Miss Hetro's Classroom
Social Bookmarking
https://www.diigo.com/user/beckyhetro
Online Tools
Checklists:
http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/checklist.shtml
This online tool is great for creating checklists, which can easily be used as an assessment tool. On this web site, you can choose the grade level as well as writing, presentation, multimedia, or science projects. After choosing this, you can choose the project guidelines and add any of your own additional criteria.
Puzzles:
http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/checklist.shtml
This online tool allows teachers or students to create fun and engaging puzzles using their own word lists. You can choose from a variety of ten different puzzles such as word searches, math squares, cryptograms, double puzzles, etc.
Online Quizzes:
This online tool is perfect for making quizzes. With this tool, the teacher can create and manage quizzes, attach multimedia files to questions, and make quizzes in multiple languages. These can be very beneficial for ESL learners.
Online Presentation Tools
Empressr:
Empressr is a free flash-based web application. It allows the user to import images from websites such as Flickr, Google, Yahoo, and Photobucket. To use the images, you must embed the presentation in a website or create a link to it. While using Empressr, the user can view who has seen the presentation, for how long, and how many times. Although there are many benefits, the downsides include only being able to store up to five presentations at a time and the audio does not always play on “autoplay”. Despite these disadvantages, I can see how this would be useful in the classroom. It will allow the teacher to create a more engaging presentation.
Google Docs:
Google Docs allows users to create and collaborate projects in real-time. Using Google Docs, you can freely and easily insert video, images, tables, and charts. A great feature of this program is that it automatically saves your work after every keystroke. There are some disadvantages, but I think that the benefits outweigh the three disadvantages. I use Google Docs all of the time and it works great with saving and working on PowerPoint presentations. This is perfect for teachers so they can work on projects on any computer as long as they log in to their Google account. Students can also use Google Docs to work on projects collaboratively as a class.
Glogster:
Glogster is a free to sign up web site that allows users to create and share interactive posters with graphics, music, and videos. It’s easy to share work with friends and publish your Glog to Facebook or Twitter. Glogster is a great alternative to using PowerPoint. On the downside, sometimes the sounds don’t work, there can be problems with picture format, there may be difficulty copying and pasting, and it can be hard to find audio clips that the site supports. I have ever used Glogster or anything like it, but I can see how it can be beneficial in the classroom. Glogster can be used for the teacher to create interactive presentations. Students can also use this to be creative and create posters or presentations.
Slideshare:
Slideshare allows users to create and share presentations. A great benefit to Slideshare is that it supports documents, PDF’s, videos, and webinars. Work can easily be shared through networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. A bonus for teachers is that it can also be embedded into blogs and websites. Teachers can also use it to research and share educational videos with students. Although there can be problems with the sign up process, there are no other disadvantages. This sounds like it is the perfect tool for a teacher. It allows the teacher to create presentations and then share them with their students in class or through their blog or website. Students can also sign up and use Slideshare.
VoiceThread:
VoiceThread is compatible with any type of file and allows you to share your presentation with anyone. Users are also able to comment and doodle on presentations. The disadvantage of VoiceThread is that you need an account to view presentations and leave comments. I can see how this would work great for the classroom, but it might be too expensive or time consuming to create an account for each student. Without an account, these presentations would be invaluable because they cannot be shared any other way. I love the thought of creating these PowerPoint-like presentations and then letting other people view and comment on them, but I don’t think it is the most useful tool for the classroom since everyone needs and account.
Zoho Show:
Zoho Show allows users to create, edit, store, and share multimedia slide show presentations. Zoho Show even allows you to import PowerPoint presentations, which can be very helpful to everyone who is familiar and likes using PowerPoint. Zoho Show can be used to enhance these already made presentations. Some disadvantages to Zoho Show are that only one person can edit at a time, there are slow transitional effects, and animations may freeze or not play at all. This service is only free for a year and then users have to pay according to which type of plan they choose. I think Zoho Show can be very beneficial for teachers to create presentations using multimedia as well as enhance already created presentations with multimedia.
Prezi:
Prezi is a web-based presentation application that allows users to invite others to join and edit. Prezi also allows you to import media like images, sounds, and videos, but you can only import certain images. Prezi, unlike PowerPoint, saves the presentation automatically so there is no chance of losing work. Prezi is beneficial for teachers because the canvas deters users from using too much text. Students should never have to read too much information on one slide. I have never used Prezi, but I have had friends who did and I have seen classmates give presentations using Prezi. I think it is very engaging with the different options that are available to enhance presentations. It would be great for teachers to use as well as students.
Sliderocket:
Sliderocket allows users to create, manage, share, and measure presentations. It allows you to deliver presentations in-person or on the Web and can easily integrate audio and media into the presentation. A great advantage to Sliderocket is that it comes with an offline player, which allows the user to share presentations without the Internet. This is very beneficial to teachers because you never know when the Internet will be unavailable. Some disadvantages are that it can be slow since it is a cloud application and the free version has limited options. I can see this being very beneficial to a teacher, but many people will not be willing to pay so much and the free version does not have as many of the great options.
Open Source Software
Name: Cabos
Type: Peer-to-Peer Filesharing
Purpose: Allows users to share files for free, with no spyware or adware. It can be used on Windows and Mac.
Name: LibreOffice
Type: Word Processing
Purpose: Provides users with tools for word processing and and spreadsheets. It is a free replacement of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It is also compatible with these Microsoft products.
Name: KisMac
Type: Wifi Scanning
Purpose: A wireless scanner for Mac users to find wireless access while they're on the go.
Here is my WebQuest where we explore Mars!
Here is my Interactive Lesson where we explore the water cycle!
What You Need To Know About Web Search for Education
