Audacity
Audacity is a free, on-line, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Students can use audacity for many different projects in the classroom. The Possibilities are endless.
Blabberize
Got a picture? Use it! Blabberize can be used to bring pictures to life; give characters in a book a voice, bring someone in history back for a moment, shed some light on the thoughts of those in a famous or not so famous work of art, or to make vocabulary more fun. Again, the possibilities are endless.
Fotobabble
Fotobabble can be used in any discipline and it is so simple. Fotobabble is different from Blabberize. I have linked you to a youtube video for Fotobabble in Math. Students could use Fotobabble to explain their thought process with any content; this would also work great for students that have difficulty getting their answers down on paper, but can tell you in great detail orally. I believe this could be a wonderful assessment tool when utilized as a means of differention to meet the needs of students whom have difficulty expressing them self on paper.
Jing
Do you remember the 'old days' of control print screen? That was so yesterday. Jing allows you to screenshot and screencast videos instantly. You can email your images and/or videos or you can add them to blogs and websites. Here is a link to one of mine: The Digital Generation
Penzu
If you are tired of carrying home crates of journals and your students are tired of waiting on you to return their journal or they are afraid to really reflect out of fear that someone may read their 'true' thoughts/feelings; then this is the tool for you. Penzu is an online journal that you and your students can access from anywhere at anytime, from any device and the teacher can give feedback/respond to students in half the time of traditional journal writing.
Scribble Maps
I call this 'Google Maps Gone Wild'. Students will love it and the teaching possiblities are endless. Students can write on maps, trace routes, label maps, figure distance, determine the best route, compare and contrast routes.......
Visual Thesaurus
Love, Love, Love this site!! Give students a whole new way to think about and connect words. Make word maps, see how words in certain text are related... The Jing video above is a sample of word webs I have created from some research on the digital generation. Visual Thesaurus gives a word of the day and they have a vocabulary grabber feature for educators looking for that all essentail vocabulary that needs to be taught out of the text.
More of my favorites:
Educreations -allows you to turn an iPad into an interactive whiteboard where you or your students can create, record, and share interactive lessons. Explain math problems, animate a story, diagram a play...
EverNote -we are all familiar with EverNote, but the possibilities for usage in the classroom go beyond our thinking. Evernote can be paired with Educareations to create Eportfolios for students. EverNote is available in an App version or in a web version, evernote allows you to share notebooks. Here is a sample of a teacher viewing a student's notebook.
Sync Pad -syncpad allows you to turn any moble device, laptop, or PC into a virtual whiteboard for real-time collaboration. Real-time, remote collaboration, made easy.
Honorable Mentions:
Linoit -an online buletin board where you can create and share stickies as reminders for all your important classroom deadlines, due dates, reminders.... You can attach files to stickies, you can embed videos to your stickies--both of these options are great features to assist with long term projects so that family members can have access to materials to assist students who may need extra help with studies at home. It is also available via mobile devices for those students whom only have access to hand-held devices as opposed to PC's (another plus). This is another tool that allows you to show ways that you are providing supports to students. Linoit is great for hosting reviews with students too. As the teacher you post a question on a stickie to the review board and then students post their responses to the board on stickies; instead of having a traditional review where students forget what has been reviewed once they travel to another class with Linoit they have an archive of the review session that they can refer to over and over again.
Notability -unleash your note taking ability. Have you ever been some where and had an awesome idea for a lesson, but didn't have anything to write it down on? Happens to me all the time, with the notability App linked to my Dropbox those days are over. Notability isn't just for teachers though, notability can be for our students as well. Notability even allows for collaborative note taking in realtime.
Screencast-o-matic & ScreenR -both of these sites allow teachers and students to create instant tutorials. Teachers can create tutorials for students who are absent or who may need extra assistance with material--promoting self-paced learning. Students can create tutorials as a means of showing mastery of a subject or to share their knowledge of the content. Another benefit is paperless grading, if you are like me and you spend quite a bit of time providing thoughtful reflection on students work only to find it in the floor then you will like knowing that students are more apt to view a video reflection from their teacher than to read the written reflection.
Screenleap - So, have you ever been at home and received a call from a student needing help on a project only to feel just as helpless as they do because you can not see exactly where they are stuck and what is going on--on there end of the line. Well, I have and Screenleap is the solution. Screenleap allows you to share your computer screen with others in a matter of seconds; it is simple, free, and it does not require you to set-up an account.
ThreeRing -gives teachers the ability to house artifacts for those all important standards. The ease of ThreeRing is amazing; all you have to do is take a picture of a paper, drawing, boardwork, or text and ThreeRing will store it chronologically in your personal ThreeRing binder; you can also record presentations with the audio and video features. ThreeRing is free for teachers. Students can even upload their own work to ThreeRing from any mobil device or computer.
EverNote -we are all familiar with EverNote, but the possibilities for usage in the classroom go beyond our thinking. Evernote can be paired with Educareations to create Eportfolios for students. EverNote is available in an App version or in a web version, evernote allows you to share notebooks. Here is a sample of a teacher viewing a student's notebook.
Sync Pad -syncpad allows you to turn any moble device, laptop, or PC into a virtual whiteboard for real-time collaboration. Real-time, remote collaboration, made easy.
Honorable Mentions:
Linoit -an online buletin board where you can create and share stickies as reminders for all your important classroom deadlines, due dates, reminders.... You can attach files to stickies, you can embed videos to your stickies--both of these options are great features to assist with long term projects so that family members can have access to materials to assist students who may need extra help with studies at home. It is also available via mobile devices for those students whom only have access to hand-held devices as opposed to PC's (another plus). This is another tool that allows you to show ways that you are providing supports to students. Linoit is great for hosting reviews with students too. As the teacher you post a question on a stickie to the review board and then students post their responses to the board on stickies; instead of having a traditional review where students forget what has been reviewed once they travel to another class with Linoit they have an archive of the review session that they can refer to over and over again.
Notability -unleash your note taking ability. Have you ever been some where and had an awesome idea for a lesson, but didn't have anything to write it down on? Happens to me all the time, with the notability App linked to my Dropbox those days are over. Notability isn't just for teachers though, notability can be for our students as well. Notability even allows for collaborative note taking in realtime.
Screencast-o-matic & ScreenR -both of these sites allow teachers and students to create instant tutorials. Teachers can create tutorials for students who are absent or who may need extra assistance with material--promoting self-paced learning. Students can create tutorials as a means of showing mastery of a subject or to share their knowledge of the content. Another benefit is paperless grading, if you are like me and you spend quite a bit of time providing thoughtful reflection on students work only to find it in the floor then you will like knowing that students are more apt to view a video reflection from their teacher than to read the written reflection.
Screenleap - So, have you ever been at home and received a call from a student needing help on a project only to feel just as helpless as they do because you can not see exactly where they are stuck and what is going on--on there end of the line. Well, I have and Screenleap is the solution. Screenleap allows you to share your computer screen with others in a matter of seconds; it is simple, free, and it does not require you to set-up an account.
ThreeRing -gives teachers the ability to house artifacts for those all important standards. The ease of ThreeRing is amazing; all you have to do is take a picture of a paper, drawing, boardwork, or text and ThreeRing will store it chronologically in your personal ThreeRing binder; you can also record presentations with the audio and video features. ThreeRing is free for teachers. Students can even upload their own work to ThreeRing from any mobil device or computer.