Present

Publish

Connect

Learn

Assess

Collaborative Presentation Apps

Fast, elegant, feature-packed cloud-based presentation software. SlideRocket can be used at home and at school without the need for data transport. Your work is saved to

the Internet in YOUR library of the program so that you have easy access to it anywhere. SlideRocket makes it easy to add media including YouTube and Flickr creations. SlideRocket has a greater variety of transitions and more advanced effects than standard PowerPoint. this web based application makes it easy to publish your slide show directly to a URL to be viewed by the public or it can be limited by a password if you so choose. Slide presentations can be embedded in blogs or web pages as well.

Glogster EDU is a tool to create online multimedia “posters” that incorporate all types of elements into a visual space. Start by creating a glog together as a

class to try out the tools (don’t forget to name it). Keep it simple or add all the bells and whistles. Preview as you work or return later to complete and publish your Glog. Add ready-made graphics, images from files on your computer or by URL on the web, links (hyperlinked from text or other objects), text boxes or bubbles, backgrounds (“walls”), animated graphics (“vinyl and toys”), recorded audio, embedded video from SchoolTube or TeacherTube, uploaded media file, and much more. You can also “grab” video or audio from your computer’s webcam and mike.

Prezi is a cloud-based presentation and storytelling software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas. Prezi is distinguished by its

Zooming User Interface, which enables users to zoom in and out of their presentation media. You could map your entire lesson, chapter or unit on one Prezi. Once you introduce the concept with this tool, you can go back to it often with your students as you move to different parts of the unit. It would provide a great review if you were doing this on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Or, you could post this to your wiki, web page, or even give kids the URL of the Prezi that you have created for them so that they can review as often as they need it

Publishing Apps

The World’s most popular education blogging service, Edublogs lets you easily create & manage student & teacher blogs, quickly customize designs and include videos, photos & podcasts. Save this site as a favorite for all of your blogging needs. Find very

informative instructions on blogging, and follow the student blogging challenge lesson plans. Peruse through the various subjects and discover how other teachers use blogging in their classrooms. Using the given PDFs on blogging start up, parent guidelines, incorporating into subject areas, and adapt to make them suitable for you. Look at a variety of examples to help devise your own unique style to meet your students’ needs.

Poderator is a free and easy way to publish Podcasts. If you have your Podcast recorded, simply sign up and

Poderator will help you publish your Podcast in minutes. All you need is a place to store your MP3 files and we help you create the XML files that let Podcast programs like iTunes find your Podcast.

authorSTREAM is a platform for sharing PowerPoint presentations on the Internet. This is a great tool for a

flipped classroom or any use of sharable media. You can create your notes and lectures in PowerPoint, adding video clips and narration, download as an MP4, and then share with all of your students through iTunes. This greatly enhances the opportunities for extended thinking and active time in the classroom. More simply, try recording yourself giving an informational presentation, saving it here, and sharing with students via your website or wiki to access from home as a review tool or a catch-up for absentees.

Apps to Connect

ePals is the world’s largest network of K-12 classrooms, enabling students and teachers to safely connect and collaborate with classrooms in more than 200 countries and territories. his site offers an amazing assortment of class activities and possibilities. Collaborate with schools in Africa (or 200 other countries) for a geography project.

Have your students find ePals to correspond with and practice writing skills in English or in a language you are studying.

Remind101 is a safe way for teachers to text message students and keep in touch with parents. Remind students of upcoming events, practices, or things they

need to bring to class or practice. You could also use this to communicate with parents. The site is set up so that students do not see the teachers’ phone numbers nor do the teachers see the students’ phone numbers.

Some call Learnist “Pinterest” site for educators. Learnist will allow you to try something as challenging as a flipped-classroom assignment or as easy as putting a Learnboard

together for students to investigate a topic. Create a Learnboard with a new current event for the day or week for students to read. Create a Learnboard for a grammar problem your students have, being sure to include videos and interactive practice activities. Create a Learnboard for a novel you will read in class. Have students use a class account to create a Learnboard as the final project for their literature circle novel. In science, students could video or take pictures of a lab experiment, upload and annotate it, adding related web resources.

Apps to Learn

Winner of the 2012 Edublog award for best open professional development site, The edWeb is a social networking website that makes is easy for anyone in the education community to connect with peers, share information and best practices, spread innovative ideas, and provide professional

development. The edWeb provides an easy and intuitive Web 2.0 platform that includes blogs, discussions, file-sharing, shared calendars, wikis, live chat, messaging, polling, and shared links. Be sure to join a community and attend their Webinars.

Follow people with experience in your areas of interest to gain from the conversations. Learn about hashtags -- ways to mark

and follow conversations on a specific topic. Bring teaching and learning to new heights by using this service as a great form of professional development. At conferences, use Twitter as a backchannel to expand upon thoughts and ideas during presentations and after. A whole-class, teacher account is the most likely way to gain permission to use Twitter in school, especially if you can demonstrate specific projects. Challenge another class to tweet the feelings of a literacy character, such as Hamlet, and respond as Ophelia, all in 140 characters or less.

Simple K-12 Teacher Learning Community is a professional development site. The website provides two services: one is the Teacher Learning Community and the

other is a guide for integrating technology into specific student curricula. The Teacher Learning Community is a membership available for teachers who know integrating the latest educational tips and techniques in the classroom will engage their students and increase academic achievement. The site provides access to a global network of educators with whom you can share and collaborate, live and recorded webinars with education leaders, a resource center for sharing classroom documents, as well as a collection of over 500 hours of classroom technology how-to videos available anytime anywhere.

Assessment Apps

Socrative is a smart student response system -- the answer to not having expensive “educational clickers” in your classroom. Their apps work on tablets, smartphones, iPod Touch, laptops, and others.

You can create your own multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. See your students’ responses in an Excel file or view online as a Google spreadsheet. Multiple choice questions are automatically corrected. If you’ve ever wanted greater student engagement, increased student interest, and heightened discussion and interactivity in your classroom, Socrative is the answer. Students can give their input and express their views anonymously, if you wish. In any curriculum area, ask open-ended questions and display student responses with your projector or interactive whiteboard.

Securely upload photos of student work to create digital portfolios. This site is completely compatible with iOS and Android smartphones. Add students’ names quickly by typing them or

adding them through a spreadsheet. Sort uploads by class, student, or custom tag to easily find the artifact you’re looking for. Upload student work throughout the year and share with parents and/or students during conferences. Instead of creating an account for teacher use only, teach students to upload their own work. Be sure to assign specific tags by assignment, student, and/or standard. Use this to show finished projects or to demonstrate changes in a project from start to finish.

Find videos recorded by professional educators. The videos are even more appealing because of the professional animators who worked in the background (with the educators) to get the message

across to the audience. Every video has a Quick Quiz with basic comprehension questions, and real time answers. Every video has a “Think” section with open ended questions. Every video has a Dig Deeper section with additional resources for exploring the topic. You can take one of these videos, a video from YouTube, or any other video with a URL and “flip” them to make them your own. You can change the title, put in instructions, discard or keep the questions, create your own questions. After students view a video that has the questions, show one that doesn’t, and have students generate questions for it. Use them as a springboard for engaging writing prompts or to spark a discussion connected with a unit of study.