25 Free Tools for educators

I only question pBwiki instead of wikispaces from this list (presentation). After using both (though pbwiki only for a short time) I prefer wikispaces. It is easy to use and I find the team really helpful if a bug turns up

25 Tools

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: learning tools)

Google docs in Plain English

Quizlet

Quizlet

• Study vocabulary or almost anything
• Create your own flashcards - sign up free
• Share flashcards with your friends
• View the quick guide or watch the video tour

Here is an example on Cell organelles using Quizlet

Cell Organelles

Wordle

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Bitstrips

Comics pretty simple

Bit Strips would be a great way of getting students to present information in a different way. The bitstrip can be played like a book and embedded into another website or page. You can change the characters and backgrounds and the focus point. It is also easy to use.

animoto

Animoto - a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced on a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.



Yes it is my eldest, he uploaded his to youtube :-)

Dabbleboard

Dabbleboard is a powerful online whiteboard that's actually easy and fun to use. With a revolutionary new interface, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw.
Draw with flexible tools. Reuse previously-made drawings. Share and collaborate in real-time. All as naturally as using a marker or a pencil.



Here are the Top 10 Reasons you should use Dabbleboard:

1. Dabbleboard is easy and fun to use. Unlike other whiteboard applications, Dabbleboard feels as natural to use as a marker on a whiteboard, or a pencil on a sheet of paper. Just draw strokes and Dabbleboard will detect most common shapes. Click anywhere and start typing to enter text. And if you need to modify anything you've already drawn, all the tools are there right next to the selected objects. No more visiting the toolbar a hundred times just to make a quick diagram!
2. Dabbleboard is fast. Since you don't need to spend time constantly changing tools in the toolbar, you can draw much faster. The natural interface also requires less of your attention, so you can focus on your ideas rather than on the software. Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw.
3. Dabbleboard is flexible. Everything you draw can be moved, resized, deleted, and replicated. Even freehand strokes. And with unlimited Undo and Redo, you'll never have to think twice about trying something new.
4. Dabbleboard produces pretty drawings. Okay, we admit you don't need your whiteboard drawings to look like works of art. But other applications that make you scribble with the mouse produce messy drawings that your friends or coworkers would have trouble even understanding. Unlike a marker or a pencil, a mouse is difficult to control precisely, so Dabbleboard steps in and cleans up your strokes for you.
5. Dabbleboard lets you easily reuse previously-made drawings. With drag-and-drop simplicity, you can add drawings to your personal library, and copy something from the library to your current drawing. You can even visit the public library and copy drawings others have made. You'll never have to draw the same thing twice. The more you use it, the more useful Dabbleboard will get.
6. Dabbleboard allows sharing and real-time collaboration with anyone anywhere in the world. Your friends and coworkers can view and edit your drawings whenever they like. Or you can log in at the same time to brainstorm ideas together.
7. Dabbleboard works with hardware you already have, including your favorite computer. Unlike some other solutions, there's no need to purchase additional proprietary equipment. You can even use it in a conference room with a projector.
8. Dabbleboard works with other software you already use. You can upload images made with other applications and embed them into Dabbleboard drawings. And you can download images made with Dabbleboard for use in other applications.
9. Dabbleboard is secure. Unless you make your drawing public, each drawing can only be viewed by those you've shared it with, and by no one else. We even make sure no one can guess the location of your drawing by using random 160-bit keys. Soon we'll offer premium accounts with SSL protection as well.
10. Dabbleboard is free! We want to help the world think and communicate visually, and we won't let a little money get in our way. Of course we do need to pay the bills, so we will be offering premium accounts at reasonable rates shortly.

Sharing Charts online

Hmm not sure about this one yet ;-)

Screencasting

Screencast.com is a TechSmith solution for business and academic professionals looking to manage and share videos, images, documents, or anything else online.

They only offer a 60 day trial for free though ............

Converting Presentations with Ispring

Ispring Free
Free PowerPoint to Flash converter creates web friendly Flash movies from your PowerPoint content keeping its visual parameters and animation effects. Generated Flash presentation will look as if it has always been a Flash movie.

Below is a tutorial from slideboom showing how to use Ispring

What is SlideBoom?

SlideBoom gives you a place to share your PowerPoint presentations with the world. We want to help everyone reach a worldwide audience. Of course, it's up to you who can view your creations.

SlideBoom is free and everyone is welcome to publish their slideshow here. You can find a lot of awesome presentations and insert them into your blog or web site.

The site's social feature lets you find people with similar interests, leave comments, and rate their presentations.

We appreciate users' contribution to the life of SlideBoom. We invite everyone to become a partner in helping SlideBoom grow and improve!

What is a Flowgram?

Flowgram
e are building a new communications platform that lets anyone package and share anything on the internet in ways never before possible.

Flowgram combines the advantages of slide presentations and screencasts with an interactive user experience that fully exploits the fact that almost all the information we might ever need is already on the web.

Using the zero download Flowgram Maker, creators can assemble and annotate web pages, photographs, documents and more on any topic, and add a voice narrative that provides context, emotion and consistency. This uniquely personalized package can be shared as an embedable widget, email or as a link to either a private group or with the world. Flowgram recipients can interact with any of its pages by clicking on links, for example, or playing and pausing videos.

Thousands of compelling Flowgrams have already been created for education, training, sales, photo journalism, humor, website walkthroughs, and tutorials etc.

What's a VoiceThread anyway?

A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded on web sites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs as archival movies.

Why use SlideShare?

SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations.

- Individuals & organizations upload presentations to share their ideas, connect with others, and generate leads for their businesses.
- Anyone can find presentations on topics that interest them. They can tag, download, or embed presentations into their own blogs & websites.

SlideShare is the best way to get your slides out there on the web, so your ideas can be found and shared by a wide audience. Do you want to get the word out about your product or service? Do you want your slides to reach people who could not make it to your talk? Are you a teacher looking to share your lesson plans? It only takes a moment - start uploading now, and let your slides do the talking!

Some of the things you can do on SlideShare

- Embed slideshows into your own blog or website.
- Share slideshows publicly or privately. There are several ways to share privately.
- Synch audio to your slides.
- Market your own event on slideshare.
- Join groups to connect with SlideShare members who share your interests
- Download the original PowerPoint / Pdf file

SlideShare Quick Tour - Summary of features & capabilities

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tutorial howto)

Camtasia tutorial on youtube

Follow the link to a basic tutorial on Camtasia from techsmith

Different technologies

What are the best technologies to use in Education?