etool+totebag

etool totebag
===Here you'll find excellent, free Web 2.0 tools and software programs to enhance your teaching and your students' learning! ===

Audacity: a great audio recording and editing program.
Have you ever heard of a //podcast//? Want to create one (or, perhaps, you'd like your students to create their own)? This is an excellent program to start with! This free software program allows you to record anything your computer's microphone can pick up, plus you can very easily edit your recordings or get more creative with some of the more advanced features it offers, such as pitch distortion or speed adjustments. You //can// download and install the //beta// version of this program, but I advise against this, since beta software may still have many bugs in it (and could harm your computer). But, the latest stable version should do just fine!

Discovery Education Streaming : tons of digital resources (especially videos) for your classes.
A great place to find lots of school-appropriate educational videos and other digital resources. And, they are even sorted by grade level, many are aligned to state standards, and they often come with "teacher guides" (gotta love it)! And, we at Bishop Shanahan are lucky to have a subscription to this excellent service. Also, I should point out that the name is somewhat misleading...yes, you //can// stream the videos, but you can also download them to your computer or flash drive to avoid the sometimes quirky internet (in other words, you can download them ahead of time so that when you go to show them in class, you don't //need// to be connected to the internet).

DownloadHelper and RealPlayer SP: download streaming videos directly to your computer!
Is there a video you found on a video streaming website, such as YouTube, that you'd love to download directly to your computer (or save to a flash-drive)? Ever try to show a streaming video in class to experience the frustration of slow bandwidth, where the video pauses frequently to buffer? Did you know that you can download most videos so that you can avoid these issues, and show the videos later without even being connected to the internet? There are two easy ways I have found to download streaming videos. First, you can download and install the latest RealPlayer which gives you an option to easily download almost any video directly from a website via a convenient pop-up "Download This Video" button. Or, if you use Mozilla Firefox, there is an excellent extension, DownloadHelper, that does basically the same thing (except, instead of a pop-up download button directly on the webpage, a button in your Firefox toolbar becomes active when it recognizes downloadable media content on a webpage, which you can then click to access a menu from which the file can be downloaded). Enjoy the freedom from being connected to a high-speed internet connection in order to play your videos! Oh, and both of these programs are free :)

Edublog: an easy way to start your own blog.
You can blog for personal use, professional development, and/or with the classes you teach. I suggest starting with a class blog. The site gives easy to follow instruction, here is the link for week 1 - Create a Class Blog. Teachers can create student blogs that are password protected and they can be co-administrators, great way to organize group work and no more excuses for not being able to get together.

Glogster: create interactive virtual "posters."
With glogster you and your students can create interactive posters that can include MP3, text ,images, photos, videos, and special effects. At glogster you can register as a teach and you will get free accounts for your students. Presentations take on a whole new element and students love this tool. Here is a step-by-step tutorial created by Traci Blazosky.

Google Docs: an easy way to create, edit, and share documents online.
Google isn't //just// for internet searches, in case you weren't aware! One great, free service Google offers is called Google Docs, which is an internet-based office suite, similar to Microsoft Office. It allows you to create, edit, and share various office documents, such as word documents (similar to Microsoft Word), spreadsheets (similar to Microsoft Excel), and presentations (similar to Microsoft PowerPoint). Also, you can upload office documents that you have already created using another office suite, such as Microsoft Office, and convert them into Google Doc format in order to edit them using Google Docs. All documents you upload to and create using Google Docs can be shared with anyone you choose (or, you can opt to keep them private), so this is another great way to share digital documents with your students online. Also, Google Docs recently added a feature which allows you to upload //any// file format you wish, not //just// compatible office documents. So, in this sense, Google Docs is another great file storage and sharing option.

Google Sites: an excellent resource for creating your own personal website.
Another excellent free service Google offers is Google Sites. This service allows you to create your own personal website (or wiki) with which the possibilities are virtually endless. It can serve as a central location for your students to access various internet tools you create (or simply link to). I use my personal Google Site as a central "hub" of sorts for all of the internet resources I use with my students. I have lots of links to all of the various web resources we use so that my students can keep track of it all. I also provide links to various documents, such as my in-class PowerPoint presentations, homework solutions, and lab sheets on my site so that my students have 24/7 access to all the documents they may need for my class (and, if they lose their original copy, they can always print out another). Feel free to check out my personal Google Site, MrKerwin.com, to see what I'm talking about. (Note that the web address www.mrkerwin.com was created using a different web resource a few years ago, when it was free to get your own custom domain...currently, free custom domains appear to be a thing of the past, so you probably won't be able to get one anymore...sorry!)

HippoCampus.org: a wealth of interactive lessons for you and your students.
This free website offers //lots// of free resources for your teaching (and learning) needs. This site is packed with various well-organized interactive lessons on a variety of topics. These lessons can be used in or out of class, and could be very handy for those times students miss lessons presented in class. The best way to learn about it is to try it out for yourself!

Jing: create screen capture videos to share with others.
Would like to take a picture of your computer screen to let students, parents and member of your PLN see what you are looking at? Jing is free software for both Mac and PC that captures screen images and records video, allowing you to comment on student work and much more. Sign up for free Jing and watch the tutorial before you download. Once you download Jing you will be prompted to join Screencast.com which will help you store your images to your clipboard for easy access to send to people, insert in PowerPoints, post on your Wiki or Ning, and post to Twitter or Facebook.

Ning: build your own classroom without walls.
You can make the Ning private or public and each time new content is posted you are notified. On this site there are great Nings that you can join, learn from, and become comfortable before you create you own. When you decide to create a Ning, go to the "manage" tab at the top and request that the ads are removed because you are an educator. It is fast and easy. I use my Ning to post discussions, assignments, blogs, videos, links to website, and upload documents and PowerPoints. I even posted on-line snow day assignments February of 2010. The students can use the Ning to communicate with each other, similar to Facebook and they love it. If they have to do homework and discuss topics they would much rather do it all on-line.
 * ***UPDATE*** ** Sadly, Ning will no longer be offering its services for free...read more here.

PBWorks: create a secure online workspace in education.
PBWorks lets you create a secure online workspace in about 60 seconds. Encourage classroom participation with interactive wiki pages that students can view and edit from any computer. Share class resources and completed student work with parents. You can even collaborate with fellow educators on courses and curriculum, and manage the work of running your school or district. (copied from PBWorks)
 * It is free and easy to sign up and navigate.
 * You control the security settings, your wiki can be private and people must request to join, each students has their own log in and password, pbworks keeps track of all student work for you.
 * You do not have to send your students an invitation, they request admission.
 * Great tool for student collaboration and group projects.

===PrimoPDF, pdf995, & Microsoft Office 2007 PDF add-in: turn your documents into PDFs.=== PDF literally means "//p//ortable //d//ocument //f//ormat" and it is a great format in which to save your documents if you do not want others editing them or if you want to be sure they show up on everyone's computer just as they show up on yours. Sometimes, different things affect how various documents are displayed on other computers, and your document's formatting may be ruined. Creating a PDF of your documents addresses these issues. If you already have Microsoft Office 2007 on your computer, you may already be able to convert your documents into PDFs (go to the "Save As" menu and see if the PDF option is there). Also, luckily for us at Bishop Shanahan, PrimoPDF is already installed on all of the computers. To save a document as a PDF using PrimoPDF, you actually have to select "Print" from the File menu in a program and select "PrimoPDF" from the list of printers that appear on the pop-up window. It sounds strange, since you aren't physically printing anything, but think of it as "printing" a digital page which, in this case, is a PDF document. Also, pdf995 works very much like PrimoPDF, and both of these are free (supported by ads). If you already have Microsoft Office 2007, this PDF add-in is free.

PollEverywhere.com: a free alternative to Student Response Systems in the classroom.
Ever wish you had a Student Response System ("clickers") in your classroom? Perhaps you should give PollEverywhere.com a spin. It is a free service which allows you to poll your audience (students, in our case!) as long as your audience members have access to their cell phones (or access to a computer/other device with an internet connection). You can create multiple choice, true/false, and even "open-ended response" questions and instantly see the results come in! Students enjoy the extra level of engagement and control they feel when their responses are heard instantly and truly count. **WARNING!** //Be sure to know your school's policy on student cell phones in school and take appropriate action regarding this matter!// :)

[|Puzzlemaker] : a free tool to create your own puzzles.
This site is part of the Discovery Education web world. Students of any age love to do puzzles and it is a great way to grab students attention to begin a new unit or for review before a test. Can be used to as a check to identify if their knowledge of the vocabulary is strong enough to build on.

SkyDrive by Windows Live: share files with your students online.
SkyDrive, a free Microsoft Live service (perhaps better suited for PC users than for Mac users), is an excellent way to share digital files with your students. There are so many benefits to doing this: it saves paper for you (and your school), students no longer can use the excuse that they lost your handouts or that they never got one (it is there job to access the files online), you no longer have to make all those copies for handouts (or, at least, you can cut your copies down to //only// the really important stuff!), and you don't need to worry as much about making a mistake in your handouts (if you do, you simply upload the new, edited file, with no need to make new copies for your students). I use this service all the time in my classes. I post my PowerPoint presentation slides, homework solutions, lab sheets, example problems, and other documents on my SkyDrive for my students to have access to at home. //Be aware that this is **just one** of many free online file storage and sharing sites//, but I have done a good deal of research into similar sites, and this one is by far my favorite so far. It gives you 25 GB of free storage, and, as one of my favorite features, it allows you to easily create folders (and sub-folders) so that you can better organize all of your files. I like to have a separate folder for each of my classes to keep things more organized for both me and my students. Yet another nice touch this service offers is its familiar and user-friendly interface...it looks and feels a lot like your "My Computer" file explorer on your PC.

Skype: bring the world into your classroom.
Skype with classrooms, authors, experts in your field of study, and educators on-line, in real time, in your classroom, with your students and it is FREE! Skype Author Network provides a website to connect authors and K-12 teachers. Check out the list of authors who will discuss live their book with students, answer their questions, and be part of your classroom discussion by using Skype.

Spell with Flickr : Create words out of pictures on Flickr
It is easy to create words out of pictures like the one on this home page. You can change the individual letters by clicking on them until the word looks the way you want. Images are from Flickr one letter and one digit groups.

Wikispaces: create your own Wiki (FREE for K-12 Educators!).
Aloha! Wiki is the **Hawaiian** word for "**fast**" and a wiki is a quickly changing website that can be edited by members of the wiki or it can be protected and only select members can edit. This is a great resource for uploading documents, pdfs, and presentation. This is a **Wiki** you are looking at! Once you create your wiki request the "no ad" version and the ads will be removed within 24 hours.

Wordle: a great way to create "word clouds" like the one below.
media type="custom" key="5729271" align="left"This is word art that can take text and turn it into something visual to enhance your NING, Wiki or Blog. Free and very easy to use. Follow the link and select "create" You can use it on the front page of a PowerPoint to preview the topics and grab your students attention. Word poetry, Google searches of a topic, content of a chapter and much more...

ZoomIt: get that cool "zoom" feature Macs have (and more!) on your PC.
Have you ever seen anyone with a Mac do that cool "zoom" feature? Ever wonder if your Windows PC can do the same thing? Well, Mac's have this feature built-in, while Windows users can download a //free// program (made by Microsoft themselves) which gives your PC that "Mac zoom" feature and more. This small program, ZoomIt, also gives you the option to annotate directly over your desktop and even display a countdown timer on your screen. These features are very handy during presentations, and I use them myself quite often during my classroom presentations. You can install it on your home PC and try it out, and if you like it, you can always ask your technology specialist to install it on your in-school PC!