Weebly

I was first introduced to Weebly a few years ago while I was working on my master's degree. I didn't see anything special and to be honest with you, I really didn't spend much time with it. I have since rediscovered Weebly and am thoroughly impressed with the updates and features.
Here is a link to a site I made just playing with some of the things available: Adventures with Rose

One of the nicest things about working with Weebly is the ease of adding elements. A simple drag and drop adds an element and the directions to upload pictures or add text is very easy to do. I did not find changing, adding, rearranging elements to be frustrating at all. With the free account, you do have some limitations and this is the one thing that does frustrate me. For instance, you are not able to upload videos. Now you can link or embed them if they are hosted on YouTube, TeacherTube or Vimeo. All fine and good, but I really wish you could upload even short videos without upgrading to the Pro account. I guess that is one of the trade offs you make for all the other really cool things about it. Audio is also only under the Pro account.

Getting a Pro account is pretty easy though and if you can get 5 teachers to sign up using your reference code you are upgraded to Pro for free. Not a bad deal and actually the price for the Pro is very reasonable. Now why go to Pro? Well you get more student accounts. And this is where Weebly really has a nice advantage over other websites. You can created classes and each student can create their own website. You can make the class sites public or private that can only be accessed with a password. What a great place for your students to publish their writings or create a digital portfolio. But you also don't have to worry about strangers lurking about your classes websites. No email address is needed for the student accounts. If your students are under 13 you do need to get parent permission to use the site. There are many sample blogging parent consent letters out on the web, so look around and adapt one for your situation. And hey, if you now think you want to try it, and you are feeling generous, why not use this link and help me get that Pro account? http://education.weebly.com/referral.php?oTOXFMo3ZIAb897n

So will I switch and use Weebly with my students? I will probably try this with at least one class. I am moving to a new school and they will be BYOD in the coming school year. This could be just the thing to make my class ROCK!

Summer is for exploring

So here I am, once again exploring websites. I have a habit of looking for one and thing and finding many other things that are even closely related to what I was originally looking for. Isn't that how all the famous discoveries happen? By accident? Remember though, with any site, you should always preview and look for anything that would not be suitable for your students.

 iFakeText
Fun site that lets you create a fake iPhone text conversation. The one on the left is a conversation between my dogs. Your students could use this web tool to create conversations between any two people or animals or anything you like. Such as 2 different shapes. No account needed and no mention of under age 13 use not permitted. The site does contain adds.

Newspaper Clip Generator
Create what looks like a newspaper clip. You choose the paper's name, headline, date and write a brief "article".  Once generated, there is a download link for your image. You can't direct link to the image and the images are deleted from their servers after a short time. It is recommended that you do not use real names of people or newspapers. There nothing in their privacy about use by under age 13 and there are no accounts created. Drawback: The site is not independent of other generators and they may not be appropriate for your students.

Copy Paste Character  ♬ ☺
Looking for a special character? ✿ This neat little site lets you copy a character by just clicking, go to where you want it and paste. Simple. ✯ And if you use a Mac, there are also emoji 🐶 to use. If you prefer the html code for the symbol that is available also. ☠ Fun! No account is necessary to use this website. I do not see any other issues you may have with your students, whatever their ages.

July- Time to explore- PhotoFunia

I was looking at a blog that I bookmarked a long time ago called Techno Constructivist by Carl Anderson, a teacher from Minnesota. Way back in January 2010 he made a post with a list of sites that were, at the time, safe for kids to use. The sites had no age restriction, required no accounts and could be used freely without violating COPA. So I started perusing the list and, as I would expect, have found that some of the sites have changed. We all have seen sites that start free and end up with those special subscriptions that have all the cool stuff.

Well here is one on the list that I like, PhotoFunia. This is a free online photo editing site. No account needed to play, but they do have a statement about the site is intended for over the age of 13. There are so many options of how you can use your picture. I decided to use one called Big Painting.

Now tell me that isn't cool! I could play for hours on this site transforming my image to all sorts of things. There are tabs for Effects, Labs and Filters. All have a variety of fun effects. Of course I had to do another. Here is the same pic but with the Lego effect.

So much fun! There is also an app for your smartphone.This site would give your students many options to explore. Again, remember the age 13 clause. As an art teacher, this site would give an opportunity to discuss how each technique gives the picture a different feeling. The lighting, intensity of the colors, illusion of texture would all be points to discuss. Go check out PhotoFunia and have some fun with your photos.

ISTE 2012 and new discoveries

This time last year I attended my first ISTE conference held in Philadelphia. It was pretty amazing and there was soooo much to see and learn. I loved it and it would have been great to attend ISTE last week. Next year it will be in San Antonio so I will definitely be attending that one. Very excited!

So I spent the day perusing twitter looking at all the #ISTE2012 tweets. I knew this would be a good way to see what was trending and grab some links, etc from those who were there. A few years ago I did the same thing with TCEA following it virtually. Not quite the same experience but I was still able to learn many new things. I also went throughout the ISTE 2012 program online and looked at the listed sessions to see which had links posted or handouts. I was able to gather quite a list and put it all in a Google doc to access later. I haven't spent much time exploring all the links but here are two that I like.

When Picnik went away, I was looking for a similar online photo editing site that was free, of course. I wrote about one I found called Fotoflexor. Really like it and would definitely recommend it. I have come across another that looks and behaves much like Picnik did. This one is called iPiccy. Very easy to navigate the site and if you were a Picnik user you will find it very user friendly. It had nearly all the same tools and free. So now there are two great options for online photo editing.

http://www.smore.com

The next site I looked at is called Smore. It is still in beta but you can try it now. You can make some pretty cool flyers/posters and share or link. Here is one I created about my pretty pup, Rose. Once you have created an account and make your flyer, there is a settings selection so you can make your flyer private. You can also keep your "profile badge" off so it cannot be seen. Features like this make it a promising web tool for students to use. The site offers templates to use or create your own. Choices for styles, backgrounds, colors, and fonts. Short learning curve and nice looking when finished. Go take a look at Smore where you can "design beautiful online flyers and publish instantly".