Taft Reads

Activity 1: You may already be familiar with office applications like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, but there are also online Web 2.0 tools that let you create documents, spreadsheets, and presentation files. When you use these Web 2.0 tools, you can access your files from any computer, and you can easily share them with other people.

One options that we have been using this semester is  Google Apps . Here is another to try, Zoho. Both of these require that you sign up for a free account. Our school already has an established account with Google apps in Education.  You should ask your parents if they are willing to set up a family account for you to use.

Did you already try Glogster? Dropbox enables you to use and computer to find your stuff such as videos, photos, files accessible anywhere even a PC or MAC. If you you lose something Dropbox will have your work so it simplifies your life.

What about diigo? Collect and organize anything using Diigo. Bookmark, highlight, notes, screenshots and pictures are all possible using Diigo. You can access and share anywhere and anytime either in Android, iPhone, iPad, PC or MAC.

Activity 2: Now, write a blog posting sharing what you created and telling about what you explored and how you think you could use this software for school projects or for fun.

Many Web 2.0 tools exist that will help you create images that you can upload to your blog. When you rearrange images and text they are called mash-ups or remixing. Using the following links you will create your own images.

Activity 1:

Visit one or more of these sites and learn how to create an image. Make sure to add your creation to your blog.

Image Chef: This site lets you customize signs and pictures with your own text. These images make fun additions to reports, cards, your blog, and anywhere.

Big Huge Labs: This site lets you mash images into magazine covers, movie posters, puzzles, CD covers, trading cards and more!

Wordle: Generate a word cloud from text that you provide. We have used this site to tell book reviews. Choose different fonts, colors and layouts to tell a story. Maybe create a Wordle for Teen Tech Week!

Tagxedo: Another word cloud generator to try!

Aviary: This site lets you draw and edit images as well as audio. You will have to set up an account first.

Make Beliefs Comix: Create your own comix strip even writing in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Latin or Italian! Maybe create a comix about yourself!

Dvolver: This site lets you create simple movies with bubble text using a set of characters and backgrounds you select on the site. You don’t need an account, but you will need to create and save your video in one session; you cannot return later to edit it.

Animoto:  You can upload or select images and music, then generates a video with stunning transitions. To give credit to the images and/or music you upload, you can add an image file with URLs for these items. You will need an account to create an Animoto video. I have an educator account that you can use if you’d like to try it!

Glogster: Create a poster using images, music, video and text to express yourself. Take a tour of the best glogs and how students have used them to tell a visual story.

Capzles: Social storytelling to go with your slide and it creates the audio

HelloSlide: Give voice to your presentations. Just type the speech for each slide and the audio narration will come to life in twenty languages.

Activity 2: Write a blog post describing your experience or learning in creating images or video with your chosen tool in Activity 1.

Activity 3: Now, write a blog posting about what site(s) you explored and how you think you could use this software for school projects or for fun. In your posting, link to or embed what you have created to share it.

Activity 1: Now that you have a blog, you are a publisher.

Before you begin searching for and adding images and other items to your blog, you need to learn about copyright, public domain, fair use, and Creative Commons, so you make sure that you are only publishing material you are legally entitled to. As you watch this video you will learn about copyrighted images and licensing options.  You will find a number of copyrighted images that are used in a fair use way. You will see a short commercial before the video begins.

Activity 2: Creative Commons is a new option that has become available to make finding and publishing other people’s material – and sharing what you create yourself – easier.  Learn more about Creative Commons licensing by viewing this video.

Activity 3: Find Photos & Images

Flickr is a website used primarily for storing and sharing photos. You can use this site to find pictures on any topic. It includes photos taken by individuals as well as from important museums and archives like the Library of Congress. If you open an account, you can also use this site to upload pictures you’ve taken and then you can share them with your family your friends or the whole world.

Flickr includes many Creative Commons images, as well as many that are copyrighted. If you want to publish an image you find at Flickr on your blog, be sure to search for images with Creative Commons licenses. Hint: To find images with Creative Commons licenses, go to Google image, enter your search term and then select the drop down Advanced Search screen, then check usage rights, free to use or share would be  images with Creative Commons-licensed content. Free to use, share or modify gives the user the opportunity to remix the image with attribution or credit. Always read the type of Creative Commons license that the creator intended.

Flickr also has an option to search on their Flickrcc site, which searches just Creative Commons-licensed images.

Let’s create an avatar!

Activity 1: Create your own avatar!

An avatar is a pictorial representation of you that can look somewhat like you, but in comic form and it might include a picture of something you like. Importantly, in the Web 2.0 computer world, you can use an avatar to create an online personality while importantly still protecting your privacy.

You can use one of the following sites to create your avatar:

1. manga.com
2. buildyourwildself
3. dream avatar

This blog posting from Edublogger blog about avatars has some tips on how to save and edit your avatar on a PC. Once you have your avatar saved, add it to your blog sidebar. With Edublogs blogs, you do that by uploading it as your blog avatar, then adding an avatar widget to your sidebar. Also add your avatar as your user avatar so that it appears in your comments. The Edublogger blog post can help you with that task also. With Blogger blogs, you add a picture gadget to your sidebar and upload your avatar file to it. Then, also upload your avatar to your profile under My Account.Once you have your avatar saved, add it to your blog sidebar.

Activity 2: Try to create an animated avatar using Voki.

To upload this to your blog, copy the html to your computer clipboard, then paste the html into a widget or gadget in you sidebar. You don’t need to create an account with Voki or dream avatarto make one!

Activity 3: Write a reflection about the creation of your avatar.

Describe what site you used, the process, and your results uploading the avatar to your blog. Make sure you create a hyperlink so others can find the site you used. Practice adding the link when ever you mention a site in your blog.

This week you will be learning more about blogging otherwise known as online journaling. Here is a link to a video to learn more about blogging.  Write a post answering the following questions.

1. What can you use your blog for?
2. What do you think you will want to write about?
3. Thinking about your digital citizenship. What are some topics that you can blog about?
4. What do you need to be careful about to keep private and not include when you are blogging?

I have created a blogroll of the other students blogs. Check another student’s blog, cheer them on and comment on them. Ask them questions about how to do stuff or answer questions for those that need help.

Critique well!

Topic 1: Digital Citizenship

Here are some questions for you to think about:

What is digital citizenship?

What are the rights and responsibilities of a digital citizen in today’s world?

By exploring new online tools and using them to publish online in this tutorial, you will get to experience many new ways to be creative. You will also have the freedom to interact with friends in new ways and possibly even with people from around the country or the world. With that freedom, comes the responsibility to practice good etiquette as a digital citizen.

Activity 1: To help you explore these topics and try to answer the questions above for yourself or through conversation with your friends and classmates, here are a few short videos for you to watch:

Privacy: Post to be private and Social Networking

Protecting Your Reputation online

Your Digital Footprints: Visit this site and click to play “A Tale of Two Footprints”

Activity 2: To see whether you have a “digital footprint” established already, try going to Google and searching for your name. You may be surprised by what you find. Your digital footprint will stay with you your entire life, so you want whatever people may find about you online to be positive.

After you set up your blog (in Topic 2), you will write a posting about your thoughts about digital citizenship. Make sure to label your post as Topic 1: Digital Citizenship.

Activity 3: Read the Blogging Guidelines for Students from this link provided by CSLA Teen Learning.

Welcome to Learning 2.0–Enjoy your 2.0 discovery learning journey.

This blog will link you and other library practice students during the spring semester 2012. You are your classmates will be completing the California School Library Association’s Teen Learning 2.0 tutorial. You will be introduced to a selection of free Web 2.0 online software tools, such as blogging, image generators, Google documents, and social bookmarking sites.

You will create your own blog and post  information about your learning and experiences with the tools you will be using during the tutorial.

I will create a blogroll of all of the library practice students blogs. Please complete the Google docs form about your blog.

This tutorial is designed so that you can learn how to use the tools of web 2.0 for your classes or for fun.

I hope that you will have fun – because these websites are full of creative ideas for you to use. Take time to explore and enjoy all the tools of this new Internet. Read on!

Before you begin this tutorial, you need to know that you are entering the big world of the Internet and “social networking”. This means that you will possibly encounter images and ideas that may be different from those that you are used to. While we have limited the places we’re sending you, you will still be interacting with your fellow students in a way that you may not have done before. Therefore, we expect you to behave respectfully, always be positive and, when asked to critique others ideas, you will do so in a way that promotes learning and is constructive.

This tutorial was first designed for teachers, and it included activities organized into 23 different topics or “things.” You will explore 10 different topics and complete at least one activity for each topic. There are additional activities to explore and experience if time allows.

How to complete this tutorial:

1.    Each topic takes about a week to complete.

2.   Each week you will be introduced to at least one website/or tool.
 You may also get information about an aspect of digital citizenship.

3.   Next, you have an activity to complete using the website.

4.  The last, and most important thing you need to do is to post about what you learned on your blog.