CPD Daniela Furno

Padlet is an useful tool to work collaboratively mainly so that all the students can see what others are doing and profit from their work. With adolescents it could be a bit risky depending on what they choose to write but the good news is that we can manage what it´s published ir not. Students can also have a padlet on their own and use it to publish their own productions. This tool has nice backgrounds to choose from so that you can customize it to suit your needs. Mine was designed in order to share how we all use the media and post some examples. Here it goes......

Voicethread was a challenging tool because although it is very nice when it´s finished, it takes time preparing it. You have to choose the pictures, record your voice and you can also add music, upload pictures and many more. The final result is great but I found it time consumig so you better think well what you are going to prepare so that you can use it many times. !!!!! Students can prepare their own to make presentations and projects and share with the class. My voicethread is about The Beatles as I was working with students with a unit about The Musical World!! Students liked it a lot!!

Voki is an animated avatar that can be very useful in order to speak to the class to give instructions, tell something, invite them to do something and many more. You can record your own voice or you can use voices that the application has. The choices of avatar are varied to suit your needs and objetives. It looks so funny and strange at the same time to have an avatar talking to you. I was working with my students with famous people from the past so I choose Abraham Lincol to talk to the children introducing himself and presenting the Google slides with other famous people from the past. I enjoyed creating it!

Storybird is a wonderful tool to motivate students to write and create stories. The wide variety of pictures allows students to create different kind of stories according to their needs and ideas. It can be used for any level as there´s no restrictions as for the length of writing. Students can also work collaboratively or on their own. It could also be used to create a classroom library with all the students productions. I found this tool user-friendly so go ahead and give it a try!!!.

Google slides is a tool for creating presentations. You can choose from a variety of options of templates, topics, pictures, diagrams, and many more. You can make it as personal as you want. It`s very useful and your presentations looks magical! I was very happy with mine. Here it goes!!!!

Google drawings is a useful tool that allows us to create, collaborate and work together in different kind of diagrams. It has a set of flow-chart symbols and shapes that we can drag and drop and even customize. We can also insert pictures, embed links, use different fonts, colours and many more things. The activities you prepare using Google drawings can look motivating, inviting and professional. Let`s give it a try!!! This is one I have created for students so that each of them can describe a film they have just seen and recommend it to others.