Webspiration+-+Amanda

 Webspiration is designed for students in grades 5-12. It is very similar to Kidspiration or Inspiration, software used in many school computer labs. With Webspiration, teachers/administrators create accounts for themselves and sign their students up for individual accounts. The Webspiration tools are designed to help students improve their writing and thinking skills by providing a workspace in which they can map out, organize, and collaborate on ideas. The beauty of Webspiration is that students can access it anytime and anywhere and their work is automatically saved to the site. Webbing, concept mapping, and other graphic organizers can be created so that student can not only organize their thoughts, but also achieve greater comprehension of language arts skills. Pre-created templates are also available for students to start with and edit with their own ideas.

One especially important feature is diagram mode. Students working in the diagram mode can brainstorm and develop their ideas so that their thoughts are organized. These diagrams can then be transformed into outlines (and back again!) by clicking the "outline view" button. Outline view provides students support throughout the writing process. In outline view students can expand upon their thoughts, add detail, and communicate their thoughts logically and clearly.

Students can collaborate with the teacher and classmates to stay engaged, share thoughts, and gain understanding. Peer reviews and teacher guidance can be achieved through the collaborate and comment tools. All assignments can be edited, revised, evaluated by peers and the teacher, and returned to students with feedback all through the online site. Work can be published from Webspiration by transferring the students' work/information to Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Students can also share their work from Webspiration on a web page, blog, or wiki. Although writing and language arts are the most obvious subject areas students can apply this tool, science and social studies can also be taught and extended using the features mentioned above.


 * Classroom Idea: ** My students are currently publishing their personal narratives and the Webspiration site has wonderful tools and ideas for working on personal narratives from start to finish, so I thought I would share this example. This example shows how to use Webspiration throughout a number of writing lesson sessions to work through the entire writing process.

Students can brainstorm using the RapidFire tool in //The Jumpstart Your Narrative Writing// template provided by Webspiration. They can modify this template as they develop their own ideas for the drafting process. Students can continue to work in the template or use the outline tool button to change their diagram into an outline where they can further add details. During the prewriting and drafting phases, students can collaborate and provide feedback to one another through tabs labeled: collaborate and comment on the right side of the screen. Students and the teacher can share with one another using these tools. Finally, to finish revising, editing, and publishing, students can download their work to Microsoft Word or Google Docs, possibly even a wiki.   Another way students can use this software application is using it on laptops during science experiments. While working in a group to complete an experiment, students could map out each of the steps of the scientific method and how the steps are used in the current experiment they are working on. This will show the teacher that they understand the steps of the scientific method as well as that the students are conscious of the steps as they're working through the experiment.   In a history lesson, students could map out a timeline or web for the causes of the American Revolution in cooperative learning groups.  The suggestions above are just a few of the many ways this software application can be utilized in the classroom setting. This is a great classroom tool to keep students focused, organized, and engaged during the writing process. Also, since it can be accessed anywhere, students who are absent, on vacation, or behind on their work at school can work at home or while they're away to stay on track with their classmates. Parents can also see what the students are working on at school. Below is a screen shot of a sample diagram for a personal narrative //(taken from the Webspiration website)://   You can see that students can modify this template to meet their needs, as well as use the collaborate, comment, and chat buttons to the right hand side of the screen. This is just one of the many templates available for students to modify and adapt!