I've listed most of the tools I've used directly, giving a brief description of each and the link to where you can find each one.
This is the program I used to make the demo videos for the "Getting Started" pages.
It is FREE and has downloadable versions for both Macs and PC's.
For video sound, you would need a computer microphone.
It can make images and videos (freeware video time limit is 3 minutes) of anything on your computer screen.
You can download the images and video, or store them online at an affiliate site, also for free.
It is very easy to use, but can be tricky to set the videos into a wiki format.
Create an image scrapbook ... get and/or give comments about them ... make a story page ... so many possibilities. All you need are images and/or videos, a microphone and/or audio files ... and a plan.
Both have FREE and PAY-FOR services.
The Educator's Voicethread has a moderately-priced PAY-FOR service which allows you to create and manage a "classroom". The benefit of this is more privacy controls, and a "moderator" control for the teacher (which means all comments or "to-view" requests go through you). The downside is logging in.
Voicethreads are embeddable into wikis, but if they are not "public", then viewers need to login to see the actual presentation. This can be good in some cases, but really bad in others...particularly as kids (and teachers) are great at losing or forgetting passwords!
This program takes simple powerpoint presentations and makes them very web-friendly.
It is FREE and is an online program (nothing to download)
You can't generate presentations from powerpoints that use animation or timings, as these don't convert well.
It is super easy to use; you do need to scope around a bit to get the "embed" code to put into the wiki, but it's there.
If you need to convert a document to or from PDF format, or make a flash movie from a powerpoint presentation, this is the place to try.
It is FREE. It is an online program.
You will need to know the extension of the file you want to convert, and the extension of the type of file you want it to become.
These are the three little letters that come AFTER the . in a file's name.
Example: word.doc (Word document) word.pdf (Adobe portable document) word.odt (open office document) word.ppt (word powerpoint)
At first I didn't get the point of these, since most of them seemed to be more for entertainment...like the cat and fish I have on my mrswy wiki. However, with a little digging, you can find all sorts of useful things. Maps ... clocks ... quote of the day (good for journal write prompts). On the front page of this wiki, I've placed four that I just found recently that my "test driver" students found amusing.
These are FREE. They are embeddable online items that become part of your wiki.
You will need to get the embed code (easy enough, it's a scripted step of clicks) and to go through "insert plugin" on the wiki, with another scripted set of clicks.
It can be tricky to have your gadgets placed where you want them, and how you want them.
A social library network, where you show off the books you've read, want to read, are reading, or are planning to read.
Teens like that they can rate books, create reading groups to discuss books, chat with other readers of the book, and also write recommendations about their books. This can take some angst out of book logs and minor book reports.
It is FREE. You can embed your shelf or shelves.
Embedding is a bit tricky, but not impossible. You have to play around a bit to find the right code and/or use the "Google Gadget" plugin dialogue.
Create your own online polls and surveys, and have the program generate the data for you. If you took my pre-workshop survey, then you have experienced survey monkey. PollDaddy is what I used for the poll on my mrswy wiki (8th grade ReadIt).
Both have FREE and PAY-FOR services.
PollDaddy is easier to embed, and pollsters can also see the results. Survey Monkey has an easier interface and allows a bit more variety in styles. (Think: post-unit survey; quick quizzes to gauge overall class understanding of key points, etc).
Upload some images, select a music clip, and make yourself a 3-minute music video...
Has a FREE version (3-minute video, limited format options) and PAY-FOR version (a lot more options for styles and length)
Good for quick intro; presentations, etc.
Social networking tool. Has a website, also sends "tweets" (messages) to your cellphone. Wes Fryer has done a few projects/tasks using Twitter with his students. Tricky as it's cellphone based - so the policy for middle schools might "x" it from in-school - but could be useful for a weekend movie on cable you assign, or a task involving watching nightly news ... kids could "tweet" in something that affected them, and others would get (and be able to comment back) on that.
It's FREE online; messages cost as per the mobile phone contract. You can opt in or out of the mobile updates; users select who they want to "follow" and who they get mobile phone updates from. It's the same online, but you can view a focused group for "tweets", or watch the global tweeting (which is actually sometimes rather interesting - what DO people text about, in 140 characters or less?)
Create your own "talking head" to bring a little life to your wiki. You can customize a male/female/critter, and add your own voice or type in your message and select a voice to "read" for you. Just makes things a bit more interesting ... I've used it on the FYI page of mrswy. The kids like it, and they actually check to see if I've changed the message (which, as I haven't, they continue to bug me about...)
The slideshow below shows several excellent tools - many are free. The main site has more information and links to other slideshows with even more information. http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/
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