Powerful+Tools

Powerful and Free Tools for Teachers and Students
high school teacher of Japanese language Director of the [|MERIT Program] at the [|Krause Center for Innovation] at Foothill College applications open in early November, close in mid-January Founder, Executive Director and Lead Janitor of [|NextVista.org] [|the newsletter I mentioned] (ask for free stuff!)
 * [[image:https://sites.google.com/site/freetoolsoutthewazoo/_/rsrc/1267030258461/Home/day-long-workshop/NextVista_logo.jpg?height=320&width=320 width="320" height="320" link="https://sites.google.com/site/freetoolsoutthewazoo/Home/day-long-workshop/NextVista_logo.jpg?attredirects=0"]] **Your Presenter - Rushton Hurley** ([|contact me])

[|The Village Well] - this is the audio piece I did about the African service project [|Ikea Lamp] - feeling past your prime? [|The Atomic Model] - Made on a Mac Contest winner [|Ball Girl Crazy Catch] - critically think about this one [|Shorewood Lip Dub] - what kids can do when motivated [|the actual footage] - everything forwards [|'] [|Unbelievable Sportsmanship'] - Central Washington University softball team [|An Unusual Football Game] - for those who believe in the power of second chances [|Scouting video] - tapping into the talents that are out there [|Neuron Functions] - FallCUE Contest winner [|Lab Rules] - rules for the lab by Mark Dohn's students [|Project Amigo Volunteer] - wonderful effort helping poor kiddos in Mexico [|Sonnet 23] - from Jim Sill's video production kids [|The Fun Theory] - fun with piano stairs, that is [|Lost Generation] - all this will be true, unless we reverse it
 * Videos and Other **Digital Media** I Share With You**

See the [|eleven finalists for the Nebraska 90 contest], and get your kids to tell you which one should win (or have won), and why.
 * The Most Recent Contest**

[|Google Search] - [|language tools], [|advanced search], and more options [|File Search] - not reinventing the wheel -and- developing a critical eye [|Wonder Wheel] and [|Timeline], [|News] and [|Fast Flip] [|Google Squared] - cool association of data [|Search Curriculum] - helping kids search (much) more efficiently [|Shortcut Guide] - all sorts of quick ways to use the front page [|Books] and [|Scholar] - thinking about what's worth reading [|Librivox] - free audio books [|CK12.org] - free textbooks online [|Merriam-Webster] - traditional definitions, Word of the Day [|Urban Dictionary] - interpreting the language of the locals (this one isn't all family-friendly) [|Wordle] - popular system for making word clouds ([|Declaration of Independence text]) [|WordSift] - great tool for academic language by folks at Stanford
 * Search, Research, and Words**

Activity possibilities: using Wonder Wheel, find the commonly associated tags for a particular concept you teach using Google Squared, find what categories within your subject yield good squares using Google Books, find a good reading for your class using Wordle, analyze a speech or short text for its main ideas

[|Gmail] - better than ordinary e-mail, perhaps! [|Google Docs] - word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations Docs - sharing, revision history, and saving the file Presentations - use for prompts, planning, and (of course) presenting Spreadsheets - do surveys and online tests using Forms ([|Know your lyrics?]) cool tricks with fill and lookup (a little like [|Squared]) the lookup formula: =googlelookup(cell,cell) [|spreadsheet functions] - loads of info on this from GCT Bill Bass [|self-grading quiz] - a guide to how to do this, from Bill Bass tutorials on YouTube for [|Docs], [|Spreadsheets], [|Forms], [|Presentations] [|Poll Everywhere] - gathering data using cell phones or internet-connected computers [|Sites] - building web pages, the Google way [|Wikispaces] - an especially education-friendly wiki company
 * Collaboration Kicked Up a Notch** - why paper can hold us back

Activity possibilities: using Sites, create a project portfolio using Forms or Poll Everywhere, gather data on student confidence on topics you teach using Docs, have students gather notes on lessons collaboratively using Presentations, combine visuals with main topics as discussion prompts

[|Google Maps] various views - maps, satellite, traffic, terrain, Earth; photos and writing assignments finding resources - [|Advanced Search] and kml files literature - [|Google Lit Trips] history - [|California Missions Map] creating your own maps [|support], [|Maps handout for educators] tutorials on YouTube for [|Google Maps]
 * Geographical Tools Across the Curriculum**

Activity possibilities: find and link/upload a kml file on a topic of interest to you create a map with colleagues about special places in your community use the photos layer in Maps to examine life in another community have students create a Lit Trip for a story they read together

[|File Hippo] - great site for downloading freeware [|Contxts] - send your contact info by text message try texting the message Rushton to number 50500 as an example [|Fresh Brain] - a place for teens to be wildly creative (organization died, but site lives on) [|Classroom 2.0] and [|Learn Central] - perhaps the best sites for collaborating with colleagues [|Geogebra] - free mathematics software [|Khan Academy] - straight-forward tutorials on many levels of math [|Storyline Online] - from the Screen Actors Guild, stories read to you
 * Other Software and Sites You Might Want** - more fantastic freeware

Activity possibilities: create a slideshow video using Photo Story make a podcast using Audacity find a group in Classroom 2.0 to get to know explore visual possibilities with Cool Iris

[|Metamark] - making the nasty URLs more reasonable [|Tiny URL], [|Snip URL], [|Long URL], [|Huge URL] [|Prezi] - "Power Point on steroids" Daniel Moix's [|overview of Google Tools] in Prezi [|Pete's Power Point Station] loads of Power Point presentations for all kinds of different topics [|Glogster] - multimedia posters [|BigHugeLabs] - a variety of multimedia this-and-that [|Library of Congress] - for images, sound files, documents, and more
 * **Digital Media:** ****Various Fun Tools to Get Going**

Activity possibilities: using Glogster, create a multimedia poster about a school club using Prezi, prepare a study guide for students, or have them do the same for each other

[|Audacity] - powerful audio editor Jill Baedke's [|tutorials on using Audacity] an example of a simple (but powerful) story done in Audacity: [|The Village Well] [|The Battle] - the (copyright-friendly) James Underberg piece from PodSafeAudio [|Jamendo] - music you can use [|PartnersInRhyme] - both royalty-free and free sound effects (note the difference) [|Voice Thread] - audio blogs with images [|Audio Expert] - online audio editing [|ujam] - create your own songs with an online recording tool
 * Audio**

Activity possibilities: record commercials where students have to be critical of the info presented using Audacity or GarageBand, have students prepare and record summaries of key concepts start an audio resource folder using music from Jamendo have students create a song using ujam that includes important concepts from the course

[|Neuron Functions] - contest-winning entry that shows an interesting use of images [|Creative Commons] - copyright, public domain, and 'copyright-friendly'; royalty-free vs. free proper citation is always a component - use filenames to keep the info [|Citing Sources], the easy way [|Code of][|Best Practices in Fair Use] - Center for Social Media information [|Flickr] and [|Morguefile] - images in quantity and quality [|CoolIris] - photo walls from search results (plug-in for browsers) [|TagGalaxy] - a world of photos from search results [|Animoto] - 30-second videos are free [|Mixbook] - create online photo books, buy the real ones if you wish [|SumoPaint] - it's like Photoshop, but free and in your browser [|Psykopaint] - create "paintings" from pictures [|Picnik] - online photo editing [|Irfan View] - free graphics editor and converter [|Photo Story 3] - a free program from Microsoft - really. a [|quick tutorial] I put together on Photo Story [|temporary download link for Photo Story] [|Google Art Project] - great art from around the world, on your computer [|BodyBrowser] - biology will never be the same (requires very strong browser)
 * Images and Slideshows**

Activity possibilities: using Tag Galaxy or Cool Iris, create a visual introduction on a topic using Photo Story 3, let students tell the story of a club or activity gather copyright-friendly images for presentations with Art Project, have students creatively connect a famous painting to your school community

Limerick (Ireland) footage for practice Windows: [|StreetScene1], [|StreetScene2] Mac: [|StreetScene1], [|StreetScene2] [|Windows Live Movie Maker] - the download link, as it doesn't come with Windows 7 (#@?!) [|Windows Movie Makers] - a good place for all sorts-o-things Movie Maker [|Apple's iMovie Tutorials] - great starters for iMovie and [|anything else from iLife] [|VideoMaker channel on SchoolTube] - great tutorials on the next levels of video [|YouTube] - tutorials on anything search on the word 'tutorial' and the name of the software as with iTunesU, YouTube has an [|education channel] [|Jing] - freeware for screencasting here's a [|Jing on using Movie Maker] [|Zamzar] - great site for converting files or grabbing YouTube videos [|DigitalWish.com] - site for teachers that allows buying Flips two-for-one
 * Videos and Video Editing**

Activity possibilities: using Movie Maker or iMovie, have students explain concepts they've learned full project descriptions and resources for videos are at the bottom of this page

[|Next Vista for Learning] ask for my help for using or making videos, and you've got it preparing students for any multimedia project have students figure out strengths, weaknesses, and alternatives to a variety of videos record impressions using a Google form like [|this one] (ask me for a copy) share [|this resource on common mistakes] (it won't replace their exploring, though) Community Intros ([|Stavanger, Norway]) here's [|instructions for this project] from a couple of years ago (ignore the dates) Sonnets and Multimedia ([|Sonnet 23]) just for you, a [|step-by-step on the sonnets project] [|Jim Sill interview] about this project (Elluminate session) Career Exploration ([|Oceanographic Scientist]) info on [|how to do career exploration videos] with your students
 * Projects**

[|NextVista.org] - videos to learn, to travel, and to inspire
 * Saving the World From Ignorance** - my favorite place for fascinating projects

Activity possibilities: choose a video to show students to get their thoughts on strengths, weaknesses, changes, etc.


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Trying to contact **Rushton Hurley**? Use Next Vista's contact page at: []. Shortened URL for this page: [] ||