KitteryEducators

Have you ever learned about a new (or new to you) tech tool and thought, "Wow -- how did I not know about this?".  Saturday I attended EdCamp Citrus, and experienced this during one of the sessions.  Here is a list of my favorite free lesser-known webtools, all mentioned at EdCamp Citrus' Web 2.0 Smackdown.

"Everyday the BBC runs a feature called the Day in Pictures that displays a small collection of photographs from around the world. For years I've used this resource as a conversation starter for current events discussions in my Global Studies classes. The Day in Pictures collections are part of a much larger resource from the BBC simply called In Pictures. The In Pictures resource provides hundreds of images in a variety collections and slide shows about current events throughout the world. Some of the slide shows even include narration. All of the images include captions explaining what is happening in the picture and a little background knowledge about the event being photographed."

These digital resources and tools for creating, collaborating, researching, and sharing can be found in the Common Core Curriculum Maps. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, as the technologies are constantly evolving. Consider it a beginning!

In early October, Nikki Grimes wrote about the current state of YA literature on her blog, Nikki Sounds Off. In her post, she lamented the lack of originality in books being published for the young adult audience today. What she sees as a lack of originality, I see as the opportunity to ca$h in. So, for those of you that have it in mind to write the "it" novel, here is a DIY guide to getting it published. Think of it as a paint by numbers for writers. Good luck!

The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence.

Now with a list of my favorite education sites!

"We are a non-profit tech company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. "

There are a lot of great tools online that can be used for collaborating on documents, developing sketches, or constructing outlines. Many of those services require all users to register and keep track of their user names and passwords. There's nothing wrong with that. However, sometimes you just want to get online and start collaborating as quickly as possible. In those cases you might want to try one of the following five services that don't require users to register.

Urtak is a free and simple polling service that can be used on any blog or website. The polls you create can have multiple questions, but they must be "yes or no" questions. But Urtak isn't that limited because visitors to your poll also have the option of writing in their own questions. Try it out for yourself in the poll I've embedded below.

Quick Screen Share is a free screen sharing service from the makers of Screencast-o-matic. To use Quick Screen Cast just go to their website, select share your screen, and enter your name. Quick Screen Share will then provide you with a URL to share with the person with whom you are screen sharing. When that person opens the link you he or she will be able to see your screen.

"Sound Gecko is a free service that turns text articles into MP3 files. Using Sound Gecko you can take an article from a website, paste its URL into Sound Gecko, and then listen to a reading of that article. The conversion isn't instantaneous, but it is relatively quick. You do have to enter an email address in order to get the MP3 file. To remove the copy and paste part of the process you can install the Sound Gecko Chrome extension."

JOG THE WEB is a web-based tool that allows anyone to create a synchronous guide to a series of web sites. Its step by step approach of taking viewers through web sites allowing the author to annotate and ask guiding questions for each page is unique.

FROM THE SITE: The time is finally here for my annual list of favorite sites of the year.  This year, I decided to up my post to the top 100 instead of 25 due to the number of sites that I reviewed and due to the popularity of the post.  I tried to cover a wide range of sites, from flash card creators to digital storytelling and of course, social networks, which really shined in 2011.  I hope everybody enjoys the read and has as much fun reading it as I did creating it!

Make stop motion animations

The idea is that you take all the prints that never get picked up and print these provide calendar templates on the back.

Dropbox Twitter Evernote Prezi Viewer Google

"TodaysMeet helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in realtime. Encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs."

Upload a document and the site creates a QR code that will be printed on the document, but could also be put on a website, that, when scanned, brings you to a webpage where you are prompted to download the document or send it by email.

Danny Nicholson writes the Whiteboard Blog. On the Whiteboard Blog you can find dozens of video tutorials and printable help sheets for learning to use your IWB to develop lessons. And if you're interested in a collection of resources for your IWB that you can hold in your hand, Danny offers a 200 page book through Lulu.