Searching for web 2.0 tools became over whelming. I felt like I was in a candy store and became uncertain about which candy I can choose that would entice my taste buds. There seemed to be a vast amount of sites that does different task. The human filters I used were Google, Kathy Schrocks guide for educators and students and Discovery Education Web 2.0 Tools. Using Google may have a huge amount of information but I was still able to narrow my search. I took Kathy Schrocks’ course on Web 2.0 and I knew I was going to receive quality information. Lastly, I looked at Discovery Education Web 2.0 tools. They did not present many tools but I knew the site had valuable information. My main goal was to search for sites that educators, students and parents can view and use. I am pleased about the sites that attracted my attention. I chose PB Works, JayCut and Prezi.
PB Works 28/32
PB Works is a wiki. The website has 3 cost options. Basic is free, classroom is $99 per year and campus is $799 per year. What enticed me about this website, it minded me of our school base website but this site has more options. Using PB Works gives me the feel of independence and it allows my classroom to feel like a community within itself. I love the fact I can use this site for class resources such as publish class notes, power point lectures, schedules and give examples of students’ work. Also, my students can collaborate when doing group projects, students can present student portfolios and best of all parents would be informed about homework, upcoming exams and events. Furthermore, I explored the site and read where it is highly recommended by administers, teachers, colleges and business associates. I opened up a page where a 5th grade teacher, Mr. Boyer used Glogster and posted it on his page. I created a test page just to see how easy it is to use without using a tutorial. It is fairly easy but practice makes perfect and using their tutorials would help out a lot. PB Works often has webinars about using their site. The next section is August 2, 2011 7pm Eastern time and 4pm Pacific time. In addition, I feel safe when using this site.
PB Works has a “secure socket layer technology that protects your information using both server authentication and data encryption, ensuring that your data is safe, secure and available only to authorized users”. I love this information because as an educator we must make sure sites meets the CIPA.
JayCut 26/32
JayCut excited me because I love creating digital stories. I recently completed the Digital Story course and had fun with my projects. It was a lot of work but educational. JayCut is an upscale editing and movie maker website. It reminds me of movie maker but its features are somewhat different. You work in the timeline mode. Whereas, in movie maker you have an option; you can use story board or timeline to work in. I upload one of my digital movies that have a wmv file and it automatically converted the file. In addition, I upload some pictures to create a movie and the process of laying out my pictures and adding transitions on the timeline was not the same as I thought it would be in Movie Maker. I came to the conclusion; I must review the tutorials and practice in order to see the high end of this site. I like the idea I can share my videos with my class, the parents and my friends. Also, the site is strict about users uploading pornography or obscenity. However, this site does “contain links to other websites and they strongly feel they are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites”.
Prezi 28/32
Lastly, I chose Prezi. I enjoy working on Prezi’s site. Prezi is fun and upscale. You work on a large blank prezi canvas in which you can change the color. It has a transformation zebra that allows you to do great things with your typed words and it has a bubble menu that permits you to add video, audio, pictures, frames, boarders, colors and a path that helps you to organize the sequence of your presentation. Their tutorial is excellent and easy to understand. The only problem I had and a host of other users is importing audio on your prezi. I followed the manual to the letter and it gave me audio but not how I wanted to appear on my page. However, the website’s security surprised me. It stated, “This site is for adults to use”. In addition, “The service may contain links to other independent third party websites (Linked Sites). These link sites are provided solely as a convenience to our visitors. Such linked sites are not under Prezi’s control, and Prezi is not responsible or doesn’t necessarily endorse the content or practices of such linked sites, including any information or materials contained on such linked sites”. I did not get a chance to ask the website is there anyway educators can change the filtering. But that question is going to be on my list of things to do. It would be a shame that students under 18 cannot use this site.
On the other hand, I did have the opportunity to email 2 websites. One was about one of their security features and that site is Flickr and the other site was Prezi. I was concern about their audio feature. However, Prezi did not respond to my concerns but Flickr did. I was previously informed that Flickr has many objectionable materials on its site. I do like Flickr because it gives educators and students the option to choose pictures from creative commons. I sent an email to the developers explaining how students need a site like this but I also gave my concern about the pictures not being student friendly, what can be done to avoid my school district from blocking this site completely. Flickr wrote back and said, “To avoid such issues, we suggest that you enable the SafeSearch of your account. SafeSearch is a feature that allows you to control what turns up in your searches on Flickr, and it's on for everyone by default. For more information, please visit our FAQ page at:
http://www.flickr.com/help/filters/#249
http://www.flickr.com/help/filters/#249
http://www.diigo.com/list/yharper/web-20-tools
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