EPALS GLOBAL COMMUNITY

E-Pals is
the leading provider of safe collaborative technology for schools to connect
and learn in a protected, project-based learning network. With classrooms in
200 countries and territories, ePals makes it easy to connect learners locally,
nationally or internationally (epals.com)
http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?divid=spotlight_main
Main Features
Teachers
work collaboratively with other Teachers and their classrooms. There are 200 countries to select from. Teachers
select a country. They contact a
teacher who would be interested in working on a project. Both teachers and classrooms begin working on
the project while each of them share information and knowledge.
Potential Application in the
classroom: This is a perfect project to involve my
students in learning about students in a Spanish speaking country. Both my American students and the Spanish
speaking students will learn to respect each other’s differences and learn about
the culture. This is an awesome
icebreaker project for students in the beginning of the semester. It is fun, interesting and so important. It provides a lot of reflection about each
other’s culture and sparks interest and curiosity. They not only learn about each other but
about the country. See below for
detailed description.
http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?DivID=TheWayWeAre_overview
Level of Difficulty – very easy especially because its
through email and teacher monitors.
Conclusion: This tool is worth learning.
Students will walk away learning about each other and another
country. Teachers get to see how
collaborative learning and communication through email with foreign students
helps them learn Spanish.

WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER

Windows Movie Maker is a video creating/editing software
application, included in Microsoft Windows Me, XP, and Vista. It contains
features such as effects, transitions, titles/credits, audio track, timeline
narration, and Auto Movie. New effects and transitions can be made and existing
ones can be modified using XML code. Windows Movie Maker is also a basic audio
track editing program. It can apply basic effects to audio tracks such as fade
in or fade out. The audio tracks can then be exported in the form of a sound
file instead of a video file.
(Wikipedia)
Level of Difficulty and Time required for learning: This is a very easy program to learn and you can learn to use it without so much technical knowledge. It is user friendly. It requires basic computer skills.

Potential application in the classroom: This is an excellent program I use in the
classroom. The students love using it because they can be creative and learn Spanish. They put their ideas to life and students always enjoy video and
laughing and enjoying each other’s projects. The students picked up learning this program quicker than I did. This tool is worth learning. You can do so much with this tool. This tool helps to motivate students, especially in a foreign language class to actively participate and be comfortable with each other. So many
students are afraid to speak Spanish or act but I notice that with this program
students have so much fun and where there is fun there is learning! It’s interactive and necessary in a foreign language program. I use it during my
unit to teach the news unit. Students create a news program.
Click on youtube link to see a demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9fmeJZgy6E

Wallwisher

Wall Washerhttp://www.wallwisher.com/

Wallwisher is “an online notice board maker.” It is a place where you can post announcements and keep notes. There is a 160 character limit for each post, but you can post multiple times.

While you cannot create the full web link name you are allowed to create the last part. For example all links have to have www.wallwisher.com/wall/, the creator of the wall is allowed to create the last part of the url.  There is a tool to create an html code so you can embed your wall in other websites.

Difficulty:
The level of difficulty is very easy. It is very intuitive to use. To start you do not even have to create an account, you can just start, which is odd because every website these days requires you make an account to use. If you do create an account it takes two seconds, as they only ask you for a profile name and email.

The one benefit of making an account is you are able to restrict access to your wall. The bad thing is the restrictions are not that good. You can choose to make the wall completely private to only yourself, the wall creator, or to anyone on the web. There are two options, who can view and who can post.

The one other option you have if you create an account is you can choose to approve every post.  This tool makes up for the first one, so if some random person finds your class wall and tries to post the teacher can deny the post before it goes public.

When creating a wall, there are only a few options you must complete

Select an image(that is used in the corner of the wall), create a title, create a web address, and choose a theme.

Once you create your wall all you have to do to create a post is double click the wall and a stick note is created for you to type your 160 characters.

You are also able to add a web link, audio, or video to each of your posts

Don’t like;

I do not like the way you have to add audio and video. You have to add the url but many times I would much rather upload an audio or video or image file instead of putting in a url.

I tested out added an image url and video url from a website, both could not be loaded on the Wallwisher website. A message came up asking me to click this link to view the content. So I might as well just add the url in my post instead of the web tool having an extra feature that seems able to imbed things but couldn’t.

I also do not like the limited control over the theme of my wall. You have a choice of 12 themes but once you select the theme that’s it. You cannot select background colors and text colors independently of each other. So in one test I used a white background theme but the text in each post was also white. Looking at the wall as a whole was a pain but if you click on each post the background of each post does turn black for easier reading.

I would also like more control of restrictions. For example to use this in the classroom I would like to keep the wall private to the entire class or so that the whole class could view a wall but only a select few students can post. Right now there are only a few options, either viewing (and posting) is restricted to only the creator or to everyone on the web.

Potential in the Classroom
I think this has a very cool potential in the classroom. It can be used as a place for the teacher to post announcements that allows the students to comment on. The Teacher can create a wall to get feedback on a project to see how the class liked it. The teacher could post a picture, website, or video and ask for the students to type a response to it.

Because the teacher can move the posts, a good idea is to have the students talk about a controversial issue, and the teacher can move the posts to each side of the wall, one side supporting one view, the other side supporting the opposite view.

I think it could be a cool area for group projects or group discussions. It has a different feel and look than the normal discussion boards, so it might be nice change of pace.

The only drawback is that when you open up access to post to anyone beside yourself(the teacher) anyone can post to it but I think the website accounts for this and gives the teacher a tool to approve each post.

Conclusion

I think this is a cool tool to use for groups work, collaboration work, as a means of having a small discussion that has a different look and feel than the usual discussion forums. It is also a cool way to respond and connect with a posted website, or video, or picture that the teachers posts.

I like how you can create a wall and imbed it into your distance learning tool and it can be shared on facebook

The positives are much better than the drawbacks.

Quizlet

Quizlet is an online interactive study guide. Teachers or
students can create their own study questions and flashcards to help prepare
for an assessment. Teachers can create the entire study guide and allow
students to access the website by telling the students the name of study guide.
Students can then go on Quizlet.com and find the study guide designed
specifically for their class. Quizlet also uses the terms and definitions to
create games and tests that the students can take using the information
provided by the teacher. Students just need to be told what the study guide
name was and they can search for it and find the study guide without even
logging in or having an account.

Quizlet does take a little time to get used to. However, if you take 20-30
minutes to play around with its capabilities one can quickly find out how
valuable Quizlet.com could be for a classroom. Students will enjoy the games
and find the practice to be very useful reinforcement. Quizlet is absolutely
worth the trouble of learning how to create the sets of flashcards. It has
excellent capabilities for both English and social studies. It can be more
difficult to set up good flashcards for mathematics, but it is still worthwhile
when it comes to learning vocabulary.

In order to play around with some flashcards I have made for
this class, please go to Quizlet.com and search ETAP - 638. Take your time and
try the tests and games. It is an excellent web 2.0 tool!

Animoto

Animoto

Main Features
Animoto is a tool online that can be used to make amazing slideshow presentations. It works great and is a lot of fun. Animoto allows you to put your pictures and video clips together, back it up with music, and use high definition graphics and text to put together a slideshow. One you put in all you want, Animoto puts it all together and makes it fit together nicely. It can be used for fun to show your friends, or it can be used in a professional setting. Everything created is unique to you.

Level of Difficulty
Animoto is relatively easy to use. All you need to do upload whatever pictures you would like and whatever music you want to go along with it. You don’t need a great deal of computer experience in order to use it. A background of PowerPoint can go a long way towards helping you work with Animoto.

Potential Application in the Classroom
Animoto can be a great tool for any teacher. Lectures and presentations can sometimes be boring for students, but Animoto helps things more exciting and engaging. It allows you to put pictures in great detail with music to help set the tone you’re looking for. Animoto will help you make it all flow together.

Conclusion
Animoto is a tool worth learning. It can be a great way to put information together in a fun and informative way, while also impressing people. What you create with Animoto is very impressive and very easy to create.

ZooBurst

ZooBurst (http://www.zooburst.com)

Main Features

ZooBurst is a free website (with the option of paying for upgrades) that helps you create digital 3D pop-up books. Images from the website’s clipart gallery can be added to the book or other images can be uploaded to incorporate into the book to “pop-up” off the pages. Each image and text has the capability of adding a clickable hyperlink. The book is capable of being inspected and rotated from any angle while building the book by the author and also while viewing the book by the reader. There is an expanded text feature for each page and also an audio recording feature to add voices and sounds. There is also a “webcam mode” to view the digital books which requires the reader to have a webcam. The experience of the “webcam mode” is referred to as “augmented reality” by zooburst.com. The images of the pages are superimposed with a screenshot of the viewer. The augmented reality mode allows the reader to interact with the images by using simple gestures to digitally turn the book’s pages. The digital pop-up books can be viewed on the website using a hyperlink (see my creation below), or embedded into other websites pages.

Level of Difficulty

This website is pretty easy to use and navigate through however it is extremely time consuming to create one book. Sign-up for the website is required in order to create books (but the basic account is free). The clip art, as far as the ones I chose from the website, were not the greatest quality images. I opted to upload several pictures instead of using the clipart available.

Classroom Application

I could definitely see a teacher using this website as an option for students to create a digital pop-up book to present research from a long term project. Since it only requires an e-mail and is free, it is easy to sign up for. The website also has a “classroom management” feature for teachers, which allows them to set up a protected and safe online environment for students where they can share usernames, passwords, personal information, etc. without the threat of online predators.

Conclusion

I tried building a book of my own on Taxonomy in Biology (click here to view it: http://www.zooburst.com/book/zb03_4edab1ea28a99). It was fun at first to play around with all the different features and to view the finished digital pop-up book product, but it became extremely time consuming. This website definitely encompasses several aspects of the “participatory culture” that we live in right now. “Technology has made it easy for everyday people to take media in their own hands; create, share, express themselves, archive, appropriate, remix and recirculate content” (Henry Jenkins). Overall, I would probably use this as an optional presentation outlet if students chose to utilize it.

Chime.in

www.chime.in

Main Features: Chime.in is a new social networking site that unlike Twitter, which is centered around following specific people, or Facebook which is focused on networking friends and families, Chime.in focuses on networking people of similar interests. Users can search set up a “Chimeline” which organizes their interests into a RSS like newsfeed which are made up of individual “Chimes.” These Chimes can be can be made up of 5000 characters and can contain attachments such as multimedia, outside links, or polls. Users can create their own Chimes as well which are organized in a blog like fashion based on the topic. One very interesting feature is that Chime.in will also give users 50% of the revenue it earns from selling advertisement on their profiles, thus providing a monetary incentive to chime in.

Level of Difficulty: Chime.in is still in a beta phase and everything including layout or features is subject to change. It feels like a Frankenstein mash up of Twitter, Facebook, a RSS feed, and a blog (but in a good way). It would likely take someone with an intermediate/high background in social networking a day or two to really get comfortable with all the different features and buttons on the website (I’m still learning my self). Once the site completes the beta stage, I don’t see Chime.in being any more or less difficult to use then any other social networking/media site such as Facebook or Twitter. For someone with basic computer/social networking skills however, Chime.in might be very overwhelming as there is just so much going on even on the basic dashboard screen. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed in time.

Potential Classroom Applications: I think Chime.in could potentially be much more impactful in the classroom than any social media to date. Teachers can set up classroom communities and allow for students and faculty to contribute and comment on each other’s chimes. As they site grows teachers could assign students different interests relating to the subject material. For example, a Participation in Government class could assign students to follow U.S Politics and contribute in a discussion about a current event.

Conclusions: I believe that this tool is definitely worth using as it allows for lots of different levels of interactivity. If you just want to keep up with your interests and follow a few things you can do that. Or if you want it to be, Chime.in could be your own personal blog (and potentially even get paid for it). A lot of times jack-of-all-trades applications end up mediocre, but Chime.in has the potential to really excel at everything it is trying to do.

Deviant Art

Deviant Art (deviantart.com) is an online community where artists can share their works in a community setting. People upload pictures and other forms of media to the website in order to share, comment, and get feedback from other artists and users alike. Unlike other forum based sites, Deviant Art allows artists to choose how their works can be used by others (i.e. allowed to be freely copied and used or not) giving a safer haven for copyrighted material. In the past, Deviant Art has held real life galleries which featured user submitted content. One specific gallery was a worldwide tour of user content.

For students, using Deviant Art will be fairly easy. Instead the difficulty will rest with the instructor. When implementing a forum based tool to a classroom restrictions come into play. There will be some inappropriate content on Deviant Art through nude pictures and other questionable content. As an instructor it is very important to set up an avenue where students cannot accidentally stray into said questionable content. Students will be able to see artwork from all walks of life and all methods of art expression. Analyzing different artistic styles and techniques can be a very useful application of Deviant Art. The applications of Deviant Art, although helpful, is a bit localized to an art based classroom so for all teachers to educate themselves would be frivolous.

Google Sites

Second Encyclopedia of Digital Tools Entry:

Google Sites, as its name implies, is part of the Google series of tools. It allows anyone to create and manage a website. Users are permitted to create a name for the site. If the site name is unavailable, Google will prompt you. They can also choose a template and theme. In order to ensure privacy, users can choose to allow everyone in the world to view the website or just people that they specify.

There is a home page, sidebar links, and options for adding images. There are many different additions one can add to the site. Also, there are multiple formatting options. For a new user, there may be too many. The colors, fonts, alignments, etc. have multiple options to choose from. One of the other nice benefits is that you can give access to edit to others.

My first experience with Google Sites was with a premade template. It was a bit difficult to navigate at first. The blank template seems a bit easier to use. If there were specific sidebar items and or layouts you want to use, I would recommend using a blank template rather than alter the premade templates. For a user with basic/intermediate computer proficiency, I would say that there is quite a bit of time necessary in order to get acquainted with this digital tool. There is not a lot of explanation or step-by-step processes.

I would say that this could be a very useful tool in a classroom. Teachers can collaborate easily since they can all have access to edit the website. They could provide links to useful references. They could manage a calendar and post assignment due dates. They could also have a section dedicated to discussions (student-student, student-teacher, parent-teacher, etc.).

I believe this is a tool worth learning, especially for teachers. It provides a great way to communicate with parents, display upcoming activities/projects, and organize resources available to students and parents.

For one of my other classes, we have begun to create a website using Google Sites. Here is the link to our website in progress: https://sites.google.com/a/albany.edu/assessments-in-education/

Evernote

Evernote



Main Features: Evernote is tool that serves as a digital notebook. You can save word documents, power point presentations, videos, and web links all in one place. An additional feature is that is portable. You can sync devises so that they can all access your Evernote account. This means if you find a good resource on your home computer, you can access it on your smart phone and school computer. You would then put a tag on the file so you can find it later (i.e. labeling a video ‘Science Experiment’). You can also easily share files with friends, colleagues, and classmates for collaboration.

Level of Difficulty: This tool is something that comes naturally to young people. For adults and children who are already used to working with Word documents, youtube, and other internet resources, there would probably be little to learn. It is only a matter of saving it in the Evernote tool. I think it might be more challenging for those who are not so media savvy, particularly older teachers. If they are struggling with more common tools like Excel and Outlook for email, it might be a tall task to learn and use Evernote.

Classroom Applicability: Evernote is the kind of tool that will make the spiral notebooks we grew up with obsolete. Students can take notes and share them with the class. One example on the website for Evernote has the teacher posting lecture notes to a place the class can view, therefore the students don’t need to focus on writing notes and can just focus on the lesson. It is a way for the teacher to disseminate information to the students, but also for the students to work together and share information they find.

Conclusion: This tool is worth learning because it is a step towards making education more interactive for the students. Instead of being passive recipients of information, they can find and share information just like the teacher does. As long as the resources are available for enough computers in the school, and the teacher has enough computer skills to use it, Evernote will be a great tool. I think everyone in this online class would have the ability to get the most out of it. However, I would not recommend this tool to teachers who are not computer savvy.

Open Office

Open Office



Main Features: Open Office is a free alternative to Microsoft Office Suite. It features a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a power point presentation program, and a graphics program. Open Office can open, edit, and save files in the format of Microsoft or to allow sharing and reading of documents made on other programs. As the name suggests, Open Office has an open software license, meaning it can be used by anyone for any purpose with no threat of action from the developer.

Level of Difficulty: All of the Open Office programs are easy to use. They are no more difficult than the comparable Microsoft Office programs. Writer, the word processor is the easiest to use with easy options to edit your text. Calc, the spreadsheet program, is easy to use to great charts and tables, but would require some more knowledge to perform math functions like Excel. Impress, is very similar to PowerPoint, you can make basic presentations with little prerequisite knowledge. Draw, the graphics program would require some basic visual arts ability.

Classroom Application: Open Office can be used in a classroom by teachers and students. Teachers can prepare presentations to go along with lectures using Impress. Students can use Writer to type their homework assignments. Calc and Draw can be used for other assignments that require more than typed work. Since it is compatible with any computer operating system (Widows, Mac, or Linux) it can be used by everyone in the class.

Conclusion: Open Office is a great tool and worth using. Buying licenses for Microsoft Office can be expensive for a school and students. Open Office provides a free alternative that is just as easy to use. It is the kind of tool that you will get out of it what you put into it. If you only want to type documents, you can; but if you want to do more than that, the program is capable of it and you just need to learn it.

Video Chatting: Good and better

Skype: How to connect no matter where you are

Skype is a video conferencing tool,which combines video and audio along with screen sharing to communicate across the globe. This tool allows for you to not only chat in real time and be seen, but also allows you to share information.

Skype has few main features, making it simple, but also capable for use in the office. The video feature allows for you to see your conferees, enhancing communication. Screen sharing is the other feature that takes Skype beyond regular video chat. Through the screen sharing function, you view media on the other person’s computer. This can allow for collaboration between chatters on documents, however this feature is limited. There is no way for both conferences to edit media and it cannot be edited in real time, a significant set back.

Skype can be a great tool to connect students who are learning across the globe. A great application could have been used for the cross education between U Albany and students abroad this semester. This would allow for students to communicate more effectively across the globe. It can also be used for students traveling abroad to communicate back to their home school, talking with students about their experiences as they are happening.

Skype is a great tool to keep in contact with people and brings video conferencing to a new level with screen sharing. Although this is a useful tool, it does have limits. Therefore, I searched to see if there was another tool that would be more useful and interactive for remote meetings and conferences. Here’s what I found.

Unity: Bringing people and media together

Unity is an up and coming tool that combines video, audio and media technologies on one place. This tool is used in real time, allowing you to share and edit media from pictures, to presentations to video in real time with anyone across the globe.

Some may compare it to other video chatting devices such as Skype or Facetime, however this tool actually moves beyond these simple video chats to allow for true virtual collaboration. Media can be annotated, edited and shared in real time, making instant connections in real time.

Main Features

Unity has several features that make it a unique research and teaching tool, including:

• Video – video conferencing allows you to see those you are talking to and can allow 25+ participants to join the conference.
• Audio – audio feed lets you communicate to others in real time.
• Screen sharing – screens can be shared to show rich media and interact with it (see below).

• Chat – A chat option allows you to instantmessage those in the conference anonymously, increasing communication.
• Notes – a note function allows you and others to type notes during a session that can easily be saved reviewed later (see screen shot left).

• File Transfer – files can be easily transferred to your computer and are automatically saved to your computer, allowing for faster collaboration (downloads can be completed and reviewed before a session takes place) and review of the documents after the session with completed edits.
• Editing Function – allows for all media, video, text, photos, etc. to be edited in real time by all participants and saved as a final document for later use.
• Moderation of Sessions – Each session has a moderator that controls who can edit what and when, controlling interactions but also limiting distractions.

All of these features combined bring this tool beyond the usual video chat and make it a true collaboration tool.

Level of Difficulty

I was able to learn this tool fairly quickly, having been born in the technological era. Older generations who do not use Skype or other video conferencing tools may need a quick tutorial to get them started. Media sharing is very easy with the drag and drop option, allowing you to simply drag files from your desktop and drop them into the viewing area where all participants can see and interact with it.

Classroom Application

Although Unity is still being tested, it has many applications. For the classroom, this tool makes learning more student centered. Students interact with media directly. In addition, teachers can view, moderate and assess student work in a rapid assessment form. Unity is currently being tested at SUNY Potsdam. In the Biology lab, students are using cameras to document what they view in the microscope using Unity and can share it instantly with classmates. This instant feedback can help students determine if they have their microscope set-up correctly, if they are viewing an organism correctly and can gain instant help from other students on how to improve their microscope use. In addition, students can take screen shots of their work, saving it for later. Drawing the organism is no longer needed as live shots of organisms are taken.

To read more about how this application is used, visit the Solar Digital website.

Is this tool worth learning?

I think that Unity is definitely a tool of the future that is worth learning. It has really taken video conferencing and brought it to a whole new level. Being able to interact so instantly allows for meaningful learning and collaboration. Products are easily created for review including notes, screen shots, annotation of videos, photos and text documents. Therefore, learning this tool can open up a whole realm of possibilities for classroom use to get students interacting with media and technology as well as provide rapid assessment to students, improving their learning and teaching in the classroom.

Maple

http://www.maplesoft.com/products/maple/students/

Maple is a general non-free commercial computer algebra system. The Symbolic Computation Group first developed the software in 1980. It is now developed and sold by Waterloo Maple Inc. The latest version is Maple 15, a software tool for mathematics and sciences. Maple incorporates symbolic and numeric with a wide range of applications with over 4,000 mathematical functions. High school students in math and science are often asked to graph and solve difficult math problems. Maple provides a way for students to work out these problems.

Maple has created a user interface to accommodate every type of user. There are three different editions of maple available now, Maple 15 Professional, Academic, and Student Edition. To use Maple in the classroom I would suggest the student version. Maple has a portal which provides examples for the students to explore progressing into more difficult tasks. There are templates set up within the program to solve certain types of problems. Students can use these templates to work through difficult problems or check their final answers. Maple is incorporated with different tutors. For example, the integration tutor is used so students can practices different ways to integrate equations. Often calculus problems are long and tedious, a miscalculation can alter the final answer. Maple can identity these problems simply. Maple can also be used for students to create plots. In these plots they will be able to see trend lines and view 3D spaces. Another use is to be used to solve for large matrixes. Like most technology, Maple should not be use in place of teaching students mathematical skills to enforce them.

Teachers can use Maple to check students work, identify where there may have been mistakes in calculations, or as a resource in the classroom. Maple Cloud allows the teacher to share worksheets with students as well as allow students to share with other students. However, if Maple is not installed on the computer that the student is using the Maple files are not accessible. Help on how to use Maple is embedded within the program and addition references can be found on their website.I do believe that this program is not easy to use because it has its own computing language which should be learned to use its applications. The teacher can cover and explain how to use Maple in one to two class periods. Maple is very sensitive to cases and spaces; an extra space between numbers or command will result in an error message. I believe that the time which needs to be invested for students to learn how to use Maple will be well worth it. Its vast range of mathematical applications can be used in the classroom can be carried with the students in the future. I personally would include Maple in upper level math classes like calculus. Students often struggle with topics taught in these classes but can become clearer with an engaging technical approach.

Watch Documentary

http://watchdocumentary.com/

Main Features: This website has hundreds of documentary movies and series that can be watched online. Documentaries are sorted into many categories for easy browsing. Probably not everything in there is appropriate for a classroom, so the teacher will have to be selective, but there are a lot of documentaries on History, Politics, Science, Environment, Money, etc. which can be used. Some are full length movies; others are short 10 to 15 minute films that can be quickly integrated into a lesson.

Level of Difficulty: This tool is very easy to use. You only need basic web navigation skills to browse the listings. The documentaries plays in the web browser so there is no need to install a separate video application for viewing. Most of the documentaries require adobe flash or html5. These are standard on most computers and should not be an issue. The website will guide you to install adobe flash if need be.

Potential application in the classroom: The films available on the website can be used to supplement instruction. Including videos in instruction is a good way to diversify the learning and keep the students engaged.

Conclusion: This tool is worth learning because it is easy and will require very little investment, but have a good payoff for the teacher and students.

Scribd

Scribd is the world’s largest social reading and publishing company. They've made it easy to share and discover informative and written content online and through mobile devices. Their vision is to "liberate the written word", to connect people with the information and ideas that matter most to them, and to make it possible for anyone to share their written documents from anywhere in the world. Scribd is mostly used for academic papers and other research documents.

Main Features: This website is a new addition to the social networking phenomenon. It allows its users to upload original content, whether it be school work, your resume, or novel you are working on, and share that content across the internet with people all over the globe. Each piece of literature that a user uploads becomes searchable through internet search engines. Along with self-publishing, you can gather followers and follow your friends like on Twitter or Facebook. You can read their work and "readcast" it, to make that piece of writing more popular. Also, your profile includes a nice "Stats" feature that allows you to see how many people have read your shared work, where they are from and on average how long people are looking at your documents.

Level Of Difficulty: This website is like any other social media site; very straight-forward and easy to use. It allows you to set up a profile within minutes and import your friends as followers/followees from Facebook and other social media sites. It requires a slight learning curve, but nothing that cannot be accomplished in a few short minutes, even by the most technologically fearful individual.

Potential Application: This website would be a great tool to use in the classroom. If each student sets up an account, they could all follow one another and upload their written work for each other to see, read, and critique. You could assign homework in terms of group evaluations where student's read over their peers work and offer constructive comments.

Conclusion: This website is a great addition to the social media phenomenon and a potential classroom tool. Scribd helps create a bridge between academics and peer social interactivity. It is akin to Facebook, Twitter, and Google Docs, in that you can share your ideas with other members of the online community. However, unlike other social networking sites, Scribd allows you the post long academic papers and other documents- a social studies teachers dream come true!

VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/



VLC media player was created by the VideoLan Organization. It is a non-profit group dedicated to promoting free, open-source multimedia solutions. I have used this a few times before but this semester I really figured out how it worked. All the video clips for my classes originally provided me some problems. VLC media player can play almost any type of file and with great quality. This helps to play videos, sound clips, etc.

Main Feature
The main application for the classroom of VLC is to play clips and sound bites. It allows teachers to bring in DVDs or movies and know that VLC will be able to play it without trouble. An example would be a teacher could bring in “Saving Private Ryan” and play the opening scene. Teachers will be able to play music or songs that might be relevant to their content area. The ability to play any movie on a computer for a projector helps greatly especially in schools that might not have the money for DVD players.

Level of Difficulty
VLC is relatively easy to use. It does most of the work for it. Downloading and installing it is simple and the VLC official site has directions accordingly. Double clicking your media clip is about all you have to do once VLC is installed. It will open automatically in VLC or if not, you can select VLC as your default media player by right clicking the clip. Teachers should be able to pick this up and learn it in 5 to 10 minutes. Students can also use it for video projects and it is even easier for Students who are usually much more exposed to technology.

Potential Application
The applications for this are pretty simple. To play video clips/sound bites. Teachers can use it for lectures while students can use it to create digital projects.

Conclusion
This tool is absolutely worth learning. It provides a free and easy way to bring media clips into the classroom. It makes almost any type of file compatible and takes away the stress of having to find the right media player for a specific type of file.