Week 5, Thing # 11

It is nice to find the "best sites" in Web 2.0 Awards. There is so much to sort through, it is a time saver to be able to go to a site like this for other sites recommended by category. I browsed through quite a few sites but looked in depth at the sites in the Visual Arts category. Colorblender is a site to "match and create cool palettes easily." While I found it intriguing to look at all the color combinations created by users of this site, I can't think of any reason to use this site in the elementary school setting. Perhaps I will revisit when I am ready to redecorate the living room. The number 2 site in the Visual Arts category  was Swivel where "data entry is entertaining and artistic." This site could be used to create data maps, charts and graphs with an artistic flair. I can see teachers and students using Swivel to create and showcase work in a variety of curricular areas, particularly math.  The third site in the Visual Arts category is VisualComplexity which "specializes in the visualization of complex networks, or data turned art." There are hundreds of projects to view with data being displayed is so many creative ways. I would like to use this site for some it's mapping opportunities. I also think that this site will help students to see that items we use every day (like maps) are also creative works of art.