Attend this session at IETC and/or IL-TCE and learn about a myriad of online resources that are absolutely FREE! We will move through each resource quickly during the presentation, but links to all the sites we will discuss are listed below, so you may go back to learn about each one in more depth. Some of these tools you can use in your classroom immediately, while others are tools you may just “play” with for personal use. Most importantly, they are all fantastic, fun and FREE! The content will be different at IETC and IL-TCE, so feel free to attend both!
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Multimedia and Presentation Production
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Animoto - Create cool videos with just pictures and a song. This online web application does most of the work!
Screencast-O-Matic, Free Screencast, Jing & Wink - Not just a screen capture - a VIDEO screen capture! Helpful when demonstrating how to do something on the computer. Captures everything you do and creates a video. Wink, Jing and Free Screencast require you to download and install software, but Free Screencast allows you to store your screencasts on their server, embed them, share them, etc. Screencast-O-Matic is an online program that you can use anywhere.
Zoho, Google Presentations and PreZentit - These are great alternatives to PowerPoint and are absolutely free. Plus, since these applications are web-based, they allow for multiple users to access them, thus providing a perfect opportunity for collaboration. As PreZentit says, "Create, share and show your presentations online." NOTE: There are a ton of online presentation sites. Check out this article Forget PowerPoint: 13 Online Presentation Apps.
Presentations ETC - Free presentation resources for students and teachers. Lots of PowerPoint and Keynote templates.
VoiceThread - Voice Thread allows you to have an asynchronous group conversation around images, documents and videos. Take a look at the Voice Thread, "What's a VoiceThread Anyway?" for more info.
Gabcast & GCast - Podcast using your telephone. An easy way to get the reluctant podcaster started.
Tuxpaint - This program, which you download and install on your local hard drive, is basically a free version of KidPix.
Bookr - Bookr is an tool that allows you to create online books using Flickr images.
DaftDoggy - This tool allows you to quickly and easily record your voice online. It immediately provides a link that you can share or embed. |
Animoto
Screencast Software
Zoho, Google Presentations and PreZentit
Presentations ETC - When your students are getting sick of the same old templates, have them check this out. The Edcuational Technology Clearninghouse (ETC) not only has presentations tools. Check out their home page for TONS of great FREE stuff!
VoiceThread Samples
Gabcast & GCast
Scrapblog - Take a look at this excellent example of using Scrapblog in education. And below are sample projects that some of our French students did using Scrapblog: (Thanks, Beth Cummo for sharing these with us!)
TuxPaint - Look at all the features of TuxPaint! Just about anything you used to do with KidPix, you can now do for FREE with TuxPaint (and more)!
DaftDoggy - This is another GREAT tool for a simple podcast. It is similar to Gabcast & GCast, but you can use this without having an account, and as far as I know there is no limit to how much you can record; however, you do need to have tools to be able to record on your computer instead of using a telephone. |
Resource |
Description |
Uses in Education or Otherwise |
Media Converters |
Convert Tube - Download YouTube (or other videos in flx format, such as Yahoo videos) to your hard drive.
Zamzar - Allows you to convert MANY types of files. You are e-mailed when the conversion is complete and then follow a link to download the converted file.
Media-Convert - Similar to Zamzar, but you don't have to wait to be e-mailed when the conversion is complete. It is completed while you wait and is then available for download immediately. |
Uses for file conversion:
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Description |
Uses in Education or Otherwise |
File Storage and Transfer Tools (managing large files) |
File Storage/Transfering - All of these services allow you to share large files (100MB or more) with others, without having to send them via e-mail. Filedropper is my new favorite; it allows you to share files up to 5GB in size. Wow! |
Sharing large files: With the increase in multimedia projects, it's hard to share them with friends and family. These tools allow you to upload a large file (or multiple files - especisally with Drop.io) and then send a PRIVATE link to another individual to pick it up.
Some of these sites limit your daily use, file size, etc., so keep all of these links handy, as you may have to use more than one of them in a day. |
Resource |
Description |
Uses in Education or Otherwise |
Search Engines |
SortFix - Unique way of searching online. Allows users to drag keywords to and from the search terms. Great for your visual learners.
Skreemr - MP3 search engine. Copyright concerns here.
Songza - Another music search engine. Files not downloadable, but you may listen to them.
Soundsnap- Sounds effects and loops that you can listen to and download in mp3 or wav files.
ViewFour and Searchme - Visual search engine. Results show a large thumbnail of the page. (Searchme is a little "fancier!")
Quotiki - A quotation search engine. |
Sortfix - I use this search engine for students who are visual learners. Also, it gets all kids thinking about possible search terms for narrowing down their search in order to find the informatio they need.
Skreemr - Depending on copyright issues, it's an easy way to find MP3s that may be needed for multimedia projects.
Songza - This site allows you to purchase songs, but it also allows you to listen to the full version of a song you find online. Studying apartheid? Search for the Peter Gabriel song "Biko" and play it for students. Have them write what it means to them.
ViewFour and Searchme - Great for visual learners. Also good for your ESL/ELL kids. Plus, it helps to have a thumbnail of a website before clicking on it, especially if you forgot to bookmark something but sort of remember what it looked like!
Quotiki - When I taught language arts and reading years ago, I used to start each day with a "Quote of the Day." I wish Quotiki was around back then. Example: we do a lot of character education in our district. Here's a great quote from Abe Lincoln, "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." Could stimulate some great conversation amongst your students. |
Resource |
Description |
Uses in Education or Otherwise |
Communication and Collaboration Tools |
Voz Me - Convert text to an mp3 file. Great for students with special needs.
Ustream - Have your own TV channel! Stream classroom activities live or archive them.
ToxBox and Vawkr - VERY easy ways to do a videoconference.
Gaggle - This started out (over 10 year ago) as a safe, filtered e-mail product for students. Now, they have added so many more tools, such as storage locker, chat, message boards, etc. It is completely CIPA compliant and completely free. And, they have an ad-free subscription that is very reasonable. Gaggle is also eligible for E-Rate funding.
Wikis - What is a wiki? It's a webpage that anyone can edit. Wiki means "quick" in Hawaiian.
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Voz Me
Ustream - Below are cool classroom/education samples:
ToxBox and Vawkr
Gaggle
Wikis
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Resource
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Description
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Uses in Education or Otherwise |
Photo Editing
ONLINE TOOLS:
STAND ALONE, DOWNLOADABLE APPLICATIONS: |
Online Tools - Online photo editors allow you to do just that...edit photos online. Some, such as Splashup, allow you to do advanced editing, while others, such as Snip Shot and Flikr Toys only allow you to do quickie edits and image manipulation.
Stand-Alone/Downloadable Applications - These allow you to download and install programs onto your computer. Most of these have more advanced features than the online tools, and you have the advantage of not having to worry about the internet going down, upload/download time, etc. |
Free Photo Editing
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Resource |
Description |
Uses in Education or Otherwise |
Office Productivity Tools: (i.e., Microsoft Office Alternatives)
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Your Draft - Work collaboratively on a word processing document. The best part about using this with students is that no registration is required.
Google Docs, Zoho and Think Free Office - These are online suites of applications similar to Microsoft Office. Zoho seems to add a new tool every week!
Open Office and NeoOffice - Downloadable productivity suites. They are basically Microsoft Office but for free! Another free office suite is KOffice, but I have not used it, so I can not attest to the quality of this product. If you have used this, please share your thoughts with us! |
Your Draft
Google Docs, Zoho and Think Free Office
Open Office and NeoOffice
Feel free to download a Microsoft Office Alternatives handout I made for my students at the start of the year. |
Resource |
Description |
Uses in Education or Otherwise |
Miscellaneous Tools |
CircaVie, Dipity - Create and share timelines online
Doodle - Schedule an event such as a board meeting, business lunch, conference call, family reunion, movie night, or any other group event. Or make a group choice such as what movie to see, dinner menus, travel destinations, or anything else.
Snip URL - Make long URLs shorter. There are lots of sites like this out there, but this one (if you register) allows you to specify the end of your URL instead of getting a random string of characters.
Weebly - Easy-to-use web creation tool. Allows student to focus on the content of their website instead of the technology. Webnode is another online web page development tool. It looks cool, but I haven't had enough time to play with it yet.
Engrade - FREE online gradebook. Easily allow parents to check students' grades, homework, classroom calendar, etc. online.
KoolWire - Easily convert almost any type of document into a PDF by just e-mailing it to pdf@koolwire.com. Your PDF will be e-mailed back to you.
Stretching Your Tech Budget - AWESOME list offree resources from Susan Sheahan and Laurie Jacob in Champain Dist 4 who presented at IETC.
Comiqs - Create and share comic stories. This online tool is very much like Comic Life, for those of you who have used it, with less features. In my opinion, less features means more focus on content! |
Timeline Tools
Doodle - Good for school or classroom polls.
Snip URL - Good way to share long URLs with your staff and/or students.
Weebly
Engrade
KoolWire
Comiqs
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Resource |
Description |
Uses in Education or Otherwise |
Just for Fun! |
Juke Pix - Easily put someone else's face onto someone else's body. Lots of fun can be had with this!
Bubblesnaps - Make an e-card out of a photo and speech bubble.
Go2Web20 - HUGE directory of new Web2.0 websites that come out every day. I'm finding the majority fall under the "Just for Fun" category, but there are a lot of great ones that can be used with students as well.
Fuzzmail - Fuzzmail records the act of writing and lets you send it as an email. Dynamic changes, typoes, pauses and writeovers are captured and communicated.
Free Magic Tricks - This is just a list of how to do a bunch of magic tricks. Great to use as a reward for when students follow instructions!
You Don't Know Jack! - I just had to add this one because it was one of my favorite games when it first came out on CD-ROM. Now you can play completely online!
Mag My Pic - Make a magazine cover out of your photos. |
Hmm...not much educational value here, but these tools are a lot of fun!
However, keep an eye open when visiting Go2Web20...sometimes you can get some good educational "gems" from there. But, there are a lot of dating, real estate, business, etc. sites listed, so search using the "education" tag for more appropriate sites. |
Kerpoof -- "You can be the artist in Super Doodle. Paint, choose and mix colors and more." (Kim Hauman)