Top 25 Sites/Apps of 2019

It's the time of year again for my favorite annual sites and apps.  This years list seems to have a wide variety of educational tools w/ no set pattern seen in years past.  As w/ any of my previous annual top lists, all tools listed in previous end of year posts will not be eligible for this years'.

Top 25 Sites/Apps of 2019

1. Wakelet - Wakelet lets educators easily bookmark any item on the web (i.e. article, blog, tweet, etc.) and then curate them in stunning visual ways to curate w/ others.  This can be used in a wide variety of ways such as for: digital storytelling, professional development, and more.
2. GooseChase - An innovative site/app (iOS/Google Play) for creating digital scavenger hunts.  Also, there are lots of templates for educators to use to create their own scavenger hunt to implement into any curriculum.
3. Educandy -  A wonderful site for creating educational games where a teacher just enters the questions and Educandy creates the game.
4. Walnut - A excellent new site/app for finding educational videos and then taking quizzes to assess learning (think BrainPop).  This is a great way for educators to assess learning and differentiate instruction.
5. Knoword - A super fun Vocabulary game w/ educational portal where teachers can create their own word lists and track/monitor students.
6. Mobile Permissions - A fantastic free new tool for educators to virtually send parents permissions slips to their phone or mobile device.  They can then electronically sign and submit payment while educators can track/monitor to it all from their teacher portal.  
7. DOGOnews - DOGOnews is an excellent site for creating Reading assignments for grades K-8 that can then be integrated into Google Classroom.  This is done through their curated safe (COPA compliant) educational database that provides assessment and language/speech features.
8. VideoClass - A great site for educators and students to find educational videos on any number of subjects.  Also, teachers can upload their own videos, create a screencast or even charge others to download their videos.
9. Parlay - Parlay is a very innovative online tool that educators are using to take classroom discussions to the next level.  Teachers can use Parlay in a number of different ways such as: browsing through a robust library of discussion prompts (w/ resources), creating a online roundtable, or by creating a "live" verbal roundtable.
10. Math Attax - A super-fun highly-addictive free mobile (iOS/Google Play) Math game that helps students w/ their basic Math skills (i.e. addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.). 
11. Loop - An interesting new student response system where educators create an online classroom and then posting questions for students to answer making it easy to assess student learning and differentiate instruction.
12. while True: learn() -  A innovative new iOS game that educators can use to not only integrate Game Based Learning into their teachings, but introduce STEM skills such as: programming, coding, and logical thinking.
13. Backchannel Chat - An amazing site/app for creating backchannel chats that educators are using in a wide variety of ways (i.e. brainstorming, assessing learning, etc.).
14. Fishbowl - A new social network/community for educators looking to post questions, share resources, or collaborate on best teaching practices.
15. Kolibri - An interesting new site for finding interactive resources, videos, and quizzes.
16. NowComment - A great learning tool where educators can annotate on any type of document to  facilitate learning.
17. FUNecole - A wonderful digital learning solution for grades 1st-6th that focuses on topics such as digital literacy and SEL (social emotional learning).
18. ClassroomQ - An easy-to-use innovative tool that acts as a "digital" hand raising device.
19. Newlearn.io - A new social network for finding educational resources that are curated by common core standards.
20. OneClass - A fantastic all-in-one solution for students looking for homework help, study guides, tutors, and more.
21. Codelicious - Codelicious is a wonderful Computer Science curriculum designed to help educators integrate STEM into their classroom or grades 3rd-8th.
22. AdaptedMind - An excellent online curriculum for Math and Reading grades K-6 that uses game based learning to help reinforce learning.
23. Education Galaxy - An innovative learning platform for grades K-6 w/ educational portal to help students master their subjects.
24. boclips - A great place to find educational videos where YouTube is blocked by school filters.
25. Course Hero - A nice place for students to find online tutors in any number of subjects.

Top 25 Sites/Apps of 2018

It's the time of year again for my favorite annual sites and apps.  Again, this years list sees a lot of tools for STEM that focuses on programming/coding.  As w/ any of my previous annual top lists, all tools listed in previous posts will not be eligible for this years'.

Top 25 Sites/Apps of 2018

1. YO Teach! - With Today's Meet shutting down this year, Palms created a very user friendly tool for creating a "backchannel" that can be used in any number of ways in education.
2. Book Creator - A fantastic mobile (iOS/Chrome) app for creating stunning eBooks/presentations, that can be used for digital storytelling, project based learning, and more.
3. Think Fluency - A wonderful iOS/Google Play app for assessing a student's reading fluency.  This is all done w/out the user of paper, provides instant real-time feedback, and saves teacher's valuable time.
4. Dystopia 2153 - An innovative new site that teaches programming/coding through the use of game based learning and graphic novels.
5. Night Zookeeper - A excellent new free writing tool filled w/ interactive lessons as well as an educational portal to help teachers track and monitor student progress.
6. Hippo Video - One of my favorite sites around for creating digital videos that can be used to "flip" a classroom or create explainer videos.
7. TypeTastic - The best site around for student's K-12 (w/ educational portal) learning how to type/keyboard.
8. Socrates - A cutting-edge new site where educators can seamlessly differentiate instruction through game based learning.
9. Project Pals - A great all-in-one collaborative learning platform that is ideal for project based learning.
10. I Know It - One of my favorite new free sites around for Math grades K-5.  Best of all, the educators can assign lessons and track student progress.
11. Oodlu - A excellent new site/app for creating games that lets parents or educators track student progress.
12. Klassroom - A free mobile (Android/iOS) that reminds me of a cross between Remind and ClassDojo, where educators can share: photos, videos, or documents in a secure environment.
13. Badaboom - A new game based learning tool (similar to Kahoot) where educators can make quizzes/games to assess student's learning.
14. Edji - An innovative new site for annotating texts for collaborative learning.
15. Elementari - A fun site for digital storytelling and project based learning where students can create: digital stories, portfolios, or choose-your-own adventures.  There is an educational portal in the works for easier student tracking/management.
16. Codemoji - A cool new sites where grades 1st-8th can learn how to program/code through the use of emojis.
17. Pixorize - A intersting site for US History that reminds me of ThingLink where students learn facts through the use of pictures.
18. Reading Racer - A wonderful new iOS app that uses speech recognition to assess a student's Reading ability/comprehension.
19. CodeCombat - A fantastic way for educators to teach programming/coding through an innovative game.
20. UMU - A excellent mobile app (iOS/Android) that can be used in a any number of different ways.  Educators are using it for assessing students, creating quizzes/games, professional development, and even for blended learning.
21. Waypoint EDU - An innovative new iOS app that uses augmented reality to let educators create  scavenger hunts or geocaching.
22. Grasshopper - A cool mobile app (iOS/Android) that teaches students how to code in Javascript through fun puzzles/games.
23. Typing Agent - A great web based typing/keyboarding tool for grades K-12 w/ lots of features such as: multiplayer games, certificates, type-to-code, and more.
24. Khan Academy Kids - A new iOS/Google Play app for finding educational resources for Math, Reading, Writing, and more.
25. ClassPad - Is a free digital scratch paper that students can use to solve all their Math problems.

Top 30 Edtech Books

I'm re-posting on a blog post I came across from an email I received from Online Degrees. This is a nice list to look at as you should recognize a few of the authors of these books (ie David Warlick). These books are found in different categories such as: teaching w/ technology, ed tech leadership, etc etc.

I highly recommend checking out these beneficial booksl by clicking here!!!

BTW, I have #2 on the list and it was a very good read although a bit dated.

Top 25 Web 2.0 Sites for Education

Web 2.0 is a term that is used to describe the 2nd generation of the web that focuses on collaboration and evolution of the internet. Wikipedia describes Web 2.0 as a, "site that allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as consumers of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users (prosumers) are limited to the active viewing of content that they created and controlled. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies."

Web 2.0 has greatly affected education and the way teachers and students teach and learn. I've decided to compile a list of my favorite web 2.0 sites for education, all are great examples of educational leadership. However, I'm focusing strictly on sites that have an educational portal//instance. What I mean by this is that each site has a section for teachers or a way of controlling the content that students produce. This can be done either by educational accounts, monitoring by teachers, filtering, etc etc. Most of these sites are free but can offer more services via paid subscription...

Top 25 Web 2.0 Sites for Education

1. Google/Gaggle - Google Apps are some of the most popular services for document creation and collaboration. Also, the suite of tools that Google Apps covers is quite abundant such as: web page creation, groups, spreadsheets, etc. Gaggle has a great suite of filtered tools (check out their collaboration w/ Zoho) to make ideal for education. Gaggle allows for filtered blogging, chatting, messaging boards, and filtered videos in You Tube, etc.
2. Edmodo - A wonderful free site that creates an educational environment for students that focuses on skills such as blogging and collaboration.
3. Glogster - A great multi-media site for creating interactive posters that can be viewed online. Plus, student accounts can be created by an educator w/out the need of a student email!!
4. Voice Thread - One of the most popular web 2.0 sites around. An ideal site for creating interactive presentations/slide shows.
5. Myths & Legends - A free site that is wonderful for digital storytelling. All a teacher has to do is get approval from a school administrator to sign a school up for this great service!!
6. Animoto - Create dynamic slide shows w/ one of the most popular slide show creators on the web!!
7. Mixbook - A great way to create a safe & secure environment for students to create online or real books (for order).
8. Prezi - The evolution of presentations has arrived w/ this zoomable presentation creator. Also, there is an educational portal in the works.
9. Aviary Education - A safe secure way that offers a lot of different services for students such as: photo editor, audio editor, and movie creator.
10. Diigo - An ideal site for social bookmarking that allows teachers to create student account for sharing and annotating links.
11. Weebly - A fantastic site for creating a student or teacher websites w/ the ability to blog.
12. ToonDoo Spaces - One of the best online comic creators that allows for student accounts.
13. Kidblog - One of the top ways for students to create blogs in a safe environment.
14. Primary Access - A nice site for digital story telling that allows students to use a variety of different resources such as video, audio, photos, etc.
15. Zoho Wiki - Similar to Google Apps, this online suite offers a secure way for students to create docs and share.
16. Kerpoof - A multi-media site for creating stories, games, lessons, etc.
17. Zimmertwins - A fun site for digital storytelling that is done by creating one student account for a class.
18. SymbalooEdu - A great visual way for teachers to share sites and resources w/ students.
19. Pixton - An excellent way to create online digital comics that is moderated by a teacher.
20. Zunal - A fantastic webquest creator for teachers.
21. Alice Storytelling - One of the best ways to learn about the basics of programming as well as digital storytelling (a free pc download).
22. Story Jumper - A great way for students to create real or online stories and then have the ability to order a book.
23. Storybird - A fun site for collaborative and digital storytelling.
24. Magic Studio - A wonderful site for teachers to share multimedia resources w/ students.
25. Museum Box - A great historical site for teachers and students to create multimedia projects.

Soon to follow is a free slide show on the Top 25 Web 2.o sites!!!

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.