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8 Helpful Assistive Technology Tools for you classroom

This is free educational blogging site. It could be used for any subject and grade level, but it is probably best for students ranging from 3-12 and higher education. It contains images, videos, audio, and visuals. This online resource allows students and teachers to collaborate, share thoughts and ideas, and so much more! There are tools within this site that allow you to upload quizzes, set due dates, and post assignments or required readings from the web. This website can be used to facilitate discussions about lessons you teach in class. For example, after reading a story or book with your students, the teacher can pose an open-ending discussion question on the blog. Students would then be asked to answer the question during center time or even for homework. Other students in the class will be able to read and respond to each other's posts to create a rich discussion. Teachers can also use the blog to post upcoming events, tests, or quizzes in the classroom and parents can use it to stay informed. Teachers can also use the website to post videos, podcasts, and documents they create. Students are able to view these things at home. This is especially helpful when parents are unsure how to help their child with homework because they do not understand the concept you taught that day. For example, if you introduce a new concept in math and assign homework that night, parents and students can watch a lesson you recorded to get a better understanding of the material. Using Edublogs is a safe and easy way to integrate technology in the classroom! As I reflect, I think about the possible difficulties this resource could possess. Being that it is not a program you can purchase and install on your computer, problems could occur with the being able to connect. Since it is a resource that anyone could use, a lot of people can be on the website at one time and cause it to "crash" or free up. Also, I think about routine maintenance or updates that must be d

This is a free web-based resource which includes images, audio, and visuals. This resource can be used for all grades. This resource allows anyone to create a free slide show very quickly. You can use your own images and music, or you may use music they have provided. This resource also allows you to add text to the slide show you create, you are able to embed different things, and you even have some control of transitions. This resource can be used to introduce a topic to your students. You could create a slide show with texts and sounds to introduce a social studies lesson. For example, let's say you wanted to teach students about Athens, Greece. You could use this resource to upload pictures of Ancient Greece to display its architecture and add text to label what the picture is displaying. You could also use it in reading as a storytelling slide slow. You could even allow your students to create an "All About Me" project. They would be able to upload pictures of themselves, family, pets, and anything else that allows people to get to know them. This resource can be used in ways. It is a fun, free, and almost effortless resource that allows teachers to easily integrate technology in their classrooms. As I reflect, there could be some difficulties or problems that arise with using this resource. Since this resource is easily accessible to anyone, students may upload inappropriate content into their slide show or add inappropriate music. To avoid misuse, I recommend teachers require students to get their slide show approved by a teacher before showing it to the class or sharing it with anyone else. Also, there is only a limited amount of music available that is provided by the website. Due to this issue, teachers or students may struggle finding and uploading their own music. Teachers should also monitor what content is being uploaded to make sure the slide shows meet the fair use laws. As with any form of media, teachers have to be sma

I've used Incompotech a few times for projects of my own and I'm happy to say that it's a great resource for free music. It has very detailed, yet basic, instructions on how to attribute the music to the creator and features some neat tracks (although some are little cheesy). Having used this one before, I can commit to saying that I'd venture to try this one out with middle school students and definitely high school students. With plenty of up-front modeling and lots of reinforcement along the way, I think this would be a great resource to make student-produced video  go from quiet and boring to emotional and energetic. As with any download, it would be important to know that the school offers each student enough storage to save these files, but that'd be the only major issue with this resource. None of the tracks have words (to my knowledge) so everything is school-appropriate. It's easy to use and is even searchable by genre and "feel".

This site is a public site that allows users to upload their own pictures they want to donate. All pictures are free and are copyright free. Pictures can be used for private or commercial use. Pictures are categorized into groups according to the topic of the photo. This site would be a great site to use with students because the pictures are taken by other amateurs, perhaps students. There is a large variety of pictures to pick from so students could create a power point, digital story, digital poster, or even video to name a few with these pictures. This site could be used for any academic area since there is a wide selection of pictures to choose from. Students and teachers could even add their own photos to the site so that others can use them for their projects. As a SLP, I would benefit from using these photos to help students develop language skills. Students could easily be presented with a picture daily and answer questions/describe the picture. I definitely plan to use this site in the future. One possible problem with this site is that there is no way of monitoring what type of photos may appear under a specific category. I searched the site for several minutes and only came across one photo that may be questionable for younger students. However, this site could easily be used with younger students with teacher assistance. I feel that the advantages of this site definitely outweigh the possible disadvantages.

Please note the following statement on the home page: "...please be aware that some photos do require a model or property release."

WPClipart is a collection of images for students and others that is free of copyright concerns as well as safe from inappropriate images. There are currently 50,526 images on the site. I can see students in grades K-12 using this resource. The site is easy to navigate and search for images. There are tons of categories such as medical images, geography images, historical figure images, computer images, and on and on which is why I see this being helpful to all students grades K-12 and all subjects. Unlike some clipart sites, there are images on this site that are not cartoon like making them better for older students. According to the terms and conditions, the site is Public Domain and the images can be used and edited. No direct user-uploaded images are allowed. The only concern I see is that this site is trying to get donations through PayPal which I haven't seen on other sites.

This is a wonderful social networking site for education. It is for students and teachers. The teacher can set up an online component to their traditional classroom. It allows the teacher to grade work and give instant feedback. Students can hold online discussions about course topics too. Students have backpacks where they can file any resources they would need to complete an assignment. Also teachers are able to create and post assignments that students turn in with the click of a button. A problem that can take place is that the Edmodo site may be down or the school network is not communicating well with the sites network. Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. Our goal is to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner

Pics4Learning.com has free images for educational use.  This site is useful for K-12 and has many different categories of images.  The images have photographer information, location, and date taken.  There is even a citation available in the image information to assist students with the proper information to give the photographer credit.  This would be extremely useful for younger students to learn how to cite their findings.  The site also allows easy download for Windows, Macintosh, Android, and iPad devices.  Users can also save directly to Google Drive.  Our system now has Google Drive accounts for all of our students and so there is no need for flash drives any more! The images found here would be great for foreign language classes.  Students and teachers alike could use these specific images to work with vocabulary presentations or reviews.  Science classes could use the animal images for classification.  Teachers using flipchart software could create containers for the images to be moved to by the students. The only issue I can foresee with this site is the number of images available.  Users might not be able to find exactly what they are looking for.  Fortunately, educators are able to take photographs and contribute them to the website.  This could be beneficial to teachers and students.

Pics4Learning is a safe, free image library for education. Teachers and students can use the copyright-friendly photos & images for classrooms, multimedia projects, websites, videos, portfolios, or any projects in an educational setting. I can see Pics4Learning being used for all grades. There are pictures of animals which would be good for science classes, pictures of countries that could be beneficial to social studies classrooms, and pictures broken down by subject including math and reading. Students could use these pictures for any of their projects, videos, or portfolios. I can also see teachers getting ideas from the "education" section under popular collections. I do not foresee any problems or challenges with this site. The pictures are easy to download and the option to cite each image. You just select whether you are downloading for Windows, Mac, iPad, or Android.

This resource specializes in stock footage from around the world. All of the video clips are free to download and to use. There is no subscription or user login required in order to use the footage. This feature makes it ideal to use for educators looking to provide their students with a ready source of footage that they can use for their multimedia presentations. Students interested in media production and editing could create some fantastic presentations, especially if they have access to editing software and a green screen. The more advanced applications of the video clips could be used by high school students, but I could also see middle school aged students utilizing various clips to help with creating presentations for World History or Biology classes. For example, in my 7th grade Life Science class we do a project on the biomes of the world. Students could use the video files from the "Animal Footage" section to incorporate dynamic visuals into their reports. Students could also use footage from different continents to visually identify the various biomes for the class. Modeling of how to download, edit and embed the videos would be necessary to ensure that the students experience success with this resource, but that is just a matter of scheduling instruction time prior to the final projects being completed. The website is very easy to navigate and all clips are easily imported into any editing platforms. This feature makes it easy to use for educators who may have a variety of software on their school computers, depending on which school system they work in.

To use resources from this site, you will be required to pay an annual fee - at the time of this entry, $25.

School Clip Art: a free educational clipart resource. After reviewing this resource, I see it being beneficial for elementary age students and teachers. Teachers can use the clip art in their presentations, worksheets, and lesson plans. In addition, students can use the clip art to complete their assignments. The images are easy to save for both Windows and Mac users. The clipart is free, teachers and students just have to reference the website in order to use it. There are many categories to pick from and navigating the site is very easy. The only challenge I see is that the clipart would not work well for students over 5th grade because of the cartoon like nature of the images.

This site offers royalty free background music for just $0.99 for each track. In addition, the site has over 1,000 free music teaks available for download. The site offers numerous music genres to pick from and will let you hear a sample of the track before you download. I have used this site in the past for videos and have been very pleased with the selection of music this site offers and how easy the site is to use. This site may be best suited for older students, but could be used with elementary aged students with teacher assistance. This site is great source to use when helping students create video projects. For example, last semester I created a documentary video focusing on the Cherokee Native Americas. Jewel Beat had several tracks of Native American background music to choose from. Add this music to my video made my work more authentic. I think student will enjoy being able to pick out their own music to add to their video without worrying about infringing on copyright holders. One possible problem I see with this site is that most of the music tracks cost $0.99. While this is not very much, this could lead to problems when helping a room full of students create videos especially since it would involve the use of billing a credit card. It may be best to just mention this source to your students as a possible choice.

BusSongs is that one location (site) where you can go to find many childhood songs for your classroom. The songs can teach students about behavior, holidays, cultures, and many life skills. FCCLA students could use a song in a PowerPoint presentation to keep the students' attention or add them to a cd to use during instructional time. Some songs can be used for PTA meetings or graduation ceremonies.

The owners of this site acknowledge that some of the songs available on this site may be under a copyright protection (ie, these would be for the newer songs, not the older). Therefore, users are advised to communicate with the site to determine what rights protection there may be for music you intend to use. Read here for specific details: http://bussongs.com/about.php.

This online repository includes hundreds of copyright-free graphics that would be worthwhile for middle-high school students & educators to use to add a multitude of interesting "bells & whistles" to their word documents, multimedia presentations, or websites. In my 5th-8th grade Library Media Center, social studies students are currently completing PowerPoints presenting their research about assigned Middle Eastern countries. I can foresee allowing students who have finished adding all assigned subject content to their slides, use this site to add "spinning globe" bullets, horizontal rule section dividers in the shape of "International Flags" or "Palm Trees," and "Textured Sand" backgrounds. All of the graphics were easy to navigate to from a large table on the index page and everything I experimented with downloaded and inserted easily, the quality of the images was excellent, and many of the animations would be relevant for school assignments. In the "Terms of Use" section, the creators advertise that, "Bellsnwhistles.com graphics are free for your use and if you use them we ask that you PLEASE DOWNLOAD what you need…Do Not link to our graphics." I did not encounter anything on the site that required royalty fees or additional software to load before gaining access. The only problem educators might want to mention to students before using is to make sure they insert only school-appropriate graphics…while nothing on the site was unsuitable for student-viewing, there was a "Foaming Beer Mug" divider and "Dripping Blood" Halloween images that students would need to avoid downloading into projects.

Convert files like images, video, documents, audio and more to other formats with this free and fast online converter. This resource is a great tool that can be used by teachers or students. It can be used to create multimedia projects that help teachers to delivery content information. In addition students can use it to create various types of projects that they can embed into power point presentations or if they are trying to make a movie project. A problem that could possibly arise may be that the school district has put a block on the website. To get mitigate this issue the teacher should contact the technology support team and ask for them to take the block off of this particular website. Also students will need to be explicitly taught copyright laws and citing procedures.

This website was originally created as a resource of 5,000 images concerning the American Civil War, but has since grown to include many more subject areas concerning U.S. History. The site is very easy to navigate and provides teachers and students with clear headings to find pictures from whatever specific area of U.S. History they are looking for. Here are just a few of the main headings used for categorizing the photos: Native Americans, Native American Culture, The Age of Exploration, Settlements and Colonies, Slavery in America, etc. I could easily see this resource being used by a high school U.S. History teacher, as well as by their students. A teacher could use this resource to add more visual meaning and interest to their own presentations or guided notes. Students, like-wise, could easily add relevant photos to their reports, presentations, or research projects. Students may require help with downloading the photos and embedding into their presentations, but this could be corrected with a simple modeling exercise where the teacher demonstrates how to navigate the site and download any desired photos. I really liked this site and have never seen it before. I plan on taking advantage of this year as I plan to create some new U.S. History assignments for my students.

Sound Jay has an assortment of great sound clips to use in flip charts, presentations, or videos.  The sound clips are extremely realistic and so practical.  Students and teachers can really enhance their products with these well-placed sound bites. Did you know that fire had a sound?  Need a certain sound for a website button?  Students and teachers could use these very realistic sounds to accompany their video clips that do not have sound.  A literature class could have an audio assignment where the students create a scene from the book and these sounds would be the perfect addition to the podcast. The downloads are available in wav and mp3 format and they download very quickly.  The clips are typically very short and students might struggle with extending the sound in a loop.  The downloads are free, but there are a lot of advertisements and other "pay" options that might confuse younger users.  I would recommend this site for middle or high school students.

This site offers thousands of free pictures that are categorized so you can easily find the image you are looking for. Here are some of the examples of categories you will find on this site: home living, nature, cooking, business, animals, backgrounds, and textures. Within each main category group, the site breaks the groups into more specific categories.
Since the majority of the students I work with as a SLP range in age from 4 to 7 I often find myself needing pictures of common objects to include in my lessons when increasing vocabulary and teaching the concept of categories. This is especially important when working with students who do not only exhibit a language impairment but are also learning English as second language. This site is incredibly useful to me because I have numerous pictures available at my fingertips.

One possible problem with this site is that the pictures are very basic. While this is best for the students I work with, these pictures may not be useful for all students. Also, there is no way to filter what images may appear in each group. While I presume there are no inappropriate pictures, there is no way to ensure this. I feel comfortable using this site however because my students will not be using the site directly be themselves. Anything I retrieve from the site will be done prior to the lesson to reduce the risk of inappropriate pictures popping up.