Cool Tools for Educators

1. Two tools for file sharing and collaboration:

Google Docs &

http://drop.io/

2. Scribblar: a free, simple service designed for

creative, real-time collaboration.

http://www.scribblar.com/

3.

WallWisher

: A wall is basically the 'web page'

where people actually post messages.

http://www.wallwisher.com/

1.

Issuu

: Issuu is a web-based digital publishing

platform. Users can create digital editions

such as magazines, books, catalogs, reports,

and more simply by uploading their

publications.

http://issuu.com/

2.

Lulu:

Lulu has helped change the world of

publishing by empowering authors to

publish their work themselves for free with

complete editorial and copyright control.

UsiLulu’s

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tools, authors

format and upload digital content.

Lulu’s

80/20-revenue split empowers authors to

profit from their

work.

http://www.lulu.com

1.

Custom Guide:

Great free quick reference user guides for Microsoft Office applications (PC &

Mac), Adobe products, and other software.

http://www.customguide.com/quick_references.htm

2.

Academic Earth:

Founded to provide a user-friendly educational ecosystem that will give internet

users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses

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3.

TED

: TED is a small nonprofit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading". It started out (in 1984) as a

conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

http://www.ted.com/

4.

ForaTV:

A collection of unmediated videos drawn from live events, lectures, and debates going on

all the time at the world's top universities, think tanks and conferences. ForaTV presents big-idea

content for anyone to watch, interact with, and share.

http://fora.tv/

5.

Edutopia:

George Lucas Foundation site that contains a deep archive of continually updated best

practices, from classroom tips to recommendations for district wide change.

6.

Teacher Training Videos

: This site actually has some interesting help videos on technology and

instructional topics.

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/

7.

Common Craft Videos:

Short and simple videos using paper cutouts to explain a variety of

concepts, technologies, and topics.

http://www.commoncraft.com/videos

1.

GlogsterEdu

: The new Glogster Edu is hosted separately from the commercial version of Glogster

thereby eliminating links to Glogs (multimedia collages) containing questionable content hosted

the commercial version of Glogster.

http://edu.glogster.com/

2.

Go2Web20

: One stop shopping for any and every Web 2.0 tool on the web---an exhaustive list of

web applications.

http://beta.go2web20.net/

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Page 2 of 3 - Cool Tools for Educators : Lisa Cundiff - USD 261 Instructional Technology Director : lcundiff@usd261.com

1. In place of Microsoft Office, use Google Docs or Open Office

(

http://why.openoffice.org/index.html

)

2.

Aviary:

Online tool similar to Photoshop, but free!

http://aviary.com/

3. Photoshop.com: Nice tool for storing, editing and sharing images that

includes some of Photoshop's popular editing features---minus the

learning curve.

http://www.photoshop.com

1.

Digital Wish

: Digital Wish is a non-profit site that matches educators

with donors in an effort to "put technology in the hands of teachers to

inspire children and prepare today's students for

tomorrow".

http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/home

2.

Target Fieldtrip Grants

:

https://targetfieldtripgrants.target.com/

3.

Donors Choose:

Match up with donors willing to support the needs of

educators and the children they teach.

http://www.donorschoose.org/

1.

Wolfram/Alpha:

Enter your question or calculation and Wolfram|Alpha

uses its built-in algorithms and a growing collection of data to compute

the answer. The goal of this search engine's creator, Stephen Wolfram, is

to "make all systematic knowledge immediately computable".

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.h

tml

2.

ThatQuiz:

Online quizzes for math and a few other subjects.

http://www.thatquiz.org/

3.

HippoCampus

: HippoCampus is a project of the Monterey Institute for

Technology and Education (MITE). The goal of HippoCampus is to provide

high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high

school and college students free of charge.

http://www.hippocampus.org/

4. ReadWriteThink: High quality practices and resources in reading and

language arts instruction. This site has a great deal to offer.

http://www.readwritethink.org/index.asp

5.

WiZiQ:

Conduct live online classes, create and share tests, and more

using this free tool.

http://www.wiziq.com/

6.

Jenny Eather:

Jenny has created a writing site and a math site that make

me wonder why they are free. The writing site,

http://www.writingfun.com

, contains interactive writing activities and

examples and printables. The math site,

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

, is also interactive and

addresses virtually any math term students might encounter.

1.

Animoto

: An easy to use free web-based video creation service.

(Unlike PhotoStory3, video and digital images can be uploaded to

create the finished video.

http://animoto.com/

2.

KickYouTube

: To convert a YouTube video to an MP4 format, insert

"kick" in place of the "www." in the URL. Then click the green "Go"

button that appears on the right. Next, right click "Down" and select

"Save Target As".

Zamzar

Copy a YouTube URL and then go to

http://www.zamzar.com

and select the 'video' tab. Paste the URL in the designated area and

choose from a variety of converter format options. Type in your e-mail

address and a link to the video file will be e-mailed to you.

4.

Jing

: Free image & video capture tool.

http://jingproject.com/

1. Microsoft Windows Movie Maker Live: Online Movie Maker

version. (Windows 7 will not include Windows Movie Maker.)

http://download.live.com/moviemaker

2. Simple Assessment: Free technology skill assessment tool for

students and/or staff.

http://simpleassessment.com

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Page 3 of 3 - Cool Tools for Educators : Lisa Cundiff - USD 261 Instructional Technology Director : lcundiff@usd261.com

19. http://www.worksheetworks.com/