Deena Hill

Educational Technology

 

1.     1.  Voki

2.      2,   www.voki.com

3.      3.  The purpose of this website is to motivate students to participate, improve message comprehension, introduce technology in a fun way, and use Voki as an effective language tool (text-to-speech in over 25 languages).

4.      4.  Yes, it is free.

5.      5.  Yes, it is easy to learn.  Click on create and then it gives you options to click on to choose your own character, dress and add bling to your character, give your character voice  it can be your own voice or one of the voices they have listed (and in what language/accent), and then how to share it with friends or family.

6.      6.  I would recommend this tool because it would be a fun way for students to learn more about other languages.  You just type what you want your character to say, and then choose in what language your character will say what you typed.  It could also be helpful for ESL students.  They could type something in English, and then have their character say it in their native language or type in their native language and have it say it in English.

7.     7.  If the school doesn’t have a keyboard that allows you to add the accents over the words for other languages, it may not work as well.

 

 

1.     1.  Mindmeister

2.     2.   www.mindmeister.com

3.     3.  The purpose of this website is to help you brainstorm an idea or topic.  You choose an idea or topic and then build on information from there, when it is done it looks like a map of ideas and thoughts.

4.     4.  Yes, it is free.

5.     5.  Yes, it is easy to learn.  You can either sign up for free or do a free trial.  When you do the trial you choose a topic then press entre to add further ideas and thoughts.  If you don’t want an idea there you just right click and choose delete.  To add another idea or thought you just click on your main idea and press entre.

1.     6.  I would recommend this because when the students need to work on a poem or a short story they can choose what it’ll be about, and then use this site to make a mind map for their story or poem.  It would be particularly helpful for the students that struggle in Language Arts.

7.   7.  One drawback may be that the school doesn’t have the budget for computers for everyone or at least a large portion so that the classes can share the computers