BP#10_2009/11/2_Web2.0Tools_Mutapic

http://www.mutapic.com/Mutapic_01.swf

This is a wonderful creative site for more complex design. It is called Mutapic and it takes two images and mutates them together to create a completely new image. I spent hours playing on this site and still did not discover all of its possibilities. the images that I came up with were really cool and intriguing. It is not for younger students unless they have the basic understanding of graphic design concepts. It is more for the high school to adult age group. The design outcomes are incredible and limitless. Try it as soon as you can!

BP#9_2009/11/2_Web2.0Tools_Cubescape

This web 2.0 tool lets you build with virtual Legos. The URL: http://www.themaninblue.com/experiment/Cubescape/new.php

It is called Cubescape and it is very fun. It is challenging and creative to build complex designs with the cubes. It can be used by younger children also. It also enhances color usage and with practice, you can become skilled at building.

BP#8_2009/11/2_Web2.0Tools_XtraNormal

XtraNormal Text-to-Movie

This Web 2.0 tool is great to make videos! I have used it for FSO courses and it is very simple to use. You will pick an avatar, a scene and type your dialog. When the production is complete, you will have a short video. It is very fun and user-friendly to use. Students can easily work through the site and create videos for assignments or for fun. Check it out at this URL:

http://www.xtranormal.com/

BP#7_2009/11/2_Web 2.0 _Tools_Voki

This web 2.0Tool lets you create an avatar that you can make speak and you can send it to your Blogger page , email it or post it. It is a little bit limited on selections that you can make but it is fun and easy to create an avatar similar to yourself.

The site is located at this URL http://www.voki.com/mywebsite.php

I am thinking about trying this with students to create a scenario for teaching an element of art.

BP#6_2009112_Flickr

I will use Flickr to show student art work in progress. These four photos show two 8th grade Oaxacan Sculptures in progression. The students who are coming into my class in the next 6 weeks can see how students before them have done their work. It will help new students visualize the project prior to beginning and it will give students form the past classes a record of their progressing in this advanced project.
I will also use Flickr to keep a gallery of my student work for administration, parents and colleagues to view. This can be used at Parent Night to run a video on my projector to entice new students for art class.

BP#5_2009/11/2_ Educational Uses for Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking has several benefits to the educational world as well as a few disadvantages. This web-based service will save your favorites and organize them by tagging them with terms that you pick. It will sort them into several areas simultaneously. Other users will save similar tags and you can link into each other’s bookmarks when searching topics. This opens a larger resource for all users. You can also search by popularity in a topic area.

Del.icio.us is the Web’s largest bookmarking site. It is unfiltered, so it may not be appropriate for students but it is free and easy to use. It will enable educators to develop a broad set of resources and share them with other educators. Another asset of using Delicious is that it can be accessed on any computer with Internet connection. Among the many ways that social bookmarking can be helpful in education are that it can support research, lectures, can be used to build communities, can be used to support individual and group projects, can be used for professional development, for informal formative feedback and it can be used to manage content abilities.

A few of the disadvantages of using Delicious are that it requires an online connection at all times to operate, it is impossible to control the users’ vocabulary, there is an inconsistency of terms used, there is a lack of precision, there is no competitor on the market. Although Delicious is simple and efficient to use, it is not a social network. The last disadvantage is the information load that becomes large takes more time and attention to browse through. In spite of these disadvantages, social bookmarking adds many advantages to its users, both in the educational world and on a personal level. Among these attributes are the ability to create collections of information, to manage marked information, to personalize that information, to utilize search options, to find information for research, to evaluate that information and finally to collaborate and communicate with others.

Social bookmarking is a Web 2.0 tool that’s time has come. It has valuable and practical usage for many of us. It will change as the technology changes but for today it is an excellent tool to organize your own information.

References:

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites080.shtml

Article by Lorrie Jackson
Education World®
Copyright © 2009 Education World 04/18/2006
Updated 06/05/2009

http://www.teachinghacks.com/wiki/index.php?title=Social_bookmarking_tools

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2413801/The-Role-of-Delicious-in-Education

ARP beginning Blog

http://web.me.com/loripickering/Lori_Pickerings_web_site/My_ARP_Blog/My_ARP_Blog.html

This is the beginning of my ARP blog