Creativity+and+Innovation

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 * Being successful in the 21st century requires students to think creatively and outside of the box. If you asked your students to create a product to explain a historical event, what would they create? Would they be inclined to utilize the latest technology tools? Would they be interested in creating something like this? **=====

** Peaches and Jam **
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Many of the basic creative Web 2.0 tools online are provided free of charge. Enhanced versions of these tools usually have an annual cost. Creative Web 2.0 tools can be a lot of fun but are often more time consuming to learn and implement. As you review the various tools, decide which one(s) would be most appropriate for your students. Remember that today’s students are very eager to learn and teach others how to use new technology. You may also want to consider assigning some of these tools as homework or extra credit projects and allow students the opportunity to showcase their tech know-how. >> >>
 *  The video above was created using a Web 2.0 tool called ** GoAnimate ** . It allows students to create basic two minute videos for free, but the video above was created using their GoPlus! version ($58 per year). The GoPlus! version provides more features (such as unlimited video length, additional themes, characters, etc.) and there is a school version ($99 per year) containing more privacy controls.
 * ** Glogster ** - is a tool that enables students to create a virtual poster containing text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings, links to other websites and data; all for free. ** Glogster EDU ** allows a teacher to create an account for 50 students and offers additional features ($99 per year) that allow teachers to access more classroom and product management tools. If you are interested in learning more about this tool, take some time to visit the following links: ** Museum Box ** - provides a visual platform for students to display their research. Text (including Word docs), images, video and sound can all be included as students create their virtual display box for free.
 * **Teaching With Glogster: Using Virtual Posters in the Classroom **
 * **Using Glogster to Support Multimodal Literacy **
 * **[|Wordle]**- generates “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
 * **12 Valuable Wordle Tips You Must Read...Word Clouds in Education **
 * ** Tagxedo - ** creates a word cloud from words that are typed or pasted into the site (famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, etc.). The word clouds can be displayed as graphic images of objects (tree, rabbit, pumpkin), places (continents), and people (Mona Lisa, Lincoln). The final image can be printed, saved, or shared in a variety of formats. This slide show presents a variety of ideas for how to use Tagxedo.
 * **[|The Hat]**- a simple but handy little utility that offers a fun and easy way to automatically determine a random order from a list of any amount of names. You can even use it to pick individual names for raffle and sweepstakes winners, etc. or pick pairs of names for deciding random partnerships, complete with cool animation and sound effects.
 * **[|Visuwords]**- online graphical dictionary
 * **Stopwatch** - selection of online timers; good for classroom use.
 * **Cacoo** - a user friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams such as site maps and network charts. Cacoo can be used free of charge.
 * **Snaggy ** - a web-based tool for drawing on, annotating, and sharing screen captures. To draw or write on your screen capture, just paste your screen capture image into Snaggy. Snaggy offers tools for highlighting a section of your screen capture, typing on it, drawing free-hand on your image, and cropping your image.
 * ** SmileBox - ** requires a free app to be downloaded onto your computer (or mobile device) before you can create customized slideshows, invitations, greetings, collages, scrapbooks and photo albums.
 * ** Comic Creator **** - ** enables students to design their own comic strips that can be printed upon completion.
 * **[|Xtranormal for Education]**- make storytelling part of your lesson! Teachers are reinventing their lectures with Xtranormal, and students are more engaged in learning than ever. This software is not free, but it's offered with special rates for teachers and/or students.
 * Enhance your lessons with a movie
 * Have students create their own, suits a variety of learning styles
 * Get access to our entire library of characters and sets
 * One account includes access for your students & class admin features