Interview: Assistant Director for Digital Learning
Parental permission required to use this tool with students under a set age
(13, filtering, elementary, middle, parent-permission-required-under-13)
StoryJumper is a site which allows the user to create and publish storybooks. The user can decide if the book is available to the public or private. Teachers are able to create classroom accounts.
Take a look at The Legend of Momoraro example book.
(13, no-filtering, elementary, middle, high,
parent-permission-required-under-13)
Mash your ideas and media together with friends in a dynamic whiteboard wiki. Using photos, videos, and other web content you can instantly create brainstorms, presentations, scrapbooks, and enjoy an interactive chat with more than 50 friends.
Using Nota
It’s your whiteboard.
Nota is an online place where you can create documents, and instantly add to them almost anything you like. You can drop in pictures from Flickr. Videos from YouTube. Text, drawing, you name it. It’s all in Nota. If you can imagine it, you can do it – in seconds.
Here are some examples made by Nota users.
Study notebook
Nota is a perfect tool for learn new topic: with Nota, you can insert photos or videos related to the topic easily from the web, and then you can edit your own notebook on the web. For more about educational use cases, visit our educational usecase page.
Recipe book
You can make your own recipe book with photos and drawings, or even with cooking video. With Nota, it’s easy to place photos anywhere you like, and decorate them as you like.
Message board
Let’s make a surprizing card for your friend who is moving out. You can co-edit Nota site with your classmates together in real time. After gathering messages, let’s send it to your friend.
Scrapbook/Photo Album
Let’s keep your trip in memories with Nota. Nota helps you to create your own trip diary in no time. You can paste your own photos and videos in your PC or in your web album (such as Picasa, Facebook, Flickr), or paste free-licensed photos and videos very easily. Then you can write or decolate as you like.
Drawing
How about to enjoy free graffiti on the web? With Nota, you can enjoy drawing with your friend simultaneously, even if the friend lives far away from you.
Study Boost (13, no-filtering, elementary, middle, high, parent-permission-required-under-13)
Study Boost allows teachers to set up a set (or multiple sets) of study questions for their students. Students can then use one of several messaging programs, including Yahoo Messenger and Facebook messaging to receive and answer the study questions on their own time. Study Boost can be set up to give them feedback on incorrect answers or simply ask them to try again. The study question set is available on computers and mobile devices, wherever the students use messaging.
Little Bird Tales (no-filtering, elementary, middle, high, parent-permission-required, parent-permission-required-under-13)
Little Bird Tales is an easy to use site that allows users to create stories which are made into movies. Users can upload their own photos, draw on the website, record their voice and add text. The final versions can be made public or private. Students and teachers can purchase a tale for .99 and download the mp4 versions.
This is what Little Bird Tales says about their own site:
Capturing the Voice of Childhood
Capture your child’s voice and imagination with our creative story building tool and share them with friends and family.
- Encourages creativity and self expression
- Helps reinforce reading and writing skills
- A GREEN alternative to books
- NO ads, NO merchandising, NO external links
- Made with kids in mind!
- It’s Fun and it’s FREE for everyone!
Kerpoof (teacher-use-only, elementary, middle, parent-permission-required, parent-permission-required-under-13)
Kerpoof is an online graphics studio to make movies, cards, drawings, and stories. It is intended for elementary and middle school students, but that should not stop you high school teachers from taking advantage of the fun. Without an account students cannot save work. Kerpoof has a lot of online support for teachers as well:
Lesson Plans – Looking for a fresh way to approach sequencing? Art history? The life cycle of a butterfly? Download free lesson plans for a variety of disciplines, from math and science to social studies and foreign languages.
Teacher Accounts – Kerpoof offers educators the ability to register students and arrange them into classes. Students may chat with each other, post creations on a class message board (moderated by you), and collaborate on a project in real-time from different computers.
Classroom Ideas – Visit this page for broad Kerpoof brainstorms that you can mold into your own lesson plans.
Educational Standards – We’ve cross-referenced Kerpoof activities with the state and national standards they can be used to meet.
Newsletter – Kerpoof publishes a free electronic newsletter that highlights new features, lesson plans, and ideas for using Kerpoof in the classroom.
For a sample lesson plan click here.
Mixbook (13+, under 13 parent permission required)
Mixbook is a scrapbooking website that allows users to build in pictures and titles to tell a story.
Mixbook is proud to present Mixbook for Educators, a program that allows educators even easier access to the most powerful suite of digital storytelling tools on the web.
Mixbook Education Program Offers…
- Free Collaborative Classroom Tools for creating and sharing personalized Mixbook photo books
- Secure online environment for students and teachers to share and edit privately
- Education Discounts on printed products – 10-30% off printed Mixbooks for your classroom
Blabberize (filtering, elementary, middle, high, parent-permission-required-under-13)
Using individual accounts, Blabberize allows users to give photos a voice. Users can save their finished product as an mp4, embed it, or link to it.
Classroom applications could be to use Blabberize to highlight key vocabulary or concepts in any subject.
Click here for a sample.
NEISD 