Kristy: Audacity

How dare I enjoy part of a professional development, right? Regardless, I did. I already played with Audacity once, but I got to play in it again for a few hours today.

Audacity is a free audio editing download. If you haven't played with it before, you may want to consider doing so.

Here's my (rather lame) creation, but you get the point.

Kristy: Clustrmap

I think I have already explained that I'm fond of widgets, but this one is extra neat. Clustrmaps let you track the visitors to your website, blog, or wiki. I love how it isn't just a counter, but it tracks the locations of the visitors. Fun stuff!

Kristy: VoiceThread

VoiceThread is a tool I learned about during the Blogs, Wikis, and Web 2.0 book study I completed that Kiki Evans facilitated. I loved this book study, and I especially loved VoiceThread.

I finally got around to finishing a VoiceThread introduction to the author of this blog, me. The blog's other contributor - my husband - is interlaced as well.



Here is a VoiceThread I used in my Business Management class. The complexity of the questions progressed throughout the assignment, as it was the first time I utilized this tool in the classroom, and I was trying verify the students understood how VoiceThread worked and I was trying to inform the students about various business concepts. I was afraid to lose someone.



I personally prefer keeping VoiceThreads moderated, because it allows you to check for accuracy before accepting a post, checks for appropriateness, and keeps the students from hearing one another's answer just to cheat.

Kristy: acapela.tv

I’d never seen acapela.tv (http://www.acapela.tv) until today, but I already love it. It’s this fun website with a bunch of premade movies that you can put a string of text into and it turns your text into a new movie.

For an example, see here:



Another example of how it could be used in a classroom to introduce a new topic or unit is here: Introducing Vocabulary

It takes seconds to create a great product, and you can even choose your accent!

Kristy: Favorite Travel Sites

Those who know me know I love to find a travel bargain. I’ve been asked many times what sites I use, and I have to admit that there are a lot of them. Different sites have different bargains, and I usually check them all.

I’ve included many of these sites here in this comprehensive list:

Flights:
Airfarewatchdog.com - an airfare compiler that posts both advertised and unadvertised flights and notifies you of travel deals. You can also sign up for emails about flights from your preferred airport or flights from one airport to another. They’ve also created this handy travel engine comparison chart: http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/4771853/chart-how-airfare-alert-sites-compare/?source=facebook

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch - I love this site too. It’s a great way to find the best prices for certain flights. If it asks, you can just log in as a guest.

http://www.seatcounter.com/ - helps you figure out how many seats are left in a flight class

http://www.kayak.com/
http://www.travelocity.com/
http://www.expedia.com/
http://www.dohop.com/
http://www.yapta.com/
http://www.farecompare.com/
http://www.orbitz.com/

Trips:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ - great for travel advice, things to do, and finding highly rated yet inexpensive hotels

http://www.independenttraveler.com/
http://www.travelocity.com/
http://www.expedia.com/
http://www.orbitz.com/
http://travel.yahoo.com/

Cruises:
http://www.cruisecompete.com/
http://www.cruisecritic.com/

Happy Travels...

Kristy: ebooks galore

Ever since Kris got me a Sony eReader, I’ve been entranced by ebooks. It’s amazing how many free ebooks are out there for the taking. Perfectly free and legal downloads. Of course, there are a great many for purchase, but you can also get some of the newer releases free from the library too.

I’ve found a lot of educational resources free in ebook form too. Amazing Web 2.0, Digital Storytelling, and Hippo Has the Hiccups are just a few of the recent ones I’ve discovered.

Now, chances are I'll never completely replace tried and true books. There is something about turning the pages and seeing my progress that I love...

Kristy: Wonderful World of Wikis

It took me a while to really jump on the wiki bandwagon, but I'm so glad I finally did. Wikis are so useful in the classroom. It's amazing how many uses there are for them. Not only is it good to have your students learn to responsibly publish content on the web, but it's a great collaboration tool.

Just recently I had my webmastering students create avatars, vokis, and animoto videos and publish them to a wiki. The results were amazing! They also had a discussion on there. I really wish I could share this, but I had to keep it private due to FERPA. (A few students used their photos in their posts but didn't get their parents to sign the proper forms.)

My BCIS students have been creating SuperHeroes or SuperVillains for a PowerPoint project, and they have shared their characters on this wiki:
http://themccoybciswiki.wikispaces.com/. It brought up so many opportunities for positive discussion, and the students are loving the project. There is so much animation in their voices as they compare their Supers and plot out their storylines.

I made this wiki for Kris for our 6th anniversary:
http://kmsquared.wikispaces.com/.

Since you are able to lock the pages, you can often treat your wiki like a blog.

My favorite website for this is WikiSpaces since they have the free educator wikis that allow for removal of advertisements and allow pages to be made private without the fee.

It's so very easy to create and contribute to a wiki. If you haven't tried it you should.