JayCut

JayCut is a site that has been around for awhile that I was happily reminded about from reading Free Technology 4 Teachers. JayCut is an excellent site for creating/editing videos. Users of iMovie HD will feel right at home w/ the simple user interface. Everything from effects, to videos, to cutting video (after all it's called JayCut ;-), is all here.

Finally, when a video is done being mixed together a person can upload to the web or even download it straight to their desktop.



I highly recommend giving JayCut a try by clicking here.

MP32Tube

MP32Tube is an interesting site that lets users upload an image & MP3 and turn it into a video. Also, it can sync w/ YouTube to upload the MP3 as well.

Give MP32Tube a try by clicking here.

Thanks to ZarcoEnglish for the heads up!

Freeology

Freeology is a great little site for providing forms for educators. This is quite a robust where people can find items on: planning, graphic organizers, certificates, etc.





I highly recommend checking out Freeology by clicking here.

Thanks to Richard Byrne for the tip!!

Rubrics4Teachers

Rubrics4Teachers is a great site for getting free educational rubrics on any number of subjects. Also, there are links to free Rubric generators/makers, and templates that you can download.

Give Rubrics4Teachers a try by clicking here.

SpeedyMarks

SpeedyMarks is a visual bookmarking site. It is very similar to the default start-up page in Safari 4.0. The way this works is by storing a "cookie" on your browser (oooh I like cookies).

I recommend checking out SpeedyMarks if you are a visual person who rather browse through pictures of thumbnails the URL links.

Click here for more info.



A special thank you to Ozge Karaoglu for the tip!!

Box.net

Box.net is a site that has been around for awhile which I am just getting around to posting on. This is one of the premiere sites around for file sharing and is ideal for creating a widget and embedding into your site.



From the pic below you'll notice how many times my Blog Companions have been downloaded. Plus, it sends me an email every time somebody downloads it. This is a great resource which gives you a limited/free version. The paid service gives you more size to "play" with.

Give Box.net a try by clicking here.

I highly recommend checking out Naomi Harm's blog to see an excellent way to use Box.net on your site.

Certificate Street

Certificate Street is a nice site for print out certificates on any number of subjects. Below is a screen shot for reading certificates...




Thanks to Jennifer Dorman for the tip!

Give CS a try by clicking here.

PreKinders

PreKinders is a fabulous early childhood teacher's search engine. That searches websites that have only been created by Pre K and KDG teachers.



Give PreKinders a try by clicking here.

AnyClip

AnyClip is a new (beta) site that is ideal for finding any movie moment. It will list actors, sound tracks, and even supply a video clip.

I'm not sure if there is any inappropriate content on this site, but it is ideal for those that like to use movies in their teachings.

Results on searching the quote, "I want the truth!"




Give AnyClip a try by clicking here.

Pecha Kucha (1st Attempt)

Well, w/ the support of my PLN and more specifically Shelly Terrell, I have decided to create my very first Pecha Kucha. Which is the name for a presentation that is 20 slides long at 20 seconds each. However, after more research I have discovered that this term also means "bane of my existence" which is exactly how I felt after giving it a shot.

To make a long story short, I switched between using PP and Keynote to create the presentation and after many many many attempts was able to record my audio. Although, after finishing w/ the "bane of my existance" aka Pecha Kucha, I realized that my timing was a tad off and I was two seconds over.

Worst case, I'm going to put this movie into iMovie and just chop the last two seconds off. I really enjoyed this learning experience but realized that it is hard to record your narration when having to be aware of changing your slide every 20 seconds. For some reason, I just couldn't figure out how to record my audio w/ preset timings at 20 seconds a slide, meaning I had to manually switch the slide each time. NOT FUN.

I can see how this works better being improvised (which I did) and having somebody switch the slides for you. I really think I could do a good job at a "live" event.

That being said, this was a great learning experience and I look forward to my next attempts. I recommend contacting Shelly Terrell for more info on Pecha Kucha.

My 1st attempt a (a bit grainy being exported as a web movie for file size reasons)

SaveVideo.Me

SaveVideo.Me is a nice little site for downloading video from any number of sites, such as: Google, YouTube, etc.

Give SaveVideo.Me a try by clicking here.



Thanks to Alexandra Fransisco for the tip.

Find Icons

Find Icons is a search engine designed to look for icons. This is one of my favorite new sites just for the fact how easy it is to get clip art. I'm not sure what kind of filtering is going on but this site looks to have a lot of promise.

Below is a pic on a search of the term, computers...



Give Find Icons a try by clicking here.

Tutor2u-Wisdomap

Tutor2u-Wisdomap (say that 10 x's fast) is an excellent site I just found out about from the equally impressive blog ZarcoEnglish. This is a great site for making mind-maps specifically designed for education.

Here is a quote straight from their site, "Tutor2u-Wisdomap is the only mind mapping software designed for education. Packed with useful features for in and out of the classroom, tutor2u-Wisdomap helps you to make beautiful mind maps and integrate engaging media items. You can use it to plan lessons, set and track mind map assignments for your students, create interactive mind map presentations. Your students can get the most from mind maps using the unique built in revision tools."



For more information on Tutor2u-Wisdomap click here.

Fontself

Fontself is a great new (beta) site for browsing/creating your own fonts. FS is a very nice site for using "original" fonts by embedding them via a html code.

I highly recommend checking out Fontself by clicking here.



Thanks to Life Feast for the wonderful tip!!

piZap

piZap is a fun new site I learned about from Larry Ferlazzo's excellent blog. This is a place where a user can upload their pic and that have a lot fun w/ the editing tools.

Check out my example from when I was a kid in the 70's...



Give piZap a try by clicking here.

Kick YouTube

Kick YouTube is a site I learned about from the wonderful, Naomi Harm, at WEMTA this year. This is an easy way to get around the issue of districts blocking YouTube from staff. Just goto YouTube and type in kick in the URL before the y and you'll be able to download the video to your desktop.



or

Just click here and grab the video too. It's that easy.

Give Kick YouTube a try by clicking here.

WEMTA Thoughts

I just wanted to do a quick post on what has been one of the biggest highlights of my professional career, and that was attending and presenting at this years WEMTA (Wisconsin Education Media Technology Association) conference.

First, I can't thank Naomi Harm enough for encouraging me to attend and present there. I had the great honor of presenting w/ her which I never could've imagined in my wildest dreams. She is truly a rare gem in the educational technology field and I owe her so much.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who attended my presentation as well as all the people I met. There are so many names that I can't even big to list them (of course I forgot almost all of them) but the few that stand out are Tami Brass and Chad Kafka. These two super nice people are really pioneers in their field and a great resource for people to follow.

I learned so many things that I've only seen talked about but never really used such as:

• back channel chats (http://www.chatzy.com/advanced.htm), a great tool for teachers and those presenting a large crowd of people
• polling in real-time (http://www.polleverywhere.com/), imagine using phones/mobile devices to text your answer (a la American Idol)

Finally a few blogs that you can't do w/out:

• http://blog.innovativeeducator.us/
• http://www.chadkafka.com/
• http://tech4teaching.org/wpblog/

Cutting Edge Technology

• Course Wiki - http://cutting-edge-technology.wikispaces.com/
  
• Collaborative Web 2.0 list - http://web20-21stcentury-tools.wikispaces.com/
  

Cut MP3

Cut MP3 is a great site to cut snippets of your favorite Mp3 file. All a person has to do is upload their song, drag the play head into position (start/stop) and click on cut. Super easy!!



Give CutMp3 a try by clicking here.

Sweet Search

Sweet Search is a nice search engine for students, everything has been approved and moderated for their safety.




Give SS a try by clicking here.

Jamendo

Jamendo is a site I just learned about from Free Technology 4 Teachers, an award winning blog. This is a search engine for free/open source music.





Give Jamendo a try by clicking here.

Carryout Text

Carryout Text is a neat little site for converting text to speech via a MP3 file. All a user has to do is copy/paste in the text and click convert. This is great for so many things such as converting: blogs, emails, documents, etc.

Give Carryout Text a try by clicking here.




Thanks to ZarcoEnglish an excellent blog for the tip.

The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book

The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book was introduced to me by the incomparable, Naomi Harm. This is one of the best collaborative resources I've seen on Web 2.0. It covers everything from wikis, blogs, to digital storytelling and podcasting.

Terry Freedman the creator does a masterful job of organizing the content which has been included from such high esteemed educators from around the world, such as: Kim Cofino, Silvia Tolisano, and Shelly Terrell.

What fascinates me so much is how easy it is to use this great resource. The content is organized in such a clean/precise way. Below is an example of one such example...




I highly recommend downloading this free ebook by clicking here!!

Librophile

Librophile is an excellent search engine to find free audio books. What makes Librophile so nice is the ability to either sample chapters or even download to iTunes.

I highly recommend giving Librophile a try for those audio book lovers!!!



Click here for more info.

DocsPal

DocsPal is a new (beta) site for converting files. This is like any other site (Comet Docs) that does this kind of thing and very easy to use.




I recommend checking out DocsPal by clicking here.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the tip.

TinEye

TinEye is a new (beta) reverse search engine. What that means is a person uploads an image and then finds out various information such as, how it's being used, where it came from, etc.

Below is an example on using the 7-11 logo...



Give TinEye a try by clicking here.

Teach w/ Movies

Teach w/ Movies is an excellent site I found out about from Larry Ferlazzo's wonderful blog. This is a site that provides resources/lesson plans to popular movies. However, there is a $11.99 charge to use these guides.

Finding Nemo example...



I highly recommend giving Teach w/ Movies a look by clicking here.

Memo Share

Memo Share is a site for sending fun photos/videos. This is done via a simple drag & drop interface and then can be saved or shared.

Give Memo a try by clicking here.

Thanks to Ozge Karaoglu for the tip!!

Stiqr

Stiqr is a site I just learned about from Ozge Karaoglu's wonderful blog. This is a site that sticks things to your webpage. It is very easy to use and only requires putting a code into your site. After viewing the demo, I can really see how this will make life a lot easier for those that are constantly adding widgets/gadgets to their pages.

View their demo below..



Give Stiqr a try by clicking here.

Board800

Board800 is a site for creating an interactive/online whiteboard. This really is designed for collaborative drawing. A nice feature of this site is no registration is needed, once you create a board you are then giving a session name which lasts 90 days before it is removed.



Give Board800 a try by clicking here.

For a more in depth review, check out Richard Byrne's excellent blog.

Grabba Beast

Grabba Beast is a fun site for the youngsters to create a silly looking monster. It is just like any avatar creator.

This is what I would look like if I was a viking ;-)



Give Grabba Beast a try by clicking here.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the heads up.

Explore/Hatch Award

Guest post (nice video competition)....

The explore/Hatch Award will be presented to the filmmaker whose short film shows a group or individual hero striving for a better world through selfless acts. If you or anyone you know has created a film highlighting a cause that inspires others to make a difference, submissions are now open .The winner will receive a full expense paid trip to HATCHFest in Asheville, North Carolina (April 15th - 18th) where they will have the chance to meet with prominent mentors as well as receive a prize from the explore.org co-founder, Charles Annenberg Weingarten! Submissions are due on March 25th.

Explore.org is a multimedia organization that documents leaders around the world who have devored their lives to extraordinary causes. Both educational and inspirational, explore creates a portal into the soul of humanity by championing the selfless acts of others.

For more info click here.

Preceden

Preceden is a new (beta) site for creating simple timelines. While Preceden is not the most robust (lacks the ability to add media) of the web timeline creators it is one the easiest to use. Also, it has the ability to create more then one timeline in the same line, this is a nice feature.

Below is an example of a resume timeline...



Thanks to Alexandra Fransisco for the tip!!

Give Preceden a try by clicking here.

TypeWith.me

TypeWith.me is a simple new site for doing real-time word processing collaboration. In a way this is very similar to how Etherpad was but there is no registration required. What I like about this site is how easy it is to use. Also, being real-time a person can chat w/ another while working on the same document.



I highly recommend giving TWM a try by clicking here.

Blog Companion: Technology Tidbits V. IV (revised)

BC V. IV is now revised and up online. This volume focuses on search engines and has over 40 + reviews.

Coming soon will be actual copies of these books which will be raffled off for free starting next month.

Urtak

Urtak is a nice simple site to use to create online polls/surveys. The only "hitch" is that the questions must be yes - no.


Urtak 1073

Give Urtak a try by clicking here.

Thanks to Free Technology 4 Teachers for the tip.

Books Should be Free

Books Should be Free is a nice search engine for finding free audio books.



Give BSBF a try by clicking here.

Historical Scene Investigation

HSI (think CSI for history) is an absolutely great site for History teachers. It allows students to choose from one of 13 cases to go through and solve. These cases are put together similar to that of a webquest, where students have different links/downloads that they can go through. Also, there is a separate teacher & student view.

I highly recommend checking out HSI by clicking here.



I'd like to thank the Educational Technology Blog for his great review of this site.

PaperRater

PaperRater is a great site for Middles/High School students who want to improve their writing. This site checks student's writing by checking: grammar, spelling, and for plagiarism. Plus, it's very easy to use just copy/paste text in and click get report. This really should help students create more original pieces of work.

Give PaperRater a try by clicking here.



A special thank you to Richard Byrne and his excellent blog for finding this wonderful site.

Neo K12

Neo K12 is a site I was introduced to by Kelley Tenkley's wonderful blog. This is an excellent site for educational videos K-12. What I really like about NK is how easy it is to use and the vast amount of different resources they cover. I like to think of it as a cross between Nettrekker and United Streaming.



Give NeoK12 a try by clicking here.

The Ultimate Wiki

I've been mulling an idea for awhile on creating a place where people can go to get all their Web 2.0/21st Century Tools information.

Also, I wanted something that would be of a collaborative nature where other people can post/review sites.

Finally, after sometime I think I created a nice little place for such a thing in a wiki format. This site is for everyone who likes to use innovative technology and apply it to their teachings.

Feel free to join the wiki and use/share it anyway you see fit.

Click here http://web20-21stcentury-tools.wikispaces.com/

Enjoy!!!

Fotobabble

Fotobabble is a fun new site I learned about from Alex Fransisco's blog. This is a place where user's upload their photo and then record their voice to it. After that, you can either set it to public and private and then embed it into your site.

Give Fotobabble a try by clicking here.

Shwup

Shwup is a new (beta) site for sharing photos/videos. This is done by creating a private album that people can only view through an invitation. Once a person is invited they can then add media to this album via email there is no need to register.

What makes Shwup such a great resource is how easy it is to use and the ability to create a custom slide show called a muvee. This muvee is something similar to what PhotoPeach or Animoto would create.

Give Shwup a try by clicking here.