cool-tools

A community that shares technology news, ideas, and tools for education.

Chatterpix can make anything talk - your pets, your friends, your doodles, and more! Take your own picture or use one you have already taken. You can draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. Then share your Pix with friends and family as silly greetings, playful messages, or creative cards.

Knovio is a tool to make voice over presentations, right from your computer or iPad. Simply upload your PowerPoint slides, record video or audio commentary and share it publicly or privately. Tutorial: http://watch.knowledgevision.com/381879f3a41f417482039394ee02b49b

Free Resources from the Net for EVERY Learner is a blog run by Paul Hamilton who is a an assistive technology consultant on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Free tools are introduced, usually include tutorials or examples on posts. Similar tools will be suggested when type the key words on Search box.

Google Search is a tool that is commonly forgotten about because they have been around forever.  "Google it" has become the way of saying just do a web search.  I have taught my middle school students some of these skill when we started the research unit.  Using filters helps to tell the search helps to find only what you want to find.  I usually use "Garfield" and explain to the students what we are looking for. Google search allows for filters such as search sites, exact phrases, Dates, ect.  It is a powerful research tool for students and teachers.

This article is from Free Technology for Teachers; It is on Youtube.  It makes the significant point of sharing items that have been created.   Youtube can be a great place to find videos, however it can be a better place to put videos.  There are a variety of tools that you can use to create your videos, but there are a number of in "app" tools to help create and modify the videos.  With Youtube you can upload videos of your lessons, or student created assignments, ect.  Privacy settings can be modified and restricted; especially with GAFE settings.  It is a wonderful tool for speaking a listening standards within Language Arts curriculum.  

Excel is spreadsheet software, and a part of the Microsoft Office suite. With a leap of 27 places, Excel moves back up the list again.

Tools, strategies, videos, and blogs about ideas that help to improve the educational experience.

app to keep track of the stuff you lend.

FreeTech4Teachers is a blog run for years by Richard Byrne, a teacher in Maine. Subscribers get a daily e-mail or social media message with interesting apps and classroom uses (often with examples). FT4T is also searchable.