Tools

This is a list of free applications and tools that you can find online. Students can use these to create multimedia projects, collaborate with others, conduct research, and present their findings. It is a long list, but by no means exhaustive. Please contact 21stcenturylit@gmail.com to suggest other tools to add to the list.
 * || =Appendix 1 Extensive List of Free Tools=
 * Appendix description or content:**

Blogs

http://www.edublogs.org  - We suggest using this service for your in-class blogs. Edublogs blocks content not appropriate for educational contexts.

http://www.tumblr.com  - Mainly used for image blogs. Other users of the service may have objectionable content on their blogs.

http://www.blogger.com  - Other users of the service may have objectionable content on their blogs.

http://www.wordpress.com  - Other users of the service may have objectionable content on their blogs.

Graphic Design

http://aviary.com  - This is an awesome collection of free digital media creation tools. Image editing of all types, screen capture, even audio editing.

www.inkscape.com  - Downloadable graphics editor

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.photoshop.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - enables users to use the popular image editor online, within your browser. Requires registration.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.splashup.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Free easy to use graphics editor

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.picnik.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Online photo editor

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.pixlr.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Online image editor

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.glogster.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create multimedia posters with text, images, audio and video.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.gimp.org/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Another free image editor

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://sketchup.google.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create 3D graphics

=== <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Comics/Animation/StoryTelling ===

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.kerpoof.com/teach <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Kerpoof allows users to create cartoons with stock shapes and character bubbles, but can also be used to create movies, cards, t-shirts, and more.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://comiqs.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Turn photos, "doodles", and text into a multipane comic strip with a real comic book like style. Import photos from Flickr or upload from desktop. Add bubbles, text.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.bitstrips.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create characters and comics. 14 day free trial then charges a fee.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.bubbleply.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Provide the link to a video from any URL (e.g. youtube.com, Blip.tv) and then annotate with text "bubbles"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.toondoo.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create cartoons from scratch

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://scratch.mit.edu/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create games, animations, music and art. Learn basics of programming languages. Popular educational tool in schools today.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.tikatok.com/classroom/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Allows children to create and publish books. Students write and illustrate their own stories. Use a teacher account to get lesson plans, digital proofs, and classroom accounts.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Media Presentation

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.slideshare.net/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Shareable online slideshows.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.imageloop.com/en/index.htm <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create slideshows with your images. Share on social networks and the web.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.prezi.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Zooming online presentation tool

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://docs.google.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Online slideshows with chat

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://voicethread.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Online media album that can holds images, documents and videos and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. They can even be exported to an Archival Movie for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://picasaweb.google.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Google's free site for storing and sharing photo serves a similar service as flickr, but it also offers the ability to create slideshows with captions, and to associate images with a location on a map.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://xtimeline.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Powerful and well designed timeline. Attach images or embed media to any entry, provide source info (for historical timelines?), tags. Can import data from Excel/CSV files. Several users report uneven performance and data loss, however, proceed with caution.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.vuvox.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Turn your photos, video and music into very high quality presentations that can be easily shared.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://letterpop.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create newsletters, posters, brochures, pamphlets, collages, etc. Provides free templates.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://mybrochuremaker.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Easily create brochures or pamphlets with this program.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Information visualization

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.wordle.net/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create word clouds- input text (paragraphs, surveys, answers) and Wordle creates a cloud of words with the most common displayed more prominently

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/Classic/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create graphs

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.onlinecharttool.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create many different types of online graphs and charts.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collaboration Tools

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://pbworks.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create a collaborative digital work space for your classroom. Collaborate with videos, audio, images and text. Tracks contributions and contributors.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://piratepad.net <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Allows for simultaneous writing over the internet for multiple contributors.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://mind42.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Online collaborative mindmapping in your browser

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://mindmeister.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Online collaborative mindmapping in your browser

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://www.exploratree.org.uk/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Graphic organizers for mapping discussions, plans, arguments, flow charts.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://docs.google.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Create documents, forms, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings. Publicly share the documents or only with a select group. For more information on how to use Google docs in the classroom, check out our Resources page.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://textthemob.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Project polls or message boards on a large screen, have everyone send their input via their cell phones and see results instantly! Basic service is free, but then costs a small amount.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.wikispaces.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Wikis are simple web pages that groups, friends, and families can edit together.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://springnote.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Collaborate by sharing “Notebooks”, that users can edit and organize individually and as a group.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://notaland.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Collaboratively create multimedia presentations or posters by mixing audio, video and images with this tool

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://typewith.me <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Allows multiple users to write text simultaneously and have it displayed.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://storybird.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Collaborative storytelling, skews to a younger audience

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Audio

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.audacity.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Free downloadable audio editor and recorder. The user interface is a bit challenging, but there is a manual and tutorials on the web.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Useful but hard to categorize tools:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.openoffice.org <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Like Microsoft Office, or iWork, only free. Provides a text editor, image editor, spreadsheet creator, database designer, and presentation creator. (Word, Photoshop/Paint, Excel, and Powerpoint in other words)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://tinyurl.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://bit.ly <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use these sites to shorten long web addresses. Once you understand the purpose, can come in quite handy.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.yousendit.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.dropbox.com <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.drop.io <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use these sites to send files that are too large to be sent via email. Free up to 100MB.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">@http://sourceforge.net/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> -If you have any computer geniuses in your classroom, they already probably know about this site. This site provides source codes for open source computer applications.

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