Literacy 2.0

Mixbook -This online Photo Book software allows you to create personalized Photo Books, Photo Albums and Scrapbooks . You can create and share online for FREE.

Blabberize is a free program that lets your pictures talk. You upload a picture in which the person, or animal, is facing the camera and has their mouth closed (that gives the best results). Blabberize is a fun website that can be used in a variety of ways in your classroom! You can tell a story, have children read and share their own writings, give a book talk, share learning about a unit, the options are endless. All you have to do is go to the site, sign-up for a free account and follow the step-by-step directions.

YouTube Alternatives-freetech4teachers

Teacher Tube

Edublogs TV

Nibipedia

Hulu

Ted-Ideas Worth Spreading

Wow!  Wow!  Wow!

Ideas to Inspire is a collection of collaborative presentations, which offer a large number of ideas for engaging lesson activities.  They are the result of the collaboration of teachers from all around the world.

Podcasts can be a great way for students to write for a real audience (besides the teacher).  Podcasts can be audio only using Audacity (free download and super easy to use) or can also use video and/or other images.  The Our City Podcast is one example.

Great ideas abound on the Internet, but here is one of my favorite new finds. Ideas for Podcasting in the  Classroom

Time Toast is a timeline creator.  Students can draw pictures, scan them and upload them to create a timeline of events for a story, show the results of a science experiement over time (such as plant growth, or butterflies hatching),  a historical time period, or show character change.

Big Huge Labs is overflowing with project ideas.  Use the trading card to have students dress as a character and write about the character underneath.  Create a magazine cover for a social studies period or a piece of writing.  Use many of the tools to synthesize the theme of a book or the most important idea learned about a content area topic.

Voice Thread is an excellent collaborative tool.  Make sure to sign up as an educator so you can have free access.  You can scan student created documents, upload digital photos, or use your webcam on Voice Thread. If you want to find someone to collaborate with there are nings available specifically for Voice Thread Collaboration.

So many students love to read series books.  This simple search tool will help students find authors that are similar to the ones they love.  Try it for yourself.  I found Literature Map to be pretty accurate for my literary tastes.

Tada List  is so you can make your spouse a honey-do list!  Just kidding!  My hubby didn’t really think it was funny either.  This list maker would be a great way to break projects down into steps for students and help keep them on track.  It could also be used to keep track of homework .  You can publish the list and let the other person edit or not depending on the rights you give them.  You could have students sequence steps for a how-to writing piece, events in a famous person’s life, list spelling words, events in a story or even take notes during a presentation or video.