Combine Literacy and Technology

Here are some resources to "combine literacy and technology" (taken from my Combine Literacy and Technology presentation).

1. Big Huge Labs (www.bighugelabs.com)

Take your pictures and create fun projects with them. When I shared this I featured the motivational poster. If you are like my husband you might like making a "demotivator". Teachers could use this site to create a poster without the title or description and have the students come up with them! Or teachers could fill in the title and description and have the students find a fitting picture. These two options would provide a way to use the site without students being on the computer! 

2. Superlame (www.superlame.com)

This is a very easy to use site that again uses your pictures. No logon required and free to use! Take a picture and add a speech or thought bubble to it. 

Here is one that I made:

3. Jing (www.techsmith.com/jing.html)

This is one of my top ten sites also! I LOVE this free downloaded tool from Techsmith. You can capture images or video off your computer screen!

4. Fotobabble (www.fotobabble.com)

More fun with photos, but this time give your photo a voice!

5. Voki (www.voki.com)
Talking avatars! *Caution with this site there are some monster and images that need to be reviewed prior to use with students. This might be a site that you give specific instructions for selections. The other disadvantage is that it has become more focused on paying customers and not as much comes with the free account.

6. Blabberize (www.blabberize.com)
I could put this on my top ten! I love this site!! It is sooo much fun. Take a photo, make it talk, and having a moving mouth!

7. Thinklink (www.thinglink.com)
Add "hotspots" to your photo that enable links to websites, videos and more. Take a look at my quick/simple example:


8. Glogster or GlogsterEDU (www.glogster.com or http://edu.glogster.com)
Not a blog, but a Glog! Simply put this is a 21st century poster creator. I love that you can have student accounts and monitor their glogs. *Some features are with a paid account.

9. Story Starter (www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters)
This is a great way to get the creative juices flowing! A teacher could just use the story starter "machine" and have everyone write. Or students each could be on a computer writing online with the program.

10. Make Beliefs Comix (www.makebeliefscomix.com)
Who doesn't like a good comic? This enables you to make your own 2, 3, or 4 panel comic strip. Pick images, backgrounds, text, etc. *Make sure to preview this site and the characters prior to use. They add new characters off and on.

11. Story Bird (http://storybird.com)
Cute way to write a story book using provided pictures.

12. Zooburst (www.zooburst.com)
Take Story Bird up a notch and you have Zooburst. Zooburst is a 3D pop-up book creator.

13. Kerpoof (www.kerpoof.com)
Create drawing or story (plus more). I really like the create a drawing and you can draw your own "item" to place in the drawing. *If you look into using the story creator, you need to preview first. I found that there might be some questionable items for certain audiences.

14. Powtoon (www.powtoon.com)
This is quickly becoming another of my favorites! Using the templates you can easily (and quickly) make a fun video. Starting from scratch is another option, but it will take time to figure out all of the timings with the video. Here is my Powtoon that I created to introduce myself for this