Data Visualization

Today I had the opportunity to play around with different visualization tools from Karl Gude's Wiki.  The great thing about this Wiki is that it is full of great FREE websites that any teacher no matter what subject could find a use for.  The three I chose to experiment with were PodOmatic, Glogster and Timetoast.  I chose these three because I thought they would be great to use in my foreign language classroom. 

PodOmatic is a great site for creating podcasts! I came across many issues when I created my first podcast using Garageband and even with Audacity.  However, after playing around on PodOmatic I found it very simple and easy to use! I appreciated the fact that it was just a website online rather than an application I had to download off the Internet (like Audacity) or purchase (like Garageband).  PodOmatic is not only great for creating both audio and video podcasts but also for viewing other podcasts you may relate to!

Next I tried out Glogster.  I'd heard of before but I'd never really explored the site before and boy am I glad I did! Glogster is a site where you or your students can create interactive posters aka Glogs that can include anything from text to pictures to audio and video!  I think this site would be amazing for projects! What a fun online activity to do with your students that not only heightens their creativity but also gets then working with technology!  In the future I would like to have my students use Glogster to create presentations about different French cities around the world.  Many students only think of France when they think of French but it is spoken in 29 different countries around the world!  This project would be a great way for them to not only experience the French language around the world but also to expose them to places they have probably never even heard of before.  The only downside to Glogster is that the free version is very basic as you can imagine, however, I think for a project like the one I want to do it would be worth paying the money to give my students such an amazing experience.

Timetoast is a free website where you can create interactive timelines that include pictures.  I could imagine this site would be great for history classes because you could create timelines of important events in history, give a description and even upload a picture.  For my purposes as a foreign language teacher the first thing that came to mind when I started exploring the site was how great it would be for projects.  Last year I did a project with my students where they created their own cooking show, it was a huge project that lasted over the span of a month and Spring Break fell right in the middle of our project prep time.  This site would've been a great way to organize our schedule for students to figure out how much time they had to complete their project.  I also think this would've been great for those many absent students right before and after Spring Break so they would know what they've missed.  Below is a link to the timeline I would have created last year for my students on Timetoast.  The only problem I came across with the site is that the embed codes weren't working for my timeline for whatever reason so I was forced to simply provide the link.

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/une-bonne-recette