The Web 2.0 Newbie Starter Kit A dozen tools to enhance your technology experience. In alphabetical order. Just the basics. For the beginner in you.
Written by Julie Greller, Media Specialist A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet The Blog: http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com The Website: http://www.jgreller.net/Teachers#
What is Web 2.0?
This is the second generation of the web. In simple terms, Web 2.0 refers to our ability to collaborate and share information with others online. In the past, we went online and information was there for us to read about. Today, there are millions of programs like the ones in the above picture which enable us to work with someone who is on the other end of the country or the other end of the world. In real time. Right then and there. Amazing, isn’t it? It also can be very overwhelming and confusing. So much stuff and so little time to wade through.......that’s why I’ve put together a beginner’s kit of 12 Web 2.0 applications which should get you started while you are on summer break. Questions? Feel free to drop me a note: cybrarian77@gmail.com
--Julie
Greller, Media Specialist
Aviary Aviary is one incredible suite of apps! Aside from cropping, flipping or rotating a picture, you have access to other image editing tools which will fix redeye, blemishes and more. The apps all have names of birds: With the Firefox extension Talon, you can utilize the screen capture app, and with the vector editor (Raven) you can scale your images so they look great on a tee shirt or poster. The effects editor (Peacock) will give you cool effects, while the color editor (Toucan) allows you to play with color. Audio Editor (Myna) and Music Creator (Roc) round out this free collection of awesome apps.
EasyPolls Yes, it really is that easy. Just register and you are ready to go. You can pick the look and feel of your poll, control the width of the poll and label your choices. Simply enter your question and list the choices. You then have a choice as to whether you’d like the poll link or the HTML code to embed it on your site. Here’s a quick poll I put on our school’s site. EasyPolls allows you to save polls you have created.
edmodo Your students will really enjoy using edmodo because it looks so much like Facebook. The big difference here is that your class’ social network stays private and is not out on the Internet for anyone to see. You register as a teacher and then add your students. My colleague is an English teacher and set up her edmodo network in one class period. She posted questions about a book that the class was reading and students shared comments with one another. Assignments were also left for them within their private social network.
Evernote Collecting information is very easy when you use Evernote. If you are surfing the web and find a section on a page you’d like to save, just capture it. Need to scan a document? Scan it to Evernote. To capture a portion or a full web page, just use the Evernote web clipper, which is a bookmarklet (it resides on your browser’s toolbar) and available for Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers. You can sync everything by downloading the desktop app for your computer (Windows or Mac) and the mobile app for your iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre or Windows Phone 7. Before you get too confused, here are some links to video tutorials: Evernote Tutorials, Beginner Tutorial. This is one app I can’t live without!
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Glogster
GoogleDocs
If you’re looking for a great way for your students to creatively express themselves, Glogster is the program to use. With GlogsterEDU, a teacher can create a free account with up to 50 students. The interactive online collages can be as simple (younger kids) or as complicated as the student or teacher wants it to be. There are many great tutorials for Glogster: Traci Blazosky’s is here, her YouTube glogster tutorial is here. Teacher-Librarian Joyce Valenza used Glogster for her library’s home page, and here is a presentation called Glog On!
With a G-mail account, there are so many things Google has to offer. GoogleDocs (documents) is your office in the cloud. Stored on Google’s servers, your documents can be uploaded or created within a suite of applications, including text, presentations, drawings, spreadsheets or forms. Work on a document simultaneously with others or share images or documents. The calendar app can be used to post your school’s yearly calendar or for teacher sign-up’s for the computer lab or library. Here’s a great GoogleApps tutorial.
ISSUU There are many times when you will want to share a pdf document with others. I personally have used ISSUU to publish my free guides, and I’ve seen schools publish their newspapers. (You will notice the ISSUU shelf on the right column of my blog) Just register on the site and then upload your documents. When someone views your document on the ISSUU site, it will have the look of an actual newspaper or magazine with each page virtually turning to the next page. Here’s a sample of what ISSUU’s digital publishing looks like.
Jing Jing’s free version allows you to capture screenshots and then write on each screen capture. You can also record what you do on your screen (screencast) and narrate your video with a microphone connected to your computer. The pro version is only $14.95/year, but offers you a better video format (smaller files) and the ability for you to appear in your screencast via webcam. Download Jing on your Windows or Mac computer. Imagine.........your video could be shown when you’re absent from school.
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LibreOffice There are many free online applications which replicate Microsoft Word, but I’d like to zero in on one I found out about when I attended edcamp Philly last month. LibreOffice offers 6 apps within its program: text document, drawing, spreadsheet, database, presentation and formula. All the apps are compatible with Microsoft Office (you can open documents and save them in MS formats) and the interface looks quite familiar. The download of LibreOffice is free, and my district was so impressed with it that they will be slowly moving all our computers away from MS Office (and the licensing fees) and onto LibreOffice. This is also a great way that students who can’t afford MS Office can have a great program to work with at home. For presentations, see SlideRocket below.
Only2Clicks Only2Clicks allows you to collect thumbnails of sites, making it simple and visual, something your students will find easy to use. Here is a one-page sample of what you can do with Only2Clicks. Click here for a multipage account. If you want to set up a webpage and have no experience, Only2Clicks will assist you with a very easy set up. So far the free site is adfree.
SlideRocket
I do not like PowerPoint. There, I said it. But I know that I’m not alone in this. Students have complained about how things don’t always work correctly and tend to forget that everything you use in your presentation has to reside in the original folder. Lately I’ve been using SlideRocket, which is a free presentation app which resides in the cloud. That means that no matter where you are, as long as you have an Internet connection, you can edit and view your presentation. Works well for students who can’t seem to remember where they saved their work. Anyway, SlideRocket easily interfaces with Flickr, so you can search for images and drop them right into your slides. Upload a photo or movie and it is put right into the slide.
Survey Monkey Survey Monkey’s free account gives you a maximum of 10 questions and up to 100 respondents, with different choices on how to set up your survey. You can easily analyze your results (they even figure out the percentages for you) and you have access to customer support via email. There are other types of accounts which cost money, but you should be able to make do with the free account.
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