Moodle is great by itself but it can be even better when using other web 2.0 tools and resources. I know I will leave out many resources in this quick post, so I plan to write a “part 2″ of resources to use within Moodle.
Voki.com
Description: “Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.”
This is a fun tool for teachers to grab the attention of students and allow the students to listen rather than just read. This can also be a supplement, just another way, for teachers to give information to their students. Since we know that students learn in different ways, you can take advantage of a Voki’s audio feature.
It’s free to sign up and you can create multiple avatars. You can either use a microphone and speak for 1 minute or type in text, which will be translated into a “computer voice” (there are even different accents!). It gives you various types of embeddable code which allows you to use the Voki in your Moodle course.
This resource has been a big hit in our summer Moodle trainings. Spanish teachers like it because they can talk or type in Spanish. Some teachers have made a “Welcome” message Voki avatar and put it in their summary section on their course homepage. Some teachers have embedded it within a “compose a web page”. If your students have emails, they can sign up for a free account and even create their own! Tired of taking class time for oral exams? or you just want a fun, different way for students to do an assignment? They create a Voki and hand it in via Moodle!
Voicethread.com
Description: “A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.”
Check out Easy Moodle Embedding for more information
Other Resources
- MathTV.com – Like YouTube, but with all Math videos – great quality.
- TeacherTube – Like YouTube, but for the educational world. A great site that a lot of our teachers like to use. Embeddable code is available to copy/paste into Moodle.
- YouTube – Although it contains some totally useless content, there are quality videos here. Embeddable code is available to copy/paste into Moodle. You can also choose to not have the “related videos” show up in the embedded video – which is good for because students can not click on it and go to the actual YouTube site.
- HowStuffWorks.com – “A wholly owned subsidiary of Discovery Communications, is the award-winning source of credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works.” [read more] Contains quality videos on all topics. Unlike YouTube, you won’t have to worry about students watching inappropriate videos because they all look educational and credible.
Keep an eye out for Part 2 of Resources to Use in Moodle. Please leave any comments about your favorite resources you use in Moodle!
