Number 8 of 23: I feel like I am losing my mind. There are so many tools out there that it is mind boggling. I played with some of the photo tools and had some fun. I have to admit, I got frustrated at times with the directions and the steps, but I know that my students will work through these quite easily. I thought of several uses for the slide shows. I would like to link a slide show of new books to my media center web site. Students would be able to access this at home or in class and then know what new and exciting materials are available. Another use I can see is for class presentations. Students could create their own slide shows and then by posting them on the web, classmates and family members could view them at any computer. This would be ideal for our technology class.
I tried Thunbstacks and found it quite easy to navigate. It does not have all the bells and whistles, but it did what I needed. I think this would be an easy one to teach in the middle grades and advance them to the more complicated ones as they progress through grades.
I recently completed grad classes in media technology. We each had to create and post an e-folio. I took this back to our technology instructor and now our 8th grade students are using it as one of their projects in their career investigation unit. Students have enjoyed this program and it great to see that they are beginning to understand that the steps needed to obtain employment; education, resume, portfolio.