Thing 2

I created a Wordle from a listing of our 8th grade science curriculum topics. This should help our ESL students find and become familiar with the concepts and terms they will need to know to be successful in the class.
I also created the same list with WordSift. I love the fact that WordSift will allow you to see images and has a visual map for the word being searched. I did notice some issues however. The word reef brought up beautiful coral reef images, but unfortunately also brought up a model viewed from the back wearing a thong. Several of the other words brought up various bands, etc. I will need to investigate further to see if these images can be blocked prior to allowing students to use them. I also encountered a glitch. One of the words on my list was mass and no matter how many times I tried, it kept using mas instead of mass. If the bugs can be worked out, it could be a very useful tool for my ESL students, especially the links to web sites, images, and an idea map to help clarify the terms.
Next I tried Glogster and made a poster for my journalism class. Once I registered, this was an easy process that I'm sure the students would enjoy using. It could certainly replace making posters or PowerPoint presentations for students needing to show comprehension of class material.

Because I'm obsessive and have to see everything, I also went to VoiceThread. I can see lots of uses for this as a quick easy check of student thinking, especially for my Journalism students. I can post a picture and simply have them each leave a comment or suggestion for improvement. They could all benefit from hearing each other's comments. I will definitely try this one out this year.

I skipped Animoto because I've used it many times before and went to Voki. I had a little trouble getting the voice to actually speak, but I love the idea and may try to use it as an online coach for some online coursework I'm setting up for my students. I think they would have lots of fun playing with it.
I think Bookr has lots of possibilities. Some of the examples I saw were students using creative commons photos to make simple reading books. That would be fabulous for my ESL students. They could prove they understood, develop technology skills, and create something on their own reading level. Lots of great tools in this Thing!