DO+-+Web+2+Tools

DO – Web 2 Tools 1. Center for Congress: http://www.centeroncongress.org/learn_about/launcher.htm This offers a nice introduction to how Congress works, what Members of Congress do, and the importance of citizen participation.I found the site to be very detailed, and would say that this material would be of use in a high school civics or social studies class.I found the module on the Impact of Congress to be most amusing as I strolled around town, clicking on sites which Congress had influenced.This is a much better option in the classroom over a boring lecture.

2. Jeopardy Labs: http://jeopardylabs.com This site could be great for all ages.For younger kids, very simple questions and answers could be used where the teacher keeps the score since adding at this age may not accurate.I created a biology game at the high school level which could be a very effective learning tool in class.

3. Game Generator: http://classtools.net This site seemed a little more complicated for generating games.The games look like they would work best at the high school. Some examples were Consequences of World War I and fishbone diagram of Positive Production.However, after viewing how to create the individual games, I would say that Flashcards, Countdown and the Dustbin game could all work at the elementary school level if questions were made easy enough.I am definitely interested in creating games using this site. This would be an excellent resource to use in the classroom.

4. Xtranormal: http://www.xtranormal.com This site would be great for all ages.It would probably would not work as well with chemistry, physics or biology, unless a new topic or key idea was being introduced to a group of students.This site would be great for social studies and lit classes.

5. Animoto: http://animoto.com This site would be great for taking students to a historic or scenic site.Many photographs could be set to music for any class.In science, you could visit a variety of deserts or the rain forest.For children at the younger grades, the life story of an animal of topic set to music could be very engaging for students.

6. ToonDoo http://www.toondoo.com/Home.on I would place this site at about the same place as Xtranoral for the audience it would appeal to.This would be great for introducing new ideas or getting a point across.I think that it would be harder to effectively use in an advanced chemisty class.Unless, of course you wanted two characters to talk about mixing acids and bases or something as simple as that.This would work well at all ages in all classrooms otherwise.

7. Read*Write*Think http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/index.html I liked the site a little bit more than the Avatar site.It seemed like there were more objects to pick from.For science teachers, I thought that the animal selection was better.Again, this would be great for all ages and classes but more for the younger grades.It could introduce an idea or topic of study.

8. Unique: http://unique.rasterboy.com I would almost not copy this site except that it was a Blackboard resource.This site would be great for very young children, or a foreign language class where vocabulary could be used to describe the boy or girl.I would not use this in a science class.

9. Voki: http://www.voki.com Very cute, but this is not a site that would do much for me in the classroom.This would be great for any class and grade level as an introduction to the unit study.I do not think that it would provide much detail support unless you wanted your creations to do the “lecture” part of teaching.That would be a lot of work.

10. Blog City: http://generator.blog-city.com This would be a great site for high school and college ages to use outside of classroom time.Students could read the site on their own time and respond.I think that this would be appropriate for use in all class types.