Tools I Can't Live Without:
Taking Notes
Collaboration and Brainstorming
Research and Curation
URL Shorteners and QR Code Readers/Creators
Creative Ways to Get Your Point Across
Communication
Remind 101 – Send text message reminders to students, stay connected to parents. One way communication from teacher to students and parent
- Notability- App for iPad that combines handwriting, photos and typing to bring your projects to life.
- Evernote – Capture, index and remember information using a computer, phone, and web. Students can take notes, capture favorite videos, save webpages, and collaborate on projects using Evernote. It is the notebook of the 21st century.
Collaboration and Brainstorming
- Padlet – Virtual post-it note board. Students can post pictures and text.
- Lino.it – Multimedia post-it note canvas. Great way to engage students in brainstorming online. Provide a topic and allow them to generate ideas and/or ask questions before they begin prewriting. Students can post comments, images, and video. Teachers can create groups and make canvases private or public.
- Google Drive – Make collaborative writing & group work online easy. Engage many students on one document. Use the Google forms for peer editing, creating a digital rubric and collecting feedback.
Research and Curation
- Diigo – All-in-one research tool. Highlight, annotate, and archive digital resources. Download the toolbar and actively read/engage any digital resource on the Internet. Students can collect and share their digital annotations!
- Pinterest- Best online bulletin board out there. Make a board, pin stuff, share. Very visual.
URL Shorteners and QR Code Readers/Creators
- Goo.gl - Google’s URL shortener and automatic QR code generator.
- Tinyurl.com- URL shortener that allows you to create a custom alias. Easy to remember and share.
- i-Nigma- Best and most accurate QR code reader I have found. It works on most any mobile device.
Creative Ways to Get Your Point Across
- Wordle – Create colorful word clouds from text you provide. This is an easy way to highlight the main points from an online conversation, speech, article, etc.
- Jing- Downloadable screen capture program that allows annotation on images as well as video creation.
- Educreations – Record lectures to flip your teaching. Upload images and use drawing tools to record a tutorial for students!
- Animoto – “Automatically produces beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces from your photos, video clips, and music.” Add photos and music to create free 30 seconds (for free lite version). Paid versions available. Syncs with Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, and SmugMug!
- Fotoflexer- Easy and free online photo editing software. It has ads that are annoying, but this requires no sign up or sign in. Go there and start using.
Communication
Remind 101 – Send text message reminders to students, stay connected to parents. One way communication from teacher to students and parent