Big Huge Labs

I have discovered another cool free web 2.0 website that I just have to share with you! It is called Big Huge Labs. It is not new, but I heard about it while I was in Philadelphia at the ASCD and have been playing around with it hoping to use it for a session at our Teaching & Learning Conference.

I can certainly understand why it has been a favorite of educators for a while now. Big Huge Labs provides over
thirty different tools (or toys) to create a variety of things such as motivational posters, magazine covers, trading cards, jigsaw puzzles, cubes, slide-shows and more. When teachers use these tools to support project-based, student centered learning, the potential is there for some great higher order thinking skills.

Just a few of the tools and an idea of how to use them in the classroom follows:

Motivator: Upload your images and create motivational posters. First thing I thought of was creating character education posters to allow students to show how they understand how to demonstrate those character traits. Students can also describe a book character, a historical person, a science or social studies concept, vocabulary, and a math concept.

Movie Poster: First thought that came to mind was creating a movie poster related to a book they have read. These could be an awesome addition to your classroom library. How? You can save them to your computer and print! Use the movie poster for the student of the week. Even use it to summarize a class field trip and then send the poster to them for a keepsake and a thank you.

Pocket Album: Begin with allowing the students to create their story following the normal writing process. Then use PowerPoint as a means to create the images and combined text to tell the story. Save the presentation as JPEG images. Then upload those JPEG images here to create a pocket book. Print and add these pocket books to your reading center.

Trading Cards: Character cards, student biographies in trading card format, or create a set of cards to create a game about science or social studies concepts. Then allow students to play the game and use the winning hand to create a newspaper article about the concept.

These are just a few of the tools, but hopefully it has whet your appetite to slide on over the http://bighugelabs.com/ and check them out. You can create for free, but you can also sign up for an educator account. It is super easy to do. Simply sign up for a free account, then send them a photo of your educator ID badge. They will approve your account in a couple of days (mine was approved within a couple of hours). The educator account allows you to enter your students names and it will generate log ins for them (no student email needed). You can then view your students' creations. Big Huge Labs will delete student creations after a couple of weeks, so you will want to save them if you want to keep them for a long period of time.

There is an option to create gift items for purchase, but you do not need to buy anything. Check it out and let me know what you think and how you plan to use the site in your classroom!

ZooBurst

I had a few minutes yesterday, so I began to explore some new web 2.0 tools that are available that teachers and students can use for Digital Storytelling. I actually have a session on this at our Summer Teaching and Learning Conference and was looking for some new ideas.Digital Storytelling provides a way for students to tell their stories or share their content knowledge using technology in a fun and creative way.

I stumbled across ZooBurst, discovered it had a free version, and immediately signed up for an individual account. ZooBurst provides a way to create your own 3D pop-up books. Best of all, it is pretty easy to use.

You arrange characters and props within the 3D world of the book either using items from their free collection or uploading your own images. You set the stage for what is happening on the page. You can also make your characters or props "clickable." When the object is clicked, a speech bubble pops up allowing you to narrate the story or provide information through the character itself. The finished book can be shared via email, through the link, and/or embedded into a website. I did find the set-up of their database to be a little cumbersome, hopefully they will add a search feature in the future.

If you upgrade to the $49 per year version, you have additional options such as the ability to create and manage a class, add sound, record your voice, print copies, and share images across the class. Pretty cool, huh?

Check it out for free and let me know what you think!