Cool Tools for the Classroom!

Utilizing technology is a great way to get students engaged in the classroom.  Online tools can make learning fun and enjoyable, while also giving students the skills they will need to be productive workers in the future. These are some really awesome tools that I think would be great for me to use someday in my classroom. You should check them out!

http://www.artisancam.org.uk/

Artisan Cam is an easy to navigate website that allows you to make a picture digital picture book.  It's super easy to use and is a lot of fun.  You can use it to make your very own children's book. I remember, when I took Child Development in high school, my teacher had us do a project where we wrote our own children's book. This would be a great tool to utilize for that kind of project!

 http://www.prezi.com/

Prezi is a wonderful way to present information that keeps watchers engaged from start to finish.  It's non-linear and integrates movement and pictures in a way that makes any presentation fun. You can embed videos and pictures within your presentations with ease.  Using this website would be a great way for students to present their ideas or research projects to the classroom. It has more tools to use than PowerPoint and is more fun, so it's guaranteed to keep everyone engaged!

 http://montage.cloudapp.net/

Montage is an image tool that allows you to make a collage of anything you want. You can integrate your montage with images and articles from any source! Montage also allows you to view and use montages published by others. This tool would be great to make a visual aid to present to students. It could also be used as a project assignment in which students combine images or videos with research.

 www.quibblo.com

Quibblo is a fun site where you can create your own quizzes and polls.  You can share them with friends, and take quizzes that your friends have created.  This would be a great site to use for students to create quizzes on the subjects they are learning about, and in turn they have to take the quizzes that are created by their classmates! Would be a great way to test their knowledge, while at the same time having a bit of fun.

 http://diffen.com/

Diffen is a tool that allows you to compare any two things. You can type in whatever you want and it will produce the differences between the two. This could range from the differences between countries, presidents, or even planets! This tool would be great for helping students get started on comparison and contrast essays. It could also be used for me to make a handout about the differences between two things that I covered in lecture.

 quizlet.com

Quizlet is a great, free tool students can use for studying.  You can create flashcards and quizzes according to subject area and share them with friends.  There are also great games you can play to make learning more fun.  I would use this site to make quizzes and flashcards for my students to utilize.  This way, they can use this tool to be more prepared for tests.

 https://docs.google.com/

Google Docs is a free site that students can use to create or upload files.  Once their files are uploaded, students can work collaboratively with anyone they give access to the files.  This makes it a great site for the teacher as well, because they can access their students work from any device. For students that can't afford writing software for their home computers, this is a great tool.  It's also wonderful for collaborative work, when students don't have the time to meet physically.

 pics.tech4learning.com

Pics4Learning is a safe, free image library for education. Teachers and students can use copy-right friendly photos and images for classrooms, projects, websites, videos, portfolios or any project in the educational setting. It's the largest educational image collection on the web and it's easy to search.  This site would be a great option to give students in order to ensure that they are maintaining Internet integrity.  It would also be a wonderful site for teacher's to utilize to make lectures more interesting.

 https://www.snagfilms.com/ 

SnagFilms is a resource tool that allows you to watch free documentaries. These documentaries include historical, political, and other educational videos. There are even educational videos from National Geographic. This tool could be used for me to find documentaries in a specific area of study. It could also be used as a take home assignment in which the student watches an assigned film and answers questions.

 http://cmap.ihmc.us/conceptmap.html

Cmap is a tool that can be used to construct and share concept maps. Once created, they can be saved and used in presentations as a great way to illustrate ideas.  They can also be created collaboratively. This tool would be of great use for the beginning stages of projects, large or small.  It could also be used to illustrate steps in a process.  I would use this tool to help illustrate new concepts to my students, and they could utilize it in their projects.

All of these tools present cool opportunities to enhance classroom learning and make sometimes monotonous processes more fun! Some of these tools I use on a regular basis, while others I've just been introduced to. I'm excited to apply them to the classroom!