Free Technology Tools for Teachers

Reader's Workshop This website is designed and maintained by Karen A. McDavid © 2004. Ideas, content, activities, and documents for this website are copyrighted by Karen A. McDavid and should not be copied or downloaded without permission. All graphics seen throughout this website should not be removed, copied, or downloaded. The 50+ Best Ways to Curate and Share Your Favorite Social Media and News Content There’s so much information online just begging to be curated: news, social media, images, video, websites… the list goes on. Reading great content from my favorite blogs and websites is one of my favorite down-time activities. It’s also an important part of my job as an IT Director because I need to stay on top of the latest trends, announcements and tech news.

Top 20 Websites No Teacher Should Start the 2010-2011 Year Without I have to tell you that it was a tough call to make these decisions, especially when we’re talking every teacher no matter what grade level or subject, but I hope that you find a couple of gems to put away in your virtual treasure box. You may have others you’d like to add to the list. Please post them in the comments for all of us to explore. A great photo editing tool is a must for teachers and I recommend Aviary, LunaPic, Picnik, or BeFunky with some being simpler than others, but all having unique features. Explore all the tools and choose the best option for your skill level. Creaza and Jaycut are answers to the Windows XP Movie Maker and Flipcam problem.

and IdeaPaint: Creating an Interactive Classroom [Video] We’re big fans of IdeaPaint, a special kind of paint that can turn anything into a dry-erase writing surface (you can read more about it here). When you combine IdeaPaint’s ability turn any wall or surface into a canvas and Evernote’s ability to capture, archive and make that surface searchable, the possibilities for turning any room into an interactive environment are endless. These two products come together in a particularly exciting way in a classroom environment, which can become a more creative and engaging place to learn. When geography teacher Mike Curta reached out to us about his plans to transform his Eisenhower High School classroom using IdeaPaint and Evernote, we knew we wanted to learn more. Throughout the school year, Mike kept us updated with his progress by sending photos and email updates about the learning environment he created and the positive results he was observing. Evernote and IdeaPaint: Classroom Spotlight, Eisenhower High School from Evernote on Vimeo.

English Speaking and conversation practice and activities for ESL students and teachers ESLgold.com provides thousands of free resources and information for both students and teachers. All materials are organized by skill level for quick and easy access, Just click on a link to get started. ESL Students learn how to use greetings in English in this ESLgold.com video. ESLgold.com is the world's largest collection of ESL learning resources including, games, videos, lessons, worksheets and quizzes. 50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Know About Technology and education are pretty intertwined these days and nearly every teacher has a few favorite tech tools that make doing his or her job and connecting with students a little bit easier and more fun for all involved. Yet as with anything related to technology, new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education, which can make it hard to keep up with the newest and most useful tools even for the most tech-savvy teachers. Here, we’ve compiled a list of some of the tech tools, including some that are becoming increasingly popular and widely used, that should be part of any teacher’s tech tool arsenal this year, whether for their own personal use or as educational aids in the classroom.

ESL PowerPoint Lessons,PowerPoint Games, PPT for teaching English vocabulary Free Interactive Fun Games for Classrooms - Goodbye Classroom Boredom! ESL Classroom Fun Games: They simply rock! Have fun with wheel of fortune, Quiz shows, Billionaire Games. Revision Games for Level 1 - 6 Primary Learners - You have to try these games

10 Fun Tools To Easily Make Your Own Infographics People love to learn by examining visual representations of data. That’s been proven time and time again by the popularity of both infographics and Pinterest. So what if you could make your own infographics ? What would you make it of? It’s actually easier than you think… even if you have zero design skills whatsoever. The iPad Guide - How to Get the Most Out of the iPad When the iPad was released, Steve Jobs called it "magical". And in many ways, he was right. The iPad is a great device capable of doing everything from streaming movies to entertaining you with great games to becoming your digital library to simply letting you surf the web on your couch. Unfortunately, one of it's magical qualities isn't to instantly allow you to know all of the great ways to use the device.

Brainstorming and Voting Amazingly Easy. Study Proves Why We Need Digital Literacy Education A few months ago, the Internet buzzed with the results of a study comparing students' note-taking on computers versus note-taking with paper and pen. In the article, authors Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer shared the results of three experiments comparing these two note-taking conditions, and their conclusion was signaled in the title: "The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard." Following the authors' lead, most media reports treated these results as proof that using laptops for note-taking — or, some argued, any classroom use — was detrimental to learning.

The Definition Of Digital Literacy The Definition Of Digital Literacy by Terry Heick When we think of digital literacy, we usually think of research–finding, evaluating, and properly crediting digital sources.