Exciting Web 2.0 and Internet Tools for Use in the Classroom

Leora Wollner, Instructional Technology Coordinator, The Epstein School, Atlanta, GA

Web 2.0 and Internet tools were common themes at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference in November 2008. Many Web tools were presented which can enrich and enhance the curriculum.  I shared some of my favorites with faculty at my school and would like to share them here along with a short annotation. These were all presented by Tammy Worcester in her session, "Tammy's Favorite Technology Tips, Tricks and Tools."       http://www.tammyworcester.com/

Audio Jam Studio  (http://www.jamstudio.com/Studio/index.htm)   is an online music program which allows you to create your own music. After you type in notes, sounds and chords, you can choose instruments. For $10 you can download the music as an mp3 or record it into PowerPoint. 

Jing (http://www.jingproject.com)   is a screen capture program with allows you to capture video or record the movement of a mouse on the screen. This can be especially valuable when creating a tutorial.        

ImageCodr  (http://www.imagecodr.org) helps you weed through the millions of images available in Flickr and helps you find images that are free to use in class projects, on a website or commercially. After you copy and paste the URL into the program, it displaces a summary of the license agreement to help you with citing and giving the author the proper credit.     

Newspaper Clipping Generator   (http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp) allows you to choose a name for your newspaper, the publication date, and headline, and you can type in a news story. A newspaper is generated. You can have your students write as if they were reporters during the Civil War or ancient times, write a persuasive writing piece as an editorial, or write a book review. One disadvantage is that you cannot add photos, but the articles can be any length.

Picnik  http://www.picnik.com/ is a free online photo editing program (no registration required) which provides you with many tools and creative effects. You can change the exposure and contrast of a photo as well as sharpen the image. You can also modify the style. With pencil sketch, the photo actually looks as if it was drawn by hand. This is a very good, free alternative to Adobe Photoshop Elements.        

On the Classtools.net website, you can find various tools. With Random Name/Word Picker  (http://classtools.net/main_area/template_loader.php?fruit_machine), you type in a list of names or words. You can input a class list, a list of the US states, or vocabulary words and the Fruit Machine will randomly pick the words. Another option is to have a student sit with his back to the screen and try to guess the word based on clues given by a classmate.                                     

VozMe  (http://vozme.com/index.php?lang=en) is a tool which converts text to speech. You can enter text or copy and paste from an existing document. The text is read aloud and can easily be converted to an mp3. This can be a valuable tool for special needs students as well as a good proofreading tool.

Wordle  (http://www.wordle.net/) generates Word Clouds. You can copy and paste text or type it in the box provided. It provides a graphical representation of the text based on the frequency of words. More prominence is given to words that occur most frequently. It is interesting to type in the user name of someone with a del.icio.us account and see a representation of their tags.

Tammy Worcester presented seven different sessions at the conference. For more of her useful tips, refer to her website http://www.tammyworcester.com/ which is updated weekly. It was very exciting to hear presenters such as her and to attend GaETC this year. I came away with so many new Web 2.0 tools to share with my faculty.                                                        

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