Free Cool Online Tools

[KarenJanowski]

Want to spread the word about Voice Thread which has tremendous potential as a tool to demonstrate learning in our classrooms. It is a free online multimedia tool and I just noticed that a new version is coming out October 10. Check it out here and the new version with classroom examples here
And please share your successes in the Success Stories discussion thread.

Our students who struggle with demonstrating what they know using traditional materials can really benefit from something like this.

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

Karen, this tool can be used to help students read their writing, for digitizing open source books and including speech, for motivation for older students, and for creating visual displays for teaching. How cool! I can't wait to explore it more.

[Barb Wollak]

I have used Voicethread on our blog to create a talking electronic book. I have had my students use Word . They have imported pictures and then written text. We have saved the Word document as a jpg. and then the kids have recorded themselves reading the text.

[Jane Ricard]

Hi Karen,

I am working with a 9th grade class on designing a web site around local history of the Civil War. We visited the Leominster Historical Society last week, took digital pictures and video, and they are reading letters between a local husband who was fighting in the war and his wife. We will be creating a game on the web site based on primary sources. This tool will add a lot of interest to the pictures and videos that we have!

[Kirsten Haugen]

On the topic of free cool online tools, I'm starting a new blog, The Web Catcher, which aims to highlight quality web educational web sites for kids. I'm categorizing them by age, topic, features and learning styles (so far). It's way early in the process. At this point, I'm mostly going back through my other collections of bookmarked sites (and have a LONG way to go!), but I'm open to new suggestions for this blog as well, including categories that I should include. Currently, I haven't added a lot of tools per se - more a focus on interactive content-oriented sites. Maybe that's another new forum?

[Jodi Nibbelin]

Kristen,
I am excited to read about your project. I am an Occupational Therapy Assistant and Assistive Tech Coord and am always looking for good websites for children to explore for access assessment purposes and classroom activities. I find many of my students visit PBS Kids and a couple others, but am interested in seeing more good sites to let my teachers know about.
Jodi

[Kirsten Haugen]

Thanks for the encouragement, Jodi. In part, I'm doing it to learn more about how to build a more focused blog.
I like PBS Kids, too, especially the SuperWhy section if you work with younger students (episodes available on iTunes!). Definitely check out Paul Hamilton's edublog that I mentioned below. Also, until I get my blog more up to date, I have most of my favorites on our school web site. Eventually, I'll have those and more at The Web Catcher!

[Glenda Anderson]

I am very impressed by your project. A lot of work has gone into this. Thank you for sharing. And yes, Paul's is wonderful too but always nice to have different views available. Can never have too many of these sites at our fingertips!

[Kirsten Haugen]

Okay, someone else out there has done it, and done it well (no surprise!)...
Paul Hamilton's edublog focuses expressly on "free resources from the net for (special) education." Check it out, it's an excellent list.
-- kh

[KarenJanowski]

Yes, Kirsten, Paul's blog is AMAZING! An incredible wealth of resources!

Also want to mention that BOOKSHARE.ORG now free (as of today) to all print disabled students. They were just awareded a $32 million grant that will allow them to make hundreds of thousands of texts accessible. This is incredible news that Skip Stahl shared on the QIAT listserve.

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

That news is incredible and totally right on. What a cool move. Things are looking up.

[Brian Wojcik]

This is good news. I wonder if, under this grant, bookshare.org will continue its liberal policy on how it qualifies students for a print disability, especially now that federal funds are in the picture. Other organizations have taken the stance that only medical professionals are qualified to verify such a condition. Bookshare.org allows different professional depending on the nature of the print disability.

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

Brian, it will be interesting to hear that update from CAST later this week. I hope to attend the webcast.