Flipping Books

Create interactive flipping books free with FlipSnack.

FlipSnack is a page flip software that enables you to create stylish digital flipping books out of your PDF documents. You can use it to share or embed into your website or blog all kinds of documents, from books to newspapers and magazines.

From the website:
"The page flip software is as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. 1. Add your PDF documents. You can add one or more PDF documents from your hard disk or from the Web.
2. 2. Customize your flipping book. Here you can choose cover type, set the flipping book's size, color scheme etc.
3. 3. Publish. Once published, your flipping book collection can be shared on the web in every way imaginable."

Example by an amazing young woman who spent the summer between her high school graduation and college as a volunteer in Africa.

YouTube for Schools

Create a YouTube School account http://www.youtube.com/schools and guide your student access to appropriate YouTube content. Many videos from recognized educational sources (including Khan Academy.)

"School admins and teachers can log in and watch any video, but students cannot log in and can only watch YouTube EDU videos plus videos their school has added. All comments and related videos are disabled and search is limited to YouTube EDU videos."

Available also are playlists created by other educators.  Videos are aligned to common educational standards and organized by grade level and subject.

YouTube also has created a page for teachers, YouTube.com/Teachers, to help them learn to use the site as a powerful educational tool.

Curate your favorite topic

Scoop it "creates your topic-centered media by collecting gems among relevant streams.
Publish it to your favorite social media or to your blog," Scoop-it browses the web and 'collects' media; you edit and select what you want to appear in your "scoop".

Want to see a good example?  Take a look at Susan Oxnevad's Ten Minutes of Tech.

JewelBeat Royalty Free Music

Just what creative students and teachers need, a place where they can use, remix music and sound effects!

In the creator's own words: "Use these free music tracks & free sound effects for any production - advertising, education, videos, photos, YouTube...etc.

These music tracks can be looped seamlessly & repeated to create a longer music track for your projects.

You only need to link to our website from yours:
"Music by JewelBeat. Download your free music and free sound effects at www.jewelbeat.com."

Sometimes paper is best

Many of us are familiar with digital graphic organizers - sometimes called mind maps, but sometimes paper is the way to go, especially with small groups physically in the same spot! For just some times Holt McDougal Online has published, free of charge, downloadable PDF files for various organizers. They also come with teaching notes on how to use them in the classroom.

Create Quizzes with MyStudiyo

In their own words:

"MyStudiyo offers a rich FREE solution to create online quizzes . Embed a great looking quiz widget in any website or blog without programming."

Registration required, but free. There is no limit on the number of questions and you can add video, images, and text. Check out there FAQ page for even more information.

Want to see a quiz or two? Check out what the History Channel has created!

Virtual Whiteboard

Sneffel describes itself as a collaborative doodle pad. There is practically no learning curve to begin use. You man sign up, but it is not required. The product is in development, created by a young programmer attending University College London, who is interested in tools for education. He is open to suggestions also, so jut email him: matthew@sneffel.com or use the feedback button on the bottom of the board. Sneffel is donation ware (young programmers DO need to pay for their education.)

After creating a 'doodle pad' you can just send the URL to partners. [example] If you are working at the same time, you will actually see it happening in real time. Pads can also be embedded in a website.

Tip: Higher math teachers who are teaching how to solve difficult problems, use Sneffel. Create a step by step demo of how to solve. Embed it on a page or in a blog. Students can then go to it and hit the 'replay' button to see the steps worked out.

Photo Album Application

A new tool for creating photo albums is jalbum. You can create your albums online or download the application for creating and saving on your computer, to be published where you wish. The jalbum site gives you 30MB of free space. If you want/need more than that you'll have to upgrade and pay for additional space. There are several default 'skins' [album designs] and more are being created daily for free download. If you have questions, check out their FAQs.

Recommended by Aleksandra Blalteberg, who created this album and this album as samples.

App available for: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and iPhone.

Visual Organizers

Early in the 2009 school year, a post was done about Webspiration. This is still a great collaborative visual organizer! For some, however, it may have too many choices and unfortunately, in the Fall of 2010 the public beta will be over and they will move to Classroom subscriptions. That means money. Fabulous tool if your district can get it.

Another visual organizer tool that is very basic, but can still be collaborative is Bubbl.us [http://bubbl.us] Partners can be given rights to edit or only read. Registration is required, but is free. Here is a very simple bubbl.us mind map.

Timeline tool

Timetoast is an easy to use timeline generator. Does require setting up an account, but all free. There are many already created that can be helpful to students and teachers alike. Best of all they can be embeded into a web page or blog! Here is an example:

Flash Slides

The flashslide maker is a free tool http://www.flash-slideshow-maker.com/

"You can easily make a dynamic photo gallery for your website, blog, and CD's. It is user friendly and lots of fun."
Marsha Goren

Free download - Windows only. There is a paid version if you do not want the link back to the site, but the link is tasteful and does not take away from the slide show. There are many templates in which you can choose a unique look. Timing can be controlled; music added. All in all, a nice tool.

See an example here; you may need to click the stop icon to read the words.

WallWisher

WallWisher is a free tool that allows you to create a page of online sticky notes. In addition to text, the notes can include images, links and videos as long as that media is already stored somewhere else online. Create a themed wall, then invite others to add stickies. Just think of all the ways this Cool Tool can be used! [Contributed by Susan Oxnevad.]

Samples:
Marsha Goren - Dreams for the future
Janet Barnstable - Save Earth!

Revisiting Hot Potatoes

In September of last year, the Hot Potatoes was put into the public domain, which means it is free for everyone to use. [See Sept 1 blog entry] It's a great educational tool for making quizzes and crosswords and matching.

The one thing that may be difficult is that it's not as intuitive to use as some of the more contemporary programs. So, here is a little help. All files are PDF format.

1. Creating Quizzes
2. Making a Crossword
3. Creating a Matching Exercise (Including how to add images)

Students quickly learn how to create with the program also!

Comic Creator

Comic Creator invites students to create their own comic strip. Characters and props and backgrounds are a bit limited, but not a bad start. They also have resource lessons for various grade levels from K-12.

Completed cartoon cannot be saved, but can be "printed" either on actual paper or as a PDF document. [With Macintosh this is a standard "print as pdf" operation; with Windows, I believe you need a print as pdf plugin. There are several free ones out there.]

Smilebox

Smilebox is a great way to send ecards and/ or slideshows to your partners. Use your own photos. Hundreds of designs for almost any occasion. Music too, or you can add your own. FREE version does have advertising.

Here's a sample of what you can do.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Adding Bling

Bling is good in small doses! Just be sure not to overdo it. Also be aware that when these sites "host" your video or slide show, they can sometimes be busy and make it appear as if there is a bad link, or format that isn't working.

1. RockYou Text effects
   http://www.rockyou.com/fxtext/fxtext-create.php?ref=front
   Sparlkes, bevels, colors, etc. to make banners or headings.
   
   
2. RockYou Photo FX
   http://www.rockyou.com/photofx/create.php?ref=front
   add sparkles, etc to photos.
   
   
3. RockYou Slideshow
   http://www.rockyou.com/slideshow-create.php?source=fpcws
   Create a slide show with your picture and add music
   
   
4. PhotoPeach
   http://photopeach.com/home
   Similar to Rock You in that you have a video like slideshow made from photos

Animation tools

If you've seen Flash animations, but the program is not in your budget, there are a few free alternatives.

1. Pivot stick animator - (Windows Only)
   http://psfao.com/
   This free software download is a great asset to any classroom. Though it does use stick figures, creative students can do great things. Animations are saved as animated gifs. Hint: do not start with a very large background, or the animation size will be too big.
   
   
2. Flashberry.com (Windows only)
   http://www.flashberry.com/
   Free flash intros - but must use IE browser to create
   
   
3. Scratch - (Windows or Mac - download program and work offline - available in many languages
   http://scratch.mit.edu/
   Create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, art. This is a full program with a bit of a learning curve, but also lots of help online. For more see their info for educators page.