ONLINE TOOLS

Okay, so when we were challenged to look at 4 new tools that we had never seen before, it was easy.  I had not used, seen, or heard of  MOST of them.  So, I began my journey... There were several that I had fun playing with (many more than four), but the ones I thought would be most useful in my current position are Wordle, GoAnimate, Prezi, and e-Learning for Kids.  Last night I spent probably over an hour playing with Prezi and I find it quite motivating.  To describe it in a few words, it's like creating a poster/presentation in a very fun way!  It looks professional and you can embed videos, pictures, text, virtually anything!  I am excited to use it to present information to my students especially when the content requires steps and cycles.  I found a tool that is much like Kidspiration's webs that can help students see cyclical processes.  On all of the "prezis" you can choose the path and the order of how things are presented.  I see great potential for me as the teacher, but even more potential for students to demonstrate their learning on a given topic.  I think it would be really cool for them to create their own presentations at the end of many of our units or even to show the steps to add/subtract numbers with renaming and regrouping.  Not sure, how this could work, but maybe there is something else out there that is similar that they wouldn't have to sign into????