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Dictation.io is a good tool to add to yesterday's list of free tools for dictating notes. On Dictation.io you can simply click "start dictation" then start having your voice transcribed into a text document. No registration is required in order to use Dictation.io. More than two dozen languages are support on Dictation.io.

Pronunciation, translate text, translate speech, translate handwriting, translate documents, save translations to a phrasebook

Here is a terrific site for creating an online photo album or scrapbooks. This site also allows collaboration which make it ideal for group projects. Signing up does require an email address but no other personal information is needed. The site is very simple to use as all you need is to add pictures and then text to accompany each picture and the site does the rest. Once you are done the book can be downloaded as a PDF to be handed in or students can share the book with the teacher.

Booktrack is a new way for students to read stories and texts accompanied by a movie-style soundtrack. Students also create Booktracks, using their own writing or works being studied in school. This short video provides a great overview of Booktrack Classroom and how it can produce immediate results with your students.

Paste your text into Analyze My Writing and it will generate a ton of information about your writing. Analyze My Writing will give you a break-down of the readability of your writing on five indices. The analysis will include listings of the most common words and most common word pairs in your writing. A listing of how frequently you use punctuation and punctuation types is included in the analysis provided by Analyze My Writing. Finally, a word cloud is included at the end of the analysis of your writing.

"WhatsDue is a free service for sending due date reminders to students. The service sends push notifications to students' iOS and Android devices. I reviewed the service last spring and thought that it was good as it doesn't rely on SMS/ text messaging. Just in time for the new school year WhatsDue released some updates."

Comic Creator is very easy to use. To get started will have to provide a name to their cartoon, add a subtitle and type in the name of the author. Next, they select one of the four templates provided there and hit next. Now they can add characters, balloons and props. There is also a text book where they can write in a caption for their comic. once done they click on finish to print their work. Comic Creator can be used 'by students from kindergarten through high school, for purposes ranging from learning to write dialogue to an in-depth study of a formerly neglected genre. The tool is easy to use, made even easier with the Comic Strip Planning Sheet, a printable PDF that comic creators can use to draft and revise their work before creating and printing their final comics'.

Cite fast is an easy to use web tool for creating citations. Students can utilize it to generate citations in different formats: APA (6th edition), MAL (7th edition), or Chicago (16th edition). The site provides a wide variety of features citation creation super easy and all for free. Some of these features include: automatic look up of journals, books and webpages; easy cut and paste and exporting to MS Word; In-text citation generator with guide and many more.

"Cite fast is an easy to use web tool for creating citations. Students can utilize it to generate citations in different formats: APA (6th edition), MAL (7th edition), or Chicago (16th edition). The site provides a wide variety of features citation creation super easy and all for free. Some of these features include: automatic look up of journals, books and webpages; easy cut and paste and exporting to MS Word; In-text citation generator with guide and many more."

"Auto Text Expander for Google Chrome is a convenient Chrome extension that I've recently started using. The extension enables me to create keyboard shortcuts for words and phrases that I frequently use in emails."

Apps for presentation, screencasting, video making, file storage, whiteboard, PDF annotation, audio recording, notetaking, blogging, book creating, comic strips, digital storytelling, grading, midmapping, portfolios, posters, timelines, word clouds, speech to text

Riddle quizzes and surveys can be image-based or simply text-based. You can add links to your Riddle quizzes and surveys. Those links could be to sources of information, to videos, or to an online audio recording like those you can find on SoundCloud. In the video embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to use Riddle to create a quiz.

For those who haven't heard of Canva prior to this post, it is a service that makes it easy to create beautiful slides, flyers, posters, infographics, and photo collages. Creating these graphics on Canva is a drag-and-drop process. Start by selecting a template then dragging and dropping into place background designs, pictures, clip art, and text boxes. Canva offers a huge library of clip art and photographs to use in your designs. You can also upload your own images to use in your graphics. Your completed Canva projects can be downloaded as PDF and PNG files. You can also simply link to your online graphic.

A during reading strategy that is used to help students break down text. Students use post-it notes to mark things they understand and things they do not understand in the textbook.  They use these post-its to fill in a graphic organizer.  When finished reading students share information they've learned as well as information confusing to them.

SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review) A before, during, and after reading technique to help students break down text to increase comprehension.