New Tech Stuff

This weekend, I decided to take a little "me" time. For the first time since school started, I spent my weekend doing exactly what I wanted to do and nothing else. On Saturday, I drug my husband to the organic food market and the Asian grocery store (a new find that I LOVE!!). Then on Sunday, after church, I perused the Internet and checked out two great tools that I have been hearing a lot of buzz about.

The first site is http://www.goanimate.com/. It's an incredible site that allows you to create cartoons using a bank of characters, scenes, music, and props that are all setup for you. All you have to do is point and click. The site also allows you to upload your own photos to use as characters, scenes, etc. I was really amazed at how simple it all was. Below you can see the short cartoon that I created for out NCETA presentation next month. I can see a multitude of ways that you could use this in the classroom. Why have students draw a comic strip when they can create one online with moving characters and music? It may not be interesting to all students, but I definitely see some students loving it.

The second site is http://www.snap.com/. I really haven't figured this one out yet, but I think that the premise is that you can create a scrolling "slide show" of photos to embed in a website and/or blog. This could be useful because sometimes pictures take up so much space and can become visually unattractive. Keep an eye out for a "snapshot" coming to the Lefanim blog.


Posted By: Amanda Spence