• WallWisher - I’m really excited about this one because it is really easy to use, and I can imagine a lot of applications for this tool in your classrooms. It’s called WallWisher, and it is basically a virtual message board, but it is so much cooler than that.

• 10 Rubric Resources - In place of the Tech Tip handout this week, I have an annotated list of web resources that I have found worthwhile related to rubrics. If you are looking for new ways to generate rubrics or to find rubrics that already exist, this list can help you narrow the search.

• 15 MultiMedia Expression Tools - In place of the traditional Tech Tip worksheet, here is a list of great web-based and netbook tools that students can use to express themselves online. I developed this list for students who are working on a Senior Scrapbook-type project for the digital age. All tools are free or have free trials available.

• Comic Creator is a simple application from Read-Write-Think that allows students to create and print comic strips using some basic elements and their own imaginations. Comics can have multiple frames, backgrounds, characters, speech bubbles and props.

• Ask 500 People is a free web application designed to allow users to gather input and opinion data in a matter of minutes. Users ask a question and receive responses from other users from all over the world. The free version does not include demographic information.

• Webspiration™ combines the power of visual thinking and outlining to enhance thinking, learning and collaboration. Use Webspiration to map out ideas, organize with outlines, and collaborate online with teams or colleagues. Create concept maps, mind maps, idea webs and other powerful visual thinking models in Webspiration's Diagram View. Build organized outlines, plans and reports with Webspiration's Outline View. Webspiration unleashes your creativity, strengthens organizational skills, and transforms your ideas and information into knowledge.

• 20 Web Tools for Teaching Reading - In lieu of an actual tech tip sheet this week, I offer you 20 ideas for using web 2.0 tools to teach reading. While some of the ideas are related to literature, all of the ideas could be adjusted to fit reading in your content areas.

• Diigo (DEE-go) is a Social bookmarking website which allows users to bookmark and tag web-pages. More exclusively, it allows users to highlight any part of a webpage and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or to a whole page. These annotations can be kept private, shared with a group within Diigo or a special link forwarded to someone else. Diigo provides tagging capability as well as folders for better information organization, and group annotation for better collaboration.

• Eyeplorer is basically a search engine that draws facts about a topic into a visual display. Users can then click on the related “eyespots” to learn facts about their topics. Additionally, users can drag the facts that they find into a notebook. This is a neat creative tool that allows users to think more creatively than they do with a traditional search engine.

• iTunes U, part of the iTunes Store, is possibly the world’s greatest collection of free educational media available to students, teachers, and lifelong learners. With over 200,000 educational audio and video files available, iTunes U has quickly become the engine for the mobile learning movement.

• Timetoast allows people to create interactive timelines, which they can share anywhere on the web. Anyone can join Timetoast and start creating and sharing their own timelines, all they need is a valid email address. It's completely free!
  - Here's an example using Romeo and Juliet by Missy Feller's class at Bosse HS

• Mind 42 is a free mind map maker that allows for collaboration. Creators can invite others to help create the mind map. The individual nodes of the map can be altered in many ways including adding pictures, notes, links, and to-do lists. This program includes a very simple interface with Wikipedia and Google image search.

• Scribblar is a free, simple service designed for creative, real-time collaboration. Using Scribblar, users can collaborate on the creation and editing of images and drawings. If you have an image you can upload it to your whiteboard where you and others can edit it or comment on it. The commenting can take place directly on the whiteboard or in one of two side bar chat options. Users can chat in text or in voice. You can create a Scribblar room without creating an account. However, if you choose to create an account you will get some additional free benefits like locking and unlocking rooms, naming of rooms, and privacy controls.

• Poll Everywhere is a simple text message voting application that works well for live audiences. People vote by sending text messages (or using Twitter) to options displayed on-screen. The poll that is embedded within the presentation or web page will update in real time. Advanced uses include texting comments to a presentation, texting questions to a presenter, web voting, and SMS interactivity in print, radio, and TV.

• Quizlet is an on-line memorization tool in which users define a set of terms and then quiz themselves or others over those terms in a variety of forms including several engaging games. Users may choose to share the Quizlets that they make or keep them to themselves.

• EtherPad - Links: Other EtherPads and TitanPad are web-based collaborative real-time editors, allowing up to eight people to edit a text document at the same time, and see all of the participants' edits in real-time, each in their own color. Participants can permanently save revisions at any time, and it provides a separate chat box in the sidebar.
  NOTE: EtherPad is now an open-source service and is no longer just one website. See the above links for further details.

• Museum Box provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view the museum boxes submitted by other people and comment on the contents.

Page last updated on May 19, 2010 by jjgleim.