Web Tools

Little Bird Tales is wonderful for the classroom I am currently student teaching in. Currently, none of my students can read a book. They have autism and intellectual disabilities. They all love to use the computer as a reward to completing their work. Their favorite characters are Dora the Explorer, Elmo, and Blues Clues. I think it would be wonderful if my head teacher recorded different books with the students’ favorite characters in her own voice. The website is easy to navigate, and I think my students would love it. For typically developing students, a teacher could ask the students to create and record their own stories as a literacy project. I would definitely use this tool in my future classroom with typical learners or students with disabilities.

Diigo is an amazing tool that I decided to sign up for. Many of our readings and assignments in graduate school are online, and I alternate between using my laptop and iPad. Diigo uses the cloud, so any pages I bookmark, highlight, or take notes on will be available on my laptop and iPad. I usually print online readings so that I can highlight and annotate them, but with Diigo I can do all of this on my devices. It will definitely save me time and money. I think this is a great tool for older students who do a lot of online reading or research.

Prezi is my favorite tool as a soon to be teacher. I’ve sat through and created so many of your ordinary boring PowerPoint presentations. Prezi certainly captures an audience’s attention from the start of the presentation. Our eyes are naturally drawn to movement, color, and unique designs. With Prezi, just watching the presentation progress is entertaining and interesting. I will definitely use it to spice up my own presentations.

I also really enjoyed exploring Stixy. It would be a great tool for managing your own research and also collaborating with others. My only concern is that the page would get too crowded too easily.

I have not seen or used any of these tools in a classroom, but if I were to teach older students who have more advanced technology skills and large projects, I would use VoiceThread, Prezi, Stixy, or Titanpad. I would use Little Bird Tales for younger students.