Cool Sites: DoInk, Whistle, Rhyme…

Keeping track of my favorite tools has been a little hectic, but I have managed to find a few tools this week that are definite gems! Check out the rest of this weekly series to find more great educational technology links and how I discovered these websites. All these links and more come from my Google reader so please feel free to connect with me on Google!

DoInk

ChickenSaltash shared the wonderful animation tool, DoInk, with me. He has a wonderful blog post with great examples how he integrated the free animation website with his students. By checking out his student examples, you will also see his feedback comments on the website! I love it! You learn how to integrate an entire lesson with this tool and provide constructive feedback. Check out his student’s example below on enzymes! Bet you didn’t think such complex items could be explained using animation.


enzymes at work by MUNROPOLZ, made at DoInk.com

Musipedia

I found Musipedia through Ziipa! Musipedia is not affiliated with Wikipedia but is similar. This website allows you or your students to edit and information on various tunes, melodies, and musical themes. According to the website description, “An entry can contain a bit of sheet music, a MIDI file, textual information about the work and the composer, and last but not least the Parsons Code, a rough description of the melodic contour.” I can easily see teachers having students pick a historical music piece or a song from the soundtrack of a film shown in class, research the songs using credible sources, then add this information to Musipedia. Moreover, you can whistle a tune or play the tune on a piano and Musipedia will identify the tune for you.

Write Rhymes

Write Rhymes is an excellent website for students who are writing poetry and want to increase their vocabulary! Look at the rhyme below from my very good friend Marisa Constantinides. Check out Kelly Tenkely’s blog post for creative ways to integrate this tool into a lesson!

I’d just eaten my spaghetti
and I thought you were so petty
leaving me with all the dishes
while you carried on your wishes

Google’s New Translator Widget

Google has created a free website translator widget. What I love about this new widget is that the tool automatically detects the visitor’s native language. I will be using this tool on my wiki page for my young English language learners. Some of the parents do not understand English fluently. I am hoping this tool will encourage them to use the online tools I have introduced on the wiki page by eliminating the language barrier.

Even More Cool Links

For more great finds, please visit Ozge Karaoglu’s Faves of the Week series! Ozge shares various cool links weekly on Twitter that are quite useful. Everyone in education should follow her to stay cutting edge and current!

Challenge:

Use one of the tools! Leave a comment if you found the tip useful!


Photo by dee, Morguefile.com

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