SmileBox

Another free picture collage by Smilebox

SmileBox is a simple tool to make collages, slide shows, and much more. It is a really fun tool. It allows you to upload your own pictures and select a layout. You can then position the pictures how you want them. you can even add text to your work. Then you can change the colors the font style the order of the pictures, almost anything you want. I think students would have a blast being able to make collages, even if it was collages of work they had done in class or pictures from a scavenger hunt. The toll is simple to use and a lot of fun. I think it would be more suitable for older students. The younger children may not be able to manipulate the program as well. I loved being able to use any photos i had on my computer and being able to share my collages on multiple different websites. This is a feature that will allow students to display their work proudly on their personal sites. with a little help and some monitoring this tool would be really fun in a classroom.

Scavenger Hunt

The picture scavenger hunt was a lot of fun and can be used to further learning in almost any subject. It really allows students to be able to get out a little and use what they have learned and do something fun. It is an activity that I do not think I would do with younger children, but 2 Grade and up I think would have a really good time being able to go explore and take pictures then edit them.
It went really well. I think having different list of items is a really good idea so no one can just follow another team and use their ideas. I also really liked being able to get out of the classroom, I think that is something that students would love.
I would change some of the items on the list to match the ability level of the students and limit the area that they were allowed to explore in.
I think that this would be awesome to use with students to allow them to explore and learn on their own a little. The items they find and have to explore can really enhance their learning.

Pictures

This assignment was a lot of fun. I love editing photographs and making albums to share with other people. I come from a family of photographers and do part time work with my brother who is a professional photographer. This assignment really just allowed me do something I already loved doing. I had very little experience in scanning photos and posting them. This was a really good experience and I learned a lot about how to edit photos after they have been scanned in to a computer. I really did not struggle with anything on this assignnment, I just enjoted being able to play with my pictures and being able to find new pictures from other people online.
I think that students can use this to post pictures of some of the resesarch they have done. This would be an easy way to share with the teacher without having to print off all the pictures and bring them to the teacher. It also allows for easy access for the teacher. He/ She can look from any computer and not have to worry about losing the work or not being able to keep track of who did what.
This is a really fun tool. It would mostly be used for higher grades, but students would have a blast being able to edit and share photos, especially if they had the opportunity to take them.

Army

Lesson Plans

Lesson plans are fun to make. It takes some work to get all the information, but I enjoy being able to come up with activities to help children learn. It was really interesting to be able to explore how technology can be used within a lesson plan. The first lesson plan we made was not exactly how it should have been, so we made a new one. The one we ended up doing was science for 5th grade. It was a really interesting lesson with some fun activities. I learned a lot about how to include the use of technology in a lesson and how this can further the learning that is going on. Students can definitely learn a lot when they are able to research something and be able to explore. Technology will be something that is used to further the education. Students will be allowed to use computers and the internet to explore what they are learning and be able to learn more about the topic whatever it may be. Students can learn a lot from exploring the topics and being able to focus on certain aspects that interest them.

Web 2.0

This entire Web 2.0 exercise was amazing. It really taught me how many different tools are out there that can be used in a classroom. We were only able to scrape the surface of web tools and how they can be used, though it really opened my eyes to some of the uses of the tools. As teachers we have a lot of resources and some that may not be what we expect to use as a tool for a classroom. I did not have a chance to explore the tools as much as I would have liked to, but I have had to chance to explore a couple and to be able to see that there are even more out there. It was also extremely interesting to see how others would use the tools. They came up with stuff that I never would have thought of. I thought this exercise was good in being able to see uses of resources that we would not have seen otherwise. It is also cool to see how some of the tools relate to wikis and how easy it is to share info on the wiki. It showed how useful the wiki would be to teacher. It is an amazing tool for teacher to share what they have been using and how it has helped their class or not. I love how interactive this exercise was. We had the chance to not only see how others used the tools, but we got to use the tools ourselves. It was an all around good exercise. I loved it!

Wordle

There are so many websites that can be extremely beneficial to teachers. I had the opportunity to explore a couple of different site. One of which is Wordle. I was not sure at first about Wordle. It is not something that can or will have a huge impact on a classroom in my opinion. It is however, a very interesting tool. And while it may not have a huge impact on a classroom, I do think that students would have a lot of fun being able to create wordles on this site. This is a Dr. Suess wordle.

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I had a blast being able to create this wordle. It was fun to be able to change the way it appeared. 

When creating wordles one can not only change the way the words are arranged, you can also change the colors. It really allows for for the person creating it to be creative. I think this could really help students. One way of using it would be to have the students research a historic figure and create a wordle with only words pertaining to them. This is a creative way to allow students to demonstrate what they have learned. I think that students could have fun playing with this. I think this is a simple site that can be used by most students. I really think this site is a good aid in establishing information.