Fun Day with New Toys

I've been having a lot of fun today. I discovered two new educational "toys". You may call them tools but toys sounds like more fun.

I spent some time checking out http://voicethread.com/. (Thanks to Darren Kuropatwa) I created an account and then created my first Voice Thread! It was really easy and a lot of fun. In the matter of a few minutes I had uploaded photos, arranged them in order to show, recorded a narrative to go with each one, and created annotated notes on them. All I needed was an internet connection, an email address to set up the account, and a microphone. Then I set this file up to share with some other teachers at school. I wanted to show them how easy and fun this was. I am definitely going to use this with my students next semester!

The next place I went was http://www.slideshare.net/. This allows you to share any PowerPoint on the Internet. That might not seem so great but it also allows me to browse for other people's slideshow. In a matter of minutes I was able to find and see slideshows uploaded by other teachers. No more recreating the wheel!

I am sure if you looked for it you could find "bad stuff". However, one of my responsibilities as an educator is to teach my students how to sort out the good from the bad.

I'm excited about these new finds. Check them out. You might like what you see ........