Blasted. This costs money as well. There is a free trial you can do with the download version (30 days, I believe). I will look for a free version that we can use. Sorry!!!
Allows you to post something to allow a group of people to comment on it - either by typing a response or by making an audio recording response. I have used it once or twice with other groups - mostly to play around with it - but I see potential for it being used with students. As with all technology, please test it with other teachers/adults before trying it out with your students. You need to be the person who knows how it works if you want to use it. **Disclaimer** I don't know if this would be open for students. You would have to have a student try to open the site and see what happens.
This is the site I have been using for my honors class and hope to use with all of my classes soon enough. There is a mobile site that they can use to see and post to the site from their smartphones (if they have them). The interface is very similar to Facebook so it feels easy to navigate for students. It is a closed site - accessible only to those who have been granted permission to be there. Best of all, it is, as of this date, unblocked for student use. There is a library where you can post documents and links. There is a way for you to post assignments AND collect them here. (Can you say "paperless"?) Not so sure about the grading feature, but I will let you know about that later.
Elaine, another one for you. This would allow you to make lists of music that you want to share with students in class (or even from home) and link that account's page to your wiki or other hub of information. (BTW, Edmodo will allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds like this would generate. But that would post your musical selections in real time. Scratch that. You might not want that.)
This is mostly for Elaine. You might be able to use the stations here to find addition music for your lessons, but you can't pick which tracks will play. If you make an account, you can mark tracks that you "love" and they will play more often. Otherwise, you can pick a station by genre or musical group and it will play pieces that are similarly tagged. This is social media - you can play from this on your account, but it would probably not be beneficial for students to have access to. (At least from my perspective.)
This would be especially good for our foreign language folks, but this could be used in other classes. You make videos from written dialogue text. It is free but requires an account. You can choose which character you want to use, what voice (including language), setting and background sounds/music...even the camera angle. This was designed for use in education but there are obviously things that could be misused. Just be aware.
This is exactly what it says it is. If it's been posted online and you are wanting a copy for yourself in a file format you can use (for example, a YouTube video you want to have stored on your computer for use in class or to make to a DVD for a sub to be able to use), you can post it here and get it converted so you can download it.
This site has a huge collection of artwork that can be used to inspire students to write short pieces to go along with the art - mostly for short stories or poetry. You could post the images on the board and write a piece as a group or have small groups of students create their own. Making an account is free - it will allow you to save products and to decide whether to publish it or keep it private.
Amazing speeches - nice transcripts. None of them are longer than 20 minutes. I have information also about how to have students make their own...will post that later.
The speeches cover a wide range of topics - language and literature, technology, education, science & medicine, social sciences, history, music...