Ge.tt might be my new (beta) site for file sharing. This site is excellent for the fact that is file sharing in real time and a user can keep adding more files after a URL is shared. Another great feature is the ability to share the URL even while files are uploading.
Watch2gether is a great site for watching YouTube videos w/ others. This site allows users to discuss YouTube videos via a text chat that opens up on the right side of the window. All a user has to do is create a session, enter a URL of a YouTube video and then share the URL of chat that is created.
Brightstorm is a great site for finding free math and science videos. These videos cover all sorts of content and are great for preparing teens for ACT/SAT.
Any Making is a great site for photo editing. On this site users can either add fun effects to their photos (a la Big Huge Labs) or they can edit their photo w/ tools such as: cropping, borders, filters etc.
Course Smart is a great site for students looking to find a textbook in eBook format. This site is geared toward higher ed students and they can browse by category and top content.
Story Blocks is a great site for Pre-K and KDG students which help prepare students to learn how to read. This is a very engaging site and has lots of videos that students can sing/read a long to.
Class Dojo is a site I just fount out about from a member of my PLN on Twitter. This is a site that acts as a content management system for classroom management. This is a wonderful site for tracking, acknowledging behavior, and engaging students. This brings old school verbal feedback to students into the age of "web 2.0"
Dragon Dictation is a free iPad/iPhone app that reminds me of the app that was used in the beginning of the movie, Body of Lies (when Russel Crowe is wearing a head piece and talking and is dictating an email and his computer is typing what he says). Basically, this app is an excellent time saver for taking notes or for use in special ed/ESL. I can see this being used as a facilitator to help students in the area of speech or reading/writing.
Collaborize Classroom is a site I just found out about from one of my readers (thanks Lisa) that garnered quite a bit of press at ISTE this year. After looking at CC it looks to be an excellent tool for educators for creating a safe environment for students to hold discussions, blend learning, and even share resources. In a way it resembles Moodle as a content management system for education.
The skill of being able to edit a photo is a must for anyone fluent in technology. It can help speed up the process of uploading photos for a project, correcting mistakes, and even help "spice" up the mundane. While newer computers might come w/ a photo editing app (iPhoto, Preview, etc.) not all of them do. For that reason, I decided to create a list of my top favorite photo editing sites that not only allows the photo to be resized/edited but add effects as well.
Visual Thesaurus is an excellent site that for a visual thesaurus but w/ a paid account includes: Spelling Bee, VocabGrabber, and Online Magazine. Think Map's Visual Thesaurus is simple to use and creates a mind map of any term that is searched as well as define it. This map is ideal for showing the relationship between words.
Blinkx is a search engine for videos that reminds me a lot of Clip Blast. This is a nice site that is arranged by subject and even has a safe search filter similar to how Google works.
Explain Everything is a great paid ($2.99) app for the iPad that is wonderful for creating screen casts. This application adds a lot more features then ShowMe or Screen Chomp and allows the user more options in exporting their finished product. A movie can be uploaded to a number of different sites, such as Dropbox, Evernote, or YouTube and even emailed. Other great features are the different ways one can import a photo, type text instead of just draw, and create multiple slides (a la PowerPoint).
Screen Chomp is a nice free app for the iPad that is ideal for creating a screen cast. A user has the ability to upload a photo into a background and then draw all over the image/screen. Once the recording of the movie is done it will be uploaded to Screen Chomp's site. A url can the be shared w/ others for viewing. While still not ideal, as it would be nice to "own" your own movie for embedded/sharing, it is better then ShowMe which only allows a user to upload to their site.
ShowMe is an app for the iPad I just learned about from the award nominated blog, Langwitches. This is a great site for creating a screen cast because of its simplicity. It is very user friendly, and a user has the ability to draw or upload an image. However, one critical feature I think is missing is the ability to export a movie into something that can be downloaded. The only feature available is to upload the movie onto ShowMe's website.
Concept Board is a site I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is an excellent site for creating an online whiteboard where users can collaborate w/ others and brainstorm ideas on any number of things. Users can upload images, documents, etc and then draw/interact w/ it as they would on any other whiteboard. Some other nice features is the ability to take a screen shot, attach files, comment, and even work right from an iPad.
PhotoShow is a nice free site for creating slideshows. All a user has to do is upload their photos from their computer or favorite photo sharing site (a la Flickr, Picasa, etc) and the personalize it and share it w/ others. Also, w/ upgrading to a paid account a user can add video and music.
Queeky is a fun site for creating digital. Not only can a user draw on here, there are a whole bunch of tools to enjoy. This site is also a social community where others can comment/share art, create animations, chat, or even use the paint studio.
Splicd is an excellent site for editing YouTube videos that I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. All a user has to do is enter a URL and then select their start/stop times to grab the clip of the video that they want.
Buddy School is a site that is a similar to Tutorhub that allows teachers to tutor students online. This is done by posting your area of expertise so students can request a lesson. A schedule is then set and tutoring is done via an online video chat (ie, Google, Skype). After the lesson is complete the teacher sends an invoice for the bill.
Bounce Base is a search engine that lets users share and save their results. Also, a user can specify which engines they do/don't want to search.
Behold is a nice new search engine that I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. This engine searches for free creative common images on Flickr.
Having recently received an iPad and joining the iOS game, I decided to do some research on how to learn the "ins" and "outs" of this device. While, I have ample experience working on a Mac and their different operating systems, I knew there had to be a way to do some of the same things on an iPad. With that being said I decided to compile a list of my top 10 tips for using an iPad.
My Drawings is a fun site that creates an online gallery of children's art. This is a nice site to use for schools as it is a safe environment where teachers can upload students art to their site (via a scanner). Once the art is uploaded a URL is generated that can be shared w/ others.
Map Skip is a very interesting site that is a mash-up of Google Maps and other types of media. This site is made up of stories that relate to place on Google Maps, these stories are told through, videos, photos, and text.
Cozimo is an excellent site that offers a lot of services for real time collaboration. A user can collaborate on various things such as: drawings, videos, PDF's etc. This is done in a nice online environment where a user can invite other people and then edit/review the different type of media content. Also, there are paid accounts which offer more and more features as well.
oSkope is an innovative visual search engine that really has some cool features. It is an engine that searches through, Ebay, Amazon, Flckr, etc and then displays results in stacks of thumbnails. These thumbnails can be customized to re-arrange in a different order or saved into a folder via drag-n-drop interface. Another neat feature is the ability to change your background color while searching.
