Mary E.

Green
4/28/2008

Communication Tools

E-mail an asynchronous communication tool and instant messaging a synchronous tool

are probably the most well known communication tools. Currently, Yahoo, Google, MSN
and AOL provide free accounts for both types of communication.

** Meebo.com – This is a site where one can easily login and use AIM, Yahoo, Google
Talk or MSN instant messaging services from any computer with Internet connection.

http://blog.meebo.com/about

Skype – Make free calls from your computer over the Internet to other Skype users.

http://www.skype.com/

Blog

A blog is an online journal that is good for posting thoughts or reflections on material
presented in class. It is also a good place for academic discussions. In a blog it is
possible to add pictures and links to relevant web sites. Some of the more popular sites to
set up a blog include blogger and Wordpress

** Wordpress

http://wordpress.org/

Blogger

https://www.blogger.com/start

**Tumblr – an easy no hassle blog type place to post audio, video or text.

http://www.tumblr.com/

Social Networking and Resource Sharing

Many social networks also include options to create a blog, add videos, form groups,
share files and more. Links to some of the more popular social networking sites are
below.

MySpace

http://www.myspace.com/

FaceBook

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http://www.facebook.com/

**Ning

http://www.ning.com/

Twitter.com is a social networking/instant messaging services for friends, family, and co–
workers to communicate and answer the question: “What are you doing?”

http://twitter.com/

Social Bookmarking and Specialized Social Networking

Social Bookmarking is saving your favorite websites to a server for later retrieval from
any computer with Internet connection. The list of favorites is organized using tags and
descriptions making them easy to find among a long list of favorites. The power of social
bookmarking is that it is possible to join or form groups around a particular topic and
access their favorites as well. Some of the more popular social bookmarking sites are
listed below.

**Del.icio.us

http://del.icio.us/

Simpy
http://www.simpy.com/

Digg

http://www.digg.com/

Library Thing or Shelfari– Catalogue your books on line and socialize with others who
read the same genre of books.

http://www.librarything.com/

Shelfari

http://www.shelfari.com/

Collaborative Online Tools and Suites

Zoho Suite – is a collaborative online suite that includes presentation, word-processing,

spreadsheet and other applications.

http://www.zoho.com/

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Google Docs – A collaborative online suite that includes presentation, word-processing
and spreadsheets.

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&continue
=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fdocs.google.com%2F&ltmpl=WR_tmp_2_lfty&nui=1&utm_campaig
n=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google%20docs

or

**Google Apps

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/index.html

CMap – collaborative mind mapping tools

http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/

Bubbl.us - collaborative mind mapping tools

http://bubbl.us/

Scribd - is a place to store many types of documents on the Internet for retrieval from any
computer with Internet access and to share with colleagues. It is also possible to imbed
the documents into blogs or webpages.

http://www.scribd.com/

**Mediafire – a place for file storage and sharing

http://www.mediafire.com/

My Udutu – A person is able to create an online course for free at this site. The course
can be extracted and put on your server or they will host it on their server for $1.00 per
day. It is collaborative so several teachers or designers from different parts of the world
can participate in the course development process over the Internet.

http://www.udutu.com/

Wiki

Two K-12 education friendly sites to set up a class Wiki are

Peanut Butter Wiki also known as pbwiki

http://pbwiki.com/wiki.php

Wikispaces for teachers

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http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

**Wetpaint

http://www.wetpaint.com/

MediaWiki – Free software designed to run on a large server wiki farm. It is the wiki
software engine used to run the Wikipedia and other wiki projects.

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download

Sharing Photos and Videos

**Flickr – set up an account and share your photos with anyone or store them to include
in a school project

http://flickr.com/

**YouTube – share your videos online

http://uk.youtube.com/

TeacherTube – share your teaching videos

http://teachertube.com/

SuTree – Video lessons from all over the Web.

http://www.sutree.com/

**Slideshare – A free place to share your slideshow presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/

Photosynth – New from Microsoft – view pictures in 3D, walk through and zoom in and
out. Currently the gallery includes pictures from NASA. The future plans are to allow
users to upload their own digital photos.

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/videops.html

Specialized Search Engines

Google Custom Search Engine. This web 2.0 feature allows the user to create a custom
search engines. With each search engine created, the user can specify to search one web
page to up to 25 web sites. For educational uses, it is possible to choose to include no
advertisements.

http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
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Rollyo – also called Roll Your Own search engine is similar to Google Custom Search
Engine.

http://rollyo.com/

Tripod for teachers by Lycos- This site provides teachers with the space and tools to
create and post their own class website.

http://www.tripod.lycos.com/content/teachers/index.html

**Pageflake – with Pageflake one can easily customize their own page by adding links to
local weather, news, photos, calendars, to do lists and more. It will update automatically
as news, weather and other on your page update.

http://www.pageflakes.com/

Quintura for Kids – A visual search engine for kids

http://kids.quintura.com/

Ask for kids.com – A site where kids can ask questions and get answers.

http://sp.askforkids.com/en/docs/askforkids/help/where_is_jeeves.htm

Yahoo Kids – Search engine for kids

http://kids.yahoo.com/

Google Safe Search for Kids - Search engine for kids

http://www.squirrelnet.com/search/Google_SafeSearch.asp

Picsearch – A place to search for pictures

http://www.picsearch.com/

Picts4Learning – Copyright friendly pictures for education.

http://www.pics4learning.com/

Ditto – A visual search engine that has a tab specifically for searching for images

http://www.ditto.com/default.aspx?mainToolbar=imageSelected

Google Image Search

http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en
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Everyzing – An audio video search engine

http://www.everyzing.com/

Find Sounds – A search engine for sounds

http://www.findsounds.com/

Naturesongs.com – is a site where a teacher can obtain digital nature sounds for
educational use only upon request in writing.

http://www.naturesongs.com/

Wavcentral.com – A database of audio files

http://www.wavcentral.com/

Ivy Coloring Page Search Engine

http://www.ivyjoy.com/coloring/search.html

The link below is an article that lists and describes the top 25 search engines

http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-web20-search-engines

Virtual Worlds

For a list and review of various virtual worlds, see the link below.

http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/index.shtml

Club Penguin – Virtual world for kids

http://www.clubpenguin.com/

WebKinz – Virtual world for kids

http://www.webkinz.com/

Whyville – Virtual world for kids

http://www.whyville.net/smmk/nice

Second Life – Virtual world for college and older – sometimes used in online learning
situations.

https://secure-web8.secondlife.com/
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HabboHotel

http://www.habbo.co.uk/
There.com – virtual world for teens

http://www.there.com/

Library Youth Ning – A forum for youth services librarians

http://libraryyouth.ning.com/

Library Goodness – This is a blog and wiki for librarians to post thoughts and reviews on
books, materials, fundraising etc.

http://librarygoddesses.blogspot.com/

Digital Games

Ayiti: The cost of life

http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html

Sight Words With Samson

http://www.sightwordswithsamson.com/sw/sight_words.asp

Food Force – United Nations World Food Programme Game

http://www.food-force.com/

Working with Maps

Frappr Maps – allows the user to plot their location on a map and leave a message. This
can be embedded into ones social networking site.

http://www.frappr.com/ashobservatory1

Panoramio – a place to post photos, plot where they were taken on a map and trace travel
routes

http://www.panoramio.com/

Google Maps

http://maps.google.com/

Google Earth
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http://earth.google.com/

Google Earth Lessons

http://www.gelessons.com/lessons/

Merriam Webster’s Atlas

http://www.m-w.com/maps/moremapsnyt.html

InfoPlease: World Atlas and Map Library

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/

National Geographic Map Machine – printable maps for kids

http://java.nationalgeographic.com/studentatlas/

Yahoo Maps

http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=39.842286&lon=-98.591309&mag=14

Yahoo Kids

http://kids.yahoo.com/directory/School-Bell/Social-Studies/Geography/Maps

Free software for organizing and geo –tagging photos

JetPhoto

http://www.jetphotosoft.com/web/home/

GeoSetter for Windows

http://www.geosetter.de/en/index.html

Creative Endeavors

Scratch – A new programming language designed make it easy for kids to create
interactive stories, art, games and other projects and share them with others online.
Scratch is a free download.

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Jumpcut – upload, edit, share and make your own videos

http://www.jumpcut.com/
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Windows Moviemaker – comes with Windows operating system.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

Photo Story3 – free movie making software

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

M&M Monster Movie Maker – Create movies and share with friends

http://us.mms.com/us/fungames/games/mmm/

Kerpoof – Create movies or art. This site includes lesson plans and ideas for teachers.

http://www.kerpoof.com/

My Pop Studio –is a site where kids can create media such as magazine articles, music or
TV programs. It was created by Temple University and design to promote critical
thinking and media literacy.

http://www.mypopstudio.com/

Screencasts – Pod casts – Screencast-o-matic allows a person create screen casts online.

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

**Pincik – Online photo editor

http://www.picnik.com/

Creating Music - Kids create music and play games with music.

http://www.creatingmusic.com/

Backyard Jungle - Hosted by PBS Kids, this site encourages kids to explore their
backyard and upload drawings and photos of what they discovered. Included are lesson
plans for teachers.

http://pbskids.org/backyardjungle/

Jacksonpollock.org - is a blank screen that one can draw on with the mouse.

http://jacksonpollock.org/

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Imagination Cubed - is a blank drawing page that allows kids to choose tools, shapes and
colors to create a picture. Kids can use e-mail or instant message to invite a friend to
draw with them

http://www.imaginationcubed.com/LaunchPage

Soda Play - Build creations and share with your friends.

http://sodaplay.com/

Bonus.com - Create your own comic book with lesson plans for language arts based on
California state standards. This site also contains online games

http://www.bonus.com/en/b2/content/item.do?code=home_main#en.www.bonus.com%2
Fb2%2Fcontent%2Fitem.do%3Fcode%3Dhome_main

Mr. Picasso Head – For the young and old alike, Mr. Picasso Head is a site where a
person can create art by combining heads and facial features, add color and post the final
draft to the online gallery.

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/

Popfly – by Microsoft, is a site where the user can build and share mashups, gadgets and
webpages

http://www.popfly.ms/Overview/

Yahoo pipes – A tool to gather resources from around the Web and create a project.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Storytop – Create multi page stories and share the story with a friend. Features drag and
drop clipart for illustration.

http://www.storytop.com/

Seussville Storymaker – Choose background, choose characters, enter dialogue, choose

music and create a story. The story will play back when finished.

http://www.seussville.com/games_hb/storymaker/story_maker.html

Giggles Poetry – This poetry site for kids includes activities for reading, writing and
grading poetry.

http://www.gigglepoetry.com/index.aspx

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Digitized Collections of Text, Pictures and Audio Enhanced Items

**Voice Thread– Allows students to create audio versions of what they learned

http://classic.voicethread.com/classroom.php

Civil Rights in Mississippi is a digital archive of the McCain Library at USM that
contains links to

http://www.lib.usm.edu/~spcol/crda/

Digital History – A database of famous speeches

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/speeches/speeches.cfm

American rhetoric – Top 100 American Political Speeches

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

Gutenberg Project – A database of e-books to download and read

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1

Librivox – Free audio books from the public domain

http://librivox.org/

Audio Guides

Below is a link to audio guides of major cities in the world for tourists. If you type audio
guides in Google search engine, you will get audio guides to museums and other
attractions. It is advisable to listen to the audio guides before using in class because some
may have inappropriate language for k-12 education.

http://www.iaudioguide.com/

Kiddierecords – Audio version of classic children’s stories

http://www.kiddierecords.com/

Lil Fingers – This is audio books for pre-school.

http://www.lil-fingers.com/storybooks/

International Digital Children’s Library – is a site where it is possible to read children’s

books from different cultures in their native language online.

http://www.icdlbooks.org/
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Bookhive – This site is a guide to children’s resources that include book reviews and
some audio stories.

http://www.bookhive.org/

Bookadventure – Find a book by title, author and target audience. Created by Sylvan
Learning and is targeted to K-8th. A child can read a book and take a quiz. The site
includes instructions on how teachers can get information on integrating this site into
their class activities.

http://bookadventure.org/

Tumblebooks.com –Subscription based online library for elementary schools.

http://www.tumblebooks.com/

Educational Resources

Teacher’s Domain.org – Multimedia resources for teachers

http://www.teachersdomain.org/

Curriki is a wiki where teachers can create, share, organize and build a file of lesson
plans.

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

Discovery Educators Network – this site is a portal of educational resources, blogs and
forums.

http://community.discoveryeducation.com/

OER Commons - Open Educational Resources (OER) is created by teachers for teachers
of K -12 education through graduate school. This site contains lesson plans including
lecture notes on many different subject matters. The lesson plans are rated. The site
includes networking with other teachers as well as tagging capability for easy
organization of resources.

http://www.oercommons.org/

Wikiversity

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page

Wiki Educator

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http://www.wikieducator.org/Main_Page

Promethean Planet – Lesson plans and forums on using active white boards

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/us/server.php?show=nav.008008&20071218083718

Miscellaneous

**Zamzar – An online file conversion tool

http://www.zamzar.com/

**Classmaker – A lesson planning tool and calendar.

http://www.classmaker.com

**Remember the Milk – an online to do list

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

**CircaVie – A place to post a timeline of your life

http://www.circavie.com/

**Footnote – a place to view original online documents

http://www.footnote.com/

Girls Go Tech - This site is a place for girls to learn about technology.

http://www.girlsgotech.org/

FunBrain – Geared to K-8th grade. This site contains educational games, flashcards and
other activities.

http://www.funbrain.com/

Nick Jr. - Learning games for preschool.

http://www.nickjr.com/playtime/cats/stories/index.jhtml

Enchanted Learning Crafts - This site is subscription based but only $20.00 per year. As a
subscriber you get printable sheets as well as seeing the site without banner
advertisement.

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http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/

DLTK’s Sites - Printable coloring pages and crafts for kids

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

Thebestkidsbooksite.com – Resources (finger plays, crafts, songs, etc.) for k-5 education

http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/fingerplays-for-kids.cfm

Story place – There are many activities to explore for elementary students and teachers.

http://www.storyplace.org/eel/other.asp

Imagined Cube - This is a visual illusion of a cube. The student must stare at the circles
to see the cube.

http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/fun/illusion/box2.html

**Dr. Yuen’s Top 20

http://www.slideshare.net/scyuen/top-20-free-web-applications-for-teachers-
and-librarians/

** These sites are Dr. Yuen’s top 20 picks

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