Today's tech snack can be found at the following url: https://www.tuzzit.com/brainstorming_tool#
What is it and how does it work?
Tuzzit is a free, web-based graphic organizer that allows you to put different items in it-including online videos, and urls. Tuzzit creates a “canvas” where you can put the items that you want in the organizer. A username and password is not needed to create a canvas, though an email account is needed to save and share organizers. Canvases are shared via url and can be edited by others for collaboration, but can also be password protected to protect content. In addition, canvases can be saved as picture files that can be printed out and distributed to others.
http://tinyurl.com/np8a7gd
More nitty,gitty about this program
This tool uses a click and drag interface, where students can simply click and drag items to their canvas. The tool will work on any desktop/laptop browser like Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome.
**Full Disclosure: This tool doesn’t seem to work on mobile devices. I tried it on an ipad and could access the website but could not create a canvas. On my blackberry phone, I was able to see the site and click to create a canvas. However, when I tried to add content to the canvas, I was unable to drag the elements onto the canvas. On my blackberry, I was able to access a canvas I created but was not able to add content. The canvas would not open up at all on the ipad. I also tried on android devices and did not have success. So before you use this tool, make sure it will work on the device you want your students to use. **
Now, that I have gotten the disclosure out of the way, let us dive into how this tool works. When you first start using the program you are asked to pick a canvas template that you want to use. (If you don’t like the templates provided, you could click on the brainstorming template which is a blank canvas.—If you want to upload your own template, then you have to use the pro version which costs money). After you select the template you want, you can start adding content by clicking and dragging items to your canvas.
You can add post it notes, checklists, online pictures from Flickr, online videos from Youtube, urls to certain sites, google maps, and stickers(icons) on your canvas. **Note: not all website urls will work when you use the url feature. If this happens, you can add the url to a post it note like I did for my sample canvas above.
While this tool is a great one for visual learners, this would not be a tool that I would recommend for Early Elemenatry School students. ( K-3). This tool, however, could be used with students in grades 4th through 12th, with more guidance being given to the younger students-of course. An individual canvas can be as long as a person makes it with no limitation to the content that you add to it. There are a number of different ways this tool could be used in the classroom, but I have outlined a few ideas in the graphic below: