Here’s another installment in my series of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly. As you may remember, in order to make it on this list, the web tool has to:
* be easily accessible to English Language Learners and/or non-tech savvy computer users.
* allow people to create engaging content within minutes.
* host the user’s creation on the site itself indefinitely, and allow a direct link to be able to be posted on a student or teacher’s website/blog to it (or let it be embedded).
* provide some language-learning opportunity.
* does require any registration.
You can find previous installments of this series with the rest of my “The Best…” lists at Websites Of The Year.
Here are my latest picks:
CREATE A “PHOTROPISM”: At Phototropism you “create sculptures that react like plants to weather conditions.” You can then email the link for posting. It’s cool — in a very weird sort of way.
PUT A CAPTION BUBBLE ON AN IMAGE: Caption Bubble lets you very easily find an image on the web and add a text caption bubble. The link can then be emailed and/or posted on a student or teacher blog. I’ve posted about this site before, but it appears to have gotten even better. You can find many other similar tools on my website at Student Photos.
USE VIRTUAL CHALK ON VIRTUAL PAVEMENT: The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign in the UK is sponsoring a “Young Pavement Artists” competition. On their website, if you click on “click here to draw online for fun” you can use virtual chalk to draw on a virtual pavement. You can then email the link to a friend, and post the link on a student/teacher blog or website.
At our school we sometimes have poetry writing contests with chalk on the pavement. I can certainly see using this online resource as a supplement to such an event. And it can just be a simple drawing tool that English Language Learners would then describe. No registration is required.
CREATE AN INSPIRATIONAL POSTER ONLINE: AutoMotivator lets you easily make online motivational posters. Read Paul Hamilton’s blog for more information on it.
SEND UGLY FLOWERS: The Jackson Fish Market company has created some neat and engaging web applications accessible to English Language Learners. Their latest is one for Halloween — send someone some “fun and awful” virtual dying flowers.
English Language Learners can pick the flowers, describe them, and then post the url on a teacher/student blog or website. It’s bizarre, but I suspect that some of my English Language Learners (particularly teenage boys) would like it a lot. I’ve written previously about “They’re Beautiful” flowers site, where you can send someone virtual normal flowers.
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You might also want to explore nearly 100 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
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