Tools Teachers can use

 

List your favorites here with a brief annotation. Please add your comments about the ones you know. The password is: library

 

Finding Out

• Find out about lots of stuff at PCWorlds top lists. At: http://www.pcworld.com/article/146161-12/the_100_best_products_of_2008.html

 

Concept mapping

 

• CMap at: http://cmap.ihmc.us/ is a concept mapping tool that several people can be editing at the same time. You can also take a central map and have every kid create an individual one using the central copy. As you know, this has the advantage of multiple editors in contrast to Inspiration where only one person can be editing at a time.
• Bubble.us allsows easy brainstorming. At: http://bubbl.us/
• Gliffy allows for the creation of flowcharts. At: http://www.gliffy.com/
• Freemind is concpet mapping software. To download it, you have to go to Wikipedia at: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download
• For a list of other concpet mapping software both paid and free, go to Wikipedia. At:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concept_mapping_software and at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mind_mapping_software

 

Wikis

•  PBwiki at http://pbwiki.com is familiar to us all.
• Good article about wikis. At: http://www.iterating.com/productclasses/Wiki-Engines

 

 

World processing

• Google Docs has three sections at the moment: Documents that can be edited by many but only one person at a time; Spreadsheets that can be edited by a group at the same time; Presentations that can be edited by a group but one person at a time.
• Zoho Docs, Sheet (spreadsheet) and Show (slide show) rival Microsoft in their ease of use. Users can share and edit to work collaboratively. Zoho also features a notebook, similar to the extinct Google Notebook that can be shared with others.
• Adobe Buzzword is a beta online  collaborative word processor. It allows you to export in several formats including pdf.

 

Spreadsheets

• Google Spreadsheets as a part of Google Docs
• Zoho Sheet is part of the Zoho suite.

 

 

Presentations like PowerPoint

• Google Presentation as a part of Google Docs
• Slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/ "SlideShare is the best way to share your presentations with the world. Let your ideas reach a broad audience. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to create a webinar. Take a quick tour or start uploading now!" There are hundreds of presentations logged here that can be searched by topic. There is a fee to watch but this is one way to get your shingle out.
• Screencast-o-matic allows you to turn screen captures into a video presentation. At: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/
• Freesoun Project has sound effects and music that can be used in backgrounds. At: http://www.freesound.org/
• Sony Acid Express. Download songs for videos.. At: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/acidxpress
• Freeplay Music has downloadable music for presentations. At: http://freeplaymusic.com/
• Sounddogs has sound effecgts for your presentation. At: http://www.sounddogs.com/
• Mixwit will help you create a presentation. At:http://www.mixwit.com/
• Author Stream is a place you can upload and share PowrPoint presentations. At: http://www.authorstream.com/
• Photopeach http://photopeach.com/ is a very quick and simple slideshow program.  "PhotoPeach helps you share your memories in a lively and vivid way by moving your photos like a video with your choice of background music, captions on each photo, fun effects, and more." Its main draw is its ease of use.  A good elementary school tool to get kids started doing their own slideshows.
• Use Animoto www.animoto.com  (offers a free account for educators and any students associated with those educators. Look for the For Educators section to get started) to create flash driven slideshows with mucic and text incorportated.
• Prezi.com creates dynamic flash driven presentations that present information in a way unlike PowerPoint.  Prezi allows the viewer, not the presenter, to determine how the information will be viewed.  The presentation is organized on a "tabletop" grid and can be ordered by the creator, but also manipulated by the viewer. Text, documents, images and video can all easily be incorporated.
• Zoho Show is part of the Zoho suite of applications that educators and students can use collaboratively.

 

Online Meetings

• Dim Dim at: http://dimdim.com now has unlimited users in its meeting softward. It has a paid version that is better.
• Skype at: http://skype.com where up to five can talk on a conference call.
• Acrobat.com: see review at: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=979550 is free but can only have three people in a meeting at any one time.
• Elluminate has a free three-person online meeting service. At: http://www.elluminate.com/

 

Website Creators

• Weebly  at: http://www.weebly.com/ is a free website creator and free blog creator

 

Email

• Think.com at http://www.think.com/en/  provides email and other features and is popular in Austrailia. I could not determine quickly whether it is affordable.

 

Bookmarking

• Diigo is a Social bookmarking website which allows signed users to bookmark and tag web-pages. More exclusively, it allows users to highlight any part of a webpage and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or to a whole page
• del.icio.us is the most popular bookmarking took that allows one to keep control over and share web sites, tools, etc. at http://del.icio.us/
• SimplyBox gives you the option to capture screens, webpages, or just a section of the screen. You then have the option to add comments, or send an item as an email.  Teachers can set up classes so students can share websites with teachers and vice versa. Users need to install a toolbar (or you can install an abbreviated version - just an icon) to use when you want to grab web content.
• Evernote allows you to  capture information using whatever device or platform you find most convenient. You can search and share your notebooks. 

 

Blogs

• Here is an example of good collaborative space use: http:// www.alatechsource.org/blog/2008/06/uncommon.html
• Blogger (Blogspot) is part of the Google family
• Word press at http://wordpress.com/ is a bit more sophisticated than Blogspot
• Cover It Live provides an easy way for students or adults to blog live adding pictures and other stuff to the blog. At:http://www.coveritlive.com/
• A free tutorial on blogging by CSLA including practice with 23 tools is available at http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/

 

 

Chats

• Chatsy is a chat room that allows only invited guests. At:http://www.chatzy.com/

 

 

Other Stuff:

• Comiclife at: http://plasq.com/comiclife/ has a free version that allows the creation of comics and graphic novels. Just think of the possibilities for writing and sharing.  It is for the Mac. Not sure if there is a pc version.
• "Game Maker's primary development interface uses a drag-and-drop system, allowing users unfamiliar with traditional programming to intuitively create games by visually organizing icons on the screen. Game Maker comes with a set of standard action libraries, covering such things as movement, basic drawing, and simple control structures. To extend the drag-and-drop functionality of Game Maker, users can use custom-built action libraries to add new actions (drag-and-drop command icons) to their games. These can be created (generally by more advanced users) using the official special library builder tool." Quote from Wikipedia
• Voice to Text software to help anyone needing that assistance. At: http://jott.com/
• Jing does screden captures and records videos. At: http://www.jingproject.com/
• Create a beautiful word cloud at http://wordle.net/
• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1875 Allows you to add post-id like notes to web page to help organize your thoughts. It is an add on for Firefox

• http://www.joesgoals.com/A simple and free  site that allows you to manage your time spatially in chart form.

  http://springnote.com/enThis free site is “based on a wiki” but in note form. It can be personal or integrated in to group form. It is a good way to keep track and format notes.

• Zamzar.com is a great conversion site…it allows you to plug in the YouTube URL and then select the type of file you want to convert it to.

• Sending quick invitations: evite.com

 

Podcasting

• Voki at: http://www.voki.com/ allows the creation of podcasting with fun avatars talking.
• Voicethread at: http://voicethread.com/#home allows the creation of podcasting.
• Audacity is a great place to create and edit soundtracks. At: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
• PodOMatic softwared to create music with lots of free music. At: http://www.podomatic.com/
• Gcast helps you create a podcast. At: http://www.gcast.com/?nr=1&&s=56998528

 

Programming

• Alice at http://www.alice.org teaches students how to do computer programming in a 3D environment.

 

 

Drawing

• TuxPaint at:http://www.alice.org  is an open source drawing program for kids.

 

 

Open Source

• News of the open source movement is at: http://opensource.org/
• Open Office is a suite of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software at very low cost. at: http://www.openoffice.org/
• OpenDisc is a source of open sourcde software for the PC. At: http://theopendisc.com/
• Open content curriculum resources can be found at Open Educational Resources Commons at http://www.oercommons.org/
• Math open content curriculum available at Math Open Reference: http://www.mathopenref.com/
• Early Literacy/reading intervention curriculum sources for K-3 at FreeReading: http://free-reading.net/index.php?title=Main_Page

   

 

 

Reference Questions

• Ask a reference question and the answer will be text messaged to your phone. Chacha.com at: https://www.chacha.com/

 

 

Video

• Teachertube is a great place to upload teacher and student video that teach something. http://www.teachertube.com/index.php
• Ustream is another open place to upload videos. Not my favorite. http://www.ustream.tv/
• Vimeo allows for the creation of videos to upload to the popularbraoadcasts. http://www.vimeo.com/
• Jing does screen captures and records videos. http://www.jingproject.com/
• Kaltura is an open source collaborative video creator. Videos can be embedded in wikis or web pages. http://corp.kaltura.com/

 

Software Distribution

• Eduforge allows for the distribution of free software https://eduforge.org/

 

Music Videos

• A N I M O T O is software to create music videos. http://animoto.com/

 

 

State Standards

• Standards Toolbox allows you to find standards and store lessons, etc. for teachers. http://www.standardstoolbox.com/

 

 

Global Projects

• Taking It Global allows a class or group to connect across the world on worthwhile projects. http://www.takingitglobal.org/
• Kiva is a way for students and community members to invest and make small loans to persons in third world countries. http://kiva.org/

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