ZooBurst ZooBurst.com ZooBurst provides students with a quick and easy way to create interactive 3D Pop-Up Books that can be shared online. This is a great resource for creative digital storytelling assignments. Free accounts allow users to create up to 10 books with 10 pages each, while paid accounts offer many more features including… Read more
iFakeSiri iFakeSiri.com iFakeSiri allow students to create iPhone Siri conversations and screenshots. Like the previous virtual impersonation tools I wrote about (Fake iPhone Text, FakeBook, and Fake Tweet Builder), students can write fake Siri conversations from historical figures, book characters, politicians, authors, etc. It’s another fun option for a short, entertaining assignment. Just type your message… and view your screenshot! Creating a… Read more
An Easy Way to Make a Great Venn Diagram, Concept Map, etc. Gliffy http://www.gliffy.com/ Create professional-looking flowcharts, Venn diagrams, SWOT analysis, technical drawings, and more in any web browser. Gliffy is well equipped with templates and shapes, and very easy to use. Examples of Gliffy Diagrams Free accounts allow for 5 diagrams and 2 MB storage space. Discounted… Read more
Improve Public Speaking Skills – Assign a Pecha Kucha Presentation Pecha Kucha is a presentation format that allows the speaker 20 slides presented for 20 seconds each. The slides automatically advance every 20 seconds for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. You can click here to learn more. It’s a great format for improving… Read more
PosterMyWall www.postermywall.com Poster My Wall is an excellent online poster maker, but the site offers so much more for educators. The Teachers Page lists many benefits: -Create projects to organize posters created by students. -Students are not required to create an account. -Students see only posters created within the classroom. No public sharing. -Students’ projects are never made public. -No… Read more
Fakebook Template This Google Drive template provides a quick and easy way for students to create a Facebook wall for historical figures, book characters, politicians, authors, etc. My students have even created Fakebooks for endangered species. You can explore the embedded Fakebook below. Scroll down for a link to a usable template. The template is… Read more
Dipity Update: Dipity appears to no longer be in business. Find alternatives in the EdTech Graveyard. A few months ago, I came across Dipity as a way for my students to create online timelines of significant events in the history of Environmental Science. While my students found it easy to manually add descriptions, pictures, and links, I discovered that… Read more
Piktochart www.piktochart.com Infographics seem to be increasing in popularity at an accelerating rate. This succinct way of conveying ideas in a visually appealing way has limitless uses in the classroom. Piktochart makes it really easy to convey ideas in a visually appealing way. Whether you see infographics as a creative way for students to visualize data, or a new twist… Read more
Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu/ http://scratched.media.mit.edu/ Looking for a way to celebrate Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 7-13)? Why not check out the “Hour of Code?” It’s an effort to encourage teachers and students to spend an hour learning computer science. Intro to Scratch 2.0 from ScratchEd on Vimeo. My Food Web Game (in progress) My students… Read more
Skitch http://evernote.com/skitch/ Skitch is much more than a way to capture screenshots, but it has become my go-to program for just that purpose (much like Jing has become my go-to for screencasting). It allows you to take a picture of your whole screen, part of your screen, or a screenshot after 5 seconds (just enough… Read more
