Zotero is an online tool used for organizing. I feel that this is a very useful tool for inside the classroom. When students are presented with a project the first thing that they have stress over is the research. It’s a very overwhelming component and information can easily be lost. With Zotero, the hassle of keeping track of links and websites where information is found is depleted. Students are able to keep everything in one concise place. Zotero also offers the feature to sync from another computer. This helps with the complication of working o things at home and not having access to them at school. With the sync feature, students can work on their research for a project in any setting and not have to worry about forgetting to bring a folder with the links listed or otherwise. Not only does Zotero help with the research aspect, it also helps with the citations. Students stress a considerably large amount over citations. There is a lot of information required to complete a full citation. Zotero makes citing as easy as pushing a button. Then the student is able to change the style of citation in a menu that drops down. Later, the student can copy and paste and voila! Zotero is one of the neatest tools I’ve come across as far as organization and I believe it would be very useful in the classroom.
Voki was another technological tool that I came across. Students are able to create avatars that can share information or present projects. Voki allows the creator to use any style of character, setting, voice, accent, language, and more. It is a great tool for teachers to use as well. I like the idea of using a Voki to introduce the day or a new lesson. It is sometimes very difficult to grab the attention of students and Voki is a great way of doing so. Especially for younger students, Voki has cute and childish characters that are sure to catch their eye. It is also a great way of practicing and applying other languages. Students can use Voki to share words or sentences in the language they are studying and include them in their projects. Another useful feature is the Voki classroom and lesson plan database. To me, Voki seems like a great tool for a teacher who is not used to technology. The lesson database is perfect for ideas for teachers to figure out new ways of using this form of technology in their classroom. Overall, Voki is a useful tool for the teacher and the students as well as well as a fun and engaging tool.
One other tool that I think is very useful in the classroom is Picnik. Students use images in more than one way when completing assignments, projects, etc. Picnik is a photo editing software that’s used online. As far as creativity, it allows the students to put their own person touch on their work. For younger students it can be a great art activity that’s using and exposing them to technology. For older students, Picnik can help them edit photos for mock resumes, posters, etc. The slideshow feature can also be a unique alternative to using PowerPoint for projects the students create. For teachers, Picnik can be used to create vibrant diagrams or instructional graphics for lesson plans. The slideshow feature can be used to create a presentation of all of the students as an introductory activity at the beginning of the year or as an end of the year parting video. I feel that as a teacher, creativity should be stressed the most and Picnik allows this. Overall it’s another great tool for the classroom.
