Links are organized according to these topics:
- Applications and Miscellaneous
- Browsers and Email
- Internet Safety
- Keyboarding and Mouse Skills
- Search Engines for Kids
- Surfing & Accessibility Help
- Teaching on and About the Internet
Applications and Miscellaneous
Wufoo is an Internet application that helps
anybody build amazing online forms. When you design a form with
Wufoo, it automatically builds the database, backend and scripts needed to make
collecting and understanding your data easy, fast and fun. Although there is a tiered subscription to
varying levels of Wufoo, there is also a free version that allows three forms
with 10 fields and up to 100 entries a month.
Increase
student engagement using a safe, free, online wiki. Choose whether to mark
your wiki public or private with one click. (Either way, a password is
always required to edit, so outsiders can't change your wiki without
permission.) And since educational PBwikis are ad-free,
your students won't click through to other sites unless you explicitly add
links. Stop waiting for the Tech God to
make an easy-to-update web space, and create a no-hassle way to showcase
students' work online.
This site provides the rationale for using wikis in all levels of education. There is a great introduction for those who have not used wikis, as well as information about free wiki resources on the web.
The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you
to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence,
crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot
Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for
publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their
pages available on the web. Other users must pay for a license.
This site
provides free, secure online storage site for up to 1 Gigabyte of memory.
Currently users cannot set up a sharing system with another user, but the
developers plan to add that capability soon. This is one way to store
space-hogging documents with lots of graphics without filling up your hard
drive.
Take a photo of a document, writing on a white board, a diagram, or whatever with your digital camera or the camera on your cell phone, then email it to this site, then publish or share them with selected colleagues – all for free! ALSO – do you have VoIP phones (computer based) and as a result no easy access to faxing? Use this site to fax to any fax number, anywhere!
Like a purposeful YouTube, TeacherTube hosts videos made by teachers and often their students as well, that you can access for free to enhance your instruction.
Lots of ways to use podcasts in instruction at all levels
Desktoptwo is a web-based desktop that mimics the look, feel and functionality of a local computer... all contained within one browser window... and fully accessible from anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection.
Stikkit makes organizing your daily details as simple as jotting down a note or firing off email. Stikkit's "little yellow notes that think" talk to the productivity applications you already use, as well as to friends, coworkers and family, giving you a universal remote for your life.
MyStickies
allows the user to place little yellow squares of digital paper
anywhere and everywhere you feel like it in the whole wide web. Along
with the ability to put sticky notes on webpages, MyStickies offers a
powerful interface to browse, search, sort, edit, and generally have a
wonderful time with your sticky notes from any computer that has
internet access
Free, downloadable FREEPATH lets you share your content through an intuitive and easy-to-use PlayList where you create pointers to all your digital assets whether they are on your desktop, an intranet or out on the web. Everything plays in its original format so you are able to navigate and edit in real time without the limitations and burden of converting files. Using a simple drag and drop, import or web link approach, you'll be able to spend less time preparing and more time sharing!
Talk with your hands - Chat inside a visual workspace (now with voice chat and collaborate in real-time. Use Thinkature from any web browser; persistent workspaces never need saving
Center for Technology in Education
CITEd features a LEARN center with informative articles and links to interactive online learning, an ACTION center that supports planning of technology initiatives, and a RESEARCH center that showcases evidence based effective practices. This is an easy to use and helpful site.
Search for Free Online Applications
This site searches
over 600 hand-picked high quality services that are available for free on the
Internet. Free services range from free remote PC access, to videoconferencing,
free international phone calls, computer synching and all types of free
Internet marketing.
Splashup, is a powerful free editing tool and photo manager. With all the features professionals use and novices want, it's easy to use, works in real-time and allows you to edit many images at once. Splashup runs in all browsers, integrates seamlessly with top photosharing sites, and even has its own file format so you can save your work in progress.
This neat online application will call the number you identify on the date and at the time you specify, and say whatever you have typed in. You can even choose from different voices. This is a great way to remind yourself of important deadlines or meetings (or even, as suggested, to have an excuse to get out of a deadly meeting).
Browsers and email
Gaggle
Spam free email for
schools
FireFox Internet Browser
The award-winning
Web browser is now faster, more secure, and fully customizable to your online
life, and still free. With Firefox 2, we’ve added powerful new features that
make your online experience even better. FireFox is also more resistant to
viruses than Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Internet Safety
Safe Kids
Internet
guidelines, safety pledge and suggestions
FBI Internet Safety
A parent’s
guide to internet safety from the Big Cahoona
Information to keep kids safe on the internet.
Keyboarding and Mouse Skills
Created for
senior citizens, this site provides easy practice of mouse use.
Click and Drag
Use the mouse to unscramble the words in poems, like rearranging
refrigerator magnet poetry.
Mouse Practice to Find Links on a Page
This page sets up different kids of links to click on, providing new users with practice.
Comprehensive practice with links to games that enhance mousing skills.
Dance Mat Typing
Dance Mat Typing is
an online introduction to touch typing for children aged 7 - 11 years. Each of
the 4 levels are divided into 3 stages. Begin at Level 1 and build up your
skills gradually through to Level 4.
Touch Typing
This free, online
program lets the user exercise his or her fingers and learn touch typing.
The program can be set to monitor typing speed, and to make a "boing"
sound when an incorrect key is struck. After the first use online, the program
can be used off-line.
Tux Typing
Tux Typing is free,
open source, downloadable educational typing tutor for children. It features several
different types of gameplay, at a variety of difficulty levels. The
visuals are great, and the program looks like fun.
Learn2Type
Take the online Typing Test and access the FREE Typing Tutor at Learn 2
Type - the leading FREE Web site that helps you master the skills of touch
typing. Whether you're a typing expert or just a "hunt & peck"
beginner, the interactive exercises in this Typing Tutor automatically adjust
to your skill level. The better you get, the more challenging the typing
exercises become. You can come and go as you please and pick up the typing
lesson where you left off.
KidsLearn2Type
Kids Learn2Type.com
can keep track of your typing lessons. Each time you login to your account,
your keyboarding performance charts will be available. This section is for kids
only, and NO personally identifiable information is required. Registration will
create a kids account with simpler content.
KidsLearn2Type for tots
This section of the
free Learn2Type website features simple keyboarding and mousing activities with
attractive pictures and sounds. Onscreen instructions will require adult
mediation for nonreaders.
PySyCache mouse skills
A free,
downloadable open source program to teach children to play with the mouse,
using pleasant activities based on simply objects and a lot of
photographs. The developer is French, and his website clearly shows shaky
English skills, but the program itself does not seem to be impacted by
this. Check out his site and look at the screenshots he provides to see
if you have kids who could benefit from this program. Be aware that
it does require download and is not an online application.
Search Engines for Kids
42explore
Thematic Pathfinder
Why start with a
search engine, when you can find a pathfinder to fit your needs at 42eXplore?
When learning something new, it's nice to have more than one resource to
explore. This web project provides "four to eXplore" for each topic.
On each page you'll find definitions, activities, the 4 good starting points,
and many more links and resources for the thematic topic.
Ask Jeeves for
Kids
A natural language
search engine that is filtered. Using natural langauage, you can enter
questions like "Why is the sky blue?" Try it!
Yahooligans
A database of about
20,000 sites that are kid safe. You can search or select from a directory
One Key
A closed search
engine that requires web sites to meet an editorial policy. Also access to
Google's kids search engine
Surfing & Accessibility Help
A free download to add a voice to websites so kids with limited vision or low literacy can still access the net. The voices will also read some other languages in addition to English.
Blue Web’n Library of Blue Ribbon Learning Sites on the Web
2127 outstanding internet sites categorized by subject, grade level, and broad format. Five to ten new sites are added monthly,
Computer Dictionary
This site defines basic
computer technology
This site is a real hand-holder for the anxious newbie on the internet.
The purpose of "What a Site" is to help teachers locate, evaluate, and integrate web resources for their area of interest-- the subjects that they teach.
Teaching On and About the Internet
Internet 4 the Classroom
Lists of
educational sites and tutorials
Do you have a class website? The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web.
PBWiki
Increase
student engagement using a safe, free, online wiki. Choose whether to mark
your wiki public or private with one click. (Either way, a password is
always required to edit, so outsiders can't change your wiki without
permission.) And since educational PBwikis are ad-free,
your students won't click through to other sites unless you explicitly add
links. Stop waiting for the Tech God to
make an easy-to-update web space, and create a no-hassle way to showcase
students' work online.
Teaching with the Internet
This site, hosted
by the City College of New York (CUNY) Center for School Development, is a
treasure trove of ideas for relevant instructional uses of the internet.
Teachers First
A teacher resource
site including classroom and professional resources and a tutorial on learning
the Web.
Use this free online tool to create new lessons, worksheets, class pages, et cetera, and publish them online for students to access, including setting up classes and assigning projects
This virtual gathering -- a volunteer effort organized by teachers to showcase Web-based teaching/learning ideas -- is built around four strands: classroom 2.0, New Tools, Professional Learning Networks, and Obstacles to Opportunities. Presenters use video, audio, wikis and other web-based tools to create their presentations, which are offered in a mix of live and (mostly) any-time-you-like contexts. Although the event officially kicks off on October 16, you'll find pre-conference video teasers at the link above. While you're there, browse the archive of last year’s first conference. Past conference presentations and discussions are archived on the site
Digital Equity Toolkit
The toolkit, now in
its second edition, points educators to high quality free and inexpensive
resources that help address the digital divide in the classroom and community.
The Digital Equity Toolkit is a free service of the National
Institute for Community Innovations' Digital
Equity Service
Center.