Memidex

Memidex is an excellent free online dictionary/thesaurus. This is ideal when wanting to find out the origin of words as well as other interesting facts. It has a very nice visual user interface.

I highly recommend checking out Memidex by clicking here!!

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo's blog for the tip!!

Zendo

Zendo is a new (beta) site that I just found out about from Richard Byrne's blog. This is a very innovative site that is ideal for taking notes and then turning those notes into flashcards.

Below is a demo video...



I highly recommend checking out Zendo by clicking here!!

iTechSpec

iTechSpec is a wiki I'm just finding out about that has lots of wonderful resources for educational technology. I find it as a nice comparison to Cybrary Man's excellent resource sharing site. This wiki has everything from web 2.0 links, to information on mobile devices, to different 21st century skills (a la digital storytelling).

I highly highly recommend checknig out iTechSpec by clicking here!!!

Thanks to Brian Mckee's excellent blog for the tip.

Scrumblr

Scrumblr is a fun site I just learned about from great blog, Life Feast. This is one of many sites that are great for creating stickies/notes. All a user has to do is name their board and then starting clicking to add notes.



I recommend checking out Scrumblr by clicking here!!

Sendoid

Sendoid is a nifty little site for sharing files w/ another person. This is done by generating a unique URL where all files are sent P2P (Person to Person) rather then be stored on the cloud/internet. Also, a desktop app can be downloaded to eliminate size restrictions when sending/downloading files.

I highly recommend checking out Sendoid by clicking here!!

Thanks to David Andrade's excellent blog for finding this handy gem.

Thoughtboxes

Thoughtboxes is a site I just learned about from the great blog, Educational Technology Guy. This is a site designed to organize your "thoughts". It kind of reminds me of a cross between Pindax and Wall Wisher w/ some Corkboard Me sprinkled on top, in that it creates a box that acts as a "sticky".



I recommend giving Thoughtboxes a try by clicking here.

Sophia

Sophia is a new (beta) academic social network for educators, parents, students, etc. It has a very nice innovative look to it and incorporates things through the use of packets. These packets include all types of multimedia and are great for all kinds of educational content. Educators can use this to increase their technology literacy through the use of supplemental and blended instruction and private groups they can set up.

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

For a much more detailed review check out the wonderful blog, iLearn Technology.

CK-12

CK-12 is a site I just learned about from David Andrade's wonderful blog. This is a great site for free digital text books that are aligned to state standards. These books are on any number of subjects and can be downloaded. There are also nice apps available for mobile devices.



I highly recommend checking out CK-12 by clicking here!!

VYou

VYou is a new (beta) site for conversational video. Basically, this is done by one person posting a video and then others responding via video post of their own. Once a video/conversation is created it can then be embedded into a blog or site to share w/ others.

I highly recommend checking out VYou by clicking here!!

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the tip!!

Topsy

Topsy is a real time search engine for the social web. What this means is that it indexed results based on "social data" that is found on the web through: tweets, diggs, hits, etc. Some nice features of this site is the ability to share results via twitter, being able to embed to a Topsy buzz feed into your site, and much much more.

I recommend checking out Topsy by clicking here!!

Thanks to Richard Byrne for the tip!!

Top 10 Alternatives to YouTube

YouTube w/out a doubt is the most popular website for video on the internet. However, this site is cause for concern w/ school districts due to the inappropriateness of some of its content. For this reason YouTube is blocked in many school districts around the world (for safer ways to view YouTube videos click here).

While there are paid solutions for bringing video to the classroom such as Discovery Education Streaming or Safari Montage there are a number of free websites that provide a nice alternative as well.

Remember when dealing w/ video it's important to check the content first before viewing w/ students. Educators must abide by CIPA compliance and not all video sites are safe even when using a school district's filter.

Top 10 Alternatives to YouTube

1. School Tube - A excellent safe place for students & teachers to share and view video.
2. WatchKnow - A wonderful site w/ 1000's of videos for students in any number of subject organized in a clear precise way.
3. Neo K-12 - All videos on this amazing site are a 100% safe. Also, there is a complete suite of educational tools for educators to choose from such as: quizzes, presentations, etc.
4. Snag Learning - An interesting site that brings documentary style films to engage students in discussion and classroom participation.
5. Qwiki - A very new (alpha) site that brings an innovative twist on video experience. While the content is still growing one can't help but notice that amount of promise that is shown here.
6. Explore - A great site similar to Discovery Streaming for educational video. A person can either view on the web or download for their own convenience.
7. Kids Tube - An excellent filtered site for video content for kids.
8. Teacher Tube - An excellent site for educators to find videos for students and share in the wonderful educational online community.
9. Vimeo - A nice very popular alternative to YouTube. I recommend using w/ a filter of some sort or view all content before introducing to students.
10. Clip Blast - A huge collection of videos can be found on this nice site, must be used in a filtered environment for safety reasons.
    

Popplet

Popplet is a new (beta) site that is an online graphic organizer. It kinda reminds me of Inspiration w/ a "web 2.0" spin on it for collaboration. This is a great site for brain storming, creating mind maps, presentations and so much more. Also, works nice on mobile devices such as the iPad.

I highly recommend checking out Popplet by clicking here!!

Below is a demo video...



I'd like to thank the wonderful blog, Education Technology Guy for bringing this great site to my attention.

Diagramly

Diagramly is a nice site for creating diagrams or charts similar to Lovely Charts. This is all done w/ a very easy to use drag-n-drop interface and has some really nice clip art to choose from.

I highly recommend checking out Diagramly by clicking here!!



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

Lino

Lino is great site for creating online stickies in the similar to Wall Wisher. This is a very easy site to use, has nice integration w/ mobile devices, and is a great way to share notes/files/pics w/ others.

I highly recommend checking out Lino by clicking here!!

Mister Thread

Mister Thread is a new (beta) site that is one of many for creating a back channel chat. It is very easy to do an creates a unique URL (that you can password protect) to share w/ others who want to invite into your chat. What makes this a nice site to use is that no registration is required.

Click here to give MisterThread a try!!

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo's blog for the tip!!

For my list of top 10 Back Channel Chat sites click here.

Diipo

Diipo is a new (beta) social network for students and teachers. It is designed to facilitate collaboration between the two with a bunch of different features such as: blogging, instant messaging, as well as a bunch of educational apps.

This is a very new site but does show lots of promise w/ the initial phases of being able to measure up to other content management systems out.

For more information on Diipo click here!!

Edudemic

Edudemic is a wonderful site that reminds me a lot of Technology & Learning & Edutopia. It's a cross between an online community/magazine/social network. It is a great place to find lots of information on technology, education, and integration.

I highly recommend checking out Edudemic by clicking here!!

Thanks to David Andrade and his wonderful blog for the tip!!

Forums.com

Forums.com is a new (beta) site for creating an online forum. Like any forum this is ideal for generating collaboration and feedback from others. Also, this is a very user friendly site w/ a nice look and feel to it. Once a forum is created others can join and even share posts via their favorite social networking site.




Other great features are the abilities to tag posts, embed posts, and make them public or private.

I recommend checking out Forums by clicking here!!

Thanks to Free Technology 4 Teachers for the tip!!

Font de Music

Font de Music is a site I just found out about from Larry Ferlazzo's excellent blog. This is a great site for animating text w/ music, and publishing via a link. It can also be directly sent to Twitter. My only gripe is that it doesn't generate an html code which would be nice for embedded into a site or blog.

I recommend checking out Font de Music by clicking here!!

Click here for my example... http://www.rightwork.jp/fontdemusic/#permalink?id=381

Watch Know

Watch Know is a wonderful free site for finding educational videos. It has thousands of videos and categorized in every subject imaginable for education. This site is very user friendly and built around a "wiki-style" interface. This is ideal for districts that are especial worried about maintaining CIPA compliance.

I highly recommend checking out Watch Know by clicking here!!!

I'd like to thank the fellow Technology Coach Larry Armstrong for the tip on this excellent find.