TuxPaint {Windows, Macintosh, Linux]

TuxPaint - [Open Source] "is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (for example, preschool and K-6). It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program."

It opens with a blank canvas with tools along the edges. Besides the expected brush, line, color, text tools there is also a rubber stamp. More fonts and stamps can be added, even making your own! Tons of "magic" effects.

Enjoy their Gallery of pictures drawn by children (and Adults) around the world!

Screen Capture

Screen capture is useful in MANY ways while collaborating. Two great programs for Macintosh are Skitch and SnapNDrag. Word of caution here. Just because you CAN capture anything that is on the screen, does not give you any right to re-publish copyrighted material! As a teacher, screen capture is great for creating illustrated tutorials. As a collaborator, let your partners see exactly what you mean.

I know there are some good (free) programs out there for Windows also, so if you have used a screen capture program and think it is a good one, recommend it here through the comments. Be sure to include information for where to find it!

No YouTube?

YouTube has many really good, educationally solid videos, yet is banned in many schools, either because of Administrative rulings or band width problems. Tooble to the rescue. At home download the free Tooble application [Windows or Mac OS X]. Search from within Tooble for the desired video, download. Tooble seamlessly converts the video to .mp4 format. Put the video on a CD or Flash drive and use it. (Will play using iTunes or QuickTime). There is also a Tooble Pro version available for very little money.

Wordle

Worlde is a word cloud generating tool. The one here was created by using the text on the opening page of the GVC site. Words that are larger in the "cloud", are those which appear more frequently in the text. If you click the small image, it will take you to the full screen version.