There are so many tools that students can use – so I guess we have to start somewhere! Here are a list of tools that students should have the opportunity to learn to use effectively in the digital world of learning. It’s important to choose the education version where it’s available, in order to get ad-free versions of the online tools. Do you need convincing that that there’s a big world out there? Check out Go2Web20 – the complete Web 2.0 directory.
Top student resources
Wikispaces Wiki – A flexible ad-free wiki – not very visually appealing, but used a lot! Actually very customisable. Examples to visit can be found at Educational Wikis
http://www.wordpress.com - get your own blog here.
http://www.21classes.com/ – or here!
http://edublogs.org/ – or here!
http://www.tumblr.com/ – the easiest way of all to share information.
http://posterous.com/ – the fastest way of all to blog, mulitipost … and more via email
http://www.flickr.com – free image hosting – be ready to share and embed your images into your blogs and wikis.
http://www.photobucket.com – upload your images and video files for free.
FlickrCC – the nicest source of Creative Commons images from Flickr! link back to the source.
http://www.soundzabound.com/ – Soundzabound is the ONLY royalty free music library which meets all the licensing and technology requirements needed for education!
http://www.gliffy.com/ – easily create flowcharts, diagrams, floor plans, technical drawings, and more!
http://www.slideshare.net – never loose a presentation again and add your voice commentary as well!
http://voicethread.com/#home – an online media album that allows people to make comments, either audio or text, and share them with anyone they wish. Open your VoiceThread account. Then go to upgrade the account – Go Pro! Be sure to look for K-12 Educators click here! because that will get you the free account.
http://www.glogster.com/edu/ – create interactive, hyperlinked, embeddable posters!
http://a.viary.com/tools – a collection of online tools to do a massive range of creative things.
http://animoto.com/education – unlimited videos for you and your students, where your video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music.
http://classtools.net/ – allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge!
http://www.edmodo.com/ – Edmodo is a private micro-blogging platform for education.
http://www.flauntr.com/ – your chance to do great stuff with your photos!
http://www.zoho.com - Zoho is like office, but free, online and interactive.
http://www.google.com/notebook/ – Google Notebook – Clip and collect information as you browse the web
http://docs.google.com/ - Google Docs & Spreadsheats – Create, store and share documents and spreadsheets on the web
http://www.vodpod.com – search for online videos (YouTube, MySpace, Google etc). Create an account, keep them for yourself, or link them to you BLOG.
http://del.icio.us/ – forget saving bookmarks on your computer – go online and share!
http://www.mindomo.com – mindmapping and project planning tool. Files you create can be shared and developed collaboratively online.
http://mywebspiration.com/ – if you are familiar with Inspiration, then you will love this mind-mapping tool online. Adds online collaboration and chat to a much loved interface.
http://www.mindmeister.com/ – another wonderful online tool for mindmapping, brainstorming, revision, collaborative thinking and more.
http://www.bubbl.us/index – a simple and free web application that lets you brainstorm online.
http://gickr.com/ – create Animated GIF online, free, right now! Create fun slideshows. No need for flash.
http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil/ – Pencil – It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics.
http://fileurls.com/ – this is grand – 250MB file sharing, with time limit and password protection.
http://creativecommons.org - COPYRIGHT info that students need to know. Share, remix and reuse legally!!
Hi,
Great post. I will definitely bookmark it for future use. There are some new ones here that I will look to check out.
I think http://simplybox.com/ would also be worth adding to this list. I blogged about it recently and found it had a lot of potential.
Hey, Jude!
As we know, any list that is published like this is only as comprehensive as the list maker, and it also reflects the listmaker’s experiences and preferences. I am glad you have people adding to it in the comments–will you also add those suggestions as an addendum to the list, or do ppl have to read all of the comments to see them?
I’d suggest checking out edmodo for blogging in a safe environment. Would Google earth fit in this list, or not, since it’s not a web site?
Thanks for sharing. . great impetus for thinking and sharing!
Thankyou for your comprehensive website of tools for bloggers!! I took several TERRIFIC ideas from here. Often I see educators ovewhelmed by the web tools available to them and unable to see the practical application or the methods to tie those tools into classroom instruction.
I’ve blogged a couple of specific instructional strategies tied to Literature Circles for using tools like bubbl.us (mindmapping), toondoo, wikispaces. Feel free to share/comment/or check it out at: http://yoursmarticles.blogspot.com/2009/04/wiki-lesson-for-literature-circles.html
Hi Judy-
Have you ever seen Microsoft Office Live Workspace in action in an educational setting? A student can use it to manage notes, class schedules, or even essay development. Teachers like it because it allows them to post syllabi for their students to view from any computer with an internet connection, or manage multiple drafts of a project that his or her class is working on. If you find a free moment take a look at what can be done with Office Live Workspace here: http://workspace.officelive.com/Examples
Best,
Jeff
Office Live Outreach Team
Hi Jude
Would you know of a 23 things program for brand new internet users? Ones that aren’t even familiar with Web 1.0 but want to be?
My mom and some of her friends want to learn more about managing their computers, how to attach a file to an email, how to transfer files via a USB device, how to make files small enough to send via email, using email, how to research scams and hoaxes, how to identify safe sites to buy from and join, how to log into a secured web site, etc. They’re not interested in creating content yet — they just want to know how to use what’s out there.
Cheers
KerryJ
Wow, this is an interesting question! It’s something we could do with for lots of teachers – as the usual 23Things type programs (I’ve just checked out heaps of them) don’t cover the basics you’re talking about. Hmm, thinking cap time.
I have recently created a directory of free web tools for teachers to use. You will find it at http://web2educationuk.wetpaint.com
Nice list!
Another ad free wiki tool I’ve used is PBwiki (http://www.pbwiki.com). Vuvox creates some mighty fine multimedia collages (http://www.vuvox.com/), as does Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/). And there is also Picnik for photo editing (http://www.picnik.com/) and
One more easy blogging type tool that I will be introducing to my kids is posterous. You just email it in, don’t even need to muck about with the little editor.
LearnHub is another great resource for teaching and sharing knowledge. It’s a new eLearning platform where you can create, find, share resources and teach online. LearnHub has also integrated Creative Commons licensing into their platform. (yeah!)
Have a look:
http://learnhub.com/
Also, Yahoo! has a Creative Commons search:
http://search.yahoo.com/cc
Cheers!
db
Great summary. Nervously, but necessarily (noone else to do it!!), introducing some teachers to the world of blogging, podcasting, and wikis quite soon. Will point them to your neat summary list if you don’t mind.
Hi Judy,
I love this post and all your blog offerings for that matter. I have seen your slideshows and can see why your work is so highly regarded.
I will use this post as the inspiration for one of my own with just a few variations. My blog is just for reflection, although I am wanting to try to make it a little more active. Elaine