Curriculum Resources

Podcasting

Podcasting is a great communication tool and it is free. With podcasting you can get students to record a news clip, give a report on the weather, share an idea or do a radio show. These website are free and require no downloading. You simple sign up and begin recording your podcast.

Vocaroo - is a free service that allows users to create audio recording without the need to install any software. What is great about Vocaroo is that you don't need an account to use it. All that is required is a microphone. The editing tools are limited, after rercording you can publish or scrap it and try again unlike other software like Garageband which lets your edit and add layovers. Vocaroo also lets you embed your recording anywhere and there is also the option to download.

MyPodCast.com - provides free podcast hosting as well as free software which at the moment is only available for PC only. This site is great for schools that do not use Apple computers.

Virtual Corkboards

Virtual corkboards are online virtual walls where teachers and students can collaborate on projects, share ideas, images and videos. What makes these types of learning spaces different is that unlike Scribblar which is a simple online whiteboard you can add images, video's, text and share at a later date.

Wallwishers - This online notice board allows you to add notes like post-its, images, music videos and pages. No registration is needed, you click-write-post, and it's fairly intuitive as it allows you to drag, drop and re-arrange posts. As a teacher you register for an account and create a board. You then share the link with your students. This allows them to access your board and start collaborating. You can also adjust the settings on your board so that each post requires your approval. Click here to watch a video on Wallwishers. Make sure you check out the demo wall. Please note that you can sign in using a gmail account.

Spaaze - This website is another online corkboard. What makes it different from Wallwishers is that you can clip pages and automatically add them to your Spaaze. It also acts differently in terms of collaboration. You can allow people to work on your board, however, it requires an email invitation unlike Wallwishers where you can simple share the website link. Click here to watch a video about Spaaze.
Popplet - Similar to Spaaze and Wallwisher. Designer interface seems more intuitive. Plus it is also available for the Ipad. Check out the preview video for more information on the features.

Websites

Weebly is an easy to use website building tool. In fact this website is run on Weebly. It is very intuitive and it helps you create a free website without any pesky advertisements. It's great for teachers who want to build a classroom website as opposed to an online learning platform.

If you're looking for a tool for students to use to create websites of their own, Weebly for Education is a good resource. Weebly for Education includes all of the intuitive website-building and blogging tools found on Weebly plus features built specifically for education. Weebly for Education offers bulk creation of student accounts which teachers can manage and moderate. Students can create their own websites and blogs using the accounts that you create for them.
School Rack - this website allows you to create a classroom website or educational blogs to keep students and parents involved in your classroom. Unlike Weebly their pages are customized for teachers. You can share information, docs and files. Hold discussions, report grades online to students or their parents etc. This is a great alternative if your school does not have it's own VLE (virtual learning environment). At the moment there is no option to add wiki's so you would have to link to them.
Moodle - is another well known website that let's you create online courses. It isn't as easy to use as School Rack but has more variety if you are familiar with technology. Check out the Moodle Flow chart guide for teachers. You can also check out a demo wall at Moodle.

G oogle Sites is a free website that allows you and your students to create web pages and wiki's. Google site is a great way to showcase to showcase student work. You can upload work onto the sites and then email a link to parents. Please make sure you comply with your school or states privacy policy if you are including anything that might have images of students and or your school.

Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotate

Awesome Screenshot is a Google Chrome extension. When browsing the web it allows you to capture the whole page or a selection of the page you are viewing. You can then annotate with shapes, lines or text and you can even blur sensitive information allowing students to focus on the key points on the page. There is also the option to one-click upload to share or download to save.

Check out this video to find out more.

Don't have access to Google Chrome? Check out Snip.ly a similar web based service.

Qwiki

Qwiki is still in the beta stage but looks really promising. Qwiki is all about changing the way people experience information. Their mission goal is to make learning a multimedia experience and move away from websites like wikipedia where all you get is text. Their goal is to tell it via storytelling. This is a great resource to link students to when they are doing research.

Aviary

Aviary is all about providing 'artists of all genre's' with free online creation tools. What I really like about Aviary is that it is accessible for everyone. You can you use the image editor and create artwork. Or use the the Image Markup tool and upload an image and edit it. The music creator lets you make music or you can use the audio editor to make a radio station. You can also create podcasts.

Scratch

Scratch is an online tool that lets you create and share your own interactive stories, games and art.

Fake Wall

My FakeWall is in the beta stage but the cool thing about it is that it lets you create fake Facebook pages without having to create real accounts. You can get students to create Facebook pages for characters, historical figures etc....

Easy Bib

Do you struggle to get a proper bibliography out of your students? I know I do! I found this website on google apps. Easy Bib is a free bibliography and citation maker that allows students to generate accurate bibliographies. Easybib is also available for the iPod and iPad.

Class Tools.net

Class Tools is a really handy website that contains tools to help manage your classroom.
You can create free educational games, quizzes, activities and diagrams and host them on your own blog, website or intranet.
Favorite Tools

Venn Diagrams
Post It - upload an image/text and add notes
Animated Book
Source Analyser
Random Name Generator

My personal favourite is the countdown timer. It is a great tool for helping kids keep track of time for activities. You can set the time on an interactive whiteboard and even upload a song for the countdown. I also use it as a behavior management tool. For example, in an hour lesson I will put 45 minutes on the timer. The expectation is that they work for 45 minutes of the lesson. If they are not working I stop the timer. Whatever time is left on the timer at the end of lesson is owed and I keep them in. If the timer ends before the end of the lesson it is free time!

More Resources.....

Google a day - solve puzzles using your research skills.. This site encourages students to practice their research skill using google.
National Geographic : contains excellent resources.
JellyCam - Free Stop Motion Movie Generator - students can make stop motions using photo's or a webcam. Require Adobe Air which is free to install. Click here to watch a demo.
Explore - is a multimedia organization that documents leaders around the world who have devoted 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."
Grooveshark - Listen to free music online. Create your own playllist. A great tool for rewarding the class.
Fontspace - This is a free website for creating your own fonts. A great tool to use in conjunction with other technologies.
Discovery Box - Allows you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. You can display anything from a text file to a movie.
OpenOffice - is an open-source office software that contains word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more.
Ning - Create your own social network. Ning's are great for communication. You can set it around your class or a unit of work. (Please note that this website is not free)
Scribblar - Another online collaboration tool. It is a multi-use white board, live audio, image collaboration, text-chat and more. Here is a video on getting started with Scribblar.
PBS Teachers Online - Resource website that contains great multimedia ideas.
Discovery Education - free classrooms resources for all core subjects. Plus there is also a puzzle maker page which allows you to create puzzles and then save them.
Breathing Earth - This is real-time simulation that displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates.
Edmodo - A social tool for learning in classrooms. You can share resources with other teachers and your students.
Zamzar - This website allows you to convert files and download videos.
The Week in Rap - A weeks worth of news rapped every Friday.
Bit.ly - is a website that helps you shorten, share and track your links. It saves you having to write complicated url's on the board, instead create shorten links to share with your class.