As we continue on with the current Teacher Challenge on class blogging, preparations are already underway for the next series.
This time, we want to introduce users to as many of the best free web tools as we can!
And that is where you come in. Do you have a favorite web tool of any kind that you would like to share?
We’re looking for guest bloggers to:
- Write a post that provides an overview of the tool
- Include a “challenge” where readers are encouraged to use the tool and somehow demonstrate the end result
- Help answer any questions that might come up from challenge particpants
No need to have a blog or even be an Edublogs user to participate. This would be a great way to help fellow educators from around the globe – and maybe add more twitter followers or blog readers to your list as well. 
What do you think? Any takers?
Leave a comment below or contact us here and we’ll get you hooked up with all that you need!
March 3, 2011 at 7:30 am
A free tool that I recommend is edna groups http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/. The edna site offers educators to opportunity to design and host their courses on the Edna server. It is simple to use and has all the basic features found in Moodle.
Edna is a framework for your courses. It provides you with an opportunity to divide your courses into topics or units, create content, add content, develop simple quizzes and interactive activies as well as bein able to embed video and audio.
If you are new to e-learning I recommend you join edna groups and trial one of your lessons online.
Its free, its fun and easy to use.
If you would also like to include some free existing content then I suggest you also have a look at the Flexible Learning Framework’s Toolbox repository to search for existing content and resources http://toolboxes.flexiblelearning.net.au/
March 4, 2011 at 1:46 am
My reply is simply Yes. Wordle, Blogger, Picasa, Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Sites, Google News, Partnersinrhyme, Soungle, just to name a few. =)
March 4, 2011 at 5:57 am
I have so many favorite web tools that it is really hard to just pick one! If I had to it would be the countdown timer on http://www.classtools.net.
I wrote a blog post on it here: http://digitaleducationforenglishteachers.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-favourite-web-tool.html
I also have a website with links to other tools: http://www.digitalenglishteachers.com
March 4, 2011 at 7:08 am
I’d love to help out. One that quickly jumps to mind is DoInk. There loads more I am a huge fan of and use often (like Edmodo, Twitter, SimpleBooklet, etc).
March 4, 2011 at 9:44 am
Hi Ronnie,
In terms of free tools I love Glogster, Animoto, Prezi. These are just a few of the tools I use with students and teachers at my high school. Would love to help out if I can.
March 16, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Ditto, those are 3 of my favorites.
March 5, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Hi Ronnie,
Not easy to say which is my favourite free webtool, but I would add that Tagxedo and Tagul make beautiful word. Voxopop is another great tool which creates oral discussions. And then there is VoiceThread…and I could go on!
I’ve been collecting free tools on my website, with links to many other free tools. Hope you may find them useful and fun to use in class.
http://cristinaskybox.blogspot.com/
March 6, 2011 at 4:25 am
Wordle is such an easy and quick to use tool. Whenever I’m coming up short on a picture/image to add to a blog post, I just copy/paste the post into Wordle and I immediately have an image that I can pop in. That’s what I did this week when I couldn’t think of what to use. Here is what I did.
March 6, 2011 at 9:04 am
I’m not sure if you’d call this a web tool, but one of my favourite’s is Storybird http://storybird.com/
I also really like the countdown clock and use it in my grade 3 class to time all kinds of things from running around the school to math drills. I also really like using Voicethreads.
March 18, 2011 at 8:27 am
I use Storybird in my 3rd grade class too!
March 7, 2011 at 11:11 am
A great free resource I use for behavior is http://www.weebehave.com. This site allows you to enter students (or your personal children) and the tasks/chores/behaviors you want to focus on. I use it with my son at home and now a few students in my classroom at school.
After you enter the child and tasks, you can enter a green, yellow or red smiley face as to how well that task was performed. You can use it for differentiation with behaviors. This site is adding things as feedback comes in. Check it out!
March 8, 2011 at 7:13 am
Hi Tara,
We’d love to have you share more about weebehave. Can you email us at support@edublogs.org with your email address so we can share more?
March 19, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for the kind words. Here’s a recent review of our website and services. http://sanjasays.blogspot.com/2011/03/weebehave.html
Thanks, Travis
March 7, 2011 at 2:17 pm
A free web tool (that hasn’t been named) that my Kindergarten – 2nd graders have experienced is Kerpoof (www.kerpoof.com). This is a great creative expression and digital storytelling tool. Teachers can create class accounts. Then students log into a special part of the site: (www.kerpoof.com/student). This gives them to opportunity to save their works, share them, earn coins for neat drawing tools, rate and comment on each others’ works.
I’ve used all of the tools, but for the younger students, we’ve used “Make a Drawing” and “Make a Picture” the most. They also enjoy “Spell a Picture” and “Make a Movie”.
There’s also “Make an Card” and “Tell a Story” which are equally creative and fun activities.
This is a great free tool that you can use from Kindergarten up through 8th grade.
March 18, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Hi Theresa,
My kiddos love Kerpoof! My 5 year old creates so much with it, while my 10 year old loves spicing up his homework by using one of the Kerpoof tools and then sends it to his teacher for homework. It’s wonderful.
Kind regards,
Tracy Watanabe
March 8, 2011 at 4:23 am
Hello, I use Podomatic, Google Mail, Google Docs, Google Sites, Kidblogs, Edublogs, and Twitter. Twitter is an awesome way to follow people for educational purposes such as following global people that are making a difference in the world.
March 8, 2011 at 7:07 am
Hi Owen – We’d love to contact you about writing a post. Can you email us at support@edublogs.org with your contact info
March 8, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I would like to share a great resource that I use outside of school. It is not necessarily for education purposes, but it could be used in a life skills class, with a cooking or health unit or a variety of other ways.
The web tool is http://onetsp.com/. It is an online personalized cookbook where you can save your favorite recipes, organize them in categories, tag them and keep them accessable for any time you are on the web.
I use it so much and love it, especially since I live so far away from my family. Any time I go and visit, I have me recipes at the flick of a button.
March 8, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Hi, one of my favourites is Symbaloo http://www.symbaloo.com
It is a bookmarking tool.
I use it personally and have set up an account for my class (They are third graders.) They love it and now expect everything that I mention in class that is a website to be listed.
It is a cloud app so the students can access it at anytime. At the moment I am the only who can put sites on the class account but many of my students are making their own.
March 16, 2011 at 5:22 am
I would be glad to help out with a blog post on favorite web 2.0 tools. A couple of my favorites are EDU Glogster and Edmodo. I have actually combined Edmodo with EDU Glogster at a state conference that I recently presented at. Let me know how I can be of help.
March 16, 2011 at 6:32 am
I love using Wallwisher (http://www.wallwisher.com/) It’s an online noticeboard and has lots of potential for collaboration.
I often get my students to add to a wall as a plenary session or to share their thoughts about a particular topic. It allows you to upload image, music, video, pages, text to a sticky note on your wall.
March 16, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Hi,
There is an online diary called http://www.penzu.com
where you can write your daily activities and the main thing is its privacy . none will read your dairy.Justa like a personal book you can manage it .
March 16, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Hey Ronnie,
I’ve definitely tried to incorporate as many Web 2.0 tools into my classroom blog as possible. A couple of my favorite free tools, as far as ability to incorporate them into a lesson and ease of use would be Prezi and VoiceThread.
I think Prezis lend themselves well to sharing a concept in a non-linear fashion with the students. It definitely engages the students in a new way.
An example – http://mravery.edublogs.org/2011/02/19/allaboard/
VoiceThreads are a great way to present information in a fashion that allow students to create video or audio to share information. I love them for the collaborative nature. Students can create projects using them and others can comment or they can be used for group projects.
An example – http://mravery.edublogs.org/2011/03/13/quadblogavery/
I’d be more than happy to write a post about either of these.
Shawn Avery
Plympton, Massachusetts
March 17, 2011 at 4:35 am
Hey guys!
Any takers for Twitter? How about Livebinders? That is my go to tool for now. Or what about Voicethread? I could go on and on and on.
Steven W. Anderson
Twitter: @web20classroom
March 18, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Hi Steven,
I love Voicethread, and posted “VoiceThread your Riddles” on my blog… However, I think only the first three are free and after that there is a fee.
Kelly Tenkely’s Livebinders are fabulous, however I haven’t created anything on them. Easy? Difficult? What are your thoughts?
As for Twitter, I’m still figuring it out. I ended up on two lists and had to tell myself it has to be a good thing, but I still don’t know what it means. So, I’m very much a newbie. I keep trying it out though, and maybe one day I’ll figure it out. =)
My answer to Ronnie’s question about my favorite free web tool is Google Apps for Education. The collaboration features has transformed the way we can work together and communicate. This is our second year using it in our K-12 school district and it’s fabulous.
Kind regards,
Tracy Watanabe
March 18, 2011 at 8:28 am
Diigo has been a very useful tool for me, and for my 3rd graders who have a class page. Would be happy to write about it if you are in need.
March 18, 2011 at 3:38 pm
I like to introduce my students to a variety of web 2.0 tools, give them a platform such as GlogsterEDU or Weebly for Education and then let them create and share. An example I am currently working with an ESOL class on involves some of my favorites: PicLits, Wallwisher, YouPublisher, Tagxedo, Wordle, and Jing. There are alternatives for each of these tools that my students continue to explore with me. Learning is contagious!
March 20, 2011 at 7:12 am
Really not sure what I would do without a social bookmarking site: Diigo or Delicious. Not only do I save bookmarks but also share and research. Before I use a search engine, I do a delicious search, and consult my network. Also Diigo allos you to “take notes” on any website. Highlight and sticky note features rock.
I do have a LEAST favorite tool: ANIMOTO.
I mean for a quick and dirty mashup, ok…just don’t try to call it Digital Storytelling.
March 23, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Twitter revolutionize the concept of global sharing and worldwide collaboration https://twitter.com/#!/web20education , wikispaces a free tool colaborative collaboration in XXI Century Education http://web20andsocialmediaineducation2010.wikispaces.com/ and blogger to publish web 2.0 #edtech20 edtools
http://teacherluciandumaweb20.blogspot.com/
March 23, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Now I use scoop.it the XXI Century Social Media curation tool http://www.scoop.it/t/web20andsocialmediaesafetyinxxicenturyeducation/
March 24, 2011 at 5:17 am
I am a Glogster Ambassador for GlogsterEDU, so it is save to say that glogs are my favorite web2.0 tool. I use them with students for presentations, creating lessons or tutorials for other students, PD training, WebQuest format, Resources, tutorials over technology tools.
I also love Edmodo, prezi, symbaloo, and livebinders