Cool+Tools

Take the 2010 TILE-SIG Challenge: Using Cool Tools to Enhance Literacy Learning
Learn how to enter at the challenge homepage. Then return to this list to begin exploring.

To post your comments and products on this wikipage, you'll need to be a TILE-SIG member and you'll need to login to this wikispace to get permission.

1. Use the Firefox browser to view this wiki page. 2. Click on the "Edit this page" button at the top right of this page to get into Editing mode. 3. Insert your cursor at the end of the line where the name of your tool and its description is located. 4. Press the Enter or Return key on your keyboard to enter a new bulleted line. 5. Press the Tab key to indent the bullet and type the title of your project and your name. 6. If your project is published somewhere else and you just want to link to your project, do the following: 7. If you want to upload your finished project (e.g., a powerpoint, a video, a movie, a word document, a pdf file, etc), do the following:
 * To post your products and/or links to this page:**
 * To make a hyperlink to your project, highlight the text you want to link (e.g., the title of your project).
 * Click the "link" button in the editor's toolbar (it looks like a chain link) and a new window will appear.
 * Click the tab for "external link" and type in (or copy/paste) the web address (including http://) into the form box next to the word "Address"
 * Click "Add Link" and the window will disappear and your text will be hyperlinked.
 * Click "Save" on the toolbar to save your hyperlink and return to browse mode.
 * To link your project title to an uploaded file, insert your cursor after your name and project title.
 * Click the "insert images and files" icon (fifth from the right).
 * Click the tab for "Upload files" and use the buttons to browse your computer to locate the appropriate files.
 * When you've found the file, click "Upload" and wait while the icon spins and your file uploads (it will take a minute or two to upload large files)
 * When the file is uploaded, an icon will appear. Double-click the icon and your file will appear on the page where your cursor was.
 * Click "Save" on the toolbar to save our file and return to browse mode.

**And now, for the list of Cool Tools to explore! .....**

**A-E**
 * [|Animoto]: Create video slideshows (see [|Animoto for Education])
 * [|Awesome Highlighter]: Highlight information on webpages, annotate them, and then send others to a page made uniquely for you with the highlights and comments
 * [|Bitstrips for Schools:] Simple way to create comics for your classroom (there is a fee involved, but there's a free trial)
 * [|Blabberize]: Animate pictures to make the people, animals, or objects appear as if they are talking
 * [|Bubble.us]: Brainstorm ideas into an automatic idea web
 * [|Chick Machine]: Create an avatar, add it to your email signature or wiki page
 * [|ClassChats.com]: Free way to connect classrooms around the world
 * [|CoolText Graphics Generator] - Create text banners for printable student work, PowerPoint presentations, websites, videos, or any digital student product.
 * [|Co-Sketch]: Multi-user online whiteboard to quickly visualize and collaborate without even registering.
 * [|Creatly]: Create professional looking online diagrams with up to 3 collaborators for free
 * [|Dabbleboard]: Visualize, draw, explore, and collaborate with an online whiteboard
 * [|Delicious]: Social bookmarking tool
 * [|Diigo]: Visit webpages, highlight text, add stickynotes and annotate your thinking
 * [|DomoAnimate]: Create an animated cartoon - complete with music and dialogue bubbles
 * [|DoingText]: Web-based collaborative writing and editing without signing up
 * [|Doodle]: Schedule meetings quickly and see when everyone is available - all in one place
 * [|ePals]: Connect with students around the world in a project based learning environment

**F-I**
 * [|Flickr]: Organize, annotate, and share your photos with the world
 * [|File-bird] You can send large file for free!
 * [|iCUE]: Collaborative and online interactive learning center with games, callenges, videos, and discussions
 * [|EverNote]: Make notes and organize them online
 * [|Glogster]: Make an interactive poster with text, images, music, and video
 * [|Go Animate]: Create unique computer animated stories or cartoons
 * [|Google Docs]: Collaboratively create, store, and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and online forms
 * [|Google Lit Trips]: Follow or create virtual road trips to align with great literature
 * [|Google Maps]: Create and personalize your own maps
 * [|Google Moderator]: Enable your audience (students, etc) to actively post or prioritize questions or surveys that are viewable by all ([|example])
 * [|Gr.oups]: Free online social networking tool to set up your own community, with blogs, wikis, chatrooms, discussions, calendars, and more.
 * [|iBreadcrumbs]: Recording toolbar for your web browser keeps a bibliographic log of where you've been
 * [|Image Detective]: Scaffold students exploration of images and development of document based questions and inquiry with this tool
 * [|Imagination Cubed]: Multi-user drawing tool with a pen, stamp, line, or typing tool - can replay your drawings too in action
 * [|Infogram]: Create dynamic infographics and share them across any device.
 * [|like2talk]
 * [|KeepVid]: Download streaming videos

**J-N** > Its step by step approach of taking viewers through web sites allowing the author to annotate and ask guiding questions for each page is unique.
 * [|Jing]: Snap a picture or record a short video and share instantly on the web
 * [|Jog the Web]synchronous guide to a series of web sites / author can create guiding questions and annotate each web page
 * [|Kideos]: Online kids video network with safe videos for young children to view and use in their projects
 * [|KidZui]: Download a free and safe Internet browser for kids
 * [|Letterpop]: Create eye popping newsletters (free plan to publish up to 10 newsletters)
 * [|MeBeam]: Create your own chatroom - just type in a title and invite people to join
 * [|movie]
 * [|movielogin]
 * [|National Geographic Young Explorer]: Listen and Read Stories about science and animals
 * [|Notefish]: Track your web inquiries with automatically bibliography generator and annotate/organize your reflections

**O-Q**
 * [|Off the Charts Web Karaoke]: Listen to or create your own songs
 * [|Pageflakes]: Create a personalized homepage with all of your electronic tools and social networks
 * [|postitles]
 * [|Palbee]: Set up free web video conferences or video chat rooms and record your presentations to share with others
 * [|Penzu]: Easy journal-writing tool
 * [|Phonetically Intuitive English]: A Chrome extension that adds diacritics to English words to make their American English pronunciations crystal clear
 * [|Picasa 3]: Edit your photos and store/display them online (for Macs only)
 * [|PIXresizer] is a free photo resizing program to easily create web and e-mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file sizes.
 * [|Photostory 3 for Windows]: Teachers can download and use for free ([|example]) - [|Digital Storytelling Guide] to get started with examples
 * [|Pivot Stickfigure Animator] Create stick figure animations easily and save as an animated .gif file. WINDOWS ONLY
 * [|Podcast Generator]: Create, upload, and publish podcasts in a web format
 * [|Prezi]: Online presentation tool like Powerpoint

**R-T**
 * [|RealeBooks.com]: Read or create striking picture books to share with the world
 * [|Remix America]: Remix the great words, speeches, and images of American History
 * [|Scrapblog]: Create and share digital scrapbooks
 * [|Sharendipity]: Build and employ interactive games, widgits, and other educational learning tools - browse the [|Education collection] for ideas
 * [|Skitch.com and Skitch]: Take screenshots, edit them, and then upload to share with others
 * [|Shidonni]: Draw virtual pets and then play with them
 * [|Slideshare]: Upload and share powerpoint presentations loaded with audio podcasts
 * [|Skype]: Free audio or video conference calls
 * [|Storybird]: Collaborative storytelling with families, friends, and real artists art - take the [|tour] to learn more!
 * [|Stixy]: Online bulletin board to share notes, photos, documents, and to do lists
 * [|Text 2 Mind Map]: The text-to-mind-map converter
 * [|TimeToast:] Create interactive timelines and share them on the web
 * [|Trailfire]: Create your own educational trails on the Internet
 * [|ToonDoo]: The Cartoon Strip Creator

**U-W**
 * [|Vimeo]: Free video sharing environment
 * [|Vixeynet]: Download and convert video files (including YouTube Flash videos) to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP)
 * [|VoiceThread]: Group conversations around images, documents, and video (see Education examples)
 * [|Voki]: Create personalized speaking avatars
 * [|Wallwisher]: Online notice board maker
 * [|Webspiration]: Online visual thinking tool
 * [|WebNote]: A very simple online notetaking tool - puts all your notes on the page.
 * [|Weebly]: Create a free website and blog
 * [|Wetoku]: Online interview tool that automatically records, saves, and prepares for embedding and sharing with others.
 * [|WetPaint]: Another free wiki creator with a different look - mix all the best features of wikis, blogs, forums, and more
 * [|Wiggio]: A social networking online toolkit to send emails, surveys, set up video conferences, & keep track of group tasks
 * [|Wikidot in Education]: Create your own wikispace for classroom use
 * [|Wikispaces for Educators]: Create your own wikispace for your personal or classroom use
 * [|WordSift:] Visualize text and improve your vocabulary
 * [|Worldometers] - World wide statistics updated in real time. See the world statistics for populations, births, deaths - numbers of tonnes of food eaten, water drunk etc etc etc. This is an amazing site which will keep you and your class occupied for a long time!
 * [|Wordle]: Beautiful Word Clouds

**X-Z**
 * [|YouTube Grabber]: Download YouTube videos to use in your classroom
 * [|YouSendIt]: Send and track large digital files too big for an email box
 * [|XtraNormal]: Type something and it turns into a movie (you write the script and direct the action!)
 * [|Zamzar]: Download YouTube videos (and other files) and save in any format
 * __zinepal__ Students can create pdf and ebooks for sharing
 * [|Zotero]: Collect, cite, manage, and share your research sources