Web 2 Freebies

Comment

Comment by Lori Weiss on March 5, 2009 at 4:43pm

I've been using www.voki.com on my web page. I haven't used it with the kids yet, but I think it can have a lot of applications in the classroom.

Comment by sandra on February 3, 2009 at 8:17pm

http://mywebspiration.com/

online collaborative concept mapping toll from the makers of inspiration.

Comment by Ellen on June 6, 2008 at 6:00pm

Check out Mystudiyo.com

You can have some fun creating your own quiz, with videos and images, in a variety of formats. I thought it might be an interesting activity to have your students create quizzes for each to review content. What do you think? And you can embed the interactive quiz in you blog.

Comment by Ellen on May 25, 2008 at 3:07pm

Here's another good "freebie" -- for downloading YouTube videos without the long delays and hassles. idesktop.tv
It's easy to use, provides lots of choices for formatting and from my experience works much faster and cleaner than Zamzar.

Comment by Ellen on May 15, 2008 at 12:57pm

My two favorite "freebies" this year have been wikispaces and voicethread. We set up wikis for grades two through five, the kids learned how to navigate on the wiki, how to edit and save their writing pages and how to use the discussion board (they really, really loved the discussions board). My second graders are writing to second graders at PS 112 in Manhattan and have learned how to find their penpal's page and how to respond on their own writing pages. They have all learned how to log in using their usernames and passwords. My fourth and fifth graders have been having a great time doing all of their writing on the wikis. They love having access to their work at home and in other places in the school so they can continually work on it. The most amazing thing to me was the fact that students would, on their own, with no prompting from me at all, log on and edit their work on weekends, holidays and all hours of the day and night. They liked sharing their work with their parents and they liked the fact that I could read and comment on their work outside of the classroom. The wikis allowed students to collaborate on projects outside of the computer lab.

On Voicethread, students in kindergarten and first grade wrote, illustrated and recited their poetry. Fourth and fifth graders are writing and illustrating book reviews. My fourth graders also have their animations posted as voicethreads, while my fifth graders presented the case for a federal holiday to honor a woman (women outnumber men in the U.S. but don't lay claim to a single federal holiday).
Great tools, and of course, they are "freebies."

Comment by Ellen on May 14, 2008 at 10:04am

I'm taking a second look at Animoto and I'm trying to figure out how to best put it to use in the classroom. Ideas anyone?