webapps


 * TOOLS, COLLABORATING & SOCIAL NETWORKING**

***Google Apps for Educators** http://www.google.com/educators/tools.html [|Google Docs] is an easy-to-use online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables you and your students to create, store and share instantly and securely, and collaborate online in real time. You can create new documents from scratch or upload existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. There's no software to download, and all your work is stored safely online and can be accessed from any computer. Google Docs' sharing features enable you and your students to decide exactly who can access and edit the documents.
 * * || ==Google Docs==


 * Resources for Teachers*** [|Overview for Educators (presentation)]


 * [|Google Docs: The Basics]


 * [|Google Docs: Tips and Tricks]

Google Apps Lesson Plans []
 * [|Google Docs in Plain English (video)] ||

Google Apps Education Community []

***del.icio.us** http://del.icio.us/ If you are still bookmarking or adding new sites to favorites you must sign on to this site immediately! del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website; the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders. You can also use del.icio.us to see the interesting links that other people bookmark, and share links with them in return.

**Diigo** http:[|www.diigo.com] Bookmarking with highlighting.

**[|Facebook]** www.facebook.com The "premier" social networking site!! Have one of your students show you how it works.

**[|Twitter]** Why Twitter? - A twitter timeline of the Iranian Election (Newsweek article) []

**[|*SlideShare]** http://www.slideshare.net/ share your presentations with the world. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to create a webinar. Download and adapt a presentation.

**VoiceThread** http://voicethread.com/ Tired of PowerPoint? Think of VoiceThread as a group electronic scrapbook but better! VoiceThread allows you (and a group) to create, comment, and publish your work. You can create a story from images, documents, and videos. You can add commentary by voice (including phone), text, audio files or webcam. Plus, you can share results with selected others online. ** WIKIS & BLOGS **

**WikiSpaces for Educators** http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

**PBWiki for Educators** http://pbwiki.com/education.wiki According to Wikipedia, “A **wiki** is software that allows users to easily create, edit, and link pages together. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites” and has been a tool for community websites. Wikis are comprised of several pages that are related. Both of these sites provide teachers with private wiki accounts at no charge and are commercial-free. Both are fairly simple to use. Both give teachers the option to develop multiple wikis. Examples of educational wikis can be found at: http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis

**Blogger** https://www.blogger.com/start If you haven’t tried your hand at blogging yet, now is the time to do so and this is the place to start. A blog is a Web log – a diary of sorts created by individuals to keep track of ideas, experiences, and to comment on just about anything. If you have not seen blogs, it is best to learn about them by doing a simple search on your favorite topic + blog and you can explore the riches. You can delve into education related blogs at http://educational.blogs.com/ and http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs, http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers

**MULTIMEDIA**

**Flickr** [|http://www.flickr.com] This free online photo editing and management site enables teachers and students to share photos, grouping and describing them for classroom tools such as storyboards. Big Huge Labs at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ has created utilities for educational use of photos, from puzzles to posters, calendars, slideshows and more.

**Picasa** http://picasa.google.com/ This program must be downloaded, but it is free and enables you to organize and edit your photos. You can create collections and share them with others, and use it on either MAC or PC platforms.

**Animoto** [|http://www.animoto.com] Upload a group of photos and this site automatically generates professionally produced slide shows using their own technology and high-end motion design. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and sets them to music, ending up with a most sophisticated and dazzling presentation.

**Tumblr** [|http://www.tumblr.com] Tumblr provides an easy way to make the transition to Web 2.0. You can create a personal or collaborative site that functions as an online scrapbook. It can hold text, video clips, images, podcasts, web links and more. You can choose your site design from various templates, or you can create your own. It’s easy, it’s fun, and you can share your site with selected others, or not. (Be aware that some of the Tumblr examples provided for new users may not be appropriate for young children.)

**CONTENT SITES** **OER Commons** http://oercommons.org/ A global teaching and learning network of free-to-use resources – from K-12 lesson plans to college courseware – for you to use, tag, rate, and review.

**Internet Archive** http://www.archive.org EVERYTHING!! Film, audio, book archives... FREE. Created by Brewster Kahle, Scarsdale HS graduate.

**PODCASTS & VIDEO:**

**[|TeacherTube]** TeacherTube aims to “provide an online community for sharing instructional teacher videos.” Here you can search for videos or share your own. Now a few years old, it includes hundreds of videos related to curriculum content and teaching strategies (e.g, 100+ videos on teaching with a SMARTboard). You can keep current through several RRS feeds (e.g., top rated, most discussed). You can create your own account and upload short videos!

**“Podcasting 101 for K–12 “Librarians”** http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr06/Eash.shtml This article, by E.K. Eash, appeared in Computers in Libraries. If you are just getting started, read this first!

http://www.epnweb.org/index.php Developed by David Warlick & the Landmark Project, the EPN includes quality podcasts for K-12 listed by subject. If you are looking to enhance instruction using podcasts created by others, this site is a must. It is also a place for teachers looking “to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century.”
 * Education Podcast Network (EPN)**

[|http://www.ted.com] TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation whose goal is “to foster the spread of great ideas. It has the best talks and performances from the world's smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most-inspiring teachers available to the public, for free. The 18-minute videocasts cover current topics in the arts, sciences, business, culture, etc. and can be downloaded for future viewing.
 * TED**

http://www.gcast.com/ The goal of the Gcast creators is “to make personal broadcasting simple.” And they succeed. On this site, you and your students can easily set up accounts and create podcasts in multiple ways, __including by telephone__! You can store and share your podcasts on Gcast’s site, or on your own. The folks who created garageband are responsible for Gcast.
 * Gcast.com**

http://www.youtube.com/ There are gems here for all of us, including terrific Smartboard training videos, language lessons, news footage, some truly irreverent educational videos (check out “Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University”), plus much, much more. You will find easy-to-understand video tutorials for searching articles in databases, such as ProQuest, EBSCO, and JSTOR.
 * YouTube**


 * MISCELLANEOUS**

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds, including podcasts! To get started there are lots of tutorials available online and on YouTube. You and your students can easily record and edit live audio, excellent for innovative productions.
 * Audacity**

[|http://www.kerpoof.com] and Kerpoof (associated with Scholastic) is a place where young children can create and learn using kid-friendly tools. Here, children can make a movie or create an avatar. There is also a teacher area that includes curriculum materials.
 * Kerpoof** **(K-3)**
 * Kerpoof (Teacher’s Page)**
 * [|http://www.kerpoof.com/teach]**


 * SITES FOR UNDERSTANDING WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS:**

** Classroom 2.0 ** http://www.classroom20.com/ This is a social network site for educators interested in using collaborative technologies. Beginners are more than welcome. Here online colleagues respond to questions such as “What do you do with PowerPoint given what we know about 21st century skills?”

**SOS for Information Literacy** http://www.informationliteracy.org/ Courtesy of Syracuse’s Graduate School of Information Science, this expanding site includes lesson plans, handouts, presentations, videos and other resources to help you teach information literacy skills. It also allows you to create and store your own web-based curriculum “builders” which can also serve as pathfinders.

**[|Learning Now (PBS Teachers)]** http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/ This weblog, hosted by Andy Carvin, “explores how new technology and Internet culture affect how educators teach and children learn.” This is where you will find thoughtful commentary on important new tools (plus rationales for using them, or not), along with recommended resources.