Top 10 for 2009/10

In no particular order, the tools that I found the most useful and engaging this past school year!

1) Photopeach has the motto "Fresh Slideshows to Go" and is another tool for student presentations.  It does require the student to set up an account but once in a super easy interface guides them through uploading images, adding captions and finally music.  The slide show then can be linked or embedded in moodle or webpage.
Meiji Restoration on PhotoPeach

2) Word Clouds are an awesome way to make visuals from any text.  Earlier this year wordle, my go to word cloud website went down, and many other word cloud websites popped up.  A favourite of my students was tagxedo, which allowed them to change the shape of the cloud and then save it.  My favourite thing to do is make a word cloud and use it for vocabulary and making predictions about the text.

3) Bubblus is a mindmapping website.  While students can create an account and save their maps to work on another day, they also can just start mapping so long as they finish in one sitting. The map can then be downloaded as a JPG.

4) Prezi slogan is "The zooming presentation editor" and the more it zooms, the more the students love it.  This presentation tools allows videos, images and documents to be embedded into it.  This site does require students to create an account but they can create an educational account.  The final presentation can be embed into moodle or website.  See two examples of how student's used Prezi's here and here.

5) Wallwisher: "Words that Stick" this web 2.0 tool allows you to create a virtual sticky wall.  Students do not have to login, but can double click on the wall you make, add text and image or video.  Check out this presentation for various ways to use Wallwisher in the classroom.

6) Voki allows  you to create personalized speaking avatar.  Without creating an account students have a limited number of avatar choices and 30 seconds of recordable time (from mic, text or upload MP3 file) but with account creation comes more choices and recordable time.  The finished avatar can be linked or embedded in moodle or webpage.

7) Cartoons are a great way to have students tell a story, explain a concept or illustrate big ideas.  There are a number of cartoon creators online but my favourite is stripgenerator simply because it is easy to use.  While there are not a lot of options, it gets the job done.  With an account creator cartoons can be saved, however, I tend to skip creating an account and get student to take a screen shot instead.

8) Big Huge Labs allows you to do "Fun Stuff with Photo's"  My favourites to use with students in the motivator, which I blogged about here, and the trading card.  There are dozens of tools there to explore.

9) Twitter was my motivational tool this year.  Using twitter I connect with hundreds and hundreds of teachers daily.  We share ideas, offer suggestions and encourage each other to try new things.  More on this in the near future!

10) Last but not least Moodle which acts as the glue to hold everything above together!  A one shop stopping place to house the links to the websites, places for students to hand in and embed their work.