Weebly is an online website creator and hosting site. Normally, when someone wants  to create a website, they must pay for the storage space and the domain name. You can even end up paying for the site design itself. Some sites, such as Google Sites, offers free space to create and design web pages, but is fairly limited to its capabilities. If you really want to pay, there are sites like Godaddy.com that offers domain names (the www.yourname.com) and hosting, as well as design programs like Website Tonight. This offers much more customization and the ability to add in many tweaks and widgets that Google Sites does not have.

In steps Weebly. Weebly is the mix between the two. Weebly offers free website design and hosting (it does not offer domain names, but that is the cheapest part of the equation, and Weebly has its own walkthrough so it can be linked to your account if you purchase one). Weebly is also very user friendly. Everything is simply drag and drop. There are many designs to choose from that look professional, and not as empty as many of the designs from Google Sites.

Classroom Uses

Weebly provides a free alternative for teachers to set up class websites. There is no advertisement, so it is safe from outside links. It is easy to setup with drag and drop features, and also looks much more professional than Google Sites. Weebly also offers 30 student accounts for free (with a 2 page limit). This provides an opportunity for teachers to create student pages in which they could display ePortfolios or other work done in classroom. Having student work displayed online is a good way to link home and school, and gets students excited about the work they have completed.

For an example of what a Weebly page could look like, feel free to check out my class page at www.themrsmith.com !

CNN Student News is a great way to get students involved in current events. With all the information at our finger tips and the wealth of knowledge available, students should be guided where to find useful information on the internet. Today with the massive overflow of information students receive, it is often hard for them to know where to find reliable information. That is where CNN Student News comes into play. CNN Student News has setup a wonderful site for students to use as well as being full of resources so teachers can incorporate it into the classroom.

Classroom Uses

CNN Student News works well with students around grades 3-8. It breaks down current events, as well as explains important background knowledge in quick segments. For example, when reporting the arrest of a high ranking Taliban official, the news team

reviewed who the Taliban were and why it was a significant news event.

Not only does CNN Student News review past situations, but they also develop discussion and comprehension questions for further use within the classroom. This provides instant feedback for the teacher as to the students complete understanding of the news report. There are also interactive maps, assignments, and other resources for teachers to use within the website. Overall, it is definitely worth the visit to check it out!

Vodpod is a very interesting website. In a way, it’s like a notebook of videos. In essence, what Vodpod does is it allows educator’s (or anyone really) to “collect” videos from any number of sources in one place. This way it makes it very easy to find later. Like bookmarks, you can tag them, put them in collections, or just collect them into your own giant pot of videos.

Uses in the Classroom

Vodpod can be used in many different ways for educational use. While it is not a site dedicated to education (it is more of a social sharing site for videos), it has more restrictions that can be placed on a users profile than other sites such as YouTube. This makes it much more “student friendly” since uneducational videos don’t make their way in. One way to place such restrictions is to create a “Vodspot.” You do this after you create a free acount. Within your profile you choose share, and then choose other. This takes you to the Vodspot creation page so you can set a design, and the collection of videos you desire. This also makes an easy website you can send student to in order to rewatch videos at home or as make-up assignments.

Another nice feature about Vodpod is it’s collection of widgets that can be easily integrated into blogs, websites, and other pages. Also, Vodpod has it’s own widget in Edublogs.

You can check out my Vodspot here to get ideas of how I use Vodpod in my classroom.