Thing #23 Summary

Finally, after a whirlwind tour of 23 Things on http://www.library2play.blogspot.com/ I have finished. I loved so many different parts of the journey, but I guess I would have to say exploring with Big Huge Labs , delicious , and Zamzar are in the top 10. I had seen friends who had blogs and was envious their fearlessness to meet the future. I didn't have a clue where to begin until this class! (THANKS! Dr. Bishop)
This activity has heightened my awareness of web 2.0 and the many applications that are available. (many for FREE) I wish I had had more time to explore each of the items on the list, but the deadline was closely approaching! I know I will be sharing the things I learned with my friends and colleagues, as well as, reviewing many of the activities again and again. This is just an awesome activity! I can't wait to begin Library2Play2! Wahoo!!!

Thing #10- Online Image Generator

I have spent the past two evenings PLAYING with various online generators. They are too much fun! On Custom Sign Generator you can take your photos and input "shoutouts" onto them or you can use the photo and make a fake magazine cover. I remember seeing those booths at fairs and 'Vegas and wanting to make a fake magazine cover but I always look dead by the time I make it to the booth and I was not going to spend my money on a lousy looking picture. Now, I can choose my favorite pictures and create my own magazine cover for FREE!!!!! What a great way to make Mother Day's gifts with student pictures. I can see students going crazy over this. I also spent quite a bit of time at Image Chef playing around with all the different applications offered on the site. I finally decided to create a wanted poster of my niece and nephew that I took on our trip to San Antonio earlier this summer. Image Chef also has word clouds that you can create in various shapes. Big Huge Labs is just totally awesome! I love the trading card generator! I think using these wonderful sites will help get kids interested in technology as well as cause them to focus more readily on the lessons in class since they never know when they will get to use these applications. Below are some of the sites we visited in Learning2Play this semester. (Thanks Dr. Bishop!)

• Custom Sign Generator
• Image Chef
• Big Huge Labs
• Kid-Friendly Image Generators
• Dumpr
• Wordle
• Glogster

Thing #6

How much fun can one person have playing with their pictures? If you go to Big Huge Labs http://bighugelabs.com/ you will have more fun than should be allowed. :) You can take several pictures and upload and it will create a mosaic with the pictures (up to 36 wahoooooooo!) or you can create a trading card with your own pictures. There are so many posibilities, it is endless. You can have students look up vocabulary words and find images that "fit" the definition and then write the definition under the picture. Students could exchange cards with one another as they review the vocabulary. Another idea is students could use the cards as mini book reports. Download an image of the book read and then students could write their report on the card, using various icons to symbolize the various genres. They could even trade with friends to let them know what "they have gotta read". PreK and Kinder teachers could use students' pictures and create trading cards of each student and use them for daily attendance or centers assignment by placing them in pocket charts. Oh the possibilities are endless!