I used animoto to create the following short video, all pictures courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons. It took me many hours to find the pictures I wanted, download them, and arrange them into the video. It didn't help that my computer was slow... But I'm very happy with the results and now making future videos will be a cinch! I will definitely be using this with my students as we review short vowel sounds, and I even thought I could change up the video throughou the year with images my kids have picked! I think they'll love it!
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
The second mash-up I used was by trial and error. I had a few ideas but none of them worked out. It was hard to find a site that would upload pictures from my computer; most required direct uploading from Flickr. I tried using Bookr to make a book called "Where do WORDS come from?" (I haven't given up yet - see Tool 7) but couldn't add more than one picture per page. Then, I thought of making a pictorial map of the American Symbols with Mapper, but couldn't find a way to start it (is it by going to Flickr API?). So I started on a similar site iMapFlickr, but once I discovered I was going to have to create sets of pictures on Flickr, I gave up. Sorry, this is after being in front of the computer 2 days straight! :)
Finally, Glogster was, in my opinion, the most user friendly. But because I needed something with several frames, I ended up using Bubblr.
Reading Beyond Words
I've spent lots of hours exploring and playing with these sites. I'm glad I know how to use them all, but hopefully this post will save one of you some time! Have fun!
Sorry you had a hard time with some of these applications. I've experienced the same problems myself - sometimes technology just doesn't want to cooperate! But it looks like you ended up with some really cool products nonetheless! Hang in there and don't get discouraged - you're doing great!
ReplyDeleteMillie