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PollCode - Boardhost.com
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Share polls on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start a new unit, asking questions about the material. Discuss in groups why students would choose a particular answer to uncover misconceptions. Use for Daily quiz questions to check student understanding as a means of formative assessment. Use a class account to have student groups alternate to create a new poll for the next day. Place a poll on your teacher web page as a homework inspiration or to ask questions to increase parent involvement. Older students may want to include polls on their student blogs to increase reader involvement. Have students create polls to use at the start of project presentations. Use polls to generate data for math class (graphing), during elections, or for critical thinking activities dealing with the interpretation of statistics. Use "real" data to engage students on issues and current events that matter to them.GIFMaker - GIFmaker.me
Grades
K to 12tag(s): animation (65), images (263), photography (130)
In the Classroom
Create animations of any image! Animate inanimate objects such as a leaf or other object by taking two different pictures of it so it can "change." Use your animations as a focus for story creation or free writing. Animate images used by students for their individual web pages to set the scene for their "About Me" introductions. Design and shoot images to animate as an introduction to a project or report. Challenge older students to create their own animated GIF images. (No registration is required.) Photograph and create GIFs to show two stages of insect development, the growth of a plant, or other scientific concepts.Sketchometry - Sketchometry
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), functions (52), geometric shapes (135), perspective (14)
In the Classroom
This tool is great for creating and visualizing math concepts from basic geometric shapes and area to complex constructions and trig. Use on a whiteboard or with a class projector for interactive classroom use. Save or retrieve creations with Dropbox, reviewed here or Google Drive, reviewed here. Use for hands-on work with any geometry or trigonometry functions. Since this tool works on such a variety of devices, it would be ideal to use in a BYOD (or 1:1) geometry class. Art teachers who want to "draw in" their more mathematical students can offer this as a design option, especially when teaching about perspective.Slideful - slideful.com
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use Slideful to create quick slideshows for any classroom use. Easily share images on your website or blog from field trips, classroom projects, or assemblies. Have students create presentations to "introduce" themselves to the class during the first week of school. Create a slide show to introduce any unit and have students guess what they will be learning.Scrible - Scrible
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): citations (33), curation (32), Research (87), summarizing (23)
In the Classroom
Your students' online research will be efficient and effective with Scrible. Students can take notes on their bookmarks. They only need to bookmark the part of the website they need for their assignment. Students can collaborate with peers on their research. Post articles and documents online for your students to highlight and annotate. Bookmark this tool on your website or blog for your students to access in or outside of the classroom. Use Scrible to annotate professional development articles or to highlight important information for your students. The best part? It will instantly create your bibliography for you!How many times have we heard students complain during a group project, "But I couldn't get to his or her house to work on it?" Tell them to use Scrible to interact online. The research and conversations created through highlighting and annotating what they read can greatly enhance both their research skills and their online interaction on academic level skills. Or use the site to post and share discussion assignments on specific articles or even parts of articles using the highlighting tool. Find a relevant article to your subject. Highlight the part that you want students to read. (If students are younger, keep it short to reduce the intimidating reality of too much information for kids.) Attach a note with a discussion question for the students. Have them comment on the link in a "class discussion" as an outside assignment. If you are fortunate enough to have all students with computer access in your class and at home, such as in one to one laptop (or BYOD) program schools, you can use this essentially to run your class. Post assignments or post readings. Science teachers can post online interactive labs, and more.
polltogo - Inspirapps, Inc.
Grades
K to 12tag(s): assessment (147), Formative Assessment (74), polls and surveys (49)
In the Classroom
Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. One of the question choices for polltogo is "Feedback" which is perfect for formative assessment or asking what students need help with after a lesson. Use this site to vote for correct answers in math class, project ideas for science or social studies, social issues in current events, and practically any other subject area. Encourage students to incorporate polls during class presentations as a test to see who is listening or for questions the audience might have. Use polltogo to make parent polls and post on a class website to keep the lines of communication open.Pocket - Read It Later, Inc
Grades
K to 12tag(s): bookmarks (43), curation (32), DAT device agnostic tool (147)
In the Classroom
Use Pocket professionally to collect and share websites, videos, and images for lessons and units. Use Pocket to share sites with colleagues, parents, and students. Share this site with older students to use to save resources they find for research. Demonstrate how to use Pocket and share with students as a resource for collaborating on group projects. Be sure to talk about using tags to organize things so they don't end up with a giant "pocketful" of tangled "stuff."Timeline JS - Northwestern University Knight Lab
Grades
K to 12tag(s): digital storytelling (154), timelines (56)
In the Classroom
Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to share timelines about historical events, research literature, learn about different decades and events throughout the world, and more. Transform student technology use by having them create timelines for research projects. Use a whole class Google account or individual Google apps accounts if you have them. Use this tool to make a timeline of your school year. Create author biographies, animal life cycles, or timelines of events and causes of wars. Challenge students to create a timeline of the plot of a novel, interspersed with the ways themes appear throughout the novel. If you teach chemistry, have students create illustrated sequences explaining oxidation or reduction (or both). Have elementary students interview grandparents and create a class timeline about their grandparents for Grandparents' Day. Why not create a timeline highlighting students' family events for a special gift for Mother's Day, Father's Day, or other holidays? You may need to assign students to do some investigative work first (years of births, marriages, vacations, etc.). In world language classes, have students create a timeline of their family in the language to master with vocabulary about relatives, jobs, and more (and verb tenses!). Students learn about photo selection, detail writing, chronological order, and photo digitization while creating the timelines of their choice. Making a timeline is also a good way to review the history and cultural developments.Jimdo - Christian Springub
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): communication (129), portfolios (23), social networking (61)
In the Classroom
Possible uses are only limited by your imagination! Create your own website for parents and students to stay updated on classroom happenings. Include links for students to submit assignments, your contact information, and anything else you might want to include. Try using Jimdo for: "visual essays;" digital biodiversity logs (with digital pictures students take); online literary magazines; or personal reflections in images and text. Use this tool for research project presentations. Create comparisons of online content, such as political candidates' sites or content sites used in research (compared for bias). Create science sites to document experiments or illustrate concepts, such as the water cycle. Use this site for "visual" lab reports. Have students create digital scrapbooks using images from the public domain and video and audio clips from a time in history - - such as the Roaring Twenties. Use it for local history interactive stories or visual interpretations of major concepts, such as a "visual" U.S. Constitution. Imagine building your own online library of raw materials for your students to create their own "web pages" as a new way of assessing understanding. You provide the digital pictures, and they sequence, caption, and write about them (younger students). With older students, you can provide the steps in a project as a template, and they can insert the actual content of their own. After a first project where you provide "building blocks," the sky is the limit on what students can create. The free account does limit the amount of file storage, so you may want to create several class accounts for small groups to use. Even the very young can make suggestions as you "create" a whole-class product together using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Consider making a new project for each unit you teach so students can "recap" long after the unit ends. Use as an online portfolio for high schools students to include with college or job applications.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Online-Convert - online-convert.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Mark this tool in your favorites (or bookmark) for easy access and professional use, no matter what grade you teach. Model ethical use of electronic resources (other people's work) for students. Making a "derivative work" from someone else's pdf handout should include a printed credit within the new document, giving credit for the original source, Ex. "Adapted from a handout by xxx available at www.theoriginalhandout.pdf." Such derivative use should only be done when the original copyright permits it, such as using materials that grant permission for classroom use. Be sure to give proper credit for videos and other files you save locally. Have students practice giving proper credit to their converted files.Cube Creator - Read Write Think
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): back to school (55), biographies (94), firstday (22), mysteries (23), printables (36), summarizing (23), word study (59)
In the Classroom
Use the Cube Creator for virtually any lesson or activity as a substitute for a paper and pen project. Try printing on heavier card stock so cubes are durable. Create a cube to practice math problems, describe habitats, outline important story events, and much more. Have students create a cube and share with other students to practice retelling, summarizing, adding synonyms, or review for tests. Have each of your students create an All About Me cube for parents to view at Open House or to get to know each other during the first week of school. Have others guess which cube belongs to which classmate. Create a cube review game where others must answer the question that comes up when you "roll" the cube. The possibilities are endless. Challenge your gifted student(s) to create a "Who Am I?" cube about a famous person they research. Use the Bio Cube option with one variation: DO NOT include the person's real name. Share the cube as a game for the rest of the class to guess (and then create their own similar cubes). Your gifted students may also come up with new ways to Create Your Own Cube that could become a class game! Invite them to try their creativity.Culture Street - culturestreet.org
Grades
K to 5tag(s): comics and cartoons (55), crafts (64), creative writing (124), digital storytelling (154), painting (55), preK (271), sculpture (18)
In the Classroom
Create and share picture books using the Picture Book Maker Tool and the Super Action Comic Maker. Once students have created books, print to use at reading centers or create links on classroom computers for reading online. With younger students, have them create pages and then add their weekly spelling words scattered on the pages. This will give them practice both writing (typing) and reading their spelling words! Create short stories about a story's main character, setting, conflict, etc. instead of book reports. Images are limited, but text of any kind can be added.CloudConvert - Lunaweb Ltd
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save CloudConvert for use throughout the year. Upload PDF files to convert into Word documents, save PowerPoint presentations as a PDF, convert movie or audio files to one single type for use in class projects. Use CloudConvert to change files that won't open to a different format accepted by your computer.EZVid - ezvid.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): video (266)
In the Classroom
Use EZVid to record instructions for using websites. Share how to perform problems, step by step directions for any project, and much more. Leave a video message for your substitute teacher or even your class! Create a video message to share with parents about current projects, clips from field trips, and more. Share on your class website for students to view at home.Online Voice Recorder - 123apps
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): blended learning (37), communication (129), fluency (26), preK (271), speech (69), spelling (98)
In the Classroom
Have students practice spelling words orally, record speeches, practice reading fluency, and much more using Online Voice Recorder. After recording, allow students to listen to the playback and reflect upon the quality of their work. Do before and after recordings of students to share with parents during conferences to demonstrate reading progress. Have students record weekly summaries for what has happened in your class to share on your class website or blog (you will have to upload the files). Record weekly or daily homework assignments and share as a voice recording on your website. Save file space by replacing old files with new ones. Online Voice Recorder would be an excellent resource for recording and sharing more complicated directions for projects and assignments (adding you voice intonation and cues!). Your weaker readers and ENL/ESL students may do better with a combination of written AND auditory directions. Provide the link on your class website for students to use at home for additional practice in spelling, reading, practicing reports, and more. Share this site with parents at Back to School Night. Have students write and record audio book reviews others can play on iPads in the school library. If you have gifted students in your classroom, this tool is simple enough for even the youngest to be able to record audio mini-dramas portraying a historic figure, poetry readings, and more. Be sure to show them how to NAME and download the files to the local computer! Anything they can say out loud can become a creative project recording. Don't forget about recording musical performances or practices.Flexlists - MovingLabs
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): classroom management (120), organizational skills (88)
In the Classroom
Create a to-do list for group projects and invite students to the group they will be working with. Have older students sign up and create their own project and invite their group members. Have the students agree on tasks and who will complete them -- and post it on FlexLists. Use this site to help students organize for individual or collaborative research projects. Take the time to actually teach about time management skills, one of the most sought-after skills listed by today's employers. Create a database of your classroom inventory, class library, to-do lists for throughout the year, or an address book with parent contact information. Anything you might use a spreadsheet for can be a flexlist accessible from anywhere. Have students add books they like to a shared, recommended independent reading list.Portrait Illustration Maker - AbiStudio.com
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (147), emotions (49), faces (5)
In the Classroom
Have students create an avatar that looks like them to use as a profile picture for a blog or website. Challenge students to create images of how they picture characters in books. Share the images with reading groups and classmates to compare. Have students create an image for a character including text boxes of character traits or the character's thoughts using a tool such as Google Drawings, reviewed here. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Create an talking avatar using a tool such as Blabberize, reviewed here. The avatar could be a historical figure, book character, narrator, or represent the student. Use this tool together with emotional support or autistic support students to create faces that express certain feelings. Use the word labels to identify the feelings.eQuiz Show - eQuizShow
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Create Jeopardy style quizzes for review and reinforcement of classroom content. Have groups of students create a quiz to share with the class or with other groups. Students can brainstorm what they liked about each of the different activities for more analysis on their strengths and weaknesses and how they learn best (metacognition). Have student emcees operate the student-made quizzes on an interactive whiteboard or share them by url on a class wiki so every student can take try. Create pretests to offer to gifted students to "test out" of already learned material. Challenge your gifted students to create pretests for the rest of the class. Learning support teachers may want to have small groups create their own review quizzes, since creating the quiz is actually a way to reinforce content.Huzzaz - Huzzaz.com
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Create a classroom account and have students add videos for use with any classroom topic. Teach students to use tags you have approved so everyone can find the videos easily. Create and share video libraries for review and enrichment resources or to "flip" your classroom. Build a professional video library for sharing with colleagues during professional development sessions. Use embed codes for major blogging platforms to embed video collections directly into your blog or website. Embed codes also work well on a wiki, so you could embed a certain tag collection for students to review or learn.Edge Features:
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Populr - populr.me
Grades
K to 12tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), portfolios (23), social networking (61)