Category: Video Tutorials

Ed.VoiceThread

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Ed.VoiceThread3502 views


What it is: I have posted about Voice Thread in the past, but Voice Thread has added a new education community that has some pretty incredible features. Ed.VoiceThread is a secure collaborative network designed specifically for the k-12 school environment. Teachers and students can collaborate around almost any type of media including voice, text, webcam, and drawing commentary in a secure environment. Access is restricted to k-12 educators, students, and administrators to ensure safe classroom collaboration. Ed.VoiceThread is an accountable environment, which means that all users are responsible for their content and behavior. Some added features that you will find on Ed.VoiceThread are, students have individual accounts that are easily viewable to educators, students can create, edit, and manage their own portfolio, students cannot add contacts or send invitations to any users outside of the Ed.Voice Thread community, and they cannot view any content that is not created by an Ed.Voice Thread member. Teachers can quickly view and access all students’ Voice Threads. Voice Threads can be made private or public depending on the assignment and requirements. Ed.VoiceThread comes in two packages one free and the other, called Pro, for $60/year. Free users can only create 3 VoiceThreads, have 75 MB of storage, no uploading of MP3 comments, 30 min of webcam commenting, advertising will be present, single file size limit of 25 MB, and no downloads of the media. In the Pro version, students can create an unlimited number of Voice Threads, get 10GB of storage, can upload MP3 comments, have unlimited webcam commenting, 30 archival movie exports, no advertising, single file size limit of 100MB and allows downloads of media.

How to integrate Ed.VoiceThread into the classroom: Ed.VoiceThread is the ideal place for students and teachers to collaborate and interact with digital media. The added functionality for schools with Ed.VoiceThread is very useful. Students can use Ed.VoiceThread to create digital stories, documentaries, practice and document language skills, explore geography and culture, solve math problems, and much more. As a teacher, I like VoiceThread as a place to teach. Because everything is web-based, you can upload a days lessons to Ed.VoiceThread for students to refer to and collaborate with while doing homework. I well remember the days when I would sit in math class learning the days equations. Everything made perfect sense to me while I was sitting in the classroom watching problems being worked. But at home, with no guide homework seemed impossible. Ed.VoiceThread makes you your students personal tutor. The self paced learning is amazing! I love giving students tools that allow them to be in charge of their own learning. Is there any better lesson in life than knowing how to learn?

Tips: Try out the free Ed.VoiceThread account and see how it could work for your classroom. If you are like me, it becomes addicting and 3 VoiceThreads won’t be enough!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Ed.VoiceThread in your classroom.

Updated Websites

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Updated Websites2230 views

Over the past week I have been re-vamping my websites.  Tenkely.org is a site that I created for my students to use.  I have pages for first through fifth grade with links to all of the sites that we use in class throughout the year.  I also have a page for parents about how my classroom runs and tips for keeping kids safe online.   The teacher site for tenkely.org  has also been completely re-done.  I added TONS of new goodies for teachers.  Obviously, I created these sites with my students and colleagues in mind but I hope that they are a source of inspiration for you too!  I am already keeping tally of links that aren’t working right so if you run across any, leave a comment so I can get them fixed up.

Read the Words

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Read the Words2345 views


What it is: Read the Words is a free website that offers an audio player that will read anything you want. The Reader on the audio player can be listened to online, downloaded to a mp3 player, broadcasted as a podcast, or posted on a website or blog. The first step to creating your reader is selecting what you want read, this can be uploaded from a PDF, MS Word, HTML file, or input manually, cut and pasted, through RSS or URL. Step 2 is selecting a reader for your purposes, there are 14 readers to choose from. The readers speak English, Spanish, and French. Each reader has unique voices and some have accents. You can control the reader’s speed and pitch. Best of all it takes approximately one minute to generate an hour long recording.

How to integrate Read the Words into the classroom: Read the Words would be an excellent way to guide a webquest for students, create a reader to steer students through each activity in the webquest. If you have mp3 players available for checkout, create a reader for guided reading. These can be used in class during silent reading time or checked out for home use so that the student learning day can be extended. The readers would be excellent for history or science reading where vocabulary can be challenging. Read the Words is perfect for your auditory learners and because you can have text that is already in your lesson read, the differentiation for these students is short and sweet. Read the Words would also be great for English language learners or for English speakers learning Spanish or French.

Tips:
Take some time initially to listen to each of the readers. Choose the one that is easiest for your students to understand and best fits your purposes.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Read the Words in your classroom.

Wiimote Whiteboard in action

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on Wiimote Whiteboard in action2290 views

So here it is…I finally got a few quiet min to get a video made. It isn’t the greatest but hopefully it will show you just how great the Wiimote Whiteboard is. My students are going nuts for it. As soon as they walk into my classroom I hear “Sweet a Wii, are we using a Wii today?” It immediately hooks them, not sure how long that benefit will be there but for this week I am loving it!

Viddler

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Viddler2820 views

What it is: Viddler is an AMAZING web application that lets students (or you) upload, enhance, and share digital video quickly and easily right from your web browser. I know, cool right?! The best part is, students can collaborate and comment on each other’s Viddler videos.

How to integrate Viddler into the classroom: Viddler has a million and one uses in the classroom. Record students science experiments and invite other students to comment on what was successful or what they would do differently in the experiment. Have students make a commercial about…well anything. Use your curriculum to guide the videos that your students are creating and then invite them to leave comments on other students videos. Create video tutorials for your classroom and add “secret facts” in the video in the form of comments. There is truly no limit! I often have my students create commercials because they are short and easy to record and share with others. In lieu of a book report, ask students to create a movie trailer type commercial for their book. Video adds a whole new audience for students, you will see creativity bloom. Be sure to check out the Directors Guild post below for some great uses of Viddler! After you record your videos you can embed them in your classroom blog, wiki, or website. Seriously cool huh?!

Tips: Create a class Viddler login where all class videos are recorded and saved. This will save the headache of collecting email addresses and passwords from the younger students…trust me, they will NOT remember them!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Viddler in your classroom.

Digital Directors Guild

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Digital Directors Guild2990 views

What it is: “The Digital Directors Guild (http://www.ddguild.org) has been developed to provide a space in which K-16 educators can explore digital movie making, its place in the curriculum, and its impact on student learning.” This is a great place for teachers to learn about digital movie making in the classroom and see how other teachers have used it in their class. Learn the what, when, who, how, why, and where of digital movie making in the classroom. This is a really well laid out and through site about digital movie making.

How to integrate Digital Directors Guild into the classroom: The Digital Directors Guild is actually the “how to” of integrating digital movie making into the classroom. Check it out for great ideas and examples of how other classrooms are using it. Tomorrow I will be posting about a service called Viddler and suggesting ways to make digital movie making a reality in your classroom.

Tips: Digital movie making touches on a variety of learning styles, check out the “why?” page for more information!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Digital Directors Guild in your classroom.

Childtopia Learn to Draw the Letters/ Numbers

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Childtopia Learn to Draw the Letters/ Numbers2235 views

What it is: Childtopia is like 10 websites in one…they have so many cool things going on that I am going to break it down into sections so stay tuned… The Childtopia Learn to Draw the Letters shows students the correct way to “draw” the letters of the alphabet. Students can learn how to print, write capital letters, and cursive. Childtopia Learn to Draw the Numbers teaches students how to correctly “draw” each number. This is a great option for your visual learners!

How to integrate Childtopia Learn to Draw the Letters/ Numbers into the classroom: For students who struggle with handwriting, Childtopia Learn to Draw the Letters/Numbers is a great site to use. Students watch as the Childtopia bird draws each letter or number. The site is perfect for using with your visual learners! Set up a handwriting center where students can practice forming letters with Childtopia. Provide a fun writing surface such as a small whiteboard or chalkboard where students can follow along.

Tips: This is one that you will want to bookmark for easy access!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Childtopia Learn to Draw the Letters/Numbers in your classroom.

Into the Book

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Into the Book2771 views

What it is: This is one of the most incredible reading websites I have come across. Into the Book “is a reading comprehension resource for K-4 students and teachers.” It focuses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing and Synthesizing. The site has a series of 15 min. videos for students teaching and amazing interactive web resources that can be saved! Teachers have access to great lesson plans, downloads, and videos. Check out this site, you will be wowed!

How to integrate Into the Book into the classroom: In the student section, students drag a picture representing one of the eight strategies onto the book. First they watch a short video describing the strategy and how it works, then they can try it themselves. The site is an excellent introduction to key reading strategies. Students can learn about and practice reading strategy here. The interactive environment is a fun and exciting, even your most reluctant readers will enjoy this site. If you have a projector you can use the videos on this site with the whole class. In the one to two computer classroom, use the site during center time. The site is ideal in the one to one or computer lab setting. This site is a must for remedial reading classrooms!

Tips: Make sure to check out the teacher section for great downloads, teacher videos, and lesson plans.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Into the Book in your classroom.