You know the Internet isn't all bad, but you just don't always have the time to filter through the good, the bad, and the ugly. Fortunately, help is at hand in the form of The KidZui Network of free online applications.
This website will be used for the investigation of Web 2.0 tech tools and how they may be integrated in teaching and learning. Selected tech tools have been organized by their potential application and those titles are listed on the left navigation bar.
Each page of this website includes a variety of free tech tools that address areas in which students and faculty may want to try something different than what they are currently doing in and out of the classroom.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
Screencasting is a better and great way to showcase a procedure, to teach,demonstrate a service or to create video tutorials without having to write a content or an article. Screencasting tools are available both as desktop applications (Free and commercial) and web-based services. The good news is that there are a growing number of screencasting tools that are completely free to use; some do not even require a registration to let you get started.
If you are fearful of Facebook and MySpace then you need to create an Edmodo account. Edmodo was designed specifically for educational purposes. You must be a teacher, student, or parent to gain access. It allows you all the amenities of those other social networking sites but with a lot more security/privacy.
Yes, it is free and you can manage student accounts. It is only open to those you invite in and only educators may obtain an account. You may monitor and moderate all conversations, administer quizes, embed media, etc. The groups feature is very effective and you may grant access to your group to other classes. We just had 700+ students interacting in a global collaboration project, Digiteen.
Students do not need an email address to use Edmodo, so under 13 is OK for CIPA. It looks much like Facebook, so kids love it and parents need some education on it as they fear it at first. Parents can get monitoring access so they may monitor their child's activity. It is a great tool to show parents how social media is used in education.
See helps to assessing how well Web resources meet accessibility guidelines.
☐ Can the application be used with only the keyboard?
☐ Do images have appropriate text descriptions?
☐ Do pages have a consistent look-and-feel?
☐ Does text have enough color contrast?
☐ Do pages includes headings and landmarks?
☐ Do form controls and widgets have labels?
☐ When styling and layout is removed, is the document understandable?
☐ Does audio content have transcripts?
☐ Do videos have captions?
The founding members of this wiki consist of "old" therapists, with over 200 years of experience working with special populations and technology. We hope that people will use this site to make informed decisions before downloading. Our purpose in creating this wiki is to foster collaboration around how applications can be used in unique ways to support learning in home, school, and therapy settings. If you have used iPad/iPod applications with special populations, please consider joining and contributing to this wiki by adding information to the charts on the various pages (see navigation pane on the left). You can also contribute without joining by adding entries on the discussion tabs for each page.
Starting today, you'll be able to download these and over one million public domain books from Google Books in an additional format. We're excited to now offer downloads in EPUB format, a free and open industry standard for electronic books. It's supported by a wide variety of applications, so once you download a book, you'll be able to read it on any device or through any reading application that supports the format. That means that people will be able to access public domain works that we've digitized from libraries around the world in more ways, including some that haven't even been built or imagined yet.
"MixedInk takes a fresh approach to collaborative writing. It's a fun, democratic and elegant way for people to weave their best ideas together. (Plus, it's free!)"
designed to help you find and watch documentary films online. You can browse through 1700+ films on Free Documentary TV or enter search terms to find a film of interest to you. The majority of the films are served through the YouTube player so you can watch them on Free Documentary TV or on YouTube.
Applications for Education
If you're looking for a good documentary film to use in your classroom, give Free Documentary TV a try. If you do find a film that you like and it's hosted on YouTube, I recommend using View Pure to display it in your classroom without showing the "related content" and advertisements that appear on YouTube.
Wow. What a find! And it's all free...
This is from their blurb:
".... we invite you to get familiar with Lightworks, an Academy and Emmy award winning professional-grade editor with over 20 years of history in the film and broadcast industry. Having cut hundreds of films such as Pulp Fiction, The Departed, Centurion and Shutter Island, it includes a full feature set of editorial tools -- from advanced trimming and media management, to stereoscopic support and realtime effects including multiple secondary colour correctors. Lightworks has an advanced effects pipeline, utilizing the power of your GPU. And with support for up to 2K workflows with realtime effects, it is the most advanced editing application available."
Use dropbox to keep track of files you need at home, work, and anywhere else you might be. It provides you the ability to access your files from any location, allow others to "drop" files into your dropbox, and to share any files you have placed in there. You can use it for student work or just as a personal productivity tool.
Dropbox synchs with your smart phone like an iphone, and it also synchs with tablets like the ipad. This way I can carry my files no matter where I am.
This is an amazing solution for storing, sharing, and back up your data. The ability to access files from any computer & mobile devices makes this a great solution. Up to 2GB storage free! Learn more about the public folder to share files with others, while keeping your other files private. I have it on both my Apple computers and on two PCs. This rocks!
One of the leading and best online file storage option. It works across many different devices and is great for teachers who like to travel light. Download required. Basic package is free with 'paid for' option with more storage. Easily share files with others.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools
A great, free text chunking app for those who need textual information processing accommodations or those with short attention spans or distractability...
Mac-only
It’s early in the life of Google Drive, but Gmail has so many users that I think a lot of them will switch, or at least add Google Drive to their digital tools.
Google Drive is a new player in file syncing, but the user base and integration of Google Docs gives Google’s new service an edge. Factor in the cheaper storage upgrade pricing and Google Drive is a better fit for users that need more than 5GB of storage.
Dropbox still has an edge thanks to iPhone and iPad apps, but Google promises that Google Drive for the iPhone and iPad is just weeks away.
With both services offering free storage, there’s no reason not to try both. Stream your music from Dropbox and store your documents and images in Google Drive. You get 10GB for free that way.
I just started using Sugarsync which offers more flexibility for sharing individual folders. I am right now using a single subscription (I liked it so much!) to syn my Mac at home with my PC and my Mac at work as well as my wife's Mac at work to my personal Mac (with her login on it). It does all that without problems.
I dropped Dropbox when I found, using it as a teacher, that students could take files OUT of Dropbox if they had shared access :( That caused a couple problems ... I like Google Docs "can see but not edit" option to prevent that.
I like Google Drive for the potential to make your Google Docs work offline - though I have not tried that yet. However it is frustrating that if you rename or Move the Google Drive folder that Google loses track of the folder; kind of wimpy for a Google Application....
Jay
PDF booklet on technology that includes topics such as Universal Design for Learning, Reading, Writing, Science, Virtual Worlds, and Assistive Technology. Free to share.
Some very interesting Microsoft applications that might be suitable for schools.
It includes Beginner Developer, Chemistry Add-in for Word, Education Labs for Maths test creation, Microsoft Robotics and others.
Hat tip to Skipz
A great place to find tech tools to use with MS Office programs. Find and download alll of Microsoft's free tools for teachers and students. Updated 3.18.2012 Microsoft Partners in Learning helps educators connect, collaborate, create and share. TeachTec is a Microsoft Partners in Learning resource that helps educators find relevant and effective ways to use technology to inspire teaching and engage students. Together we have consolidated the latest and most popular teacher and student resources that Microsoft provides to all schools, districts and education organizations around the world.