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We have had the opportunity to be exposed to lots of different types of tools through the making of our website, and there have been a few that I am going to make absolute certain I use in my future classroom. The first being Thinglink. This site is built on such a simple, innovative idea: making images interactive. The idea that you can introduce a concept through a picture, and then go into detail about it through links that you send the viewer to is such a brilliant idea. There are lots of different ways this could be used. For example, let’s say a student misses a part of class where you taught some important content and they need to get caught up. As the teacher, you could grab a relevant image and create on Thinglink to give the student what they need to catch up. A link to your soundcloud explaining the content, a link to a neat YouTube video you showed in class to explain it, a link to your piechart in infogr.am… this could be a really helpful way to help a student get caught up!
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My second favorite was actually when we learned to use Soundcloud, when we made our review of different resources. This is an excellent tool that, through the use of your microphone on your laptop computer, allows the user to make and record original sound files. I really like this tool because most tools that allow you to record like this are often complicated and I have a hard time using them, but Soundcloud is very user friendly. You can stream and listen to other’s ideas, or create and share your own. This would be an awesome way to get to know your students at the beginning of the year. Maybe you could have them each go home and record their own file answering a few questions about themselves. It would feel less formal than filling out a worksheet, because being able to talk might help put the students more at ease. Overall, great tool!
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The last tool I’m going to review is called Wordle, and it is definitely a tool that will help include student’s more artistic side. This tool allows the user to type in words or short phrases about one central topic, and the site will collaborate them and essentially create a colorful, assorted word collage of all the different ideas and phrases. I could see this being used as a way of introducing a topic to a classroom. “Today in class, we’re going to learn about Lewis and Clark’s journey across America. What words on this collage do you guys see that you recognize?” It could help the students to identify their prior knowledge, and maybe help the teacher get a feel for how well the students know the topic beforehand.
