Eclectic Technology

Finding great tools for your subject area is often time consuming. This post provides links and descriptions of 30 tools. Most are free (but not all). Although geared to social studies most tools would be useful to all teachers and learners. Below is a list of five tools, including several that were new to me.

* Draggo, a free tool that helps you organize websites and is shareable.

* Explee, an easy online video maker. This tool provides a free trial and then requires payment. There is an education plan available..

* Flipsnack allows you to create an online flipbook. You can create a book up to 15 pages in length for free.

* CK-12 Flexbooks allows you to create your own online textbook, or modify ones that exist.

* Kahoot allows you to create interactive quizzes that have a game show quality.

There are many more great tools in this post. Take a few minutes to peruse it and you may find one or two tools to add to your toolbox next year.

Are you looking for resources that provide "copyright friendly" images, audio and video for your learners? This post, by Richard Byrne, provides six resources. Each one provides access to materials that are in the public domain.

* The Moving Image Archive. This is part of the Internet Archive and includes over 1.7 million clips.

* The Public Domain Review is a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation and provides access to images, books, films, audio recording and essays.

* The Free Music Archive (FMA) provides access to free music. This collection is curated and provides a range of genres.

* Sound Gator provides free sound effects. Do you need the sound of a horn honking, or whipped cream coming out of a can?  This is a great place to go.

* Pixabay and the Morgue File are both great places to search for images. The Morgue File is a collection of photos, and Pixabay provides high-resolution images in the public domain.

Byrne provides additional details on each of these six resources in the post. Click through to learn more.

Check out these five tools that will help students present their knowledge using different forms of multimedia.

* Metta

* ImageQuiz

* eduCanon

* Kahoot

* Google Forms

For many students these tools will help them create a more authentic product. Click through to the post to learn more about each tool and find short videos to help you with ImageQuiz, Kahoot and eduCanon..

Here is the list of the top ten "S'cool Tools" for 2013 from EdSurge. Last week I scooped the tools from 11 - 20. Once again there is a range of tools and they are all free. Three are detailed below but you may view information on all ten in the post. Have fun exploring!

* Mathigon is an amazing math resource with videos, slideshows, e-books, apps and more. Resources are available for primary and secondary students.

* Google Treks - Are you looking for lesson plans based on Google Maps? If so check out Google Treks. Lesson plans are across the curriculum and all use Google Maps so the concept of geographic location is involved. If you want to create your own Trek there is a tutorial and a rubric to help you out.

* NuSkool uses "popular culture to enhance learning both inside and outside the classroom." Geared to students in grades 6 - 12 you may search for by grade, subject and genre. Genres include music, film, television, video games, sports, social networking and popular culture. Select your grade level, subject and genre and you will find a choice of lesson plans that include the media, a description of the lesson, procedures and assessments.

PowToon allows learners to create animations...and they recently released a new version, Simple Mode, that makes it easier to use. Click through to the post to learn all the details.

You may also be able to get a free account with PowToon if you are an educator. They are giving away $10 million dolllars worth of free accounts. For information on this go to this link.

Emerging EdTech has just released their newest version of the excellent e-book that covers free software applications. This version is free to download and it may become a great resource for you to check out when you are considering new projects to do with your learners.

The e-book has eighteen chapters, beginning with Blogs and Blogging Resources. Additional chapters include:

* Creating Your Own Comics and Cartoons for Teaching and Learning

* Educational Games and Gamification

* Interactive Collaboration Tools

* Open Educational Resources

* Screencasting

* Using YouTube Videos as Lesson Materials

* Video Conferencing and Video Chat Tools

And this is by no means a complete list. You will find many more tools if you download the free book. You will need to provide your name and email address to receive the download link. Click through to the post for additional information.

Richard Byrne shares two timers, an iPad app that helps students understand noise levels (and hopefully learn to keep their voices down), and a random name selector. There is a detailed explanation of each tool and two videos, one that shares how to use classroom timers and one that looks at using a random name generator in a class.

This ThingLink image created by Susan Oxnevad is chock full of resources in the following categories:

* Online Learning Platforms

* Finding Information

* Understanding Information

* Using Information

* Writing Today

* SAMR Model of Tech Integration

* CCSS Vocabulary

* Build a ThingLink Classroom and The ThingLink Toolkit

* Google Forms: Create an Assignment Tracker to Collect Work

* Avatars and Internet: Using Avatars to Teach Internet Safety

There is also a ThingLink on Digital Differentiation, 2014 edition.

If ThingLink is new to you as you scroll over you will see a variety of symbols appear. Each links to a specific resource.

ThingLink continues to add new features for educators, and one new item is the ability to create a ThingLink Channel (and you can also  create a class and have your students create ThingLink). Check out this interactive album that provides access to some posts from the ThingLink blog...and if you have not yet created a ThingLink account you might want to head over to ThingLink (http://www.thinglink.com/) and create an account.

EdSurge is releasing their top 20 "S'Cool Tools" for 2013 and this list provides us with the tools from 11 - 20. The range of tools is wide. A quick explanation on some are below with more information in the post as well as links to each of them.

* NewsELA is a website that provides students access to articles written at different lexiles, starting with Grade 3 or 4 and moving through Grade 12. It is free and you can create a classroom account and also assign articles to be read. Some (but not all) of the articles have quizzes attached that ask questions based on Common Core and you will be able to see the results. Questions are different for each reading lexile.

* EdWeb is a professional and social networking that provides a wealth of resources including free webinars. It is a great tool to help improve teaching and learning.

* Timelapse provides you a look at what is happening based on satellite photography taken over the last 30 years.

Click through to the post to explore these tools and seven others...and stay tuned for the release of the top ten!

This lesson plan is a great way to incorporate a range of technology into a lesson. In this case Paul Solarz (the teacher) realized that students needed to learn to use a thesaurus, and chose to have them focus on traits, as they are a key component of literature. After providing lists of character traits to the students he taught them how to use Tagel (to create the word clouds) and thesaurus.com (free online). Click through to the website to read the full post. You will also find a link to the many word clouds that were created by his students) for some of the features included within it.

If you have students whom are ELL you may want to check out wordsift.com. It uses visual thesaurus (slightly different than thesaurus.com) and has other resources that help many learners, including images that are associated with specific words, the ability to create a workspace and pull in words and images, and lists of words (such as ELA, science, math, history) so students may learn which words are important in different subjects. WordSift does not allow you to make word clouds as do the many other word cloud tools but is a valuable tool to learn to use.