Delicious

If you're like me, your Favorites bar is chock full of Websites that you'd like to remember. Delicious may be the answer you're looking for. It is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. Set up a free account and start gathering bookmarks. You can share your bookmarks with others and search the service for bookmarks that fit your interest. Check out the "hot list" on the home page for an idea of what's popular. The tagging system makes searching simple. Depending on your web browser, you can even synchronize bookmark features and have access to your account anywhere, anytime. http://delicious.com/

Flickr

Flickr applies Creative Commons licensing to oline photo sharing, offering an alternative to full copyrighted photos/images. You can upload, share, and explore others' photos. In addition, users can add comments and blocks of notes on the photos for others to see. Under their Creative Commons licensing there are four levels of use: "Attribution" allows you to copy, display, and distribute works if credit is given; "Noncommercial" allows you to copy, display, and distribute works for noncommercial use only; "No Derivative Works" allows you to copy, display, and distribute only verbatim works, not derivative works; and "Share Alike" allows you to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the present governing license. Try Flickr Creative Commons instead of Google Images the next time your students search for photos/images for a project. http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons

TeacherTube

TeacherTube is a video sharing website based on YouTube that caters to educational environments. The site allows teachers, librarians, administrators, and others in the education field to share videos, audio, documents, and photos. You can share lesson plan videos, documents, student videos, and much more; and it's a great tool for finding fresh ideas for your own classroom or library. Students can upload videos as part of a class assignment or can enter contests to win prizes for the school. Usually, TeacherTube gets past district firewalls, unlike YouTube. Even administrators get in on the fun - check out the spoof on the Sprint/Nextel Oh baby, baby commercial titled "Walkthroughs and Learning Objectives" under Most Viewed Videos. http://www.teachertube.com/

Spelling City

Spelling City is a free online spelling program that allows students to compile customized spelling lists by entering individual words. The program recognizes over 42,000 spelling words. Once students input their spelling words or access a featured list, they have three options to choose from: "Teach Me", "Play a Game", or "Test Me". The "Teach Me" feature pronounces, spells, displays the word, and uses it in a sentence. There are 12 games available to play with weekly lists. The "Test Me" feature repeats each spelling word and uses it in a sentence. After completing the test, students can print a progress report. There are teacher training videos to show teachers and parents how to use the program and access the customizable features. Spelling City has received many awards, including: AEP Golden Lamp Finalist, Teachers' Choice and Parents' Choice. Kids can access this award winning site from school or home to make spelling practice fun. http://www.spellingcity.com/

StoryJumper

StoryJumper is a Web 2.0 application that provides a safe and educational place for kids to write and illustrate stories. Children/adults can use available templates to build a book from scratch, build a treasure map, or create a personalized calendar. You can explore stories already published by adults and children and there is an option to buy a hardcover copy of published books. There is a classroom edition specifically for educators which provides: an interface to manage and review students' work and allow stories to be shared between the classroom and home with strict privacy controls. Online tutorials, in a workbook format, are available for teaching students the creative writing process by building seven primary components of a story (character, challenge, motivation, setting, obstacles, climax and closing). All materials can be adjusted to individual classroom or student needs. Explore this site and all it has to offer at http://www.storyjumper.com/.

Fodey

Fodey.com allows users to make a newspaper clipping. This site can be used with students in all curricular areas to provide a creative way to publish a finished piece. Students would name their newspaper, date the clipping, create a headline, and provide the text of the story. Finished newspapers can be downloaded and printed or embedded into a class website or blog. In addition to newspaper clippings, students can create animated, text generators and talking objects, such as a ninja, wizard, squirrel, tomato, flower, etc.

Photostory 3

Microsoft's Photostory 3 for Windows allows you to be creative with your photos. You can create slideshows using your digital photos, add special effects, sound tracks, and your own voice narration. You can touch-up, crop, rotate, and personalize your photos with titles and captions. You can share your photo story through email; by uploading it into a wiki, blog, or web page; and by creating a video CD or DVD. For a Flat Stanley project with 2nd grade students, we created a photostory of Flat Stanley's adventures on the school's playground and of his road trip to Columbus, OH for a regatta event. Students in 5th grade created a photostory as a culminating activity for their Duck Project. They took digital photos of their rubber duck being involved in different activities at school and home, and then put them together, added a title and captions, and created a soundtrack to play throughout their slideshow. They were also able to make their projects unique and creative by adding special effects. Photostory 3 is a free download, is easy to use, and allows students a creative outlet for completing projects.

Jing-Zotero Tutorial

Powerpoint in the Classroom

Microsoft's Powerpoint program is a great presentation tool for students in any classroom. In addition to the usual Powerpoint slides that accompany a verbal presentation, the program can be used as a creative way to publish written works, create study aides, create educational games, and much more. A few ideas for using Powerpoint in the classroom (my focus is elementary) include: accordian books, mini books, paper chains, post-its, flip charts, Twenty Questions, Jeopardy, advertising tents, totem poles, WordArt poetry, greeting cards, and flash cards. In working with students in grades 2-5 on creating Powerpoint projects, it always amazes me how quickly and easily they are successful in mastering this program. In a short time they become experts at layering clip art and formatting slides in a creative way to showcase their knowledge on a given topic. Sometimes we are "Powerpointed" to death in the classroom and workplace, so it's important to provide different means for students to publish their work, even though Microsoft's Powerpoint continues to be a powerful tool.

Glogster

Glogster EDU is a Web 2.0 application that is a fun and creative way to integrate images, video, and audio into interactive lessons. It can be used with the whole group to introduce a concept or with small groups and individuals to reinforce or enrich a concept. Students can use Glogster EDU to create literature discussion projects, subject posters, or to highlight a topic in a unique way. It's often called digital scrapbooking, and is easy for students of all ages to use. I had two first grade students create a glogster to publish information they learned through an independent study of a topic of their choice. We worked for two enrichment periods (30 minutes each) to upload images and add text. They were very successful in creating their posters with little difficulty. Glogster is also a great medium for putting images together with student created videos for display on the school's website. Give Glogster a try: http://edu.glogster.com/.