Qwiki is multimedia search tool/encyclopedia that creates an interactive presentation of information. To utilize Qwiki, enter a topic in the search box and/or select a featured topic on the homepage and then watch as the query is answered with a dynamic collage of relevant content—images, video and text—woven together from a variety of sites including Wikipedia, Google, Fotopedia, and YouTube. The presentation is even accompanied by a computer generated voice narration (and subtitles if the user so desires)—a concept that transforms a traditional web search into a story about the chosen topic. Users will also see a selection of related entries below each Qwiki that can be utilized for continued learning. There’s also an app for that.
Rationale: Qwiki is basically a slideshow style presentation that can turn memories into movies. With today’s craving for rich media on the web, watching is quickly becoming the new reading. Qwiki can be use to enhance basic curriculum content. This is an amazing plus for visual learners. Students can independently explore topics in a more engaging way than just by what’s offered in a traditional textbook. Struggling readers or ESL students would benefit greatly also.
Professional Practice: Instead of having students to read a chapter on ‘The Great Depression’, the Qwiki app can transform the chapter into an amazing movie of that time all while being narrated.
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WatchKnowLearn is a site for finding videos to use in school. All of the videos on the site have been reviewed by educators, and you can find out about the content of the videos through summaries. The vision behind WatchKnowLearn is to provide a world-class, online domain on which educators can store, categorize, and rate the best, K – 12 educational videos on the Internet today. And to make this service FREE so teachers, parents and students everywhere may have access to those videos. The videos are the highest quality found on the Internet, cover all major educational topics from elementary to secondary schools (or age range 1 – 18), and are Kid Safe because they are vetted by teachers.
Rationale: It’s FREE! The
videos are available without any registration or fees to teachers in the
classroom, as well as parents and students at home 24/7. WatchKnowLearn has
created three Common Core classrooms that have aligned videos in our main
directory with the ELA and Mathematic standards for grades K-2.
Professional Practice: My students have watched several videos from WatchKnowLearn for class discussion. For example, they watched the video, ‘No Child is Born a Terrorist’. When we were on the section of Cultures of the World, this video was shown to students in order for them to understand that life for all teenagers is not the same. This video showed the anger and frustration of children in Palestine who were forced into violence.
References
Richardson,
W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web
tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
I am precisely the type of visual learner which would benefit from an application such as Qwiki. Reading an electronic textbook is very tedious for me, having an option to view a narrated slideshow or movie would give me a much more visual connection to the material and enhance the learning process. I think this would be true regardless of the age of the learner, especially if visual learning is a strength.
ReplyDeleteBoth your suggestions are great! However, I like the sound of Qwiki. This is something I need to investigate further. An instant multimedia collage just sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete