Interview: Assistant Director for Digital Learning
Age recommendation by the tool’s website
(no-filtering, teacher-use-only, middle, high,
parent-permission-required-under-13, )
ThumbScribes is a platform for creating collaborative writing pieces.
Co+Create haiku, poems, short stories, flash fiction, novellas, and songs, real time or asynchronously with your computer, tablet, cell phone or even IM.
(13+, no-filtering, middle, high)
Numsum allows users to collaborate through web-based spreadsheets by tracking records, lists and data online. Spread sheets can be saved public, private and/or shared with specific users. A maximum of 2 private spreadsheets can be shared at a time. Classroom use is cross-curricular. Share checklists, budget analysis, charts & graphs, rosters, schedules, etc amongst each other. Public spreadsheets are searchable by tags and can be copied for personal use.
Example will take you to NumSum website.
Slidestaxx is a slide show program, like Animoto, that allows for the upload of pictures, movies, bookmarks, or information, then creates a slide show. It requires that photos be smaller than 1 mb. It is designed to embed easily into web pages, shared via Facebook, etc. Some classroom applications include presentations and video logs. The site states:
Slidestaxx enables you to gather social media from various sources and produce a beautiful slideshow you can post on your blog, website or directly on slidestaxx. It’s fast, easy and free! Add pictures, videos, websites and more into your slideshow and then embed the slidestaxx into your own website or blog.
(13+, no-filtering, middle, high)
Examples of slidestaxx will take you to their website to view slide show:
The site allows for individual account creations only.
(13, filtering, elementary, middle, parent-permission-required-under-13)
StoryJumper is a site which allows the user to create and publish storybooks. The user can decide if the book is available to the public or private. Teachers are able to create classroom accounts.
Take a look at The Legend of Momoraro example book.
Quizlet (13, no-filtering, teacher-use-only, elementary, middle, high, parent-permission-required-under-13,)
Quizlet is the largest flash cards and study games website with over 7 million free sets of flashcards covering every possible subject. It’s the best place to play educational games, memorize vocabulary and study online.
Quizlet allows users to make and share flash cards. Classroom applications include making flash cards, sharing them, and using them to review and study concepts.
Testimonial:
Quizlet has made my teaching life so much easier! I can now create vocabulary presentations in a few minutes and post my sets to my school blog so that students review the language taught at home. Moreover, my students love playing the games Quizlet automatically generates. They have lots of fun!
LiveBinders (13+, no-filtering, elementary, middle, high)
LiveBinders is a repository of sites and/or information which can be organized as if it were a real 3 ring binder. Upload documents, pictures, pdfs, bookmark webpages then organize your information into tabs or subtabs within a binder or create a new binder. Binders may be set as private or public. In both cases, user may share the binder with others. Some classroom applications include presentations, classwork, projects, and research, among others.
Example of public livebinders:
An account must be created to use LiveBinders. Educators can search LiveBinders by subject and grade level. Site says, “Please do not enter personal email addresses for children under 13 as we are not allowed to collect this data. Please use school generated or teacher generated email addresses.”
Study Boost (13, no-filtering, elementary, middle, high, parent-permission-required-under-13)
Study Boost allows teachers to set up a set (or multiple sets) of study questions for their students. Students can then use one of several messaging programs, including Yahoo Messenger and Facebook messaging to receive and answer the study questions on their own time. Study Boost can be set up to give them feedback on incorrect answers or simply ask them to try again. The study question set is available on computers and mobile devices, wherever the students use messaging.
Vuvox (13, no-filtering, t high, parent-permission-required-under-18)
WordItOut (13+, Parent permission required if under 13, high)
WordItOut An attractive arrangement of randomly positioned words, where the most important words are bigger than the others. They are fantastic at summarising large documents (reports, speeches, questionnaires, etc), teaching kids and more. You can type in your words, sentences or paragraphs. You can also copy and paste documents and reports.
WordItOut allows users to make word clouds. Saving and downloading the clouds does require an email address, so this would work best for students with email account.
Some classroom applications include brainstorming to see what words come up most often, or maybe having students copy a report and paste it into the text box to see if there are overused words involved in the text. Teachers can copy and paste verbage from content text to give a review for exams.
Here is one example: http://worditout.com/word-cloud/42623
Blabberize (filtering, elementary, middle, high, parent-permission-required-under-13)
Using individual accounts, Blabberize allows users to give photos a voice. Users can save their finished product as an mp4, embed it, or link to it.
Classroom applications could be to use Blabberize to highlight key vocabulary or concepts in any subject.
Click here for a sample.
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