Ways to Integrate Technology into Language Arts

One of my goals for the new school year is to integrate more technology into Language Arts.  In this post, I will list/link to websites I'm considering implementing next year.  In future posts I will include more details of the "how"...

As mentioned in my previous post, I'll be using SpellingCity for vocabulary and spelling activities next year.  (A "word work" option during Daily 5/CAFE???)



 


I'm also very seriously considering blogging in the classroom.  I know I'm not on the cutting-edge with this, but it's new to me, and would be new to my school.  I think it's a fantastic way to incorporate technology and writing.  The kids can share writing pieces, book reviews, etc.  I've spoken with my principal about this idea, and he's all for it, as long as I make sure the site we use is safe and private, and that I have full control over any posts or comments by the kids.  Initially I was thinking I would use edublogs.org, but that does cost money.  It seems like kidblog.org has most, if not all, of the same features and more, for free.  I began playing around with the site, and created a blog for each of the three classes I'll have next year.  It will require me to come up with usernames and passwords for each student.  I'm not creative enough to come up with approximately 80+ unique usernames and passwords (and I won't have class lists for a few more weeks) so I stumbled upon dinopass which will create unique and kid friendly passwords.  I'll have to keep this in mind when I finally get around to setting up my real list!




Tagxedo is another resource I've discovered this summer.  I was familiar with a similar site, Wordle, but Tagxedo seems to have more options that would be useful, such as shapes.  I made this one with words from my first blog post.  This seems like it would be great for poetry and maybe even vocabulary.

I began playing around with this today too.  Seems like something else the kids would really enjoy.

The last idea for today is Animoto.  I have not used this site yet, but know that our computer teacher has done some activities with some of the older kids at my school.  I would like to add it to the list to try out this year.







 

As I said, this is just my list of resources I'd like to look into and try to implement this year.  I will post more specific information about how I plan to implement later. 

If anyone has experience and insight with any of these resources, or any other ideas for integrating technology and Language Arts, please share!