Below is a list of responses I've received so far in alphabetical order by
the name of the tool, as well as the original post. I will follow up with
a part 2 hit if I receive more hits.
Thanks to everyone who responded! This list will keep me busy for a while.
-------------------------------------
Kelly Stern
Teacher Librarian
Cedar Falls High School
Cedar Falls, Iowa
sternk@cedar-falls.k12.ia.us
--------------------------------------
Original post:
What are your favorite free online tools this year? Someone starts this
topic each year around this time, and although I keep up with my journal
reading, there are always cool tools I manage to miss somehow.
Please reply to me and I will compile and post a hit.
As for my favorite...although I started using Shelfari (online bookshelf
and social networking site for readers) in Feb. of 2008, it has become a
part of my morning routine to log in so that when students ask for book
recommendations, I can browse my shelf quickly for reminders about what
I've read recently that they would like. Two classes at my school have
Shelfari groups so that students can get recommendations from their
classmates and so that students' reviews are written for a real audience.
(I'm the lucky person who gets to introduce them to Shelfari in the
library.)
Available at www.shelfari.com.
--------------------------------------------------
Your responses so far:
I love the American Memory section from the LOC (really just about anything
on LOC, especially their marc records!)
Animoto is just fun!
Bighugelabs.com is great.
classchatter.com. We use the free version. Our chemistry teacher paid the
$30 fee and has many of his classes set up on this and has a "virtual"
classroom for his students. Our ACT scores showed that he's doing something
right as the science scores were higher this year than in previous years.
We
were introduced to this during a professional development day. I really
haven't used it much, but plan on doing so next year.
Delicious and Diigo - social bookmarking
Dipity: this online timeline tool has been used in a number of our history
classes this year.
[ http://www.foxmarks.com ]www.foxmarks.com. You can install on any
computer and it stores and synchronizes all of your
bookmarks. (Many of the others are blocked here at school.)
Google Docs We do lots of our work online now - it's great for meeting
agendas, for collaborative lesson planning, and best, for collaborative
student work. It has swept through the school like fire in the last 3-4
months, to the point that faculty gets upset when information isn't posted
through a Google Doc.
I created an iGoogle page that I rely on.
Imagechef.com – great animated stuff to put on webpages and wikis.
LightUpYourBrain.com.~ This online tool provides audiobooks for a variety
of stories.~ For example, I could download the audio for Snow White, as
well as listen as I read along.~ This tool offers activities as well that
go hand in hand with the literature.~ During my lesson on story variants,
this tool was extremely helpful.~
LM_NET is still unparalleled.
Lulu.com and tikatok.com for self publishing
Am finding Nings that support my teachers ([ http://www.ning.com
]www.ning.com You can create or join an online community here with
discussion boards, groups-within-groups, places to share audio, video, and
images, etc.)
[ http://www.only2clicks.com ]http://www.only2clicks.com
Picasa for working on photos
www.picnik.com for photo editing.
RSS feed - I am linked to feeds from folks I admire - Joyce Valenza, DEN
tech folks, ~~~~~~~~~~ The Librarian in Black, etc. - learning tons
Here's a site that's great for making free online tutorials:
[ http://www.screentoaster.com/ ]http://www.screentoaster.com/
Second Life
Skype
Slideshare.net - to share slideshows with folks across the country with a
volunteer organization I work with.
[ http://www.stumbleupon.com ]http://www.stumbleupon.com
TeacherTube and YouTube (YouTube is blocked at school, but I can download
what I need from home and use at school.
www.toondoo.com is my absolute favorite for the year. It allows you to
make your own comics and books. We had a class in earlier in the year
using it to re-tell short
stories.
Doing 3 different 23 Things lists this summer to learn more. (Google 23
Things for various sites.)
Twitter - learning tons of techie stuff, library info and following
authors just for interest
Wordle.com – cloud pictures of text.
YouTube video explanations by Common Craft
[ http://www.zamzar.com/ ]Zamzar: A free online file conversion site.
Zotero: great for tracking and annotating research websites. I'm not a fan
of Diigo (that toolbar makes me crazy, though I like the highlighting); I
do like WebNotes but the Pro (paid) version has all the cool stuff. Zotero
I can teach quickly and the kids get it right away.
And sites we like for our own personal use:
FaceBook is purely for me socially - have found friends I lost track of.
One of my favorites is just for me, but others may find it interesting:
www.passpack.com. This is a site where you can keep track of all of your
accounts, user names, passwords, etc. You can even tag them. Just make sure
when you type in the packing phrase that you don't forget it or else you
will have to have them delete the account and start over again. I had to do
so when I first started; however, since I had only added one account and
site, it was okay. I can't remember if someone on this list first mentioned
this or if I picked up on it somewhere else.
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