Part Four: Tools to present content: Ch. 15-19

Chapter 19 Sharing Images

https://picasaweb.google.com

As I was reading chapter 15, I thought it was a great idea to use audio thinking. I downloaded listening tracks for my students since we aren’t allowed to use video and screencasting due to the university policy. Two websites were given in this chapter: one for Mac and one for Web. I don’t have a Mac so I opened http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.  Sadly, users must download and install the free LAME MP3 encoding software.

I moved on to next chapter, Narrated Slide Show. http://www.yodio.com/public/howitworks.aspx requires registration and a phone number. Of course my students won’t make a phone call to the States from Saudi Arabia. Therefore this will also not be implemented in my lesson plans.

Chapter Nineteen: Sharing Images

http://www.flickr.com/ and http://photobucket.com/ require registration and http://edu.glogster.com/ is not free to use.

https://picasaweb.google.com/home requires gmail account only. It was very easy to upload pictures. I can edit the visibility for either public or private. Not only this, I can add captions, edit photos, add people’s names, and the location of that picture. Other viewers can leave comments, a great way to share with groups.

However, all websites I’ve tried weren’t useful for my classroom setting. I had to figure out how I can share listening tracks with my students. BINGO! If there is a will, there is a way! Our group made a google group account the other day so I uploaded a listening file and sent it to the group.

Wallah! Students can open files and listen without opening/making any other websites. I can upload the transcripts with listening files. I’m so thrilled with this discovery! I feel like I won the jackpot!! :)

https://groups.google.com/