Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards List

I looked over the list and choose to take a look at .Docstoc. It looks to be a very useful site for locating documents on just about any educational subject you could want. I searched for documents on graphic novels and found several good ones in a PowerPoint format. The information was easily organized and I could incorporate the info quickly into my own PowerPoint presentation for the beginning of the school year. I am having a problem with getting my teaching staff to embrace the use of graphic novels in the classroom so I am trying to gather as much professional information as possible to present at the beginning of the year.

Next I went to Wufoo. It was such a cute name I had to take a look. I really liked this one. It basically allows you to create and manage all kinds of forms with a number of cool templates for creating registration forms, comment forms, contact forms, wedding invitations, etc. These forms can then be sent to your inbox or added to your web page or blog. The CSS themes allow you to add a variety of colors in your wallpaper, logo, instructions, etc. It also lets you analysis data from form information and generate a colorful chart illustrating the results. I could see this being used for gathering staff thoughts on a particular topic. For instance, the principal could quickly generate a form asking staff to recommend times for staff meetings. After all forms have been received, the data could be analysed quickly and the results presented in a professional manner at a staff meeting. In the library I could use this tool in the spring as our third and fourth grade students vote for their favorite Bluebonnet book. The students would love seeing the results graphed in a colorful pie chart on a bulletin board with pictures of the winning book.