Nov 22 2009
I’m giving a presentation on this topic in just over a week. So I thought I’d get prepared, but also have this ready so teachers can refer to it again later, if they want to. It’s just an intro – it was hard to decide what to leave in, and what to leave out!
Nov 21 2009
I have asked my good friends on Twitter what Web 2.0 photo tools they recommend, in preparation for a CPD session I’m giving in a week or two on the use of ICT in RE teaching. Here are their (and my) recommendations:
Flickr – I think the number one choice of most. Worth paying for. Which reminds me, I need to pay for the next year. Anyway, I think it’s well worth it. It’s about the only web tool I don’t even hesitate to think about paying for. It’s about £12 a year. I use it constantly, and have about 5000 photos stored there at the moment. I think. (Supported by tweets such as @creativetallis, @davefoord)
Compfight – Strange name, great way to browse Creative Commons Flickr photos.
Flickrstorm – Another way to browse Creative Commons Flickr photos (thanks to @mtechman).
Photo Sharing Web Tools – A whole list of good Web 2.0 tools for photos. (@mtechman)
Gazopa – A way to search for similar looking photos (and, I think, videos). (@mtechman)
Cool Iris – “The fastest way to browse photos and videos”. (@victoriaellis has been going on about this for ages!)
Big Huge Labs tools – A variety of fun things to do with your photos (@victoriaellis)
ImageChef – Customise photos and clip art (thanks to @dominic_mcg).
Tag Galaxy – Visual way of honing in on just the photo you are looking for by gradually being more specific in the tags used (thanks to @dawnhallybone)
It’s amazing how many more photo and image opportunities, tools, applications etc there are now compared with two years ago. There are still many of the sites that I thought were fantastic when I first found them, but I think as I have become busier, and the amount of time I have to spend online has decreased, I have become more particular with which sites I use. It is good to have a reason to find out what I might be missing out on in the wider world of Web 2.0, and it makes a huge difference that I now have Twitter to help get more precise and focused recommendations. It’s also good to see that Flickr continues to be popular!
If I have missed out your favourite photo tool here, please leave a comment and I will update this at some point!
Apr 13 2009
I’ve been showing my sister some of my favourite websites. She asked me to send her links, so I thought maybe I could just make one post with them all here and then just send her the link to this post! So here they are.
Animations
Xtranormal – If you can type, you can make an animation.
GoAnimate! – Make cartoon animations.
Flashcards
Quizlet – Make simple flashcards and learn your keywords
StudyStack – Make flashcards, and StudyStack will automatically make games out of them, eg hangman, catch the bug, unscramble words
FlashCardFlash – Search for flashcards on a number of different sites
Video
Fliggo – Host your own video site. Hopefully the school might not block this …
Visuals
CompFight – Click on “Creative Commons ONLY” to find images to use in school
SimplyBox – Choose your favourite images or videos then simply box them for use later.
And remember … I also have links to a wide range of Web 2.0 tools here. Have fun!
Mar 29 2009
I am busily trying to produce resources that I can upload to Fronter. Here is a Wordle for Matthew 5:17 – 7:5.
title="Wordle: Matthew 5:17 - 7:5 NIV">
alt="Wordle: Matthew 5:17 - 7:5 NIV"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
As well as producing visual images such as these, I have been using CompFight (bizarre name, great tool) to find Flickr images that are Creative Commons, then I have used SimplyBox to quickly store them so I can access them whenever I want. I have also made some of my own images, which I have saved in my own Flickr resource set. Later, I shall save some of these presentations (which I am making using Keynote) to Slideshare.
Mar 28 2009
Two of my newest favourite sites to share with you today are …
and
With SimplyBox, you get a new toolbar on your browser window (Note to self and anyone that can help: I have 8 of these toolbars that are quickly using up too much space at the top of my browser – anyway I can minimise these all the top? Wasting too much space!), then when you see a picture, video or piece of text that you like, you simply box and save it. Then, when you look at your set of boxes on the internet, not only will you see the image that you liked, but it is still linked to the original website, so you can quickly find it and correctly attribute the image you are using. Works great with CompFight.
Free Photo Printing does what it say on the tin. It directs you to photo printing sites along with the codes that you need to get free or reduced photos. Fabulous! (Thanks to Sarah Fox for the tipoff!)
