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Best Web Tools for Teachers

I am a faculty member at a small college in Texas, teaching education courses for future teachers and also english classes. I am working on a presentation for college faculty members, which will focus on using web tools in classes. Many of the faculty members use only lectures for delivery. I would like to know which web tools you think are the best?? I don't want to overwhelm them.

Thanks in advance for your ideas,

Debra

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Permalink Reply by Martha Hickson on May 7, 2011 at 1:28pm

I'm a big fan of wikis and screencasting, Debra.

Wikis are a quick and easy way for both teachers and students to make content available online, create portfolios of work, or collaborate on projects. My favorite wiki provider is PBworks; its folder structure enables a teacher to manage many students or class sections within a single wiki.

Screencasting enables me to record and demonstrate answers to frequently asked questions. I generally use Jing for that. Jing has a 5-minute maximum screencast length, but that forces me to keep my explanations short and sweet ... plus that's compatible with the attention span of many of my high school students :-)

A great resource for your students would be Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers blog. Every day he publishes posts about new technology tools for teachers and provides ideas for using them in the classroom. I find useful ideas there all the time.

Good luck with your presentation!

Permalink Reply by D Slaton on May 20, 2011 at 3:12pm

thanks so much

Permalink Reply by Susan Stephenson, the Book Chook on May 7, 2011 at 5:10pm

I love the web tools that encourage kids to get involved with story - Storybird, ToonDoo, Storyjumper, MakeBeliefsComix etc. But I think it's important for your future teachers to play and experiment, and look for a tool to suit their purpose, once they have one. Once they do, have them take a look at Teacher Training Videos by Russell Stannard. These are detailed instructions on tools like Jing that Martha mentioned, guiding watchers through the tool's use. As well as Free Technology for Teachers, I learn about great tools from Kelly Tenkely's ILearnTechnology and Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day.

Permalink Reply by D Slaton on May 20, 2011 at 3:12pm

these are great sites

Permalink Reply by Shaun Wood on May 7, 2011 at 5:18pm

Hi Debra, I agree with Martha. Keep it simple, start with wikis (they are free for education) which lecturers can post notes, recordings of their lectures and screen-casts. It can also be a place where groups gather to share, discuss and create collaborative pages. The beauty of wikis is that it also keeps a full history of changes and who did what, good evidence.

Permalink Reply by Sharon Keehner on May 12, 2011 at 10:56am

http://www.zamzar.com/ converting videos

http://pbworks.com/ Wikis are huge

Google docs

Skype

http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome Picnik--photo work

http://cooltext.com/ Cool Text--makes logos for their wiki

Twitter--they can connect with other people after the class that teach what they teach

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/ad... Search Engine site

http://www.go2web20.net Web 2.0 tool listing--they can find what they need by topic after the presentation

http://animoto.com/intro/animoto/8?gclid=CM2x9t7V4qgCFcK8KgodFVbNFQ Animoto makes videos online

http://www.easybib.com/ Easy bib is for writing citations for research

http://joliprint.com/ Makes an article into a PDF which I can then share with my students OR they can use for their research.

These are my favorites! Good luck!

Permalink Reply by D Slaton on May 20, 2011 at 3:11pm

thank you

Permalink Reply by Perla Zamora on May 12, 2011 at 12:58pm

Hello,

I'm technology teacher for students and technology advisor for teachers at Middle School in one private school in Mexico. We started using web tools this school year, based on this short experience I suggest the following:

Prezi - Collaborative presentations
Wikispaces - Collaborative website design
Glogster - Online Publications and design
Kidblog - Blog
Skype - Video conferences
Bitstrips - Storytelling and design
Kerpoof - Animation, storytelling and desing

If you need any help let me know. I'll be happy to do it.

Best regards

Ms. Perla Zamora

Permalink Reply by D Slaton on May 20, 2011 at 3:11pm

thank you

Permalink Reply by Lacey Hoogland on May 17, 2011 at 4:57pm

I recommend blogging either using Blogger or Wordpress, Blogger if they are less experienced so that they can have collaborative efforts outside of the classroom also.

Permalink Reply by Richard D Solomon, PhD on May 18, 2011 at 3:30pm

Debra, I invite you to examine these two links:
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVHRiMW9xDMfZGRycHJnaGZfODZjdzd0...
and
http://richarddsolomonsblog.blogspot.com/

Even though it appears that these links relate to Judaic education, they actually apply to teaching across the curriculum.

Kindly let me know if these links are helpful to you.

Richard

Permalink Reply by D Slaton on May 20, 2011 at 3:11pm

wow. lots of info

thanks

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