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Blackboard World 2008: The Power of Web 2.0

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I thought I'd share a couple of Web 2.0 tools that came from a presentation that I went to at Bb World this past July that was titled "The Power of Web 2.0." The presenter was a high school teacher in a San Diego public school. She described many free tools and how she used them in her class. A couple that I thought were intersting were ToonDoo (creates comic strips and is the basis of their social network) and bubbl.us (creates mind maps). The great thing is that it's free, platform independent and no software installs. The presenter also gave her web site that lists even more Web 2.0 tools. You don't need an account to try out bubbl.us, though it does require an account for ToonDoo. I created a generic account for ToonDoo, username "vsdl", password "vsdl2008". I know mapping software is used in some of the 'Ike Hawai'i courses so maybe this would be a useful alternative. As for ToonDoo, at the very least it's entertaining and fits in well with storyboarding concepts.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for sharing this site, Clinton. I remember going to this presentation at the conference & that it was one of the better ones that I had gone to. I took down her web site information & have no idea where it is now. :) I like the resources that are listed, remebered the mind mapping one from Kelly D's example, and found some other interesting links in the teachers' blogs at the bottom of the page. Overall a useful site that I will bookmark using my Delicious social bookmarking account. ;)
September 25, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Christy said…
Web 2.0, so much, so little time is how I'm feeling :). I liked "playing" with the tools you shared. ToonDoo and bubbl.us were very user-friendly and definitely have applicability to use in courses. I also visited the presenter site and found the blogs that Kelly mentioned. I stared to read Larry Ferlazzo's blog about his top Web 2.0 pics for 2008 (of which there are 31) so lots to look at. I've added the RSS to my iGoogle page (which I love BTW) so we'll see what else pops up.
September 25, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Kelly D. said…
Ditto . . .I could spend the rest of the afternoon checking out these tools! Mahalo for sharing, Clinton. I've always been a big fan of "webs" and "mind mapping," so I thought the bubbl.us tool was great; sort of a free version of Inspiration. I didn't have enough time to see if it could take the webs and convert into an outline format which was one of the features of Inspiration. I also thought that the ToonDoo tool would be a great way to get students to do creative responses. I'm wondering if the gallery may have things that may be "inappropriate." Kind of like that Wordle tool where they don't filter out anything that's submitted to the gallery. That would be my only concern with integrating that tool, but both of these would be great applications to use toward making our courses more interactive. I think I need an iGoogle page, too :) So many new things to learn and no time to searching for them!
September 25, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Komarey said…
I remembered you talking about this when you returned from the BB conference. After taking a look at the sites, I definitely see this as a resource for creative reading responses that are due in HPL1A. The bubbl.us website would work to brain map ideas for projects students are tasked to do. Mahalo for sharing. I can really use these tools in my class.
September 25, 2008 at 2:24 PM
Dorothy said…
Mahalo for sharing Clinton. It was a great idea for you to focus in on tools shared at the Blackboard World conference as we always tend to be so busy we forget to check out the cool tools others have shared. I especially enjoyed the ToonDoo Web site. I could see how skills such as reading and writing could be incorporated into the storyboarding concept. The bubbl.us site was also very user-friendly. I could see how distance learners could be easily engaged when these Web 2.0 tools are integrated into online courses.
September 30, 2008 at 7:42 AM
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