Web-based tools to do all sorts of things:

Gaggle.Net - http://www.gaggle.net

Free, safe email accounts for students with teacher controls.

Filamentality - http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/ and a tour of what is does can be found at http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/tour3.html

This is a Web page creator to construct hot lists, scrapbooks, hunts, samplers or Webquests.

Webquest - http://webquest.org/index.php  - A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work waith comes from the web. The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom March, the Educational Technology staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium.

Think Central

Google Directory http://directory.google.com/

Google Science http://www.google.com/Top/Science/

Google Math http://www.google.com/Top/Science/Math/

Google Music Trends http://www.google.com/trends/music

Google Page Creator - http://pages.google.com/-/about.html

Free online tool for creating and publishing we pages

Google Suggest - http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

A really neat site that offers suggestions to help you improve your Google search.  Type in a word, i.e. clouds, and see how the search box drops down and “suggests” more topics concerning that word you typed in.  This site has great potential!

Google Notebook - http://www.google.com/googlenotebook/tour1.html

This is a really neat site.  This site can be used to organize data that has been gathered during a research project.  It organizes the material (text, photos, etc.).  Organizing on Google allows a person to access this data from any computer anywhere.  Be sure and go to the Google Notebook Home and check out the examples.

Google Sets – http://labs.google.com/sets

This is a great brainstorming tool.

Google Trends – http://www.google.com/trends

This is a great site to get data for analysis.  Type in “cell phones” and see what comes up.

Really neat!

Wink – http://www.debugmode.com/wink

This site is neat in that you can make small videos of working on a program or the Internet to show or teach others “how to.”  PC Version only

YouTube – www.youtube.com

This site is blocked at school.  Also many videos are not school appropriate from this website.  However, it does have some very neat things to watch – that is if you have the time.  YouTube was just acquired by Google.

TeacherTube http://www.teachertube.com/

After beta testing for almost two months, TeacherTube officially launched on March 6, 2007. Our goal is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

Google Video – http://video.google.com No educational protection here.

SurveyMonkey – http://www.surveymonkey.com/home.asp

I think you get so many surveys for free, however, this is a great site if you want to collect data to analyze and share.

Blogs promote reading, writing, and thinking in all content areas and grade levels.  Blogs can be a great way to keep communication flowing through the classroom, on and off campus.

**Escrapbooking.com - http://escrapbooking.com/ 

http://escrapbooking.com/resources/educational.htmm

ClassBlogmeister – http://classblogmeister.com/ 

A premier site for teachers.  I think you have to pay to join, but not sure.

**Edublogs – http://edublogs.org 

Free!!!!!

Bloglines – http://www.bloglines.com 

Also free!  Check it out.

Collaborative Authoring

Read/write web spaces designed to allow multiple authors to work on a single document; avoids time delays and version collation problems while promoting group work.  This is a great way to have students work collaboratively on a project. 

Google Docs & Spreadsheets – http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html 

Great for collaborative work

Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page 

This is the grandmother of all wikis.  This database has been built, maintained, and is monitored by many people who contribute their knowledge to building this database.  This is one of the results of collaborative authoring.

Wikispaces - http://blog.wikispaces.com/2006/01/free-wikispaces-for-teachers.html 

If you provide this website with a list of names (made up) and passwords for your kids in a class, the Wikispace Help will set it all up for you so that you and your students have access to whatever it is you put on your Wiki space.

Pbwiki – http://pbwiki.com

As easy as making a peanut butter sandwich, or so they say!

Read/write web spaces designed to allow multiple authors to work on a single document; avoids time delays and version collation problems while promoting group work.  This is a great way to have students work collaboratively on a project. 

Google Docs & Spreadsheets – http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html 

Great for collaborative work

Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page 

This is the grandmother of all wikis.  This database has been built, maintained, and is monitored by many people who contribute their knowledge to building this database.  This is one of the results of collaborative authoring.

Wikispaces - http://blog.wikispaces.com/2006/01/free-wikispaces-for-teachers.html 

If you provide this website with a list of names (made up) and passwords for your kids in a class, the Wikispace Help will set it all up for you so that you and your students have access to whatever it is you put on your Wiki space.

Pbwiki – http://pbwiki.com

As easy as making a peanut butter sandwich, or so they say!

Users can store lists of Internet resources on a web server.  Links can be “tagged” with descriptive words or phrases and users can search others’ lists of links using these tags or by categories.

iKeepBookmarks.com – http://ww2.ikeepbookmarks.com/home.asp

del.icio.us – http://del.icio.us/ 

Backflip – http://www.backflip.com/login.ihtml 

Library Thing – http://www.librarything.com  - for book lovers.

Library Thing helps you create a library-quality catalog of your books. You can do all of them or just what you're reading now.  And because everyone catalogs online, they also catalog together. LibraryThing connects people based on the books they share.

Allows you to share with your students!!!!!

Just as teaching a child how to answer the phone when the parent is not home, it is important that we teach children how to be safe while using the internet.  According to the US Department of Justice, most of the children victimized while on the internet are children 12 -15 years old (84%).

Region IV said it is not about if children come across inappropriate sites, but when they come across them.  As educators, we need to teach children what to do when this happens.  They also said that filters are not 100% effective and that teacher’s eyes are the best defense in protecting our students.

What is the best defense of protection for the children while on the internet, is educating them on what is acceptable and what is not, i.e. not giving their name, address, phone number, a photo, or sharing a password with anyone.  Matter of fact thirty percent of the problems counselors saw students about was the fact that students shared passwords with their “friend.”   Then there was a split in the relationship and the “friend” abused this privilege. 

On Netiquette:  http://www.albion.com/netiquette/    [Etiquette on the Net]

On safety:  http://www.isafe.org/ 

Cyber angels:  http://www.cyberangels.org/ 

Get Net Wise:  http://www.getnetwise.org/ 

Office of the Attorney General:  http://oag.state.tx.us/ 

Ever want to understand the kids’ lingo while chatting on IM, text messaging, or wherever kids talk?  Visit  http://www.web-friend.com/help/lingo/chatslang.html 

Last but not least. . . Digital Story Telling

**(iMovie, found on the newer Macs, is comparable to the Windows Photo Story product)

If you have a PC and you have Windows XP, please go to:

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

for a FREE download.  This is a wonderful tool for creating many projects both personally and professionally.  Only photos are used, but a whole production can be made including voiceovers and music.  This is really awesome!!!!

If most students have PCs at home, this could be a project assigned for students to put together at home.  When saved on a CD, it can be presented in class on a Mac, as long as you have Windows Media Player downloaded, which you can get from

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=windowsmedia   Be sure and chose the right one for the Mac system you have. 

Uses for this tool can be:

1. Background knowledge for a new topic

2. Autobiography

3. Lab reports of science projects

4. Social studies timeline

5. cause and effect

6. Visit to a country – virtually or otherwise

7. Exploration of modern Texas cities

8. Recruitment show describing different campus programs, groups.

9. Book report

10. Geometry in nature / the world around us.

11. Fractions

12. Career Exploration

13. Research report – i.e. apartheid, authors, historical figures

14. Science – top inventions and why

15. illustrating a poem

16. School special events

17. School tour for new students

18. life skills

19. Thank you cards

20. Health/nurse – how to wash hands, about flu shots

21. Who/what is this?  Background photo story leading up to the person/event

22. Foreign languages – vocabulary, story writing, and families

Rubrics for using this product:

http://www.bedfordk12tn.com/groupsonnetrubric.pdf

Example of a project rubric

http://www.teachnet.ie/_fileupload/Publications/PhotoStoryRubric_45812444.doc

Photo Story creation rubric – not for content

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

create or edit rubrics for multimedia assignments

http://www.digitales.us/evaluating/scoring_guide2.php?type=9&submitButtonName=Submit+Query#

Create your own rubric by checking the areas you want to cover

http://www.discoveryeducatornetwork.com/kr/default.cfm?node_id=125277

Activity samples, but you have to be a Discovery STAR educator to download them.  The ideas are there, though.

http://jdorman.wikispaces.com/digitalstorytelling

This is focused on digital storytelling, but that’s a large use for Photo Story.

http://www.wsd1.org/digitalstorytelling/resources/supplementary/default.htm

A very thorough site with information ranging from What is Digital Storytelling to how to take better digital photos.

http://readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1010

Example of use of Photo Story in elementary language arts

http://center.dordt.edu/266.543units/Vietnam/vietnam%20unit/Photoessayassignmentannindex.htm

Good cross-curricular Photo Story assignment complete with rubric

http://download.microsoft.com/documents/australia/education/resources/resource-eventsthatshaped.htm

high school lessons for social studies

http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/digitalmedia.htm#Photo_Story

click on Photo Story 3 to see tutorials, samples and a teacher how-to handout.

Additional creation resources:

http://www.windowsphotostory.com/Guides/Beginner/importing-and-arranging-pictures.aspx

http://www.windowsphotostory.com/Guides/SportsTextEffects/Sports-Text-Effects.aspx

http://www.coe.uh.edu/digitalstorytelling/tools.htm  - GREAT SOURCE!!!

http://www.unitedstreaming.com 

American Rhetoric (famous speeches) – http://www.americanrhetoric.com

“The site makes material available in an effort to advance understanding of political, social, and religious issues as they relate to the study and practice of rhetoric and public address deemed relevant to the public interest and the promotion of civic discourse.”

Find Sounds – http://www.findsounds.com

A free site where you can search the web for sound effects and musical instrument samples

Free Kids Music.com – http://freekidsmusic.com

A collection of quality children’s music.  These are complete songs, not edited versions.  All music downloads on this site are free.

FreePlay Music – http://freeplaymusic.com

“The Freeplay Music Library, is a comprehensive collection of High End Broadcast production music spanning all the popular musical genres, available for free download either online or can be purchased by cd”

American Memory from the Library of Congress – http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

“American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.”  Although the Library of Congress provides some copyright information about the items in this collection, “it is the researcher’s obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library’s collections.”

**Digital History – http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/images.cfm

“The materials included in the Digital History website are original works of authorship, government records, works for which copyright permission has expired, works reprinted with permission, or works that we believe are within the fair use protection of the copyright laws.”

Library of Congress Learning Page – http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/features/index.html

“The Learning Page is designed to help educators use the American Memory Collections to teach history and culture.  It offers tips and tricks, definitions and rationale for using primary sources, activities, discussions, lesson plans and suggestions for using the collections in classroom curriculum.

NASA/Hubble Telescope – http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/hubreturns_front/index.html

This site contains teaching resources and information for educators.  It also contains many image and video galleries.  

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Photo Library

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/

This site holds Albums and Catalogs containing over 20,000 images!  Most NOAA photos and slides are in the public domain and cannot be copyrighted.

The NYPL Picture Collection Online – http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco/

“The digital colle tion of images presented here is taken from the in-print collection of images that New York Public Library has been collecting since 1915.”

Picture History – http://www.picturehistory.com

“Picture History is an on-line archive of images and film footage illuminating more than 200 years of American History.

FreeFoto.com – www.freefoto.com 

“FreeFoto.com is the largest collection of free photographs for private, non-commercial use on the Internet.”

Pics4Learning.com – www.pics4learning.com 

“Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students.  The photo collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers.

Creatingonline.com – http://www.creatingonline.com/stock_photos/

Stock photos galore

Stock.xchng – http://www.sxc.hu.

Gorgeous photos from around the world.  Royalty free.