2+Favorite+Tech+Links

=Favorite Tech Links! = These are the websites that we found the most intriguing for creating materials, making assessments, and for instruction as we made our content-related units. For LOTS more technology links, visit our Links for Technology Page on the CT world languages K-8 wiki.

[] A wikispaces page is a wonderful, easy-to-use website on which you can post documents, embed videos, and embed just about anything you can create online. For some examples of wikis, see http://unquowaspanish.wikispaces.com/ or http://maloneyjapanese.wikispaces.com/

[|www.voki.com] Create talking avatars that can be embedded on a wiki and used for at-home or in-school interpretive activties, or for presentational assessment of students. Right now, you still need to establish an account for each user (maknig it difficult to have younger students use), but a "Voki for Education" seems to be in the works.

[] Learn about this awesome service with so many uses for teachers! Establish a new, free telephone number with an online mailbox. Students can call in to the number and leave messages for homework or for in-class assessments. You can download the student messages and save them to your computer, easily mail the sound file to a parent, or embed the sound file easily on a wiki. You could call in and record your own voice and embed it easily on a wiki for an interpretive assessment/activity for students.

[] PhotoStory 3 for Windows: Download this free software to your computer and students can easily make slideshows, record their voices, add text, and create their own music for great presentational assessments. Or, use it yourself to make interpretive activities/assessments for students to view. It is much more intuitive for addiing sound and music than powerpoint. You can also pre-load particular pictures, and then require students to record a story to match, or just a description of each picture for a simple presentational assessment. They can listen to their voices, delete, and revise as many times as they like- a super self-editing learning tool.

[|www.animoto.com] We like the potential of this for students to make quick and easy slide shows.

[|www.authorstream.com] Upload your powerpoint presentations, compete with sounds and animation, and you can share them via email or embed them on a website.

[] Jing! Download this software to your computer and record what happens on your screen as a movie. Use this to narrate a song across one powerpoint slide (as you point with the mouse), or flip through a powerpoint presentation as you narrate, or teach students how to navigate to your website. It records anything you are doing on the screen. When you are done, it uploads to screencast.com, where you can then embed the movie on a website or share through an email. Many uses!

[|www.onlineFreeSpanish.com] has an interactive map of Spanish speaking countries.