Week 4 - Visuwords

Visuwords is an online graphical dictionary and thesaurus. It's an easy way of generating definitions of words in a visual way which shows relations of words, if they are the same or the opposite, related words, whether a word or phrase is a noun or verb, etc.


For one of my assignments I plan to use 'Identity' as a keyword for a unit of work around a particular book. It generates terms such as 'gender identity' and 'personal identity,' but also suggests similar words like 'identical' and phrases that come from that. Scrolling the mouse over words generates a definition of the words presented. It's a fun way of generating ideas with students, or ways of exploring concepts, terms or words. It could be used after a brainstorming session to compare answers.

I think this tool could be used to extend beyond the words presented in Visuwords. A graphic could be generated, and then groups of students could be given one of the terms and use that word to extend the 'tree' beyond the boundaries of this site. Or students could generate their own trees from a word which they can compare afterwards with the Visuwords-generated phrase tree.

It does seem to have limited applications, but it is more fun and engaging than just getting students to search for a term in a dictionary. It could be used to build the field when starting a new unit, or lesson. It can get students to activate their schema in relation to the new topic being taught.

Week 3 - Inanimate Alice

Inanimate Alice is a digital novel which combines video, text, photos, animation,and sound effects to tell the story of Alice, a young girl who lives in different places with her parents. "Designed originally as entertainment, ‘Inanimate Alice’ has been adopted by teachers eager to connect with students through media they inherently understand. Created around a high-quality robust text, the content is suitable for the deep-reading and re-reading necessary for academic investigation" (from the website).

The stories are increasingly complex, with different and more elaborate effects. The work is certainly engaging, but it seems a little slow to me. Sometimes I'd like to skip ahead, but the story needs to be followed one scene at a time. After the story has run through, it is possible to go back to previous scenes, and then forward to later ones, but one can't flip through to the end, and go backwards.

I can see how this could be used in classes as an introduction to activities where students make a similar "book" about their own lives. They could use tools that enable them to add photos or videos to a folio about themselves, their homes and their families. The stories can also be used as springboards for students own fiction. Or the teacher could pause the story and get the students to anticipate what will happen next.

The episodes are quite short, but can also be extended with games and other activities. I think these are distractions in the classroom, and could be followed up by students in their own time if they're interested. It also seems a bit like putting children in front of the television to be distracted by colour and movement.

Week 2 Part 2 - Box of Tricks

The resources listed in these sites are extremely valuable, but one problem I'm noticing already is the feeling of being drowned in information. The links work well for random serendipitous discovery, but if one is looking for a particular tool, with certain things that it needs to be able to do (online shared document tool with capacity for 30 students to work on the same information simultaneously, for example), then there is too much information to trawl through. This is the sort of situation where the human brain can out-compete a computer - if you ask someone knowledgeable in this area about the specific type of online tool you need, from memory they could be able to give you an answer straight away, rather than you having to look through long lists of tools, read the descriptions, and follow links to demonstrations.

With that caveat, I did find quite a number of useful tools on the Box of Tricks - Technology and Education site.

This is a very similar site to Cool Tools (see the last post for details), but organises the sites by alphabetical order rather than subject type.
In my search for a specific online collaborative tool (see above) I came across a number of sites that all partially meet my needs, but which may be useful for other classroom activities.

The first site is Stixy, a collaborative bulletin board. Students could work on projects together, adding images and text, editing collaboratively. Then groups could share their work with other groups in the class.


Wallwisher also looks like it could be fun to use in class. This is an online notice board with "sticky notes" that students can move around, and add to. It could be used for brainstorming ideas, putting elements of a story or poem together, composing a letter or essay, etc. I would need to experiment with it a bit to see how many users could use it at once, what the size limits are, how many people can move items at once, etc.


Etherpad-type applications are easily accessible. These are like Instant Messaging applications, and allow a number of users to type information simultaneously, and see what is happening in real time. TitanPad is the first:


And EtherPad Lite:


A sample conversation:


This could be useful for collaborative writing exercises, particularly ones where one student writes some text, then another student adds to the story/article/poem, etc.

Week 2 - Cool Tools

Cool Tools

Cool Tools is an excitingly comprehensive site of links to various ICT resources for use in educational environments. The main feature is a list of categories - tools for presentations, collaboration, video, music, drawing, mapping, etc. - which lead to further expansive subcategories and lists. The Presentation Tools section, for example, links to subcategories of 'Presentation Tools,' Publication Tools,' 'Broadcast Tools,' and 'Mulitmedia Posters and Pages.' Each tool has a link to the site which provides the service, and a brief description about the services provided. Some of the sites/tools do have fee structures, and it would be useful to have an indication of this on the Cool Tools site.


Cool Tools also offers a section titled 'Teacher Resources' which links to subcategories such as 'Classroom Resources' (lesson plans for all areas of the curriculum, interactive whiteboard resources, etc.), 'Quizzes, Games and Activities,' 'Professional Development,' and 'Tests and Assessment.' These offer links to other compilation sites with a wealth of ideas for classes of all grades and abilities. It's heartening to see that many educational professionals are so passionate that they freely share their lesson ideas and activities.



The site is easy to use because it is basically a reference tool. All the resources I chose had active links, so the site is up-to-date and well managed. The major drawback is the acid-green background chosen for the site. It's certainly eye-catching, but rather disconcerting after long periods. Another issue is that although the tools linked to from the site can be used in classrooms, they aren't necessarily exclusively education related, so may need to be adapted for classroom use.