Kubbu and Classtools

I originally started this blog as part of an education class and did not think I would ever expand on it. However, I have decided to keep posting about Web 2.0 tools that I have found useful and wish to share with others. Two sites that I recently discovered were Kubbu.com and Classtools.net. Kubbu is a site which has a free teacher account and allows you to make matching, crossword and other activities that students can access via the net. I think this has great potential as a review tool. Students can either log on as individuals where their progress and statistics can be monitored or the teacher can create anonymous groups where the students can access the materials without being tracked.

Classtools.net allows you to create interactive fun games, among other things, that you can embed in a website or blog and students can access via the web. Again, this would be a great tool for review or learning purposes. I plan on using both of these with an educational project that I am working on and I will post links here and on an educational website that I am currently developing. Hopefully, someone will find these as useful as I did and if anyone knows of other sites where teachers can create their own interactive materials, please comment here.

Text 2 Logo

This Web 2.0 site is more of a fun one that students can use to create their own personalized logo. Text 2 Logo (http://www.text2logo.com/) has six different styles of logos to choose from: Logo with background, 3-D, Animated, Texture, Simple, and Majuscule. Students go to the page, choose a logo type, choose font, colors, background (if applicable), and add text. They can then get the html code or download for free. If they wish to have the logo without any site tags on them they may pay $1.00 or $2.00 and purchase them. This could be a great way for students to introduce themselves and show off their personalities while utilizing technology.

Chartle

Chartle (www.chartle.net) is another site that can be used for creating graphs and charts. Simply click on create when you navigate to the page and then pick the type of chart you wish to create (you can pick from bar, pie, line, plots & diagrams, etc.). Add in your own title, data, edit the font, and choose your colors to make the chart the way you wish it to look. Then click on publish, share, or embed to complete. The chart will then be published on Chartle and can be embedded in a website (as I have done below). This site is an awesome alternative to Excel. It is a free and easy way for students who may not have Excel at home to create colorful and eye catching charts for reports or presentations.

Gliffy

Gliffy is an interesting site that enables users to create different types of charts. No signup is required and it can be used with students of all ages who need to create flow charts or similar types of charts. It is very easy to use and has many shapes to choose from. Teachers could use the flow chart option to have students visually depict the chain of command within the government (local, state, or federal) or add visualizations to steps within a recipe.

This site can also be used to create floor plans and would be a great way to revamp the old standard "draw a scale picture of your house/room" lesson and integrate technology at the same time. Gliffy can be found at http://www.gliffy.com/.

Visual Thesaurus

The Visual Thesaurus (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/) is an interesting website that creates a visual model of the entries that you would find in a thesaurus. It lists entries by nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and color codes the listing in the visual representation. In order to get full use of the site one must either purchase the software or subscribe to the site. Subscription costs are $2.95 per month or $19.95 per year and the software (either by download or on CD) is $39.95. The site does have some free features such as a word of the day and a Spelling Bee feature where you can see how good of a speller you are. One of the features that I found interesting was the Vocab Grabber (which you need to be a subscriber to access). It allows you to take any text and paste it into a box and then "grab" vocabulary words from the text. You can then make word lists for study with your students. I think this site would be a good asset for teachers of English who may want to do something different with their students. If it is something you think you will only use occasionally, the price per month is very reasonable for the options the site has.

Evernote

Evernote (www.evernote.com) is another organization website that allows you to type and keep notes on just about anything you would like. It has a web clipper that allows you to "clip" web pages and add them to your notes. You can also take pictures of items with your cellphone and save them to Evernote. You can download it as an app to your cell phone or to your computer. One of the great things about this organization site is that it will search any and all text from all of your notes, even handwritten notes. So if you are in a meeting or class and take a picture of the board for your notes, you can then go back and easily find the information, no matter how many notes you may have saved.

Scribblar

Scribblar is a free online site where you can create a private chat room. In addition to chat capabilities you also have white board space where you can type text, write problems, add shapes. As the moderator you can invite people to join the room or set it as a public room for anyone to join. As a teacher, the ability to have a private chat room is wonderful as it ensures that you have complete control over who can access the site. What I like about this site is that it gives teachers a way to interact with students who may have questions about assignments after class time. teachers can set times when they will be available and students can go to the room and ask questions. It could also be used by students working together on a project or paper. I think this site has a lot of possibilities for educational use.