What it is: Juxio is a new visual way to create and communicate. The web application lets students take their own images (or images from Flickr, FaceBook, or Picasa) and add them to an image stream or panel. Text descriptions can be added to the stream to describe the images. Streams are where text and images get placed. Streams expand in width as elements are added. A Jux (Juxio creation) can be expanded vertically by adding additional streams. This is useful for organizing content into categories or for comparison. Each stream can have its own header to add meaning or depth to a Jux creation. Events are used to visually segment streams. For example, students might have an animal stream of pictures that is segmented into the events “mammals” and “reptiles”. After students create a Jux, they can save it as a PDF file, print it, or share it online via email, Facebook, Twitter, or url.
How to integrate Juxio into your curriculum: Juxio is a fantastic online tool to use for online visual creation. Students can mash-up text and photos to create their own Jux that can be used to organize information or display understanding. Use Juxio for animal classification, vocabulary, historical time lines, changes over time, to tell a linear story, or display any information in an organized fashion. Take pictures of a science experiment for students to turn into a Jux, they can start at the beginning of the experiment adding captions to each picture. Text boxes can be added for students to type in their hypothesis at the beginning of the experiment and to add a concluding statement at the end. Take pictures of a school field trip and create a Juxio to tell the story of what happened on the field trip. A Jux can be created individually by students in a computer lab setting, or by a whole class using an interactive whiteboard. Class Juxio’s can be created to display new learning, each student contributing to one Jux. The finished product can be printed and saved in the classroom with the URL sent home so students can access the learning from anywhere. Use Juxio in place of a traditional Friday newsletter. Take pictures of students throughout the week, add captions explaining what learning happened during the week and add a stream for upcoming events and reminders. Anytime you add student pictures to a newsletter, the chance that a parent takes the time to read it goes way up!
Tips: Juxio requires an email address for sign up. In addition, students must be 13 or older to obtain their own account. If you teach younger students, create a class account where you are the owner. Students can create a Jux using the class account and save it with their name in the title.
Juxio offers the option to purchase the finished Jux as a poster. Prices are very reasonable and can be used for customized classroom decoration. Cool!
If your school has access to an iPod Touch or iPad lab, Juxio can be downloaded directly to the device as an application.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Juxio in your classroom!
Great tool — thanks for the heads up!
Kevin Hart
http://www.edvoices.com
Juxio looks really cool. I can see uses for creating visual dictionaries, etc.
@Judith- great idea using Juxio as a visual dictionary!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful tool! I am excited about trying this with my students. I teach English Language Learners, so I believe this can be a powerful tool to create visual dictionaries. I also teach two different animal science units. One unit is animal adaptations and the other one is animal lifecycles. I think this tool will lend itself to the creation of visual lifecycles and can help the students create animal adaptations posters. Thanks again!
@Sara- great idea for using Juxio with lifecycles! I think it will be a great tool for students to create adaptation posters. Thanks for sharing your idea here!
No problem! I hope you are able to use it with your students. Have you already tried Juxio? I was thinking of using this with my Native American units, too.
@sara0 I have tried Juxio, I am finding so many uses for it! It will be great for a Native Americans unit!
Thank you for mentioning this tool! It is way cool- however I wanted to share that I attempted to use it with a 6th grade class, with about 8 groups creating juxes in the same account, and we had to reroute the project to PPT. We had all kinds of issues with the kids not being able to save work, with the site telling them they needed to log in in order to save (when they already were, etc). Luckily we had not gone too far and the teacher is adventurous and flexible!
I think we should wait ’til it gets out of Beta before really embracing this tool. I will let the contacts there know about these issues.
@Sean- good for you for being flexible. That is one of the biggest lessons I learned…this technology is just a tool- not the learning. We have to be ready to be flexible for those unexpected glitches. Thanks for letting us know about the issue!