Exploration of 2.0 websites

Today I viewed three 2.0 websites:  PicLits, Scratch, and Voki.  Out of these websites, I found PicLits and Voki to be the most interesting and useful for use in the classroom.   PicLits, is a fun and interactive way to get students to express their emotions and feelings about a picture by dragging words into the frame.  Instead of showing a picture to students and asking them to write a paragraph or sentence using vocabulary words, you can simply have them visit this website and pick a picture they want to write about.  This website offers a creative outlet for students to express their emotions in a non-traditional way.  I liked Voki, because it can be used in a variety of ways.  Voki is a program that allows you to create avatars, from what they look like to what they will say.  A great assignment would be to have students pick a character from a literary work they read, and create an avatar based on how the book describes this character.  Instead of having them write a book report, you can have the create a dialogue in which they answer questions that you have given them.  This is just one example of how Voki could be beneficial in the classroom, I am sure there are a hundred more creative ways avatars can be used.  I did not particularly like the Scratch website, because I found it confusing and hard to navigate.  I am sure it could also be useful in a class setting, but if I cannot navigate it then I cannot teach my students how to.

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