Cartoonize

Cartoonize is a fun site for taking photos and turning it into a cartoon similar to befunky (looks a little bit like the movie Scanner Darkly).

To have fun w/ photo effects check out Cartoonize by clicking here.

Also, check out Big Huge Labs for other ways to have fun w/ photos.



Thanks to Free Technology 4 Learning for the tip.

Corkboard Me

Corkboard Me is a wonderfully simple site for creating collaborative sticky notes. This site works very similar to Wallwisher, Pindax, and Spaaze, just click on board and start typing away to add a sticky note. This site generates a unique URL that can be shared w/ others to facilitate collaboration.

I highly recommend checking out Corkboard Me by clicking here.

Thanks to the award winning iLearn Technology for the tip!!

Pollmo

Pollmo is a simple new (beta) site that I joust found out about on Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a great site for making simple polls by adding a question, answer, and then picking a skin (theme). Once that is a done grab the embed code to add the poll to your site.

Give Pollmo a try by clicking here!!

Lucid Chart

Lucid Chart is a nice free (for education) site for creating online charts, diagrams, wireframes, etc. It has a very easy to use drag-n-drop interface that that reminds me a bit of Lovely Charts.

I recommend giving Lucid Chart a try by clicking here!!

For a much more detailed review check out Richard Byrne's award winning blog.

Folding Story

Folding Story is a wonderful new site for collaborative writing that I just found out about from, Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a site where users can either start their own story and then share w/ others or join an already existing story to collaborate on. There are other sites that accomplish much of the same thing, but Folding Story might just be the easiest.

I recommend checking out Folding Story by clicking here!

Chirpstory

Chirpstory is an interesting site that allows people to create a story from tweets on Twitter. This is done w/ a very easy to use drag-n-drop interface by adding tweets and links to pics, videos, sites, etc. This is a fun/innovative way to share information w/ others.

I highly recommend checking out Chirpstory by clicking here!!

Top 10 Sites for Images and Clip Art

Finding images on the internet for educators to use has been a common problem problem for many alike. This can happen for a number of reason such as: copy right privileges, inappropriateness, etc etc.

While there are a number of paid solutions for finding images such as Nettrekker or Discovery Streaming, there are a number of free alternatives that work nicely as well.

However, keep in mind that most of the sites listed below do not have built in filters for images. These image search engines should be used either by educators (adults assisting students) or go in hand in hand w/ a school district filtering solution and Acceptable Use Policy.

Top 10 Sites for Images & Clip Art

1. Pics4Learning - A very popular site to find free safe to use images for teachers and students.
2. Cyclo.ps - A search engine that searches the most popular free image engines around and provides a nice one stop shopping of sorts.
3. School Clip Art - A great site for free school clip art.
4. Ookaboo - A nice creative commons (free) site for finding great images for class work.
5. Picsearch - Excellent image search engine if used w/ a district's filtering solution.
6. Veezzle - A wonderful free stock photo search engine.
7. Google Swirl - An innovative way to search for images and see their relationships w/ each other (use w/ Google Safe Search enabled).
8. Free Photo Bank - An easy way to find creative common images.
9. Open Clip Art - A great way to find free clip art to use.
10. Find Icons - A nice site for free icons.

Tech Ease

Tech Ease is a site I just read about on David Andrade's wonderful blog. This is a great site for tech support for either Mac & Windows and also shares nice technology integration tips as well.




I highly recommend checking out Tech Ease by clicking here!!

Safety Web

Safety Web is an excellent site for parents which covers a lot of areas regarding online safety such as: bullying, stalking, social networking etc. Also, by entering your child's email address it scans the web and gives a detailed report of their online activity.

I highly recommend checking out Safety Web by clicking here!!

picture.of.a

picture.of.a is a wonderful new site I found out about from Larry Ferlazzo's blog. This is a search engine designed to find free pictures.

While I don't think there is any filtering going on, I haven't come across any inappropriate pics so far.



Give picture.of.a a try by clicking here!!

Instapaper

Instapaper is a cool site for bookmarking that I found out about on Twitter from the wonderful education consultant, Naomi Harm. After signing up a user installs via drag-n-drop a bookmarklet into their browser toolbar. Then after finding a site that you want to read later just click on the button. This also works well for using on a variety of mobile devices.

I highly recommend checking out Instapaper by clicking here!!

AirDropper

AirDropper is a new (beta) site that is ideal for file sharing. Basically, this site allows users to email "others" and request files from them. Once the files have been requested people can then "drop" those file into a unique drop box just for them.

I highly recommend checking out AirDropper by clicking here.



Thanks to David Andrade's wonderful blog for the tip!!

Book Flavor

Book Flavor is a great site I just learned about from the award winning, Free Technology 4 Teachers. It is a search engine for books that is similar to how Amazon works.



I highly recommend checking out Book Flavor to meet all your reading needs by clicking here!!

Clipgenerator

Clipgenerator is a nice site for making slideshows/presentations that I just found out about from a colleague on Twitter. It is a real simple site to use that is rather similar to Animoto. A user just uploads or picks their favorite music, add's some pictures, and the choose the effect they want to use. The results are then emailed out.



Give Clipgenerator a try by clicking here!!

Super Book Educators Web Tools

The Supoer Book Educators Web Tools is a wonderful free resource brought to you by Richard Byrne (Free Technology 4 Teachers). This is a compilation of resources from a number of well known super educators.

I highly recommend checking out this excellent resource by clicking here!!!

Teach Parents Tech

Teach Parents Tech is a site that has been getting a lot of press lately online. It is a site designed by Google to provide technology support for "parents". I find it mainly to be a fun site w/ a sense of humor designed to share some tips w/ your folks.



Give Teach Parents Tech a try by clicking here.

Find the Best

Find the Best is a new (beta) comparison search engine that works similar to Hitsplitter. This is a nice way to find and compare data on a number of subjects. It has a nice education area to test out comparative data.

I highly recommend checking out Find the Best by clicking here.



For a more detailed review check out Free Technology 4 Teachers!!!

Figment

Figment is a wonderful new site that I just found out about from the great, iLearn Technology. This is a site similar to Tikatok as it is a community for students to share and read others writings. Keep in mind this site is geared for older students (13 on up) but is a very nice way to introduce web 2.0 technologies.



I highly recommend checking out Figment by clicking here!!!

Hitsplitter

Recently, I received an email promoting a new kind of search engine called Hitsplitter. After giving it a try, I decided to post verbatim about this interesting site.

Hitsplitter is a tool for comparative search, based on Google.

With Hitsplitter, you can find where people write about brands, products, persons or any keyword.
The tool scans sets of websites like the Top 50 US blogs or the top 20 Wikipedia domains. User can also define their own sets of sites to scan.

Economists can use Hitsplitter.com to see where people around the world write about inflation. Linguists can use Hitsplitter to see which newspapers write ‘insurgents’ and which prefer ‘terrorists’.
Journalists can use Hitsplitter to see who writes about the iPhone.

The free tool runs up to 250 searches simultaneously, for example to compare 10 keywords across 25 websites.

In 2011, Hitsplitter will offer a subscription service that offers more searches and automated monitoring.

Give Hitsplitter a try by clicking here!!

Below is a demo video of Hitsplitter in action...

GoAnimate

GoAnimate is well known site for creating custom animations. Now, GoAnimate has released an educational version that is ideal for schools. The educational instance comes in two kinds of accounts, Teacher Plus or School Plus. Each version allows the creation of student accounts and the ability to host your animations in a safe environment.



I highly recommend checking out GoAnimate by clicking here!!! (take a look at the lesson plan area).

Wondersay

Wondersay is an excellent new (beta) site for creating animated text. This would be a fun way for teachers to create a nice title to a webpage, blog, or document.



I highly recommend checking out Wondersay by clicking here.

http://www.wondersay.com/#!fix=9740306574063361

Honey Nut Cheerios Comic Creator

Upon having breakfast w/ my boys this morning I discovered on the back of their cereal box a comic creator for Honey Nut Cheerios. I have it a shot and found it to be a nice site to use w/ kids to teach them digital storytelling and how to create a comic. Everything that can be found in most online comic creators can be found here: drag-n-drop interface, ability to choose characters and backgrounds, and editing text.

I recommend checking out Honey Nut Cheerios Comic Creator by clicking here.



The only disclaimer I can give is, to unlock extra content you need a special code that you can only get from the back of the cereal boxes.

Wylio

Wylio is a search engine that is ideal for bloggers as everything that it returns is free via Common Craft. It also makes it very easy to cite photos based on an html embed code.

I highly recommend checking out Wylio by clicking here!!



Thanks to Richard Byrne's amazing blog for the tip!!

CanTeach

CanTeach is an excellent site that provides 100's of resources for educators such as lesson plans, links, etc. for elementary schools.

I highly recommend checking it out by clicking here!!



Thanks to the wonderful blog, The Educational Technology Guy for the tip!!

Find that File

Find that File is a new (beta) site whose mission is to provide the most comprehensive file search on the Internet encompassing Web, FTP, Usenet and P2P resources including 43 file types and 200+ file extensions. (Including audio, video, bittorrent, documents and more)

FTF searches as deeply as possible to identify and serve the most relevant data possible including properties, meta data, extracts and more.

Below is a demo video of the site...



Give Find that File a try by clicking here!!

Write Comics

Write Comics is a fun site for creating your own digital comic. Like many other similar sites all a user has to do is add some characters, choose a scene, and then add some dialog to create their digital story. Although, not as robust as say Pixton or Comic Master it still is a nice site to use.

Give Write Comics a try by clicking here!!

For a more detailed review check out the excellent blog Life Feast.

Ookaboo

Ookaboo is a new search engine for finding free images.

Give Ookaboo a try by clicking here.

For a more detailed review check out Larry Ferlazzo's blog.

Top 10 Website Creators

Having a website for a teacher is an ideal way to share information w/ parents and the community. Not only does this facilitate collaboration but it can help teachers improve their own technology proficiency. Most districts have some sort of preset application that staff uses for creating a website but for those that do not I have compiled my top sites for creating a website. Keep in mind that most website creators are free but for a fee can increase the options that they have as well as the ability to eliminate ads etc.

Top 10 Website Creators

1. Weebly - A excellent site for creating a classroom website or blog that has a secure educational environment. Also, very easy to use (drag-n-drop) and the ability to password protect your site as well.
   
2. Wix - Is a flash based website creator that a wonderful user interface that is all drag-n-drop.
   
3. Google Sites - A great way to make a collaborative/group website w/ a polished look. Very user friendly and lots of nice look templates to choose from.
   
4. Yola - A nice website creator w/ lots of features. However, more features can be unlocked via a paid subscription.
   
5. Webs - A great site to either create a personal website or a group one as well.
   
6. Moonfruit - A fun way to create a simple and elegant website that has lots of social networking integration.
   
7. Webstarts - Another nice drag-n-drop site for creating websites w/ all the fixings: ability to add photos, video, audio, etc etc.
   
8. Edicy - Fast and easy way to create a wonderful looking website.
   
9. Jimdo - Fun and easy to use site to create a nice website w/ lots of features.
   
10. Sitekreator - Mainly a paid website creator but lots of nice visuals to choose from.
    

Noterr

Noterr is a nice site for creating online sticky notes that can be shared via a link. It's really simple and is useful to have if you rather use something online then a desktop application.



Give Noterr a try by clicking here.

For a more detailed review check out Free Technology 4 teachers!!

Top 10 Safe Search Engines

The other day upon reading my email I received one from an educational list serv requesting safe search engines for students. After thinking about it and already just doing a list on Top 10 Search Engines other then Google, I was able to come up w/ a number of them that meet this very need.

However, keep in mind when dealing w/ students and surfing the internet it's important to remember that no site is really 100% safe even when dealing w/ filtered search engines. Although, when choosing to use search engines w/ students I would definitely recommend starting w/ the following sites below...

Top 10 Safe Search Engines

1. Sweet Search - A group of experts (that includes librarians & teachers) evaluate all content from this search engine.
   
2. Top Marks - A great site developed in the UK by teachers who approved everything on this site.
   
3. Quintura for Kids - An innovative search engine for kids that displays results in a cloud based style. Also, has apps for mobile devices.
   
4. Kid Rex - Is a wonderful search engine designed around Google's safe search. Also, it has a very nice visual appeal for kids.
   
5. Ask Kids - A search engine designed for kids ages 6-12.
   
6. Yahoo Kids - Previously known as Yahooligans, Yahoo Kids is a fun site for kids to gather information on the internet.
   
7. Famhoo - A family friendly search engine that filters all content.
   
8. One Key - Developed in 1996, One Key in collaboration w/ Google does a nice job of creating a safe search engine.
   
9. Google (safe search) - Google has a nice safe search setting which can be locked into place at the browser level for those that use Firefox.
   
10. Nettrekker - A great paid site for searching the web not only for students but for teachers as well.
    

Qwiki

Qwiki is a new (alpha) site that is the ultimate "information experience". The best way to describe it is a search engine where the results are different areas of interactive media, such as: audio, video, etc. I like to think of it as a cross between United Streaming and Voice Thread. The reason for this is when a term is searched, the result is an interactive piece of media where the user has control over it (think the way a Voice Thread is controlled).

What I'd like to see in future releases is the ability to embed one of these "information experiences".



I highly recommend giving Qwiki a try by clicking here!!!

A special thank you to iLearn Technology for her review.

Top 10 Sites for Creating Quizzes

There is an abundance of online tools that allows teachers to create tests & quizzes in a few simple steps. Technology has changed the way in which students are being assessed and graded. That being said, I have decided to list my favorite sites for creating quizzes that can help assist teachers in their teachings.

Top 10 Sites for Creating Tests & Quizzes

1. Google Docs (forms) - An ideal way for teachers to create tests/quizzes and then embed them into their site for students to take. Also, very user friendly and instant reporting!!!
   
2. Zoho Challenge - A very nice suite of tools that allows users to create quizzes w/ a nice polished look.
   
3. MyStudiyo - Create online multimedia quizzes w/ this innovative site. As w/ most quiz sites a user can either post their quiz online or embed it into their site (ideal for education).
   
4. Quibblo - A fun/easy site for creating quizzes in a social networking environment. Quizzes can be rated, shared w/ others, and even embedded into a site.
   
5. Testmoz - A great site for creating quizzes w/ 4 question types. Also, this site is very user friendly and is taken by generating a unique URL.
   
6. ProProfs - A bit more robust then the other sites but still nice for creating quizzes. The paid version offers up more features such as student tracking, privacy settings, etc etc.
   
7. GoToQuiz - A very simple site for creating a quiz that generates a unique URL for others to take.
   
8. ClassMarker - Another nice site for creating embeddable quizzes, similar to ProProfs. The paid version opens up a lot more options for the users.
   
9. Braineos - A fun site for creating flash card based quizzes on a number of different subjects.
   
10. QuizStar - Create classes w/ students to take online quizzes.
    

Rock Melt

Rock Melt is a new browser that was designed by the people that brought us Flock. This is a browser that is built around social media and any user of Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, will feel right at home. This is because of innovative interface that allows users to control the content which goes on their browsing window's edges. Imagine being able to chat w/ your FB buddy's while tweeting and browsing a different web page all on the same screen.



I highly recommend checking out Rock Melt by clicking here!!!

2010 Edublog Awards Nominations

The Edublog Awards are once again upon us and below is my list of nominees. I wish everyone the best of luck and look forward to seeing the results.

To vote for your own nominees click on the link below...
http://edublogawards.com/

Best Individual Blog - Shelly Terrell's Teacher Reboot Camp
http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/

Best Individual Tweeter - Shelly Terrell
http://twitter.com/ShellTerrell

Best Resource Sharing Blog - Larry Ferlazzo's Websits of the Day
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

Most Influential Blog Post - Kelly Tenkely's iLearn Technology
Twitter Academy - http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=3298

Best Educational Wiki - Ozge Karaoglu
http://ozgekaraoglu.wikispaces.com/

Best Educational Webinar Series - WEMTA Wired Wednesday
http://www.wemta.org/programs/wired_wednesdays.cfm

Best Educational Use of a Social Network - The Educator's PLN
http://edupln.ning.com/

Best Librarian Blog - Buffy Hamilton's The Unquiet Librarian
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/

Lifetime Achievement Award - Naomi Harm
http://blog.innovativeeducator.us/

Snip.ly

Snip.ly is a nice new (alpha) site for annotating news articles on websites and then sharing them. What makes Snip.ly so great is how easy it is to use and no registration is necessary.

I highly recommend giving Snip.ly a try by clicking here!!

For a much more detailed review check out Larry Ferlazzo's post.

RockYou

RockYou is a fun site for creating online slideshows/presentations. Like many similar sites all a user has to do is upload photos, add effects, and then choose how they want to share their presentation.

I recommend checking out RockYou by clicking here!!

Grapholite

Grapholite is a new (alpha) site that I just learned about from Free Technologies 4 Teachers. This site is ideal for making online graphs or flow charts. It reminds me a lot of Cacoo or Lovely Charts in how it uses a drag-n-drop interface and is very user friendly.

I highly recommend checking out Grapholite by clicking here!!

Enter the Group

Enter the Group is a great site that reminds a lot of the CMS, Moodle. It is designed to make group projects easier by using online technologies that combines: calendars, email, message boards, etc. Also, ETG has a nice polished look that is very user friendly.

I recommend checking out Enter the Group by clicking here.

For more similar resources check out Shelly Terrell's wonderful blog.

The Isil Boy Daily

The Isil Boy Daily is a new online newspaper that I found out about on FB from, strangely enough, Isil Boy 8-) After giving it a look, I have to say it is one of the best ones I've seen in a long time. She takes all her resources from her blog/PLN, etc and presents them in this nice innovative format.



I highly recommend checking out this newspaper by clicking here!!!

For other sites to create newsletters/papers click here.

Testmoz

Testmoz is an excellent site for generating online tests/quizzes that I found out about from a wonderful new blog, B's Life w/ English. W/ Testmoz a user can create tests that are either multiple choice, T/F, or fill in the blank. Another great feature is the ability to password protect your tests so strangers can't take it. Top it off w/ nice detailed reporting and you get a great site.



I highly recommend checking out Testmoz by clicking here!!

BridgeURL

BridgeURL is a site that takes multiple URL's and then provides one link for them, similar to the way Fur.ly works. This is ideal and simple way to share a bunch of links w/ students.

Give BridgeURL a try by clicking here.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the tip!!

For an example of a link I created w/ a bunch of free tech resources click here!!

Top 25 Sites of 2010

With the end of the year right around the corner I decided to dedicate a post to my favorite websites of the year. At first I wanted to do a list of 10 choices, but after looking through the 100's of posts that I've done throughout the year I had to up that total to 25. Depending on feedback I might even do a top 100 or 50 if there is a demand.

Top 25 Sites of 2010

1. Kidblog - A great way for schools to have kids blog. No student email is required and everything is monitored before being posted online.
   
2. Sweet Search - Excellent search engine for students as everything has been reviewed by educators before hand.
   
3. Cacoo - A nice site for creating online charts/graphs w/ a built in chat feature for collaboration.
   
4. 21 Classes - A nice way to get student's blogging in a safe/secure environment.
   
5. Story Jumper -Excellent site for digital storytelling that has lots of educational resources for teachers.
   
6. Middlespot - Is an innovative website for social bookmarking that allows users to collect sites in a visual way.
   
7. Education Eye - Is a fun site for brainstorming w/ this visual search engine.
   
8. Kizoa - A great site for creating animated slide shows w/ lots of different content to choose from.
   
9. Drag on Tape - A very user friendly site that uses a drag-n-drop interface to edit/mix video.
   
10. Shwup - Is a great site for making collaborative slide shows.
    
11. PreZentit - Very similar to Shwup this is a nice looking site for making collaborative slide shows.
    
12. Quintura for Kids - A search engine for kids that acts a bit like a tag cloud where results can be embedded into a site.
    
13. TodaysMeet - Create a real-time, private, back channel chat that brings in tweets from Twitter.
    
14. MeMoov - A very user friendly site for digital storytelling that allows users to record their voice for narration.
    
15. Wordia - Brings words to life through the use of video.
    
16. Encyclomedia - A video encyclopedia where results can be embedded into a site.
    
17. Zooburst - A great site for for digital storytelling where a user can make an online 3D pop-up book.
    
18. Jay Cut - A site similar to iMovie that allows users to edit or create a video.
    
19. Splashup - Looks like Photoshop and is a great way to edit photos and manipulate layers/effects.
    
20. Comic Master - A fun site for digital storytelling that has a drag-n-drop interface.
    
21. Knowcase - Create collaborative outlines w/ this easy to use site.
    
22. Cloud Canvas - A great site for photo editing and drawing/painting similar to Splashup.
    
23. Magic Studio - A great mult-media site for uploading photos/documents/video and then editing them.
    
24. Googlios - A way for students to create digital portfolios online using Google Tools.
    
25. We are Teachers - A social network for educators where lots of ideas and lessons can be found.
    

Blekko

Blekko is an interesting search engine that uses slash tags to help filter search results. After doing a search on technology integration/web 2.0 I was surprised to see the results.

Give Blekko a try by clicking here!!

Thanks to the blog Tech-Lou-ology for the tip!!

Hollur

Hollur is a new social networking site that has been getting a lot a buzz online lately. This is done by recording your own voice to leave posts. Those audio messages can then be embedded into a site.

I highly recommend checking out Hollur by clicking here!!

For another review, check out Larry Ferlazzo's blog.