Best Embeds for Educational Wikis and Blogs

Now that you and/or your students are using wikis and blogs, are you curious what could be added to them?  From animated slideshows to collaborative documents to interactive review games, many great (and free) tools are available.  As a follow up to my previous post “What Teachers Should and Should Not Be Posting on their Classroom Webpages”, I’ve pulled a master list of embedding options that will hopefully spark your imagination. 

As you browse the list consider how you will use these embeds.  While some of these work perfectly for classroom blog posts, others tend to be more effective wiki tools.  Do you want students to view a video clip and then leave comments below?  That’s a perfect blog scenario.  Or do you want students to collect data in a form?  Yep, that’s a wiki tool.  I know your wheels will be turning to come up with great new ways to use the tools. 

One note of warning, however.  If any of these sites are blocked at your school, the embeds will also be blocked.

Good luck and again if you have any other suggestions please post them in the comments section.  The more tools available, the nerdier we all can be.

Collaborative Project Tools

• aMap is an excellent tool for social studies projects.  This tool provides a visual tool over debatable issues.  When it is embedded on your site, students can take positions and fill out the map online. The embed code is located under share your aMap.
• Glogster is quickly becoming one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools, and now that there is an educational side, I’m really excited.  With Glogster teachers or students can create interactive posters or digital scrapbook pages that provide links out to other sites.  It’s a great visual to kick off a unit or wiki.  For an example, check out Civil War Sallie, which is an awesome Travel Buddy wiki created by a 6^th grade student or Lit Circles, a site I created with links to support several novels.  The embed code is provided when you save the glogster.
• Google Forms – You will need to have a Google Account to use these as the forms are part of the Google Docs area.  What I really like about the use of Google Forms for projects is they can be used for many purposes.  Gather data from project partners, create a parent survey, assess your students’ prior knowledge on a topic, or even design a test.  The forms are easy to create and easy to embed.  Start with one of the Google Form Templates or generate your own from scratch.  To find the embed code click More Actions – Embed.
• VoiceThread – This is a wonderful tool that simply takes student collaboration to the next level.  Here students can share in discussions over images or video in an amazing way.  If a person is already logged into Voicethread website, he can comment on a voicethread directly from your class website.  The embed code is found under embed.

Communication Tools to Parents and Students

• Google Calendar – I’ve become a big fan of Google calendar this spring.  The best part of this is parents can either view the calendar on your page or they can subscribe to it if it’s public.  It’s an excellent tool to mark class events, field trips, major deadlines, etc.  To find the embed code follow these directions.
• Google Maps – Do parents need directions to a field trip destination or to a track meet?  Go into Google maps and look up the destination’s address.  Once the map is generated, click Link to this page, copy the web address from the Paste HTML to embed in website field in your browser and paste it into the HTML code of your wiki.
• Interactive Graphic Organizers – ClassTools is truly a gem for any teacher whether you embed or not, but since you can, I highly recommend checking out this site.  You can create venn diagrams, timelines, and more to be embedded on your site.  Click on the gear icon to get the embed code.
• Mixbook  - It allows you to create online digital scrapbooks to share with parents.  This can be used for digital storytelling projects, as well, but students will need a login verified by an email.  The embed code is found under share.
• Polls – Interested in polling students as a discussion starter?  Poll Vault is an easy tool to use.  Simply create a poll and click share to find the embed code.  Poll Everywhere is another tool where students can either vote online or SMS text their responses in.  The embed code is on the right under Publish.
• PowerPoints – There are several tools that will allow you to convert your PowerPoints into the embeddable slideshows.  Google Docs, Slideshare, MyPlick, and Slideshow will allow you to upload your PowerPoint and provide you an embed code to put on your website.
• Review Game – MyStudiyo allows you to create review quizzes and embed them on your site.  The code is found when you click spread the word.
• Screenshots with comments – Skitch is an easy tool that allows you to screen capture, make annotations, and embed them on your blog.  To find the embed code click webpost.
• Visitor Map – Curious to know who is visiting your class blog?  Consider using Whos.Amung.Us.  You would need to add this as a widget on a blog or simply add to the HTML of a wiki.
• Webpage Links – Wallwisher is a virtual bulletin board to cover with virtual post-its, but I really like to use this as a way to share websites with students or parents.  It can also be used collaboratively so parents could leave encouraging notes to students.  The embed code is located under Do More.
• Word Documents – Scribd, Issuu, Calemeo allow you to upload your Word (including 2007 documents) and PDF documents while providing you an embed code.  Now parents and students can view handouts and such without having to have Microsoft Office on their home computers, plus Calemeo will allow you will to create digital books.

Photos

• Animoto –Animoto is a wonderful tool to make photo music videos that can be easily embedded on a wiki or blog.  Be sure to sign up for the “Educator” version to take advantage of all the features.  This is an example Animoto created by an Andover High School Social Studies teacher as an introduction to the 1950s. The embed code is found with the Thumbtack Icon.
• BubbleShare – is another slideshow creator except this tool uses fun frames like television sets or a theater stage.  The embed code is listed above the slideshow.
• Photopeach – This is a fun slideshow creator that comes with audio and the easy ability to add text over your images.  The embed code is found underneath the slideshow.
• Picasa Web Album Slideshows – If you aren’t familiar with Picasa 3 from Google, you’re missing out.  This free tool not only is one of the easiest photo editors around, it allows you to save and share your photos on the web.  When you have an album created online, look for the Link Button on the right.  You’ll see an option for Embed a Slideshow. 
• Slide.com – is a fun and creative slideshow tool that will allow you to put clipart and glitter around the images.  The embed code is underneath the slideshow.

Student Products

• Bookr form PimPamPum – Pulls in photos from FlickR, but allows students to create digital books online.  It’s an easy and amazing digital storytelling tool.  To find the embed code click Blog This.
• Bubbl.us – With this tool you can create a brainstorming mind map and embed it on your wiki.  To keep from having students needing accounts to login, this would be a perfect tool to have one teacher account and use the interactive white board to create as a whole class then embed on the class wiki.  The embed code is located under the Menu button in the bottom right corner.
• Wordle – The use of Wordle has become very popular in the past year and with the ability to easily embed them, why not use them on your class webpage?  The embed code is found directly beneath the generated Wordle.

Videos

• BBC Video News and CNN News – Running a current events class?  If so, you might be interested in embedding news videos on your site.  The embed code for BBC is found when you click “share” and CNN’s code is just below the video.
• Live Video Feed from Your Classroom – Having a guest speaker or are students doing a reader’s theater performance?  Consider turning on a webcam and broadcast from your website.  Ustream allows you to set up your show and provides you with the embed code just below the video window.
• SchoolTube – If you haven’t checked out SchoolTube, you are missing out.  Many of these student films are very good films.  You’ll find math tutorials, student performances, and more.  Simply check out the Video of the Day to see what’s been uploaded lately.  Also consider uploading your own class films here and embedding them on your website.  It’s a great way to archive class activities to share with parents.  The embed code on the right.
• TeacherTube – TeacherTube is currently going through some big changes like allowing you to upload documents to share and creating a community piece.  The videos do have embed codes on the right.
• YouTube – With the wealth of options at YouTube, you can usually find some great conversations starters for classroom discussions or tutorial videos on just about anything.  I definitely want to direct you to this blog post about embedding tricks for YouTube.  For example, you can embed just a portion of a YouTube clip or set it up to autoplay on your site.  The embed code on the right.  I recommend checking out YouTube Edu, as well.