Pixel Icon Maker

This web application allows creation of 16x16 icons (favicons) using simple drawing tools. This is great if you want to create icons for your blog or website but it can also be used with kids. This is not as easy as it looks. but it is great for simplifying images down to their absolute basics. Imagine having to create a 16 bit self portrait or a series of emoticons. 


Their is a whole community out their that love these things.

http://www.rw-designer.com/online_icon_maker.php

Springnote

Springnote allows you to create documents, to work on them together with your friends online, and to share files. This is also a great tool for group projects as it allows group members to easily collaborate without having to organise after school home visits.

Advanced search, numerous templates, and 2GB of free File Storage are all features. It is an internet service, meaning you can access your notes from any computer anywhere anytime.This makes sense for any family with school age kids. 


Springnote now has an iPhone app with their collaborative note taking tool.

http://www.springnote.com

ReviewBasics

Provide your students with an authentic audience. This is not some teacher looking at their work and giving a mark, this is a community of professionals giving real-time quality feedback on creative design, layout and content.

ReviewBasics is a powerful feedback gathering platform which allowsprofessionals accross many industries to exchange ideas, gather thoughts and review various types of creative, interactive, motion and written content. Easy to use tools allow authors to create secure workspaces, upload draft versions of their work product and invite reviewers to provide comments and feedback. Once invited, reviewers log onto a secure website and use simple click-and-drag tools to leave comments. The review process is simple, quick and does not require any software to be installed. 

http://www.reviewbasics.com/

Swicki

This is another type of search engine. I like this for students who are researching a specific topic. It provides information from a variety of sources and then present it in a simple, straight forward manner with all the links to the full websites. It creates an easy overview of your search term and gives the user an opportunity to get a brief and comprehensive understanding of the search term.

Well worth a try, especially with students researching projects or self directed inquiry tasks.

http://community-powered-web-search-swicki.eurekster.com/

Listphile

Listphile is a powerful tool for organizing and collaborating information around a structured format. Call it a database tool for lists. Listphile was borne of curiosity, and the belief that we learn more effectively when people have a framework for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

The intention of Listphile was to have it used in ambitious and open ways: make a publicly shared database of all players in a sports team but that it could also be used for humanitarian purposes: to create a list of journalists who are currently imprisoned, or a list of peace treaties. Listphile can just as easily be used to document vintage Nike sneakers, or to create an Open Surf Atlas of all surf spots on the planet, or document all of the beers in the world.

http://www.listphile.com/

SpeakingImage

SpeakingImage allows you to create interactive images on online and then share them with others. You can also create groups, add wikis and set different permissions to manage collaborative work. You can set markers on the work or add lines and polygons to highlight a point or fact. This is a great tool for highlighting details in a complicated image to your students, It could be used in art, science and technology classes really easily but I can see uses for this in most subject areas.

Each of the annotation has its own wiki connected to it so your class or group can continue to add articles or further information connected to the images.

http://www.speakingimage.org/

Blabberize

I had always sort of dismissed Blabberize because I teach high school - it seemed a bit childish. How silly do I feel? I think I was just looking at it the wrong way.

What if you used it to give a voice to a local politician, a historical character, or even a famous artist. Your students could present their work in a whole new way and from a totally new perspective - the first person. Imagine that you are Pablo Picasso.............

I had another little play with Blabberize and I think I could also use it as a topic specific talking avatar that gives students hints or explanations of different parts of a task or an assignment. This is a tool that could be even be used to give instructions for homework - give your students access to your explanations 24/7.

What if your art students completed a self portrait and then blabberized it to do a reflection on the process or to discuss the motivation behind their work or just to inform their audience of what they were attempting to communicate. This is a great tools to get your students to reflect on their own learning in any subject. Now I feel like I had a great resource at my disposal and hadn't been using it. Time to rectify that.

http://blabberize.com/

Photovisi - Poster Maker

One of my colleague asked the other day what Web 2.0 tools would be good for his students to use to make a poster. There are literally dozens that I could have thrown at him, but I like to offer two of three and lets the students decide which fits their own style of learning/working best.

One of the Web tools I put on the list was Photovisi. Photovisi allows you to easily create eye-catching photo collages by using your own photos stored on your computer.

You can use a variety of funky templates so that very few poster ever look the same. Once you choose one of templates you simply add as many photos the template allows.

Instructions to students are very simple: Upload the pictures, move and rotate them to modify the template and create your own collage with your own photos.

Once you'll have finished your masterpiece, Photovisi allows you to save it in many different formats and resolutions. It would be perfect to then combine this with another Web 2.0 tool and print these out using Block Poster (previewed previously) a tool that allows you to print out an image to any size.

http://www.photovisi.com

ScienceFix

Need to gets your science class to understand a concept but can't do the experiment. Do them by video.
Darren Fix the creator of the site is an experienced science teacher who has created a blog that teacher can use for lessons, science links, video demonstrations or even web projects.

Darren is passionate about science and wants to share some of the more interesting things that are going on in science that will generate interest in you class - this is an exceptionally cool site.

http://www.sciencefix.com/

VuSafe - Another Youtube Safety Tool

Now an essential online medium, video is a useful way for teachers to supplement classroom learning and engage students in content they can't access on field trips or through books alone. However, finding and sharing videos can be a challenge due to safety and compliance concerns. That's why M86 Security created VuSafe—the secure, simple way to share Internet videos.

Through VuSafe, teachers can easily manage and share approved videos and other streaming content, while safeguarding students from inappropriate advertising, comments, links and other content present on sites such as YouTube.

http://www.m86vusafe.com/

TubeChop

Only want to show 2 minute clip of a 10 minute video?  Put the YouTube URL of a video inside TubeChop, and select the part that you want.  When you're finished, you are given a link and embed code for the cropped version of the video.

http://www.tubechop.com

ViewPure

Need to show a clip from YouTube to your class but weary of all the ads, comments and other suggested videos - try ViewPure. ViewPure is a cool little web based service for YouTube users to watch YouTube videos in a clean, clutter-free environment. You can paste a Youtube video URL in the box on their homepage and click on “purify” to get the cleaner copy of the video. Not only that, you can also create your own custom URLs and even password protect a Youtube video using ViewPure. This is very useful for teacher to collect classroom resources - now you don't have to worry about where all those links might lead.

http://viewpure.com/

Google Art Project

This is the best Google Application I have seen in a long time - mind you I do teach Art. Google Art Project is a attempt to bring all the major world art galleries to you. For a teacher this makes the idea of a virtual excursion so easy. Now all we need is a central place to contribute worksheets, digital tasks and interactive activities.

Your students can now complete a virtual tour of about 20 major galleries, more to be added as they come online. I love this. Have a look at the explanation.

This opens the door to so many educational opportunities - art galleries, science museums, natural history museums, the list is endless. Congratulations to google on the starting this project.

Google Apps Education Suite

Google announced on Tuesday that they have put together a suite of Web 2 tools specifically for education. These are all existing Web 2.0 tools that many Web 2 savvy teachers have been using for some time, however Google are now marketing then as a package of educational tools to meet the needs of your school - all based in the cloud. This is what they are saying;

Google Apps just got smarter: Google Announcement - January 25, 2011 at 9:00 AM

The education technology space has seen an explosion of new offerings in the past few years. What has been missing is a centralized platform for schools and universities to easily evaluate and utilize web apps. Today we are excited to launch an education category in the Google Apps Marketplace designed specifically to help schools and universities easily discover and deploy new web applications that integrate with their existing Google Apps accounts.

The new education category includes over 20 applications from 19 vendors ranging from learning management systems (LMS) to student tools and teaching aids – all of which integrate with Google Apps for Education. Each app can be accessed through single sign-on and the Google universal navigation bar and many offer deeper integrations that synchronize with Google Calendar and Documents.

This new education category will make it easier for schools to have more web apps at their fingertips, including popular existing apps such as Aviary, Grockit, and LearnBoost as well as the new apps launching today.

Google suggests that as more tools are identified they will be added to the suite of Education based tools on the marketplace. These include web applications by Blackboard, Knewton and the Khan Academy. To read the full announcement check out the link below.

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-apps-just-got-smarter.html

Interactive Youtube Videos

Knewton GMAT have developed a series of interactive learning videos on Youtube. The nature of the videos allows for the students to choose the ending of the video. This feature also allows the video to be used as a multiple choice quiz. These are great for setting up procedures or explaining concepts that your students may need to re-visit in order to understand them correctly. It is also another way for students to have access to their own learning resources 24/7.

Knewton has even been generous enough to give instruction on how to make these yourself on their blog. They do suggest there is a learning curve but one that would be well worth it.

http://www.knewton.com/blog/edtech/education-edtech/2010/12/15/how-to-make-an-interactive-lesson-using-youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLPq4AcH-bc&feature=player_embedded