). Bubbl.us is a free collaborative tool to create mind maps with ease.

Bubbl.us allows the user to productively create their brainstorming or organize ideas for a multitude of projects. The balloon style format allows a uniform easy to read styling. The tool is fully web based powered by flash, nothing to download. The sign up is easy and doesn’t require any extraordinary personal information.

To start all the user needs to do is press the ‘start brainstorming’ button on the home page. This button will open will start the map off with it’s “parent bubble”. To change the text, color, or location just hoover over the bubble and find the coordinating icon. For information about each icon as the user hoovers over it there is a help box on the right side that will show the information and shortcuts.

Once the user has started with a central idea, they can click for a “child bubble” for a bubble under the parent. There is also a “sibling bubble” that will appear on the same level as the parent. This is laid out like a family tree levels of hierarchy. The user can change the colors of any bubble. The bubbles can be easily moved around to fit the look the user wants.

Among the features is the ability to save the file on your Bubbl.us account, print, or export as a jpg file. There are other free tools like Bubbl.us but they aren’t as easy, quick or helpful. After using Dabbleboard, I would highly recommend Bubbl.us instead.

Image is from :

http://bubbl.us/view.php?sid=7988&pw=ya71XC6HwyNHkMSRmVHlVLlVMcmR2TQ

Reference:

Murley, D. (2009). Technology for everyone…Mind mapping complex information. Retrieved October 16, 2009 from http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_llj_v99n01/2007-11.pdf

BP 9 Reflective media 1 Weebly

My reflective media presentation is for the use of Weebly in the classroom.

BP 8 Flickr in the classroom

Flickr is a remarkable tool sharing for personal photography and images but it can also be used in a lot of classroom settings. In an educational setting Flickr can promote social learning. In one area students form multiple classes can collaborate through visual elements, discussion boards and comments. “Students who are engaged with content demonstrate better learning outcomes and visual media facilitates that sense of connection to subject material” (Educause, 2008).

There are several ways to incorporate Flickr into assignments in a lot of grade levels. For younger ages you can use it in addition to a creative writing project; they can find an image that appeals to them and write a story about that image. The teacher can pick a photo for the story as well. Another project could be to find photos of items, animals, people or art from a specific area of the world to post to their account with a description or story about those items.

Older students could have a collaborative discussion about a specific artwork and the elements in that image. A fun project could be to post a how-to with photos, or a photo book of your vacation, a photo story. Students can also post their own art work for comment and analysis.

The ideas of how to use Flickr in your classroom are endless. If you engage the student in something they love, you can inspire them.

Reference
Educause. (2008). 7 Things to know about Flickr. Retrieved October 12, 2009 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7034.pdf

REPSONSE TO ANOTHER STUDENT'S WEB 2.o post.

Alicia's Blog

http://aliciakalb.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 9, 2009

bp6_20091009_Web 2.0 Tools Lala

Web 2.0 Tools - Lala

When I was researching music Web 2.0 tools, I wanted to find a tool that would allow me to take the music that I have on my computer and have a copy online. A big part of music education for me is having my students listen to music. Often I would use my iPod during class to have my students listen, but in the event that I cannot hook up my iPod to a speaker system, I need a way to listen to with my students. The Web 2.0 tool that I found that meets this need is called Lala (http://www.lala.com). Not only does it allow users to listen to complete tracks and albums before purchase, but it allows you to upload you entire music collection and play it from anywhere in the world. There is also the social aspect of the site, which allows you to listen to friends’ playlists and discover new music.

Besides having students listen to and analyze music, I would also use this tool for daily journal assignments. In my music tech class, I asked the students to complete a daily journal. I would play a piece of music and they had to answer the question on the board. Towards the end of the semester I would have the students create a journal entry for the class. Unfortunately it was more trouble than it was worth, because it was such a hassle having each student bring in a song. Some students brought in their iPods, which technically broke school rules, many told me which song they wanted to play, which meant that I had to find it, and some used online radio tools to play their music, but it only played a portion of the song. If I would have known about Lala last year, life would have been much easier. Each student could create their own account and upload their music to the platform. Then all they would have to do would be to log in to play their assignment. We could also use this program to save their own compositions that they created in class.

References:
Lala. (2009). Listen for free on lala. Retrieved October 9, 2009 from http://www.lala.com
















My Response:
I've heard of Lala prior to Alicia's post. The Full Sail Music History class found this product in a response the better functionality than iTunes. When it comes to large scale distribution to your students of music Lala offers a better platform for gifting credits or specific songs.

After reading Alicia's post I naturally when to research more. "The social networking aspect of the service combines different ideas from more general social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and does a good job of serving recommendations, aiding music discovery, while not duplicating unnecessary functionality" (Neagu, 2009). I was shocked how social this music site was. I think that Lala.com is a great alternative to iTunes and Pandora.

Also check out emusic.com and a change from iTunes. It's the second largest online music store with the recommendation aspects of Lala.com (Lardinois, 2009).


References
Lardinois, F. (2009). Four approaches to music recommendations: Pandora, Mufin, Lala, and eMusic. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/music_recommendations_four_approaches.php

Neagu, S. (2009). Lala- Really cool new site for music streaming & downloads. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/lala-the-best-new0service-for-music-downloads

BP7_200910_Web 2.0 tool #3

Tumblr is a microblogging site like twitter but with more abilities. Unlike Twitters basic short posting and the occasional picture or link, Tumblr adds the extra needs for today’s visual world.

Micro-blogging is a term described by Wikipedia as "a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user" Tumblr is a very enhanced, easy to use micro-blogging platform. Its core is on simplicity and posh. Users can share a multitude of items including text, photos, quotes, links, chats, or videos.

As with most web 2.0 tools, Tumblr is easy to set up and personalize. They offer hundreds of user made backgrounds, though they are sorted by keywords so you have to just keep scrolling through to find one that’s appealing. Once you have your appearance set up, add services like sending your Tumblr to your twitter. There’s nothing like posting on two places with one posting. Also, there’s a FaceBook application as well, so really you can post to three locations with one post! No friends on Tumblr yet, you can find others to follow from the staff suggestions or by category.

Sharing you links is super easy. There’s a tab in the top menu called goodies that offers widgets and ideas for expanding the usability of the site. The very first item is called bookmarklet, all you do is drag and drop the button to your bookmark bar on your browser. Now when you have something to share you just click that link and a window opens for you to add the page to your Tumblr. Othe goodies are the facebook app, iphone app, and dashboard widget for mac users.

I’ve only scratched the surface with this tool. With all of the abilities to share various types of media make this a useful tool for students and classes.

http://jferguson.tumblr.com/

Other useful resources:
http://www.ikirudesign.com/2008/01/11/showdown-tumblr-vs-wordpress/
http://mashable.com/2009/03/27/tumblr-extras/
http://speckyboy.com/2008/01/30/a-rough-guide-to-the-excellent-tumblr/
Java, A., Finin, T., Song, X., & Tseng, B. (2007). Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities. Procedings of the Joint 9th WEBKDD and 1st SNA-KDD Workshop 2007.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9 (5), 1-6.


Reference
Microblogging. (2009, October 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:12, October 11, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Microblogging&oldid=318962376
Other useful resources:
http://www.ikirudesign.com/2008/01/11/showdown-tumblr-vs-wordpress/
http://mashable.com/2009/03/27/tumblr-extras/
http://speckyboy.com/2008/01/30/a-rough-guide-to-the-excellent-tumblr/

Video from: http://speckyboy.com/2008/01/30/a-rough-guide-to-the-excellent-tumblr/

BP6_200910_Web 2.0 tool #2

Weebly.com is a free way to create and publish websites. These pages are easy to create with many different types of media to integrate. The creators offered an easy drag and drop layout, with multiple pre-designed backgrounds ready to go. The greatest feature of Weebly, it’s free. The host the you site for you at no cost, or you can publish your created site to your own domain name as well.

The features are endless with Weebly; unlimited blogging, no advertisements, multiple pages, and password protection. These features just scratch the surface of what you can do with Weebly. The ability to add a plethora of multimedia elements with a easy drag and drop makes these sites attractive. Weebly also works with some of the Google tools like checkout, AdSense, and Analytics.

After reading reviews about Weebly, I decided to give it a try. I’ve tried a few other free website builders and I wanted to see if was really as easy as they said. Creating the website was pretty easy, you don’t need to know much about building a website or the programming that goes with it. To start you have to create an account with basic information like your email then pick a user name and password.

It was as simple as picking a background from over 70 templates and picking what I want on the page. They offer a range of elements like basic text boxes, text with images, photo files, and documents files. The fun happens when you can add the advanced elements like multimedia photo galleries, Flickr photo slideshow, YouTube videos, Google maps, and even games. You can add more pages with a click by choosing the “Pages” tab at the top of the page, click new page, then what you want the page to be. The more advanced user can add items with embedding HTML code.

Weebly has gone a step further and has started an education side to their creation at http://education.weebly.com/. “Weebly’s new features are for the teachers and staff who want to get content online quickly and have their classes join them in a safe environment” (Dawson, 2009). I highly suggest this site to a alternative to Google sites, Jimdo, uCoz or Terapad.

Resources

Dawson, C. (2009). Weebly launches education services. Retrieved October 8, 2009 from http://education.zdnet.com/?p=3145

Image is from:

www.flickr.com/photos/10380973@N02/2760173339

BP5_Web 2.0 Tool #1

Web 2.0 Tool 1: Glogster

http://edu.glogster.com “Glogster EDU was conceived to imaginatively, productively, and collaboratively respond to the dynamic educational landscape and exceed the needs of today’s educators and learners” (“A New World of Educational Innovation Awaits You”, n.d.).

Glogster is a way to create multimedia virtual posters, scrapbooks, or e-portfolio pages. During my school years I can remember how many projects or presentations I had to create a poster for a visual. I’m sure you can remember cutting up magazines, coloring in words, and making diagrams. In today’s world students are more digital natives and have more computers available. Imagine if posters were a good medium 10 years ago, glogs are today’s answer for the new generation.

Glogster is a free, web-based tool that you can create any type of poster you can think of including adding videos. Registration is quick and easy only basic information like a user name, password, email address, and your birthday are needed. Once you’ve received a confirmation email form Glogster, you can create a profile. Creating a glog is easy and a lot of fun. The website provides a large amount of backgrounds, graphics, and text options. The graphics can be found in a range of styles and colors, sizes and orientation can be changed. They even offer animated graphics that flash or move to add that extra element to the collage. Images can be uploaded from your computer files as a background or just as a part. Glogster adds that digital advantage by allowing sound, videos and hyperlinks to be included. Lastly just click to save and publish.

This site if more than just creating terrific virtual posters, you can use it as a social network. From your dashboard you can see messages, your friends, add your current status, and see your glogs. You can share your glogs, or keep them private. Users can comment, rate, add it to your favorites, or send to your friends through email. Glogster is a creative social website that allows for creative freedom and collaboration. One of the big bonuses to this site is that you can share your glog outside of their website. You can copy the code to post it on other sites like wikis and blogs, or you can click the easy share button to add it to several other social networking sites.

Glogster additional resources:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgqwv5cr_127g7nqc8fm

http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=936

References

A New World of Educational Innovation Awaits You. (n.d.).Retrieved October 8, 2009, from http://edu.glogster.com