Hello and welcome to Episode 1 of the podcast series, “40 Webtools for the Classroom!” I’m Janice Newlin.
This series of podcasts will introduce you to some of the best web 2.0 tools you can use in your classroom to foster creativity, communication and collaboration. These tools will be presented to you using the web 2.0 tool, Only2Clicks. You may have noticed the URL to the web link at the beginning of this episode. At this Only2Clicks site you’ll be able to return later to explore and decide which web tools will fit nicely with your personal classroom curriculum. The Only2Clicks site views better in Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Please note when you click on the little yellow sticky note at each link you will find my notes from this episode.
Let’s begin with. . .
Google Apps: (Let introduction play.) Google offers so many great resources for educators. This link is actually a web-based, self-paced instructional site where you and your teachers can learn each of the free web applications provided by Google. All of Google’s web applications offer an online alternative to traditional office suites. The main advantage of Google Apps is obvious - your documents are always available online, ready to be viewed and edited. You don't need to install any additional software on your computer. All you need is an internet connection and a standard web browser.
Boolify: The advent of the internet increased the amount of information available to the general public exponentially. The people of Boolify, joined together because they realized that while the amount of available information had increased, the tools to find it were not being properly taught to children. Boolify is a tool that enables students to be able to visualize the search process by using puzzle pieces to put their search together. Boolify uses the Google Safe Search engine so results are appropriate for children and it teaches children to use proper Boolean searches. While aimed at primary and middle-school children, Boolify is a great tool for anyone who is not familiar with the ins and outs of Boolean searching.
QuizStar is a Web-based quiz maker that enables you to create, administer and automatically grade your quizzes online! With QuizStar you can: manage classes and quizzes; attach multimedia files to questions; make quizzes in multiple languages; access from any Internet-connected computer; allow students to complete the quiz and use as a review. Let’s look at an example!
Are you looking for a way to have your students send you their assignments electronically without filling up your email box? DROPitTOme is a free service that works with Drop Box to allow people to upload files to your Drop Box account without giving them access to the contents of your Drop Box account. For those not familiar with Drop Box it is a service that provides 2GB of free online file storage. You can access your Drop Box from any computer and most mobile devices. You can also sync it across multiple computers. DROPitTOme works by synchronizing with your Drop Box account. After connecting the two services DROPitTOme provides a url that you can give to others to upload files to your Drop Box account. You must specify a password that has to be entered before an upload can take place. Give the url and password to those people you want to be able to upload files to your Drop Box account.
LearnBoost is a free online gradebook and lesson plan software for teachers. You can manage your classroom, keep track of student grades, create and manage lesson plans, track attendance, maintain your schedule, import your Google calendars, and more. Let’s take a tour!
PDF to Word is a great free tool that lets you upload any PDF document to their site and they will convert the file into a Microsoft Word Document and Email it back to you. When I gave this a try I received the file within 20 minutes. A great tool with an easy interface! Certainly handy for teachers who want to edit pre-made documents such as sample standardized tests.
Symbalooedu is a terrific web based tool used to visually organize your favorite websites, present an online web-quest, lesson or a collection of related web resources including: websites, documents, rss feeds, various widgets, photos, videos, etc. Both teachers and students are using Symbaloo to create online Personal Learning Environments.
With Bagtheweb, teachers can collect teaching materials into "bags" for students to study and to assign homework. Students can build bags to collect information for their courses and to create projects. (Click on Jeff Thomas Bag on right). One of the great features of Bag the Web is their bookmarklet. Drag it to your bookmarks bar and then every time you want to collect a resource, click on it and then add it to an existing bag or create a new one. The greatest feature of the bookmarklet is that it will let you know if you’ve already bagged a certain resource. This is invaluable in avoiding duplicates.
LiveBinders is your 3-ring binder for the Web where you can collect your resources, organize them neatly and easily, and present them. LiveBinder may be a good choice for digital portfolios of student work.
Zunal Webquest Maker: I’m very impressed with this one. As you know, a webquest is an extended project based around internet research and tools. Zunal Webquest Maker organizes this process very neatly. It gives you a readymade format to tinker with and place the nuts and bolts of your webquest into. There aren’t many web tools that I bother paying to upgrade, but with a lot of additional features and an up to 50 (rather than just one) webquest limit, $20 for three years seems reasonable – oh, and for that, you can modify anyone else’s published webquest to suit yourself too!
This concludes this episode of 40 Webtools for your Classroom. Be sure to view the other episodes included in this series.