Let Your Students’ Voices be Heard: 10 Free Resources to Reach 21 st Century Students Corina Long Technology Specialist Hardin-Jefferson ISD Discovery STAR Educator

A "normal” brain takes eighteen seconds to decide whether to keep or drop input … approximately enough time to hear one sentence from beginning to end. (Wolfe 1999 quoted in Barron 2004).

Top Five Gifts for Teenagers Portable Game Device Cell Phone Computer Video Game Console MP3 Player/iPods Source: Starkman, Neal (2007).Leave Me Alone.... T.H.E. Journal

Why Digital Media ? - Students can demonstrate their grasp of concept - Synthesizing - Creative outlet - Students can use a variety of media: photos, images, music, and video to express themselves and their stories - ELL Instruction - Use media to help reach ESL students – matching vocabulary and imagery - It’s engaging – a format that this YouTube generation is accustomed to

Four P’s: Basic Steps in Multimedia Projects Plan - Storyboards and/or scripts help students stay focused. Produce - Create your project. Publish - Provide an audience for your students by posting their work on your class webpage (get a free website at a class blog, a wiki, School Tube, etc. Promote - Get the word out by joining a PLN (Twitter, Facebook, or Ning) to promote your class projects.

Turn your images into a music video!

Animoto Examples For movies that are over 30 seconds, you need to apply for a free educator account athttp://animoto.com/educationhttp://animoto.com/education siness/education/case studies#top

Step-by-Step Animoto User’s Guide ClassromAnimoto

Animoto presentations are quicker to create than traditional PowerPoint type presentations making them ideal for digital storytelling in the classroom setting. Use to teach complex concepts in history, math, science, or character education. Allow your students to display knowledge of a concept using Animoto. Students can each create an Animoto showcasing who they are through pictures and music. Because Animoto is completely web-based, students can create videos from school and continue working on them at home. The ability to download videos is outstanding … students could save their work for offline viewing too!

Online media album Can hold any type of media (images, documents and videos) Allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) Share with anyone you wish

Voicethread Examples

Voicethread Guide Another step-by-step guide can be found at mh3c2 mh3c2

#3 PhotoPeach Quickly and easily create an audio slideshow with captions

PhotoPeach Example Using Discovery Streaming Images

#4 - Scrapblog

Scrapblog Example

Let’s Explore Scrapblog’s site r/viewer.aspx?sbId=218007

#5 – Mixbook

Mixbook Examples books/all/shapes-around-our-school books/education/my-favorite-animal

Mixbook Guide Get started with your digital book at

#6 - Kerpoof / Kerpoof is a free online Web 2.0 tool that allows students to create original artwork, animated movies, and stories. You can use Kerpoof from any browser, on any computer with Internet access. No software to install No licenses to buy (free to educators) Projects can be saved and/or printed out. Projects can be private or public for all to see

Some Ideas for Using Kerpoof in the Classroom As a writing prompt- provide a scene and let students choose the characters For genre writing- ask students to write a fictional story/letter/scientific report/ newspaper article about a scene For reading comprehension- ask students to recreate a scene from their reading and to summarize what they read For creative writing- retell a story from a different point of view

Make your Pictures Talk and tell a digital story. Blabberize will enable students to take pride in their work and be motivated to become better speakers and writers.... So create digital stories to further build your students' language skills, communication, and self confidence! Blabberize Examples

wcf9 Step-by-Step Guide Sign up for a free account at

#8 - Voki

Source: Helen Otway. January Voki avatars in the classroom. More than just knowing stuff! Edublog Students can… Create avatars that are similar in appearance and record a message that tells about themselves. Exchange avatars with e-pals ESL (English as a Second Language) students can use the speaking avatars to practice and listen to their speech. They may use the computerized voice first then record their own voice when they feel more comfortable. Create an avatar that resembles a character from a story, add a setting and give it speech. The speech could be from the story or a point of view from the character on an event.

#9 – Jing Download Jing at to capture screenshots or screencasts of your computer desktop. Upload to to share with students or parents.

Student Mathcast Example

Mathcast Example Using Paint and Jing

#10 – Comics COMIC/

Free Web 2.0 tools like Voicethread, Animoto, Voki, SchoolTube and more engage Digital Natives… …in their language

kispaces.com/ technologyapplications.blo gspot.com/