Top Technology Learning Tools from a Digital Immigrant

IWLA Conference 2009

Christine McCormick (digital immigrant)

Borrowed from: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/index.html

1. Twitter (free) www.twitter.com

Twitter is a micro-blogging site. Use it to keep in touch with friends or colleagues. You can follow others and they can follow you. What are you doing?

2. del.icio.us (free) delicious.com

Delicious is a social bookmarking tool. You can store bookmarks online, tag them (label them), and share them. It is easy to use to search for other bookmarked sources.

Sidenote: RSS (Real Simple Syndication)The news comes to you!

You can click on the favorites tab and you will see one labeled FEEDS. This will have all new feeds in boldface. You can also save to Google Reader and go there to read your feeds.

3. Google Reader (free)RSS feed reader www.google.com

When you create an account, you can subscribe to your favorite sites and blogs.

4. Google docs (free)Collaborate on word docs, spreadsheets,

presentations and forms. www.google.com

Use Google docs online instead of e-mailing a document to someone who edits it and emails it back to you. You can both make changes simultaneously online.

5. You Tube (free)video hosting site

www.youtube.com

YouTube is a resource site where you can host, tag and share videos. If you want to use a video, you can either link to it on the YouTube site or embed it (copy the html code) into a web page or blog. It is therefore a useful resource of user-generated video content. You have to be careful of comments. It is better to embed it than to link to the site in some cases.

Sidenote: embedding html code

Copy the code, then paste into an html box.

6. Skype (free)free calls to anyone on skype

www.skype.net

Skype is a free communications and collaboration tool to be downloaded and installed on your computer.  You can use it to have text and voice message conversations with others who have Skype --for free.    Replaces international calling.

7. Google Searchwww.google.com

Most of you have done this, but click on show options , then wonder wheel with your topic broken down.

8. Audacity (free) -- Make your own podcasts Audacity is an open source cross-platform sound editor and recorder

suitable for podcasting. http://audacity.sourceforge.net

You will need a head set with a microphone. (Best Buy $30-$50). Click record and talk. It saves as an audio file. Press play and use selection tool (I) on task bar to drag over parts you want to delete, click delete. You can also sync music by clicking ‘Import audio’ under Project tab and choose your saved music (Ccmixter.org has free music). Line up the tracks by using the “Time Shift Tool” (2 headed arrow). Use effect tab to fade in . Under file, save, or export as mp3 file. This takes some practice but is really very easy. When done, post on your website.

9. Flickr.com Flickr is a place where you can store your photos, tag them and share them with others either through a link to the site or by embedding them in your blog or web page.

You can use others’ photos or upload your

to share. There is also

RSS feed subscription available so

any time they add new

photos to a tag, they will notify you.

10. Voice Thread www.voicethread.com VoiceThread is a service that lets you create collaborative presentations by collecting comments - both text and voice. And FREE

In about the time it takes to send an email, you can upload a video, comment, and invite others to comment. You can pause and doodle on the video to point things out and drag the button backward or forward to review or delete. There are 5 ways to comment, phone, webcam, microphone, text, upload.

11. Jing http://www.jingproject.com Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.

This is a program you download to your computer. It will place a yellow sun on the top of your screen that is available all the time. When you run your mouse over it, you can choose to take a picture of what is on your computer screen. You can add the arrows and text boxes and save the file. Then copy the file and paste wherever!!

12. Diigo www.diigo.com ( free) Diigo is a social annotation tool; you can highlight, clip and sticky-note any page and then share your findings with others (similar to delicious)

I prefer Diigo because of the diigolet application. When you click highlight, you can highlight ONLINE and it will stay there. You can add a sticky note ONLINE also.

13. Evernote http://evernote.com/ (free) Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

Things to capture:Tasks and to-dosNotes and researchWeb pagesWhiteboardsBusiness cardsScribblesSnapshotsWine labelsEven Twitter messages

How to get stuff into Evernote:CreateCreate new notes using desktop, web, and mobile versions of EvernoteSnapTake a snapshot using your camera phone or webcam. We'll even recognize the text in the image.ClipClip entire webpages, screenshots, and just about anything else you can copyDrag-n-dropDrag and drop content into the desktop clients for Mac and WindowsEmailEmail notes directly into your account using your personalized email addressScanScan receipts, recipes, tags, brochures, and anything else into EvernoteRecordRecord audio wherever you are and listen to it whenever you wantTweetSend Twitter messages into Evernote by following @myEN

14. Wiki www.pbworks.com (free) PBworks (previously PBwiki) is a hosted collaboration suitable for education.

http://spanish4carlisle.pbworks.com/

Wiki stands for quick in Hawaiian. You can allow students to read or edit these pages. Good for collaborative products or very easy and free website for your class information.

15. Animoto www.animoto.com (free) Animoto is a free service that lets you create 30 second videos from your images.

This is so easy!! Create account, upload 12-15 photos, pick from their music, and publish! It will give you html code you can embed on your website or send to Youtube and upload there. You have to pay to make longer videos. Check out mine on my wiki (#14)

I downloaded VSO image resizer and set pics to 680 x 420 so they are small enough to upload. http://www.vso-software.fr/products/image_resizer/

16. Facebook www.facebook.com Facebook is a leading social networking site with over 120 million members. There are now many Facebook applications

that allow it be used productively in education and business.

There is a micro-blog portion like twitter. You can upload photos, follow businesses, etc. As far as educational uses……? Set up a class facebook page. Update daily with activities of the day? Kids can subscribe and you have to accept them as friends to keep out trouble.

17. Wordle www.worldle.net Wordle is a word cloud generator.  Copy in some text and generate the word cloud.

Use as a vocab opener, tell stories with words, or closer.

18. Blogs (web-logs) www.blogger.comShare your thought s and photos with the world. Also follow others’ blogs and post ideas from your favorite sites.

I use my blog to save interesting articles on the net rather than journal. When you see something you want to save (like tearing a page out of a magazine) click on the PAGE tab and click on Blogger and it will add it to your site for later reference.

19. Glogster http://www.glogster.com Make an interactive poster.

Two examples: a poem and a noun project. Choose background, clipart, animation, video, sound.

20. Voki www.voki.comCreate and animated avatar and record sound with it.

This too is very easy. Choose your look, record your sound and embed in your website. I put mine on my Moodle (class management system) and it gives a short introduction to the class. It only talks about 30 seconds, but it is FUN. The students could create one the target language.

21. Chatango www.chatango.comCreate a chat box to put on your website.

Embed this in your website and students can chat online. They can ask and answer questions. They can do it anonymously!

22. Wallwisher www.wallwisher.comCreate an online bulletin board of sticky notes based on a question or topic you post.

Students click anywhere on the wall and a text box opens. They post their comment. You can view their comments and delete them if necessary.

23. Online Flashcards www.studystack.comUpload vocab sets. The students can play online.

Create account. You can use the hundreds already made or make your own. Click on the star to add to your favorites. I created a student account also, so they could not alter the lists.

Quizlet is another site that is similar.

24. Time Rime www.timerime.comCreate online timelines.

25. My Studiyo http://www.mystudiyo.comCreate free quizzes for your website or blog.

26. Google Calendarwww.google.com/calendar

I created a calendar for each prep and embedded it on the school website. To do this: Click on settings on the left menu. Click on the name of the calendar you want to embed. Go to the embed this calendar section and copy the code and paste it in the html box on your website. On our school Moodle, you have to click on the <> button first , then paste the html code.

27. ZOHO www.zoho.comZoho offers a suite of online web applications geared towards increasing your productivity and offering easy collaboration.

Zoho is similar to Google Docs, but allows you to import excel files which Google does not. It is a great alternative for students that do not have Microsoft applications at home. They can do the assignments online. Since they are online many can work on the same document simutaneously.