Kidspiration

Kidspiration is a program that helps student organize their thoughts into a graphic organizer. It is easy to use and has images for those who beginning to read and audio that assists students to navigate their way. There is a very cool video that explains many of the cool features that are part of Kidspiration.

Kidspiration is a version of Inspiration that is designed for young students. I downloaded the 30-day free trial and had the opportunity to explore the features that Kidspiration offers. It has a "Picture Viewer," "Writing," and "Math View" options at the menu. Each of these avenues allows the student to create Kidspiration Documents that visually organize ideas. A really cool feature is that the user can go back and forth between the "Picture Viewer" and the written version of the the graph that they just made. It helps the students to connect the words with the image!

Other cool features is that in the Menu a list of activities is offered. They are organized by subject matter (science, social studies, writing & reading, math). Each subject matter has its own list of activities. These include pre-defined webs, ven diagrams, hierarchy charts, and other graphic organizers that use the "fill-in-the-bubble" method.

In every component of the program, an image toolbar is offered. Here the student can search for images. The student can also add bubbles, add arrows/connectors, change colors, create symbols, add notes, and access the word guide. The word guide gives a definition, list of synonyms, and an audio of the text.

Click here for a Jing screencast that explores Kidspiration!

Photo Attribution
Original Image: Kidspiration colors
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vandema3/4760258903/sizes/m/
By: vandema3

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/