Free Resources You Can Use NOW!

1. Free Resources You Can Use NOW! Cameron McKinley February 2007

2. Today’s Outcomes • Demonstrate some useful free software • Participants leave with at least 1 idea they can use in the classroom now • Participants motivated to learn additional software to give digital kids a voice

3. Skype • Connect Kids • Collaborate by combining Skype with Google Docs • Share Links • Chat up to 100 people-keep the history • It’s FREE

4. Google Earth • Measurement • Tours • From a novel • Of your city/state • Add Video • Blog Tour with photos and notes (ex: Gombe Chimpanzee ) • Historical Overlays • Create a Geography Quiz

5. Excellent Tutorials-cover everything you need to know • http://www.bteducation.org/img/lib/dialogics/schoolradio/index.htm

6. Podcasts online

7. Sample 1st Grade Podcast

8. Celestia • http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/educational.php

9. CMAP Tools • Collaborate with others • Export as web page, pdf and more • Non-linear thinking • Record map creation • Make presentation from map

10. Microsoft Producer

11. AN Flash Slideshow Maker

12. Star Office

13. Tux Paint

14. Drawing for Children*

15. Photo Story

16. Primo PDF

17. MwSnap • http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

18. Crocodile Clips

19. Scratch

20. Alice

21. (Block Cad) Lego Building

22. Sketch-Up

23. UnFreez • Create animations for Visualizing Literature

24. Switch-a-roo Zoo

25. Community Signs

26. Movie Maker

27. ReadPlease

28. Online Tools • GCast • Scrapblog • Writeboard • Google Docs

29. Google Docs • Writely and Google Spreadsheets for StudentsStudents can work on their assignments from any computer -- the school lab, the library, at home, at a friend's house, etc. Kids who use Writely and Google Spreadsheets don't have to remember to save a copy of their homework when they go from one location to the next – their work is always online, and thus accessible from any computer with an Internet connection. Students also find the sharing aspect of Writely and Google Spreadsheets valuable. Getting feedback on an assignment from a busy parent, a grandparent who lives in another town or a writing tutor is much easier when you can share the document or spreadsheet online and check back periodically to see the reviewer's comments.  Being able to share online is also helpful for group assignments where several students need to contribute. You can enter updates anytime, from different locations. And through the Revisions history, you can clearly see who contributed what to an assignment, and when. Writely and Google Spreadsheets for TeachersTeachers are using Writely both to publish announcements about upcoming assignments and to monitor student progress on assignments and give feedback along the way, rather than only when the final assignment has been handed in. Writely and Google Spreadsheets both enable an interactive process which gives teachers far more insight into how students are progressing on an assignment, enabling them to give guidance in the middle of the process, when it might be of maximum benefit.