Amy introduced us to and gave us time for a quick explore of 3 programmes available from go2web20.net. There are many programmes on this site and it was great to have time to play a little.
Fotoll A program in which users are able to create an online poll using pictures. An example is Barack Obama or John McCain? It has a very easy to navigate interface that is simplicity itself. There is a useful facility where users are able to add comments. I found it fun to use. Would I use it with a primary school class? No way. Why not? It is called “Duty of Care” and there are too many unanswered safety issues with this program. Western Australian Catholic Education’s portal is Editure/ MySuite and polls are able to be set up in the “vote for” property. It’s safer and controllable.
Kerpoof This program makes it very easy to create a drawing, picture, card, movie and other publications. Members begin their story by choosing a scene. They are able to add characters, speech bubbles and interesting extras. When making a movie they begin by selecting a storyline and a scene. There are reassurances of the safety of students using the program but I found little to support these. The main problem I have is with the closed nature of the program. The storylines, scenes, characters and extras are all preset and rather contrived. It is for this reason that I would not use it in a primary school classroom.
Pikikids Creating your own comics could hardly be easier. Such clear directions and simple interface make this program very tempting. It provides a large range of comic layouts to choose from. There are two ways of uploading pictures; firstly, pictures can be uploaded from a computer which allows students to create their own digital pictures or use scanned, original drawings. Secondly, users can search for a picture on Flickr and this is where the problem lies. Let’s face there are some photos on Flickr which are quite unsuitable for students to view. Pikikids can be kept private but there is still the browsing for image problem. I would like to see the creators of this program develop a school version where the students are unable to browse Flickr then I believe more schools would use it.
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By: Lina on November 20, 2008 